The US Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered its Civil Rights Division to halt all ongoing litigation from former President Joe Biden’s administration and not pursue new cases or settlements, according to multiple internal memos that were obtained by various media outlets on Wednesday. The memos, which were sent to the temporary head of the Civil [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada announced on Thursday that it will hear a landmark challenge to Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21. The law was passed in 2019 and prohibits certain public sector employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols while on duty. Central to the case are Sections 2(a) and 15 of the [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that France violated Ms. H.W’s right to respect for private and family life, her right to sexual freedom, and right to bodily autonomy by granting a divorce on the grounds that she failed to perform her “marital duty” to have sexual relations with her husband. [...]

US Judge John Coughenour in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Coughenour found that the executive order would cause irreparable harm to the plaintiff states. The executive order cuts federal funding for providing essential and legally required medical care [...]

Human Rights Watch urged Egyptian authorities on Wednesday to drop terrorism-related charges against Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). Bahgat was briefly detained before being released on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$398). He faces three charges which include participating in the activities of a terrorist group, financing a terrorist [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim AA Khan announced on Thursday that his office has filed applications for arrest warrants before the Pre-trial Chamber against two leading Taliban officials accused of committing crimes against humanity. These applications stem from thorough investigations conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office and are part of a broader inquiry into the situation [...]

The US Congress passed a bill Wednesday that requires undocumented immigrants accused of theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial. The “Laken Riley Act,” named after a Georgia nursing student murdered by an undocumented immigrant last year, easily passed through the House in a 263–156 vote as 46 Democrats joined the [...]

Amnesty International reported severe systematic human rights violations in Azerbaijan on Thursday. The report reflects the lack of improvement and the systemic nature of the abuses, including unjustified restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, as well as the abuse of the criminal justice system for political purposes. Some independent civil society organizations in [...]

An Alberta judge on Tuesday certified a class-action lawsuit alleging that a local school abused Indigenous children in the 1960s and 1970s. Court of King’s Bench Justice James Neilson certified the lawsuit brought by representative plaintiff Cynthia Youngchief, who is the face of the survivor class of all Aboriginal persons who attended the school. The [...]

South Sudan issued a social media ban for at least 30 days on Wednesday, following concerns over the spread of footage depicting violence against South Sudanese in Sudan. The ban was communicated in a directive issued by the National Communications Authority to all social media providers operating in the country to prevent hate speech and the [...]