Advocates say profiling ‘characterized many arrests’ as judge awards millions in damages in class-action lawsuit
Racial profiling is a systemic problem in the Montreal police force, a Quebec judge has ruled, as she awarded damages in a class action lawsuit that advocates call a “decision that meets with reality”.
Justice Dominique Poulin found that the city bore responsibility for racial profiling committed by its police officers and was obliged to compensate those affected.
Continue reading...Israeli PM says move will embolden a genocidal Hamas as British government faces growing backlash
Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms export licences to Israel, describing it as a shameful decision that would embolden a genocidal Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister said his country was at war to also protect British hostages and vowed the UK measures would not prevent it from winning the conflict in Gaza.
Continue reading...Lack of funding, resources and rehabilitation leads to ‘bored and angry’ prisoners, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben says
The prison system is “broken”, with inmates returning to the community “bored and angry” and “set up to fail”, according to Scotland’s outgoing chief inspector.
Wendy Sinclair-Gieben highlighted a succession of failings in a service she described as “the underdog of the criminal justice system”, as she stands down as HM chief inspector of prisons for Scotland at the end of August.
Continue reading...Absence of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reductions from 2031-49 deemed unconstitutional
South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that part of the country’s climate law does not conform with protecting the constitutional rights of future generations, an outcome local activists are calling a “landmark decision”.
The unanimous verdict concludes four years of legal battles and sets a significant precedent for future climate-related legal actions in the region.
Continue reading...Liquidators to recoup millions sent to blackmailer who threatened to expose Plutus Payroll tax fraud scheme
A Sydney property developer who helped “wash” money for a blackmailer convicted for threatening to expose tax fraud will have to cough up more than $11m.
Plutus Payroll and its directors stole $105m from the Australian Taxation Office by skimming off GST and transferring it elsewhere, according to court findings.
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Continue reading...New vice and virtue restrictions offer ‘a distressing vision of Afghanistan’s future’, says UN
New Taliban laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces outside their homes have been condemned by the UN and met with horror by human rights groups.
The Taliban published a host of new “vice and virtue” laws last week, approved by their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which state that women must completely veil their bodies – including their faces – in thick clothing at all times in public to avoid leading men into temptation and vice.
Continue reading...Transparency campaigners welcome government move to publish details of system algorithms
Artificial intelligence and algorithmic tools used by central government are to be published on a public register after warnings they can contain “entrenched” racism and bias.
Officials confirmed this weekend that tools challenged by campaigners over alleged secrecy and a risk of bias will be named shortly. The technology has been used for a range of purposes, from trying to detect sham marriages to rooting out fraud and error in benefit claims.
Continue reading...Arakan Army targeting Muslim minority as Myanmar’s military are driven out of Rakhine, UN official says
Thousands of Rohingya are being forced to flee from their homes in Myanmar and escape on dangerous boat journeys after being targeted by armed rebels, activists and officials say.
Having seized control of much of Myanmar’s Rakhine state from the military, the rebel Arakan Army has turned on the Rohingya minority in areas it controls, shelling villages, forcing them to leave their homes and reportedly rounding up groups of men.
Continue reading...Charity says rise ‘hugely concerning’ and calls for change in law in England and Northern Ireland in line with rest of UK
Concerns raised to the NSPCC helpline about children being physically punished have more than tripled in a year, the charity has said.
Helpline staff heard about children being hit, slapped and shaken, with 45% of the concerns raised requiring a referral to social services, the police or other agencies.
The NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000.
Continue reading...Ministers activate Operation Early Dawn, so defendants can be held in police cells as more are sentenced over riots
Ministers have been warned that they have placed a “sticking plaster” over a crumbling criminal justice system after emergency measures were activated to ease prison overcrowding, as more people are sentenced for their role in the recent riots.
The longstanding measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison places become available and could mean their court dates are delayed or adjourned at short notice.
Continue reading...Case brought by NGOs is attempt to prevent the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences
Claims of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment have been submitted to the high court in London by lawyers seeking an order preventing the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences to British companies selling arms to Israel.
The 14 witness statements covering more than 100 pages come from Palestinian and western medical doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, as well as from ambulance drivers, civil defence department workers and aid workers.
Continue reading...POA chair says ministers could declare as soon as Monday that Operation Early Dawn is coming into force
The launch of an emergency plan to avoid prison overcrowding in England could be announced as soon as Monday, the Prison Officers’ Association has said.
The longstanding measure, known as Operation Early Dawn, would allow defendants to be held in police cells until prison beds became available and could mean their court dates are delayed or adjourned at short notice.
Continue reading...Individuals could get up to £2.6m in compensation over blood products that caused HIV and hepatitis C
Victims of the contaminated blood scandal will begin receiving compensation before the end of the year, and some people will be entitled to more than £2.5m, the government has confirmed.
An outline of the long-awaited compensation scheme was set out in May, after the final report of the infected blood inquiry laid bare what Rishi Sunak, the then UK prime minister, called “a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”.
Continue reading...David Neuberger was part of court panel that dismissed appeal of Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists
David Neuberger, the former president of the UK’s supreme court, has resigned from his role as chair of a legal advisory board to an international media freedom coalition, citing the “concern expressed” over his role as a judge in Hong Kong.
Lord Neuberger said he had been considering his position as chair of the high-level panel of legal experts that advises the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), an international NGO, for several months.
Continue reading...Four firms including Northern and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 alleged fare dodgers
Tens of thousands of prosecutions for alleged fare dodging brought by train companies are to be quashed after a court ruling.
Four companies including Northern Trains and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 passengers in England and Wales using the single justice procedure (SJP), which allowed fast-track magistrates hearings on fare evasion cases to be held behind closed doors.
Continue reading...Man says wife died of allergic reaction at Disney World but company claims streamer’s terms block him from filing suit
Attorneys for Disney World are seeking to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit brought by a husband over the death of his wife last year because of the terms and conditions he agreed to when signing up for Disney+ streaming service several years earlier.
In February of this year, Jeffrey Piccolo filed a wrongful death suit against Disney on behalf of his wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, a medical doctor from New York who died last year. His lawsuit claims that her death was a result of suffering an allergic reaction while dining at a resort restaurant in Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick says money would be better spent preventing crime
Ministers should scrap Conservative plans to build new mega-jails and pour £4bn into the prevention of crime and rehabilitation instead, the former chief inspector of prisons has said.
Nick Hardwick, who is also a former head of the Parole Board, said a huge expansion of the prison system would not solve the problem, especially when average custodial sentences are rising.
Continue reading...Former governor speaks out after appeal court upholds convictions of seven activists over 2019 protest
Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, has decried as “unjust” a decision by the Chinese city’s top court to uphold the conviction of Jimmy Lai and other prominent pro-democracy activists for participating in a peaceful protest in 2019.
On Monday, Hong Kong’s court of final appeal unanimously agreed to uphold the convictions of seven activists who participated in an unauthorised 2019 protest in which 1.7 million people – roughly a quarter of Hong Kong’s population – took to the streets to oppose Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.
Continue reading...Chair of Hunting Kind says he has built legal case to obtain same protection as Roma and LGBTQ+ people
A pro-foxhunting group says it has prepared a legal case to try to prove that hunters are an ethnic minority whose hunts should be protected under equality laws.
Ed Swales, the chair of Hunting Kind, claims he has been advised by a leading human rights lawyer that hunters unequivocally qualify for legal protection under the UK Equality Act 2010.
Continue reading...Lord Falconer reveals that Keir Starmer will not block Commons vote on giving terminally ill people choice of ending their lives
Parliament is facing a once-in-a-generation chance to hand the terminally ill a choice over ending their life, the Labour peer championing a change in the law has said.
Charlie Falconer, the former lord chancellor whose bill was introduced into the House of Lords last month, revealed he had been reassured by Downing Street that it would not stand in the way of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying should its advocates secure one.
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