Amnesty International and Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) shared concerns Tuesday on overcrowded Pakistani prisons amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The report specifically mentioned a prisoner that tested positive for COVID-19 after being arrested in Italy. Italy deported the prisoner to Pakistan, and Pakistan placed the prisoner among 3,500 uninfected inmates in a jail barracks. Authorities eventually [...]
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called Monday for “an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world.” The stark language comes in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has dramatically altered life in nations the world over, including many engaged in ongoing armed conflicts. The UN leader characterized the virus as a problem faced [...]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Tuesday announced announced “a total ban of coming out of your homes” for the nation of 1.3 billion. The ban follows several similar bans adopted by Indian states and arrives as the country confirms more than 500 cases of COVID-19 as well as 10 deaths. The ban will [...]
The Trump administration announced Monday that Migrant Protection Protocol asylum hearings scheduled through April 22 will be postponed due to COVID-19. The joint statement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) calls on those with hearings to present at their port of entry on their [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called on Cambodian authorities to stop arresting people for expressing concerns about COVID-19’s impact in Cambodia and claiming they are spreading “fake news.” Phil Robertson, HRW Deputy Asia Director, said that the Cambodian government is misusing the COVID-19 outbreak to lock up opposition activists and others expressing concern about [...]
The president of Uzbekistan signed legislation on Friday granting citizenship to some stateless persons within its borders. There are over 97,000 stateless persons residing in Uzbekistan, the majority of whom were left stateless by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The new citizenship bill signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev would grant citizenship to [...]
Lawmakers in Chile on Thursday agreed to postpone a nationwide referendum on a new constitution amid concerns about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. President Sebastian Pinera signed a law last December scheduling a national referendum on a new constitution following months of protests. The vote was set for April 26, but the ministry of [...]
India executed on Friday four men convicted of the 2012 rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student. The student, who became known to the media as Nirbhava, or the fearless one, was brutally beaten and raped by the four men on a bus in 2012. She and a male friend were both beaten and [...]
Federal Interior Minister of Germany Horst Seehofer dissolved and banned the “United German Peoples and Tribes” organization, as well as its sub-group “Osnabruck Landmark” on Thursday for its racism and anti-Semitism. Minister Seehofer stated: We are dealing with an association that disseminates racist and anti-Semitic writings and thus systematically poisons our free society. Verbal militancy [...]
A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Tomas Zerón, the former head of investigations for the Attorney General’s Office, and five other former officials on Wednesday for alleged violations in the investigation of the case of 43 college students who disappeared in 2014. In 2014, 43 college students were seized by police in southern [...]
