JURIST Guest Columnist, Graeme Reid, of Human Rights Watch, discusses the weakening of LGBT rights in international law … For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people the law is a paradox. The law can operate as an instrument of repression and control, but also as a tool for resistance and liberation. We find fragments [...]

Geneva-based pan-Arab rights group Alkarama claimed in an open statement to the UN published Friday that Egyptian authorities have been complicit in the torture and sexual abuse of 52 teenage detainees. The rights group brought the cases of the detainees, who range in age from 15 to 18 and were charged with “demonstrating without authorisation,” [...]

Independent UN rights experts on Friday called on the government of Bahrain to release human rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja due to the absence of evidence against her. Al-Khawaja was arrested in August upon her return to Bahrain and was charged with insulting the king and assaulting police officers. According to a post on Al-Khawaja’s Twitter [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Geoffrey Hoffman, of the University of Houston Law Center, discusses the problems that the immigration court creates for unaccompanied alien children… The law is no stranger to paradoxes, contradictions and strange coincidences. Immigration courts however present a special case of legal paradox. As an attorney representing immigrants in removal proceedings, one comes [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday criticized the Mexican government for its failure to adequately investigate allegations of torture . According to the report, Mexican safeguards intended to prevent military and police forces from using torture as an investigative tool are woefully under-enforced, and many such practices are condoned, tolerated or ignored by other law enforcement [...]

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin announced a series of new protocols Thursday that are expected to take effect for state executions. Her announcement followed a report issued by the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety on Thursday detailing the findings of the prolonged execution of Clayton Lockett last April. Lockett’s execution took approximately 43 minutes and witness [...]

Thirty-two states asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday to issue a definitive ruling on same-sex marriage. Fifteen states that allow gay marriage, led by Massachusetts, filed a brief asking the court to take up three cases from Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma and overturn the bans. Seventeen states that have banned the practice, led by [...]

The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday decided to adjourn the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta indefinitely. Kenyatta was charged in March 2011 with five counts of crimes against humanity as an indirect co-perpetrator of the violence following Kenya’s 2007 elections, which led to more than 1,100 deaths. [...]

A federal judge ruled Thursday that an Ohio law that cut down the 35 days of early in-person voting violates the US Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. US District Court Judge Peter Economus ordered Ohio to restore the full 35 days, including the “golden week” where residents can register to vote and cast early [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will open an investigation to determine whether Ferguson Police officials have systematically violated the US Constitution or federal law. Holder determined the necessity of this investigation based on interviews he conducted with residents in Ferguson in August. The DOJ also plans to [...]