Deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Kelly Clements said on Friday that her office is preparing for up to half a million Afghans to flee the country in a “worst-case scenario.” Noting that her office has not seen large outflows of Afghans at this point, Clements emphasized that “the situation inside Afghanistan has evolved [...]

US prosecutors announced Friday the arrest of two Myanmar citizens for a plot to injure or kill Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN) who represents Myanmar’s elected government. The investigative work of the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, which comprises special agents from various entities such as the FBI, NYPD, [...]

The Canadian Liberal government has proposed a new legislative and regulatory framework to address harmful content through social media platforms and online communications. The proposal was released online Thursday as a consultation step and will allow Canadians to provide feedback until the end of September. The bill is set to be introduced in the fall [...]

The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has found secret surveillance to be incompatible with European Union (EU) law. Privacy International (PI) challenged the UK bulk communications regime, specifically section 94 of the Telecommunications Act, which has since been repealed by the Investigatory Powers Act, for being incompatible with EU human rights standards. This judgement renders [...]

The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a decision on Friday, unanimously confirming all charges against Sudanese militia leader, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman. Consequently, Abd-Al-Rahman, who is also known as Ali Kushayb, was committed to trial before a trial chamber. Abd-Al-Rahman is considered a top commander of the Janjaweed militia and [...]

The Cowessess First Nation became the first Canadian Indigenous community on Tuesday to sign an agreement with the Canadian and Saskatchewan governments under Canada’s landmark Bill C-92 passed in 2019. The subsequent legislation empowered Indigenous communities to reclaim jurisdiction based on their own history, culture and laws. The jurisdiction is recognized as federal law and [...]

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Derek Chauvin on Friday to 22.5 years for the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021. Prosecutors successfully argued that a harsher sentence needed to be handed down due [...]

A Swiss court on Friday handed down the first conviction over Liberia’s 1989-1996 civil war, sentencing Alieu Kosiah to 20 years in jail for various crimes, including rape, ordering murders, and cruel treatment of civilians. The federal prosecutor alleged that Kosiah, 46, had committed 25 war crimes. He was found guilty of all but four [...]

A UN rights expert expressed serious concern on Thursday with the 10-year imprisonment of five human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), calling for their immediate release. The imprisoned individuals (Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed Al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed Al-Kindi and Salim Hamdoon Al-Shahhi) are part of the “UAE94,” a group [...]

United Nations human rights experts called on Canadian authorities and the Catholic church on Friday to investigate the mass grave of over 200 children Indigenous children at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Earlier this week, Marta Hurtado, spokesperson of the UN Human Rights Office, called the discovery of the mass grave in [...]