The Somali Transitional Federal Government on Friday announced its intention to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) , which, if successful, would make the US the only UN member state not to have done so. The UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) welcomed the announcement that Somalia's ministers had agreed in [...]

John Esposito : "Despite our increasingly globalized world and the need to strengthen religious pluralism as well as to transform an outmoded notion of tolerance based simply on co-existence to one based on mutual understanding and respect and the equal rights of all citizens, many countries continue to fail the religious freedom litmus test. Religious [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's denial of a conservative advocacy group's motion to intervene in a challenge to Proposition 8 , California's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage . The appeals court held that the district court did not abuse abuse its [...]

The Argentine Senate on Thursday voted 57-1 to approve a law that authorizes the government to obtain DNA samples from individuals suspected to have been born to forced disappearance victims of the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" . The law will amend Article 218 of the Criminal Penal Code to allow minimal biological samples to be taken [...]

The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed a challenge to two policies that provide benefits to same-sex couples married outside of the state. The first policy was a 2006 decision by the Westchester County executive to extend benefits to same-sex spouses of county employees. The second policy was a 2006 decision by the [...]

The conflict-ravaged nations of Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, and Iraq rank among the world's most corrupt, according to the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) prepared by Transparency International (TI) . The index, released Tuesday, ranked 180 countries based on observations by businesspeople and analysts, giving each a score between 0 and 10. Somalia had the [...]

The Constitutional Court of Russia on Thursday extended the moratorium on the death penalty until the Russian parliament ratifies an international treaty abolishing capital punishment. In 1997, Russia signed, but did not ratify, Protocol 6 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms , which was put forward by the Council [...]

The UK High Court ruled Thursday that the details of the detention of Binyam Mohamed in Pakistan in 2002 must be released. This most recent decision is the latest in a series of back and forth rulings on whether redacted materials regarding Mohamed's detention should be disclosed. An October interim ruling by Lord Justice Thomas [...]

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh on Thursday denied the appeals of five former military officers sentenced to death for the 1975 military coup assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the country's first leader. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed , Mujibur's daughter, praised the latest decision in the 16-year old murder trial . The convicted [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that airline passengers confronted with flight delays of two hours or more may receive compensation equal to that of passengers whose flights are cancelled. The flat-rate compensation ranges between 250 and 600 euros. The case arose under European Parliament and European Council Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 , [...]