Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that the province will hold a referendum on provincial immigration control and constitutional amendments in October 2026. The provincial referendum will ask Albertan voters nine questions. In terms of policy issues, voters will indicate their stances on increased provincial control over immigration to prioritize economic migration; limiting provincial social [...]
UN experts on Wednesday condemned Israel’s continued attempts to take over the Palestinian West Bank, following approval of measures that grant Israelis power to purchase land in the occupied territory with almost no limitations. Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, stated: These measures are [...]
UN experts on Wednesday urged member nations to place a higher emphasis on curbing the “over-criminalization” of women and girls across the globe ahead of 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70). The announcement detailed reports on the dramatic increase in incarceration of women in recent decades. Women’s imprisonment has increased [...]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a special report Thursday containing Palestinian journalists’ first-hand accounts of torture in Israeli prisons. The stories come from 59 testimonies of released journalists. Forty-eight of them were never charged with a crime, but detained under Israeli policies allowing six-month detentions without charge, renewable indefinitely. Others were charged with [...]
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said on Thursday that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)’s mass killings and related atrocities committed during the October 2025 takeover of El Fasher region in Sudan showed “hallmarks of genocide” against ethnic minority communities. The Mission urged an immediate intervention to ensure the protection of civilians [...]
More than 80 rights groups and individuals on Wednesday jointly called on British Columbia (BC) to recommit to implementing Indigenous rights. In the statement, the groups urged the government not to amend the provincial Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and the Interpretation Act, so as to preserve the reconciliation efforts that have [...]
Australia issued a Temporary Exclusion Order (TEO) on Wednesday to prevent an Australian citizen in detention in northeast Syria from returning home because of security concerns. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed that the TEO has been issued under the Counter-Terrorism (Temporary Exclusion Orders) Act 2019 (Cth). Minister Burke stated: “I can confirm that one individual [...]
President Bernardo Arévalo ended the nationwide state of siege in Guatemala on Monday, while maintaining joint military and police operations to combat organized crime and gangs. The move comes days before expiration of a 30-day emergency period imposed in response to deadly prison riots and attacks that left 11 National Civil Police officers dead. In [...]
UN experts on Wednesday expressed their disapproval of the acquisition and use by the National Police of the Irish Republic (Gardaí) of so-called “less-lethal” weapons such as “double-strength pepper spray” and tasers for crowd control purposes. Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, and Special Rapporteur on [...]
The Congress of Peru on Tuesday approved seven motions of censure against the President of Congress and Interim President of the Republic of Peru, José Jerí, over accusations of corruption. During a plenary session, 75 members of Congress voted in favor of removing José Jerí from office, with 24 opposing and three abstentions. The approved impeachment [...]