A court in Quito, Ecuador ruled that the Machángara River, which runs through the city, possesses rights making the municipal government of Quito responsible for pollution that occurs, a local civic advocacy group reported on Friday. The court recognized that since the river is alive, it is subject to rights under the Constitution of Ecuador. [...]

The World Benchmarking Alliance found that 90 percent of the world’s 2,000 most influential companies do not meet social expectations relating to human rights, in its report published on Tuesday. The Alliance called on policymakers and investors to ensure companies are being held accountable for protecting labour rights. The report found that companies which are [...]

Toronto police announced Sunday that they are investigating two “suspected hate motivated mischief” incidents, after rocks were thrown through the windows of two synagogues in Canada’s largest city early Sunday morning. Criminal mischief is the willful destruction or damage of property. Under Canada’s Criminal Code, mischief relating to religious property that is “motivated by bias, [...]

The European Commission notified Microsoft on Tuesday that it has come to the preliminary conclusion that the company violated EU antitrust rules by bundling Teams within its suites of business applications. The investigation against the US company is ongoing. Microsoft’s practices are alleged to have breached Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of [...]

INTERPOL revealed on Monday that national authorities from 39 countries coordinated a large-scale operation targeting the criminal networks behind human trafficking which resulted in 219 arrests and the identification of 1,374 potential victims including 153 children. The operation, codenamed GLOBAL CHAIN, was led by Austria and involved coordination with Romania, FRONTEX, Europol, and INTERPOL. This [...]

Austria’s largest party announced Monday that it will challenge the newly passed Council of the European Union regulation seeking to restore EU ecosystems. The regulation was passed with the support of Austrian Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler. In a letter addressed to the Belgian Prime Minister, the Chancellor of Austria claimed that Minister Gewessler was “not [...]

The Finnish Border Guard stated on Friday that it suspects four Russian military planes violated Finland’s airspace on Monday. This comes after Finland’s Ministry of Defence suspected the airspace violation of one Russian military plane on Monday. The suspected violation violated Finland’s airspace by 2.5 km and involved a four-plane division. The Finnish Border Guard [...]

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) announced on Monday that the university will be closed until May 15 due to reported “violent elements” that “hijacked” a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration earlier that day. The demonstration began with an “orderly” walkout at the UvA Roeterseiland Campus at 11 am. The walkout was coordinated with students at other universities [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reminded world leaders on Sunday that a general assault by Israel in the Gazan city of Rafah “cannot be reconciled with the binding demands of international humanitarian law, or the binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” Türk’s statement came just a day [...]

The Internal Security Agency of Poland announced Monday that it initiated an investigation into former judge Szmydt Tomasz, who fled to Belarus and claimed asylum earlier that day. The investigation is regarding the former judge’s access to classified information. Tomasz communicated his resignation from a Warsaw Provincial Administrative Court in a press conference run by [...]