Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday demanded that the Malaysian government drop sedition charges against Eric Paulsen. The human rights lawyer and co-founder of NGO Lawyers for Liberty was arrested for a tweet criticizing an Islamic state agency. Paulsen could face up to three years in prison for the tweet, which called upon the government to [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday put all pending same-sex marriage appeals on hold until the US Supreme Court rules on the issue. The court issued similar orders on pending appeals from Alabama and Florida . The Eleventh Circuit has refused to delay same-sex marriages in both states . The [...]
California state senators Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen on Wednesday announced plans to propose legislation requiring parents to vaccinate all school children. This legislation will “repeal the personal belief exemption that currently allows parents to effectively opt their child out of vaccines,” because “the high number of unvaccinated students is jeopardizing public health,” especially [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Belkis Wille, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, discusses the current dilemma in Yemen… The present global turmoil has intensified the debate over whether pursuing justice in fragile and transitional countries leads to instability. Yet Yemen has been brought to the brink of collapse at least in part by a failure to [...]
UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) President Ambassador Joachim Ruecker on Tuesday appointed a new chairperson to head the Inquiry into the Gaza conflict after the former chairperson resigned. The UNHRC appointed Mary McGowan Davis to replace William Schabas, who resigned after Israel accused him of bias over his work as a consultant with the Palestine [...]
The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a decision granting summary judgment to Planned Parenthood in a case challenging two Montana abortion parental consent laws, ordering further proceedings. Planned Parenthood challenged these laws based on the concept of issue preclusion after the Montana courts decided that a similar law was unconstitutional in 1999. The trial [...]
A group of patients and doctors on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in a New York court requesting a declaration that physician-assisted suicide is not illegal under New York state law. Though the state does have a law prohibiting assisted suicide, plaintiffs argue that it was not intended to apply to the doctors of terminally ill [...]
The leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and former prime minister Khaleda Zia was charged along with 55 other people on Wednesday for instigating an arson attack on a bus. In January, Zia called for an indefinite transport blockade after four BNP supporters were killed during clashes with pro-government activists and police. An unknown [...]
A group of UN human rights experts on Wednesday urged the Bahrain government to release the peaceful politician Sheikh Ali Salman. The religious figure serves as the main political opposition to the Bahraini government, the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society . He was charged in January for inciting a change of regime by non-peaceful means. The [...]
Countries around the world must show public support to Syrian refugees through resettlement and other humanitarian admission programs said Amnesty International (AI) in a report Wednesday. The report highlights the humanitarian crisis faced by individuals fleeing the conflict in Syria. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that of the 380,000 Syrians in need of resettlement, [...]
