UN rights experts attached to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Wednesday condemned President Trump’s December 22 pardoning of four former Blackwater contractors, asserting that the pardons violated international law. The Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries, Jelena Aparac, called the pardons an “affront to justice to the [...]

The Parliament of Montenegro Tuesday amended parts of the Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities that related to property and were allegedly anti-Serbian. The option of nationalizing church property has now been removed. Thousands of Montenegro nationals had taken to the streets of the capital Podgorica in protest [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Tuesday blocked a set of regulations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that were set to significantly reduce the limits on detention for minors taken into custody with a family member or guardian (“accompanied minors”). In coming to the decision, the court held to the [...]

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala’s three years of detention without a conviction did not violate his rights to liberty and security. Kavala was accused of organizing and funding the 2013 Gezi Park protests against then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. In February 2020, he and eight other individuals were acquitted. Kavala [...]

A US federal judge in Georgia Monday granted an emergency motion to block Georgia from excluding 4,185 voters from voting in the Georgia Senate runoff election. The voters were excluded based on findings that they were no longer living in Georgia. Judge Leslie Gardner of the US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia [...]

The Russian Ministry of Justice on Monday added veteran rights activist Lev Ponomaryov and four other individuals to its list of media “foreign agents.” This is the first time that individuals have been added to the list of “foreign agents,” as the legislation has previously been used primarily against media outlets. The “foreign agent” law [...]

A judge in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest request for bail on Monday, citing the need for continued detention due to the British socialite’s flight risk, given her opaque finances and dual citizenship. Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020 while awaiting trial on [...]

The United States government on Monday appealed a federal judge’s order that blocked the Commerce Department from imposing restrictions on Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok that would have effectively barred its use in the US. On December 7, United States District Court Judge Carl Nichols of the DC Circuit granted an injunction, enjoining the Secretary [...]

Seven lawsuits were filed Monday in Arizona against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for allegedly covering up sexual abuse in church-sponsored Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troops. The allegations span more than 30 years, ranging from 1972 to 2009. The lawsuits claim that church officials were told about instances of abuse [...]

The Parliament of Victoria in Australia is set to go through the second reading of the Spent Convictions Bill early next year. The new law is aimed at preventing discrimination based on previous convictions to provide youths an opportunity to move past minor offenses. The bill was introduced this year as a means to ensure [...]