A European Union court ruled Thursday that the UK was in breach of the bloc’s air pollution limit by failing to fulfil its obligations under the combined provisions of Article 13(1) and of Annex XI to Directive No 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday stressed the need for an independent and objective assessment of reports of serious human rights violations in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The UN Human Rights Office received reports of the killing of eight protesters by security forces in Adigrat, Mekelle, Shire and Wukro, in [...]
Indigenous activists from regions of the Amazon in Brazil and Colombia, along with environmental groups from France and the US filed suit in a French court on Wednesday against a supermarket chain for selling beef produced by companies that are responsible for mass deforestation and land grabs. The lawsuit claims that French grocery retailer Casino [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday dismissed a contempt of court finding against human rights attorney Steven Donzinger, the latest ruling in a years-long legal battle between Donzinger and international energy company Chevron. The issue originated in 2011, when an Ecuadorian court rendered a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron for [...]
The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a civil writ petition against Dr Farooq Abdullah, a Member of the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) from the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference party and a former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. The petition had made a plea for terminating the [...]
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice found a man guilty of murder on Wednesday for driving a van into a crowd in Toronto, killing 10 and injuring 16 people. The court refused to name the man, calling him John Doe instead, because he committed the act of violence in order to achieve fame. Thus the [...]
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau requested formal negotiations Thursday with the UN General Assembly to hold the Assad regime accountable for its atrocities in the 2011 Syrian civil war. The negotiations would be held on the grounds of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). [...]
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced Wednesday that her office has launched an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes committed in Palestinian territories since June 2014. Bensouda’s announcement follows the December 2019 conclusion of the preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine, following Palestine’s referral of the situation to the ICC, which confirmed [...]
A group of nearly 80 democratic members of congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday urging him to reverse the Trump administration’s policies toward Cuba. The letter set forth the specific restrictions that the Biden administration should reverse, including both donative remittances and remittances sent by Cuban-Americans to their families. The Trump administration [...]
The Cuban government has passed a long-awaited animal welfare law after decades of ignoring citizens’ demands for animal rights legislation. The Animal Welfare Bill requires state agencies and animal welfare organizations to uphold duties concerning animal physical and mental health while prohibiting all forms of animal abuse, which carries fines up to 7,000 pesos. These [...]
