The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday vacated its prior ruling refusing to recognize same-sex adoption. In its short opinion , the court stated that “the Court of Civil appeals and the Jefferson Family Court erred in giving full faith and credit” to a Georgia state court decision declaring the woman the adoptive parent of her [...]
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday ruled that juvenile convicted of first-degree murder may not be sentenced to life without parole. The court reasoned that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole was cruel and unusual punishment and emphasized that “sentencing courts should not be required to make speculative up-front decisions on juvenile offenders’ prospects [...]
A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned Friday that the severe financial crisis facing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is negatively impacting its ability to function. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the OHCHR issued a briefing Fridaymorning in which she stated that if the IACHR does [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday that an employer may not coerce an employee to waive his or her right to bring a class action suit. In its decision, the court stated that section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prevented Epic, the employer, from imposing its arbitration [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday urged the Myanmar Parliament to reconsider a proposed law that they say has the potential to limit free expression and peaceful assembly. HRW acknowledged that the proposed law would replace a more restrictive law that had previously imprisoned activists, but said that the statute under consideration still contains shortcomings [...]
The High Court in Uganda on Friday handed down five life sentences for men convicted of perpetrating the 2010 Kampala attacks, which killed 76 people. The court also gave two 50-year terms, and one community service sentence associated with the attacks. Five other men who had been standing trial for the attacks were acquitted. Charges [...]
More than 2,000 inmates across Zimbabwe were granted amnesty and released from prison due to overcrowding and a lack of food, according to a report Thursday. President Robert Mugabe, who extended the pardon under the Constitution of Zimbabwe on May 23, hopes that this measure will serve to remedy overcrowding and promote better living conditions [...]
Justice and accountability are crucial aspects of achieving and maintaining peace in Libya, International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the UN Security Council Thursday. She also encouraged the Libyan government to create effective strategies for handling atrocities and to invest in institutions responsible for managing those strategies. Despite being faced with the [...]
South Africa’s Parliament on Thursday approved a bill to allow government expropriation of land. The bill will serve to allow a government adjudicator to value a particular piece of land and then expropriate it for the public interest . The African National Congress hopes that the enactment will redress the inequality created by apartheid and [...]
A US jury concluded that Google was not in violation of copyright laws where it used Oracle’s Java programming language to develop its operating system, Android. After the case was remanded in-part by an earlier circuit court decision , the jurors were tasked with determining whether Google’s use of the Java language was considered “fair-use” [...]
