Kurdish children from Kobani, a city that sits on the Syrian-Turkish border, were tortured and abused by the Islamic State (IS), Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday. IS reportedly abducted 153 Kurdish boys on May 29, 2014 and held them at a school in Manbij, 55 kilometers outside of Kobani. Many of the boys escaped [...]
The Spanish Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended the Catalonia region’s upcoming symbolic vote to gauge public sentiment for independence. The unanimous decision to hear the government’s appeal effectively bans the vote until the parties present arguments and the court makes a ruling. This vote was planned as an alternative to a non-binding referendum vote for [...]
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to rule on a challenge to New York City Administrative Code § 20-816 , which requires non-profit crisis pregnancy centers to disclose whether they have a licensed medical provider on staff. The ordinance requires that pregnancy service centers make certain disclosures to their clients about their services, which include [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on the constitutionality of a federal statute requiring the Secretary of State, on request, to endorse passports of US citizens born in Jerusalem with “Israel” as the place of birth. In Zivotofsky v. Kerry the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday denied certiorari in an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the Senate filibuster . The appeal was brought by four members of the US House of Representatives and the organization Common Cause and sought to overturn an April ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [...]
The Cabinet of Israel approved a new law Sunday enabling easier conversion to Judaism. Under the new law , the chief rabbi of each Israeli city would be able to form and lead a conversion court governed by rules to be promulgated by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel . Prior to the newly passed conversion [...]
A federal judge in Argentina on Friday requested that Spain arrest and extradite 20 former Spanish officials suspected of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco . The judge, Maria Servini de Cubria, said she is invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction for human rights issues against Spaniards and cited to international law [...]
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh on Monday upheld the death sentence of Islamist politician Mohammad Kamaruzzaman. The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh convicted Kamaruzzaman last year for committing war crimes including mass murder during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War . He is assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) , Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party. Kamaruzzaman will [...]
The Namibia Supreme Court ruled Monday that three HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilized in public hospitals. This decision affirms the July 2012 intermediate court ruling , which stated that the sterilizations were illegal because circumstances rendered the consent coerced and uninformed. All three sterilizations occurred while the women were in the hospital for emergency caesarian [...]
The UN on Sunday observed the first International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists after the resolution to do so was adopted in December of last year. The date commemorates the assassination of two French journalists, Gislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, in Mali in 2013. The resolution urges members to take active measures [...]
