Amnesty International (AI) announced Tuesday it is setting up an office in Nigeria to investigate human rights abuses. In a showing of “solidarity with the victims of human rights violations,” AI has established a permanent base in Abuja that will serve as the “main base for the global movement’s research, campaign and communications work” for [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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. [...]

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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. [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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