Migrants and refugees in Libya are facing severe human rights violations, according to a UN report released Thursday. The UN Support Mission in Libya and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights collaborated to generate this report, which is based on some 1,300 first-hand accounts. The report describes human rights violations by state [...]

The UN General Assembly voted on Wednesday to endorse the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The General Assembly’s vote tally included 152 votes in favor, 12 abstentions, and five votes against, which included the US. The US withdrew its participation from the compact last year due to inconsistencies with its own migration [...]

The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, on Thursday released the court’s annual Report on Preliminary Examination Activities. This report, which spans December 1, 2017, through November 30, 2018, summarizes work done by the Office of the Prosecutor to determine whether situations meet legal criteria established by the Rome Statute and warrant further investigation. [...]

The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice released a non-binding opinion on Tuesday finding that the UK can unilaterally revoke its intention to withdraw from the EU. This would mean that a unanimous decision from the European Council would not be required if the UK decides to abandon Brexit. The Advocate General, Manuel [...]

The Supreme Court of Arizona ruled on Wednesday that petition circulators must appear before the court when they are subpoenaed. This decision was made in the context of a failed attempt to qualify initiative C-03-2018 for inclusion onto the November 2018 ballot. This initiative was commonly known as the “Stop Political Dirty Money Amendment.” In [...]

The Supreme Court of Florida ruled on Thursday that a Facebook friendship between a trial judge and an attorney appearing before him or her is not sufficient grounds for the judge to be disqualified from presiding over the matter. The Florida Code of Judicial Conduct requires a judge to “avoid impropriety or the appearance of [...]

The Supreme Court of Kentucky on Thursday decided that the Medical Review Panel (MRP) Act violates the Kentucky Constitution. The MRP Act was enacted in 2017 by the Kentucky Legislature under Chapter 216C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. The Act created three-person medical review panels to evaluate proposed malpractice complaints against healthcare providers. The panels [...]

UN Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy said Thursday that sanctions that seek to block a country’s trade completely are equivalent to economic warfare against civilians. Economic sanctions are meant to burden states, but these often expose civilians to hardships, including impediments to humanitarian assistance. According to Jazairy, blocking necessities such as food and medicine “expos innocent [...]

Britain’s High Court decided Friday that pension plans under the guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) scheme have been unequal due to sex discrimination, and these schemes should be amended to equalize benefits for those who have been affected. The Court of Justice of the EU ruled in 1990 that pension benefits should be equal for men [...]

The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration ruled Thursday that Chinese laws and regulations do not prohibit Bitcoin and its derivatives from being privately held and transferred. Previous scrutiny regarding cryptocurrencies led Chinese regulators, including the People’s Bank of China, to prohibit both speculative sales of new cryptocurrencies through initial coin offerings (ICOs) and fundraising schemes claiming affiliation [...]