A New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry released a report Wednesday detailing abuse in state and faith-based care institutions from the 1960s to the 2000s. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the royal commission in 2018 after Australia concluded a similar six-year inquiry. The five-person commission, made up of lawyers, judges, and minority advocates, set out to uncover [...]

Paris’ city hall has been ordered to pay a fine of €90,000 for putting too many women in management positions. The order was issued Tuesday by  France’s civil service ministry, which determined in its annual report on professional equality that the Paris city hall broke the national rules on gender parity when it appointed 11 women [...]

The Indian Supreme Court Thursday offered to set up a committee to mediate the impasse between the central government and farmers protesting against the new agricultural reform laws that were passed earlier this year in September. The court made the suggestion while hearing a batch of public interest litigation petitions (PILs) from citizens seeking an [...]

The Danish parliament passed legislation Thursday that will strengthen the nation’s rape laws by criminalizing all sexual acts without consent. Denmark will become the twelfth European country to legally adopt this definition of rape when the law takes effect on 1 January, joining Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, and others. Under the old Danish law, sex [...]

Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, has expressed dismay at China’s treatment of human rights defenders and lawyers, claiming they continue to be charged, detained and tortured under the guise of national security concerns. “Since the so-called ‘709 crackdown’ began on July 9, 2015, the profession of human [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Hungary failed to fulfill its obligations under EU law after adopting legislation that restricts international protection offered to asylum seekers. The ruling comes after Hungary adopted legislation in 2015 that created transit zones at the Serbian-Hungarian border to apply asylum procedures and created the concept of [...]

The US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment Wednsesday charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a Kenyan member of the al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al Shabaab, with six counts of terrorism-related crimes for allegedly plotting an attack similar to those carried out by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Al Shabaab, a wing of al Qaeda in East Africa, joined [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that warrants issued by Polish judges must be enforced by other member nations despite concerns of systemic and generalized issues of judicial independence. This ruling comes from two European arrest warrants issued against Polish nationals who were abroad in the Netherlands. The district court of the Netherlands [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court, on Thursday upheld Belgium’s ban on slaughtering animals without stunning them first, rejecting legal challenges from Muslim and Jewish groups. This ban expands the restrictions that EU Council Regulation no. 1099/2009 placed on meat processing facilities to require the use of reversible, non-lethal stunning or [...]

Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a bill Tuesday tightening the rules governing the activities of foreign law enforcement agents. Some measures in the bill are identical to those in bilateral agreements, while others are new. Measures include limiting the immunity granted to foreign agents and requiring agents to share all the information they collect with [...]