The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association has welcomed new guidance from the UN Human Rights Committee extending the right of peaceful assembly to online platforms. The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) adopted General Comment No. 37 on July 23, defining the right of peaceful assembly and lawful [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York struck down a New York law Wednesday that prohibits individuals from picketing outside of a courthouse. The judge found that the law was unconstitutional because it infringed upon the First Amendment right to free speech. Misdemeanor criminal contempt statute New York [...]
The Turkish Parliament ratified a bill Wednesday to regulate social media in the country, with backing from the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The bill requires foreign-based social media websites with more than one million users to appoint representatives based in Turkey to address any concerns that [...]
California has sued US President Donald Trump over his order prohibiting undocumented immigrants from being included in Census apportionment counts. The complaint, filed Tuesday, argues that Trump’s order disturbs and undermines the historical precedent of the US counting “all of its residents, including for the purpose of apportioning the U.S. House of representatives, regardless of [...]
In a tweet on Thursday morning, US President Donald Trump suggested that the US postpone the November elections, claiming mail-in voting would cause widespread fraud and inaccuracy. Presidential elections are currently held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year, that is November 3, 2020. The US Constitution demands via the [...]
A federal judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an injunction Wednesday that prevents enforcement of a new US immigration rule barring immigrants from qualifying for visas if they are likely to become dependent on government benefits. Under the 2019 US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule Inadmissibility [...]
The California Supreme Court is considering retroactively applying a lower bar exam passing score to the February 2020 exam. In response to COVID-19, the California Supreme Court has already decided to administer the bar exam online on October 5-6. In its July 16th statement the Court also lowered the minimum passing score from 1440 to 1390 [...]
A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a Yemeni blogger living in Riyadh to jail and then deportation for a social media post supporting equal rights for all in Saudi Arabia, according to a Human Rights Watch report. The tweet features a video of Mohamad al-Bokari responding on social media to whether he supported equal rights. He [...]
Samoan chief Joseph Matamata has become the first person to be convicted on charges of both human trafficking and slavery in New Zealand. Matamata faced ten counts of trafficking and 13 counts of slavery in a five-week trial before the High Court in Napier. The charges stem from activities between 1994-2019 when Matamata systematically enslaved [...]
Former Malayisan Prime Minister Najib Rajak has been sentenced to 12 years in prison at the end of a trial stemming from the 1MDB corruption scandal. The Kuala Lumpur High Court found Najib guilty on all seven charges of abuse of power, breach of trust, and money laundering. Judge Mohamad Nazlan Ghazali Tuesday ordered the sentences [...]
