The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday rejected a lawsuit seeking to nullify a New York law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Under New York law, applicants can apply for “standard licenses.” Under the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) [...]

The Karnataka High Court in India ruled Friday that the right to marry a person of choice irrespective of caste or religion is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. This is is a reaffirmation of a 2011 ruling by the Supreme Court of India. The case arose after a woman was held in confinement [...]

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf vetoed a bill Monday that would limit COVID-19 liability for schools, health care providers and other businesses. House Bill 1737 would limit the liability of businesses, child care facilities, health care facilities and schools for any personal injury or property damage related to COVID-19 exposure. The bill would have applied during disaster [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused Tanzanian authorities of violating the rights of Burundian refugees. The report states that at least 18 refugees and asylum seekers have been abused since 2019, while also mentioning that the location of some who were forcibly disappeared remains unknown. “Between October 2019 and August 2020, Tanzanian police and intelligence [...]

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao has refused to apologize for tweeting a fake image depicting Australian war crimes following an Australian Defence Force (ADF) report alleging Australian soldiers were involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners between 2009 and 2013. The fake image depicts an Australian soldier with a bloody knife [...]

The US Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump v. New York and Van Buren v. US Monday. Trump v. New York concerns an attempt by the Trump administration to exclude people living in the US illegally from being counted in the 2020 census for apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives. This is the first [...]

The European Court of Human Rights ordered the governments of 33 European countries Monday to respond to a milestone climate change lawsuit brought by six young Portuguese climate activists. The court ordered all 33 governments, including the EU27, plus Ukraine, Turkey, the UK, Switzerland, Russia and Norway, to respond to the lawsuit by February 23. According [...]

Swiss voters on Sunday rejected measures that would have heightened penalties against Switzerland-based companies that violate UN human rights mandates or harm the environment abroad. The proposal, titled “Responsible companies — to protect people and the environment,” was aimed at introducing new statutory obligations for Swiss businesses. It initially won by a narrow majority of [...]

The Constitutional Court of South Africa declared Friday that section 18(2)(b) of the Riotous Assemblies Act on the crime of incitement is inconsistent with section 16(1) of the Constitution, which provides for freedom of expression. Julius Malema had on various occasions called upon his supporters to occupy land regardless of their lack of title. The National Prosecuting [...]

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published its final environmental impact statement (EIS) Friday assessing the potential impacts of its planned rulemaking to clarify the “take” prohibition under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) to include only intentional killings of bird species. In response to various federal court decisions that interpreted the MBTA’s take [...]