News

Tom O’Connor travels to Poland where he finds pressure on the independent judiciary is intensifying and the country’s defiant judges in a grim mood. An EU fine of €1 million a day is, it appears, a price worth paying for Poland’s populist government which is garbing its sustai

Russia has officially ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In a statement, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) said Russia formally ceased to be a party to the ECHR on Friday 16 September 2022 following its expulsion from the Council of Europe in March.

Hungary is set to lose billions of euros of EU funding in connection with breaches of the principles of the rule of law under proposals from the European Commission. Around €7.5 billion could be withheld pending Hungary's implementation of remedial measures agreed after months of talks between

A town in the Netherlands has launched legal proceedings against Twitter after false claims of a local paedophile network were circulated online. Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, a municipality in the west of the country with a population of around 34,000, has been at the centre of absurd conspiracy theories al

"And they hatin'": police officers responding to a reported shooting were taken aback after a food delivery robot unexpectedly rolled through their crime scene. A video posted to social media shows the four-wheeled robot pause at the yellow crime scene tape, but then continue after it is lifted by a

The annual report of the United Nations Secretary-General on the death penalty confirmed that Saudi Arabia, along with other countries, has resumed executions in light of widespread violations of international law. The report was issued in the 51st session of the Human Rights Council, covers the per

Protection from discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief was introduced in 2003 and subsequently included as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. Belief is defined as any religious or philosophical belief (including a lack of belief) but it is specifically the area of phil

The average price of a property in Scotland increased by 9.9 per cent in the year to July 2022 to reach £192,966, the UK House Price Index Scotland has revealed, down from an increase of 11.4 per cent in the year to June 2022. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in Sc

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland has granted a wrongful termination order under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 for payment of £4,800 to a woman who was evicted from an Aberdeen property after being told the property was to be sold. Linzi Catto, the tenant under a priva

Review: Justice need not be static. In Scotland the lady, sans her blindfold, but with a vestige of the tell-tale scales in her left hand, once stood proudly over the doorway of Scotland’s 1639 Parliament with her companion Mercy until that building was ‘improved’ (i.e. largely dem

A pop singer in Poland who said the authors of the Bible were “wasted from drinking wine and smoking weed” has succeeded in her appeal against conviction to the European Court of Human Rights. Dorota Rabczewska, known as 'Doda', one of the country's most successful artists, made the comm

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. China rallies support over Xinjiang report at U.N. rights meeting

The Duke of Marlborough has had his £132,000 Porsche Cayenne seized after he failed to make the requisite payments and despite his personal worth of £188 million. Volkswagen Financial Services UK, the trading name of Porsche Financial Services, took the duke to court and claimed he had a

France violated the rights of French women it refuses to repatriate from detention camps in north-east Syria, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. In yesterday's Grand Chamber judgment, the court held by a majority that there had been a violation of Article 3 § 2 of Protocol No

Scotland's international crime writing festival has returned with an impressive line-up of international and local authors during its 10th annual outing in Stirling. Bloody Scotland, which runs between today and Sunday, has presented hundreds of established and new crime writers to enthusiastic audi