President Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday announcing a series of sanctions and US policy changes in retaliation for China’s recent restrictions on Hong Kong autonomy. “The situation with respect to Hong Kong, including recent actions taken by the PRC to fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat,” reads the [...]

The highest court of Bahrain has reaffirmed a lower court decision to execute two protesters despite evidence that suggests that their confessions were unlawfully extracted. Hussain Moosa and Mohammed Ramadan, members of Bahrain’s Shiite majority, were sentenced to death in 2014 for planting a bomb that killed one police officer and injured several others during [...]

US District Judge Steven Jones on Monday struck down Georgia’s latest anti-abortion law as unconstitutional. The Georgia General Assembly approved House Bill 481, also known as the Living Infant Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, in March 2019. HB 481 changed several aspects of already existing Georgia abortion law, including the definitions of “natural person” and [...]

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed an abortion ban on Monday that was quickly blocked by a temporary restraining order issued from the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The plaintiffs in Memphis Center for Reproductive Health et al. v. Herbert Slatery et. al., filed a motion requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction [...]

Trial Chamber X  of the International Criminal Court began the trial Tuesday of Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud for crimes allegedly committed in Mali between 2012 and 2013 when he was a member of the militant Islamist group Ansar Dine. Al Hassan is accused of religious and gender-based persecution, committing war crimes, demolishing [...]

A district court in Tel Aviv has dismissed Amnesty International’s petition to stop Israeli surveillance company NSO Group from exporting spyware, finding that Amnesty was not able to show that various governments had used NSO spyware technology — namely Pegasus — to violate human rights. Amnesty had petitioned for the revocation of NSO Group’s export [...]

In a report released on Tuesday, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard claimed the US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani and nine others violated international law. Callamard called the killing of Soleimani by a US drone strike an “arbitrary killing” that violates the UN Charter. Additionally, Callamard addressed the [...]

Amnesty International reported Tuesday that the COVID-19 contact tracing apps in Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway violate privacy laws. The contact tracing apps intended to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus have placed thousands of people at risk, according to research by the Amnesty security lab. The app in Kuwait and Bahrain requires a National [...]

According to a draft resolution revealed Tuesday, African countries are urging the UN Human Rights Council to investigate systemic racism and police violence in the US. Diplomats received the resolution ahead of a debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that will be held on Wednesday regarding this topic. The debate is a [...]

A Manila court convicted Philippines journalist, Maria Ressa, Monday on charges of cyber libel following her publication of an eight–year–old story tying businessman Wilfredo Keng to illicit drug and human trafficking activity. The court sentenced Ressa to a “minimum of six months and one day,” and a “maximum of six years” in prison, imposing fines [...]