The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the exclusion of same-sex couples in the current public housing policies and inheritance laws amounts to unlawful discrimination and is unconstitutional. Regarding the right to apply for public housing as a family unit, the court held that the exclusive spousal eligibility for application for [...]

Sexual violence escalates in Haiti as the transitional government fails to protect victims of attacks, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) published on Monday. The report argued that in recent weeks, criminal groups in Haiti have intensified acts of sexual abuse against women and girls. According to presented data, in the last [...]

The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua voiced grave concerns on Monday over newly enacted constitutional amendments, warning that the changes are an attempt to grant President Daniel Ortega unlimited power and could undermine democratic governance. The newly adopted amendments expand the presidential term from five to six years and elevate the role of the [...]

The recruitment of child soldiers by gangs has risen nearly 70 percent in the past years in Haiti, according to a report released by the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Sunday. Within the Haitian capital, Port-Au-Prince, it is estimated that 1.2 million children are subject to the threat of armed violence, and 25 [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Monday that an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last month, which killed three journalists and injured four others, was likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime. The attack used a bomb equipped with a “United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.” The group called on [...]

The Malaysia High Court ordered the Home Ministry to return 172 Swatch-branded watches valued at over RM64,000 within 14 days to Swatch Group (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad (limited company) on Monday. The Swatch watches — part of the company’s Pride collection associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movement — had been confiscated [...]

Special prosecutor Jack Smith dropped two criminal cases against US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, including his 2020 election interference case and an appeal in his classified documents case, which had been dismissed in July. According to Smith’s court filing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) determined it would be unconstitutional to prosecute Trump because of [...]

Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature has approved a constitutional amendment that would empower law-makers to expand the number of crimes in which juveniles between 14 and 16 years old can tried as adults. The relevant constitutional amendment surrounds Article V, Section 19 (Special Juvenile Procedures) of the Constitution of Louisiana. The section currently outlines 15 violent juvenile [...]

Belarus has granted asylum to a former Polish judge following espionage charges in Poland. In a decree granting citizenship to 257 people from 16 countries Friday, President Alexander Lukashenko stated that Tomasz Szmydt faces political persecution in Poland. Szmydt defected to Belarus in May and announced his resignation from the Warsaw Provincial Court in a [...]

The Australian government opted to abandon proposed laws on Sunday requiring social media companies to regulate misinformation and disinformation that appears on their platforms. The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 was abandoned after several parties announced they would not support the bill, leaving no viable path for it to pass through the [...]