Courts | Good News for Humankind

Joe Biden makes history by confirming 12th LGBTQ+ judge, the most of any U.S. presidency

By Peter Schulte / September 19, 2024 / Good news links

Judge Mary Kay Costello made history on Tuesday when she became the 12th Senate-confirmed LGBTQ+ judge appointed by President Joe Biden. The Senate voted 52-42 to confirm Costello after a day-long hearing. She’ll now sit on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Her confirmation helped Biden set a new record, topping both the Obama administration and Biden administration’s previously tied record of appointing 11 out LGBTQ+ judges.

Malaysian court shuts down hydroelectric dam project on Indigenous land

By Peter Schulte / September 12, 2024 / Good news links

A Malaysian court ruled this week that hydropower companies building a dam on land belonging to the Indigenous Semai people of Malaysia’s Perak state had failed to secure proper consent and must halt operations immediately. The court also ruled that the state and federal governments, and the federal agency tasked with overseeing Indigenous affairs, had failed in their duty to protect Indigenous land from encroachment. Activists expressed relief and elation at the verdict, which marks a major milestone for land rights for Malaysia’s Indigenous peoples, known collectively as Orang Asal.
The verdict can still be appealed.

South Korean youth score historic climate victory

By Peter Schulte / August 30, 2024 / Good news links

A top court in South Korea has ruled the country’s measures to fight climate change insufficient for protecting the rights of its citizens in Asia’s first climate litigation ruling of its kind. Currently, South Korea does not have any legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 2031 and 2049. This absence means the government cannot guarantee the protection of future generations, a right engrained in its constitution, the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled.

Island states win historic climate case in world oceans court

By Peter Schulte / July 21, 2024 / Good news links

Nine small island states have won a historic climate change case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which ruled that all signatories to a United Nations treaty on marine activities must do more to protect the world’s oceans from climate change. The tribunal found that signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea’s responsibilities to prevent marine pollution extend to greenhouse gas emissions, which harm oceans by altering the earth’s atmosphere.

South Korea’s top court upholds the rights of people in same-sex relationships in historic ruling

By Peter Schulte / July 18, 2024 / Good news links

The landmark ruling states that benefits from South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service can be claimed by people in same-sex partnerships and that treating same-sex couples differently than heterosexual ones is “an act of discrimination that… violates human dignity and the right to pursue happiness.” South Korea does not recognize same-sex marriage under the law, so the ruling is major progress in extending the protections and rights to same-sex couples.

Ecuador river is granted the right to not be polluted in historic court case

By Peter Schulte / July 8, 2024 / Good news links

An Ecuadorian court has ruled that pollution has violated the rights of the Machángara River, which runs through the capital of Quito. In some parts of Latin America and North America, inhabitants have constitutional rights to a clean environment, but Ecuador is one of the few countries that recognize the right of natural features not to be degraded or polluted.

Colombian victims win historic lawsuit in U.S. court over banana giant Chiquita

By Peter Schulte / July 1, 2024 / Good news links

Following 17 years of legal proceedings, victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have obtained justice, as a jury found the banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group. The ruling is historic because it’s the first time an American jury has held a major U.S. corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses in another country. Victims’ families will receive $38.3 million in compensation.

Brazil’s Supreme Court decriminalizes possession of marijuana for personal use

By Peter Schulte / June 26, 2024 / Good news links

The Supreme Court’s ruling has long been sought by activists and legal scholars in a country where the prison population has become the third largest in the world. Critics of current legislation say users caught with even small amounts of drugs are regularly convicted on trafficking charges and locked up in overcrowded jails, where they are forced to join prison gangs.

Namibia’s High Court decriminalizes homosexuality

By Peter Schulte / June 22, 2024 / Good news links

The court’s ruling occurred in a case involving Friedel Dausab, a gay Namibian man, who argued that anti-gay sections of the country’s Immigration Control and Defense Acts constituted unfair discrimination and infringed on citizens’ fundamental rights. The court’s judges found that the laws unfairly discriminate between straight men, women, and gay men and were “based on prejudice and unfounded societal biases.”

Landmark ruling in Suriname grants protections to local and Indigenous communities

By Peter Schulte / June 11, 2024 / Good news links

A court in Suriname approved an injunction filed on behalf of twelve Indigenous and maroon groups concerned about losing approximately 1,322,013 acres of rainforest to agricultural development. The court said the government doesn’t have the right to grant land without free, prior and informed consent, a process in which developers meet with residents to explain how projects would impact daily life.