The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, on Monday voiced concern over the conditions in which female inmates were experiencing at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), saying that after reporting alleged sexual harassment, privacy violations, threats, and violence, they were now facing retaliation. In June 2026, the Special Rapporteur [...]

A motion for retrial was filed by a Taiwan Innocence Project pro bono legal team on September f7 or Lu Cheng—a man executed in 2000 amid concerns over a miscarriage of justice. The motion was supported by five new pieces of evidence. In the press conference and documentary screening earlier this month, the Taiwan Innocence [...]

Newly appointed UN expert Bethanie Carney Almroth on Monday warned that pollution in the form of “forever chemicals,” or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), poses severe risks to the basic human right of a healthy and safe environment. Almroth referenced a recent UN report conveying that as PFAS spreads and accumulates in the environment, it has the [...]

15 September 2026: International Day of Democracy For those who live in countries where democracy remains functional, it is unfortunately easy to take the associated liberties for granted. In this position of privilege, one only knows through the exercise of imagination what it is truly like to face the oppressive possibility of arbitrary execution, disappearance, [...]

Two new legal challenges seeking to block the Trump administration’s revised public charge rule arose on Monday, one filed by a coalition of 22 states and the other by a group of cities and counties that includes Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. The challenges come as the rule, which is set to take effect [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency application from the Department of Justice seeking a stay of a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocks the United States Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing a new mail-in ballot rule ahead of the November midterm elections. Pursuant to a March 2026 executive order by President Donald Trump, [...]

A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from implementing changes to mail-in voting that would create new design requirements and mandate only sending ballots to voters on a national list. With less than two months until the midterms, mail-in voting has become a major issue of contention. This decision comes amid a series [...]

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for sweeping reforms to global institutions during the 18th Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability (BRICS) Summit in New Delhi on Sunday, arguing that the international system must adapt to a world that has changed dramatically since 1945. Speaking to leaders of BRICS member states, Guterres said the world is [...]

Allegations of sexual violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) keep making international headlines: a UN mission’s finding of reasonable grounds to believe rape occurred during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks; Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column detailing accounts of sexual abuse, including alleged gang rape, of Palestinian detainees; a Gaza flotilla activist’s [...]