More than 40 prosecutors in Virginia filed an amicus brief Friday in support of a challenge to the governor’s executive action to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons individuals in the state. The prosecutors argue that the governor’s actions are not only in violation of the Virginia constitution but also an issue of [...]
The UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law called on the world’s governments to take quick, effective steps towards ensuring women are granted equal rights to health, including reproductive and sexual health. The report , presented Friday, refers to the “instrumentalization” of women in the healthcare system, in particular the “subjection of women’s [...]
UN expert Maina Kiai , in presenting his report on religious, free market, political, and nationalist or cultural fundamentalism, said Friday that fundamentalist intolerance is growing throughout the globe and is directly contributing to infringements of the rights to association and peaceful assembly. In advocating for a broader understanding of fundamentalism, one which includes any [...]
Three human rights experts of the UN Independent Investigation on Burundi (UNIIB) on Friday echoed previous calls for a stop to violence after their second visit Burundi. There has been a considerable drop in the number of executions in Burundi following a warning issued by the UN rights chief. After noting this significant drop, one [...]
The Beijing Intellectual Property Bureau ordered Apple to stop sale of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Beijing due to claims by Chinese regulators that Apple Inc. violated a patent held by a Chinese company. According to Chinese media, the phones infringe on a Chinese patent for exterior design held by Shenzhen Baili [...]
Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 400 citizens since November, and arrested tens of thousands more, in hopes of squashing protest in the Oromia region, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday. The report calls the killings “the latest in a series of abuses against those who express real or perceived [...]
According to a colleague familiar with the case, prominent Chinese civil rights lawyer Xia Lin was put on trial for fraud on Friday during a “far-reaching crackdown on political dissent.” Xia had been detained in 2014 by Beijing police and later charged with Fraud. He is believed to have been defending human rights activist Guo [...]
A court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, sentenced 11 people to life in prison Friday for the murder of 69 Muslims during religious riots in 2002. Over the course of the riots, which lasted for days, nearly 1,000 people were killed. A total of 24 people were convicted of the murders, which took place at a housing [...]
A Kenyan judge on Thursday upheld the use of anal examinations to determine the sexual orientation of an individual. Judge Mathew Emukule said “I find no violation of human dignity, right to privacy and right to freedom of the petitioners.” The case was initiated when two men suspected of engaging in a consensual, homosexual act, [...]
A three-judge panel in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the appeal of former Connecticut governor John Rowland’s corruption charges on Friday. In its ruling, the court stated that “Rowland was properly convicted … because he created or participated in the creation of documents that misrepresented—or “falsified”—his relationships with Congressional candidates, [...]
