UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged member states to intensify measures against torture in commemoration of the UN’s 15th annual International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (IDSVT) . Ban also encouraged member states to recognize the 25th anniversary of the UN Committee Against Torture , which he characterized as “vital” to furthering [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns on Wednesday condemned the Nigerian government for the alleged execution of four men in the State of Edo . Heyns voiced his concern “that capital punishment appears to have been imposed without due process safeguards in violation of the International Covenant on Civil [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday began public hearings in the ongoing legal dispute between Australia and Japan over Japanese whaling near Antarctica. Australia argued at Wednesday’s hearing that Japan is in violation of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling by continuing to hunt whales as scientific research in spite of [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Sekhar v. United States that attempting to compel a person to recommend that his employer approve an investment does not constitute “the obtaining of property from another” under the Hobbs Act . In this case, Sekhar allegedly threatened the attorney for New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to gain [...]

Lebanese police forces are targeting and torturing drug users, sex workers and members of LGBT communities, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The report, released on the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture , included quotes from members of those demographics claiming that various forms of [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled in two landmark same-sex marriage cases Wednesday. In United States v. Windsor , the court ruled 5-4 that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Under DOMA, couples in same-sex marriages legally recognized by a state were denied federal benefits extended to married couples. Affirming [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Human Rights Monitoring Institute on Tuesday urged Lithuania to reopen its investigation into secret CIA prisons that may have operated in the country from 2001-2006. In 2010 Lithuania launched an investigation into illegal detentions but closed it a year later. Lithuania has refused to disclose the information from the [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons urged Morocco on Tuesday to adopt a victim-centered approach to combat human trafficking in the country. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said “ictims of trafficking are most often not being identified or being misidentified as smuggled and/or irregular migrants due the absence of appropriate tools and protocols for victim identification.” [...]

A Saudi Arabian court on Monday sentenced human rights activist Abdulkarim al-Khader to eight years in prison for sedition. Abdulkarim al-Khader was one of the founders of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) , which aimed to increase awareness of civil rights in the country. He was sentenced to prison after the ACPRA [...]

The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) on Monday ordered Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan to be tried in absentia for the murders of 19 intellectuals and 11 crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 independence war. Khan is a US citizen, and Mueee-Uddin is a British Muslim leader. Their alleged victims included nine teachers, six [...]