Lawyers for Bowe Bergdahl filed a petition with the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals asking for the public release of unclassified documents that were admitted into evidence in a public preliminary hearing last week. In 2009 Bowe Bergdahl, then a Sergeant in the US Army, was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and held [...]
Two UN human rights experts on Tuesday called on the Philippines government to investigate the deaths of three human rights defenders in the province of Surigao del Sur, Mindanao. One activist, the director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Development (ALCADEV) , was found murdered in one of the ALCADEV classrooms in the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Devin Cohen from St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2016, is the first author in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Cohen discusses the problems surrounding Veterans suffering PTSD and their right to receive military benefits…Individuals who enlist in the US [...]
Hungary’s National Assembly on Tuesday approved a law allowing the Hungarian army to use non-lethal weapons on refugees entering the country illegally. The new law allows the army to assist police in checking passports, controlling the flow of migrant traffic and detaining suspects. However, the law also permits the army to use non-lethal force, such [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday that Egypt violated international law during the creation of a “buffer zone” between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to HRW, the creation of the buffer zone required demolition of more than 3,200 buildings in the Sinai Peninsula between July 2013 and August 2015, resulting in the displacement and [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday filed a motion in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky asking the court to enforce orders relating to the issuance of marriage licenses. The ACLU is requesting that the court order the Rowan County Deputy Clerk to distribute marriage licenses as they were [...]
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday rejected a UN recommendation for international involvement in its domestic investigation into alleged war crimes. The UN released a report earlier this month finding that war crimes may have been committed during the Sri Lankan civil war, encouraging the creation of a hybrid special court to handle [...]
A Brazil court on Monday sentenced former treasurer of the country’s governing Worker’s Party Joao Vaccari Neto to 15 years and four months in jail for charges stemming from his connection to the Petrobras corruption scandal. Vaccari was found guilty of corruption, money laundering and conspiracy, having accepted at least USD$1 million in bribes from [...]
A Pakistani court on Tuesday suspended the execution of a paraplegic prisoner after numerous human rights groups claimed that a hanging would be cruel and inhumane. The suspension of the execution comes after Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Pakistani government earlier this week to halt the execution of paralyzed prisoner Abdul Basit, arguing that [...]
The UN Human Rights Council held a dialogue Monday with the Syrian Arab Republic discussing ways to end diplomatic gridlock and bring peace back to the nation. During the meeting, Syrian officials were presented with a commission report that discussed the disintegration of the Syrian nation and examples of civilians suffering within the country. The [...]
