Amnesty International (AI) reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is arbitrarily detaining and torturing human rights activists. According to the report, Saudi authorities have been arbitrarily detaining activists, including women, in the Dhahban Prison since May. The activists are reportedly subjected to torture, including electroshock and flogging, “leaving some unable to walk or stand properly.” AI said several activists [...]
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) approved a settlement Tuesday between the government of Honduras and the family members of Escaleras Mejia, a famed Honduran environmentalist. Two men murdered Escaleras Mejia on October 18, 1997, in a politically motivated assassination to prevent him from being elected mayor of the Tocoa Municipality in the elections [...]
UN Human rights experts on Wednesday said Italy’s proposed tightening of immigration rules will have a serious impact on migrants’ lives and urged the government to reverse course. According to the experts, the proposed Decree-Law on Immigration and Security, which is likely to be passed later this month, lowers protection standards, infringes constitutional and human [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday urged Turkey to end the pre-trial detention of Selahattin Demirtaş, a co-chair of the Kurdish separatist Peoples’ Democratic Party. The Turkish government lifted parliamentary immunity in May 2016, ending special protections for politicians. Demirtaş was arrested on November 4, 2016, and has been in pre-trial detention [...]
The Singapore Parliament passed a bill on Monday amending the Legal Aid and Advice Act to simplify financial determinations for providing legal aid and make it easier for individuals to receive aid. Originally, individuals applying for legal aid had to pass a means threshold based on their disposable income and disposable capital, including an evaluation of [...]
The US Federal Reserve fined French bank Societe Generale USD $81.3 million on Monday after the bank violated US sanctions against Cuba. According to the Federal Reserve: The Bank lacked adequate transparency, risk management, and legal and compliance review policies and procedures to ensure that activities conducted at offices outside of the United States, primarily though the [...]
Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Sunday confirming that the former president Alan García requested political asylum in the Uruguayan embassy just hours after a judge prohibited him from leaving the country. Garcia allegedly accepted bribes from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company, in exchange for government contracts to build the Metro Line [...]
The Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled Monday that a law that criminalized failure to give notice to a municipality of a gathering of more than 15 people is unconstitutional. The court found that the law violated the guarantee of Section 17 of the Constitution that “veryone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Sunday that Egyptian police and National Security Agency (NSA) have arrested more than 40 human rights activists, lawyers and political activists since late October. As many as 80 people may have been arrested, but so far only 40 names were able to be verified by HRW. No arrest warrants [...]
The Venezuelan justice department in-exile sent a “red notice” to INTERPOL requesting the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and a sentence of at least 18 years, three months in prison. The notice came with annexes including a physical description of Maduro and a statement of charges. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice in Venezuela in exile [...]
