The Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) filed an appeal in federal court on Thursday to challenge a June ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board of the US Patent and Trademark Office that found the team name “Redskins” is “disparaging of Native Americans.” The team filed its appeal in the US [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) have issued reports alleging the use of police force and intimidation tactics to dispel largely nonviolent protestors following the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Missouri on August 9 threatens constitutional freedoms. Following the shooting, riot conditions overcame the town of Ferguson, Missouri, which included looting of [...]
A court in Azerbaijan on Thursday upheld the pre-trial detention of top human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev. Aliyev was arrested in 2011 on charges including illegal commercial activity, tax evasion and abuse of power. Earlier this month he was jailed for at least three months. Aliyev’s lawyer released a statement , saying, “his detention was [...]
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed an appeal Wednesday asking the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse a July ruling that a 2012 state law requiring abortion clinic doctors to obtain hospital admitting privileges is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the court found that the law would impermissibly limit a woman’s [...]
Two senior UN officials on Wednesday strongly condemned sexual violence by Islamic State (IS) militants against minorities in areas under their control. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura , and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov delivered a joint statement from Baghdad, in which they described [...]
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Wisconsin’s Attorney General JB Van Hollen to stay the his April ruling against the state’s voter identification law. The April ruling found that the Act 23 requirement that all residents present photo ID when voting violated the Voting Rights Act and the US Constitution. Van Hollen [...]
The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that a transgender man, who was legally married to a woman, may pursue a divorc from his wife within the Arizona court system. Thomas Beatie was born female but underwent medical procedures to change his sex and amend his birth certificate to recognize him as male. Thomas then [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday declined to stay its decision declaring Virginia’s voter-approved same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional . Citizens of Virginia voted to amend the Virginia Constitution in 2006 to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman, banning the performance or recognition of same-sex [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that the UK’s ban preventing prisoners from voting violates their human rights. The judgment came on a case brought by 10 British prisoners who claimed that the voting ban, which prohibits prisoners from voting in national or European elections, breached their right to free elections under [...]
German federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Zdravko Musac, former head of the Yugoslavia secret service, with complicity in the 1983 murder of expatriate Yugoslav political dissident Stjepan Durekovic near Munich. Musac, now 72 years old, was extradited to Germany from Croatia in April for allegedly giving the order to assassinate Durekovic. His former subordinate, Josip [...]
