New Zealand Associate Minister of Health David Seymour on Tuesday delivered a letter of expectation directing the government agency responsible for funding pharmaceuticals, Pharmac, to cease considerations of the country’s founding constitutional document the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi. In the letter, Minister Seymour stated that he did not believe embedding the principles of [...]

Bangladesh’s High Court on Sunday released its decision to retain the 30 percent government job quota for the children of freedom fighters in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. In the judgement delivered by Justice Khizir Hayat, the court found that both the judiciary and all authorities of the state machinery were bound by previous authority [...]

A report detailing significant human rights violations caused by the Taliban’s “moral oversight” on Wednesday was released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Enclosed within the report was a comprehensive review of policy settings implemented by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) which [...]

The Employment Court of New Zealand on Monday ordered the University of Auckland to pay damages of NZ$20,000 for breaching its contractual obligations to protect Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles’s health and safety due to public harassment over her commentary during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Over the course of 2020-2022, Wiles, a microbiologist and science communicator, experienced physical [...]

The UN Human Rights spokesperson expressed grave concern on Tuesday over the sentencing of 10 Cambodian environmental activists to prison terms for “plotting” and “insulting the King.” The statement came in response to the sentencing of 10 activists connected with the award-winning human rights and environmentalist group Mother Nature. According to local media, Mother Nature [...]

Human rights groups and victims’ families of the August 2020 explosion at Beirut’s shipping port called for a UN-led international investigation into human rights violations connected to the blast in a statement released on Monday. The joint letter urged member states of the UN Human Rights Council to bring forward a resolution during the current [...]

The New Zealand government passed on Tuesday the first reading of the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill in the parliament. Associate justice minister Nicoke McKEE promised a “more workable” regime that avoids unjust outcomes despite concerns from Ministry of Justice officials that the proposed legislation may be inconsistent with international obligations. First introduced by the [...]

Pro-independence protesters have renewed violent demonstrations across New Caledonia after the detention of seven indigenous leaders and activists in mainland France, the High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia announced on Monday. Protesters set alight the municipal police station in Dumbéa, as well as police and private vehicles in surrounding areas. Firefighters were able to [...]

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday called proposed nationwide strikes on budget day encouraging Indigenous Māori and non-Māori allies to walk off their jobs in support of Indigenous rights ‘illegal’. Luxon labelled appeals from opposition party Te Pāti Māori for Māori to “stand and rise” up in support of the strike “entirely wrong” [...]

The operator of New Caledonia’s La Tontouta International Airport announced on Sunday that the airport will remain closed until June 2 following the breakout of violent protests in response to the proposed constitutional amendment by France’s National Assembly on May 17. The High Commission of the Republic of New Caledonia also announced the airport’s closure, which [...]