Human Rights

A doctor dedicated to helping people in war-torn Sri Lanka, a performer reaching out to those battling addiction and a humanitarian bringing the latest cancer therapies to the developing world, are all in the running for this year's Robert Burns Humanitarian Award (RBHA). The winner will be announc

The Chinese government is to revoke the licences of human rights lawyers hired to help protestors in Hong Kong who were arrested as they attempted to flee to Taiwan last August. A Chinese court sentenced 10 of the protestors to prison terms ranging from seven months to two years after they were conv

A former lawyer who used social media to report from Wuhan following the first outbreak of Covid-19 last February has been jailed for four years for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble". Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old human rights activist who was also detained in 2019 for speaking in support of anti

Major changes to the way courts interpret the Human Rights Act are necessary so the legislation does more to protect people detained because of the expansion of police powers, a new study says. The right to liberty and security is enshrined in article 5 of the act and was intended to refer to arrest

Pinsent Masons trainee Poppy Mulligan has been awarded the Champion Individual Award at the Champions of Justice Awards 2020 for her pro bono work with individuals on death row.

An international "people's tribunal" is to investigate atrocities that allegedly took place in Iran a year ago.

A Holyrood committee has called on the Scottish government to set out how it intends to address the "gendered" impact of the pandemic while also having regard to "intersectional" issues. As part of the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee pre-budget scrutiny, MSPs heard

Strengthening accountability for failures to protect people’s rights was a key theme of the work of the Scottish Human Rights Commission this year. In its annual report, the commission referred to the use of its legal powers to intervene in civil litigation for the first time in the Serco lock

The Faculty of Advocates’ man in Brussels, Iain Mitchell QC, has been chosen as one of two contributors to a special publication to mark European Lawyers’ Day. Mr Mitchell’s article, Human Rights in the Time of Pandemic, is included in a handbook produced by the Council of Bars and

Human rights group Reprieve has condemned the United Arab Emirates' threat to forcibly repatriate 18 Yemeni former Guantánamo detainees - which has been confirmed by multiple sources who spoke to the Associated Press. Forced disappearance and torture are rife in Yemen, as the UN recently repo

The UK government has been urged to repatriate foreign fighters and their families detained in camps in north-east Syria following an intervention by UN human rights experts. In a court filing, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and the UN s

Urgent measures are needed to address the increase in Scotland's prison population, a Council of Europe human rights delegation has said. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published a report made following a visit to Scotl

Lawyer, pro-democracy campaigner and avid civil rights activist Hina Jilani is the recipient of the 2020 Stockholm Human Rights Award – bestowed annually by the Swedish Bar Association, the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Legal Assistance Consortium. Ms Jilani grew up

A group of 29 states has expressed "deep concern" about human rights in Saudi Arabia as it bids to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council. Human rights organisations Reprive and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) have echoed these concerns as the Saudi Arabian government has not fo

The Saudi Human Rights Commission has announced that, following a royal decree, the sentences of all people convicted of childhood crimes will be reviewed. According to a new Royal Order, all authorities must suspend the application of the death penalty for those convicted while they were minors, pe