The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the news service had uncovered regular instances of rape and other forms of sexual violence against Yemeni detainees by prison officials in secret prisons controlled by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The abuse has been reported in at least five prisons. The UAE has arrested “hundreds” of Yemeni [...]
The Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the state of Virginia over the state’s abortion laws, which the plaintiffs deem “burdensome and medically unnecessary.” The lawsuit, brought on behalf of multiple health care organizations, took issue with five Virginia laws regarding [...]
To commemorate World Refugee Day on Wednesday the charity Plan International released a 44-page report detailing the adversity and hardship that adolescent Rohingya girls experience in refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. While the majority of adolescent girls report feeling safer in the refugee camps than in Myanmar, there remains a substantial fear of [...]
Canada’s Senate approved a bill on Tuesday legalizing recreational marijuana. The vote was 52 in favor of the bill, with 29 senators against and two abstaining. Under the act, the federal and provincial governments will regulate cannabis, with the federal government licensing dealers. It will still be illegal for anyone under the age of 18 [...]
The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the removal of its chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno after her May 30 motion for reconsideration. In an 8-6 vote the 15-member high court confirmed their May 11 ruling that ousted Sereno for failing to submit her Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) as a law [...]
The attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday calling for the end to the Justice Department’s policy of separating children from their parents who cross the US border seeking asylum. The AGs state that “a [...]
US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Halley announced on Tuesday that the US will be withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council . Haley accused the Human Rights Council of protecting human rights abusers and being a “cesspool of political bias,” a “hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights,” and [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that a court’s mistake in calculating a sentence under the advisory US Sentencing Guidelines should result in relief for the defendant, even if the original sentence was within the federal guidelines. This decision reversed and remanded the the lower court’s ruling. In Rosales-Mireles v. United States, one of the [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein criticized the US policy of separating immigrant children from their parents in a statement made on Monday. The commissioner cited the American Association of Pediatrics , which called the policy “government-sanctioned child abuse.” “The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting [...]
A federal judge ruled Monday that Kansas cannot require documentary proof of US citizenship to register to vote, finding such laws violate the constitutional right to vote. The Kansas legislature passed the Secure and Fair Elections (SAFE) Act in 2011, which included a new requirement that Kansas citizens must produce documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) [...]
