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 [...]

A UN expert on Friday expressed concern over increased inequalities in Hungary’s education system for underserved communities and backsliding on academic freedom. In a statement released after she visited Hungary, Farida Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, noted that while Roma individuals are given equal rights to education under the law, [...]

Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Friday, temporarily freezing the dismissal of Ronen Bar, the head of the domestic intelligence service, known as Shin Bet. This comes hours after the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously to dismiss Ronen Bar by April 10 at the latest. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement, Ronen Bar’s “directives [...]

A group of human rights organizations on Friday urged Bangladesh’s interim government to take decisive action to safeguard the freedoms of expression and opinion amid increasing attacks on journalists, authors and human rights defenders.  The rights groups, which included Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), called on Chief Advisor [...]

Columbia University on Friday agreed to several demands from the Trump administration, including changes to supervision of its Middle East studies program, and amendments to rules for student protests and discipline. The statement released on the university’s website announced that the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies department and the Center for Palestine Studies [...]