A US federal judge in Colorado on Thursday ruled that Filipino workers can proceed with forced labor claims against US-based construction companies that oversaw FIFA World Cup stadium projects in Qatar. Writing for the US District Court of Colorado, Magistrate Judge Cyrus Chung ruled that under 18 US Code § 1595 and § 1596, US federal [...]

Germany’s data protection commissioner, Meike Kamp, announced Friday that the country has requested Apple and Google to remove DeepSeek, an AI chatbot developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co. Ltd., from their mobile app stores due to concerns over data security. Apple and Google must now review the notice and decide whether [...]

Interviews with police officers and internal police records in El Salvador expose widespread misconduct, including arbitrary arrests and abuse of power, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday. HRW Americas Director Juanita Goebertus said: President Nayib Bukele publicizes his security policies as a positive model for the world, but the police officers we spoke with tell [...]

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit Friday to prevent the federal government from opening a migrant detention center at an airstrip in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. The detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” because the alligators, panthers, and pythons in the surrounding swamp would deter escapes, was set to open next week. The [...]

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda on Friday signed a US-brokered peace agreement, ending a 30-year-old conflict that has killed thousands of people. The agreement, built on the Declaration of Principles signed by the parties on April 25, 2025, aims to promote lasting peace through the resumption of normal bilateral relations between [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision Thursday that a Texas death row inmate has the right to sue over the state’s laws governing DNA testing. The majority opinion was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder in 1998. Since 2010, he has been unsuccessfully requesting DNA testing [...]

The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) expressed concern Friday after visiting Peru, where it observed serious issues, such as prison overcrowding and lengthy pretrial detention. It also noted a controversial new law that treats 16- and 17-year-old juveniles as adults within the penal system. The Congress of the Republic of Peru recently [...]

The UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Central African Republic called Thursday for urgent institutional reform of the country’s electoral authority, warning that its persistent internal dysfunction has led to ineffectiveness and a risk of missing important deadlines for holding the 2025 elections. Yao Agbetse, who reports to the UN Human Rights [...]

Rights groups have criticized recent US sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC), its staff, and those cooperating with it, including the ICC prosecutor and four judges. The coalition of international legal organizations, consisting of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists, Judges for Judges and Lawyers’ [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday warned that a newly enacted law in Ecuador threatens the rights and protections of children, particularly those recruited or used by organized crime groups. The Public Integrity Law, passed by the National Assembly on June 24 and signed by President Daniel Noboa the following day, introduces sweeping punitive measures [...]