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UN Mandate Holders Seek Sweeping Guantanamo Investigation
March 02, 2016
Following the Obama Administration's proposal of a plan to close the US's Guantanamo Bay detainment facility, a group of UN human rights mandate holders called for a broader pronouncement that would provide for the investigation and prosecution of all those alleged to have committed human rights violations at the facility.
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HRW: Australia Ignores "Inconvenient" Rights Obligations
March 02, 2016
In the context of Australia's campaign for an upcoming seat on the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch ("HRW") has called for the country's government to reevaluate a number of policies HRW argues violate its international human rights obligations, including sending asylum seekers offshore for processing.
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US Congress Hearing Implicates UN Agency Chief in Scandals
March 02, 2016
At a hearing of a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, witnesses accused the head of the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") of scandals ranging from providing computer equipment to North Korea to cracking down on whistleblowers and called for the US to attempt to remove the WIPO chief from his post.
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US-EU Deal Creates Ombudsperson for Data Complaints
March 02, 2016
Reuters reports that a deal struck between the US and the EU to replace the previous Safe Harbor framework on transatlantic data transfers creates an Ombudsperson at the US State Department who handles European complaints on all types of data transfers between the parties and organizes an "alternative dispute resolution mechanism" to solve grievances.
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Oxford Plans Launch of Human Rights Institute
March 02, 2016
Oxford University has begun construction of an institute on human rights that it plans to open later this year and that will seek to work in conjunction with the university's Faculty of Law to promote the study of human rights law.