Amnesty International on Friday raised alarm regarding a wave of legal initiatives across the Americas that threaten to curtail the activities of civil society organizations. These measures, currently under consideration in Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, pose severe risks to the promotion and defense of human rights in the region. Peru’s congress is rapidly advancing legislation [...]

China introduced on Friday the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases involving supporters of Taiwanese independence. The new judicial guidelines outline severe punishments for activities deemed as fragmenting the country or inciting secession. The new standards, titled “Opinions on Punishing the Crimes of Splitting the Country and Inciting Splitting the Country by ‘Taiwan Independence’ Diehards,” [...]

A report by Rainbow Refugees NI and Law Centre NI published on Friday revealed that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Northern Ireland experience serious homophobic abuse in their asylum accommodation. The report, titled “We are getting hurt,” shows that 78 percent of the study’s participants experienced “homophobic abuse or violence in or around their asylum accommodation.” [...]

Pakistani authorities initiated a rigorous investigation to identify and arrest members of a mob that killed a tourist accused of blasphemy in the Swat district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to local media on Friday. Regional Police Chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur confirmed that a case has been registered against the organizers of the mob [...]

The Supreme Court of Japan declared a transgender woman as the father of her daughter, who was conceived after the woman’s legal gender change, for the first time on Friday. In Friday’s ruling, which overturned a 2022 Tokyo High Court decision, the court held that Japan’s Civil Code and other laws do not prevent a [...]

The Philippines announced Friday that it does not intend to invoke its mutual defense treaty with the US following an incident captured on video where the Chinese coast guard allegedly boarded two Philippine navy boats, with a Philippine sailor sustaining serious injuries. The Chinese Coast Guard sailors were attempting to block a resupply mission at [...]

The lawyer representing former detainees of an Australian youth detention centre announced in a media release on Friday that the Tasmanian state government plans to give AU$75 million to members of a class action abuse lawsuit against the state. The class action arose as a result of alleged abuse that had been taking place at [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed on Friday that Ontario public school board teachers are entitled to protection against unreasonable search and seizure in their workplace under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision reinforces that public school boards are an arm of government, making them subject to the Charter. The case in [...]

In the final analysis, human fragmentation into separate and competitively hostile states is unnatural. Because it is contrary to intellectual understanding and natural law, such fragmentation always makes it impossible to fashion a just and survivable global order. Ipso facto, it also renders impossible any long-term American future. What should be done? Suitable transformations are [...]

Last month marked 15 years since the end of the civil war between the Sri Lankan State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — a brutal conflict that spanned three decades and is estimated to have claimed between 70,000 and 100,000 lives. The country has hosted a series of events aimed at memorializing [...]