The Prosecutor’s Office of Sao Paulo has subpoenaed former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as they investigate a possible money laundering scheme linked to the Petrobras scandal. Prosecutors in the Petrobras investigation allege that businesses paid a total of over USD $2 billion to obtain Petrobras contracts, which they then exploited by running [...]
A group of UN experts on people of African descent stated Friday that “ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights of African Americans today.” Following a tour of several US cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York, the [...]
US President Barack Obama on Friday announced a new set of actions his administration is taking in an effort to close the gender pay gap. Speaking with reporters, Obama chastised American business for paying women, on average, only 79 percent of comparable male earners, and stated, “omen are not getting the fair shot that we [...]
The Supreme Court of Guatemala on Thursday rejected a request to strip a member of congress of his immunity from prosecution for allegedly overseeing grave human rights violations during the country’s civil war. Edgar Justino Ovalle is a top adviser to President Jimmy Morales and a member of Congress, which gives him immunity from prosecution. [...]
Thailand published a draft of its twentieth constitution on Friday amid concerns that it would be insufficient in resolving long-running troubles and that it may contribute to a weak civilian government under the sway of the military. The draft constitution is intended to replace the one scrapped in 2014 after a coup by military generals [...]
A court in India on Friday convicted six of the eight accused of gang raping and murdering a 20-year-old college student in the Kamduni village district of the state of West Bengal. The conviction comes after more than two-and-a-half years since the incident, which prompted strong public pressure to prosecute and convict the individuals involved. [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Chinese government on Friday to overturn a verdict sentencing three human rights activists, including a lawyer, in the Guangdong province to up to five years in prison. The individuals were convicted for “inciting subversion of state power.” HRW argues that the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping has been [...]
Amnesty International (AI) reported Friday that satellite images show five possible mass graves in Buringa, Burundi, which may be connected to last month’s infamous massacre. On December 11, security forces killed at least 87 armed protesters who stormed military barracks in the capital of Bujumbura. Witnesses told AI that authorities retrieved bodies from the streets [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Friday his office is investigating allegations of sexual abuse against children in the Central African Republic (CAR) by EU forces. Most of the alleged abuse took place in 2014, near the M’Poko camp for displaced persons, but was not uncovered until recently. During UN [...]
A Hungarian court on Thursday acquitted 15 employees of the Mal Corp for their role in the toxic red sludge spill that killed 10 people in 2010 after a reservoir burst. The spill, which was one of the worst environmental disasters of the nation, with more 1 million cubic meters of the sludge destroying hundreds [...]
