Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Monday ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (“Istanbul Convention“). In a 259-8 Vote, the Parliament ratified the Convention after previously signing it on 7 November, 2011. The Director of Amnesty International Ukraine, Oksana Pokalchuk, welcomed the historic moment and said the “decision could [...]
The US State Department Sunday shared its “deep concern” over the two-year prison sentence of Vietnamese activist Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh. Nguyễn, the founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre and Vietnam’s first recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, was detained and arrested on two occasions in 2021 for violating Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code [...]
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Sunday adopted two laws restricting the flow of Russian media into the country. The first law (N 7459) prohibits the importation of books from Russia, Belarus, and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, and the second bill (N7273-d) bans Russian music from being played in public. The first law intends to protect Ukrainian culture and [...]
The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court’s First Judicial Department Friday declared the New York State Assembly’s redistricting map adopted in February as unconstitutional and void. Gary Greenberg, a Democratic activist, last month brought the lawsuit against Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative officials, alleging that the state assembly map was gerrymandered “to protect Democratic incumbents.” The court ruled that the map was [...]
Tunisian President Kais Saied has caused serious harm to judicial independence in the country by granting himself the absolute authority to dismiss judges summarily by decree and quickly firing 57 of them, said 10 human rights organizations in a joint press release on Friday. The organizations called Decree 2022-35 an assault on the rule of [...]
Malaysian Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar Friday announced the state’s abolition of the mandatory death penalty and replacement with “substitute punishments” at the courts’ discretion. The Attorney General’s Chambers, Legal Affairs Division, Prime Minister’s Department and Ministries in collaboration will conduct research and study on the proposed substitute punishment to make certain that the [...]
The Hague’s Court of Appeal Wednesday upheld the conviction and life sentence of a former Ethiopian official who was convicted of 75 extrajudicial executions committed under Ethiopia’s Derg regime. The Court of Appeal’s specialized international section convicted Eshetu Alemu for his participation in the regime of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and for taking part [...]
Iranian authorities’ mass execution of political prisoners in 1988 amounts to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Wednesday. In 1988, thousands of political prisoners were “summarily and extrajudicially executed” by Iranian authorities. The approximate number of executions is between 2,800 and 5,000. The report highlighted that evidence shows that Iranian authorities [...]
Freedom House released its complete report on transnational repression Thursday where it accused Rwanda of being one of the worst offenders. Transnational repression is a phenomena where a country will suppress dissent and target dissidents outside of its borders. The report documented the anti-repression policies of nine countries: Canada, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, [...]
Ohio’s House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill that prohibits transgender girls and women from participating on women’s high school and college athletic teams. The Save Women’s Sports Act, HB 151, passed 56 to 28 with Democrats voting in opposition, wasn’t intended to be scheduled for legislators originally. The original text was to amend the [...]
