A New York statute sealing certain criminal records took effect on Saturday, one year after Governor Kathy Hochul signed it into law. The Clean Slate Act automatically seals criminal records for individuals’ convictions after they complete any resulting “incarceration, parole, probation, or post-release supervision” and avoid subsequent criminal convictions. Under the law, criminal records for [...]
Amnesty International revealed on Thursday that the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are using armored carriers from the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) which incorporate French military technology. The group highlighted the potential breach of the UN arms embargo on Darfur and called on all countries to cease supplying weapons to the conflicting parties in Sudan. [...]
Houthi authorities in Yemen have launched criminal prosecution against 12 detained individuals while denying them due process rights, with some facing charges that carry the death penalty, according to a Human Rights Watch report published on Thursday. Among these detainees are UN and former US embassy staff. According to the group’s documentation, these individuals, detained [...]
A US federal appeals court on Friday temporarily lifted a lower court’s blocking of a Louisiana law mandating public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limited the trial court’s earlier ruling, ensuring that the order applies to only the schools of the school [...]
The South African government has refused to help an estimated 4,000 miners illegally occupying an underground mine in Stilfontein, attempting to “smoke them out” and crack down on illegal mining. When asked whether the government would be sending any help to the miners still remaining underground, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said, “We are [...]
The Seoul Central District Court on Friday sentenced opposition figure Lee Jae-myung to a suspended one-year prison term for making false statements before the 2022 presidential elections, according to a news release issued by South Korean member of parliament Lee So-young. The court found that Lee Jae-myung violated the Public Official Election Act (POEA) by [...]
Protesters stormed the Parliament of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia on Friday to challenge a bill that would allow Russians to buy property in the region. Abkhazia President Aslan Bzhania accused protestors of attempting a coup, noting that the government remains in control despite protesters’ seizure of some government buildings. The region’s parliament was [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the US Senate on Thursday, warning the legislative body that the passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act may infringe on the right to free speech. In its letter, the ACLU said the definition of antisemitism in the proposed Antisemitism Awareness Act is overly broad and [...]
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Deanne Criswell and former FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington, alleging civil rights violations in the federal agency’s response to hurricanes Helene and Milton. The back-to-back storms, which hit Florida in late September and early October, have now sparked a [...]
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights released its ruling in the case of Pérez Lucas et al v. Guatemala on Thursday, finding the State responsible for the forced disappearance of four indigenous human rights defenders in 1989. The court determined that Guatemala violated multiple rights under the American Convention on Human Rights when state agents [...]