Law
Joint Statement: Draft Law on Public Order Violates Women’s Rights
As representatives of organizations working to promote women’s rights and gender equality in Cambodia, we wish to express our deep concern regarding numerous articles within the Draft Law on Public Order (DLPO), provisions of which violate women’s human rights. We therefore also endorse and echo the call made to the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) in a Joint Civil Society Statement on August 13, 2020, to scrap the draft law.
We acknowledge and commend the RGC for taking positive action to tackle gender inequality through a number of comprehensive policy initiatives, including the upcoming Third National Action Plan to prevent Violence Against Women (NAPVAW III), and the Fifth Strategic Plan for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Cambodia (Neary Rattanak V). However, we are disturbed by the DLPO’s potential to subject women to criminal sanctions for dress and behavior that allegedly violate arbitrary and discriminatory social norms related
President Kiir should respect Right of Access to Information Law
By Roger Alfred Yoron Modi
A little over a week ago, in two decrees announced on South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), President Salva Kiir, “relieved” Nikodemous Ajak Bior as “Commissioner of Information Commission in the Ministry of Information” and “appointed” Muyiga Nduru Korokoto as “Commissioner of Information Commission in the Ministry of Information.”
In both decrees, President Kiir cited “powers” conferred upon him by the Civil Service Act, 2011 and The Interpretation of Laws and General Provisions Act, 2006. This is cheating and a deviation from The Right of Access to Information Act, 2013.
Information Commissioner is not “Commissioner of Information Commission in the Ministry of Information”
It is the Right of Access to Information Act, 2013 that explicitly recognizes the constitutional right of every citizen to access information held by public or private bodies, as fundamental to the fulfilment of human rights and fighting corruption and also establishes the
Law Society Gets Court Order To Trace Missing Client Funds
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International law is a ‘political construct’ and breaking it is ‘routine’, Tory MP says
![Theresa Villiers sitting on a bench](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"50","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB190C8w.img?h=504&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=483&y=244"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"39","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB190C8w.img?h=393&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=483&y=244"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"39","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB190C8w.img?h=393&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=483&y=244"}})
© Provided by The Independent
A Conservative MP has defended the government’s intention to break international law by claiming that countries violate it on a “routine” basis.
Theresa Villiers, one of Boris Johnson’s former cabinet ministers, argued that it was “not unusual” for countries to disregard the rules and said such laws were merely a “set of political constructs”.
MPs on Monday are debating the Internal Market Bill, which includes provisions that violate the Brexit withdrawal agreement signed by Boris Johnson last year.
Senior figures such as John Major, Theresa May and Tony Blair have warned against the plan, saying it will undermine the UK’s standing in the world and make it harder to criticise other countries that violate international law.
But, taking to the TV studios to defend the government’s actions, Ms Villiers argued: “The reality is that there are routine occasions where countries or indeed the EU are
Human rights group finds violations by federal law enforcement in Portland
A team of experts with Physicians for Human Rights, a New York-based group that documents rights violations, spent seven days in Portland investigating the use of crowd control weapons against protesters and law enforcement violence directed at volunteer medical staff.
That team released its findings Tuesday ahead of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C.
“PHR has concluded that the response by federal agents that it documented in Portland was disproportionate, excessive, and indiscriminate, and deployed in ways that caused severe injury to innocent civilians, including medics,” the report states.
Dr. Michele Heisler, PHR’s medical director, led the team visiting Portland. Heisler said they didn’t see any official EMTs or paramedics at the protests and that medical care was left to volunteers and civil society.
The report cites numerous instances where law enforcement deliberately targeted volunteer medics and their supplies.
“There was the case of OHSU, their tent was
Law Society of B.C. rebuked for toppling Begbie
![a statue of a person: The Law Society of B.C. had this statue of Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie removed from the lobby of their Vancouver offices.](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"60","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18ITj5.img?h=600&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"47","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18ITj5.img?h=468&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"47","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18ITj5.img?h=468&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
© Provided by Vancouver Sun
The Law Society of B.C. had this statue of Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie removed from the lobby of their Vancouver offices.
While the rest of the world pulls down statues of colonial white men, two B.C. legal icons want to restore lustre to the province’s first chief justice and denounce the Law Society of B.C. for tarnishing his image.
Retired B.C. Supreme Court Justice Tom Berger, a giant of Indigenous jurisprudence, and scholar Hamar Foster, University of Victoria professor emeritus, slammed the legal regulator for erasing the legacies of Sir Matthew Begbie.
Three years ago, the law society removed his statue from the foyer of its Vancouver building and eliminated other hallmarks such as the little bronze “Begbies” that honour a “lifetime contribution of the truly exceptional in the legal profession” and changing “Begbie” as the code word used to trigger safety procedures.
Berger and
Beijing slams foreign ‘interference’, ‘malicious slander’ after UN rights experts’ letter of concern on Hong Kong national security law
![a person standing in front of a crowd: A police officer raises a flag warning protesters they could be in violation of the new national security law in Causeway Bay on July 1. Photo: Sam Tsang](https://www.msn.com/{"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18IhGa.img?h=533&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=631&y=442"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18IhGa.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=631&y=442"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18IhGa.img?h=416&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=631&y=442"}})
© SCMP
A police officer raises a flag warning protesters they could be in violation of the new national security law in Causeway Bay on July 1. Photo: Sam Tsang
Beijing has hit out at foreign “interference and malicious slander” after a group of UN human rights experts wrote to express concern that Hong Kong’s new national security law could infringe on certain fundamental freedoms.
In a press conference on Friday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the central government strongly opposed “the politicisation of human rights issues”.
“Some people have ignored facts, maliciously slandered China’s human rights situation, and publicly politicised human rights issues,” she said.
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“We urge them to truly respect the objectives and principles of the UN Charter, and abandon ignorance, prejudice and double standards. (They must) stop interfering
Nepal must reboot human rights, rule of law
Sometimes it can feel as though Nepal goes through endless cycles that bring us back every time to the place where we started. Maybe we just need more years to look back and see the progress.
But up close, we seem to stand still. The present moment is like that. Consider these needs that remain urgent, yet have been forgotten:
– The need for independent commissioners to deal with the demand of conflict victims for transitional justice, and the permanent need of society for the rule of law
– The need for independent police accountability mechanism to deal with the way democratic rights are sometimes repressed, especially during this Covid-19 crisis
Both pre-requisites continue to be urgent if this country is ever to deal with impunity and the daily humiliations of injustice that go unanswered. But we have been diverted time and again by petty politics.
It is now
Law and Legal Education and the Challenges of 2020: A Conversation with Dean Jenny Martinez of Stanford Law School | Nation & World
NEWTOWN, Pa., Aug. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — 2020: A global pandemic, the steepest economic collapse since the Great Depression, a tide of protest against racial injustice, a contentious presidential election, a tectonic shift to remote work and education, and more. What is the role of law and legal education at this complex time in our world? Is this a good time to go to law school? Does the legal profession have a special role to play amid these challenges?
Aspiring and current law students, legal educators, lawyers, and the public are invited to join us for the second anniversary edition of Live with Kellye & Ken on Monday, August 31, at 4:00 p.m. ET as we explore these and related topics with Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez, a leading expert on international and constitutional law, who is also a formidable litigator as well as the author of The Slave