A prosecutor on Thursday argued that a military court order barring female guards at Guantanamo Bay from touching an alleged al Qaeda commander violates Pentagon sex discrimination guidelines. At Thursday’s hearing on the ban, Prosecutor Army Lieutenant Colonel David Long also argued that the court order means that inmates could set prison policies. A lawyer [...]
Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) , on Thursday urged the Pakistani government to halt the execution of the first civilian for a non-terror related offense since 2008. The rights groups claim the execution violates Pakistan’s own official policy. Shoaib Sarwar is a death row prisoner who was [...]
Scotland announced a moratorium on the granting of permits for unconventional oil and gas extraction, including fracking, on Wednesday amid environmental and health concerns. Energy minister Fergus Ewing told the Scottish parliament that the moratorium will give the government time to investigate the effects of the controversial drilling technique. The announcement puts a dent into [...]
A group of UN human right experts on Wednesday urged El Salvador to pardon all women jailed for illegal abortions as a result of pregnancy complications or rape. Carmen Guadalupe Vásquez Aldana was convicted of aggravated assault after suffering a miscarriage after being raped at age 18. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison [...]
The newly elected government in Sri Lanka announced Wednesday that it is planning to investigate accusations of human rights abuses during the closing stages of the 26-year civil war, after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa refused to cooperate with UN investigators about claims of atrocities committed by the army in 2009. The UN began its investigation [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the scheduled execution of three death-row inmates in Oklahoma “pending final disposition of the case.” This came after Oklahoma issued new protocol allowing for alternative drug combinations to be used in executions. One of the drugs used is midazolam, which is scheduled to be used in the executions [...]
Eight Republican and Democratic Senators on Thursday introduced legislation that would end US travel restrictions on Cuba. The legislation, which was introduced by Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake , would also end financial transaction restrictions on travel between the two countries. The Senators who have backed the legislation include Democrats Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Tom [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that the UK government’s extradition of terror suspect Haroon Aswat to the US in October was lawful. Aswat was arrested in the UK at the request of US authorities in 2005 on terrorism charges relating to a 1999 trip to Oregon. The trip, commissioned by British [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday released its annual World Report , in which it criticized the role of Middle Eastern governments in sustaining the Islamic State (IS). HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth credited much of the emergence of IS to the sectarian and the abusive rule of former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki , [...]
A Kuwaiti appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a man to five years in prison for posting comments about the Gulf nation’s ruler on Twitter. Defense lawyer Fahad al-Harbi announced Thursday that the court upheld the sentence of his client, Abdulaziz al-Mutairi, for tweets made in 2012 that were deemed insulting [...]
