Jordan ends emergency laws that stifled public freedoms
Amman, Jordan Reuters Jordan on Sunday ended laws enacted at the start of COVID-19 that gave the authorities powers to enforce a state of emergency that rights groups said were used as an excuse to suppress civic and political liberties. A royal decree approved a cabinet decision to annul the state of emergency passed nearly […]
UN chief urges action on ‘killer robots’ as Geneva talks open
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for new rules covering the use of autonomous weapons as a key meeting on the issue opened in Geneva. Negotiators at the UN talks have for eight years been discussing limits on lethal autonomous weapons, or LAWS, which are fully machine-controlled and rely on new […]
“Dramatic” global rise in laws defending rights of nature
Washington DC, USThomson Reuters Foundation From Bolivia to New Zealand, rivers and ecosystems in at least 14 countries have won the legal right to exist and flourish, as a new way of safeguarding nature gains steam, US environmental groups said on Thursday. Rights of nature laws, allowing residents to sue over harm on behalf of […]
New law in Iran threatens more arrests of Christians, rights advocates say
Morning Star News Legislation passed by parliament in Iran could make it easier to arrest and imprison Christians and other religious minorities, rights advocates said. Under amendments to articles 499 and 500 of the Islamic Penal Code, those found guilty of “deviant psychological manipulation” or “propaganda contrary to Islam”, whether in the “real or virtual […]
Australia targets big business with world’s second anti-slavery law
Thomson Reuters Foundation Big companies and public bodies in Australia will have to disclose how they tackle modern-day slavery in their operations under a law passed on Thursday that activists say is tougher on business than Britain’s landmark 2015 anti-slavery legislation. The world’s second anti-slavery law, passed by Australia, requires companies with a turnover of […]
SLAVERY: FROM DATA TO LAWS, FIVE GAINS IN THE GLOBAL ANTI-SLAVERY FIGHT IN 2017
Against the backdrop of 40.3 million people estimated to be living in slavery, KIERAN GUILBERT, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on five “gains” in the fight to eradicate slavery around the world last year…
POSTCARDS: TO ESCAPE ABUSIVE MARRIAGES, MANY CHRISTIANS IN PAKISTAN CONVERT TO ISLAM
NAILA INAYET, of Religion News Service, reports from Pakistan…
France will soon have a new crime: online obstruction of abortion
RNS France will soon create a new crime that will make someone running an anti-abortion website as liable to a lawsuit as a protester blocking the door to an abortion clinic. The new crime, called the “online obstruction of abortion,” won’t be an outright ban, because that would amount to government censorship. But the law will be so […]