Turkey has abandoned an international accord designed to protect women signed 10 years ago, drawing protests from campaigners.
Source: BBC
Prime minister says sculptures, removed from the monument by Lord Elgin in circumstances that have since spurred one of the world’s most famous cultural rows, would remain in Britain because they had been legally acquired.
Source: The Guardian
France may soon join just a handful of countries, including the United States and Switzerland, with far-reaching legislation aimed to repatriate confiscated stolen assets to their countries of origin.
Source: VOA News
Poland and Hungary filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice regarding the bloc's intention to link payments with rule of law conditions. The move to challenge the EU's rule of law compliance initiative, which ties its budget to basic democratic standards, will slow down its adoption by the bloc.
Source: DW
French European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune is calling on the European Commission to start a legal procedure against Poland over the existence of “LGBT-ideology free zones” in the country.
Source: Politico
Three nongovernmental organisations based in France, Syria, and Russia have announced a legal case in Moscow against the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor with indirect ties to the country's political elite, over the 2017 torture of a detainee in Syria.
Source: Radio Free Europe
A German aid group that operated a migrant rescue boat in the Mediterranean said Italian magistrates were set to charge 21 individuals and three human rights groups with aiding illegal immigration from Libya.
Source: Reuters
Switzerland has narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public, including the burka or niqab worn by Muslim women; almost no-one in Switzerland wears a burka and only around 30 women wear the niqab. The new law doesn't apply to facial coverings for health reasons.
Source: BBC
Pushing member states to address salary disparities between men and women, the EU revealed details of a proposed law that would require companies to divulge gender pay gaps and give job candidates access to salary information in employment interviews. Additionally, companies could be punished if they fail to pay women and men the same salaries.
Source: The New York Times
A German court suspended the right of the country’s domestic intelligence agency to conduct surveillance on the AfD, the leading opposition in Parliament, pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the far-right party. Initially, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency planned to investigate AfD on suspicion of being a threat to democracy.
Source: The New York Times
St. Petersburg activist Daria Apakhonchich, who was declared a “foreign agent” in December 2020, has filed a lawsuit against the Russian Justice Ministry over the illegality of this decision, stating that they violated the norms of Russian and international law by adding her to the government’s list of “foreign-agent media.”
Source: Meduza
The EU has long warned Germany that its efforts to protect nature under the Flora-Fauna-Habitats Directive were not adequate. Now, the European Commission is taking Germany to the European Court of Justice for violating nature and conservation laws.
Source: Euronews