The UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi on Wednesday reported serious human rights violations documented in the first year of its mandate have remained consistent throughout 2017 and 2018. The violations include cases of “summary execution, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, sexual violence, and violations of [...]
Two UN expert committees on human rights on Wednesday endorsed a joint statement urging states to protect the rights of Venezuelan migrants amid recent mass migration from the South American country. The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, along with the Committee on the Rights [...]
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) and Military Intelligence Directorate of continued arbitrary detention and torture of individuals accused of supporting opposition forces in the country. A cessation of hostilities agreement was signed by the government of South Sudan and opposition forces on December 21, 2017, that required the release [...]
A Myanmar judge sentenced two Reuters journalists on Monday to seven years in jail for breaching a law on state secrets. A judge found that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo breached the Official Secrets Act by obtaining confidential documents. The journalists were arrested on December 12, 2017, while investigating military operations in northern Rakhine [...]
Amnesty International called Tuesday for the release of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, detained since June, and her husband Reza Khandan, who was arrested Tuesday. Reza Khandan was charged by Tehran’s Office of the Prosecutor with spreading propaganda against the system, colluding to commit crimes against national security, and promoting the practice of appearing [...]
The government of the island nation of Mauritius presented its claim Monday to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the British government forced the transfer of the Chagos Islands as a condition of independence in the 1960s. The UK leased the Diego Garcia island within the Chagos Archipelago to the US in 1966, which was [...]
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Chinese government on Thursday to release the Muslim minorities known as Uighurs from involuntary detention. The Committee put forth a report estimating up to one million Uighurs could be held in detention centers. The report found that members of the Uighur ethnic group were allegedly [...]
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday found former Bosnian Serb senior official Jovan Tintor guilty of crimes against civilians and sentenced him to 11 years in prison . Tintor was indicted by the court in 2016 on counts of crimes against humanity under Bosnian law. The indictment alleged that Tintor played a role in [...]
Several Philippines families filed a communication with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, accusing President Rodrigo Duterte of murder during his war on drugs. The communication is the second filed with the ICC, the first of which was filed in April 2017. The ICC began preliminary examination in February. The communication charges Duterte with crimes against humanity in [...]
Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday overturned the government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. A number of groups challenged the approval, including several First Nations and two cities, saying that the First Nations were not adequately consulted and that there was no meaningful dialogue about the project. The Federal Court of Appeal [...]
