The High Court of Karnataka in India observed Thursday that not providing a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine would amount to a violation of the right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar has issued the order in a [...]

Special Advisor and head of a UN team investigating the atrocities by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, Karim Khan, reported to the UN Security Council Monday that the investigators have established “clear and convincing” evidence of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority. The UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability [...]

A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday struck down a Maharashtra state government statute on reservation, a system of affirmative action in India, and upheld a 50 percent ceiling on it, in Dr Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister. The statute, entitled the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward [...]

The Indian Supreme Court on Sunday pronounced a set of directions for the central and state governments in light of the humanitarian crisis emerging from India’s second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The case, In Re: Distribution of Essential Supplies and Services during Pandemic, is a suo moto writ petition that was initiated last week [...]

The Parliament of Japan (Diet) on Wednesday approved the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade deal at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors (upper chamber of Diet). The move follows the Japanese Cabinet’s decision to approve the ratification in February. RCEP is touted as one of the world’s largest free trade deals [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday accused Israeli authorities of crimes against humanity, specifically that of apartheid and persecution, against the Palestinian people. The report finds that there is “an overarching Israeli government policy” working to maintain Israeli domination over Palestinians through land and demographical control as well as grave human rights abuses against Palestinians [...]

Venezuelan security forces operating against rebels at the Colombian border have “committed egregious abuses” of human rights against the local population, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday. HRW alleges the execution of at least four peasants, torture of civilians suspected to be working with armed groups, arbitrary arrests, and prosecution of civilians in military courts. [...]

A Special Committee headed by Sir Tim Hitchens and appointed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in December 2019, has published its findings and recommendations on the early history of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). The Committee’s objective was to identify inequalities in IGWC’s commemoration of the deceased people of the British Empire [...]

United Nations (UN) human rights experts Wednesday expressed concern over the deteriorating health conditions of jailed Putin critic and opposition leader Alexei Navalny calling for his immediate medical evacuation from Russia. Navalny was convicted in February this year for his violating the terms of his parole from August 2020 to January 2021, a period when he [...]

Liberty University has sued its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., for withholding information from school officials about alleged threats for extortion and undermining the university’s moral standards. Falwell is a prominent member of the Evangelical Christian community in the US and the son of the university’s founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell. He was one of the [...]