On October 13, a lawsuit filed in Washington DC accuses the US federal government of financing organizations that discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals from becoming foster parents. The complaint stated that Kelly Easter was declined twice from becoming a foster parent for a migrant child by a federal foster care program.
On Tuesday, October 12, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the Vatican can not be charged in European courts because of its sovereign status. The human rights court in Europe dismissed the suit submitted by a group of clergy abuse survivors, citing that the Vatican is a country with Diplomatic Immunity.
On October 11, Monday, the Pavlovsky District Court of the Krasnodar territory in southern Russia sentenced the disabled 59-year old Vladimir Skachidub to more than four years in prison. Skachidub's sentence came from 2020 criminal charges for preaching his religious faith.
On October 5, 2021, France's Parliament voted unanimously in favor of a proposed law that would ban conversion therapies. The proposed law will also penalize practitioners and perpetrators with a jail sentence and a fine.
Arbaz Mullah, an Indian Muslim, went missing on September 27, 2021; the next day, he was found headless on a railway track in the Belgavi district in Karnataka, India. The police are looking into the local Hindutva group that accuses Mullah of committing love jihad.
On Monday, September 27, 2021, a session court in Lahore, Pakistan, found a school principal guilty of blasphemy charges. Salma Tanveer was charged with blasphemy in 2013 for claiming that she is the last Prophet of Allah. Judge Mansoor Qureshi announced Monday afternoon that they ordered the death penalty for Tanveer.
The office of the Prosecutor General of Russian declared on Friday, September 24th, that the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International and Church of Spiritual Technology are threats to the “security of the Russian Federation.” Both religious organizations are connected to the Church of Scientology, a California-based religious cult infamous for
Religious schools and organizations in the Australian state of Victoria will soon be prohibited from hiring or terminating based on the applicant's gender identity or sexual orientation. On September 16th, the Victorian Labor Party in Australia proposed a law that would end this discrimination.
On Thursday, September 16, Federal prosecutors announced that the Michigan-based physician, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala is not alone in performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on minors. The prosecutors added that Dr. Nagarwala is part of an underground network of physicians and individuals in a close-knit community of Indian Muslims.
Cuba’s government published a draft of a possible new family code on Wednesday, September 15th. Many of Cuba’s liberal organizations, including the LGBTQ+ community, have cautiously cheered on the draft, afraid of the possible things that may happen to it before it gets implemented.
