The Provincial legislature of Quebec passed Bill 9, an act respecting the reinforcement of laicity in Quebec, into law on Thursday, April 2nd. This significantly expands Quebec’s widely criticized Bill 21, commonly known as the religious symbols ban, into post-secondary institutions, childcare centres, healthcare facilities, and private schools. This is the final legislation passed by [...]

A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its parent company over an article linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, ruling that Trump failed to adequately allege the newspaper acted with “actual malice” when it published the story. US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles [...]

The UK Metropolitan Police on Saturday arrested 523 people for supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organization. Those arrested ranged in age from 18 to 87 years old. Hundreds of people gathered in Trafalgar Square on Saturday to peacefully protest the ongoing classification of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization under the UK Terrorism Act 2000. [...]

Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned the Georgian authorities for their expulsion of an Azerbaijani journalist, Afgan Sadigov, to Azerbaijan, exposing him to a credible risk of politically motivated prosecution and ill-treatment. “Georgian authorities returned Sadigov to a country where he faces a real risk of persecution, without properly assessing that risk, and summary proceedings [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called for an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation into the March 20 assassination attempt against Thai lawmaker Kamonsak Leewamoh. Thailand’s Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has been named as involved in the attack, raising concerns about how impartial the investigation will be. Early on the morning of Friday, March [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday condemned the decision by authorities in Thailand to bring criminal defamation lawsuits against two renowned journalists who reported on a bribery case. HRW cited the importance of safeguarding press freedom as a cornerstone of democratic society. In late February, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Suchart Chomklin filed criminal [...]

UN Special Rapporteurs on Thursday condemned an ongoing strategy by Russian authorities to silence dissent, human rights advocacy, and anti-war expression. They warned that this represents a “systematic dismantling” of civil society under the guise of protecting national security and public safety. Over 343 organizations have been deemed “undesirable,” 1,173 individuals and groups have been [...]

The UN human rights chief warned on Thursday that Serbia is facing a steady erosion of civic space, with mounting evidence that pressure on journalists, civil society, and political dissent is becoming more systematic. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged Serbian officials “to ensure the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful [...]

The company xAI on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Colorado’s enforcement of the state’s new artificial intelligence (AI) law before it takes effect. The lawsuit names Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser and aims to block the Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence (CPAI) law, which will require developers of “high-risk” AI systems to [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday that nearly one thousand Senegalese citizens continue to live in temporary shelters, with no clear prospect of relocation to permanent housing, a decade after coastal floods struck the Langue de Barbarie peninsula and destroyed their homes. HRW’s climate displacement researcher, Erica Bower, said: “A decade of living in [...]