The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Thursday that 2.1 million Palestinian civilians are in need of shelter, essential household items, and protection from airstrikes and gunfire. OCHA reported that Palestinian civilians are being “killed, injured or otherwise affected by air strikes, shelling and gunfire.” On Wednesday, a 13-year-old girl [...]

Amnesty International on Friday issued a call for authorities and forces affiliated with Hamas in the occupied Gaza Strip to put an end to extrajudicial executions of suspected collaborators with Israel. In recent months, security officials in Hamas’ military wing—the Al-Qassam Brigades—publicly announced the summary execution of one man for collaborating with Israel and their [...]

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association on Thursday sued the governments of Canada and Manitoba for the province’s “extremely underfunded” criminal legal aid, arguing that the underfunding violates the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence, and is discriminatory against Indigenous people in effect. The lawsuit argued that the financial eligibility criteria for [...]

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Wednesday warned that the recent rise in the use of drones poses a risk for aid operations in multiple conflicts around the world. He emphasized that international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on humanitarian workers and civilians, continues to apply to drone warfare regardless of how sophisticated or autonomous [...]

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance on Friday found Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and the pair’s now-disbanded  Hong Kong Alliance, guilty of a “subversion” offense under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law (NSL). They each face up to 10 years in prison. Three NSL-designated judges unanimously ruled that the defendants’ advocacy for “the end of [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Argentina of putting in place a “techno-authoritarian” surveillance infrastructure without adequate legal safeguards, as the government’s newly created AI security unit expands state monitoring powers over citizens’ online communications and physical movements.  In a new report, the rights group stated that Argentina‘s Ministry of Security spent at least USD$1.2 million [...]

The State of Minnesota on Tuesday sued to compel Texas Governor Greg Abbott to extradite Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, who faces state charges stemming from an ICE shooting in Minneapolis last January. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Governor Tim Walz sued in the US District Court for the Southern District [...]

A bellwether federal trial began on Tuesday testing whether Meta can be held liable for designing its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, to addict youth users. The case, In re: Social Media Adolscent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Litigation, is a consolidated multi-district litigation (MDL) under 28 USC 1407. The lawsuit combines claims brought by a coalition of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from conducting immigration enforcement actions at or near Quaker, Sikh and Baptist houses of worship that sued the Trump administration over the policy permitting them. The Fourth Circuit’s opinion recounts sworn declarations describing how congregations have changed [...]

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (UN Commission) reported Thursday that a rise in violence and atrocity crimes is disrupting South Sudan’s conflict resolution trajectory as the country is set to hold its first elections since independence in 2011. Under the authority of President Salva Kiir and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement [...]