The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) voiced concern on Friday regarding recent events in Egypt, “including the military trial and jailing of a blogger/activist.” The blogger, Alaa Abdel Fattah, was imprisoned by Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) at the end of October after refusing to answer prosecutors’ [...]
The Egypt Supreme Administrative Court on Monday suspended a verdict handed down last week by the Mansoura Administrative Court that prohibited former officials of the National Democratic Party (NDP) to participate in the upcoming election. As a result, most of the officials who joined other parties or plan to run independently are now allowed to [...]
The presidents of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday told the UN General Assembly that the tribunals are in need of experienced staff to complete their work . The presidents warned of the difficulties in retaining staff at the ICTY and the [...]
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea held a referendum on Sunday that would institute a number of changes to the country’s constitution . The proposed reforms include a limit on the number of terms a president can serve, the creation of the office of vice president and a provision allowing the current president to pick his [...]
The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . The court granted certiorari in three separate cases, reserving five-and-half-hours for oral argument on the issue. The court agreed to hear two hours of arguments on the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate [...]
A UN official on Saturday expressed concern regarding the lack of transparency in an inquiry by the UK into allegations that its secret services were complicit in torture of detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, has doubts as to whether the proposed inquiry will meet international standards [...]
The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) on Sunday urged President Thein Sein to release political prisoners . In an open letter to Sein published in three state-owned newspapers, the MNHRC indicated that domestic and international support would follow the prisoners’ release. Sein had granted amnesty to 6,359 prisoners in October following a similar open [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Johnson of the University of California Davis School of Law says that Alabama’s immigration law highlights the civil rights implications of the recent state immigration laws and, in the case of Alabama, show parallels with previous efforts to prevent desegregation…
The State Tax Service of the Ukraine on Friday announced formal charges against former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for embezzlement and tax evasion. The new charges allege that during her time as head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) in 1996, Tymoshenko hid $165 million of corporate revenue and accumulated $5.8 million through tax [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called Friday for an investigation of the previous day’s aerial bombing of a refugee camp in Unity State in South Sudan. Refugees in the camp claimed to witness an Antonov plane, often used by northern Sudan as a makeshift bomber, circling the camp and then making two [...]
