A criminal court in Bangkok on Wednesday acquitted 24 leaders of the 2010 red shirt protests. The court dismissed all charges, including charges of terrorism, criminal association and inciting arrest. The case was brought by state prosecutors and business owners who were affected by the protests which took place in Bangkok’s central shopping area. The [...]

Nepal’s law ministry has prepared a draft bill to “domesticate the Geneva Conventions with the objective of removing the gap in the domestic legal system,” a ministry official was reported to have said on Monday. “The new bill proposes imprisonment till death for serious violations of the provisions of Geneva Conventions that deal with the [...]

A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern Tuesday over the ongoing situation in Hong Kong. The statement urges protesters to ‘express their views in a peaceful way…and to engage in an open dialogue with the authorities to seek to resolve the issues.’ The statement also calls [...]

The Canadian government on Friday announced major reforms to the country’s price regulations on patented drugs. The changes are the “most significant reforms to the regulations” since 1987, according a recent press release by Health Canada. Overall, the new regulations will serve as the first step in the implementation of Canada’s proposed national pharmacare plan. [...]

Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on Thursday urged the preservation of the rule of law following the failed night raid and the later arrest of his political opponent Almazbek Atambayev. Atambayev, the former president, has been accused of corruption and illegal land purchases. As a result, Atambayev was stripped of immunity from prosecution. In Jeenbekov’s statement, [...]

A bill reforming New Zealand’s Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion Act (Act) passed the first reading in Parliament on Thursday. This bill proposes several changes to the Act. According to local news sources, “the biggest changes it proposes would see a current requirement for two doctors to have to approve an abortion on physical or mental [...]

A Special Report on Climate Change was released at the UN Inter-government panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Thursday. This report focuses on greenhouse gases, land use, sustainable land management, desertification, land degradation and food security. The IPCC report details how human activity is degrading the planet, with the “rise in global temperatures, linked to [...]

A spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed concern Tuesday about Italy’s new law imposing fines and penalties for search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. This law was first introduced as a security decree in June and was approved by the Italian parliament on Monday. The law imposes a maximum of €1 [...]

India’s government introduced a bill in the upper house of parliament on Monday to cement the revocation of the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, a conflict-hit region claimed by both India and Pakistan. The move came hours after the country’s president promulgated an order revoking the region’s constitutional autonomy. Federal interior minister Amit [...]

An investigation revealed Sunday that many records relevant to landmark civil cases in Japan since World War II no longer exist, having been disposed of by courts across the country. The almost 140 cases scrutinized focused on issues such as nationality, freedom of expression, separation of state and religion, expropriation of land for national defense, [...]