Eight former commanders of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Thursday by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). Rodrigo Londono, Pablo Catatumbo, Pastor Alape, and Milton de Jesus Toncel are among the eight former leaders facing the accusations. The former FARC leaders allegedly [...]

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Friday the launch of a civil rights investigation into an alleged pattern of unconstitutional policing conducted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). The California Constitution and the California Civil Code Section 52.3 authorize the California Attorney General to conduct civil investigations of law enforcement agencies in order [...]

The High Court of the Kano State of Nigeria Thursday acquitted a teenager sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered a fresh trial for a man sentenced to death after the convictions caused international outcry. A Sharia (Islamic law) court had convicted the two individuals in August last year. The high court that overturned [...]

A 2-1 federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a proposed supervised drug-injection site that would have opened in Philadelphia on the basis that the proposed site violates a federal law that was passed to prevent drug dens. The proposed site would have been the first supervised drug-injection site in the US. The appeals court overturned [...]

UN human rights experts on Monday called for President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center immediately. The UN experts asserted that detainees are being held there indefinitely, in cruel and inhumane conditions. January 11 was the nineteenth anniversary of the establishment of Guantánamo. Seven hundred prisoners were at the facility in 2003, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld an order on Tuesday blocking Arkansas laws that ban abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy and abortions due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Little Rock Family Planning Services sued the state in 2019. The clinic challenged the abortion restrictions in Act 493, which [...]

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced Tuesday that charges will not be laid against Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake on August 23. The other officers involved will also not be charged. Officers were dispatched to a residence on August 23 after a woman called 911 with [...]

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top legislature in China, approved the Yangtze River Protection Law (current text) on Saturday in order to protect the ecological environment of the river. The law is set to take effect March 1. The Yangtze River is the longest river in China, contributing to 40 [...]

UN human rights experts urged authorities in Uganda on Tuesday to cease “the arrest, detention and judicial harassment of political opponents, civil society leaders and human rights defenders,” due to concerns of violence in the lead-up to Uganda’s presidential election, which is set to take place on January 14. In June, the Uganda Electoral Commission [...]

Pakistani human rights activist Karima Baloch, 37, was found dead in Toronto, Canada on Monday. Baloch went missing on Sunday. The Toronto Police stated that “the circumstances have been investigated and officers have determined this to be a non-criminal death and no foul play is suspected.” Baloch was from Balochistan, Pakistan. As a campaigner, she [...]