Voice of America employees filed an emergency motion on Monday to obtain a temporary restraining order to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to implement sweeping cuts at the federally funded broadcaster. The plaintiffs allege in the motion that the layoffs violate the First Amendment by targeting Voice of America’s editorial independence and claim that the [...]
Thirteen EU governments demanded Tuesday that the Union welcome scientists and researchers from abroad, including the United States, who might suffer from momentary research interference. The letter warns that current political developments pose a threat to academic freedom, but also an opportunity for the EU to attract academic quality from abroad. The letter was endorsed [...]
Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized the unlawful expulsion of 238 Venezuelan nationals from the United States to El Salvador, saying the action endangers their lives. The expulsion contravenes a court order, which barred removal of the Venezuelans. In response to the deportation in defiance of the court’s decision, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, [...]
The Osaka High Court held that Japan’s lack of recognition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional on Tuesday. The Osaka High Court is the fifth court to rule that the ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional after similar rulings in the high courts of Sapporo, Tokyo, Fukuoka and Nagoya. While Presiding Judge Kumiko Honda upheld the [...]
The Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA) called on FIFA on Tuesday to take action to recognize the Afghan women’s football team in exile as the representative of Afghanistan to ensure their return to international competition, after being banned in 2021 when the Taliban took power in the country. The SRA noted that denying Afghan women [...]
A group of academic associations filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the administration of US President Donald Trump of pursuing an illegal “ideological-deportation policy” targeting non-citizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestine protests. The move comes amid broad efforts by the Trump administration to reshape US policy related to education, immigration, law enforcement, and [...]
A coalition of educators, school districts, and unions filed a complaint in a Massachusetts federal court on Monday against the Trump administration to prevent the dismantling of the US Department of Education. This suit comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order issued last week, titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday called for an end to unlawful violence against protesters and detention of journalists by police in Türkiye. The country has seen mass protests in the wake of the detention of opposition presidential candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu. According to AI, authorities have confirmed the arrest of 1,133 protesters and at least eight [...]
At the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and several other rights groups called for the release of imprisoned rights defenders in Venezuela, noting the prevalence of enforced disappearances used to silence opposition. Venezuela’s Bolívar Law gives the state wide discretion to impose prison sentences of 25-30 years [...]
In a letter addressed to Nepal Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, rights groups on Sunday urged Nepal to protect the rights of children by accounting for an expansion of the child grant program in the forthcoming budget. The groups represented a coalition of 24 Nepali and international rights organizations that included the Human Rights Watch [...]
