A Russian court sentenced politician Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in a penal colony on charges of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military and spreading “false information” about it, Amnesty International said on Monday. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, called the sentencing “blatant reprisals for exercising his right [...]
The US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced on Monday that it joined the legal team involved with the family of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black man whose body was found last month on a Mississippi barrier island while on a Fourth of July outing with some friends. The case has [...]
Latin American and Caribbean governments convened Tuesday for a three-day UN conference on population and development, meeting amid what Amnesty International described as a regional rollback of protections for women, girls and adolescents. The Regional Conference on Population and Development (CRPD) will be held in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on August 18-20. Ahead of [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday again declined to hear President Donald Trump’s petition to appeal the sexual assault and defamation case brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll. The denial comes a month and a half after the court’s initial refusal to grant the president’s appeal of the $5 million jury trial judgment [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday announced that it has opened an investigation into the College of William & Mary (W&M) scholarship and student benefit policies to determine if they include criteria favoring minority applicants. This is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to crack down on diversity and inclusivity initiatives in [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Thai authorities on Monday to halt the deportation of ethnic Karen villagers from Thailand’s Phetchaburi province to Myanmar, citing fears of grave risks to their safety if returned and urging their immediate release from immigration detention. HRW reported that Thai security forces on Aug. 10 raided the Karen community [...]
Canadian rights groups on Monday filed an urgent challenge to the constitutionality of Ontario’s mandatory cash bail policy. The challenge argued that the provincial policy violates the Charter rights to the presumption of innocence and to reasonable bail, as well as the rules of Canadian federalism. The Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties [...]
United Nations experts warned on Monday that the UK’s revisions to the Equality Act 2010 risk discriminating against and excluding transgender people. The UN human rights experts warned that the updated Code of Practice essentially advises service providers that “a women’s service must either exclude transgender women or admit men” and vice versa. The experts [...]
Security forces in Morocco prevented nearly 300 “irregular migrants” from crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and arrested hundreds of other would-be migrants in the city of Fnideq, northern Morocco, on Saturday, according to local media. The actions occurred amid a persistent migration crisis in the region. According to a Moroccan security source, authorities [...]
The UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Saul, urged the government of Mozambique on Friday to strengthen its efforts to protect human rights when combating terrorism and to address the root causes of the conflict. In a statement concluding his ten-day visit to [...]
