On Monday, Amnesty International urged Central Asian and EU nations to focus on actively protecting human rights and civil society space during the upcoming EU-Central Asia Summit. The summit will be held on April 3 and 4, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said: If Central Asian governments [...]

Amnesty International called upon Hungary on Monday to arrest and surrender Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court ahead of his reported visit to the country. According to an announcement from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office, he will be visiting Hungary, on invitation from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, from Wednesday to Sunday. [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) demanded Monday the unconditional release of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi after the Iranian government threatened to re-imprison the human rights activist in an evident attempt to silence her. Mohammadi’s health condition dramatically worsened during the prison sentence she has been serving since 2016. The group strongly expressed criticism of [...]

The French competition regulator, Autorité de la Concurrence, fined Apple on Monday $162 million over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) tool. The regulator found that the ATT framework was unnecessarily complex and biased, violating French and EU privacy laws. The agency fined Apple because the consent required by ATT is burdensome for users, violating the [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called for the release of imprisoned Uyghur activist Valijon Kalonov, who has been forcibly detained in a Uzbekistan psychiatric hospital since 2021. Kalonov was initially detained on charges of using social media in a way that threatens public safety, and publicly insulting the president of Uzbekistan. During his trial, [...]

Amnesty International on Monday condemned President Donald Trump’s executive order that significantly reduced funding for US-backed media outlets, including Radio Free Asia (RFA). The organization said that the reduced funding effectively amounted to a closure and the surrender of “a tried-and-tested tool of soft US power.” The statement highlighted RFA’s instrumental role in providing a [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday for a Wisconsin Catholic charity requesting a religious exemption from an unemployment insurance tax. Catholic Charities Bureau, the petitioners, argued that Wisconsin law disfavored Catholic Charities because the organization served and hired non-Catholics and did not proselytize, meaning that they did not engage in typical religious activities. Justice [...]

US District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted on Friday a restraining order temporarily blocking the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) from carrying out President Donald Trump’s directive to terminate Voice of America (VOA) employees, cancel employee work contracts, and to close USAGM offices. Following the decision, RSF announced in a press release that [...]

Hidden behind the United States’ largest produce supply is a crisis in farmworker housing, one that not only endangers workers but also poses a risk to consumers far beyond the fields. California grows more than a third of America’s vegetables and most of the country’s fruits and nuts. Thousands of farmworkers power this agricultural machine, [...]

Amnesty International urged Turkish authorities on Friday to immediately halt the extradition of Syrian refugee Mohamad Alkayali and release him from detention, warning of severe human rights risks if he is deported to Saudi Arabia.  Amnesty’s press release stated: “Mohamad Alkayali suffers from a severe cervical herniated disc and chronic pain, which requires surgery. His [...]