A court in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia’s eastern province, has ordered that the criminal cases against Loujain Hathloul and Maysaa Alamoudi , two women’s rights activists, be transferred to a special tribunal for terrorism in Riyadh. The women were arrested in December while attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from UAE , which borders Saudi Arabia. [...]

Four death row inmates filed a complaint on Wednesday challenging Substitute House Bill 663 , a measure providing for the confidentiality of entities involved in the manufacture of drugs for use in capital punishment by lethal injection, and of the persons involved in executing a sentence of capital punishment. Ohio Governor John R. Kasich signed [...]

The Obama Administration announced on Wednesday that it plans to expedite the closing of Guantanamo Bay . Over the next six months the administration plans to transfer 64 detainees. President Obama has been in contact with the heads of several nations to facilitate the transfer. Currently the prison population is 132. However, within the next [...]

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted three draft resolutions to reinforce the UN’s emergency humanitarian response. The drafts were adopted without a vote, and they concerned international cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, emphasizing the civilian character of humanitarian relief and encouraged the UN to prioritize the management of [...]

Amnesty International (AI) issued a briefing on Tuesday that said the Islamic State (IS) has exposed Iraq’s Yezdi minority to violence and torture. The briefing details the torturous behaviors IS has exhibited towards Yezdi women, including rape, sexual violence and forcing women and young girls to become married, “sold” or given as gifts to members [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced a plan to end the practice of indefinitely banning men who have ever engaged in sexual acts with other men from donating blood. “With greater knowledge of HIV, the 31-year practice is no longer the most scientifically practical means of protecting the public from increased [...]

Kenya’s opposition coalition, including former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, filed suit on Tuesday challenging the nation’s new anti-terrorism law . The law, signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta last Thursday, allows security services to detain suspected criminals without charge for up to 360 days and allows persecution of media members for publishing material likely to cause [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Elinor Fry, of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, discusses the ICC’s problematic jurisdiction over foreign Islamic state fighters… In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung published on November 20, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, said her office is considering the possibility of investigating acts that could be qualified [...]

Former Bangladeshi Junior Minister Syed Mohammad Qaisar was sentenced to death Tuesday, after he was found guilty of 14 counts of criminal charges including genocide, rape, extortion, arson, and torture committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 Independence War . Qaisar denied the charges, and his lawyer expressed his opinion that the judgment against his client was improper. [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled Monday that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol protocol is constitutional. The ruling has effectively allowed the state to continue with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates beginning in early 2015. The state was forced to examine the constitutionality of its [...]