The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Tuesday that Burundian authorities failed to provide entry to independent rights experts dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate rights violations in the nation. The team, composed of two Special Rapporteurs for the UN and a member of the African Commission [...]
Judges for the International Criminal Court (ICC) have approved an investigation into the 2008 Georgia/Russia conflict. Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda commented that the delay in ICC proceedings was prompted by independent investigations conducted by the governments of Georgia and Russia. Under the Rome Statute , the ICC is barred from conducting its own investigation simultaneous [...]
French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira resigned Wednesday after expressing disagreement with the President Francois Hollande’s proposal to strip convicted terrorists of their French citizenship. The plan, proposed as a revision to the French constitution , went before the French parliament just after Taubira’s resignation. Taubira was actively opposed to the controversial revision, which originally [...]
The Supreme Court of Mexico struck down language in a Jalisco state law on Tuesday defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. The ruling effectively ends the same-sex marriage ban in one of the largest states in the country and allows for same-sex couples to register for marriage licenses immediately. Previously same-sex [...]
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan seeking the replacement of lead water pipes in the city of Flint. The lawsuit, filed in conjunction with Concerned Pastors for Social Action, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Flint resident Melissa [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled Tuesday that part of an abortion law requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors who provide abortions is unconstitutional. Section A(2)(a) of Act 620 mandates that a doctor have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of where an abortion is being performed. [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Glenn C. Smith of the California Western School of Law discusses the latest challenge to President Obama’s immigration policy… Speculation about whether the US Supreme Court would wade into controversial issues involving immigration policy and presidential power—in an election year, no less—is over. On Tuesday, January 19, the justices announced that they [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday released its annual report discussing human rights issues in more than 90 countries throughout 2015. World Report 2016, the rights group’s twenty-sixth edition of the report, which spans 659 pages, includes short summaries of important rights topics before breaking down rights concerns by country. One major theme of this [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that the president’s National Security Council (NSC) is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) . The appeals court denied an appeal from Main Street, a group at the City University of New York School of Law , which was seeking records [...]
United Nations rights experts on Monday asked Pakistani officials to stop construction work on a new metro line in Lahore, Pakistan due to concern that it has led to numerous people being forcibly evicted and that it has resulted in damage to historical and cultural heritage sites. Leilani Farha , UN Special Rapporteur on the [...]
