An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced 14 journalists from opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet Daily to various prison terms over terrorism-related charges. According to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, the CEO, editor-in-chief and several journalists received sentences between four and eight years “on charges of acting on behalf of a terrorist group without being members.” “At the [...]

UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Friday praised Ethiopia for its willingness to openly discuss human rights challenges after completing his second official visit within the year. Zeid’s invitation to the country came after a recent transition of power from former prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn , who abruptly resigned in [...]

Louisiana senators voted 31-1 Tuesday to approve a bill that would ban abortions at 15 weeks. Mississippi approved a similar 15-week abortion ban in March, drawing an immediate legal challenge. An amendment to the Louisiana bill on the Senate floor means that the Louisiana bill would not go into law unless and until the Mississippi [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Trump v. Hawaii , challenging the latest version of President Donald Trump’s ban on entry to the US from certain Muslim-majority countries. When granting certiorari in January, the court agreed to consider the following questions presented by the government: 1. Whether respondents’ challenge to the President’s [...]

Twenty-one humanitarian organizations issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the Greek government’s decision to reinstate a migrant “containment” policy after it was struck down by the nation’s highest administrative court. Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch were among the groups that called the action a challenge to the rule of law in Greece. [...]

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday dismissed a complaint challenging that state’s limits on charter schools. Massachusetts’ charter school law sets a limit on the total number of charter schools operating in the state and a limit on local school district funds that may be diverted to charter schools in a given area. Several [...]

The UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the African Union agreed on Tuesday to cooperate on numerous human rights goals in an effort “to explore and develop joint approaches to preventing and addressing human rights abuses and violations.” The AU and OHCHR plan to “actively involve and coordinate their human [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday vacated the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children from deportation and provides them with renewable work permits. Judge John D. Bates found that the Department [...]

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) heard oral arguments on Monday and Tuesday in former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s appeal of his 2016 conviction for crimes committed during the Bosnia conflict. Karardic, in support of his appeal , argues that prosecutors and judges committed numerous legal and procedural errors , such as prohibiting [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two matters Tuesday: Abbott v. Perez and Animal Science Products v. Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co. . Abbott is two consolidated cases that concern allegations that Texas lawmakers drew the state’s federal congressional and state legislative districts in such a way as to harm the rights of the [...]