A UN committee found [report, PDF] Friday that the UK is breaching the rights of women in Northern Ireland by restricting their access to abortions.

[JURIST] Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court [official website, in Portuguese] ruled [judgment, PDF, in Portuguese] that defendants who are pregnant women, mothers with young children or people with disabilities, who are accused of non-violent crimes, will not be detained in jail before their trials, but will be under house arrest.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan released [press release] a report [text, DOC] Friday identifying 43 high-profile military personnel who may be responsible for war crimes.

Myanmar officials have been bulldozing [HRW report] depopulated Rohingya villages that were previously the targets of arson by the government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported Friday.

Satellite images have shown that at least 55 villages were cleared since late 2017.

Amnesty International (AI) launched its 2017 Report [text, PDF] Thursday, highlighting human rights issues in 159 countries and territories across the world.

A group of UN human rights experts on Wednesday expressed concern [press release] that the Yushu Intermediate Court in China has upheld charges of “incitement to separatism” against Tashi Wangchuk.

Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Wednesday criticized [press release] a Bahrain court for sentencing human rights activist and president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights [advocacy website] Nabeel Rajab [Front Line Defenders profile] to five years in prison for posts he made on Twitter in 2015.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] on Thursday found [judgment] Poland guilty of violating EU air quality standards by persistently exceeding limits for “particulate matter” (PM10) concentrations during an eight-year period between 2007 and 2015 in as many as 35 different zones within Poland.

PM10 is composed of [press release] a mixture of organic and non-organic substances present in the air that may contain toxic substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, dioxin and furan.

True reconciliation and lasting peace in South Sudan will only be possible if people are both free and safe to express themselves, regardless of any of their affiliations, according to a UN report [text, PDF] released Thursday.

Conflict has persisted in South Sudan for more than five years, which has led to more than four million people being uprooted from their homes.

A UK High Court judge ruled [judgment, PDF] Wednesday that the UK government’s plan to combat air pollution is “unlawful” and “seriously flawed.”

Justice Garnham urged the government to investigate and identify ways to bring air quality back to its legal levels as soon as possible.

A magistrate of the Second Chamber of Spain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered [order, PDF, in Spanish] the arrest of former Catalan member of parliament Anna Gabriel i Sabaté for failing to appear before the court to answer sedition charges in connection with the Catalan independence referendum and declaration of secession [JURIST report] in October.

As EU members and institutions meet to revise migration policies, the UN on Wednesday called for[press release] a stop to detention of children.

The Trump has yet to repatriate Guantánamo detainee Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi [JURIST news archive] to Saudi Arabia, effectively missing the Tuesday deadline established in his 2014 plea deal.

The Pakistan Supreme Court ruled [judgment, PDF] Wednesday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can no longer be the head of the Pakistan Muslim League, the country’s ruling party.

The decision was made through analysis of Articles 62, 63, and 63-A of the Constitution of Pakistan [text].

The Irish Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to draft [press release] legislation on a referendum aimed at repealing the Eighth Amendment in the Ireland Constitution [text, PDF] on abortion.

The amendment grants equal right to life to pregnant women and their unborn child.

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday declined to allow [opinion, PDF] victims of a terrorist attack to collect damages from Iran through attaching government property present in the US.

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice [official website] said Tuesday that 205 detainees suspected of involvement with the terrorist organization Boko Haram [CFR backgrounder] have been convicted [press release, PDF].

[JURIST] Peru’s National Criminal Court Court B [official website, in Spanish] on Monday ruled [order, PDF, in Spanish] that former president Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile] must stand trial for the killings of six farmers in 1992 notwithstanding the medical pardon [JURIST report] he received from President Pedro Pablo Kuzynski in December 2017.

The court held that the medical pardon did not preclude Fujimori from standing trial for crimes against humanity.

The Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website], Yves Bot [official profile], issued an advisory opinion [text, PDF] on Tuesday finding the recent logging of Polish forests violates international law.

Nils Melzer [official profile], the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, voiced his concerns [press release] regarding the Israeli Supreme Court’s [official website] December 2017 denial of a petition [opinion, in Hebrew] challenging a lower court’s ruling exempting national security agents from criminal investigation despite their uncontroverted use of torture techniques on a Palestinian detainee.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller [official website] on Friday indicted [indictment, PDF] Attorney Alex van der Zwaan for false statements made during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Person Cecilia Jimenes-Damary [official profile] is calling on [press release] the government of Libya to protect the hundreds of former residents of the town of Tawergha who are currently stranded in the desert.

Addressing the nation at Gambia’s 53rd Independence Anniversary celebration on Sunday, Gambian President Adama Barrow [BBC profile] announced [press release] the suspension of the death penalty.

The Belgian Court of First Instance ruled against Facebook [corporate website] Friday, stating that the company is in violation of Belgium’s privacy laws by placing tracking codes, commonly referred to as “cookies,” on third-party websites.

The court found in favor of the Commission for the Protection of Privacy (CPP) [official website], Belgium’s privacy watchdog, which issued a statement [press release, in French] outlining the decision and the requirements that have been imposed on Facebook:

[1] Facebook stops tracking and recording the browsing behavior of people surfing from Belgium as long as it does not bring its practices in line with Belgian privacy legislation.
[2] Facebook must also destroy all illegally obtained personal data.
[3] Facebook has to publish the entire 84-page judgment on its website and publish the last three pages of this judgment with the measures imposed in Dutch-language and French-language Belgian paper newspapers.

Facebook’s failure to comply with the court’s order will result in a fine of 250,000 Euros (USD 310,000) a day and could reach up to 100 million Euros (USD 125 million).

This ruling marks the latest battle between the social media giant and the CPP.