The Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 Response recommended minor improvements Tuesday to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR). Both the Review Committee and the Independent Panel were established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to World Health Assembly resolution 73.1. The Review Committee is [...]

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an opinion Thursday in its first case heard in the Irish language. The case concerned the scope of the national court’s discretion to grant relief when national law breached EU law. The case involved an EU directive that required veterinary medicinal products to be packaged [...]

Non-governmental watchdog organization Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) reported recently that Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has ignored human rights violations at Hungary’s Schengen borders. The report found that Frontex ignored the violations for four years. Moreover, it found that Frontex recently remained in Hungary after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in [...]

Julian Assange was denied bail by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Wednesday, just days after the judge blocked his extradition to the US. Assange faces espionage charges in the US and spent almost a year-and-a-half in a UK prison while awaiting the extradition ruling. On Monday, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser refused extradition mainly [...]

The Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, ruled Wednesday that the government’s decision to extend closure of cinemas, theatres, and cultural venues after the easing of national lockdown was justified. The ruling comes after France eased its national lockdown on December 15, but decided to keep cinemas, theatres, museums, and other cultural venues shut [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Hungary failed to fulfill its obligations under EU law after adopting legislation that restricts international protection offered to asylum seekers. The ruling comes after Hungary adopted legislation in 2015 that created transit zones at the Serbian-Hungarian border to apply asylum procedures and created the concept of [...]

The European Commission proposed two new pieces of legislation on Tuesday that will impact the regulation of digital services in the EU, especially those offered by big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook. The Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act were proposed with the aim of creating “safer digital space” [...]

Amnesty International Thursday urged Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to conduct immediate investigations into war crimes committed during the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after videos emerged from private social networks showing extrajudicial killings, torture, and severe abuse. In its press release, Amnesty said it analysed 22 videos that depicted, “extrajudicial executions, the mistreatment of prisoners of war [...]

The UK House of Lords voted to amend the Trade Bill on Monday to include performance of human rights risk assessments in proposed trade agreements, as well as revocation of trade agreements with countries that are found by the High Court of England and Wales to have committed genocide. The bill was first introduced in [...]

The US House of Representatives passed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act on Wednesday, which aims to prohibit foreign companies from being listed on American stock exchanges if they fail to allow US regulators to review their financial audits, something several Chinese companies have been accused of. The bill was previously introduced by Republican Senator [...]