The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has accused the Taliban of Human rights abuses during the battle in Kunduz earlier this month. According to AIHRC at least 50 civilians were killed and more than 300 injured. They further indicated that the number is most likely much higher, as they complied the tally based on [...]
UN human rights experts on Friday condemned Iran’s execution of a juvenile offender convicted of murdering her husband whom she was forced to marry at the age of 16. Fatemeh Salbehi was executed on Tuesday despite several reports of flaws in her trial and appeals process. The UN rights experts pointed to her age at [...]
The leader of last month’s attempted military coup in Burkina Faso, General Gilbert Diendere, was charged Friday with crimes against humanity. Prosecutor Col. Sita Sangare, Burkina Faso’s director of military justice said that he has charged 23 people so far with charges ranging from murder and concealing the bodies of the dead to threatening state [...]
Five Ethiopian bloggers on Friday were acquitted of terrorism charges relating to publications on their website . The publications, critical of the government, landed nine bloggers in jail, and one charged in absentia, in April 2014, for violation of Ethiopia’s broad anti-terrorism laws . In July five bloggers were unexpectedly released after being cleared by [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Friday that Google’s efforts to digitize millions of books for an online library is permissible fair use. Google has scanned more than 20 million books since 2004 in an effort to provide people with a searchable catalog of books in all languages. The company claims [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Friday called for a halt to the “escalating campaign” against human rights activists taking place in Venezuela. According to human rights groups, the government has employed tactics intended to discredit and undermine the legitimacy of 28 international and Latin American human rights organizations by making allegations that the organizations do not [...]
Maine’s revised concealed carry law went into effect Thursday and allows legal gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The law was passed by the Maine State Legislature and approved by Governor Paul LePage in July. The law applies to people who are 21 or older or military members age 18 or older, [...]
The Supreme Court of India ruled Thursday that a new law intended to change the structure of judicial appointments is unconstitutional. Traditionally the Indian judiciary was appointed by a 20-year-old collegium of five senior judges, but the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill replaced that system last year with appointment by a panel of six [...]
The Superior Court of Maricopa County on Thursday struck down a 2012 Arizona law that mandated abortion pills be regulated according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as violating the state constitution. The law (HB 2036) required physicians to follow FDA guidelines when prescribing the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone, or RU-486, which limited prescription to [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association on Thursday cautioned Kazakhstan that its new bill amending the law on non-profit organizations may be detrimental to the existence of such groups within the country. The new bill establishes an operator that would be in charge of organizing and dispersing [...]
