Georgia's ruling coalition drops 'foreign agent' bill after protests
Georgia’s governing coalition Thursday agreed to withdraw a controversial ‘foreign agent’ bill after large civilian and international protests, according to an official Facebook page. The ruling Georgian Dream Party said they were in agreement with their partners in “unconditionally” withdrawing support for the bill. The post placed blame for the bill’s withdraw on the “machine [...]
Another Gaza War? Legal and Strategic Aspects of Israeli Counterterrorism
In its steadily escalating war on Palestinian terror, Israel has a law-based responsibility to limit harm to Arab populations and a concurrent responsibility not to bring war-related suffering to its own populations. To clarify these intersecting obligations, this essay will focus on pertinent legal issues of insurgency, counterterrorism, and humanitarian international law in the Middle [...]
The US Department of the Treasury announced Thursday that it and the Turkish government have identified and frozen the assets of a “key financial facilitation network” based in Mersin, Turkey. The asset freeze targeted four individuals and two entities in Turkey that were accused of assisting ISIS with transferring funds between Iraq and Syria. The [...]
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Thursday reviewed the UK’s human rights record for the fourth time. The UPR announced the review on November 7. Some delegations, such as the Maldives and Malaysia, commended the UK on its recent efforts to protect women and girls by criminalizing gendered offenses. Other delegations, [...]
Reproductive rights protesters disrupt US Supreme Court oral arguments
Reproductive rights protesters Wednesday interrupted oral arguments at the US Supreme Court. As the court heard oral arguments in the case of Bittner v. United States, three protesters stood up in the chamber and spoke out against the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In Dobbs, the Court struck down Roe v. [...]
Turkey’s New Disinformation Bill: Disturbing Trend Toward Digital Authoritarianism
In 2002, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey, defeating Kemalist hegemony, there was a glimmer of hope in the West for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. However, the experience of Turkey over the past 20 years is one descending into an authoritarian regime with clampdowns [...]
Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court Monday fined Credit Suisse two million Swiss francs for failing to stop an employee who allowed a criminal organization to launder money through the bank. It also confiscated 12 million francs from Credit Suisse accounts linked to money laundering. The court says that between July 2007 and December 2008 a customer relations [...]
US releases Afghan Guantánamo Bay detainee after 15 years of incarceration
The US Department of Defense Friday announced the release of Asadullah Haroon Gul, an Afghan national who had been held for 15 years without charge in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Gul was incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay in 2007 on accusations of being a member of Al-Qaeda and Hezb-e-Islami (HIA), an insurgent group that fought [...]
UN rights experts urge UAE to release British businessman detained since 2008
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has urged the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to immediately release Ryan Cornelius, a British businessman, who has been detained in the country since 2008 on fraud charges. The opinion is based on submissions made by Cornelius’ lawyers in the UK. According to the submissions, in 2004, CCH, a German [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of life in many ways. It has forced everyone to adjust to the new normal, which has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies from work to socialization. We also have found various ways online to entertain ourselves, such as the OTT platforms and [...]
