#human-rights

#human-rights

The senators' letter cites an AP investigation this month that revealed several examples of ICE using the device on people - sometimes for hours - on deportation flights dating to 2020. Van Hollen was joined by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and six others. The WRAP is the subject of several federal lawsuits likening incorrect usage of the device to punishment and even torture.

The LOI presents a structural flaw that undermines compliance with the principles of legality, legitimate purpose, suitability, necessity, and proportionality; it inverts the rule and the exception, with serious harm to rights enshrined constitutionally and under the Convention; and it prioritizes indeterminate state interests, in contravention of the ultimate aim of intelligence activities and state action, namely the protection of individuals, their rights, and freedoms.

The City of Toronto's human rights office has seen a significant increase in demand over the last five years that showed no signs of slowing down in 2024, according to a new report. The number of inquiries to the office, which serves city employees and residents interacting with municipal services, has increased by 89 per cent since 2019 and went up 32 per cent in 2024, according to the report before the general government committee Thursday. The vast majority of inquiries relate to complaints and accommodation.

A group of United States lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to secure the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian American who has been held in Israeli detention centres for eight months. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 27 members of the US Congress called for the release of Mohammed Ibrahim amid reports that he faces abusive conditions in detention.

Settler violence in the West Bank getting worse and worse Quotable Jasper Nathaniel, Independent Journalist, discusses the recent attack on a Palestinian woman and the rising settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Video Duration 00 minutes 55 seconds 00:55 Video Duration 01 minutes 15 seconds 01:15 Video Duration 01 minutes 09 seconds 01:09 Video Duration 01 minutes 27 seconds 01:27 Video Duration 01 minutes 29 seconds 01:29 Video Duration 01 minutes 19 seconds 01:19 Video Duration 01 minutes 14 seconds 01:14

Right now, you just talked about Israelis killing some Palestinians, but Hamas is killing Palestinians within Gaza. And they have not returned the bodies that they promised to return, including two Americans, Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, whose families we have interviewed over these months, observed MacCallum before asking, So what is your response to what Hamas is doing now?

The Nigerian man described being roused with other detainees in September in the middle of the night. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers clasped shackles on their hands and feet, he said, and told them they were being sent to Ghana, even though none of them was from there. When they asked to speak to their attorney, he said, the officers refused and straitjacketed the already-shackled men in full-body restraint suits called the WRAP, then loaded them onto a plane.

"This attack constitutes a serious aggression not only against them but against all the work of protecting and promoting human rights in the region," said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was last week awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism. Writing on social media, Machado said that Velasquez and Peche had been "persecuted" in Venezuela by the regime of leaderNicolas Maduro, and called on the Colombian government to conduct a "thorough, transparent, and urgent investigation."

So there's a lot of respect, and I think you'll see some tremendous progress, both in the Middle East. This country is doing very well. It has good leadership, Trump said of Sisi, who came to power following a coup in 2013 and has since been accused of widespread oppression and anti-democratic tactics. Trump continued: It's about leadership, and it's really nice when you say, How is your crime situation? and they don't even know what you're talking about.

Smiling and joking in a Steve Biko T-shirt, he said he felt surprisingly well but needed time to find himself after so long either in solitary confinement or isolated in jail. About the British government's efforts to secure his release, he said simply: We did manage to get me out but we did not manage to get a consular visit. That still does not make sense to me. But that might be on the previous government. This one might have inherited the situation.

Then there is FIFA chief Gianni "Johnny Boy" Infantino playing the supplicant, flattering his new fave authoritarian-which has been humiliating to watch, in advance of the 2026 World Cup being hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Every time Johnny Boy fails to say a word about the compromised safety of international travelers or even players-including after the ICE gestapo shot a protesting pastor in the head with a potent "less lethal" weapon.

Ali al-Ahmed didn't think that Elon Musk was responsible for the decline and fall of Twitter. Musk was another face representing an old regime. And its sins began well before Musk bumbled into Twitter HQ, in October 2022, carrying a porcelain sink. (In an attempt at humour, Musk posted a video of himself arriving at the Twitter offices carrying a sink with the caption Entering Twitter HQ let that sink in!)

This is something that's become a big part of the news because people, a lot of comedians especially, are very upset because the people who paid the comedians to come to this are not good people. It's a pretty brutal regime. They've done a lot of horrible, horrible things... I'm curious as to why you decided to do that.

I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities, In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war: a death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble. Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language.

Ben Chouchane, who was arrested in January 2024, had been sentenced to death by a court in Nabeul, east of Tunis, on Wednesday, Bouthelja told the AFP news agency. His client had been found guilty of insulting the president, the minister of justice and the judiciary, spreading false news and some of his social media posts were also deemed to be incitement, Bouthelja added.

They dragged little Greta before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag,

The initial 14 were brought to Ghana on September 6. Three were deported that night. 11 were held in military detention. Out of that 11, 10 were deported with the matter in court, and eight of them are in Togo,

I [want] to express my sincere regret for having performed under a government that continues to violate fundamental human rights. I deeply regret participating under the auspices of the Saudi government.

Speaking on Real Time With Bill Maher, CK, who is co-headlining the festival with the British comedian Jimmy Carr on Monday night local time, said other comedians had been really surprised by the response from audiences in Riyadh so far. There's a woman who's a lesbian and Jewish, who did a show there, and she got a standing ovation, CK said, referring to Jessica Kirson, who has expressed sincere regret for performing at the festival.

In January 2025, the execution of inmate Huang Lin-kai reignited Taiwan's death penalty debate, with activists saying authorities acted in disregard of the law. The execution, the island's first in five years, came just months after Taiwan's Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling narrowing the scope of capital punishment and requiring stricter safeguards for its application. At the time, some observers thought the ruling meant Taiwan was edging toward "de facto abolition" of the death penalty.

The sisters of the British-Egyptian human rights campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah have intervened for the first time since his release from prison in Egypt to call on Keir Starmer to push Narendra Modi to free a British Sikh activist when he meets the Indian prime minister next week. Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in an Indian jail for nearly eight years without facing full trial in what his supporters say is an arbitrary and egregious denial of justice by a British ally.

Just days after UN human rights experts decried a "dramatic escalation" in executions in Iran, the powerful Guardian Council approved harsher sentences for spying and collaboration with Israel and the United States. A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog, announced the decision on October 1 following months of back-and-forth with parliament over amendments. This announcement comes soon after a UN panel revealed that Iranian authorities have executed over 1,000 people since the start of the year -- a figure that Amnesty International called the most in at least 15 years.

A global academic freedom group has warned that the Trump administration's assault on universities is turning the US into a model for how to dismantle academic freedom. We are witnessing an unprecedented situation really as far as I can tell in history where a global leader of education and research is voluntarily dismantling that which gave it an advantage, said Robert Quinn, executive director of Scholars at Risk (SAR).

Some of those being deported held valid US residency permits, he said, but were nonetheless included on the deportation list, with their consent obtained for repatriation. The confirmation comes after the New York Times, citing unnamed officials in Tehran, said a plane carrying around 100 Iranians left Louisiana late on September 29 and was set to arrive in Iran via Qatar the following day.