The UN raised alarm on Thursday over the sharp increase in conflict-related sexual violence in 2024, stating that “ore than 4,600 survivors endured abuses used as weapons of war, torture, terrorism and political repression” throughout the year. The UN urged all involved parties to “adopt clear orders prohibiting sexual violence” and “ensure accountability.” The UN [...]

The District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Friday challenging President Donald Trump’s emergency order placing the city’s police department under federal control. Four days earlier, the Trump administration declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, and announced the DC police force would be placed under federal control. Trump invoked his emergency powers Monday under [...]

Judicial reforms recently passed by the Lebanese parliament are a step in the right direction but ultimately “fall short,” said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement issued on Friday. The Lebanese Parliament passed a law regarding the organization of the judiciary on August 7. The new law evolved from the introduction of draft legislation [...]

New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the company behind the electronic payment platform Zelle for failing to protect its users from fraud. The lawsuit accuses Early Warning Services, LLC (EWS) of rushing its platform Zelle to market in 2017 to compete with Venmo and PayPal, prioritizing speed and [...]

The government of Ghana on August 14 announced that it has invited American forensic experts to assist in investigating the August 6 military helicopter crash that claimed eight lives, including two cabinet ministers. The Ghana Armed Forces confirmed the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, called upon the Ghana Journalists Association to [...]

Edited by Alanah Vargas | JURIST Staff, US Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees everyone the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information through any media without interference. This global dispatch, contributed by correspondents around the world, examines key challenges and developments [...]

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can access sensitive federal data of millions of Americans, reversing a temporary injunction that was issued earlier this year. Plaintiffs alleged that the access granted to DOGE by the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Education [...]

India’s foreign ministry on Thursday reiterated that the Court of Arbitration has “no existence in the eye of law,” stating that it lacks any legal authority to make pronouncements about the 1960 water-sharing pact between India and Pakistan. The ministry described the tribunal as “illegally constituted” and said New Delhi has never recognized its legitimacy. [...]

Nearly 100 countries on Wednesday rejected a draft of an international treaty to end plastic pollution, a day before its August 14 deadline, with some describing the text as “unambitious” and “inadequate.” Luis Vayas Valdivieso, committee chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on plastic pollution, presented the draft treaty to all 184 UN member [...]

UN human rights experts issued a forceful appeal to the international community on Thursday to reject the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, denouncing it as violent, illegitimate and fundamentally oppressive. Experts described widespread human rights violations, including public executions, corporal punishment, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and targeted discrimination against ethnic, religious, and LGBTQ+ minorities. They [...]