Search Results for: 2017-07-20

The Nepal Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling requiring the government to register same-sex relationships follows an arduous struggle to achieve marriage equality in the South Asian nation. This historic order is expected to have an impact on an upcoming verdict regarding a similar plea at the Supreme Court of India. Despite India’s decriminalization of queer [...]

Singapore executed Saridewi Binte Djamani, a 45-year-old woman, on Friday as the penalty for a 2018 drug-trafficking conviction. It was Singapore’s first execution of a woman in almost 20 years. After a covert drug bust in 2016, Singapore authorities charged Saridewi with possession of six packets and seven straws of substances. The substances included 30.72 [...]

A New York federal judge denied on Wednesday former US President Donald Trump’s effort to move Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against him from a New York state court to a federal court. As a result, Bragg’s criminal case against Trump, in which Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business [...]

Pakistan’s transgender community finds itself embroiled in an ongoing struggle for inclusion, facing a recent setback with a verdict from the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Transgender activists in Pakistan have appealed the judgement of the Federal Shariat Court (“FSC”), which adjudicates based on the tenets of Islam, to the Supreme Court (“SC”). As many as [...]

An Australian corruption watchdog urged the Northern Territory (NT) government on Thursday to audit personnel records of public officers with certain role qualifications. The move follows findings of corruption within the recruitment processes in the public sector. The NT Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) released the findings of an independent investigation, concluding that a public [...]

The Organization of American States’ (OAS) was presented with a crucial opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to democracy last month, as its Permanent Council turned its attention towards Haiti. The nation’s current crisis is one that is directly connected to the actions taken by members of its ruling Tèt Kale party (PHTK), which for the [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Thursday reached a $31 million settlement with City National Bank over allegations that the bank engaged in “redlining,” a form of racial discrimination where banks routinely deny loans to communities of color. City National Bank is one of the largest banks in the United States. This is the largest [...]

Nepal is a least developed, land-locked Himalayan country wedged between India and China. After a long period of instability, it adopted a new constitution in 2015, creating a multi-party federal republic. Previously Nepal had been a unitary state, albeit with a long period of political instability and insurgency. The first election under the Constitution was [...]

Following months of protests over rapidly rising inflation rates and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka, the government has imposed a series of repressive measures against its people. Officials were banned from expressing their own concerns about Sri Lanka’s beleaguered economy via social media platforms. Certain neighborhoods were subject to heightened security requirements which included an [...]

The new government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte is employing tricks and propaganda to entrench impunity and ward off the International Criminal Court’s long-delayed probe of crimes against humanity committed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s reign of terror. The latest of these ploys is the government’s attempt, through the Office of the Solicitor [...]