Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi appeared before a secret government tribunal on Thursday, seeking to be released from his detention. Slahi, who was one of only two Guantanamo prisoners to endure a Rumsfeld approved “special interrogation plan,” sat before the secretive government panel made up of representatives of various government agencies, including the Homeland [...]
The Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad, India, convicted 24 individuals on Thursday of murder and other charges related to the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat in which hundreds of Muslims were killed. The riots, which occurred during the reign of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of the state, [...]
In his report issued Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed shock at the increasing number of children recruited and killed in armed conflicts in several countries, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and South Sudan. Ban asked that those countries contributing to the 2,829 child casualties in armed conflicts during 2015 take steps to end the recruitment, [...]
The German Parliament approved a resolution Thursday recognizing the mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Turks during the Ottoman Empire a century ago as genocide, prompting an angry backlash and the immediate recall of the Turkish ambassador. The resolution, calling for “commemoration of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 [...]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule on Thursday seeking to address predatory loaning practices by “payday” and other high-interest lenders. The 1,000-plus-page regulation suggests two policies of note. First, the agency proposed that those lending short-term, pay-day loans conduct a “full-payment test,” requiring lenders to “make an upfront determination of a consumer’s [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated there have been 269 verified human rights violations in the Central African Republic (CAR) during his report to the UN Security Council earlier this week. According to the report, circulated Wednesday, there have been more than 900 citizens affected. The report did not give a detailed account of how many [...]
The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that provides protection to transgender persons in public places. House Bill 4253 , “An Act relative to gender identity and nondiscrimination,” provides that those who identify as transgender shall not be subject to discrimination in such public places as hospitals and restaurants, and will allow those [...]
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Wednesday sentenced Mohibur Rahman to death for his part in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. His two associates, Mujibur Rahman and Abdur Razzak, were sentenced to life in prison. The three men were charged with killing two freedom fighters as well as the rape and imprisonment [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday reinstated a challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance establishing a 15-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) challenged the ordinance, which states that one may not “knowingly congregate, patrol, picket or demonstrate in a zone extending 15 feet from any entrance [...]
The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday adopted a rule of law opinion on Poland, warning that changes to the country’s constitutional court pose a risk to the rule of law. Following Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party obtaining power, a new law allowed the government to appoint judges to the highest court and not recognize [...]
