The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called Friday on Indian authorities and protesters alike to “exercise maximum restraint” amid the ongoing farmers’ protests. #India: We call on the authorities and protesters to exercise maximum restraint in ongoing #FarmersProtests. The rights to peaceful assembly & expression should be protected both offline [...]
Scotland’s Court of Session dismissed a case Friday suggesting that Scotland could hold another independence referendum without the approval of the UK. The case, brought by Martin Keatings, a staunch advocate for Scottish independence, was a long-shot effort to overturn the 2014 referendum, when Scots voted to stay in the UK by a 55-percent majority. [...]
Hong Kong’s Education Bureau released guidelines Thursday for a new “national security education” curriculum that would see children as young as six being taught about the offenses of secession, collusion, terrorism and subversion under Hong Kong’s national security law (NSL). The guidelines come as the latest development in the government’s implementation of the NSL that [...]
German prosecutors issued Friday an indictment against a 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary, alleging 10,000 counts of aiding, abetting, and being complicit in attempted murders as part of the Nazi apparatus of terror. According to the prosecutors, she “assisted those responsible at the camp in the systematic killing of Jewish prisoners, Polish partisans and Soviet [...]
US President Joe Biden issued a memorandum Thursday directing US federal agencies that are engaged abroad to “promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons.” The memorandum states that it is building on a similar memorandum issued by President Obama in 2011, when Biden was serving as his vice-president. The Biden memorandum directs agencies [...]
Saudi authorities Thursday temporarily released Saudi Americans Salah al-Haider and Bader al-Ibrahim after 673 days of detention on terrorism-related charges pending trial in Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC). Salah al-Haider is the son of Aziza al-Yousef, a leading women’s rights activist who was arrested earlier for campaigning for the women’s right to drive and criticizing [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled Friday that it has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine. The ICC was established in 2002 and prosecutes genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed around the world. In 2018, Palestine referred possible crimes to the ICC Prosecutor for investigation. In 2020, the Prosecutor sought a ruling of [...]
Three local and foreign human rights organizations reported Tuesday that attacks on rights defenders and civil society organizations in Venezuela have increased by 157% since 2019. The Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Caracas, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and COFAVIC, a human rights non-governmental organization (NGO), published the report. [...]
Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communication (MoTC) on Wednesday directed telecom companies to temporarily block access to popular social media service Facebook in the country in order to ensure “stability” and prevent misunderstanding amongst the citizens from the “spreading fake news and misinformation” after the junta’s coup d’état earlier this week. Along with Facebook, access [...]
The Belgrade higher court on Tuesday found Bosnian Serb Milorad Jovanovic guilty of torturing prisoners while working as a police officer during the Bosnian War. He was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison. The charges stem from an incident in 1992 where Javinovic and his superior officers forcibly removed non-Serb civilians from their [...]
