Argentina’s last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, and other former military officers were sentenced to prison on Friday for their roles in Operation Condor in the 1970s. The criminal court in Buenos Aires, composed of judges Adrián Grünberg, Óscar Amirante, Pablo Laufer and Ricardo Ángel Basílico, handed Bignone a 20-year prison sentence on top of his previous [...]
California Governor Edmund G. Brown signed Senate Bill 1408 into law on Friday, allowing HIV-positive individuals to become transplant donors to HIV-positive recipients. The California Legislature passed the bill earlier that day. Brown and the state’s congress moved quickly to pass the emergency measure in order to permit an HIV-positive man to donate part of [...]
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 [...]
