Adel Abdel Bary, a member of al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. The Egyptian national pleaded guilty last September to threatening to kill, injure, intimidate, and damage and destroy property by means of an explosive; conspiracy to make the [...]
UN officials on Friday called for an end to female genital mutilation (FGM) , including the medicalization of the practice. Officials were reminded of the reality of the “deeply harmful” nature of the practice on February 6, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation . Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon indicated that at least [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Thursday called for for a change in education practices and governmental activities in order to curtail the state of current worldwide atrocities. In a speech made to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the High Commissioner drew many parallels to current [...]
The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ruled Friday that the UK’s mass surveillance of citizens’ Internet use violates humans rights law. The IPT’s purpose is to review complaints related to UK intelligence agencies, but the body is secretive. The IPT specified that the Government Communications Headquarters received unlawful access to e-mail and phone records, and [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Raymond J. Toney of the Law Offices of Raymond J. Toney discusses recent changes to the US military’s records review process … Since the 1989 decision of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Kreis v. Secretary of the Air Force, in which the court held that [...]
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday expressed concerns about the exercise of freedom of expression in Burundi following the arrest of Bob Rugurika, director of Radio Public Africaine (RPA). Rugurika was arrested on January 20 for refusing to disclose the name of a man who confessed on [...]
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told reporters on Thursday that the warring parties in the South Sudan conflict are close to signing a peace deal. However, Simonovic confirmed that rights violations continue, despite a decrease in fighting. Earlier this week Simonovic met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his former [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday unanimously struck down the country’s ban on medically assisted suicide. The court found the provision in Canada’s Criminal Code that criminalized the aiding and abetting of suicide efforts unconstitutional under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms . The court explained that denying citizens the ability to acquire physician-assisted [...]
Hungary’s ruling party declared Friday that the country must pass legislation to tighten the border and prevent migrants from abusing the EU’s political asylum laws. Antal Rogan, leader of the Fidesz party parliamentary group, noted that in January alone, around 14,000 migrants applied for political asylum. Some migrants are fleeing war-torn Serbia and Iraq, but [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of Lester Leroy Bower, a Texas inmate who was convicted in 1984 of murdering four men in an airplane hangar. February 10 was his sixth scheduled execution date. Bower has maintained his innocence since charged, and filed a petition for certiorari in September. The justices have [...]
