The Brazil Senate’s Committee on Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (CRA) approved a bill on Wednesday that would establish a continuous residency requirement for the recognition of lands belonging to indigenous communities. The bill, PL 2.903/2023, passed through the committee by a vote of 13–3. The bill would classify land as “traditionally occupied land of indigenous [...]

Amnesty International on Thursday called for the application of universal jurisdiction against members of the Taliban accused of crimes under international law. Universal jurisdiction in this case would give any country the ability to prosecute Taliban members for violations of international law. Amnesty International said on the platform X (Twitter), “The new UNAMA report demonstrates an [...]

Two top lawyers for the UK government, Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk and Attorney General Victoria Prentis, ordered Thursday an independent inquiry into the handling of a case in which a man was wrongfully imprisoned for over 17 years. The announcement comes less than a month after the Court of Appeals quashed the 2004 conviction of [...]

Canada’s federal police service confirmed Wednesday that it has begun an assessment of whether to launch an investigation into the ongoing Ontario Greenbelt scandal after the matter was referred to the federal agency by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) confirmation comes in close proximity to a scathing report released [...]

The government of Ethiopia announced on Tuesday a joint investigation with the government of Saudi Arabia into the alleged mass killings of Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi-Yemeni border. In a statement posted on the Ethiopian foreign ministry’s official X (Twitter) account, the government expressed its commitment to investigate the reported incidents in collaboration with Saudi [...]

A Moscow court extended on Thursday the pre-trial detention of detained Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich in a closed hearing, according to reports from Russian state media source TASS. Gershkovich’s detention was previously extended until August, and will now continue until his trial on November 30.  Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich in March 2023 [...]

A Tennessee judge temporarily blocked a rule on Wednesday that banned the public from holding signs during legislative proceedings in the state’s House of Representatives. This was done as part of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of three mothers who were removed from the house gallery for holding signs protesting gun violence. [...]

UK Minister for Africa Andrew Mitchell announced Tuesday that the UK would send evidence to the UN of alleged war crimes in Darfur, Sudan. In a joint statement with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, Mitchell said that the UK was “extremely concerned by the growing body of evidence of serious atrocities against civilians [...]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that the state police (PSP) must disclose its social media monitoring policy to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania under the state’s right-to-know law (RTKL). The case is an appeal from the Commonwealth Court of Pennslyvania. Justice David N. Wecht authored the opinion of the court. [...]

A UN official expressed concern Wednesday over the recent wave of violence against justice officials in Ecuador. Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said that four criminal prosecutors were assassinated between 2022 and 2023. In June, prosecutor Leonardo Palacios died in these attacks. Palacios was shot while leaving [...]