India’s top court on Wednesday ruled that lawmakers with criminal backgrounds should not serve in government positions but that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be allowed to choose his own cabinet. The supreme court expressed hope that, despite this freedom, Modi would keep public expectations and the country’s democratic values in mind when considering people [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday called for strict regulation of electronic cigarettes, including a ban on the usage of the devices in public places and advertising targeting minors. The report, which will be debated by member states in October in Moscow, states that a great deal of uncertainty still surrounds e-cigarette use and [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Makarim Wibisono , on Tuesday formally requested access to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory to gather first-hand information into the human rights situation in Gaza. The UN estimates over the past six weeks of hostilities, the death toll has exceeded 1,450 Palestinian civilians, [...]
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic on Wednesday announced key findings from the latest report on the status of the warring parities in Syria, which has resulted in widespread crimes against humanity and potential violations of international law. According to the report, the Syrian government likely used chlorine gas [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of California has ruled that a California gun law that requires a 10-day waiting period for gun purchases cannot be applied to those who already own firearms. Senior Judge Anthony Ishii ruled that the law was unconstitutional and violated the Second Amendment rights of [...]
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard arguments Tuesday on Wisconsin and Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. The oral arguments lasted an hour and 40 minutes, during which judges directed tough questions to both sides. Some judges called the states’ support of bans “absurd” and “ridiculous.” Federal Judge [...]
The district court in Fukushima, Japan, ruled Tuesday that a woman’s family may be compensated for her death after determining that her depression and suicide were caused by the March 2011 nuclear meltdown of a nearby power plant. The family of chicken farmers lived in their mortgaged home in Yamakiya, 30 miles north of the [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Oklahoma , the Guardian US and the Oklahoma Observer filed a lawsuit on Monday in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma seeking greater media access to state executions. The lawsuit cites the botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett in April, during [...]
The UN human rights office on Monday said that the Tanzanian government’s system of placing children with albinism in government care centers does not provide this vulnerable group with adequate protection from those who target albinos due to erroneous beliefs and superstitions. The widespread belief that the body parts of human albinos bring wealth and [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Sacha Baniel-Stark, New York University School of Law Class of 2016, discusses the botched execution of Joseph Wood and analyzes the dissenting opinion from the denial of Wood’s motion to stay his execution, which argued that capital punishment by lethal injection is fundamentally flawed…On July 23, 2014 a man lay, strapped to [...]
