The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the third-degree murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor who fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk in 2017. On April 20, 2019, Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Ruszczyk, a dual US-Austrialian citizen who had called 911 out of concern [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called Wednesday for a moratorium on artificial intelligence (AI) systems that threaten human rights until enough safeguards are in place. Bachelet said in a press release: “Given the rapid and continuous growth of AI, filling the immense accountability gap in how data is collected, stored, shared and [...]

Minnesota Judge Thomas Gillian denied concerned parents’ request on Tuesday to force all public schools within the state to mandate masks. Parents Advocating for Safe Schools (PASS), an association of Minnesota parents, filed suit against the state of Minnesota and Governor Timothy Walz, asking the court to order Walz to impose a statewide mask requirement [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an emergency motion Tuesday seeking to immediately block Texas’ controversial abortion restriction pending further proceedings. The DOJ filed suit against Texas earlier this month, challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 8 (SB 8). The law bans all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases [...]

LGBTQIA+ youth in South Korea are threatened by the country’s failure to enact non-discrimination provisions, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday. The report, entitled “I Thought of Myself as Defective”: Neglecting the Rights of LGBT Youth in South Korean Schools, interviewed students in the country who identify as LGBTQIA+ [...]

JURIST is launching a new series of dispatches from major US states written by JURIST correspondents “on the ground” in those jurisdictions. JURIST Operations Director Ram Eachambadi files this report from Los Angeles. An almost teary-eyed “humbled and grateful” California Governor Gavin Newsom addressed his supporters and the media at approximately 8:50 PM on Tuesday [...]

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a lawyer in Kabul offers his observations and perspective on what appears to be the country’s looming economic collapse, judging by widespread secondhand sales of household goods and [...]

The UN Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic revealed on Tuesday that Syria is unsafe for refugees to return to following one decade of armed conflict and war. The report found that between July 2020 and June 2021, armed conflict increased. In Aleppo, the report found that “civilians live in [...]

UK law firm PGMBM initiated court proceedings on Monday against the government over the Hotel Quarantine Policy, requiring that returners from “red list countries” quarantine for 11 days in a hotel to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Currently, the stay costs approximately £2,285 per passenger, regardless of whether the person is double vaccinated. PGMBM claims [...]

Taliban leaders have contradicted their promises of women’s rights rights, according to a statement from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday. The High Commissioner expressed concern over the increasing restrictions on women’s movement, stating that women are “progressively excluded from the public sphere.” The mounting reports confirm that the Taliban are [...]