UN human rights experts on Monday demanded the release of Belarusian dissident Roman Protasevich and an end to the imprisonment and mistreatment of all independent journalists and activists in Belarus, declaring that “media freedom … has entered a black hole with no end in sight.” Last month, a Ryanair passenger jet carrying Protasevich and his [...]

Former Italian mob boss turned informant Giovanni Brusca was released from Rebibbia prison in Rome Monday. Brusca, a high-profile leader of the Sicilian Mafia group known as Cosa Nostra, was arrested in 1996 after having repeatedly eluded Italian law enforcement. Brusca was the “right-hand man of the so-called super boss Totò Riina, who died in [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has demanded the immediate release Tuesday of Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega after their passenger flight was forced to land in Minsk Sunday. Ryanair flight FR4978, carrying Protasevich and Sapega, was forced to divert to Minsk shortly before it crossed [...]

The Attorney General of Zimbabwe filed an appeal Monday with the nation’s Supreme Court after the High Court’s recent ruling against the government. On May 15, the High Court held that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s five-year extension of Chief Justice Luke Malaba’s tenure was illegal. Mnangagwa exercised his executive power to grant Justice Malaba an extension on [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday joined the University of Michigan Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative and the ACLU of Michigan in filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Robert Williams, who was falsely arrested last year based on faulty facial recognition technology that has been banned in several cities throughout the US. [...]

Voters in Kyrgyzstan approved an expansion of president Sadyr Japarov’s powers in a referendum that took place on Sunday. The referendum addressed constitutional amendments proposed by Japarov that would increase presidential powers, create an assembly controlled by the president, and reduce the size of the parliament from 180 members to 90. Japarov, who last year [...]

Arkansas legislators voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that will ban transgender minors from receiving gender-confirming treatments within the state, overcoming the governor’s veto. The Arkansas bill is the first such law to pass in the US. House Bill 1570, otherwise known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, prevents Arkansas physicians from [...]

Turkish prosecutors on Monday issued arrest warrants for 10 retired senior navy officials a day after 104 officials released a letter defending the Montreux Doctrine. The Montreux Doctrine is an agreement made in 1936 concerning critical waterways that run through Turkey, most notably the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. The terms of the international convention provide that [...]

The US Department of State released the 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Secretary of State Antony Blinken painted a grave picture of the deterioration of human rights in multiple countries and regions throughout the world. The 2020 reports highlight abuses in Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, among many other countries. The report for China is [...]

Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny announced in a handwritten letter posted to social media on March 31 that he is going on a hunger strike to protest his lack of adequate medical treatment and sleep deprivation that amounts to torture at the IK-2 prison in Pokrov. Navalny was sentenced in February to 2 1/2 years [...]