The Hungarian government on Thursday filed a challenge in the European Court of Justice to the EU’s quota plan that will distribute refugees throughout the member states. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes that migrants pose a threat to the nation after the attacks in Paris. Before borders were closed in October, Hungary opened its [...]
Ecuador’s National Assembly on Thursday passed a constitutional amendment lifting presidential term limits, beginning in 2021. The 16 constitutional amendments were approved in a vote of 100-8 in a legislature where sitting President Rafael Correa’s political party, Alianza Pais , has a two-thirds majority. Though Correa, who has been president since 2007 and will finish [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned rights violations against the of children in Iraq by the Islamic State (IS). Ban stated, “I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the continuous grave violations committed against children in armed conflict,” noting in his report that IS’s actions may considered war crimes or crimes against humanity: he [...]
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment on Thursday spoke at the Paris Climate Conference, reminding all nations that environmental issues are human rights issues. The conference includes 190 nations discussing a new universal agreement that would work to reduce greenhouse gas to combat global warming. Special Rapporteur John Knox said [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslav (ICTY) publicly announced on Tuesday confidential charges and arrest warrants for contempt of court against three people involved in the Vojislav Šešelj trial . Petar Jojić, Jovo Ostojić and Vjerica Radeta, two defense lawyers and an associate of Seselj, are suspected of having threatened, intimidated, offered bribes [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an order enjoining Hawaii from counting recent election ballots pending a final ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . The Justice Anthony Kennedy previously blocked the counting of ballots on Friday when the nonprofit organization Na’i Aupuni concluded an election that would create [...]
The Constitutional Court of Spain on Wednesday declared unconstitutional a resolution by the Parliament of Catalonia that proposed a plan for the region’s independence from Spain by 2017. The resolution was approved by Catalonian lawmakers in November, and stated that Parliament would take the “necessary steps” to effect the separation from Spain in a peaceful [...]
The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking Alabama to loosen the discriminatory burdens resulting from their voter photo identification law. The law’s purported purpose is to prevent voter fraud by requiring voters to present a photo ID prior to voting. However, the NAACP alleges that the law resulted in [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday that thousands of people, including children, are being arbitrarily detained in Libya . The report highlights torture and other forms of ill-treatment in four prisons in Tripoli and Misrata, which were personally visited by HRW representatives. The report is based upon interviews conducted by HRW with 120 detainees, none [...]
Members of the US House of Representatives approved a bill to give much responsibility of improving public schools back to the states. The Student Success Act would revise the controversial 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and remove the accountability measures for standardized test scores that had been set by the federal government. The [...]
