Two senior UN officials on Wednesday strongly condemned sexual violence by Islamic State (IS) militants against minorities in areas under their control. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura , and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov delivered a joint statement from Baghdad, in which they described [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Wisconsin’s Attorney General JB Van Hollen to stay the his April ruling against the state’s voter identification law. The April ruling found that the Act 23 requirement that all residents present photo ID when voting violated the Voting Rights Act and the US Constitution. Van Hollen [...]

The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that a transgender man, who was legally married to a woman, may pursue a divorc from his wife within the Arizona court system. Thomas Beatie was born female but underwent medical procedures to change his sex and amend his birth certificate to recognize him as male. Thomas then [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday declined to stay its decision declaring Virginia’s voter-approved same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional . Citizens of Virginia voted to amend the Virginia Constitution in 2006 to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman, banning the performance or recognition of same-sex [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that the UK’s ban preventing prisoners from voting violates their human rights. The judgment came on a case brought by 10 British prisoners who claimed that the voting ban, which prohibits prisoners from voting in national or European elections, breached their right to free elections under [...]

German federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Zdravko Musac, former head of the Yugoslavia secret service, with complicity in the 1983 murder of expatriate Yugoslav political dissident Stjepan Durekovic near Munich. Musac, now 72 years old, was extradited to Germany from Croatia in April for allegedly giving the order to assassinate Durekovic. His former subordinate, Josip [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland on Tuesday upheld two key provisions of the Maryland Firearms Safety Act of 2013 that ban certain types of “assault weapons” and a limit gun magazines to 10 rounds. Judge Catherine Blake found that the state’s law served the government’s legitimate interest in [...]

A Moroccan court Tuesday sentenced human rights activist Ouafa Charaf to one year in prison after being convicted of falsely alleging that she had been tortured by police. Charaf was also fined €4,500 (USD $6,000) by the court. According to Charaf, after leaving a solidarity sit-in in May with a group of laid off workers [...]

A group of UN human rights experts on Tuesday urged Iraq and the international community to intervene against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist advance on the displaced Yazidi people and other minority groups trapped in rebel-controlled territory in Northwestern Iraq. The UN experts are part of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council [...]

A Tennessee county judge has upheld Tennessee’s same-sex marriage ban, marking the first time a court has found the Constitution does not protect same-sex marriage since the Supreme Court’s decision overturning of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June 2013. Roane County Circuit Judge Russell Simmons Jr., of Kingston, Tennessee upheld the State’s Anti-Recognition [...]