This dispatch was filed by a JURIST legal correspondent in Afghanistan. For privacy and security reasons we cannot disclose her name. Reflecting the systematic misogyny now going on in Afghanistan, a government decree was recently published aimed at reducing the salaries of women professors and other government employees to 5000 AFG, or ~70$, without considering [...]

Pulitzer Prize-winning Russian journalist and opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a prison hospital while serving out a 25-year sentence for criticizing his country’s invasion of Ukraine, his wife announced via social media on Friday. His wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, shared via X that her husband had been transferred from his maximum security prison [...]

It has been one year since Malaysia repealed the mandatory death penalty, however, Amnesty International has highlighted ongoing violations of international human rights standards. The abolition of the mandatory death penalty, under the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, has led to a significant reduction in death sentences and a decrease of over one-third [...]

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report Wednesday on the human rights situation in Ukraine, showing that intensified military operations by Russian armed led to a rise in civilian casualties and extensive damage to civilian property and infrastructure, particularly in areas near the frontline. The report covers [...]

Following initial opposition from Karnataka’s Law Minister HK Patil to the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and associated legislations scheduled to enter into force July 1, Patil announced Karnataka’s intention to introduce 23-25 amendments to these laws before their enforcement in the state following a cabinet meeting Friday. These amendments are based on Karnataka’s feedback [...]

French researcher Laurent Vinatier admitted during interrogation to illegally collecting sensitive Russian military information, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday. Laurent Claude Jean-Louis Vinatier, who worked for a long time in Russia in the Swiss non-governmental non-profit organization Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, was accused of collecting military information and military information of a [...]

The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday disapproved the Manipur High Court’s decision to curtail hospital treatment for a prisoner belonging to the minority Kuki community, citing ethnic clashes in the state. While giving the order, the Apex Court expressed disappointment, “We do not trust the state…The accused was not taken to hospital because he is [...]

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression (RELE, by its initials in Spanish) issued a press release expressing alarm over the excessive use of public force against journalists and peaceful protesters in Argentina. The press release was issued in response to the protests on June 12, when [...]

Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre published a report on Wednesday finding that the ability to protest in Australia has been eroded by anti-protest legislation over the last two decades. The report, entitled Protest in Peril: Our Shrinking Democracy, analysed and compiled every bill which affected protests in each Australian jurisdiction over the last 20 years [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged allies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to “break their silence” regarding the mass trial of 84 political opponents and defenders of human rights on Wednesday. In December 2023, the UAE brought new charges against 84 activists and dissidents under its counterterrorism law. As confirmed by the Emirates News Agency [...]