Myanmar began the process of releasing the first set of 102 mostly political prisoners on Friday days before a democratic power transfer takes place in Myanmar’s parliament . The democratic party led by Aung San Suu Kyi will be sitting in parliament for the first time since winning the election last November. This development has [...]

Alabama death row inmate Christopher Brooks was executed Thursday night after the US Supreme Court denied his

The UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea Marzuki Darusman called Friday for leader Kim Jong-un to be held criminally responsible for the human rights conditions in the nation. While on a five-day mission in Japan, following a recent nuclear test by North Korea, the expert criticized the country for having shown no improvement of its [...]

Two of three Guantanamo Bay detainees scheduled for release boarded a plane for transfer on Wednesday while the third detainee turned down the opportunity. Though the two released detainees were natives of Egypt and Yemen, they were resettled in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro . The third detainee, Mohammed Bawazir, has gained a reputation for [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported Thursday that “shocking crimes” have been committed by all sides in the war-torn South Sudan. The report said that extra-judicial killings, disappearances, gang-rapes, sexual slavery, forced abortions, and child recruitment have occurred within the area. The UN High Commissioner for HUman Rights Zeid [...]

The EU’s justice mission in Kosovo (EULEX) sentenced a Serb politician to nine years in prison for war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians on Thursday. Oliver Ivanovic was arrested in January 2014 for the murder and torture of Albanian civilians during the 1999 war where Kosovo fought for its independence from Serbia . Kosovo was [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday opened the confirmation of charges hearing against accused Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen . This is the first major hearing for a leader of the LRA, and groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) have called it an important step for accountability for the crimes committed [...]

According to a 300-page judicial report released Thursday, the poisoning death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was “probably approved” by President Vladmir Putin . In his report, Sir Richard Owen noted that Litvinenko’s crossings with Putin began during his time working for the KGB where he investigated the Tambov criminal group, a St. Petersburg [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an insurer cannot recover equitable relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) for settlement funds a participant has already spent. The court found that nontraceable assets are not recoverable under 502(a)(3). This decision overturned the order from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [...]

Christopher Brooks, an Alabama man scheduled for execution by lethal injection appealed to the US Supreme Court on Thursday for a stay of execution on the grounds that the sentencing procedure is unconstitutional. Brooks was sentenced to death for the burglary, rape and murder of a young woman. He argues that Alabama’s sentencing scheme is [...]