The lower house of the French Parliament on Monday voted unanimously to make the minimum threshold age of sexual consent 15 years. Under current law, consent may be obtained from a sexual partner regardless of age, including children. Also under current law, prosecutors must prove “that a minor was forced, threatened or tricked into having [...]

The Philippines Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition questioning the legal validity of President Rodrigo Duterte’s unilateral withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2019, claiming that the issue had become “moot and academic.” The Philippines officially withdrew from the ICC on March 17, 2019, a year after Duterte had publicly announced the [...]

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Uncertainty reigned in Myanmar late Wednesday as the ruling military junta announced it was cutting off public wifi access after stopping mobile data services Monday in a bid to stop videos and photos showing brutal police actions against civilian pro-democracy protesters from flooding the internet. It is still unclear whether the announced [...]

Belgian authorities arrested a Kosovo war crimes suspect on Tuesday. Pjetёr Shala was wanted “pursuant to an arrest warrant and confirmed indictment related to war crimes” according to a pre-trial judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC). He is being held in Belgium until he can be moved to the KSC detention facilities in The [...]

The government of Sudan formally requested assistance Monday from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, current African Union chairman, the US and the EU in settling a dispute over a dam on the Nile River. Egypt has expressed support for the proposal. The dam in question, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), is currently under [...]

The Colorado State Supreme Court on Monday ruled that having computers speed-read bills on the legislative floor is unconstitutional. The Colorado constitution provides that all bills that come before the legislature shall be read aloud on two different days in each house, unless all the members present consent to waive the reading. The controversy at [...]

Portugal’s Constitutional Court ruled Monday that legislation that would permit physician assisted death is unconstitutional. The bill limited physician-assisted dying to terminally ill patients in severe pain, who are judged to be mentally healthy enough to understand what they were asking. In addition to legalizing physician-assisted dying, the bill removed criminal penalties physicians would have [...]

The Sapporo District Court found Wednesday that the government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it violates the right to equality. As a member of the Group of Seven, an intergovernmental organization including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, Japan was the only country that did not recognize same-sex marriage. [...]

Foreign adversaries, such as Russia and Iran, attempted to interfere in the 2020 US election, according to a declassified report released Tuesday by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Executive Order 13848(1)(a) required the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) to address key foreign actors’ intentions and efforts to influence or interfere with the [...]

Newly elected Kyrgyz president Sadyr Japarov on Monday defended new constitutional reforms passed on March 11 that would grant broad powers to the executive branch. The amendments would also allow the president to hold office for multiple terms instead of the current one-year term provided by the constitution. In a recent statement to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz [...]