Rights watch
![Rights watch](https://www.irishlegal.com/uploads/justice3%28PIXA%29.jpg)
A round-up of human rights stories from around the world.
Turkish police officers acquitted for murder of Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elçi | Medya News
A verdict was reached this week in the 11th hearing of the high-profile murder case of Kurdish human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi, as the court room erupted in outrage at the acquittal of three police officers alleged in the killing.
Guatemala lawyer who defended rural and Indigenous people killed in attack | The Washington Post
A Guatemalan lawyer who worked closely with organisations representing farmworker and Indigenous groups has been killed in an apparent ambush.
Israel committed crime of ‘extermination’ in Gaza, says UN investigation | Middle East Eye
Israel is guilty of a committing the crime of “extermination” in Gaza, as well as the crimes of sexual violence, torture, and starvation as a weapon of war, along with other war crimes and crimes against humanity, UN investigators have found.
Why are America’s elite universities so afraid of this scholar’s paper? | The Guardian
The Columbia Law Review website was temporarily shut down after it published a Palestinian human rights lawyer’s article proposing a new way to understand Palestinian life under Israeli rule.
Chiquita’s $38.3 million verdict jolts human rights litigation | Bloomberg
A landmark $38.3 million jury verdict against Chiquita — the first in an American court to hold a US corporation liable over international human rights violations — raises the spectre of billions of dollars in liability for the company and a broader warning for global business titans, attorneys for the plaintiffs say.
Italy accused of scrapping safe abortion guarantee from G7 declaration | The Guardian
Giorgia Meloni’s government has been accused of scrapping a reference guaranteeing access to “safe and legal” abortions in the text of the G7 summit’s final declaration.
Video: Azerbaijan accused of crackdown on journalists and opposition ahead of COP29 | France24
Azerbaijan is due to host the COP29 in November. The move has been slammed by activists due to the country’s poor human rights record.
FT investigation finds Ukrainian children on Russian adoption sites | FT
Ukrainian children who were abducted and taken to Russia in the early months of the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion have been put up for adoption by authorities, in one case under a false Russian identity, a Financial Times investigation has found.
US lifts weapons ban on Ukraine’s Azov brigade | BBC News
The US has lifted its long-standing ban on weapons supplies and training to Ukraine’s Azov brigade, whose origins were mired in controversy over alleged links to far-right groups.
Iraq’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law: a harsh new reality | Fanack.com
Iraq’s parliament recently enacted legislation that criminalises same-sex relationships, imposing a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.