The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday ruled that music companies that previously composed EMI Group, Ltd. can pursue copyright infringement claims against an old online music storage company and its CEO, Michael Robertson . The companies were appealing from a US district judge’s reduction of a $48.1 million jury award, [...]
A US district judge on Tuesday approved a $14.7 billion settlement between Volkswagen AG (VW) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the state of California and car owners who filed a class action lawsuit over the company’s emissions scandal. Judge Charles Breyer of the US District Court for the [...]
A study released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on Wednesday shows that female members of parliament (MPs) face higher levels of sexism, violence and harassment than reported. The IPU conducted interviews with more than 50 female MPs from countries across the world. A brief overview of the results show that over 80 percent of participants [...]
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that was filed by a former Guantanamo detainee seeking to clear his name of the accusations of terrorism. The former detainee, Shawali Khan, was returned to Afghanistan in 2014 . One of Khan’s complaints is that while he was detained at Guatanamo, the government introduced evidence against [...]
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to be tried on a charge of criminal contempt. Judge Susan Bolton of the US District Court for the District of Arizona made the order after determining that Arpaio disobeyed a court order in a racial profiling case. This comes after Judge G Murray Snow [...]
The Gambian government announced on Tuesday that it will be leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC) . During the televised statement, Information Minister Sheriff Bojang criticized the court for ignoring western atrocities , referring to the ICC as “an International Caucasian Court.” Gambian President Yahya Jammeh had previously called upon the court to investigate the [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday released a report criticizing Turkey’s emergency decrees have weakened human rights safeguards, resulting in at least 13 instances of abuse including sexual abuse, beatings and sleep deprivation. Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia HRW director, warned: “by removing safeguards against torture, the Turkish government effectively wrote a blank check [...]
The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on Monday called on all governments to make a concerted effort to fight against enforced disappearances. Noting the increasing prevalence of disappearances, Houria Es Slami , head of the working group, said “every year we make similar calls expressing serious concern about the persistence of [...]
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday commuted the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison. The last execution in Kenya took place in 1987, though there were 2,655 male and 92 female death row inmates at the time of the commutations . He also invoked the constitutional Power of Mercy to pardon [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report on Tuesday documenting the systemic discrimination of minorities in Myanmar and calling for concrete steps end these human rights violations. The report focused on particular concern of the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine region. The Rohingya face restrictions of [...]
