Search Results for: silence

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil announced Thursday that the Venezuelan government has decided to suspend the activities of the Technical Assistance Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Venezuela, alleging a deviation from its mandate. Additionally, Gil stated that the personnel affiliated with this office must leave Venezuelan territory within 72 [...]

An Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer has been charged for his alleged role in a foreign interference operation, according to a RCMP media released on Tuesday. Constable Eli Ndatuje faces charges of breach of trust, unauthorized computer use and breaching security safeguards under the Security of Information Act. The charges stem from an [...]

Russia has put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ wanted database, according to a report issued Tuesday by independent Russian media outlet Mediazona. This is the first time a foreign head of government has been added to the list. Mediazona’s report was put together through analysis of several databases on [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report on Tuesday saying Hungary’s interference with media freedom and pluralism harms the rule of law. The report, titled “‘I Can’t Do My Job as a Journalist’: The Systematic Undermining of Media Freedom in Hungary,” outlines the obstacles faced by independent journalists and media under the leadership of Prime [...]

California lawmakers announced Tuesday new bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1012, which would effectively permit the use of psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic purposes. Otherwise referred to as the “Regulated Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Act,” the proposed bill would authorize professionals to administer the consumption of psychedelic mushrooms by individuals over the age of 21. SB 1012 was [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called for due process and fairness in the case of Dinara Smailova, a prominent women’s rights advocate in Kazakhstan. HRW expressed concerns that the charges brought against Smailova may be a form of retaliation for her work and an attempt to silence her activism. Smailova is currently facing multiple [...]

Even especially attentive Supreme Court watchers might underestimate the importance of a pair of cases the Court subjected to three and a half hours of argument on January 17. In a term full of cases pitting gun rights against domestic violence victims, determining access to medical abortion, and injecting the justices into presidential election politics, [...]

Slovakia’s Parliament announced on Thursday that it will adopt a fast-track legislative process to vote on Prime Minister Robert Fico’s proposal to reform Slovakia’s criminal law and dissolve the Special Prosecutor’s Office. This comes after lawmakers approved the fast-track procedure, which expedites the voting process on Fico’s proposal. The reforms were introduced by Fico in [...]

The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group examined the human rights record of China, one of the 14 states reviewed during this year’s session, for the fourth time on Tuesday in a meeting at Geneva. The three previous UPR reports on China—which took place separately in February 2009, October 2013, and [...]

UN expert Michel Forst published a letter Tuesday detailing his concerns on the treatment of environmental protestors in the UK. Forst condemned the “severe crackdowns” on environmental protestors, including the prison sentences issued, the bail conditions and the restrictions on peaceful protests. Forst is the first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus [...]