A 23-year-old law student filed a federal lawsuit against the Australian government on Wednesday alleging that it failed to disclose climate change-related risks to investors of government bonds. According to her lawyers, it is “the first legal action that seeks to hold the Australian Government to account over climate change risks.” Kathleen (Katta) O’Donnell, a [...]

A Canadian Federal Court judge ruled Wednesday that the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) is unconstitutional under Canadian law, as certain provisions of the Act violate the “right to life, liberty, and security of the person” guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The STCA governs Canada’s asylum relationship with the United States, and requires that [...]

The US Department of Commerce economically blacklisted 11 more Chinese companies on Monday due to involvement in human rights abuses perpetrated against Uighur Muslims. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross cited China’s “campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data, and genetic analyses targeted at Muslim minority groups from the Xinjiang [...]

Sudan’s ousted president, Omar al-Bashir, went on trial Tuesday in the capital city of Khartoum for spearheading the 1989 coup d’état that brought him to power. After the opening of the trial on Tuesday, proceedings were adjourned until August 11. The charges against al-Bashir include undermining the constitution, violating the Armed Forces Act and stirring up [...]

Romania’s Parliament passed a law Tuesday that will prevent COVID-19 patients from leaving hospitals. From February through June, Romania’s government used cabinet decrees to hospitalize those who were infected and to quarantine or home-isolate those thought to have been exposed to COVID-19. In early July, Romania’s Constitutional Court determined the government could not enforce mandatory [...]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions against Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Monday due to human rights violations dating back more than a decade. Pompeo said the State Department has “extensive credible information that Kadyrov is responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights dating back more than a decade, including torture and [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the indictment of two hackers, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, for attempting to steal COVID-19 research. Both hackers currently work for Guangdong Province International Affairs Research Center in China. The indictment alleges that the two have been stealing terabytes of data over the course of 10 [...]

Physical violence and abuse toward child athletes persist in Japan, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday. Although recent reforms and public perception hint that the abuse was in decline, the report uncovered “an alarming level of ongoing physical abuse in sport.” The report describes a sense of helplessness surrounding the abuse. [...]

Iran’s supreme court on Sunday suspended the execution of three men convicted following the November 2019 anti-government protests. The Revolutionary Court in Tehran had in February 22 convicted the three men of moharebeh (waging war against God), and “destroying and setting fire to public property with the aim of confronting the political system of the [...]

The UK announced Monday the suspension of the country’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong for an indefinite period. This comes in response to the Hong Kong National Security Law recently enacted by China. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that the law is a “clear and serious violation” of the UK-China Joint Declaration and China’s [...]