Search Results for: solitary confinement

The Court of Appeal for Ontario on Wednesday affirmed the damages award of $30 million in a class action lawsuit against Ontario for mistreatment of inmates in solitary confinement, finding that the administrative segregation was negligent and in violation of inmates’ constitutional rights. The use of administrative segregation in correctional facilities in Ontario constitutes solitary [...]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the HALT Solitary Confinement Act into law on Wednesday. The Act serves as a complete overhaul to the current solitary confinement practices of New York state, placing strict limits on who may be confined, for what reasons, and how long. The Act limits who will be allowed in solitary [...]

UN human rights experts demanded Thursday that Iranian authorities put an end to the torture of Iranian-Swedish scientist and academic Ahmadreza Djalali and called for his immediate release from custody due to the critical condition of his health. Djalali, who was charged with espionage while visiting Iran to attend workshops on disaster medicine, was detained [...]

The Greek Council of State court on Tuesday rejected a request by

Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was released Wednesday after spending a total of 1,001 days—almost three years—in prison. Al-Hathloul had been championing Saudi women’s rights since 2013 and lobbied especially for the right to drive, as well as for an end to male guardianship laws in the kingdom. While women were granted the right [...]

Jelena Aparac, the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, said Thursday the US federal authority’s reduction of its dependence on private prisons is an “encouraging step” but urged the US to also end outsourcing of detention centers holding migrants and asylum seekers.  President Biden ordered the US Department of Justice [...]

Iranian authorities on Saturday hanged 31-year-old political activist Javid Dehghan after the United Nations (UN) urged Iran to halt the execution. Dehghan was accused of leading extremist group Jaish al-Adl and was convicted of shooting two Revolutionary Guards officials five years ago in the Sistan-Baluchistan province. The UN rights office said in a prior statement [...]

Egyptian prisons are rife with human rights abuses, according to a Monday report from Amnesty International. “What do I care if you die?” Negligence and denial of health care in the Egyptian prisons, the 74-page report, looked into eight key issues: mass arbitrary detention policy; cruel and inhuman detention conditions; barring prisoners’ contact with family; [...]

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned Thursday Iranian officials’ fourth execution of a child offender in 2020, stating that the execution of child offenders is “categorically prohibited under international law.” Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee was executed early Thursday morning for an offence allegedly committed by him at the age of 16. [...]

Five years after her initial lawsuit, which led to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) declaring that prison officials must treat gender dysphoria, Ashley Diamond, a transgender woman, brought suit against the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Monday. According to the complaint, Ashley “is once again trying to survive brutal and unrelenting abuse and mistreatment as a [...]