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 [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Saturday a bill that provides debt relief to recruits who sign up to fight in Ukraine, and their spouses. Federal law No. 391 was previously passed by the State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament, on Tuesday November 19, and comes into force in December.  The [...]

The United Nations said on Friday that Myanmar unprecedently has the highest number of civilian causalities from anti-personnel landmines, with children making up over a third of these numbers. UN experts have called for adherence to international law, warning that the situation is dire for Myanmar’s children. The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor’s 20 November [...]

Thousands of protesters gathered across French cities on Saturday to condemn femicides and sexual violence against women in light of the Pelicot trial and the victory of US president-elect Donald Trump.  The protests also took place in anticipation of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with feminist organization Nous Toutes (All [...]