Search Results for: adoption

President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili on Friday vetoed a controversial “foreign agents” law that has been decried as “Russian-style” legislation and has sparked massive protests in the country. Zourabichvili took to her Twitter account to announce the veto, saying, “Today, I vetoed the Russian law. This law, in its essence and spirit, is fundamentally Russian, [...]

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stated on Wednesday that Georgia’s newly passed foreign agents bill “undermines the freedoms of expression and association.” Türk mentioned his concern regarding the possible effects of this bill being signed by the President of Georgia: “The ability of associations to seek, secure and use resources is essential to their [...]

South Africa’s main opposition party announced it would go all the way to the Constitutional Court to fight the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, aimed at providing universal health coverage, on Tuesday. Just two weeks out from the general election on May, 29 2024, the Bill would see free healthcare provided at the point for care [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled North Macedonia violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on Tuesday by refusing access to sensitive adoption records based exclusively on national legislation. The Strasbourg-based court determined that the North Macedonian authorities had failed to evaluate the conflicting interests at stake and ordered compensation [...]

The Council of the European Union announced the formal adoption of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum on Tuesday, taking steps to reform the bloc’s asylum and migration system, despite opposition from Hungary and Poland. The reform establishes a structured approach to arrivals, streamlining procedures and ensuring equitable burden sharing between member states. The Pact [...]

Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a controversial law designating civil society organizations that receive funding from abroad as “foreign agents.” The law stipulates that civil society organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from international donors must formally register as foreign agents — a term that evokes images of Cold War-era espionage. The legislative [...]

The European Union approved on Monday a law to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of heavy-duty vehicles to a stricter standard. The EU stated that heavy-duty vehicles account for more than 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in the region. The regulation proposes various objectives. Besides maintaining the 2025 emissions reduction target [...]

The resurgence of the Taliban poses renewed threats to the Hazaras, characterized by escalated violence, discrimination, and isolation. The Taliban’s early governance involved the abolition of the Shia Personal Status Law, the removal of Ja’fari jurisprudence from the education system, and the dismissal of Shia judges. Notably, the Taliban’s cabinet and supreme court lack Hazara [...]

Amnesty  International cautioned Friday against potential threats to indigenous peoples’ rights in the measurement of progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework. The organization emphasized the imperative for states to engage in consultations with indigenous communities and secure their “free, prior, and informed consent,” in line with Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According [...]

“Scholars build the structure of peace in the world.” Babylonian Talmud, Order Zera’im, Tractate Berakoth IX The irony is unparalleled. From the beginning, human beings have directed much greater attention to conspicuous consumption than to viable “architectures” of planetary survival. The errors of this inverted hierarchy are magnified by the growing urgency of nuclear war [...]