Tag - rights

 
 

RIGHTS

Thailand's parliament passed a same-sex marriage bill on Wednesday, paving the way for the kingdom to become the first Southeast Asian nation to recognize LGBTQ marriage equality.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 28, 2024
Thailand passes bill to legalize same-sex marriage
Legalizing same-sex marriage could also have positive impact on tourism, which contributes about 12% to the nation’s $500 billion economy.
Demonstrators on Tuesday in Washington, where the U.S. Supreme Court signaled it's likely to preserve full access to a widely used abortion pill as the justices heard arguments in a case carrying major stakes for reproductive rights and potentially this year's elections.
WORLD / Society
Mar 27, 2024
Judges' mention of 1873 obscenity law opens new front in U.S. war on abortion
Those opposed to the womens' health procedure cite the law as a reason to roll back a 2021 FDA decision allowing an abortion drug to be sent by mail.
Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin's administration has made LGBT marriage a signature issue.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 27, 2024
Bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Thailand heads to parliament
Taiwan and Nepal are the only places in Asia that currently recognize same-sex marriage, and efforts elsewhere in the region have had mixed results.
Christian villagers walk inside a church on Feb. 28, 16 years after it was destroyed by a mob following the murder of a Hindu priest, in the village of Irpiguda in the Kandhamal district of India's Odisha state. With India's election on the horizon and Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi widely expected to win, many Christians fear they may once again become targets.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Christians in India fearful as election looms, recalling past violence
In 2008, mobs targeted churches, prayer halls and Christian homes, killing over 100 people, sexually assaulting women and forcing thousands to flee.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Hong Kong scraps early release for national security convicts
The new law came into force Saturday, putting into immediate effect tough penalties of up to life imprisonment for certain national security crimes.
Plaintiffs and their lawyers on survivors benefits for same-sex partners smile after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of them on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 26, 2024
Same-sex partners should get spousal survivor benefits, Supreme Court rules
It is the first time the Supreme Court has reached a judgment on survivors benefits for crime victims who have same-sex partners.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv in October 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Netanyahu halts envoys' U.S. trip amid rift with Biden over Gaza U.N. vote
Famine looms in the Gaza Strip and there is growing global pressure for a truce in the war health authorities say has killed some 32,000 Palestinians.
A big selling point for Starlink is its ease of setting up and use.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 26, 2024
Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals are falling into the wrong hands
A thriving black market results in kits being smuggled into territories where the service has no agreement to operate and their use by repressive regimes.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said that a person reposting online critical statements issued by foreign countries and people overseas might be committing an offense, depending on their "intention and purpose."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 25, 2024
Online criticism could breach new Hong Kong law, official warns
A person might be committing an offense if they repost critical statements issued by foreign countries and people overseas.
Legislative Council lawmakers in Hong Kong unanimously voted in favor of a new national security law on Tuesday. The legislation introduces penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason and insurrection.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2024
Is Hong Kong headed for a rubber-stamp legislature?
With the unanimous passing of the new national security law, Hong Kong's "patriotic" council has shown that its willingness to toe the government line.
A view of the Legislative Council chamber with Chinese and Hong Kong flags reflected on the window is seen as the second reading of the Article 23 security law is read, in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 23, 2024
Hong Kong's new national security law comes into force
The United States, the European Union, Japan and Britain have been among the law's strongest critics.
A protest against the extradition law in Hong Kong in June 2019
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 22, 2024
Where are Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy figures now?
In 2019, Hong Kong erupted into the most stunning expression of public anger with Beijing in decades.
Shizuo Aishima's son speaks to reporters next to a photo of his father in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2024
Ohkawara execs to file criminal complaint against Tokyo police
The complainant's lawyer said that the execs hope to kick-start an internal investigation into the department’s misconduct.
Afghan schoolgirls in 2022. Boys and men will return to classes when the Afghan new year starts in late March, but girls and women will be left behind again by a Taliban government education blockade that is part of a raft of restrictions the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid."
WORLD / Society
Mar 21, 2024
Afghan girls and women cling to glitchy, lonesome online learning
Schools in Afghanistan have opened for the new academic year, but girls have been banned from joining classes for the third year in a row.
The Bing website on a smartphone. Microsoft has received a wave of criticism from human rights groups on how its search engine works in China.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2024
Microsoft is attracting growing criticism for censoring Bing in China
Bing is reportedly removing information about human rights, democracy, climate change and other topics.
Hong Kong leader John Lee (center) with lawmakers after they passed the city's new security law. Hong Kong has fast-tracked into law domestic security legislation that critics say could muzzle open economic discussion and tighten control over foreign bodies operating in the global finance hub.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2024
Hong Kong's new security law only deepens challenges for financial hub
While the city’s role as a financial center dwarfs that of rivals, more firms are choosing Singapore as their Asian base.
People walk under flags of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on Queen's Road in Hong Kong.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 20, 2024
What's in Hong Kong's new national security law?
The law's broadly defined provisions have drawn condemnation from Western countries, which had urged Hong Kong to reconsider it.
Police officers monitor traffic on the streets from surveillance cameras in Buenos Aires in April 2020.
WORLD / Society
Mar 20, 2024
Reboot of Buenos Aires facial recognition plan fuels privacy fears
The system of 300 cameras linked to a national crime database was suspended two years ago after a court ruled it unconstitutional.
Lawmakers vote on the new national security law at Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 19, 2024
Hong Kong adopts sweeping security laws, bowing to Beijing
The body fast-tracked a major piece of legislation that critics say further threatens the China-ruled city's freedoms.
Masaaki Okawara (center) and other plaintiffs celebrate in December after the Tokyo District Court ruled that police and prosecutors had falsely accused them of illegally exporting spray dryers. But the civil suit continues as both sides have appealed the ruling.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 19, 2024
Japan's 'hostage justice system' faces renewed scrutiny
The long-criticized system has come under the spotlight as executives wrongly accused of a crime continue their legal battle.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?