Amnesty International on Wednesday named 87 Iranian security and interior ministry officials who it says should face criminal investigation for crimes against humanity committed during the 2022 crackdown on the Woman Life Freedom protests, and urged the UN Security Council to refer Iran’s situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) The 1,161-page report, titled “Architects of Atrocities,” [...]

Amnesty International warned Wednesday that plans by five European Union member-state governments for migrant “return hubs” in Rwanda and Uganda risk creating “cruel black holes for human rights.” The statement came two days before the governments are to meet to review progress on the plans. Cmmenting on the human rights risks that these migrant “return hubs” [...]

A UN independent expert on Monday called for Tajikistan to enact freedom of information and whistleblower legislation, saying such laws are needed to protect public access to budget and debt information and participation in budget-making. She delivered preliminary observations in Dushanbe at the close of a 12-day official visit. Attiya Waris, the UN Independent Expert [...]

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday sanctioned three organizations and two individuals, accusing UK-based Palestine Action, the Italy-based Autistici Inventati, and the Masar Badil network of ties to “violent far-left extremism.” The designations were made under Executive Order 13224, the post-9/11 authority allowing the US to block the property of [...]

A divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver can face prosecution on two of three charges over a scrum with federal agents at Delaney Hall, rejecting her argument that the Speech or Debate Clause and separation-of-powers principles immunize her conduct during a legislative oversight [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday stayed a district court injunction that had blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order overhauling mail-in voting, ruling in a per curiam opinion that the states that brought the challenge had not shown an injury concrete and imminent enough to make their claims justiciable before the November midterm election. In Trump v. [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from conducting immigration enforcement actions at or near Quaker, Sikh and Baptist houses of worship that sued the Trump administration over the policy permitting them. The Fourth Circuit’s opinion recounts sworn declarations describing how congregations have changed [...]

A Russian court sentenced politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a penal colony on charges of “discrediting” the Russian military and spreading “false information,” Amnesty International said on Monday. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, called the charges “blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of [...]

Amnesty International on Monday urged candidates in Zambia’s upcoming general elections to show a clear and genuine commitment to reversing the nation’s troubling authoritarian slide, warning that persistent state crackdowns on free speech and peaceful assembly now pose a serious threat to fundamental rights in the tense run-up to polling day, on election day itself, [...]

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday condemned Israeli forces in the West Bank for blocking and delaying ambulances carrying Palestinians to hospitals with “appalling regularity”, including forcing a pregnant woman in active labor to deliver on the road in an incident that cost the infant’s life. Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights [...]