A court in Kuwait on Wednesday convicted 13 people of challenging the country’s ruler by reciting a speech from Musallam Al Barrack , a leading opposition figure. After giving a speech during an October 2012 anti-government protest, Barrack was arrested for insulting leader Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah . Such criticism of the [...]
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) does not protect legal medical marijuana users from being charged with driving under the influence (DUI). The court reviewed the appeal submitted by Travis Darrah, a legal medical marijuana license holder, and decided the Arizona Revised Statutes allowed the court to [...]
A group of UN human rights experts on Monday implored the city of Detroit to make access to water and adequate housing more affordable, classifying these as basic human rights. The recommendations were made after a two-day visit to the city of Detroit, where UN experts noticed the negative effect of the steep price of [...]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in Jamaica are facing violence and discrimination , Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday. The report, entitled “Not Safe at Home,” summarizes findings during a five-week period last year through interviews with LGBT citizens and Jamaican police. The report details 56 documented cases of violence with explanations about [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Puerto Rico’s same-sex marriage ban. Puerto Rico Para Todos brought the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, five same-sex couples, arguing that Article 68 of Puerto Rico’s civil code, which defines marriage as between a man [...]
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic on Monday expressed grave concern over escalating human rights violations by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. Simonovic provided a report accessing the human rights issues in Iraq after spending some time on a trip within the region. Upon the end of his trip, Simonovic reported major [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Shubhankar Dam, of the Singapore Management University, proposes a solution to the underlying issues which caused the ongoing protests in Hong Kong … Nearly three weeks after they began, Hong Kong’s student-led protests show little signs of abating. Parts of the central business district remain paralyzed. Skirmishes between the police and the [...]
An Egyptian military tribunal on Tuesday confirmed the death sentences of seven Islamic militants who were convicted of killing army officers. The original charges brought against the Islamic militants were shooting at security forces, planning terrorist operations,and attacking military bases and facilities. The militants were members of a group called Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis , which [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Tamara Fisher and Jacquelyn Rembis, both students at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, discuss issues surrounding inadvertently recorded background conversations and the wide disparity of judicial opinions over their admissibility …Wiretaps are an incredibly powerful tool for prosecutors. They allow law enforcement to listen to confidential conversations and use those conversations as [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday reported on evidence of the use of cluster bombs by the Ukrainian government on the city of Donetsk, a heavily populated civilian area in eastern Ukraine. The bombs have allegedly killed six individuals and injured several dozen more. Cluster munitions cover a wide area, posing a risk to anyone [...]
