The Kosovo Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a retrial against Kosovo politician and parliamentarian Fatmir Limaj and three other co-defendants on charges of war crimes allegedly committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war with Serbia . Limaj allegedly ordered the torture and killings of Serbian detainees in 1999. The Supreme Court panel consisted of three European [...]
Children participating in protests during the Egyptian Revolution have been subject to police detention and torture, according to a recent finding released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tuesday. The findings were based on numerous interviews of detained children, their families and lawyers. HRW condemned the situation in Egypt for violating national and international laws that [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday pressured Israel to avoid strikes on civilian structures in Gaza . Pillay expressed acute concern over the surge in the number of Palestinian civilians killed and injured over the past 48 hours as a result of Israeli military action. As to whether any of these [...]
A Pakistani court on Tuesday ordered police to drop blasphemy charges against a 14-year-old girl, which had sparked international concern over the use of the country’s controversial law. The girl was charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy law for allegedly burning pages for a Koran. She was released on bail in September after an Iman was charged [...]
A Croatian court sentenced former prime minister Ivo Sanader to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for corruption and war profiteering. Judge Ivan Turudic found Sanader guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and also ordered the former PM to pay a fine of €611,000 to Croatia. Sanader was charged with taking €10 million (USD $12.7 million) [...]
Russia’s new NGO law went into effect on Tuesday, and activists have vowed to challenge it. The law requires Russian NGOs financed from abroad and involved in political activity to be registered as foreign agents . Some activists are already in the process of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the [...]
UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson on Monday stressed the need to address the causes of maritime piracy with a “multi-dimensional approach” . Addressing the UN Security Council, Eliasson noted three areas of concern that warrant immediate action: 1) better coordination, information-sharing and trust-building among countries and agencies involved in counter-piracy operations; 2) stronger capacity to [...]
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that US forces were capturing and holding Afghans in violation of a detainee transfer pact and that US forces should turn over that responsibility to Karzai’s forces. Karzai’s statement urged Afghan officials to make efforts towards toward obtaining entire responsibility for Bagram Prison . Listed abuses included Afghan detainees [...]
A court in Kazakhstan on Monday upheld the conviction of an outspoken opposition leader accused of inciting dissent in an attempt to overthrow the country’s government. Vladimir Kozlov , head of the unofficial Alga! party , was found guilty of fomenting unrest and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail last month. There, a judge found [...]
The government of Myanmar on Monday began releasing a number of political prisoners at the same time US President Barack Obama arrived for a historic visit to the former dictatorship. Specifically, 66 prisoners were to be freed in conjunction with the first trip to the country made by any sitting US president. While two-thirds of [...]
