UN human rights experts urged authorities in Uganda on Tuesday to cease “the arrest, detention and judicial harassment of political opponents, civil society leaders and human rights defenders,” due to concerns of violence in the lead-up to Uganda’s presidential election, which is set to take place on January 14. In June, the Uganda Electoral Commission [...]

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala’s three years of detention without a conviction did not violate his rights to liberty and security. Kavala was accused of organizing and funding the 2013 Gezi Park protests against then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. In February 2020, he and eight other individuals were acquitted. Kavala [...]

A US federal judge in Georgia Monday granted an emergency motion to block Georgia from excluding 4,185 voters from voting in the Georgia Senate runoff election. The voters were excluded based on findings that they were no longer living in Georgia. Judge Leslie Gardner of the US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia [...]

The Russian Ministry of Justice on Monday added veteran rights activist Lev Ponomaryov and four other individuals to its list of media “foreign agents.” This is the first time that individuals have been added to the list of “foreign agents,” as the legislation has previously been used primarily against media outlets. The “foreign agent” law [...]

A judge in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest request for bail on Monday, citing the need for continued detention due to the British socialite’s flight risk, given her opaque finances and dual citizenship. Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020 while awaiting trial on [...]

The United States government on Monday appealed a federal judge’s order that blocked the Commerce Department from imposing restrictions on Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok that would have effectively barred its use in the US. On December 7, United States District Court Judge Carl Nichols of the DC Circuit granted an injunction, enjoining the Secretary [...]

Seven lawsuits were filed Monday in Arizona against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for allegedly covering up sexual abuse in church-sponsored Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troops. The allegations span more than 30 years, ranging from 1972 to 2009. The lawsuits claim that church officials were told about instances of abuse [...]

The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe on Monday ruled that the country’s national pledge was an unconstitutional violation of school children’s right to freedom of conscience and parental rights. The court’s decision comes four years after Mathew Sogolani applied to the court on the basis of the national pledge’s unconstitutionality. The father of three argued that [...]

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Saturday passed an amendment punishing acts of luring, instigating, forcing or offering banned substances to athletes competing in domestic or international events. Amendment XI was added to Article 355 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, a provision which originally punished the act [...]

China announced Saturday the ratification of an extradition treaty with Turkey that it intends to use, inter alia, to accelerate the return of refugees and Uighur Muslims suspected of “terrorism.” Since the 1950s, Turkey has welcomed Uighurs fleeing persecution in China. Uighurs and Turks have linguistic, cultural and religious ties. Currently, more than 50,000 Uighurs call [...]