The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and the ACLU petitioned the US Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the Texas 7th Court of Appeals, which affirmed the conviction of three residents of Gainesville, Texas for the alleged “obstruction of a highway or other passageway” during a protest, the groups announced Tuesday. They [...]

US President Biden on Wednesday pardoned American veterans who were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity under a military code for more than 60 years. Biden’s proclamation grants direct clemency to people who had been given court marshal convictions between 1951 and 2013 because of their status in [...]

Amnesty International issued a joint statement along with other human rights groups on Tuesday urging Lebanese authorities to end unlawful practices against Syrian refugees. These practices include torture, unlawful deportations, and ill-treatment of Syrian refugees, which run contrary to their international obligations. According to Amnesty, Syrian refugees in Lebanon have faced increasing hostility, from arbitrary [...]

The Denmark government reached a momentous agreement on Monday with the parties in the green tripartite to impose a tax on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from livestock. The parties included Agriculture & Food, Denmark’s Nature Conservation Association, Food Federation NNF, Dansk Metal, Dansk Industry and KL. The Agreement on a Green Denmark introduces several long-term [...]

Aynsley Genga is JURIST’s senior Kenya correspondent. She files this report from Nairobi. It’s still Wednesday 26th June, and so much has already happened in Kenya since the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations began last Tuesday. We have had civilians being kidnapped, protesters being killed, residents of the Githurai district of Nairobi being massacred in the middle [...]

The Supreme Court of Brazil ruled Tuesday to decriminalise possession of marijuana for personal use by a majority vote. The nation’s highest court, in its official announcement expounding on the specifics of the session, stated that the judges also reached a consensus to dedicate an amount of money from the National Anti-Drug Fund that would be [...]

The European Union’s border and coast guard agency (Frontex) and the Republic of Serbia signed a cooperation agreement that facilitates increased cooperation and enhanced border management operations on Tuesday. This new agreement sets out to replace the current framework introduced in 2021 and finalizes negotiations that began in May 2023. As per the Commission’s press [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday called on Iraqi Kurdish authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release Syrian journalist, Sleman Ahmed. Ahmed has been detained for eight months and is facing a charge of espionage under acts of endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region. He has already faced restrictions accessing legal representation [...]

The report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers (A/HRC/56/62) presented at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday found the global state of human rights is deteriorating. The UNHRC emphasizes a concerning trend of declining human rights as democratic institutions face increasing pressure and leaders fail to uphold [...]

Aynsley Genga is JURIST’s senior Kenya correspondent. She filed this report from Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon local time (EAT). On Tuesday, Kenya entered its second week of protests against the controversial Finance Bill 2024. People from various counties such as Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Tana River and even Turkana decided to come together and protest [...]