The High Court of England and Wales on Tuesday struck down a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the killing of 24 Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops in 1948. The incident occurred during the Malayan Emergency when Britain was combating communist insurgents. The British government explained last November that they would not [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is expected to hear arguments this week in a landmark case involving alleged workplace discrimination in the UK against four practicing Christians. Two of the applicants, British Airways employee Nadia Eweida and geriatrics nurse Shirley Chaplin, seek relief from workplace prohibitions against employees visibly wearing crosses . The [...]

A civilian court in Bahrain upheld lengthy prison sentences for 20 opposition and human rights activists on Tuesday, including eight life sentences. The lesser prison terms upheld ranged between five and 12 years , and seven of the activists were convicted in absentia. The activists are accused of plotting to overthrow Bahrain’s government. Tuesday’s ruling [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Katherine Todrys of the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch recounts her experiences researching disease transmission and living standards in African prisons. She calls for sweeping criminal justice reforms to address the systemic problems of overcrowding, human rights abuses and wrongful imprisonment…

A South African prosecutor on Monday announced that the government had withdrawn murder charges against 270 miners who were participating in a strike when police officers shot and killed 34 participants. The miners were charged with murder last week under an old South African law that deems the striking miners as complicit in their co-workers’ [...]

Russia’s Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko asked the British government on Monday to confirm or deny the existence of a visa blacklist for Russian officials linked to the the 2009 death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky , after a British newspaper reported that the British embassy in Moscow has implemented the “Magnitsky list” to [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Lena Martinez-Watts, St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2013, is the author of the second article of a 15-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. She offers insight into the delicate background and issues in Fisher v. University of Texas…

Egypt lifted a decades-long ban on veiled female news reporters on Sunday by having Fatma Nabil read the noon news in a headscarf. This broadcast marked the first time a woman appeared on Egyptian state TV wearing a veil in over 50 years. The ban had been perpetuated by previous regimes and had long been [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday denied the request for a new trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic . Karadzic accused prosecutors of failing to disclose crucial information until after the start of the trial. However, the court ruled that the delay in disclosing evidence has not infringed [...]

The Embassy of the US Guatemala on Thursday praised the decision of the Guatemala Constitutional Court allowing former president Alfonso Portillo to be extradited to the US on charges of embezzling foreign donations. Upon extradition Portillo will stand trial in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on charges of laundering [...]