The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Tuesday condemned judicial decisions in Brazil that could exclude criminal responsibility in cases of sexual violence against girls and adolescents. The statement follows an alarming two-year trend in which protections for children under the age of 14 have reportedly weakened. This is highlighted by four controversial rulings [...]

A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit struck down one of the key remaining ways to enforce the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA) on Wednesday. In a 2-1 decision, Judges Raymond Gruender and Jonathan Kobes held that §2 of the VRA does not confer a “private right of action for [...]

Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday proposed a bill that would impose sweeping restrictions on organizations seen as threats to national sovereignty. The bill expands the powers of the controversial Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) and tightens government control over civil society, including nonprofits, advocacy groups, independent media, and other community actors that operate independently from the government. [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday stripped New York City of its control over the Rikers Island jail, which will now effectively be run by a third-party “remediation manager.” This comes after the same judge held the city in contempt last November for failing to reduce violence in the notorious jail complex. Rikers Island is one [...]

The Court of Justice of the European Union General Court (EUCJ) ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission’s refusal to give the New York Times access to communication exchanges between the European Commission (EC) president and Pfizer was incorrect. The court thereby annulled the EC decision. The General Court recognized that, although all institutional documents [...]

Major social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), are failing to adequately protect LGBTQ+ users from hate, harassment, and disinformation, according to the 2025 Social Media Safety Index released Tuesday by the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD. The annual report’s fifth edition, which evaluates the performance of major platforms on 14 LGBTQ-specific safety [...]

In a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the re-elected Labour government to leverage its key foreign policies to strengthen human rights globally. HRW outlined several actions in the letter that the Australian government should take under four main areas of its foreign policy to promote human [...]

The Scottish parliament on Tuesday voted to advance a historic assisted dying bill, following a stage one debate. The bill, introduced by MSP Liam McArthur, is a historic step towards providing physician-assisted dying for terminally ill adults. The proposed bill was approved at stage one with 70 votes to 56. The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill [...]

A group of UN human rights experts condemned on Wednesday the widespread and persistent violence against women and girls in Sudan as the armed conflict enters its third year. They found that many of the attacks were attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and called for urgent action to end these atrocities. The experts [...]

A US federal grand jury in Wisconsin indicted Judge Hannah Dugan on Tuesday for obstructing immigration agents. Dugan was arrested last month and is accused of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and concealing Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the foreign national ICE agents sought to apprehend in her courtroom. Dugan, who was suspended following her arrest, [...]