The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released its annual report on the “Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict” on Wednesday, which indicated a 22 percent increase in civilian causalities in 2014. The marked increase represents the deadliest year in Afghanistan since record keeping began in 2009. UNAMA documented 10,548 civilian casualties in 2014, 3,699 [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Christen Giannaros, St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2015, is the twelfth author in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Giannaros discusses the Fourth Amendment rights violations implicit in DNA collection upon arrest…In 2010, Alonzo King was arrested on assault charges. [...]
US Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday voiced his support for a moratorium on the death penalty pending a decision by the Supreme Court on the Oklahoma death penalty case. Speaking in a personal capacity before the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Holder stated his own views that the death penalty is wrong and [...]
France’s highest appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court decision to seek the extradition of a former police officer to Argentina for alleged crimes against humanity during the country’s “dirty war.” The Cour de Cassation ruled that the case should be reexamined, sending it back for rehearing by an appeals court in Versailles after [...]
The detention of Azeri human rights activist Leyla Yunus, held without trial since July, will be extended an additional five months, her lawyer said Wednesday. Yunus is the head of the Baku-based Institute for Peace and Democracy. She is detained on charges of treason, espionage and tax evasion. Human rights activists criticize the Azerbaijani government [...]
Two UN human rights experts on Wednesday urged the government of Iran to halt the execution of Saman Naseem, a juvenile offender scheduled to be executed Thursday. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed and UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Christof Heyns stated in a press conference that Iran [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned the EU for refusing to take action to address Hungary’s alleged problematic laws and practices regarding human rights since the European Commission enacted a “rule of law” measure in March 2014. This measure was created to address abuses of human rights in the EU member states and was [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday condemned extremists for the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian men in Libya, characterizing the acts as “vile crime targeting people on the basis of their religion.” The Egyptian Christians were abducted from the Libyan city of Sirte in two separate incidents in December [...]
Privacy advocates in the Netherlands on Wednesday urged the District Court of The Hague to issue a preliminary injunction and declare unconstitutional the nation’s data-retention law. The law , enacted in 2009, allows the Dutch government to retain telephone and Internet data of citizens for up to 12 months for the alleged purpose of fighting [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Brittney Millay, New England Law | Boston, Class of 2016, discusses how recent developments in the southern US could affect same-sex couples…After a long and drawn out battle, a state judge in Miami-Dade County lifted a temporary ban on same-sex marriage, making it the first county in Florida to allow gay couples [...]
