Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Thursday that his office had contacted the attorney of former US President Donald Trump to coordinate his surrender following the first grand jury indictment of an ex-president in the country’s history. “This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Wednesday heard oral arguments in two cases in which the applicants are accusing their respective governments, France and Switzerland, of failing to take steps to prevent climate change. Both applicants argue that this failure entails a breach of their right to life and right to respect for family [...]

William Hibbitts is JURIST’s Deputy Editorial Director. He files this report from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Yesterday, March 30, the Mass Casualty Commission investigating the 2020 Nova Scotia spree shooting released its final report, marking the culmination of a prolonged investigation into Canada’s worst mass shooting and the RCMP’s ignominious response to it. In a country where [...]

A Russian court Thursday ordered the two-month detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on charges of espionage. Russian security forces arrested Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg, Russia on Thursday morning on suspicions that the Moscow-based reporter was spying on Russia for the US. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) told state-afilliated news source TASS that [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) Thursday ruled that the US violated a 1955 treaty with Iran by freezing Iranian assets to fulfill terrorism-related awards from the US. In Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America, the court ordered the US to compensate Iran in a binding judgment, however, the court has not [...]

A US federal judge in Texas Thursday ruled that private health insurance companies are not required to cover contraceptives, STD screenings or HIV prevention treatment (pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP). The court held that the preventative care minimum of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) violated the claimant’s rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This [...]

Since gaining power in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban, following a unique normative mixture of Pashtun culture and Islamic law, have closed universities, colleges, and secondary and primary schools to deny education to women and girls. In banning women from higher education, the Taliban education minister argued that female college students do not adhere to [...]

The Vatican Thursday announced a formal rejection of a 15th century theory known as the ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’ In a statement, the Church said it “repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent rights of indigenous peoples.” The ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ arose from several documents collectively known as the papal bulls. Key amongst them [...]

UN experts Wednesday implored Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to refuse to sign the anti-homosexuality bill approved by Parliament on March 21. Human rights organizations have criticised the bill, which seeks to penalize homosexual relationships in order to protect the traditional family, as draconian and in violation of basic human rights. According to experts, the proposed [...]

As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we should recognize that our history of gender inequity and oppression is now being used by our highest courts to narrowly define the contours of women’s rights going forward. We need to fight back to ensure our principles — of equality, human dignity, and respect for the [...]