The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) urged New Zealand on Thursday to take stronger action to reduce its rising prison population and better support its independent monitoring mechanism following a trip to the country. Aisha Shujune Muhammad, head of the SPT delegation, cautioned that prison population forecasts in New Zealand over the next [...]

The New York Attorney General and a coalition of 20 Democratic states sued the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday for withholding federally funded services from domestic violence survivors who cannot verify their immigration status. After receiving an initial email on August 18, the plaintiff states alleged that on September 15 they received another email [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday condemned the Mexican Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate requirements for consultation with people with disabilities prior to the enactment of law that may affect them, claiming the ruling risks further marginalizing a vulnerable community. HRW associate disability rights director Carlos Ríos Espinosa stated: “Consultation is not a bureaucratic formality, [...]

French authorities announced Thursday that they will bring to trial the captain of the ship Boracay, a suspected Russian oil transport vessel that has been blacklisted by the EU as a part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet,” which circumvents sanctions placed on Russian oil exports. Officials boarded the Benin-flagged ship on September 27 off the coast [...]

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday stating that the US will consider any attack on Qatar an attack on the United States and will employ any necessary diplomatic, economic, or military efforts to protect the nation. US Executive Order No. 14361 expands the nations’ longtime mutually-beneficial relationship. That relationship formally began [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether President Donald Trump may fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, freezing the termination order until January 2026 oral arguments. Trump fired Cook in late August alleging that she falsified her mortgage statements. In a letter to Cook posted to Truth Social, Trump said: The Federal [...]

A coalition of more than 25 US cities and counties filed suit Monday to challenge new conditions on federal emergency management grants, alleging that the Trump administration has unlawfully threatened $350 million in congressionally approved FEMA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds. Plaintiffs filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of [...]

Amnesty International called Thursday for Germany to provide reparations for genocide committed against Namibia’s Ovaherero and Nama peoples between 1904 and 1908—steps Germany has refused, despite recognizing the atrocities as genocide. The appeal came on the 121st anniversary of Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha’s extermination order against the Ovaherero people, issued Oct. 2, 1904. A [...]

Three-quarters of Europeans believe large companies should be held accountable for human rights and environmental violations across their global supply chains, even as the European Union moves to weaken corporate sustainability laws, according to new polling reported Thursday by Amnesty International. The research, conducted last month by Ipsos, surveyed over 10,000 people across ten European [...]

In an emergency press release on Wednesday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) reported that its Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been intercepted by Israel in international waters, roughly 80 nautical miles off the Gaza coast. The press release said that the activists on board the Global Sumud Flotilla have been detained. The Global Sumud Flotilla and [...]