The chief prosecutor of Zimbabwe was charged Tuesday with obstructing justice after he dropped a case against the men accused of plotting to bomb a dairy operated by members of President Robert Mugabe’s family. He was officially charged with “abuse of office and obstructing justice” after authorizing the release of two of the four suspected [...]

A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday overturned a death sentence for an “apostate” poet who renounced the Muslim faith, giving him eight years in prison instead. The court quashed the previous court’s ruling that poet Ashraf Fayadh was to be sentenced to death for, what human rights activist Mona Kareem states was posting a [...]

Syrian refugee women are being abused in Lebanon, Amnesty International (AI) said in a report published Tuesday. The report explains how the refusal by the Lebanese government to renew permits causes refugee women to be exploited by people in positions of power such as police, employers and landlords. Around 70 percent of Syrian refugee families [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday rejected a Georgia death row inmate’s legal challenge. The federal appeals court rejected inmate Brandon Astor Jones’ challenge to Georgia law that shields the identity of the producer of the drug used in the execution by a 6-5 decision. Jones argued that the information [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called for the South Korean government to pass legislation that would promote human rights in North Korea. A divisive bill proposed in 2005 provides for the creation of a North Korean Human Rights Foundation (NKHRF) and a system to document and archive information about rights abuses by the North [...]

UN human rights expert Alfred de Zayas on Tuesday urged governments in the Pacific Rim not to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without first “reaffirming … human rights treaty obligations and their recent pledges to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.” Urging a “new generation of trade agreements … incorporate human rights and developments,” Zayas proceeded [...]

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Tuesday sentenced two men to death for crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. Obaidul Haque Taher and Ataur Rahman Noni were found guilty of three counts of “of participating, aiding and contributing to the commission of offences of murder, abduction and torture as [...]

The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) stated Tuesday that migrant detention facilities in Cyprus need better monitoring and should improve conditions. The SPT urged that individuals be promptly informed as to why they are being held if they are detained so as to prevent riots or protests. SPT Chair Malcolm Evans said: [...]

Experts from the UN and the Inter-American human rights systems urged Canada Monday to address the “root causes” of the extreme violence and discrimination against indigenous women and girls in the country at a meeting with Canadian Ministers for Justice, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and for the Status of Women. According to the experts, approximately [...]

Four former Blackwater security contractors on Monday appealed their conviction for a 2007 Baghdad shooting that killed 14 Iraqi civilians. This appeal centers around a witness for the prosecution who changed his testimony after the trial in a way that allegedly undermines the government’s case. The four men were found guilty of various murder charges [...]