Israel’s Public Security Minister, Omer Barlev, announced Monday that he will set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the Israeli police’s alleged use of NSO group’s Pegasus spyware for illicit surveillance of citizens. Barlev initially denied that the Israeli police used the spyware for illegal surveillance following allegations by Israeli news portal Calcalist’s investigative [...]

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa Monday released an expert report to the public regarding the July 2021 civil unrest in South Africa. The review was delivered to Ramaphosa on November 29, 2021 by a panel including Professor Sandy Africa as chair, advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi and former national intelligence officer Silumko Sokupa. Civil unrest erupted in [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Tajikistan authorities Monday to restore internet connectivity in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), and urged federal authorities to ensure due process for a political activist from the region whose whereabouts remain unknown weeks after he was detained. The trouble in the GBAO began in late November, when the shooting [...]

International leaders and advocacy groups recognized Sunday the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Responding to a UNICEF report released earlier this week which found COVID-19 slowed progress towards ending FGM, the international community banded together to show continuing support to end FGM across the globe. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General [...]

The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, Sunday proposed the country’s ombudsman lead an independent official investigation into Catholic Church sexual abuse of minors, according to El País. This is the latest step towards justice for Spain minors who suffered abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church’s clergy. Spain’s Catholic Church has been under [...]

The Federal Supreme Court of Iraq suspended former foreign minister and Kurdish politician Hoshyar Zebari’s candidacy for president Sunday during the pendency of a case seeking his disqualification over corruption allegations. On Monday, Iraq’s parliament reportedly lacked the quorum to hold a session and indefinitely postponed the vote for the president. Iraq’s state news agency [...]

Tunisian President Kais Saied dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council Sunday. In a meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior, President Saied called the council “a thing of the past.” The president accused members of the judiciary of corruption and collusion with criminals. He alluded that positions in the judiciary are sold and [...]

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency in Canada’s capital Sunday, more than a week after a trucker-led protest against pandemic-related restrictions virtually shut down the city centre. In a press release in November, the federal government announced certain adjustments to the country’s pandemic-related border measures. Among other things, the government said that [...]

India’s Karnataka state government issued a Directive Saturday validating the decision of certain educational institutions to prohibit female students wearing a hijab from entering its premises. Karnataka Department of Primary and Secondary Education Under Secretary Padmini SN invoked § 133(2) of the Karnataka Education Act to issue the Directive, which allows the state government to “give [...]

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Saturday called on immigration authorities to speed up visa processing so that nearly 2000 migrants seeking asylum in the US and Mexico could access documents to regularize their stay in Mexico or let them travel through Mexico without being detained. Many Latin American refugees seeking asylum in the [...]