The Hong Kong Court of First Instance sentenced media tycoon and Apple Daily newspaper founder Jimmy Lai to 20 years imprisonment on Monday following his conviction in December on “national security” charges. This marks the latest development in a years-long legal battle, and the heaviest sentence since the instatement of the 2020 National Security Law. Lai was [...]
Cuban authorities are escalating surveillance and harassment of families of political prisoners while denying adequate medical care to jailed dissidents, Amnesty International said Monday. The human rights organization reported that relatives of prisoners of conscience face police cordons around their homes, movement restrictions, and threats, and that these actions are occurring in the absence of [...]
Houthi authorities in Yemen have arbitrarily detained more than 20 Christians over the past three months in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) characterizes as a campaign of enforced disappearances targeting the religious minority. The detentions began in late November and early December 2025, with an expansion on December 24, Christmas Eve, according to HRW interviews [...]
Denmark and Greenland began the year by rejecting any suggestion of US control over Greenland, stating that the island’s sovereignty remains absolute, despite comments by Donald Trump that referenced a proposed Arctic security framework with NATO. Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a televised address January 5 condemned what she called threats, pressure and condescending [...]
This dispatch was co-authored by Divyabharthi Baradhan (JURIST Staff, Malaysia) and Sarisha Harikrishna (Queen’s University Belfast School of Law, United Kingdom). In a landmark ruling, the Permanent People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan (the Tribunal) on December 11 in the Hague, Netherlands, found that the Taliban de facto authorities have committed crimes against humanity under [...]
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to end its six-month federalization of the California National Guard, ruling the deployment lacks legal justification. US federal law (10 USC § 12406) permits the president to federalize National Guard troops only when the nation faces invasion, rebellion, or the president is unable to execute federal [...]
The correspondent filing this dispatch is a law student in Mumbai who must remain anonymous. Two high-profile extradition cases unfolding this month highlight India’s obligations under domestic and international law: the potential extradition of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from India back to her home country, and India’s efforts to extradite diamond merchant Mehul [...]
A coalition of civil and human rights organizations is calling for the closure of a massive immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss, Texas, alleging guards have beaten detainees and threatened violence, criminal charges and imprisonment in attempts to coerce even non-Mexican migrants into crossing the border into Mexico. The groups, including the ACLU and Human [...]
Noor Ul Huda is a JURIST staff correspondent in Pakistan and a recent graduate of Punjab University Law College. She files this dispatch from Lahore. A profound constitutional crisis is gripping Pakistan. Two of the country’s most respected Supreme Court justices, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah, have resigned in protest, declaring that the [...]
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that New York cannot, at least for now, regulate statements by faith-based pregnancy centers promoting “abortion pill reversal,” finding their speech is likely protected under the First Amendment. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a preliminary injunction blocking Attorney General Letitia James from pursuing enforcement actions against three [...]
