The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) issued recommendations Tuesday for the US to align its human rights policies and practices with international standards. The recommendations stem from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the US government’s human rights record before the UNHRC in Geneva. The list of 228 recommendations by other nations included repeated calls [...]

A judge for Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Lagos ruled Monday that an amendment to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution made by the National Assembly (NASS) cannot become operational law without the assent of the president. Justice Okechukwu Okeke ruled that the NASS’s refusal to forward the amendment to President Goodluck Jonathan for approval violated Section [...]

Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia heard arguments Monday on the Obama administration’s ability to conduct “targeted killings” in the case of radical Muslim cleric and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki . Counsel for the plaintiffs, including Awlaki’s father, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for [...]

A French judge on Monday ordered former president Jacques Chirac to stand trial on a second set of charges in connection with the funding of his political party during his time as mayor of Paris from 1977-1995. Chirac is accused of providing fictitious city jobs for members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR), now [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on Monday temporarily blocked a state constitutional amendment banning courts from considering international or Islamic Law. Chief Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a temporary restraining order , stopping the measure from taking effect until a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for November 22. The [...]

The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ruled Monday that the Nigerien military junta should release ousted president Mamadou Tandja whom they have held since deposing him in a February coup. The court, which does not have the power to make the junta comply with its judgment, ruled that [...]

The Supreme Court of South Korea on Monday upheld an appellate court decision that sentenced a defendant to a two-year suspended sentence for possessing instrumental music with titles praising North Korea. Prosecutors charged the defendant, identified only by her last name Song, with violating South Korea’s National Security Act, which prohibits people from disseminating materials [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Costco v. Omega on whether the first-sale doctrine , which provides that the owner of any particular copy “lawfully made under this title” may resell that good without the authority of the copyright holder, applies to imported goods manufactured abroad. Swiss watchmaker Omega manufactures watches in [...]

The Hague Court of Appeals on Monday prohibited the eviction of squatters in Amsterdam, The Hauge, and Leeuwarden. In an oral ruling, the court relied on the European Convention on Human Rights , asserting that a person cannot be forced from a home without a prior affirmation from a judge that the eviction is legal. [...]

The European Union (EU) on Monday criticized the Myanmar government for failing to take the necessary steps to ensure a free, fair and inclusive electoral process for the country’s first elections in over 20 years. The EU noted that many aspects of the elections, which were held Sunday, were incompatible with internationally accepted standards, especially [...]