The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) on Wednesday challenged a North Dakota law that places additional requirements on abortion clinics. SB 2305 , passed in March, restricts abortion providers to those doctors recognized by a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. Although the providers at Red River Women’s Clinic sought such recognition, pre-existing hospital [...]

A UN special reporter said Tuesday that the current situation in Eritrea warrants close scrutiny from the international community. Sheila Keetharuth made the statement based on her findings during a 10-day mission to obtain knowledge from refugees in Ethiopia and Djibouti. The total number of refugees in the past year reached 4,000—increasing the total Eritrean [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Tuesday that the mutilation of a Syrian soldier seen in an Internet video should be investigated as a potential war crime. Pillay urged Syrian rebels to stop the “truly atrocious” acts. Although the video cannot be fully authenticated, it appears to show a Syrian rebel [...]

Three UN independent experts on Tuesday urged authorities in Russia to revise a law that is having “obstructive, intimidating and stigmatizing effects” on the country’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-commercial organizations (NCOs) . The law, adopted in November, requires NGOs and NCOs to register as “organizations performing the functions of foreign agents” if they want [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into allegations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unfairly scrutinized tax-exemptions for conservative groups. The agency initially singled out groups with applications containing the names “Tea Party” or “Patriots,” but expanded to target groups that promoted Constitutionalism. The practice [...]

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said Tuesday that her office will conduct a preliminary examination into the 2010 Israeli raid on an aid flotilla bound for the blockaded Gaza strip in which nine civilians on a Turkish ship were killed. The examination is in response to authorities from the Union of Comoros, [...]

A court in Bahrain sentenced six individuals to a year in prison on Wednesday for insulting King Hamad via Twitter . Since the nation’s pro-democracy protests in Manama that began in February 2011, activists have used the social media site to report perceived violations. The court found the tweets to be an overuse of the [...]

A Guatemalan court on Monday ordered the government to apologize to the Ixil Maya, an indigenous people, for acts of genocide that were committed against them when former dictator Efrain Rios Montt was in power. Montt was found guilty on Friday of the genocide, torture and rape of 1,771 Ixil Mayans during his 1982-83 rule [...]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sued the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) , social workers and doctors on Tuesday on behalf of a couple whose adopted child underwent sex assignment surgery while in the state’s custody. The child, M.C., was born with “ambiguous genitals,” possessing both testicular and ovarian tissue. When M.C. [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist LaJuana Davis of the Cumberland School of Law evaluates the implications of legislative efforts in Alabama and other states to restrict access to abortions…