Amnesty International stated on Thursday that authorities in El Salvador have misused the penal justice system and recent legal reforms to repress human rights defenders and silence dissenting voices, thereby undermining the rule of law in the country. Amnesty International’s Americas director Ana Piquer said: “Instead of impartially delivering justice, the criminal justice system in [...]

The politically volatile region of Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) has once again plunged into a crisis of civil unrest. In late September, a local protest over government plans to drop subsidies for wheat and electricity rapidly transformed into a broader movement demanding comprehensive reform, accountability, and regional economic relief. The demonstrations have pressured the [...]

A federal judge in Chicago issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Thursday to prevent the deployment of the National Guard in the city. April Perry, district judge for the Northern District of Illinois, enjoined the defendants (excepting President Trump) from “ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within [...]

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged comedians who performed at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival to address the nation’s dire human rights situation, and raise awareness of unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and rights activists. HRW pressed comedians to “express their support for free speech by urging the release of Saudi activists unjustly imprisoned,” [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on Wednesday condemning the Tunisian justice system for sentencing a man to death for Facebook posts dissenting from recent government actions. HRW’s statement addressed the sentencing of a Tunisian citizen, Saber Ben Chouchane, for Facebook posts of pictures of himself at recent protests, and statements calling for fellow [...]

Former FBI director James Comey on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to US Department of Justice charges accusing him of lying during a congressional hearing. The indictment concerns statements that Comey made in 2020. Comey told Congress in 2017 that he did not authorize leaks related to various investigations of the first Trump administration and other [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a open letter on Wednesday, joined more than 3,700 non-profit and non-partisan organizations to reject threats to nonprofit organizations introduced by US President Donald Trump’s recent domestic terrorism memorandum. The letter comes shortly after the coalition issued a press statement on October 1 calling the action an attempt to intimidate [...]

California became the first state in the US Wednesday to define and ban ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) from meals served to schoolchildren. The law, AB 1264, follows an executive order signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year to crack down on UPFs. Under the new legislation, California will phase out the most concerning UPFs [...]

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday halted the execution of a man who would have been the first person in the United States put to death over a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Robert Leslie Roberson III was scheduled to be executed on Oct. 16 for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki. [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Thursday that Sudan’s military may have deployed chlorine gas during the ongoing armed conflict, based on the findings of an investigation conducted by French broadcaster France 24. The organization emphasized that if substantiated, use of the toxic gas by armed forces would constitute a war crime. The statement called [...]