Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Thursday that the escalating violence in Haiti is putting civilians at “grave risk,” urging the international community to protect human rights in the country. HRW said Haiti’s transitional government is unable to contain the spread of violence throughout the country while criminal groups maintain a hold on the capital of [...]
The Petrogradsky District Court of St. Petersburg in Russia has sentenced 19-year-old activist Daria Kozyreva to two years and eight months in prison for “discrediting the armed forces” by publicly posting 19th-century Ukrainian poetry in protest of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to local media sources. Kozyreva began her anti-war activism in 2022, the year [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected a bid by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to strip deportation safeguards from roughly 350,000 Venezuelans who live and work in the US under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), according to the plaintiffs. The three-judge panel in San Francisco denied DHS’s request to [...]
Polish President Andrzej Duda sent a bill to the Constitutional Tribunal Thursday for review, seeking to expand on hate crimes provisions by adding sexual orientation, gender and other categories to the list of protected groups. The tribunal will consider whether the bill violates the constitutional right to free speech. The current Polish Penal Code includes [...]
The Russian Supreme Court officially lifted the designation of the Taliban as a terrorist organization on Thursday, marking a significant shift in Moscow’s diplomatic stance toward Afghanistan’s de facto rulers. The move was confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which stated that the decision aims to facilitate the establishment of a “full-fledged partnership” with [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, expressed concerns on Thursday over the suspension and disciplinary actions taken against three judges of the Supreme Court of Maldives. The UN expert indicated that these suspensions are aimed at preventing the Supreme Court from reviewing a constitutional amendment announced in November [...]
A group of lawyers filed a lawsuit on Thursday before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child against the Costa Rican government for allegedly violating the rights of minors deported from the United States. Lawyers from the Global Strategic Litigation Council, Instituto Internacional de Responsabilidad Social y Derechos Humanos, and the Transnational [...]
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) on Thursday expressed concern over Peru’s decision to enhance the scope and powers of its Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI), which will impact the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The IBAHRI warned that the recent amendments to the APCI “risk the possibility of arbitrary and politically [...]
UN experts on Thursday urged Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to immediately impose a moratorium on inhumane punishments, including capital and corporal punishments, in response to public executions carried out on April 11. The Taliban’s de facto supreme court last week imposed four public executions across the provinces of Badghis, Nimroz and Farah. The experts stated: “Friday’s [...]
A Moscow court on Wednesday ordered former Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov held in custody as authorities investigate “major fraud” allegations ahead of his June 15 trial, according to state news agency TASS. Smirnov and his first deputy, Alexei Dedov, are accused of embezzling 1 billion rubles ($12.17 million) from public funds intended for building [...]
