Israeli rights groups on Sunday asked the Supreme Court to overturn the 2011 law that prevents Israelis from calling for a boycott of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, claiming that it violates the right to free speech. Although there is no precedent for it as of yet, the law makes a boycott call a [...]

The Kutaisi City Court in Georgia on Monday sentenced former prime minister Vano Merabishvili to a five-year prison term for embezzling government funds and bribing voters. Prosecutors specifically alleged that Merabishvili used government money to employ his supporters in fictitious government roles in advance of his party’s October 2012 parliamentary elections. The court also handed [...]

UN human rights investigators on Monday released a 372-page report detailing widespread crimes against humanity in North Korea that they believe should be brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) . The report, which is to be debated by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on March 17, includes excerpts of witness testimony [...]

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Monday ordered changes to controversial proposed legislation which rights groups believe would effectively deny women protection from domestic violence and forced marriage. Article 26 of the proposed criminal procedure law expressly prohibits “relatives” from testifying against each other in criminal proceedings, which may have the effect of silencing victims of [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of the Syracuse University College of Law discusses some of the alleged human rights abuses occurring in connection with preparations for international sporting events …

JURIST Guest Columnist Catherine Short of Life Legal Defense Foundation discusses the upcoming decision in McCullen v. Coakley…

A federal tribunal in Argentina has ruled that prosecutors cannot proceed with a case alleging former president Carlos Menem was involved in an explosion at a military weapons factory that destroyed much of the town Rio Tercero in 1995. Prosecutors argued that the explosion was a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence of arms trafficking to [...]

The UN human rights chief on Sunday called for an international probe into alleged war crimes that occurred during the last phase of the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War that ended in 2009. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay asked the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to set up an independent probe to [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the governments of South Sudan and Uganda on Saturday to investigate new evidence that cluster bombs were used in the South Sudan conflict. HRW cited new evidence of cluster bombs, including intact unexploded submunitions or “bomblets,” discovered by UN experts in the week of February 7 near the town of [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch says that the Chinese government must begin to consider the vehement demands of the people to reform…