UN human rights experts on Friday condemned the disbarment and financial penalties imposed on Hong Kong lawyer Kevin Yam (Yam Kin Fung), calling them acts of reprisal for his public comments on the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary in a May 2023 US Congress hearing. According to the experts, Yam was removed from the Roll [...]
The US on Friday accused Colombian President Gustav Petro of doing too little to reduce crime and drug trafficking. US Ambassador Mike Waltz told a UN Security Council meeting that Petro’s policies toward “narco-terrorist groups” are “irresponsible failures.” “The violence and drug trafficking perpetrated by these arms groups…can spread and jeopardize the safety of Colombians, [...]
Amnesty International on Friday expressed concern over the campaign of repression in Georgia in the run up to its October 4 local elections, citing reprisals against opposition figures, the silencing of independent media and civil society, and the arbitrary detention of protesters. Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia deputy director Denis Krivosheev stated: “The [...]
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday condemned the attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England, calling it “particularly heinous” and stressing that “houses of worship are sacred places where people can go to find peace.” Guterres further voiced deep concern about “the alarming rise of antisemitism worldwide” and underscored the “urgent need to confront hatred [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Wolford v. Lopez, a constitutional challenge to Hawaii’s 2023 law restricting where individuals with concealed carry permits may bring firearms. The case, which the justices added to their docket following their annual “long conference,” could have sweeping implications for gun rights and state-level firearm regulations nationwide. [...]
US President Donald Trump’s administration sent a 10-page proposed agreement on Wednesday, called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” to nine major US universities. The initiative marks an unprecedented effort by the administration to exercise federal power to reshape higher education in line with the president’s agenda. The document urges universities to align with the [...]
United Nations human rights experts called on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government on Friday to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 120 individuals who appear to have been forcibly disappeared after the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2018. The experts also urged the state to cease using arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance [...]
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, [...]
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