Serious law. Primary sources. Global perspective
MarkBuckawicki, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Idaho’s governor signed a bill into law on Tuesday that prohibits transgender individuals from using bathrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender identity. The bill applies to those who enter such spaces “knowingly and willfully.” First offenses carry a misdemeanor penalty of up to one year in prison. Repeat violations, including those that [...]

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DonSimon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tuesday urged Russia to fulfill its obligations under international law and restore access to internet and communication networks in light of continuing censorship and protestor arrests. Russian authorities continue to impose broad mobile internet and cellular access shutdowns under apparently pretextual public safety justifications, with some of the closure orders lasting up [...]

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Australia’s online safety regulator on Tuesday raised concerns over compliance by major social media platforms with the country’s social media ban for minors, warning that it is currently investigating the matter. The regulatory body, eSafety, released a compliance report showing “a number of poor practices that give rise to compliance concerns,” including “enabling” minors to [...]

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement on Tuesday condemning the “unlawful use of lethal force outside any context of armed conflict” by the US military over the past months. The statement said that the deadly US strikes on vessels thought to be carrying illegal drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific amount to “extrajudicial [...]

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Subhashish Panigrahi/ Wikimedia Commons

President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday assented to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, a measure that Amnesty International says restricts the ability of transgender and gender-diverse individuals to self-identify. Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India’s board, criticized the law, stating: “This regressive law dilutes safeguards and deepens state intrusion into the [...]

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ArmyAmber / Pixabay

A coalition of United Nations experts on Tuesday issued a press release calling for Taliban authorities to immediately lift their ban on Afghan women entering UN premises, calling the policy a clear violation of international law with life-threatening humanitarian consequences. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s participation [...]

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Joshua Villanueva is JURIST’s Washington, DC Correspondent and an LL.M. candidate in National Security and U.S. Foreign Relations Law at The George Washington University Law School.  The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral argument in Trump v. Barbara, testing whether President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship can survive the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause [...]

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Yildiz Yazicioglu (VOA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

UN experts urged Türkiye to stop criminalizing members of human rights groups and lawyers in a press release on Tuesday, criticizing misuse of an anti-terrorism law. The special rapporteurs cited seven incidents in the last year where members or lawyers of the Human Rights Association (İHD) were investigated, arrested or jailed through the law. They highlighted [...]

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Alexandra Bennett, UN General Assembly Hall, March 2026

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Tuesday to improve the efficiency and implementation of mandates across the UN system. The resolution includes a series of reforms outlining how the General Assembly, working groups, and other entities within the UN will develop and effect mandates which guide member states. The reforms range from requiring [...]

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Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The EU on Monday announced that it will extended a number of sanctions and restrictive measures on Iran in response to human rights violations in the country. The sanction package, according to a Council of the European Union press release, involves a “travel ban and an asset freeze” and a ban on the export of [...]

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