A 19-year-old man named Trevor Bickford is accused of assaulting New York Police Department (NYPD) officers using a machete on New Year's Eve. Prosecutors say that he traveled to the city "in order to kill people and carry out Jihad."
On November 1, a federal court in Pakistan instructed an officer representing Baluchistan Province to submit a report regarding the marriage of a five-year-old girl in his district, as well as an overview of the practice of child marriage and what steps are being taken to stop it.
UN member states have called out India to improve its human rights record.
During a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of New Delhi's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), UN member states advised India to take a stronger stance on sexual violence and religious discrimination. The UPR, conducted every four years, evaluates member states' human rights records. Any member state may query the state being reviewed and offer suggestions.
The Satanic Temple has filed a lawsuit against the current abortion laws in the state of Idaho. The lawsuit claims that the laws violate religious freedom, property rights, and involuntary servitude.
Religious organizations in the US defended a loophole allowing clergy not to report child abuse cases. In 2020, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City heavily opposed House Bill 90 (HB90) in Utah.
The Catholic church argued that the “bill would violate the confidentiality of the confessional seal.” In February, the Catholic church gathered 9,000 signed letters from its parishioners and sent them to Rep. Angela Romero, the bill’s author.
A bill to amend the existing anti-conversion law was passed in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in India on August 12. According to the new legislation, the punishment for forcibly converting would be increased from seven to ten years. The bill also defines "mass conversions" and forbids them.
On August 31, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released its “Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China.”
In 2017, the UN started receiving allegations of abuse from non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and media outlets, prompting the investigation. Since then, numerous research reports have been published alleging arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence and forced sterilizations, forced labor, and other ill-treatment of up to a million people.
