The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on two cases. In Montgomery v. Louisiana the court heard arguments on whether the court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama , which struck down state laws that mandated a life sentence for capital offenses by minors, applies retroactively. The case involves a man, Henry Montgomery, convicted [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Arvind Narrain of ARC International discusses the issues with assigning a gender to intersex born children… International recognition of sexual and gender diversity has grown from the protection of sexual orientation (Toonen v Australia) to gender identity (Resolution of the Human Rights Council in 2011) to an emerging recognition of intersex status. [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday revived a civil rights lawsuit filed by a coalition of Muslim groups that accuses the New York City Police Department (NYPD) of conducting unjustified surveillance on Muslims in New Jersey. The appeals court reversed a lower court decision to throw out the case and [...]
Officials in UAE should investigate and prosecute credible accusations of torture reported by detainees, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday. According to HRW, three former detainees and the relative of a current detainee detailed instances of beatings, forced standings, and being shackled and blindfolded. The inmates were also allegedly threatened with rape, electrocution and death. [...]
Arkansas was ordered Monday to release information about the suppliers of its lethal injection drugs to attorneys of death row inmates challenging the state’s execution secrecy law. Executions were temporarily halted on Friday by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen for eight inmates that were scheduled to die between October 21 and January 14. [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit Tuesday against two psychologists who devised the torture techniques used on three former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisoners. The CIA contracted psychologists James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, who allegedly designed and persuaded the CIA to adopt their torture techniques as official practice of the CIA. [...]
Australia’s Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 , data retention laws requiring companies to keep records and information, went into effect on Tuesday. The law requires telecommunications providers to maintain records of acount holders, sources of communications, destinations of communications, date and time of communications, and types of communications sent. A study [...]
California pregnancy clinics on Saturday filed suit challenging a new state law that would require them to inform women and girls that come to their clinics of abortion services provided by the state. This is the first law that would require anti-abortion clinics to inform incoming individuals of abortion services. Crisis pregnancy centers are often [...]
Home Office statistics revealed Tuesday that hate crimes in England and Wales have risen by 18 percent over the last year. Police recorded 52,528 hate crimes between 2014 and 2015, which were motivated by factors including race and religious hatred, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. The Home Office suggested that this number did not [...]
US-backed Kurdish forces and other militant groups have been committing war crimes in northern Syria in an effort to quash any sympathy or support for the Islamic State (IS) , Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday. According to the report, militant groups have cut off civilians’ food, life-saving services and other basic necessities. The efforts by [...]
