The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic released a report Tuesday stating that both government troops and opposition rebels are targeting civilians in Syria’s civil war.The report says that the government intentionally targets areas in which civilians regularly congregate, such as marketplaces and bus stations and that it has failed [...]

The State Administrative Court of Jakarta on Monday denied the clemency appeal of a French citizen sentenced to death on a drug trafficking charge. The appeal of Serge Atlaoui was an effort to reverse the original clemency denial made by President Joko Widodo last year. The country has received significant criticism for its use of [...]

The Supreme Court of North Korea on Tuesday sentenced two South Korean men to indefinite labor on subversion charges, according to the Korean Central News Agency of North Korea. Kim Kuk Gi and Choe Chun Gil were found guilty of spying for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) . They were further convicted of conspiracy [...]

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Monday released a report calling on Ireland to “take all necessary steps, including a referendum on abortion, to revise its legislation on abortion.” The committee expressed grave concern over Ireland’s criminalization of abortion even in cases of rape, and it believed that its recommendations would [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in Kingdomware Technologies v. United States , a case that deals with the rights of small-business-owning veterans to receive benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) . In 2006, Congress passed a bill that states the VA “shall” award contracts to veteran-owned small businesses if at [...]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday announced the appointment of an independent panel to review the organization’s handling of allegations that French and African soldiers sexually abused children in the Central African Republic from December 2013 to June 2014. The panel will be led by Marie Deschamps , a former justice on the Supreme [...]

A report released Monday by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict found that both Israel and Hamas may have committed war crimes during the conflict. The 51 day Gaza Conflict resulted in widespread destruction and over a thousand dead. The report notes that the majority of the destruction, as well [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment that patent holders still cannot charge royalties after the expiration of a patent. The decision, written by Justice Elena Kagan , reaffirmed the court’s holding in Brulotte v. Thys . The petitioner in the case had argued that the reasoning of the [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in City of Los Angeles v. Patel that police must obtain a search warrant before demanding to inspect a hotel’s guest list. At issue was a Los Angeles law requiring hotels to keep specific records on guests and make them immediately available to police on request, or [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Kingsley v. Hendrickson that force used against pre-trial detainees must be “objectively reasonable,” the same standard used outside of prisons. The plaintiff in the case brought an excessive force claim against the government under the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause and 42 USC §1983 . The government had [...]