Amnesty International called on the Government of Namibia to ensure the safety of LGBTQ persons Wednesday ahead of a major decision by the country’s High Court. The High Court is expected to make a verdict on June 21 in a case involving sodomy and unnatural offenses laws dating back to the colonial era that criminalize [...]
Search Results for: manning
Aynsley Genga is JURIST’s senior Kenya correspondent. She files this from Nairobi. What is democracy? At its core, democracy embodies the will of the people. While definitions may vary, democracy is fundamentally a system of governance where the people’s voices are not only heard, but honored. In a true democracy, laws are crafted to serve [...]
Thailand Senate passes final reading of first law legalizing same-sex marriage in Southeast Asia
Thailand’s senate voted by a wide margin to support a bill legalizing same-sex marriage on Tuesday. This comes after its House of Representatives voted to approve the bill in March with near unanimity. Now, the bill must receive royal endorsement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn before entering into Thailand’s Royal Gazette as law. The bill is [...]
Explainer: The Path to Equal Protection for Hong Kong's LGBTQ+ Community Post-2023 CFA Ruling
In September 2023, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA) handed down a landmark ruling in the case of Sham Tsz Kit v. Secretary for Justice. By a narrow 3-2 majority, the court decided that Article 14(2) of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights (BOR) obligates the government to create a legal framework for [...]
ECHR upholds UK government denial of compensation for miscarriage of justice
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday in favour of the UK government’s decision to deny compensation to two men who had suffered a miscarriage of justice due to wrongful convictions. The case was brought by Victor Nealon and Sam Hallam, who served a combined 24 years in prison before their convictions [...]
In Gaza, Israeli Impunity Casts a Shadow on International Law's Legitimacy
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, said in a statement about her latest report on the situation in Gaza: In this darkest hour, the international community cannot continue to ignore that it is Israel’s project to rid Palestine of Palestinians in defiance [...]
Russia court detains French citizen for allegedly collecting military information
The Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow ordered the detention of French citizen Laurent Vinatier on Friday, accusing him of collecting information on military issues in Russia. Specifically, Vinatier has been charged with violating the rules of foreign agents’ activity under Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. If convicted, he faces up to [...]
New South Wales premier apologizes for laws criminalizing homosexuality
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns formally apologized in Parliament House on Thursday to all those convicted or affected by laws that criminalized homosexuality, which was decriminalized 40 years ago. New South Wales is the last Australian state to apologize for these laws. Victoria and South Australia apologized in 2016, followed by the other three [...]
ECHR rules Italy violated rights of man subjected to compulsory psychiatric detention
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that Italy violated the rights of a man who was held in psychiatric detention for nearly a decade, in violation of the country’s legislative shift toward deinstitutionalization. The case was brought by Fabio Cramesteter, who was convicted in 2003 on weapons possession and theft charges. The [...]
Trump's Jury Conviction: How Law Triumphed Over Mathematics and Legal Realism
Minutes before a New York jury convicted Donald Trump on thirty-four counts of falsifying business records, I had posted the following on social media: Many trial watchers were curious whether the law would prevail over mathematics. Here, I explain why mathematics predicted a hung jury. I also explain how legal realism theories that the Trump [...]