Hazaras and Shias: Violence, Discrimination, and Exclusion Under the Taliban
The resurgence of the Taliban poses renewed threats to the Hazaras, characterized by escalated violence, discrimination, and isolation. The Taliban’s early governance involved the abolition of the Shia Personal Status Law, the removal of Ja’fari jurisprudence from the education system, and the dismissal of Shia judges. Notably, the Taliban’s cabinet and supreme court lack Hazara [...]
'Still I Rise': In the Face of Taliban Education Bans, Afghan Women Long for Justice
The presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle underpinning the right to a fair trial. This may be broadly understood as a fundamental human right, but its protection is far from universal. Since retaking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has made the systematic punishment of women and girls a core part of its [...]
NAACP Legal Defense Fund releases report on racial inequality in US elections
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) released a 67-page report Tuesday detailing its findings from monitoring the 2022 US midterm election and showcasing strategies to combat racial inequality during upcoming election cycles. The report, entitled Democracy Defended, specifically focused on voter experiences in seven of the nation’s southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, [...]
“Does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office, and if so, to what extent?” This is the latest question the Supreme Court is grappling with that will have a direct impact on a leading candidate ahead of what are expected to [...]
Nearly seven months after the start of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, the NYPD entered campus on Thursday to disperse a student gathering and carry out mass arrests for the first time since 1968. Hundreds of students set up tents and occupied parts of the South Lawn in front of Butler Library for more [...]
Human rights watchdog groups ask UN to address racial profiling by French police
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International France, as well as three other French rights groups, on Thursday announced that they had lodged a formal complaint with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in which they sought the committee’s intervention to address racial profiling by law enforcement authorities in France. HRW [...]
Uganda made international headlines this week as its Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of a draconian law that would impose the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.” But for LGBTQ+ activists within the country, the death penalty isn’t the only specter that looms in the judgment’s aftermath. Over the past 15 years, Ugandan authorities have endeavored [...]
Explainer: US Mass Incarceration and Its Disparate Racial Impacts
The US prides itself on being a nation built on freedom, justice, and individual rights. And yet the evolution of its system of mass incarceration — a system that cannot be defined without reference to shocking racial disparities — seems to directly contradict these founding principles. The US prison population dwarfs those of nearly every other [...]
The New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit from Tax Equity Now New York (TENNY), which alleges disparities in the New York City property tax system are disproportionately burdening low-income and majority-people-of-color neighborhoods, can go forward in the New York state courts. Judge Jenny Riviera, writing for the court, ruled that the [...]
Book ban attempts in US libraries and schools hit record high in 2023: national library group
The American Library Association (ALA) announced on Thursday that censorship demands and book ban attempts in public libraries and schools hit a record high in 2023. The ALA documented 1,247 demands to ban 4,240 different books. This is a 65 percent increase from 2022, when 2,571 books faced censorship demands. In 17 states, book ban [...]
