The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) is set to review Pakistan’s human rights record this Thursday and Friday under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). According to Amnesty International (AI), the review “comes at a crucial time for the country, as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant.” The review is part of Pakistan’s commitments [...]

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed the implementation of “return hubs” in third countries to combat irregular migration, in a letter to Commission members on Thursday. In the letter, she emphasizes the Italy-Albania protocol as an example of how the hubs may work in practice. The protocol is a migration [...]

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney temporarily suspended a state rule on Tuesday requiring paper ballots to be hand-counted in Georgia in the upcoming US election. The decision came in an expedited bench trial following the parties’ emergency motions. The respondent in the case, the Georgia State Election Board (SEB), approved the hand-count rule [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Tanzanian government Wednesday to address increasing human rights violations ahead of local elections in mainland Tanzania scheduled for November 27. The country has recently witnessed several instances of arbitrary arrests of opposition supporters, and the extrajudicial killing of at least eight government critics. HRW denounced the government for [...]

The Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released a comprehensive report on Tuesday highlighting a significant surge in antisemitic incidents in Canada since the October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023. The report documents a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada compared to the same period last year. It also highlights that [...]

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Tuesday a $4 million penalty against Lufthansa for discriminating against Jewish passengers. The penalty is the largest ever issued by the DOT against an airline for civil rights violations. The penalty stemmed from complaints filed by Jewish passengers in May 2022 who were flying from New York [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a stay barring constitutional challenges against a controversial Texas law criminalizing “vote-harvesting” until after the November 5 presidential election. The court suspended an injunction from the lower court, allowing the ballot harvesting provision in Senate Bill 1 (SB-1) to remain in effect for the presidential [...]

Inequities in birth and maternal health between Black and white people persist in the South Florida medical system, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday. The group called for the Florida and US governments to address racism in the system, and to provide greater access to lifelong health care, maternal health and midwifery [...]

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced on Monday sanctions against Taiwanese businessman Robert Tsao and lawmaker Puma Shen, banning them from entering mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. The two are accused of promoting Taiwanese independence and engaging in separatist activities. Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office, highlighted their involvement with [...]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced the foundation of the New Global Alliance to End Statelessness in a press release on Tuesday. The project marks the collaborative efforts of more than 100 states, civil society organizations, stateless-led entities, academics and others to “confine statelessness to the history books”. The Global Alliance seeks [...]