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Caroline Mala Corbin - 18th November 2020
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, the U.S. Supreme Court lost one of its last remaining champions of the least powerful members of American society. Justice Ginsburg’s deep commitment to equality manifests across many subject areas, including religion. Indeed, that she interpreted the First Amendment’s religion clauses with an eye to equality is […]
Unkha Banda and Misha Nayak-Oliver - 3rd November 2020
On 22 October 2020, the UK Government’s Home Office Department published a Statement of Changes (‘SoC’) to update the UK’s Immigration Rules. The 507 page document confirmed that from 1 December 2020, being a rough sleeper will be a ground for refusing permission to stay and/or cancelling existing permission to remain in the UK (para. […]
Oskar Sherry - 3rd November 2020
On June 15 2020, the US Supreme Court decided in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids termination of employees because of their sexual orientation or because they are transgender. Gerald Bostock and Donald Zarda had each alleged termination from work because of their sexual orientation. Aimee Stephens […]
Alvin Attalo - 27th October 2020
In the Chief Justice’s advice to the President, Kenya’s current Chief Justice David Kenani Maraga has advised the President to dissolve parliament for failing to enact legislation that ensures gender equality as guaranteed under the Kenyan Constitution. Constitutional bases for the petition Article 27(8) of the Kenyan Constitution requires the State to take legislative and […]
Vasiliki Poula - 21st October 2020
Stavropoulos and Others v. Greece questioned Greece’s respect for religious minority rights. When Mr. and Mrs. Stavropoulos registered the birth of their daughter in a registry office of Athens, Greece, they found out that her first name was recorded on the birth certificate with the handwritten note “naming” next to it in brackets. In Greek, “naming” […]
Srujana Bej, Nikita Sonavane and Ameya Bokil - 13th October 2020
The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project studied 34,000 arrest records and 500 First Information Reports filed in Madhya Pradesh, India to understand the patterns of pandemic policing and locate the socio-economic profiles of the individuals policed. The consequent report Countermapping Pandemic Policing – Sanctioned Violence in Madhya Pradesh notes that the police exercised the […]
- 9th October 2020
Justice Chandrachud of the Indian Supreme Court, in the landmark Navtej Singh Johar judgment, opined that, “our ability to recognise others who are different is a sign of our own evolution.” The journey of transgender rights in India finds its origin in the landmark judgement of National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India. Whilst […]
Christy Yeung - 9th October 2020
In recent years, the Hong Kong courts have recognised the equality rights of various same-sex couples in a number of cases. On 18 September 2020, the Hong Kong High Court handed down two much-awaited judgments regarding Hong Kong’s laws affecting same-sex married couples. The judgments of Ng Hon Lam Edgar v Secretary for Justice and […]
Rakshitt Bajpai - 23rd September 2020
The recent statistical report presented by the National Statistical Organization (NSO) indicates the deteriorating standards of availability of internet and computers to students in India, which violates their fundamental rights and creates a digital divide between the privileged and the unprivileged. The situation of India’s education sector is deteriorating rapidly, which is reflected in the […]
Ayesha Malik - 15th September 2020
Turkey’s conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque in July this year has raised complex questions over reconciling the country’s rich cultural and religious heritage with its treatment of the minorities that form part of its varied demographic. Built originally as a cathedral in the sixth century, the Hagia Sophia has […]
Ayush Mishra - 14th September 2020
The Special Marriage Act was enacted in 1954 to allow citizens of India to solemnize inter-faith and inter-caste marriages without the need to renounce their religion. The Supreme Court of India, however, has recently accepted a petition challenging the constitutionality of Section 6 of the act that mandates the Marriage Officer to publish the notice […]
Martin Kwan - 3rd September 2020
In R(Bridges) v South Wales Police, the England and Wales Court of Appeal reviewed the lawfulness of the use of live automated facial recognition technology (‘AFR’) by the South Wales Police Force. CCTV cameras capture images of the public, which are then compared with digital images of persons on a watchlist. The use of AFR […]