The UN Human Rights Committee ruled Thursday that the proceedings against former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon in the Franco and Gurtel cases were arbitrary. It also observed that the two trials violated the principles of impartiality and judicial independence. In 2010, Spain’s General Council of the Judiciary suspended investigating judge Baltasar Garzon in furtherance of [...]

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported on Thursday that gunmen have killed 150 civilians in an armed attack. The attack in the Gida Kiremu district of western Ethiopia is suspected to have been committed by Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) a division of the banned Oromo Liberation Front according to the Commission. The state-appointed, but independent [...]

Amnesty International on Thursday published a report detailing the Bangladesh government’s crackdown on freedom of expression online by use of the country’s controversial Digital Security Act (DSA). The DSA was introduced in October 2018 and contains some wide-ranging provisions that enable the authorities to trample on the guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. Under [...]

The United Nations Security Council, on Friday, issued a strong condemnation of the deadly August 26 terrorist bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, calling the attack “especially abhorrent.” Current Council President T.S. Tirumurti issued the statement from the Council following the attack, which left more than 170 dead, including civilians seeking evacuation [...]

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 [...]

The US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced sanctions on three individuals and five entities associated with corruption in the South American country of Paraguay. The sanctions were made under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which empowers Treasury to sanction individuals and entities accused of human rights abuses, including corruption. [...]

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a law student in Kabul offers his latest observations and perspective. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding his name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly [...]

The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (“the Ministry”) on Friday released “liberalised” Drone Rules, which will regulate the ownership and usage of private and commercial drones in the country. The new rules will replace the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, released in March. The academia, startups, end-users and other stakeholders viewed the previous rules as restrictive [...]

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a law student in currently Kabul offers his latest observations and perspective less than two hours after a major bombing at the Kabul airport Thursday that killed dozens and wounded [...]

The legislation and judiciary committee (“the committee”) of South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday approved a bill banning app store operators such as Apple and Google from charging software developers commissions on in-app purchases. The bill is an amendment of the Telecommunications Business Act and seeks to prevent app-store operators from unfairly using their market [...]