JURIST Columnist Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that, despite Islam’s proscription against collecting interest, and a constitutional provision prohibiting laws that conflict with such Islamic rulings, Iraq’s courts are unlikely to declare the nation’s new state-owned bank unconstitutional…

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported Friday that more than 2,000 have fled growing violence in the northern Myanmar state of Rakhine and Bangladesh aboard boats operated by smugglers in the Bay of Bengal. The UN agency has voiced grave concern of the lives of the refugees who have boarded boats operating by smuggler rings. [...]

The Philippines on Sunday officially began a nationwide 150-day ban on the carrying of firearms in public areas in preparation for congressional and local elections slated for mid-May. Only top-officials, military and police entities will be exempt from the law’s proscriptive scope, which punishes violators with up to a six-year jail term. According to media [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called on authorities in Myanmar to drop charges against nine peaceful protesters who are facing criminal charges for demonstrating without a permit in Rangoon in September on International Peace Day. The demonstrators were calling for peace in Myanmar’s war-torn Kachin State . According to HRW, the protesters have been [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Friday expressed serious concern regarding the inefficacy of the allocation of state and donor resources used for the reconstruction of Haiti after a massive January 2010 earthquake displaced more than 2.3 million people. AI estimates that approximately 350,000 Haitians still live in nearly 500 makeshift camps where living conditions are allegedly [...]

The UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice on Monday called on the government of Tunisia to adopt stronger constitutional measures to combat gender inequality and discrimination, while accelerating the participation of women in all aspects of society. The working group stated that it “remains concerned at the persistence of [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday condemned the human rights record of people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), calling on the international community to make efforts to improve the situation. Pillay expressed concern that the international community is almost exclusively focused on North Korea’s nuclear program and not [...]

The government of Georgia freed 190 people considered by parliament to be political prisoners on Sunday under an amnesty agreement. The amnesty was opposed by President Mikhail Saakashvili and has intensified a power struggle within the country. Many of the prisoners who were released were arrested in May 2011 during anti-Saakashvili protests . Approximately 3,000 [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday urged Sudan to end its crackdown against political and cultural groups. In December Sudanese authorities shut down four organizations in Khartoum that promoted cultural diversity, democracy and human rights. The government shut down these groups based on alleged national security concerns. In the press release, HRW’s Africa director Daniel [...]

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday signed an order to remove Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office for alleged corruption and bribery. The president’s action comes just two days after the Sri Lankan Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority to impeach the chief justice and drafted an official motion urging the president to remove [...]