UN officials on Wednesday called for an end to female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) , a practice that still threatens millions of girls worldwide. A statement from Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin , Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) , called FGM/C an affront to human dignity and an unacceptable continuing human rights violation. [...]

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that cities may not pass ordinances that conflict with the state’s five-year-old medical marijuana law . John Ter Beek, a resident of Wyoming, Michigan, challenged a 2010 Wyoming zoning ordinance that prohibited the use of marijuana, arguing that his status as a qualified medical marijuana patient and the [...]

The National Network of Congolese Human Rights NGOs on Wednesday a new Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) law providing amnesty for acts of war committed as far back as 2006. After more than three weeks of debate, lawmakers in the DRC approved the law on Tuesday amid outcry from human rights advocates, including Human [...]

Germany’s Constitutional Court on Friday referred the case against the European Central Bank’s (ECB) bond-buying plan, called Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT), to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . The ruling means the German court will not cut the program, which could alarm investors that rely on the plan to stabilize the Euro. The court [...]

Turkey’s Parliament on Wednesday approved legislation to heighten Internet restrictions, granting the country’s telecommunications authority the ability to block websites or remove content without the court’s approval. Amid claims that this is an act of censorship, government officials have maintained that the bill is intended to promote the protection of privacy. Many have expressed concern [...]

A group of UN human rights experts led by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday that both sides of the Syrian conflict are committing crimes against humanity by denying civilians basic necessities of life and humanitarian aid. The experts claimed that these actions are part of a “systematic effort to cause civilian [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday that the Bangladesh government needs to prevent garment factory owners from intimidating workers for organizing trade unions and to prosecute any parties responsible for attacks on labor leaders. Workers interviewed by HRW claimed that some managers mistreated those involved in organizing unions in incidents ranging from death threats to [...]

The Supreme Court of Ohio on Wednesday distributed a warning to all of the state’s judges to end the policy of imprisoning people who are unable to pay court fines, a practice deemed unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court more than 30 years ago. The bench card, which is the first of its kind in [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday that Iraqi security officials are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting them to torture, ill-treatment and threats of sexual abuse. HRW found that officials are coercing confessions and holding trial proceedings far below the international standard. HRW’s report includes interviews with imprisoned women, their families, their lawyers [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist James Dwyer of William & Mary Law School argues that the many incremental successes the same-sex marriage movement has had actually make it more difficult plausibly to argue now that every state is constitutionally required to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples. The legal and factual premises on which Virginia Attorney General [...]