The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Monday alleged that armed rebels engaged in ethnically targeted killings during a raid on the northern city of Bentiu last week, resulting in more than 200 civilian deaths and 400 injuries. Rebels loyal to deposed vice president Riek Marchar reportedly sought to capture Bentiu, the capital of [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Friday upheld Wisconsin’s controversial Budget Repair Bill which significantly limits the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions. Two unions representing the city of Madison and Dane County public workers filed the lawsuit in 2011, alleging that the law violated their right to freely assembly [...]
An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced 23 people, alleged to be members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood , to three and a half years each in prison. The accused were imprisoned in connection with protests last November against the trial of former president Mohamed Morsi . They were found guilty of several charges , including [...]
A new anti-terrorism bill presented in the Brazilian National Congress on Saturday shortly before the 2014 World Cup is scheduled to begin in June has raised concern among human rights groups who allege the law threatens free speech and peaceful assembly. Brazilian lawmakers argue the legislation is required to fill a missing piece in the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch discusses the US use of landmines and the possibility of the US joining the Mine Ban Treaty… Since antipersonnel landmines were banned by a majority of nations 15 years ago via an international treaty, their use even by those outside the treaty has become rare, as [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist William Partlett of Columbia University School of Law discusses the current state of the controversy in Ukraine … Constitution-making has rapidly moved to the forefront of the East-West standoff in the Ukraine. Prime Minister Arsenii Yatsenyuk recently announced an ambitious schedule for Ukrainian constitution-making that promises a final draft by September of [...]
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts denied the request of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA for a stay on the lower court ruling. The appeals court’s ruling made Teva’s Copaxone drug available to be produced in a generic form . Teva sought to have this delayed until the Supreme Court is able to hear the dispute [...]
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled on Friday that prisons have a duty to protect inmates from violence at the hands of other inmates . The ruling will allow a lawsuit by a former inmate, Richard Mattox, to continue in the lower courts. Mattox was attacked by inmates after receiving several threats while security guards failed [...]
US President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that bars entry for any UN ambassadors who have engaged in “terrorist activity.” The law has been seen as a response to Iran’s choice of US envoy, Hamid Aboutalebi, who has been linked to the student militants that seized the US embassy in Tehran [...]
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that an Iowa mother should have sought court approval before arranging a vasectomy for her mentally disabled son. The court held unanimously that a vasectomy is a “major elective surgery,” as well as a “nonemergency major medical procedure” that required court approval despite the mother’s legal guardianship of [...]
