NewsHere’s the international legal news we covered this week:
Kenya’s Supreme Court [Official website] ruled 4-2 Friday to invalidate [materials] the recent presidential election.
UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee [official profile] on Thursday expressed grave concern [press release] for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar as the “cycle of violence” against them worsens.
[JURIST] Thailand’s Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday cleared former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva [BBC bio] and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban of murder and attempted murder during a crackdown in 2010 on anti-government protesters.
[JURIST] Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court [official website, in Kyrgyz] on Thursday upheld the rejection of a petition to put opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev on the ballot for the October presidential election.
[JURIST] Forces fighting Islamic State (IS) [Al Jazeera backgrounder] insurgents to regain lost territory in Syria must not sacrifice lives of civilians still trapped in the areas, UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile] stated [UN press release] Thursday.
A Pakistan anti-terrorism court declared former president and army general Pervez Musharraf [Britannica profile] a fugitive from the law [Reuters report] on Thursday concerning the assassination of former prime minister, and first female leader in the Muslim world, Benazir Bhutto [Britannica profile].
Two human rights experts with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] issued a statement [press release] Wednesday detailing their concern over websites, including many news sites, that have been shutdown or blocked by the Egyptian government.
A judge in Brazil issued a ruling [text, PDF, in Portuguese] Wednesday that temporarily blocks an executive order [press release, in Portuguese] from President Michel Temer [official website, in Portuguese] that would have opened large sections of the Amazon forest for mining.
[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] issued a report [text, PDF] on Wednesday highlighting the human rights violations abuses that have been committed in Venezuela amid this year’s anti-government protests.
Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly on Tuesday approved [press release, in Spanish] a decree rejecting the US economic sanctions and called for treason investigations into political actors for supporting the sanctions.
The Guatemalan Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended President Jimmy Morales’ [official twitter] order to deport the head of a UN anti-corruption commission from the country.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile] said Wednesday that US President Donald Trump’s constant criticism of journalists constitutes an attack on the freedom of the press.
A US grand jury indicted 19 people [text, PDF], including 15 Turkish security officials, on Tuesday for attacking protesters during a visit to the White House by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [official website] in May.
Uber [corporate website] confirmed on Tuesday that they are currently under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] for bribing foreign officials.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday urged [press release] people to refrain from violence against Myanmar security forces, for authorities to adhere to human rights law, and for authorities to prohibit use of provocative media usage in the northern regions of Rakhine state.
[JURIST] Multiple UN experts on Tuesday urged [press release] all member states to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance [text, PDF] as the rates of enforced disappearances are increasing in multiple countries in every region around the world.
In an open letter[text] addressed to representatives of the Member and Observer States [materials] of the United Nations Humans Rights Council [official website], 56 national, regional and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) called for an “independent, international inquiry” into violations of human rights in Yemen [OHCHR profile].
[JURIST] The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) [official website] voiced [press release] its concerns on Tuesday regarding the lack of drinking water accessible to children in war torn countries.
[JURIST] Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission [official website] allegedly failed to follow a Supreme Court order on Tuesday requiring the electoral commission to grant the opposition computer access to verify controversial election results.
[JURIST] Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet [official profile, PDF] introduced a bill on Tuesday that would legalize same-sex marriage.
[JURIST] In a periodic report [text, PDF] published on Friday, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [official website] expressed concern about the racist speech used by politicians and neo-Nazi groups in Russia.
Human rights groups on Monday filed suits against Jagath Jayasuriya, a former Sri Lanka army general, for alleged war crimes and human rights violations he committed during the 2009 civil war in Sri Lanka.
Since the Kenyan presidential election on August 8, more than 12 people have been killed and more than 100 have been badly injured due to serious human rights violations [HRW report], Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Monday.
A Kenyan ban [Kenya Gazette, PDF] on plastic bags officially went into effect [press release, PDF] Monday, six months after it was announced in February.
Kenya Supreme Court ordered the election commission on Monday to allow Raila Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) and Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party limited access to its computer servers and electronic devices to assess the vote-count for themselves to verify the election’s integrity.
Guatemala’s Constitutional Court issued an order Sunday blocking the expulsion of the lead UN anti-corruption official only hours after President Jimmy Morales ordered his expulsion.
