Australia’s eSafety Commission Julie Inman Grant announced Friday that her office is going to mandate search engines to remove AI generated child sexual abuse material from search results. The announcement is in response to the growing threat and risk to children’s privacy and rights facilitated by AI and deepfakes.   The online safety codes and standards will [...]

The Canadian government on Thursday announced the appointment of Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue to chair a public inquiry into claims of foreign interference in Canadian elections. Justice Hogue will preside over an independent inquiry investigating interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections by China, Russia, other foreign states and non-state actors. Hogue [...]

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Wednesday that Australians will vote on October 14 on whether to alter the Australian Constitution to recognize First Nations people by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice in Parliament. Australia has not held a constitutional referendum since the last one in 1999.  Australia’s legal system requires a [...]

Australia’s Victoria Court of Appeal on Friday refused to grant the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne leave to appeal an earlier decision concerning child sexual abuse allegations against the late Cardinal George Pell.  In February 2022, RWQ (a pseudonym) filed a claim against the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, asserting mental harm and nervous shock as a [...]

Around 100 Afghan women were prevented from boarding a plane to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where they were to attend university, by Taliban authorities on Wednesday. The students were sponsored by Dubai-based businessman Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, who provided them with scholarships in collaboration with the University of Dubai.  In a statement, Al Habtoor said, [...]

The Moscow City Court ruled Friday to liquidate the Public Commission for the Preservation of the Heritage of Academician Sakharov (Sakharov Center), a human rights organization,  for “systematic, gross and irremediable violations of the law,” according to Interfax. The administrative claim to liquidate the Sakharov Center was granted after an application from the Moscow Department [...]

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly Friday declared new sanctions against 15 Russian individuals and three entities following human rights violations and state-sponsored violence faced by political opponents and critics in Russia. The new sanctions aim to supplement the previous sanctions by expanding the list of restricted individuals and entities. Canada has previously imposed [...]

The CEO of Quramax Medical stated in court Wednesday that he gave an Uzbekistan official $33,000 after prosecutors alleged that the company paid a bribe to circumvent the mandatory testing of a contaminated Indian cough syrup that killed 65 children. The company that manufactured the cough syrup was India’s Marion Biotech, and the medicines were sold by [...]

King Abdullah II of Jordan approved a bill Saturday to penalise a variety of online speech, including posts that contain content ‘promoting, instigating, aiding, or inciting immorality.” Such posts are punishable with fines or months in prison. Posts that demonstrate ‘contempt for religion’ or ‘undermining national unity’ are also prohibited. The bill has been criticised [...]

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Australian government Thursday to establish a national Human Rights Act to protect the fundamental rights of individuals in Australia. In a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, HRW noted that there have been several human rights issues that are unaddressed by the Australian government: This [...]