California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Friday the launch of a civil rights investigation into an alleged pattern of unconstitutional policing conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). The California Constitution and the California Civil Code Section 52.3 authorize the California Attorney General to conduct civil investigations of law enforcement agencies in order [...]
Tech platforms such as Google and Facebook are fighting a proposed Australian law that will force them to remunerate Australian news media companies. The Australian government introduced the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code in December 2020 after more than three years of extensive public consultation in order to “address the bargaining power imbalance [...]
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales Friday sentenced seven persons to a total of 92 years in prison after their failed smuggling attempt resulted in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants. The migrants were shipped from Vietnam to the UK in a sealed refrigeration container, but oxygen levels depleted and the temperature rose to [...]
The High Court of the Kano State of Nigeria Thursday acquitted a teenager sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered a fresh trial for a man sentenced to death after the convictions caused international outcry. A Sharia (Islamic law) court had convicted the two individuals in August last year. The high court that overturned [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Thursday unanimously held that there had been multiple violations of the European Convention on Human Rights during the 2013-14 Maidan protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities that led to the removal and flight of President Viktor Yanukovych. The court gave judgments in five cases having a total of [...]
A UN briefing on Friday called for an end to the violence in West Africa’s Sahel region, where more than two million people have been displaced within the borders of their own countries. Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that the number of internally displaced [...]
The National Congress of Honduras Thursday voted in favor of constitutional reforms that make it difficult to reverse provisions preventing the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage. Of the 128 members of Congress, 88 voted in favor of the reforms, 28 opposed and seven abstained. They will have to be ratified in a second session. If ratified, [...]
The European Parliament Thursday passed a resolution criticizing Vietnam for prosecuting political dissent ahead of one of the country’s major political gatherings. Approved by a vote of 592-32, the EU resolution condemns Vietnam’s recent “crackdown on dissent and increasing violations of human rights,” and demands the release of political prisoners who exercised their right to [...]
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Friday signed a proclamation providing for the Political Party Funding Act, 2018 to come into effect on April 1. The Act regulates public and private funding of political parties in the country. The Act, which repeals the Public Funding of Represented Political Parties Act, 1997, was approved by the parliament in [...]
A Geneva court Friday found Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz guilty of corruption and forgery following a two-week trial. A former citizen of Switzerland, Steinmetz and two of his associates faced the two charges for paying $10 million as bribes to receive permits for mining iron ore in Guinea and for forging documents to mask the bribery. [...]
