Edited by: Alanah Vargas | JURIST Staff, US Sri Lanka’s civil war (1983-2009) between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist Tamil militant and political organization fighting for an independent Tamil state, claimed 80,000-100,000 lives by UN estimates, with its legacy of displacement and land dispossession still affecting various minority [...]
Search Results for: violence against women act
Beyond Rights and Justice: Democracy as a Competition of Ideas
There’s much talk these days about democracy being under threat at home and around the world. Most of this discussion tends to be focused on efforts by autocrats and their supporters to erode the rule of law and the right to vote; their adoption of policies that discriminate against minorities and women; and their use [...]
JURIST Senior Editor for Long Form Content Pitasanna Shanmugathas interviews Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, chief editor of LeftWord Books, and author of forty books including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World and The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World. In this interview, Prashad delves [...]
Israel perpetrates 'disproportionate violence' against women in Palestine: UN report
A report presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday found that Israel’s military operations in Gaza since October 7, 2023 have disproportionately impacted Palestinian women and girls, through their systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence. The report, which was presented by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on [...]
UN confirms Syria civilian deaths in coastal mass killings, calls for accountability
The UN Human Rights spokesperson on Syria confirmed the deaths of 111 Syrian civilians in recent mass killings, in a Geneva press briefing on Tuesday. The spokesperson remarked that the true number is believed to be “significantly higher.” The spokesperson, Thameen Al Kheetan, said that the office is currently working on verifying and documenting civilian [...]
Italy approves draft law punishing feminicide with life imprisonment
The Italian Council of Ministers approved on Friday a draft law introducing the crime of femicide, and making it punishable by life imprisonment. Under the proposed legislation, femicide is defined as causing the death of a woman as an act of discrimination or hatred because she is a woman, or with the view to repress [...]
Persistent Sexist Laws Undermine Global Progress on Women's Rights Despite Some Gains
Edited by: James Joseph | Managing Editor for Long-Form Content In this article for International Women’s Day, Alexis Boddy – JURIST UK correspondent, reports on the Equality Now report which highlights the persistence of sexist laws worldwide, thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, with significant rollback of women’s [...]
UN experts urge Poland to acquit abortion rights activist awaiting retrial
UN experts on Tuesday urged Poland to acquit Justyna Wydrzyńska, a human rights defender and abortion rights activist previously sentenced to eight months of community service. Advocating for the protection of human rights defenders such as Wydrzyńska, the experts noted the work of individuals like her “remains one of the few avenues for safe abortion [...]
UK introduces enhanced police powers to tackle anti-social and street crimes
The UK government on Tuesday revealed new flagship policing measures to be introduced in parliament, aimed at addressing anti-social crimes and street crimes, in what it deems as the “biggest legislative update to policing in decades.” The new Crime and Policing Bill is part of a broader government initiative to address community safety. The government [...]
Judi Rever is a Montreal-based journalist and author of In Praise of Blood, which investigates mass violence under Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s regime, using survivor testimonies, former soldiers, and leaked UN documents. A Ryerson journalism graduate, Rever covered the Congo-Rwanda crisis for Radio France-Internationale in 1997 and later reported for Agence France-Presse. Her work has [...]