Under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership, the Sri Lankan civil war reached a brutal conclusion on May 18, 2009, ending a 25-year-long conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist rebel group. Rooted in longstanding grievances, including discriminatory policies against Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, the conflict saw the [...]
Search Results for: civil union
Civil liberties network report highlights decline of rule of law in EU
The Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) published its Liberties Rule of Law Report 2024 on Monday, in which the organization raised concerns about the declining state of the rule of law and weakening democratic checks and balances across the EU. Liberties, headquartered in Berlin, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that promotes civil liberties for [...]
Kyrgyzstan adopts bill modeled after Russia 'foreign agents' law
The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan passed a bill modeled after Russia’s “foreign agents” law on Thursday, increasing the government’s oversight of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The law will require anyone receiving foreign donations to label themselves a “foreign representative” and follow tighter guidelines when documenting their activities. The bill specifically targets NGOs receiving foreign funding, and it requires [...]
Alabama House approves amended anti-DEI and absentee ballot restrictions bills
Alabama’s House of Representatives approved two bills on Thursday, including one that would restrict public funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The other bill passed by the Republican-led house would restrict absentee ballot assistance by charging individuals for helping others with absentee voting. The first bill, SB-129, sponsored by Senator Will Barfoot (R), [...]
Vietnam seeks to curb fundamental civil society rights: watchdog report
The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) allegedly issued a secret directive to curb fundamental rights of civil society by banning trade unions, curtailing freedom of expression, and clamping on foreign influence, according to a report published Friday by human rights watchdog the 88 Project. The report found that the CPV allegedly issued a secret directive [...]
Ethiopia police arrest French journalist on suspicion of conspiracy to 'create chaos'
Ethiopian authorities arrested French journalist Antoine Galindo for allegedly “conspiring with armed groups to create chaos” in the country, his employer announced Monday. Security forces in civilian clothing arrested Galindo on Thursday at a hotel in the capital, Addis Ababa, while he was interviewing a political officer of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Bate Urgessa. [...]
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bleeds into its third year, JURIST spoke with Anton Korynevych, Ambassador-at-large for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an expert in international criminal law. In their discussion, Korynevych and JURIST Interviews Managing Editor James Joseph discussed the imperative of establishing a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, [...]
Judge rules in favor of Texas school after student claimed race-based hair discrimination
A Texas judge ruled in favor of Barbers Hill Independent School District on Thursday, finding that the school district did not violate a new state law prohibiting race-based hair discrimination when it punished a black student for refusing to change his hairstyle. The case involved Darryl George, a junior in high school, who was initially [...]
ACLU claims South Carolina prison policy banning interviews violates First Amendment
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of South Carolina filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) on Thursday, claiming the department’s ban on news media interviews for incarcerated people violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The department’s policy explicitly prohibits “personal contact interviews” with inmates, and in [...]
Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement Monday urging Ethiopian authorities to stop using the country’s state of emergency as a way to “silence peaceful dissent” by arbitrarily detaining politicians and journalists critical of the government. The state of emergency, originally imposed for six months in August 2023 under Article 93 of the Ethiopian Constitution, granted [...]