The ends should not justify the means when it comes to the protection of basic human rights in Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Severe challenges to the peace and stability of these regions along with overarching transnational terrorism threats have incentivized the erosion of human rights by the respective governments. These challenges are [...]
In January 2018, following the killing of Iranians in European countries, the EU imposed new sanctions on Iran. This came after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in August 2018. The International Court of Justice then issued a decision ordering the United States to lift [...]
The Supreme Court of Nebraska upheld death sentences for eight death row inmates on Friday. The plaintiffs, who had all been sentenced before 2015, claimed that when the Nebraska legislature repealed capital punishment in 2015, their sentences should have been commuted, even though capital punishment was reinstated by referendum in 2016. One of the eight plaintiffs had been [...]
Angola’s parliament approved a new penal code Wednesday that drops provisions widely interpreted to criminalize homosexuality. The new penal code is Angola’s first since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. The prior code contained many holdover provisions from the colonial era, including a ban of “vices against nature,” which was understood to criminalize [...]
A federal district judge in Arkansas on Wednesday upheld a state law prohibiting state entities from entering into contracts with companies for goods or services unless those companies certify in writing that they are not currently engaged in, nor will they engage in for the duration of their contract, a “boycott of Israel.” The Arkansas [...]
The Supreme Court of Kenya ruled on Thursday that schools can regulate their dress codes to ensure uniform compliance. This ruling overturns a 2016 court of appeals decision that affirmed Muslim girls could wear hijab and trousers at school “as a manifestation, practice and observance of their religion consistent with Article 32 of the Constitution [...]
The Supreme Court of Mississippi on Thursday declined to overturn the loss-of-a-chance precedent used in medical malpractice cases. The court’s decision upheld a trial judge’s dismissal and summary judgment ruling in a case that accused Anderson Regional Medical Center’s nurses of failure to recognize and react to a patient’s stroke symptoms. This oversight resulted in [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona (ACLU of Arizona) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Arizona for denying a transgender state employee health coverage for gender reassignment surgery. The plaintiff, Russell Toomey, is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona who participates in the state’s self-funded health plan. Toomey claims that by denying [...]
A Ukrainian court on Thursday sentenced former president Viktor Yanukovych to 13 years in prison after finding him guilty of treason for a 2014 crackdown on pro-Western demonstrations. In 2014 Yanukovych spiked an association agreement with the EU in favor of retaining close ties with Russia. This sparked massive protests and police crackdown that killed [...]
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday announced the elimination of a rule enacted by the Obama administration that required large employers to file individual incident reports for workplace accidents and injuries. Under the prior rule companies with more than 250 employees were required to file two electronic forms, Form 300 and [...]
