After a trial that lasted more than five years, a court in Greece on Wednesday ruled that the far right-wing Golden Dawn political party is a criminal organization. The party was founded in the 1980s by Nikos Michaloliakos and came to prominence in 2012 when it gained 21 seats in parliamentary elections. The party is [...]
US District Judge Robert Pitman ruled against an order by Texas Governor Greg Abbott limiting each county to only one mail-in ballot-return center. Abbott issued this order on October 1, and argued that reducing the number of locations to return mail-in ballots would also reduce the risk of voter fraud. This order resulted in the [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Yale University in federal court on Thursday, alleging race discrimination against undergraduate applicants in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The provision states: “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday blocked Wisconsin’s mail-in-voting deadline extension ahead of the November election In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin extended the deadline for online and mail-in registration by a week and extended the deadline for receipt of ballots to six days after the presidential election. However, [...]
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro ended the anti-corruption probe “Operation Car Wash” on Wednesday, stating that “there is no more corruption in the government.” Operation Car Wash began six years ago to investigate allegations that executives at Petrobas, a state oil company, accepted bribes from construction firms in exchange for contracts at inflated rates. The Workers’ [...]
Iran released rights activist Narges Mohammadi, a campaigner against the death penalty, from prison on Thursday. She is an independent journalist and the former vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center. The judiciary sentenced Mohammadi to prison in 2016 for, among other charges, finding a campaign group that was deemed to be an “illegal [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) found Tuesday that Hungary’s education law violated EU rules when it forced out an American university founded by George Soros. The 2017 law passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán challenged the dual status of Central European University, which originally granted US diplomas in Hungary. Soros, an American with a [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called Tuesday for Iran to release jailed human rights defenders, lawyers and political prisoners, citing COVID-19 concerns. Iran is the country worst-affected by the pandemic in the region, and conditions in prisons create a breeding ground for the virus. The prisons have a history of being overcrowded and [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday criticized the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as the US for the obstacles it places before asylum seekers. The report, Every Day I Live in Fear: Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in El Salvador, Guatemala, and [...]
The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that Arizona must add an option for listing same-sex parents on birth certificates. This case began with the divorce of the petitioner Kimberly McLaughlin and her ex-wife Suzan Swanson. While they were married McLaughlin gave birth to a child. During divorce proceedings, they argued over whether Swanson was [...]
