Former Gambian Minister of Interior Ousman Sonko has been convicted of crimes against humanity by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC). The court found him guilty of numerous crimes committed between 2000 and 2016 under the regime of ex-President Yahya Jammeh, sentencing Sonko to 20 years in prison. This conviction marks the highest-ranking official ever sentenced [...]
Search Results for: federal benefits
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” so taught civil rights campaigner and feminist Rita Mae Brown. There is no more fitting maxim for the broken American system that in 2024 has allowed Donald Trump to return as a major political party’s presumptive nominee for its highest office. [...]
US Supreme Court rejects former Guantanamo detainee's request to appeal war crime convictions
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a Canadian-born former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was seeking to wipe away his war crimes convictions, including one for the killing of a US soldier in Afghanistan. Omar Khadr waived his right to appeal in 2010 when he pleaded guilty to murder charges. Despite a [...]
Is NOTA Enough? Exploring Options for Amplifying Voter Dissatisfaction in India Elections
With India launching into its 18th general elections on April 19, the imperative that voters turn out to the polls has dominated public discourse. As India is the world’s largest constitutional democracy, each citizen must responsibly and proactively participate in the process that will decide the next five years of the nation’s governance. The incumbent [...]
Germany parliament authorizes the issuance of payment cards for asylum seekers and refugees
The German parliament, the Bundestag, passed contentious legislation on Friday authorizing the issuance of payment cards to asylum seekers and refugees for the distribution of state benefits. The nationwide legal framework was approved following a conference between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the state prime ministers in November last year, during which 14 out of the [...]
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 [...]
US federal prosecutors seek seizure of assets linked to former Mongolia PM
US federal prosecutors filed a complaint in a New York federal district court Wednesday seeking the forfeiture of two multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartments purchased by former Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold in connection to an alleged money laundering and corruption investigation. The investigation centers around contracts the Erdenet Mining Corporation, a state owned mining company, entered [...]
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether Indian Health Services (IHS) should be reimbursed for “contract support costs” associated with third parties, such as Medicare and Medicaid. In a US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision, the court found that third-party reimbursements could not be excluded under its statute. In contrast, [...]
The Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday prohibiting companies that benefit from state economic development incentives from recognizing unions without first conducting formal secret-ballot elections. The bill, Senate Bill 362, now awaits Governor Brian Kemp’s signature to become law in the state. The bill has sparked debate regarding its compliance with federal [...]
Donald Trump's Immunity Argument From the Standpoint of International Law
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal (1950) (Principle [...]