The Trump administration on Friday announced a Title IX Special Investigations Team (SIT) to fight “gender ideology” in school programs and activities. Title IX is a federal law from the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funds. The Title IX SIT is designed to [...]

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution demanding accountability for violations and abuses by Syria’s ousted Bashar Assad regime through transitional justice, and declaring support for “the commitments of the interim authorities” to an “orderly and inclusive transition,” and to establish a timeline for free elections. Assad al-Shaibani, foreign minister of [...]

UN experts called for oversight to ensure AI developments respect human rights and international law on Saturday. At the Global Conference on AI Security and Ethics hosted by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), experts drew parallels between the advent of artificial intelligence and the nuclear age, frequently termed AI’s “Oppenheimer moment.” Panelists at [...]

Texas Attorney General Ken Pax­ton filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of San Antonio for unlawfully using public funds to subsidize out-of-state abortion travel. This follows a similar injunction filed against the city of Austin in September. The San Antonio City Council recently approved $100,000 towards the city’s Reproductive Justice Fund (“the fund”) in [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on April 4 urged the Caribbean island nation of Dominica to investigate the apparent police attack on a journalist last month during the protests, which erupted in response to the passage of certain legislation. A police officer allegedly verbally abused EmoNews journalist Soana Benjamin and seized her equipment. RSF executives have [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Burkina Faso authorities on Friday to immediately release three journalists detained last month. The call came after videos surfaced on social media showing the three in military uniforms. Guézouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba and Luc Pagbelguem were arrested amid escalating concerns over press freedom in the country. In a [...]

A Thai student protester was arrested in Bangkok on Friday for calling Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing a “murderer,” as well as for criticizing the Thai government over its support for the visiting leader during the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit. Hlaing’s visit to the Thai capital [...]

The Iranian authorities are set to carry out finger amputation sentences against three prisoners as early as April 11, Amnesty International warned Friday. The rights group stated that amputation sentences, amounting to torture, and the denial of legal representation are violations of international law. Iranian authorities have informed the men — Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharifian [...]

A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Friday in an attempt to stop a presidential executive order that cuts funding for several federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The lawsuit states that for these agencies, compliance has “meant gutting every one of their operations—statutorily mandated or not.” [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the European Union (EU) on Friday to consider Serbia’s freedom of press violations for its EU candidacy process. Journalists in Serbia are systemically repressed, facing threats, assaults and arbitrary surveillance, RSF argued. Head of RSF’s European Union-Balkans Desk, Pavol Szalai, said, “Serbian outlets are on the brink of suffocation as [...]