Search Results for: prisoner\'s rights

The National Court of Justice of Ecuador decided on Friday that former vice president Jorge Glas must remain in jail despite denouncing his arrest at the Mexican Embassy as illegal. The habeas corpus petition filed to request his release stemmed from his detention during the raid at the Mexican Embassy last week and followed a [...]

Arizona’s Supreme Court found on Tuesday that a 159-year-old law banning abortion is enforceable following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn abortion rights case Roe v Wade, sending a 52-year-old case back to trial court. The case, Planned Parenthood v. Kristin Mayes/Hazelrigg, was initiated in 1971, two years before the US Supreme Court [...]

UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) revealed Wednesday the use of indiscriminate landmines in Myanmar has caused an increase in civilian casualties, with over 20 percent of them being children. Civilians in Myanmar have suffered from a total of 1,052 casualties from landmine and explosive ordnances in 2023, alone. According to UNICEF, amidst the recent [...]

Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday upheld most provisions of controversial legislation that imposes a sentence of death by hanging against individuals convicted of “aggravated homosexuality.” In upholding the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the court maintained that though the country’s penal code is “undoubtedly … considered to be a relic from the country’s colonial past,” the bill’s overwhelming [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called on Liberian authorities to investigate the physical assault and violent arrest of Liberia journalist Kesselee Sumo on March 11 and to drop the charges against him. Sumo hosts a daily radio talk show from the Bong Mine Community in Liberia. A few days before his arrest, [...]

Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) president, Bay Fang, announced Friday that the news organization has already closed its Hong Kong bureau and will “no longer have full-time personnel in Hong Kong” due to safety concerns after the enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. The statement cited actions by Hong Kong authorities, who have referred to [...]

One year ago today, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia. His arrest came amid a broader media crackdown and surging suspicion of the West, both of which have loomed heavily amid Moscow’s ongoing war against Ukraine. On this grim anniversary, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken implored Russia to release Gershkovich [...]

A dozen senators on Friday urged the US Department of Homeland Security to reform its system of placing detained immigrants in solitary confinement, referring to the practice as a “clear violation of international norms” in a heated letter. The senators wrote that in recent years, solitary confinement has been on the rise in Immigration and [...]

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 [...]

Saudi Arabia was elected chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) by “acclamation” on Wednesday after an unopposed bid for leadership with no dissent, despite outcry from human rights organizations ahead of the vote. Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdulaziz Alwasil will assume the position. The CSW is dedicated to promoting gender [...]