The UN Committee Against Torture has ruled that Kazakhstan’s extradition of 29 Uzbek refugees was a violation of international human rights agreements, including the Convention Against Torture . The committee stated in a ruling that the extradited Uzbekistan nationals faced risk of torture in their home country. The committee recommended that the government seek the [...]

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei was banned on Wednesday from attending the first hearing in the case brought by his company, Fake Cultural Development Ltd., against Beijing tax authorities. The court was also closed to filming , denying access to reporters into the courthouse. Police officers stationed in front of Ai’s house blocked him from going [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions told reporters Wednesday that after a two-day dialogue with US officials about legal concerns over drone-strike killings, the US has failed to directly address any of his questions. Special Rapporteur Christof Heyns presented his report at the 20th session of the UN Human Rights Council [...]

The new Senegalese government should take this opportunity to protect and promote human rights by addressing the impunity that undermines the judicial system and rule of law in the country, Amnesty International (AI) said on Wednesday. In its report , AI listed areas which the new government has to address to achieve the goals of [...]

The president of Haiti on Tuesday gave final approval for amendments to the Constitution of Haiti that will allow dual-citizens to vote and be appointed to administrative positions. President Michel Joseph Martelly originally opposed the amendments but ultimately approved them. The changes became official when they were posted to Haiti’s National Gazette . Dual-citizens are [...]

Sudan’s Ministry of Justice on Tuesday appointed a new special prosecutor for crimes committed in Darfur . Justice Minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa announced Yasir Ahmed Mohamed, a senior counselor, as the new prosecutor who will handle criminal cases surrounding the crimes committed between August 2003 and March 2004, the Sudan Tribune reported . Yasir will [...]

An anonymous same-sex couple in New York on Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit against Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and a New York hospital seeking to compel the hospital to provide spousal healthcare benefits. The hospital, St. Joseph’s Medical Center , is a Catholic institution that has a policy against providing benefits to same-sex couples. [...]

Integrative human rights and environmental protection laws and policies should be implemented to achieve sustainable development, according to a joint report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) . The report, which was released under the framework of Rio+20 , argued that the “protection of [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on Tuesday presented his report to the UN Human Rights Council , concluding that people in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are severely limited in free expression, both by the official governing bodies, and de facto [...]

The District Court of The Hague on Wednesday ruled in favor of Samsung Electronics against Apple in a patent infringement case. All About Phones reported that the court held Apple liable for infringing upon one of the Korean company’s four patents, a 3G patent . The court dismissed the remaining three patent claims against Apple [...]