Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Thursday charging that Russia has inflicted a widespread and deliberate pattern of physical and psychological abuse on Ukrainian POWs throughout their detention. The report, based on in-depth interviews with 12 former prisoners, documents severe beatings, mock executions, electric shocks, and attacks by dogs, describing a system intended [...]
UN-appointed investigators reported on Thursday that Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) has over the past decade carried out a pattern of killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence against protesters and political opponents of President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela entered 2025 under intensified international attention, after a wave of repression followed the July 2024 presidential election. [...]
The social media platform Reddit on Friday challenged Australia’s social media ban for youth under the age of 16 in the country’s High Court. The move came two days after Reddit implemented age restrictions on its website. The legal action seeks a judicial review of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age (SMMA) law, which took effect [...]
A Pakistani military court sentenced former intelligence chief Faiz Hameed to 14 years imprisonment on charges of espionage and abuse of power, according to a press release by the media and public relations division of Pakistan’s army on Thursday. According to the statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Field General Court Martial found [...]
Editor’s note: This is Day 4 of JURIST’s coverage of Mangione’s suppression hearings. Read Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. On Day 4 of suppression hearings in the New York state case against Luigi Mangione, Altoona Police Officer Christy Wasser testified that she discovered a pistol, loaded magazine, and suppressor in Mangione’s backpack during [...]
Human rights groups in Taiwan launched a petition on December 8 opposing draft legislation that would eliminate parole eligibility for individuals convicted of murder, attempted murder, or child abuse resulting in death. The petition, which has attracted support from many lawyers and law professors, follows a joint statement filed by the Taiwan Alliance to End [...]
Austrian lawmakers on Thursday voted by a large majority to approve a law banning headscarves in schools for girls under 14, a move that is now facing criticism from experts and human rights groups. The only party to oppose it was the opposition Green Party, which argued that the law is unconstitutional. The ban was [...]
On November 10, right-wing Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir proposed a bill that would use the death penalty to punish Palestinian terrorists convicted of killing Israeli citizens. Some Knesset members have argued that such a law would prevent future prisoner release swaps, as there would be little value for a dead prisoner in such an exchange. [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 10, heard oral arguments in Hamm vs. Smith, a capital case that could reshape how courts evaluate intellectual disability under Atkins v. Virginia and its progeny for purposes of the Eighth Amendment. Atkins prohibited the execution of “intellectually disabled” individuals under the Eighth Amendment after the Court applied [...]
The Ecuadorian government’s financial crimes agency froze the bank accounts of several Indigenous and environmental groups, using secret intelligence information in an apparent effort to silence protests, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, commented that the measures in question constitute a misuse of anti-money laundering mechanisms, which [...]
