Italy lower house approves bill protecting LGBTQ+ community, women and disabled people from violence
Italy’s lower house of parliament passed a bill Wednesday that extends anti-discrimination protection to women, disabled people and members of the LGBTQ+ community, making violence against these groups a hate crime. Existing hate crime legislation only protects people from racial, religious and ethnic discrimination. Under this law, people convicted of hate crimes against these newly [...]
The recent judgment of the United States discussed the point of non-removal of employees merely on the ground of their transgender and homosexual identity. The courts dynamically increased the parameters of words “discrimination on the basis of sex” in the Civil Rights Act 1964 by including gender identity and sexual orientation under the definition of [...]
I, as a white woman, have bit by bit come to understand how racism is at the heart of much of our legislation and has been for all of our history. As a young person in the late 60’s I thought that changing our laws could create equality. As a Catholic Sister dedicated to social [...]
See No Evil: Sotomayor highlights the Roberts Court’s blind eye to discrimination
Today, the U.S. legal system faces a public that is becoming increasingly impatient with systemic unequal protection of the law. As the peaceful arbiter of disputes in a democratic society, the judiciary cannot stray too far from that public, lest its legitimacy be lost. However, recent Supreme Court jurisprudence has pulled that judiciary further from [...]
UN removes Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from child rights violators 'list of shame'
UN Secretary-General António Guterres published his annual children and armed conflict report Tuesday, which controversially removed the Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen from the list of those who have committed grave violations against children within the last year. The annual children and armed conflict report, which has been required by the security council [...]
On May 22, 2020 Bombay High Court said that the Right to a Decent Burial is a facet of the Right to Life. This decision was based on a plea which contested burial of COVID-19 patients in burial grounds surrounding the residential areas. The court dismissed the petitions and quoted from Oscar Wilde: “Death must [...]
Mandamus and the Proper Role of Amicus Curiae in the Michael Flynn Case
On Monday, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia filed his response to the petition for mandamus brought by General Michael Flynn in the D.C. Circuit regarding Sullivan’s handling of the Justice Department (DOJ) Motion to Dismiss the false statement charges against Flynn. Flynn had pleaded guilty to [...]
Hong Kong Ruling Strengthens Rights Protection on Same-Sex Relations
Nearly 120 years after Hong Kong made sodomy punishable by a possible life sentence, a recent court ruling marks a further step toward completely decriminalizing same-sex relations. In 2007, Hong Kong scrapped its British-era sodomy law. But, for over a decade, several remaining provisions in its Crime Ordinance continued to single out male same-sex relations, [...]
The New York Times ran a front-page story on October 21, 2018 with the headline: “‘Transgender’ Could be Defined out of Existence under Trump Administration.” The story reported that “the Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” Other than Caitlyn Jenner, who had maintained a [...]
The Opioid Crisis Response Act: Looking Ahead, Ignoring the Present
On September 17, 2018, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly (99-1) in support of the Opioid Crisis Response Act (OCRA) of 2018. OCRA proposes a series of measures addressing the devastating, long-term impacts of opioid addiction and abuse nationally. Building on efforts previously authorized in 2016 via the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) and the [...]
