The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the execution of Robert Roberson, who was scheduled to be put to death that evening for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter. The court’s ruling comes in response to an unprecedented move by the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, which had subpoenaed Roberson to testify [...]

Three tobacco companies proposed on Thursday to pay $32.5 billion to settle legal claims in Canada, stemming from decades of disputes. The proposal remains subject to further negotiation and court approval. A mediator, appointed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to coordinate the tobacco-related claims and facilitate the negotiations, filed the proposed settlement arrangement. [...]

The Polish government introduced a draft law aiming to allow civil unions under Polish law on Friday. The law would reverse Poland’s current ban on civil partnerships and failure to recognize civil partnerships from other nations. The bill would recognize the civil partnership between two unmarried adults upon registration. Along with the legal recognition, civil [...]

A Georgia grand jury on Thursday charged a father and son for a school shooting that killed two students and two teachers. The grand jury, a group of civilians tasked by the court with determining whether the evidence supports a criminal charge, found probable cause against both the father, Colin Gray, and the son and [...]

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has accused Russia of systematically torturing prisoners of war (POWs), with up to 90 percent of returned Ukrainian soldiers reporting abuse during their detention in Russian facilities. At a Tuesday event in Brussels organized by the Center for European Politics, Kostin noted that these findings come from Ukraine’s ongoing investigations into [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday in the case Central Unitaria de Traballadores/as v. Spain, upholding Spain’s decision to ban a May Day demonstration during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The court determined that the restriction on the trade union’s right to assembly was justified due to the extreme public health [...]

The United Kingdom announced that it has joined with France and Algeria to call for an urgent meeting at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while the Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the UK was considering sanctions on Israeli cabinet ministers.  Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the [...]

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Thursday revealed that recent armed clashes between Ethiopian government forces and the Fano militia exposed thousands of Sudanese refugees in the Amhara region to major risks, including of forced deportation, in violation of international humanitarian law. HRW urged Ethiopian authorities and the international community to take all necessary [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that Italy did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights by determining that an inmate’s life sentence should not be reduced to 30 years. The court found that the applicant, Ferdinando Cesarano, could not legitimately have expected to receive any other penalty than “life imprisonment [...]

An audit by the state of New York released Tuesday found the state’s Division of Human Rights (DHR) failed to investigate numerous housing discrimination complaints. The audit stated that the failure to investigate was due to “poor management” at the agency, with complaints regularly lost or left unprocessed. Key findings of the audit showed DHR [...]