Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday that United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities continue to hold five prisoners after they completed their sentences up to three years ago, without a clear legal basis. The five men are Osama al-Najjar, online activist; Khalifa al-Rabea and Othman al-Shehhi, online activists and members of al-Islah (a nonviolent Islamist [...]

The UK Parliament on Tuesday voted in favor of two amendments that will compel the British government to legalize same-sex marriage and liberalize abortion in Northern Ireland (NI), if NI cannot reestablish its devolved government before October 21, 2019. NI is the only province in the country that does not allow same-sex marriage and forbids [...]

The Supreme Court of India on Monday rejected a plea for Muslim women to be allowed entry into mosques in the country. A regional head of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, a far-right political organization, had filed the public interest litigation petition. The petitioner had also sought the abolition of the “purdah system,” or the [...]

An appeals court in Rome sentenced 24 people to life in prison on Monday, including senior officials in Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina’s military dictatorships. The officials were found to have been involved in the US-backed Operation Condor, which took place in the 1970s and 80s. Operation Condor involved tracking down and removing [...]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced the formation of the Commission on Unalienable Rights based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Pompeo said the Commission, which is to be composed of human rights experts, activists, philosophers and members of both political parties, will guide him regarding the role of [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday convicted Bosco Ntaganda, a notorious Congolese rebel commander known as “The Terminator,” of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. These crimes were committed in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), from 2002-2003. Ntaganda was found guilty of “murder and attempted murder, rape, sexual slavery, [...]

UN Special Representative on disaster risk reduction Mami Mizutori spoke with The Guardian Sunday to warn that climate disasters are now occurring at a rate of one per week. Mizutori claims that while large scale cyclones and droughts may get the headlines, lower impact events may actually be leading to more death and displacement. Mizutori [...]

The spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the Secretary-General is encouraged by the agreement between the Forces of Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council in Sudan. The agreement was brokered by the African Union and Ethiopia to bring peace and stability to the country. Sudan has been in upheaval since [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released an updated report Monday on the human rights situation in the Kashmir territory whose sovereignty is disputed by India and Pakistan, finding that insufficient progress has been made to correct abuses. The report examines the situation from May 2018 to April 2019 to determine [...]

In a report released Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged Venezuela to take immediate steps to address “grave violations of economic, social, civil, political and cultural rights” in the country. The report warns that if the situation does not improve, an unprecedented outflow of Venezuelan migrants and refugees will continue [...]