The city of Detroit announced last month that it is countersuing Black Lives Matter protestors after a group of organizers sued the local government in late August. After protests across the USA and around the world over the killing of George Floyd police in May, activists in Detroit sued the local government for how the police reacted to the demonstrations. Alleging that Detroit cops “repeatedly responded with violence” and asking the federal judge to bar the police from using tools of “excessive force” like chemical weapons or rubber bullets in the future. The city has now filed a countersuit in response, alleging a “civil conspiracy” and claiming the protests in
A cross-party statement by British MPs and peers in the House of Lords has condemned the ‘brute force’ the Indian government has used in responding to ‘hundreds of thousands of peacefully protesting farmers’.
British banks have come under pressure from human rights groups after it was reported that more than $60 million has been lent to a company part-owned and used by the Myanmar military, as it carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. Justice for Myanmar (JFM), a campaign organisation, found that HSBC and Standard Chartered made the loans to Vietnamese telecom company Viettel – a company part owned by and used by Myanmar’s military – even as it stood accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Viettel is a major investor in Mytel, a Myanmar mobile network...
Trump supporters have stormed the Capitol to prevent Congress from confirming the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Lawmakers have been rushed out of the building following the breach. It came as the representatives debated a move by Republicans to overturn November’s election results.
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has outlined “grave” concern over the government’s handling of people held in Australia’s immigration detention facilities, as it published a report looking into the immigration detention network last month. The AHRC found that people were being detained for long periods of time – “orders of magnitude greater than any comparable jurisdiction” – with limited access to communal facilities and healthcare. “The Government should act urgently to reduce the total number of people in immigration detention,” said Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner...
As Israel spearheads a massively successful vaccination drive against the coronavirus, reports reveal that the Palestinian population residing in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza strip is deliberately being left out of the programme by the Israeli government. Israel has vaccinated over 10% of its 9 million population leading the entire globe in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. But, the coalition government of the right-wing Likud party and the centre-right Blue and White Party headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prioritized inoculating Jewish Israelis over...
In reflection of the Australia's grievous history with its Indigenous people, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the country's national anthem would be altered from January 1. Australia will no longer be referred to as “young and free” in the anthem. Instead, people will sing “one and free,” in hopes it will create a “spirit of unity” among its inhabitants and acknowledge people who have lived in Australia tens of thousands of years before colonists. Prime Minister Morrison claimed, “it recognizes the distance we have travelled as a nation. It recognizes that our national story is drawn...
As the newly formed cabinet of Yemen arrived in the Southern City of Aden, an explosion killed at least 22 people and injured over 50. Whilst the Prime Minister and his cabinet are reported to be okay, amongst those killed are aid workers and officials. Yemen’s information minister has accused Houthi rebels of being behind this “cowardly terrorist act”. The conflict in Yemen, which began in 2015, has resulted in the deaths of more than 110,000 people and has left millions on the brink of famine. Read more from the BBC.
Karima Baloch, 37-year-old Balochistan activist and refugee, has been found dead in Canada following her missing disappearance. Baloch was the first chair of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad), a student organisation advocating for the rights of those in Balochistan and highlighting the ongoing issue of enforced disappearances. In 2016, she was listed by the BBC as one of its 100 most inspiration and influent women for her human rights work. Her husband, Hammal Haider, a human rights advocate, has maintained that there are suspicious circumstances behind her death. A month prior to...
The Sandinista National Liberation Front, Nicaragua’s ruling party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, passed a law preventing opposition candidates from running in the 2021 presidential elections. The new law has granted Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega and his government the power to unilaterally declare citizens “terrorists” or coup-mongers, classify them as “traitors to the homeland,” inhibiting candidates from running in the election. Candidates “who lead or finance a coup…encourage foreign interference, ask for military intervention…propose or plan economic blockades, applaud...