The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) reported on Saturday a transition towards more inclusive global participation in outer space activities, with the growing involvement of Global South countries, including Ghana, Maldives, Tonga and Côte d’Ivoire. Having long been dominated by technologically advanced countries, outer space is now becoming increasingly accessible [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng on Thursday called on states to stop the targeting and killing of health and care workers, and to immediately release all health workers being detained, harassed or tortured. She also urged states to “respect and protect the right to health and its underlying determinants,” including [...]

Amnesty International on Friday welcomed the conviction by the Central African Republic’s Special Criminal Court (SCC) of six former combatants in the Ndélé 2 case for war crimes and crimes against humanity, calling the decision “a breakthrough in the fight against impunity in the country.” However, Amnesty said that the trial was “tarnished” by the fact [...]

A US federal judge on Friday ordered the federal government to release detained activist Mahmoud Khalil immediately. Judge Michael Fabiarz of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey said Khalil can return to his home after over three months in detention. Khalil is restricted to New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Washington, DC, and [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called for the Myanmar military to stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Since the junta took over Myanmar in the 2021 coup, the recruitment and use of child soldiers has surged, especially after the junta enacted a mandatory conscription in February 2024. HRW Asia researcher Shayna Bauchner [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on France’s National Assembly to include access to education and other core economic and social rights for children in a recent emergency bill for the French overseas department of Mayotte, an island off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Elvire Fondacci, an advocacy officer at HRW, [...]

In the fragmented landscape of modern warfare, civilian populations have emerged as the silent victims of aggressive militarized conflicts. As violence escalates in Ukraine and Gaza, and amid the simmering tensions between Israel and Iran, we find ourselves confronting a grim reality: the deliberate targeting of civilians has become an alarming new norm. This is [...]

The US Supreme Court issued two rulings on Wednesday that establish where challenges to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions should be filed, remanding one lawsuit to regional circuits and directing the other suit to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In the 6-2 and 7-2 decisions, both authored by Justice [...]

A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that US President Donald Trump likely had the authority to mobilize members of the California National Guard over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom in response to protests against US immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. While the court wrote that Trump’s decision [...]

A UN special rapporteur raised concerns on Thursday over the negative effects of political interference on higher education within the US. The expert’s statement emphasized the threat to “academic freedom, student rights, and democratic integrity,” and highlighted the banning of international students from enrollment at Harvard University as an example of this “wider trend.” Farida [...]