California Governor Jerry Brown , on Saturday signed a new bill that is meant to protect minorities from racial profiling and excessive use of force by police. The “Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015” was introduced by Assembly Member Shirley Weber requires “ach state and local agency that employs peace officers annually report to [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called Saturday for a “swift, full and transparent investigation” into airstrikes that hit a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinic in Kunduz, Afghanistan, over the weekend. The bombing, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, killed 12 clinic workers and 10 patients and seriously injured 34 people, 19 [...]
The last remaining British Guantanamo detainee is on a hunger strike, the Daily Mail reported Saturday. Shaker Aamer told the Daily Mail via his lawyer that he is still subject to physical abuse despite reports that he will be released sometime month. Aamer was captured in 2001 and has been held in Guantanamo since 2002. [...]
A group of independent UN human rights experts on Friday called on Pakistan to reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty after reports of minors being sentenced to death. There are more than 8,000 people on death row in Pakistan, and the UN experts believe that many of them may have been sentenced for crimes [...]
Human rights organizations on Friday criticized the UN Human Rights Council for passing a resolution on Yemen that does not call for an independent international war crimes investigation. The Netherlands, backed by other Western countries, had proposed the UN inquiry resolution, but the Council instead adopted a resolution mainly drafted by Saudi Arabia, which only [...]
The company that manufactures American Spirit cigarettes is the subject of a new class action lawsuit . The lawsuit, filed by a Florida law firm Wednesday against Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and its parent company Reynolds American, Inc. , claims that the company’s marketing strategies mislead consumers into thinking that their products are healthier [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Government of Somalia and encouraged the US to follow suit. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is supported by the 18-member Committee on the Rights of the Child under the UN Office of [...]
The interim government of Burkina Faso on Thursday apprehended the leader of the week-long military coup in September, announcing that he will face military justice. Gilbert Diendere was a general in the national army and the alleged leader of the the group known as the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) . Diendere is associated with another [...]
Officials from the US Department of Defense (DOD) said Friday that they are sending teams to review three Colorado prisons as part of President Barack Obama’s ongoing efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Officials plan to visit ADX Florence, a federal Supermax prison, along with a medium-security prison nearby and the Colorado State Penitentiary [...]
Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court ruled Friday that officials investigating corruption allegations at Petrobras , a state-run oil company, may question former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a witness. In ruling on the motion filed September 11, Justice Teori Zavascki stated that Lula may only be interviewed as an “informant,” not as a suspect. [...]
