The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Hungary’s restrictive asylum laws passed during the COVID-19 pandemic violated European Union (EU) law. The law requires that foreign nationals seeking international protection in Hungary first submit declarations of intent at the Hungarian embassies in Belgrade, Serbia or Kyiv, Ukraine. The Court found that the condition [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo of war crimes including murder and rape in a report released Tuesday. HRW based the accusations on reports of abuse it documented from November 2022 to March 2023, citing 8 unlawful killings and 14 cases of rape by M23 [...]

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced Thursday that it will jointly investigate OpenAI, the company behind the artificial intelligence chatbot “ChatGPT,” with provincial privacy authorities in British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. At the International Association of Privacy Professionals Canada Privacy Symposium 2023, federal Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne said “ will be [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Tuesday condemned audio recordings that emerged over the weekend, which appear to show figures connected to both sides of the war in Ukraine ordering combatants not to take prisoners of war or else to execute those captured. As originally reported by the Kiev Independent, Wagner [...]

Human Rights Watch Thursday released a report documenting the unlawful detention and torture of Kherson residents by Russian forces, which took place during their occupation of the Ukrainian city between March and November 2022. The report details numerous war crimes committed by Russian forces, including the willful mistreatment, torture, and killing of civilians and captured [...]

The Mexican Supreme Court Friday suspended President Andrés Obrador’s proposed legislative reform package regarding the nation’s electoral system, following a challenge from the National Electoral Institute (INE) who argued that the reforms were unconstitutional. Minister Speaker Javier Potisek also allowed a freeze on the legislation, keeping the current provisions in force. The court noted they [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Thursday delivered its judgement, wherein it held that the freedom of expression of an eyewitness to a road accident is protected by Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention). The ECHR unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 10 [...]

Singapore’s highest court Tuesday suspended human rights lawyer M. Ravi for five years over comments criticizing the city-state’s attorney general, the maximum sentence possible. A prominent human rights lawyer who is known internationally for representing death-row inmates in Singapore, Ravi has spent the better part of his 20-year career advocating for human rights and access [...]

Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong Monday announced that Australia is imposing sanctions against Iran over the country’s human rights violations amid ongoing protests against the death of Mahsa Amini. The sanctions will also target Iran’s supply of drones to Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine. Wong said that Australia was applying “targeted financial [...]

Three former staff members of a mental hospital in Virginia were arrested and charged Thursday with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a man who was brought to the institution from jail earlier this month. According to Dinwiddie County Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill, Irvo Otieno, 28, passed away on March 6 while [...]