Chaloka Beyani , UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), condemned recent attacks on IDPs and civilians in South Sudan Monday. Renewed violence in the capital city of Juba has resulted in the deaths of two Chinese UN Peacekeepers, one UN national staff member and two IDPs. Beyani expressed concern [...]

The Ivory Coast government should make greater efforts to prevent and punish rape, according to a report released Monday by the UN Operation in the Ivory Coast (UNOCI) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) . The agencies examined data from 2012-2015, documenting 1,129 cases of rape and finding that 66 [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Monday announced the transfer of two Guantanamo detainees to Serbia. Yemeni detainee Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi and Tajik detainee Muhammadi Davlatov were transferred to Serbia after extensive review. The transfers come after Sunday’s announcement that Yemeni Guantanamo detainee Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman had been transferred to Italy . [...]

The UK government on Friday rejected a petition calling for a second referendum vote to prevent the UK from leaving the European Union (EU) . The petition achieved 4.1 million signatures, surpassing the 100,000 signature threshold which obligates the UK government to respond. The petition argued that the vote to leave the EU did not [...]

The Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday accused India of human rights violations after a recent clash between the Indian army and rebels in Kashmir. On Friday, rebels engaged in a firefight with soldiers as part of their ongoing campaign to achieve Kashmir’s independence from India. The firefight left 200 injured and 16 dead [...]

Apple agreed on Friday to a $25 million settlement with Network-1 Technologies to end a patent infringement claim. The claim involved U.S. Patent No. 6,006,227 (227 Patent) , a “document stream operating system” that organizes files chronologically. The original claim involved multiple patents and proceeded to a jury trial in which Mirror Worlds, a subsidiary [...]

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a bill (S.2407) into law on Friday protecting against discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The bill was passed earlier in the week by both houses of the state legislature and has been praised as a compromise between anti-discrimination and public safety. The law requires places of public accommodation [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Mohamed Abdelaal of McKinney School of Law and Alexandria School of Law discusses the significance of Egypt’s new cybercrime draft law… On May 10, 2016, the Egyptian House of Representatives began to consider a new 33-article cybercrime draft law where a number of government officials, including representatives from the Defense and Interior [...]

The Gambia and Tanzania announced the end of the practice of child marriage along with prison sentences for those who continue the tradition. Gambian President Yahya Jemmah on Wednesday announced that “s from today, July 6, child marriage is illegal and is banned in The Gambia.” He also announced the penalties from violating the practice [...]

Ten additional states, including Nebraska, Michigan and Ohio, have filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration for its directive for schools to allow transgender to use the restroom correlating to their gender identity. The Obama administration, through the Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Justice (DOJ), previously issued a letter informing states that transgender [...]