UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry on Sunday met with ministers of the new Palestinian unity government in the Gaza Strip. Serry’s UN envoy are the first international officials to meet with the new unity government, announced by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week. President Abbas’ announcement followed the signing [...]
Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Sunday agreed to create a truth commission to investigate the deaths of thousands of people in the last five decades of the country’s conflict. During negotiations in Havana, Cuba, the government and FARC agreed to recognize victims on both sides of the conflict, as [...]
The head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Saturday strongly condemned an outbreak of deadly violence in the eastern areas of the DRC, sparked by a confrontation over cattle. The UN deployed peacekeepers to the area to work alongside local authorities to help restore calm. According to the [...]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement Sunday commemorating World Oceans Day calling on the international community to “commit to keep healthy and productive and to use their resources peacefully, equitably and sustainably for the benefit of current and future generations.” The Secretary General emphasized the importance of the world’s oceans noting how they [...]
United Nations Secretary General Ban Kim Moon on Friday urged Israel to release Palestinian administrative detainees over fears of failing health in a hunger strike. Some sources estimate that over 290 Palestinians detained in Israel are on hunger strike, with about 70 requiring medical treatment to live. On Thursday the United Nations UN Special Committee [...]
Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado signed a progressive bill for mentally ill inmates on Friday. Senate Bill 14-064 changes traditional methods of solitary confinement by mandating psychiatric evaluations and therapy for inmates diagnosed with mental illness and qualifying for disciplinary intervention. All inmates currently in solitary confinement will be evaluated within 90 days, and those [...]
Seven couples have filed a lawsuit to the United States District Court of North Dakota on Friday in an effort to challenge North Dakota’s same-sex marriage ban. Some of the claims within the suit state that North Dakota’s Constitution enactment banning same-sex marriage violates the equal protection, due process and right-to-travel clauses of the Fourteenth [...]
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday published a Policy Paper on Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes. The ICC has reported that the comprehensive policy paper will help the Office of the Prosecutor work in fighting against impunity for sexual and gender-based crimes, and promote transparency and clarity as well as predictability in [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on Friday struck down Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban. Article XIII, Section 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution , approved by voters in 2006, defines marriage as between one man and one woman and bars recognition of same-sex marriages that occur in other jurisdictions. [...]
The Islamabad High Court on Thursday ordered the arrest of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official Jonathan Banks for his involvement in a 2009 drone strike that killed civilians. Kareem Khan, whose brother and son were killed in the drone strike in Waziristan, had petitioned the court to charge Banks with murder. Banks left Pakistan [...]
