The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , Tomás Ojea Quintana, urged North Korea Thursday to begin to release its political prisoners in anticipation of the proposed June 12 denuclearization talks with the US. “It might be a gradual process, it’s not that I’m saying you [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Development Programme signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Myanmar on Wednesday that will give the UN agencies access to the Rakhine state. UN officials state that the memorandum will lay the foundation for the safe return of the Rohingya refugees. [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted an amicus brief to the Colombian Constitutional Court on Tuesday calling for changes to the Special Jurisdiction of Peace bill—a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Court is reviewing the bill, which was passed on November 30, 2017. HRW has identified three shortcomings in the [...]

A Bahrain court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced to five years in February over Tweets critical of the Bahraini government. Rajab is the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights . He was convicted over Tweets about Bahraini prison torture and civilians casualties from [...]

There is evidence to suggest that coalition airstrikes in Syria are potential war crimes, according to an Amnesty International report released Tuesday detailing the effects on civilians of the US airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, which occurred from June to October of 2017. Amnesty referred to the airstrikes, by the US-led Coalition against Islamic State (IS) [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday in response to the sanctions the US imposed on Russia in April. The counter-sanctions give Putin the right to ban trade from countries found to be hostile to Russia and to cut ties with such countries. According to Reuters , the counter-sanctions are not as strong [...]

The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe ruled Wednesday that citizens of Zimbabwe living outside of the country would be ineligible to vote in the nation’s upcoming July election. Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, or scattered around the world, and represented by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights filed suit arguing that the new constitution, which Zimbabwe adopted [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed two lawsuits brought by Kaspersky lab, a Russian-based software company whose products have been banned from US government use, seeking to overturn these bans. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the two complaints, one for failure to state a claim, and [...]

In a 75-30 vote with 74 absentees, lawmakers in Denmark approved a bill Thursday adding a provision to the Danish criminal code that forbids a person from wearing face-concealing clothing in public mainly to include those wearing burqas. The prohibition does not apply to the covering of the face which, the law defines, as serving [...]

There is a reasonable basis to believe that Venezuelan government has committed crimes against humanity since at least 2012, according to the Organization of American States (OAS) . After releasing a 400-page report from a panel of independent experts, the OAS will be turning over its findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for government [...]