India on Monday strongly rebuked UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk for his remarks on Kashmir and Manipur, calling them “unfounded and baseless.” The sharp response came after Turk, in his global update at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, raised concerns over violence and displacement in Manipur [...]

On Friday, March 7, just ahead of the Jewish Sabbath, a South Carolina firing squad will shoot to death my longtime pen pal and friend Brad Sigmon. This will mark the first American firing squad execution to take place in 15 years. Accordingly, it will be the first since I co-founded the 3,800+-member-strong L’chaim! Jews [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders called Wednesday for urgent support for rights defenders in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor recognized the deteriorating situation in the DRC, stating: “Human rights defenders in the eastern DRC are currently at extreme risk of reprisals for their human rights [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump from firing the Democratic chair of the US Merit System Protection Board (MSPB). Trump had informed Cathy Harris that her position on the MSPB was terminated “effective, immediately” last month. However, Trump failed to provide a reason [...]

The US Supreme Court sided with the city and county of San Francisco on Tuesday in a dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), finding the EPA cannot penalize the city if water quality levels fall below the agency’s standards when the city is, under permit, discharging pollution, including sewage, into the Pacific Ocean. The [...]

In 1996, when Professor Bernard Hibbitts first established JURIST, few could have foreseen the impact the project would have. Whether measured in terms of the individual lives it has touched, its global reach, or the impressions it has left on the landscape of online legal news coverage, JURIST’s role cannot be overstated. What began as [...]

In the article, Giuliana Himont, a postgraduate student at Nottingham University’s School of Law, explores the UK’s proposed Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty (Human Rights and Environment) Bill, introduced in the House of Lords.  Himont places this Bill within a global context of advancing responsible business practices, comparing it to similar European laws and [...]

UN experts on Tuesday urged Poland to acquit Justyna Wydrzyńska, a human rights defender and abortion rights activist previously sentenced to eight months of community service. Advocating for the protection of human rights defenders such as Wydrzyńska, the experts noted the work of individuals like her “remains one of the few avenues for safe abortion [...]

The UN World Food Program (WFP) will close its southern Africa office following the Trump administration’s recent foreign aid cuts. The decision underscores the broader impact of the administration’s termination of approximately 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, a move that has disrupted humanitarian operations worldwide. WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri told the Associated Press [...]

The government of Rwanda is seeking damages of £50 million from the UK following the cancellation of a migrant transfer deal between Rwanda and the UK on Monday. The controversy comes amidst growing human rights concerns and diplomatic tension over Rwanda’s military presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Rwanda’s government spokesperson, Yolande [...]