On July 7, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus Resolution 62/18, recognizing forced pregnancy as a form of reproductive violence. It was the first time a UN-negotiated document named reproductive violence as a distinct form of sexual and gender-based violence, covering forced or denied contraception, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization, including [...]

Joe Gratz, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday published a proposal for a $103, 265 fee on those filing a “cap-subject” petition for an H-1B visa. The new fee would apply to all H-1B petitions, regardless of if the worker is inside or outside of the US, except for those filed by universities, certain non-profits [...]

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Japanexperterna.se, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Amnesty International reported on Monday that international failure to ensure children’s online safety from Big Tech harms is connected to a lack of youth perspectives in policy-making spaces. Classifying existing solutions as performative, the organization pointed out that increasing surveillance, data tracking, and censorship is a major threat to their safety. Children face “risks such [...]

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Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The US Supreme Court on Monday stayed a district court injunction that had blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order overhauling mail-in voting, ruling in a per curiam opinion that the states that brought the challenge had not shown an injury concrete and imminent enough to make their claims justiciable before the November midterm election. In Trump v. [...]

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Jason Howie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The New Zealand government announced on Monday that it has introduced a bill to ban social media for youth under 16. The law would require social media platforms and AI companions to verify users’ ages before providing services. The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill would require an age restriction on [...]

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that armed groups in Colombia have increased their recruitment of children, citing what it described as an ineffective government response to the growing problem. In a report titled “‘I Thought I’d Never See My Mom Again’: Recruitment and Use of Children by Colombian Armed Groups,” HRW examined the factors [...]

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Maurits90, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Few atrocities have been documented as extensively as the Srebrenica genocide. Yet three decades later, denial remains politically entrenched, while the evidentiary record painstakingly assembled by international courts faces an uncertain future. JURIST’s Sarisha Harikrishna spoke with Iva Vukušić, Assistant Professor in International History at Utrecht University and Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of [...]

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Solen Feyissa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday announced a $400 million settlement with Tiktok over children’s privacy concerns, effectively ending a dispute that has been ongoing for over two years. The case concerned allegations of obtaining personal information of children under 13 without parental consent. TikTok will pay $300 million immediately; the remaining $100 [...]

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Lion Hirth (Prissantenbär), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Amnesty International on Thursday called on Ecuadorian authorities to drop all legal and financial penalties against activists behind the 2023 Yasuní Referendum, warning that the looming fines are part of a broader crackdown on civic space and dissent in the country. The Yasuní Referendum was a national ballot initiative to bar oil drilling within Yasuní [...]

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John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The United Nations on Friday launched a new initiative to safeguard victims of terror attacks from online harm and re-traumatization, with its primary aim being to ensure a victim-centered approach to building a safer environment for internet users. Friday, i.e, August 21, marks the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of [...]

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