The EU expressed concern with Russia’s human rights record Sunday, focusing on the country’s recent adoption of restrictive legislation, the prosecution of political activists and efforts towards establishing an independent judiciary. At the human rights consultation in Brussels the EU confirmed its intention to continue to monitor the implications of Russia’s recent “Foreign Agents” law [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday that no progress has been made in Sri Lanka regarding respect for basic rights and liberties in the four years since the end of the country’s brutal 26-year civil war . According to HRW, the government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has failed to investigate and prosecute alleged [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist, Faisal Kutty of the Valparaiso University Law School says that the Muslim community has risen to the challenge of addressing the mainstream about extremists within, and that, to win the war on terror, democratic governments must foster productive bridge building with the majority of Muslims who oppose jihadist ideology…

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in five cases. In Lawson v. FMR LLC the court will consider whether an employee of a privately-held contractor or subcontractor of a public company is protected from retaliation by Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act . Section 1514A forbids a publicly traded company, a mutual fund [...]

A senior judge for the Judiciary of England and Wales on Friday partially upheld a request by British Foreign Secretary William Hague to withhold certain information from the investigation into the 2006 death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko . Litvinenko was a member of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) when he [...]

The Afghanistan parliament on Saturday blocked legislation that would have worked to strengthen women’s rights in the country. If passed, the legislation would have protected provisions of the 2009 Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) , which was originally implemented by presidential decree, from being repealed by a future Afghanistan president. The law [...]

Five human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) , sent a letter letter Cameroon authorities on Friday to drop the charges against two transgender youths rather than undergoing an appeal to the Cameroon Supreme Court . The defendants, who identify as women, were arrested in July 2011 and prosecuted on charges of homosexual conduct. [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Friday ruled that people convicted of crack cocaine offenses have a right to resentencing hearings under the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) . The case was brought by two incarcerated defendants seeking retroactive relief from racially discriminatory, 10-year mandatory minimum sentences imposed on them in 2005. [...]

The Illinois Senate passed a bill on Friday that would allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes in the state, subject to strict regulations. The bill indicates that marijuana may only be used for specified medical conditions, and is intended to be regulated through dosage limits and background checks. The state would license 22 [...]

Portugal’s Parliament voted Friday to approve a law allowing same-sex married couples to adopt their partners’ children. The Parliament also voted on Friday to reject the Left Bloc and Green Party’s proposal to grant gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals. The bill approved by Parliament is intended to primarily serve the children in [...]