Dilma Rousseff, the suspended president of Brazil, appeared before the Senate on Monday to make a final appeal to lawmakers before they vote on whether to remove her from office. In her speech , Dilma claimed she is innocent of the accusations against her and that the evidence against her is only a pretext to [...]

Australian officials on Monday said that a Hague-based international tribunal lacks jurisdiction to set a border between Australia and East Timor. East Timor invoked this “conciliation commission” in the hopes that it would put pressure on Australia to create a new, permanent maritime boundary between the two countries, giving more sea bed to East Timor [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday upheld the death sentences of 16 civilians convicted of terror-related offenses by military courts. The appellants contended that their constitutional rights had been violated, as they were tried in secret, without access to lawyers of their choice, and their confessions were recorded illegally. In addition, the appellants claimed [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) released statements Monday condemning Ukraine’s use of secret facilities to detain individuals. The two groups released a joint report earlier this summer detailing the use of torture in these secret detentions by both the Ukrainian government and the Russia-backed separatists. Since the release of the report, 13 [...]

Egyptian human rights lawyer Malek Adly was released from prison Sunday following a Saturday decision by an Egyptian court. Adly had been held in solitary confinement for more than 100 days without a formal charge, and his incarceration was pinned on various administrative detention orders. Adly supporters claim that the lawyer’s prosecution was due to [...]

Venezuelan authorities on Saturday arrested a major opposition leader, Daniel Ceballos, stating that the arrest was to prevent his efforts at destabilizing the country . Ceballos, the former mayor of San Cristobal, was arrested in March 2014, accused of inciting violence during a wave of protests against the government. However, Ceballos was released and placed [...]

The California Superior Court on Friday rejected a challenge to the state’s recently enacted physician-assisted suicide law. In June California passed the End of Life Option Act which would allow “terminally ill” patients to be prescribed lethal drugs if their doctor has determined that they have less than six months to live. Following enactment, five [...]

The Supreme Court of El Salvador on Saturday ordered the release of three ex-military officers who had been jailed for killing six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war. In 1989 a team of about 20 military officers stormed the University of Central America (UCA) and executed the priests as well as a housekeeper and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Friday denied an emergency petition for a full en banc rehearing regarding the Wisconsin voter identification law . A federal court in July decided that voters who do not have a required form of ID can vote through an affidavit process , a win for [...]

The Illinois Supreme Court concluded on Thursday that placing a redistricting proposal on the ballot this fall would be unconstitutional. The proposal would have transferred legislative mapmaking power to an independent commission and had the backing of approximately 563,000 signatures because many argue that the mapmaking process in the state is too political. Ballot initiatives [...]