A group of 40 rights organizations issued a joint statement Friday calling on Saudi Arabian authorities to release all those unfairly jailed for their online activities before Riyadh hosts the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) from December 15 to 19. The organizations stated that the detention contradicts the IGF’s stated values, which focus on [...]

Former President of Colombia Andrés Pastrana on Saturday claimed that Venezuela is facing a “coup d’état” following the country’s disputed 2024 presidential elections. The leader of the IDEA group, a coalition of 31 former heads of government from countries in Latin America, emphasized the urgency of international intervention, specifically calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Friday partially reinstated 2023 laws in Hawaii and California banning the carry of firearms in certain “sensitive places.” After the laws’ passage, the “sensitive place” designations were challenged as violating the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which establishes the right to keep and bear arms. US district [...]

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced Friday that it had arrested a 20-year-old Pakistani man residing in Canada over an alleged plot to carry out a mass shooting at a New York City Jewish center on or around October 7, 2024, one year after the Hamas attack on Israel that killed nearly 800 civilians. [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday vacated the class certification of Black Lives Matter protesters in their 2020 complaint against the city of Los Angeles for alleged use of excessive force. The appeals court sent the case back to the trial court for a fresh look at class certification, offering [...]

Amnesty International urged the Hong Kong government to demonstrate progress in establishing a framework to recognize same-sex partnerships, in its statement issued on Thursday. The statement marked one year since the landmark ruling by the city’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA) in Sham Tsz Kit v. Secretary for Justice.  On September 5, 2023, the CFA ruled [...]

The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that charges have been filed against Dimitri Simes, a Russian-born US citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Simes is accused of working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds from his involvement. The first indictment alleges that Simes and [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on Friday condemning the treason charges leveled against protestors in Nigeria last month. Treason can be punishable by death in the West African country. The organization found that 124 people were arrested in Nigeria during the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria campaign in August, and 10 of those individuals were charged with [...]

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc. on Thursday, accusing the company’s social media service Snapchat, of failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation and addictive design features. Torrez claimed in the complaint that Snapchat is “a breeding ground for predators,” stating: Snap and Snapchat … are among the most [...]

Eight international human rights organizations on Friday condemned Kyrgyzstan authorities’ decision to liquidate investigative outlet Kloop Media, one week after the Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court upheld the decision. The organizations, which included Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Civil Rights Defenders, denounced the decision in a joint statement, warning that the suppression of independent media [...]