An anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed its first reading in Georgian parliament on Thursday despite “concerns across the international community.” While the bill aims to protect “family values and minors,” it has received criticism for its incompatibility with human rights and impact on LGBTQ+ citizens. Introduced earlier this year by the Georgian Dream party, the bill was [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that courts must exercise independent judgment in assessing an agency’s statutory authority. This overruled the deference long afforded to an agency’s interpretation of its mandate under Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo Secretary of Commerce considered the regulation of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Thursday that ongoing conflict in Northern Mozambique is jeopardising education, with military use of schools on the rise despite direct school attacks decreasing. HRW highlighted the impact of the Mozambique conflict on the education system. The conflict in Northern Mozambique, primarily in the Cabo Delgado province, began in 2017 when [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday urged Ugandan authorities to release journalists Dickson Mubiru and Alirabaki Sengooba and to drop the charges against them. This appeal follows the journalists’ arrest for publishing information without a broadcast license. The CPJ views the convictions as an attempt to silence critical reporting. Mubiru, managing editor of [...]

On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights declared an application concerning the planning decision to construct Berlin Brandenburg Airport inadmissible. Thus, the petitioners who owned property near the airport have not successfully challenged the airport expansion. According to the judgment of John Buttner and Jutta Krebs v. Germany, a decision was made to consolidate [...]

The US is “out of step” with the rest of the world with its disenfranchisement of large numbers of citizens based on criminal convictions, the Sentencing Project, Human Rights Watch, and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a joint report published on Thursday. As of 2022, 4.4 million United States’ citizens were disenfranchised from [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block access to emergency abortion services in Idaho. In Moyle v. US, the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a federal law—the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)—would preempt Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. Under EMTALA, any hospital that receives federal Medicare funding must provide [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Iraqi government on Thursday to halt the arbitrary detention and deportation of Syrian asylum seekers. According to HRW, Iraqi authorities have detained and deported Syrians even when they possessed the required Iraqi documentation. HRW reported that Iraqi authorities neither considered the asylum seeker status of Syrians nor provided any [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected on Thursday four Italian citizens’ request to reduce their life imprisonment sentence to 30 years of prison and ruled that their bid was out of time. The case before the ECHR started when four Italian citizens filed a request to their national courts to review the enforcement [...]

President William Ruto declined to assent on Wednesday to the contentious Finance Bill 2024, sending it back to the National Assembly for reconsideration. This decision came amid ongoing protests led by Kenya’s Gen Z population voicing strong opposition to the bill. According to President Ruto: Taking into consideration the widespread expression of dissatisfaction by members [...]