A blind Chinese legal activist who sought sought safety from local officials by holing up in the US Embassy in Beijing emerged on Wednesday after six days of self-confinement. The activist, Chen Guangcheng , was originally wanted in his rural town for exposing forced abortions and other human rights abuses but escaped last week to [...]

Kosovo politician and parliamentarian Fatmir Limaj was acquitted Wednesday on charges of war crimes allegedly committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war with Serbia . Limaj allegedly ordered the torture and killings of Serbian detainees in 1999. He and three co-defendants were tried and acquitted before a panel of two EU judges and one Kosovo judge [...]

Chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Serge Brammertz told reporters Wednesday that he believes former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army Ratko Mladic is mentally and physically fit to stand trial next month. The ICTY ordered a medical exam of Mladic in November after protests from his lawyers that [...]

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on Tuesday signed two pieces of legislation barring late-term abortions and assisted suicide , respectively. HB 954 bans most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, based on studies suggesting a fetus can begin to feel pain at that point in development. It creates exceptions for when the mother’s life is in [...]

A jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday convicted naturalized American citizen Adis Medunjanin for his role in a conspiracy to bomb the New York City subway system in September 2009. Medunjanin, a Bosnian immigrant, was convicted on all nine counts, including conspiring to use weapons of [...]

The Libyan government on Tuesday formally challenged the right of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi . Libya argues that under Article 17 of the Rome Statute , the ICC does not have jurisdiction when “he case is being investigated or prosecuted [...]

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma on Monday ruled that granting “personhood” rights to human embryos is unconstitutional, thus derailing a proposed ballot initiative to amend the state’s constitution by defining a fertilized egg as a person. Finding the initiative “void on its face,” Oklahoma’s highest court unanimously declared that it must follow the US Supreme [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Bahrain to immediately release the leaders of last year’s anti-government protests, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja . HRW states that the 14 individuals have been jailed for more than a year with no evidence of any wrongdoing produced against them. The 14 protesters were convicted in military court and were [...]

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies on Monday approved a bill that will recognize, protect and provide aid to victims of crimes stemming from the gang-related drug wars that have engulfed the country for nearly the last six years. Known as the General Victims Act , the law was passed by Mexico’s lower house of Congress [...]

A coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law . The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and the Advancement Project filed suit along with the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP in Pennsylvania state court on behalf [...]