Betsy Griffing, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, argues that despite a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Montana, the equal protection guarantees of the state constitution and Montana Supreme Court precedent require the recognition of same-sex couples short of marriage…
Both the government of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the newly formed National Transitional Council (NTC) have committed war crimes during the conflict in the country, Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday. The report alleges the Gaddafi regime has: committed serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including war crimes, and gross human rights violations, [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday sent a report to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) accusing Sri Lankan troops of killing tens of thousands of civilians during clashes with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. The UN leader forwarded the report, compiled by a panel of experts appointed by the secretary-general, [...]
Egyptian protesters’ recent attack on the Israeli Embassy has provoked the Egyptian government to reinstate emergency laws with expanded control over political demonstrations and media reporting. Emergency laws will also apply to blocking roads, publishing false information and possessing weapons. Special security courts , used by former president Hosni Mubarak as a tool for repressing [...]
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on Tuesday filed an International Criminal Court (ICC) complaint against Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, for systematic sexual abuse and subsequent concealment of over 10,000 incidents. The group filed the complaint on behalf of clergy sex abuse survivors from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) [...]
The US Court of Military Commission Review on Friday ruled that Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul , media secretary of Osama bin Laden , was properly convicted of being a propagandist and should spend the rest of this life in prison. The 7-0 vote rejects the 2009 appeal of his conviction and life sentence [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday heard arguments over whether state courts can consider international law—and in particular, Sharia law—in their decisions. State Question 755 allows state courts to look only to legal precedents of other states for guidance, provided that state does not use Islamic law. The amendment also [...]
A South African court on Monday found the controversial African National Congress (ANC) Youth League President Julius Malema guilty of hate speech for singing the apartheid-era protest song “Shoot the Boer.” Boer is the Afrikaans word for farmer and broadly refers to whites in general and Afrikaners in particular. Malema argued earlier that the words [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday said that at least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria in the crackdown on anti-government protesters in the country. During her address to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) , Pillay said “that, according to reliable sources on the ground, the number of those [...]
The Pechersk District Court announced on Monday that the trial of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of office would be adjourned for two weeks . Judge Rodion Kireyev said he would delay further proceedings “in order to ensure the defendant’s right to defense, the court is giving additional time to prepare [...]
