The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that part of the UK’s trade union laws are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Section 146 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) was held to breach Article 11 of the ECHR, which guarantees the right to freedom of assembly and [...]

The UK House of Commons voted Tuesday to advance the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill” that would make it illegal for anyone born in 2009 or later to buy tobacco and add restrictions to vaping. Legislators voted in favour of the bill in a 383 to 67 vote. Rather than banning smoking outright, the restrictions apply to [...]

Belgian police intervened at the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) on Tuesday, following an order prohibiting the event. The order, issued by the mayor of the Brussels municipality of Saint-Joose-ten-Noode Emir Kir, was aimed at preventing public disorder. The conference, set for April 16 and 17, faced disruption on its first day due to the police [...]

Azerbaijan asked the judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday to throw out the “racial discrimination” case started by Armenia in September 2021, where the latter accused Azerbaijan of discrimination and ethnic cleansing of Armenian people in violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). [...]

Canada announced on Monday that it would impose additional sanctions on 21 Belarus officials under the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations. These sanctions come in response to the ongoing human rights violations occurring in Belarus since the 2020 presidential election. According to Global Affairs Canada’s statement, the sanctions serve as a response to the systematic [...]

Australia Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found that former government adviser Bruce Lehrmann raped a colleague in a Parliament House office on Monday. The judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit Lehrmann brought against the Australian media company Network Ten after it aired an interview with his accuser, Brittany Higgin. Lee found that, under the civil standard [...]

The Commission on Reproductive Self-Determination and Reproductive Medicine in Germany on Monday submitted a final report recommending the legalization of abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in the country. The German government appointed the Commission in March last year to answer the government’s questions regarding abortion and reproductive medicine. An interdisciplinary body, the [...]

The Polish government on Friday labeled the death of Polish aid worker Damian Soból as murder, following the deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) serving in Gaza resulting from airstrikes conducted by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Poland has requested Israel’s complete cooperation with their investigation into the incident. [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Friday for a comprehensive and transparent inquiry into recent events where Ukrainian military officials allegedly tried to serve an investigative summons to Yevhen Shulhat, a journalist working for the Ukrainian investigative outlet Slidstvo.Info. According to reports from Slidstvo.Info, this incident was orchestrated by Ukraine’s Internal Security Service [...]

Amnesty International asserted Friday that African and global human rights bodies must urgently investigate alleged war crimes committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) in the town of Merawi, Amhara region, on January 29, 2024. This incident, purportedly involving the killings of civilians through murder and extrajudicial executions, stands as one of the deadliest [...]