Search Results for: moratorium

Nearly 500 rights groups signed a letter on Wednesday urging the Biden administration to protect Haitian migrants from the rampant gang violence and corruption within the island nation. The groups requested a moratorium on deportations to Haiti and the extension and redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Haitian Bridge Alliance wrote the [...]

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Friday revealed it was lifting a 21-year-moratorium on executions in response to escalating violence and militant attacks, to stop its citizens, as well as active duty military and police, from cooperating with M23 rebels in the country’s eastern regions. The decision to lift the moratorium and reinstate [...]

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court invalidated on Wednesday, for the first time ever, a presidential pardon to former member of Parliament Duminda Silva. In a unanimous ruling, the court found that there was “no legal basis or even a factual basis to uphold the decision made by” former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to pardon Silva. Silva and [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on Alabama state authorities Tuesday to cancel the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, which is scheduled to take place next week by nitrogen hypoxia. Türk reemphasized human rights concerns regarding the potential consequences of the untested execution method. According to the statement, execution by nitrogen [...]

Singapore’s Ministry of Law and Ministry of Home Affairs introduced the Criminal Procedure (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2024 into Parliament, aiming to institute new rules for forensic medical examinations (FME) and allowing for the indefinite detention of serious sexual offenders. The bill defines an FMEs as “physical medical examinations, collection of body samples from any body [...]

Iran executed four individuals on Friday, including a woman, over allegations that the four were involved in sabotage operations in connections with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to state-affiliated news agency Mizan.  Mizan reported Iran executed four individuals in its West Azerbaijan province, including Vafa Henareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parehzou, and Nasim Namazi. The four [...]

A federal court sentenced a West Virginia man, Hardy Carroll Lloyd, to 78 months in prison on Wednesday for obstructing the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting trial. The sentencing includes the possibility of supervised release after three years. Lloyd previously admitted to intentionally interfering in the federal hate crimes trial for Robert Bowers, who shot [...]

Last week, Tamils in Sri Lanka and across the globe observed Maveerar Naal, an annual commemoration honoring fallen Tamil separatist soldiers of the Sri Lankan Civil War. In the aftermath of their observance, the Sri Lankan government conducted widespread arrests against Tamils who had participated. By November 30, the government had arrested at least 10 [...]

The UN Human Rights Office released a statement on Tuesday condemning Iran’s execution of 17-year-old Hamidreza Azari and 22-year-old Milad Zohrevand on November 24. The office urged Iran to impose a moratorium on death penalty cases and to cease “using criminal procedures to punish political activists and others for exercising their rights to freedom of [...]

Panama’s Supreme Court unanimously held Tuesday that the 20-year concession for the Canadian Cobre Panamá copper mine was unconstitutional. In its judgement, the courts found that Law 406 of October 20, 2023, which granted the mining concession to Minera Panama, the Panamanian subsidiary of Canadian First Quantum Minerals, was unconstitutional and struck down the entire law. The [...]