Amnesty International (AI) called on the government of Myanmar Thursday to either repeal or amend a law that could grant former presidents immunity from prosecution for human rights violations and crimes under international law. The outgoing Myanmar Parliament approved the Former Presidents Security Law, which could grant blanket immunity to former presidents for actions committed [...]
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood stated Wednesday that he plans to ask lawmakers to approve the firing squad, electrocution or nitrogen gas as alternate methods of execution if the state prohibits lethal injections. States access to execution drugs has been hindered as a result of companies refusing the use of their products for execution purposes. [...]
An Indiana legislative committee approved a bill Wednesday that would repeal the controversial religious freedom law passed last year that allowed businesses to deny service based on sexual orientation. The Senate Rules committee voted 7-5 to approve the bill, which will grant civil rights protections to gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals. The amendment is still [...]
Lithuania began war crime trials for 65 former Soviet military officials on Wednesday. The officials are accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1991 crackdown by the Soviet Union during Lithuania’s independence movement. The action resulted in 14 civilian deaths and over 700 others wounded by the Soviet army. Russian officials are refusing to [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana (ACLU) and the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission (IPAS) reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday with the Department of Corrections over the treatment of mentally ill prisoners. The ACLU of Indiana and IPAS filed suit in 2008 alleging violations of the Eight Amendment , the Americans with [...]
Representatives from 29 states on Tuesday asked the US Supreme Court to block the he implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) . The plan seeks to eliminate the amount of carbon emissions through reducing coal and oil production by shifting to other forms of clean energy. West Virginia, Texas and [...]
French lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill that will allow physicians to keep terminally ill patients sedated until death, opting not to extend the bill to cover physician-assisted suicide. Under the new law, patients will be able to request “deep, continuous sedation altering consciousness until death,” though the request may only be granted when the [...]
Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin on Wednesday released an advisory opinion declaring that daily fantasy sports websites in which players pay to participate are considered gambling and are therefore illegal in the state. Chin noted the difference between friends playing in their own fantasy sports league and wagering significant amounts of money on online websites [...]
Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Thursday pleaded not guilty to charges of crimes against humanity at the start of his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) . Gbagbo faces four charges of crimes against humanity for murder, attempted murder, rape and persecution during a wave of post-election violence between December 2010 and [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday stressed the importance of education to prevent new genocides, speaking at an event acknowledging the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The Secretary-General spoke at an event at UN headquarters in New York City urging the global community to remember the horrors of [...]
