A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled Monday that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol protocol is constitutional. The ruling has effectively allowed the state to continue with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates beginning in early 2015. The state was forced to examine the constitutionality of its [...]
The UN Human Rights Office and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Monday released a joint report describing civilian populations in Libya being subjected to shelling, abduction, torture, execution and deliberate destruction of property. In a press release accompanying the report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein attributed the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court decision that the Woman’s Right to Know Act, which requires physicians to display and describe ultrasound images to women seeking abortions, is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment . Writing the unanimous opinion for a three-judge panel, Judge J [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Monday expressed deep regret at the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan and Jordan in recent days, stressing that no judiciary can be infallible. Pakistan and Jordan put in place the moratoria on the death penalty in 2008 and 2006, [...]
China aims to “regulate” foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) under a law being discussed this week, which aims to step up supervision of the fast-growing sector, state media said on Monday. The bill, which was submitted to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, running from Monday to Sunday, essentially provides that non-domestic NGOs will have to [...]
The Catalonia High Court of Justice announced Monday that it will open an investigation of the unofficial Catalan independence vote held in opposition of the central Spanish government. The formal investigation will center on Catalonia’s President Artus Mas, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Joana Ortega and Education Minister Irene Rigau for their roles in [...]
An Argentine court unanimously ruled that an orangutan is a “non-human person” with a legal right to freedom. Last November, Argentina’s Association of Professional Lawyers for Animal Rights (AFADA) filed a habeas corpus writ on behalf of Sandra, an orangutan held in a Buenos Aires zoo, alleging she suffered “unjustified confinement of an animal with [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, of Bournemouth University in the UK, discusses the present use of incendiary weapons within its legal framework and why the use of such weapons is most likely to continue, as a response to Human Rights Watch’s call to end incendiary weapon use in Ukraine and Syria … “Incendiary weapons, as [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Saturday announced the repatriation of four Guantanamo Bay detainees to Afghanistan. The prisoners, Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir, were released after a review of their cases. Although originally detained on suspicion of being associated with groups such as the Taliban and other terrorist [...]
US President Barack Obama signed the annual federal defense policy bill into law Friday but expressed dissatisfaction over provisions that limit the his ability to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. HR 3979 authorizes a $585 billion dollar budget for Department of Defense (DOD) operations in 2015. The legislation also provides for military construction [...]
