Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday that Turkey will end a ban on women wearing traditional Islamic headscarves in public institutions. The lifting of the ban is part of a package of human rights reforms that Erdogan proposed, which also include allowing Kurdish language education and reducing barriers to entry for Kurdish [...]

Sweden’s Ombudsman for Children Fredrik Malmberg called for the country to ban infant male circumcision on Saturday, claiming the practice violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child . In his editorial, Malmberg stated: There is no health-related basis for circumcising male babies in those cases the procedure is not medically justified. The [...]

Mohamed al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) , reported Sunday that a Bahrain court has sentenced 50 defendants to prison terms ranging between five and 15 years in prison, with 20 of the defendants sentenced in absentia. The mass trial was for alleged links to the February 14 Youth Coalition [...]

The top UN official for the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on Saturday urged Congolese authorities to take all necessary steps required to capture two escaped national army officials, both of whom were found guilty of human violations in September. The two high-ranking army officials escaped from Bukavu [...]

Mexican lawmakers must reform the nation’s military justice system to combat human rights abuses committed by army and navy personnel, Amnesty International (AI) urged Friday. AI reports that the number of enforced disappearances in the nation has increased drastically since the federal government launched a military initiative to interrupt organized crime cells in 2006. According [...]

A judge for New Jersey’s Mercer County Superior Court in Trenton ruled Friday that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry. Judge Mary Jacobson found that the current status of civil unions deprive same-sex couples of federal benefits enjoyed by married couples. In light of the recent US Supreme Court decision in US v. Windsor [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Ginger Grimes, University of California, Irvine School of Law Class of 2015, discusses the recent announcement by the Department of Justice regarding veteran same-sex couples benefits and advocates that the place of celebration rule should be adopted… Last month, a federal district court in California struck down a law denying veterans benefits [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood and more than 19 other health organizations across Texas jointly filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court to block two provisions of provisions of a Texas abortion law before they take effect on October 29. In particular, the lawsuit seeks to block a requirement that physicians who [...]

Several Maryland residents, gun store owners and gun rights advocates have filed two lawsuits and a restraining order Thursday and Friday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland to block the implementation of the Firearms Safety Act of 2013 on Tuesday. The act limits handgun magazines to 10 rounds and adds 45 [...]

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed a law on Friday to improve prison conditions and take one step closer to integration with the EU. This law was required to allow the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement , which is expected to be signed in November. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada , passed the measure early [...]