Gambian lawmakers endorsed recommendations presented by the Joint Committee on Health and Gender on Monday to maintain the country’s ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in anticipation of an upcoming vote later this month on the potential decriminalization of the practice. The recommendations were adopted with 35 members voting in favor, 17 voting against and [...]

A group of Louisiana families filed a motion for an injunction Monday to stop officials from implementing a law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. Louisiana is set to become the first state to impose such a requirement, though the action has been debated in other [...]

Amnesty International said in a Monday report that the right of peaceful assembly in Europe is increasingly under attack due to state authorities stigmatizing and punishing individuals who organize and participate in peaceful protests. The report’s findings are based on legal regulations of the right to peaceful assembly in 21 European countries, including Austria, Finland, [...]

The Employment Court of New Zealand on Monday ordered the University of Auckland to pay damages of NZ$20,000 for breaching its contractual obligations to protect Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles’s health and safety due to public harassment over her commentary during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Over the course of 2020-2022, Wiles, a microbiologist and science communicator, experienced physical [...]

Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior told the Sindh High Court on Monday that its ban on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) was legitimate in light of national security concerns and that it did not violate Article 19 of the Pakistani Constitution. The Ministry explained to the High Court that X’s presence in Pakistan without [...]

Human Rights Watch reported on Monday that Iranian security forces employed lethal force against predominantly Kurdish border couriers that passed rugged terrain to transport goods between Iraq and Iran. Kurdish border couriers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Iranian security forces shot them and killed their relatives, and beat them in detention. A border [...]

Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) Police Commissioner Michael Murphy issued a Public Disorder Declaration for Alice Springs on Monday following several civil disturbances over the weekend, including the assault of four off-duty police officers on Sunday morning. The declaration includes a restricted movement provision that creates a curfew for all residents and visitors to the town [...]

As of June 21, 2024, the prison population in England and Wales had almost reached its limit, standing at 87,395, according to figures released by the Ministry of Justice. This is stark in itself, but the size of the crisis is exacerbated further when pitted against a “usable operational capacity” of 88,778. This leaves less [...]

Russian missile attacks on Ukraine killed dozens of people, injured hundreds, and damaged the country’s largest children’s hospital, UN and Ukrainian officials announced Monday. A wave of deadly strikes occurred during the early hours of Monday morning. Numerous commercial and residential buildings along with vehicles in large cities including Dnipro, Kramatorsk, Kryviy Rih, Kyiv and [...]

Berlin police said released a police report on Sunday detailing damage by unknown persons to a Jewish memorial in Steglitz and said that an investigation was ongoing. Police said that at around 4:10pm on Saturday, officers noticed paint smeared on the monument on Hermann-Ehlers-Platz. The mirror surface of the monument was damaged with “political content,” [...]