Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Thursday reiterated that Palestine is a state for the purposes of transferring criminal jurisdiction over its territory to The Hague. According to Bensouda, under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute, the ICC has territorial jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This territory consists [...]

A US district judge for the Central District of California on Friday dismissed parts of a lawsuit filed by the US Women’s National Team (WNT) for equal pay. The women’s soccer team filed the lawsuit in 2019, arguing that the female players are paid less than the male players, “even though their performance has been [...]

United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights Yanghee Lee on Wednesday called for investigations into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the Myanmar military against civilian populations in the Rakhine and Chin states. Lee said that the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, has ramped up military operations over the last several weeks [...]

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday against a blanket ban on religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The constitutional court was called to hear this case after a Muslim association in Lower Saxony appealed the ban. The association stated its intention to hold Friday prayers for its 1,300 members during the remaining weeks of [...]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday that all assault-style weapons would be banned effective immediately. Following the deaths of 22 people in a mass shooting in Nova Scotia last week, Trudeau announced that there is “no place for such weapons in Canada.” The person responsible for the attack was armed with semi automatic riffles, [...]

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a claim by the Texas-based voting group True the Vote that voter fraud would run rampant in Nevada’s all-mail Republican Primary on June 9. This lawsuit was filed in response to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s order to conduct the primary election via mail-in ballots, as opposed to [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot condition federal law enforcement funds on conduct that contradicts municipalities’ policing ordinances. In the court’s opinion, Judge Rovner clarified that “the issues before us today concern the spheres of power that reside in the state rather than in the [...]

Sudan’s new government officially criminalized female genital mutilation (FGM) on Wednesday. The change is the result of an amendment to Sudan’s Criminal Law Article 141. The act is defined as removing or mutilating “the female genitalia by cutting, mutilating or modifying any natural part of it leading to the full or partial loss of its [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered the Pennsylvania government to respond to arguments that Governor Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order is unconstitutional. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court gave Pennsylvania until May 4 to respond to a petition that accuses the commonwealth of violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. The petition was brought by Friends [...]

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court Thursday arguing that states have the authority to deny abortion clinics the label of Medicaid providers. Hill the attorneys general from 18 other states are asking the Supreme Court to clarify whether Planned Parenthood has the right to sue states when they [...]