Search Results for: Guatemala

The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) Monday canceled its visit to Australia after it was denied access to detention centers and mental health facilities. In October 2022, SPT visited Australia for 12 days, but was forced to suspend the visit after they were prevented from visiting multiple facilities. Specifically, SPT cited issues with [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported Tuesday that killings of journalists “rose sharply” last year, with 68 journalists being killed in 2022. This is a 50 percent increase from 2021. Of those deaths, CPJ confirmed that 41 were related to their journalistic work. CPJ continues to investigate the other 26 killings to determine if [...]

The UN Economic and Social Council (ESC) Wednesday voted to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Of the 54 current ESC members, 29 voted in favor of removal, 8 voted against and 16 abstained. Iran was to serve its term from 2022-2026. In early November, the US promised to [...]

A UN expert Friday called recent legal charges and proceedings against a former Guatemalan judge and prosecutor “an attack on the rule of law.” UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Margaret Satterthwaite raised concerns over “irregularities” in the case of former anti-corruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra Rivas and former judge Miguel Ángel [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday announced the indictments of eight leaders of a human smuggling operation (HSO) at the US-Mexico border. The effort was a part of the DOJ’s Joint Task Force Alpha, a law enforcement task force assembled in June 2021 to combat dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating out of [...]

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned Roe v. Wade with a 6-3 majority. This judgment raises multiple constitutional law and due process issues. However, this article will not be addressing these issues. The focus of this piece is to analyze and highlight [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Friday announced that former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli’s sons were sentenced earlier that day in a New York City federal courthouse to 36 months of imprisonment. They will also pay a USD 250,000 fine each and close to USD 19 million in cumulative forfeiture, and forfeit various assets for their participation in [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Monday urged the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala to reject a bill that stigmatizes the trans community and “limits children’s and adolescent’s access to rights, education, and health.”  According to HRW, the legislature should instead address the violence and discrimination faced by LGBTQI+ individuals in the country. Over 20 lawmakers [...]

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced on Monday actions against seven Central American officials who are accused of “undermining democracy” and “obstructing investigations into acts of corruption” in El Salvador and Guatemala. Blinken affirmed that the US “is committed to supporting the people of northern Central America by fortifying democracy, rule of law, and [...]

Samuel Moyn’s vicious and unprincipled attack on Michael Ratner, one of the finest human rights attorneys of our time, was published in the New York Review of Books (NYRB) on September 1. Moyn singles out Ratner as a whipping boy to support his own bizarre theory that punishing war crimes prolongs war by making it [...]