Over 35 human rights organizations on Friday issued an open letter, addressed to the leaders of Australia’s three major political parties, urging them to foster a “civil and respectful discourse” on the topic of refugees and asylum-seekers ahead of the upcoming federal elections in May. In the letter, local NGOs such as the Asylum Seekers [...]
A group of human rights organizations on Friday urged Bangladesh’s interim government to take decisive action to safeguard the freedoms of expression and opinion amid increasing attacks on journalists, authors and human rights defenders. The rights groups, which included Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), called on Chief Advisor [...]
Columbia University on Friday agreed to several demands from the Trump administration, including changes to supervision of its Middle East studies program, and amendments to rules for student protests and discipline. The statement released on the university’s website announced that the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies department and the Center for Palestine Studies [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday urged Hungary to repeal the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation passed on Tuesday. OHCHR describes the legislation as a severe violation of basic rights for LGBTQ+ individuals. According to OHCHR, the legislation undermines the rights to freedom of expression and non-discrimination. It specifically targets educational [...]
The Trump administration issued a new memorandum on Saturday directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms that file what he characterized as “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious” lawsuits against the federal government. The memo marks the latest move by the administration to scrutinize legal practitioners who challenge White House policies [...]
The US District Court for the District of Idaho on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of Idaho’s near-total ban against Idaho ER doctors from performing emergency abortions. St. Luke’s Health System sued Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador on January 14, in anticipation of the Trump administration dropping the Biden administration’s case [...]
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Saturday called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately lift the ongoing ban on girls’ secondary education, warning that the restriction threatens the future of millions of Afghan girls who have been deprived of their right to learn since the Taliban regained power in August 2021. In a statement [...]
President Donald Trump rescinded Friday an executive order aimed at crippling law firm Paul Weiss’s ability to function, after the firm’s leaders agreed to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, submit to an audit of employment practices, and provide free legal services for Trump causes. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss) [...]
A group of former journalists and other employees of the federal government-funded media company Voice of America (VOA) filed a complaint in a New York federal court Friday seeking to force the federal government to restore the terminated employees and contractors to the positions they held before March 14 — the date President Donald Trump signed [...]
A coalition of rights groups and families of victims from the deadly 2020 Beirut explosion released an open letter on Friday urging Lebanon’s new government to strengthen judicial independence and ensure an impartial investigation into the blast. The letter directly charged that state officials have impeded the investigation into the blast and other various financial [...]
