The UK government imposed sanctions Monday on four individuals held responsible for serious human rights abuses during Sri Lanka’s civil war. The 26-year conflict, which ended in May 2009, claimed an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 lives according to UN figures, with an estimated 40,000 Tamil civilians killed during the final stages of the war. The [...]

Turkish authorities formally arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu Sunday on multiple corruption charges. A Turkish court remanded İmamoğlu in custody pending trial, prompting mass protests across Istanbul and other cities. İmamoğlu, a leading member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on Wednesday, as part of a sweeping investigation into an alleged criminal [...]

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders requested Monday the urgent intervention of Chinese authorities regarding the arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. Zhang Zhan is accused of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.” Currently, there is no information about Zhang Zhan’s situation at the Pudong Detention Center in Shanghai [...]

The international Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) called upon UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to urgently intervene in the repression of peaceful protests in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The group urged Guterres to secure the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other members of the Baloch Yekjehti Committee, a local rights group. The BHRC [...]

The chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, James Boasberg, issued an opinion on Monday, denying the Trump administration’s request to lift the two-week deportation ban on Venezuelans. He stated: “There is…a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to [...]

The Trump administration urged the US Supreme Court Monday to stay a preliminary injunction reinstating thousands of federal employees, continuing its efforts to downsize the federal workforce. The Trump administration opposed a federal judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California who “reinstated the 16,000 probationary employees who had been lawfully [...]

HRW reported Monday that Germany’s social security system inadequately protects women from poverty, breaching the state’s constitutional obligation to ensure that taxpayers can afford to pay for “necessary living expenses.” According to HRW, women in Germany are overrepresented among the population that is at risk of poverty. Women make up two-thirds of low-wage workers and [...]

Amnesty International has called on Ecuador’s presidential candidates to address human rights concerns if elected. The call came in an open letter released Friday ahead of the tie-breaking run-off vote due to take place on April 13. In recent years, many international bodies have raised concerns around potential human rights violations in the country. February [...]

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on Friday confirmed cuts to DHS oversight offices, including the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, in the newest round of government layoffs under the Trump administration. In text messages confirming the cuts to Bloomberg News, McLaughlin [...]

The US State Department designated former Argentine president Cristina Elisabet Fernandez de Kirchner and her former minister of planning Julio Miguel De Vido as ineligible to enter the US on Friday, claiming that they had been involved in “significant corruption.” The entry ban affects both Kirchner and De Vido and their immediate families. According to [...]