Ryan Suto, Syracuse University College of Law Class of 2013, is the President of the Syracuse chapter of the American Constitution Society and recently moderated a panel discussion on the issue of WikiLeaks and the Constitution. He writes on how the US Supreme Court must begin to engage in public diplomacy through its rulings… The [...]
The Obama administration on Thursday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reinstate the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. The government filed the “emergency motion,” arguing that a Ninth Circuit panel’s decision to lift a stay blocking a lower [...]
Two former military officers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for committing crimes against humanity at an Argentine prison. The officers, along with five others, were charged and convicted of various crimes including murder, kidnapping and torture that took place at El Vesubio , a notorious prison operated by the country’s [...]
Gerolf Hagens : Recently, the Royal Dutch Court of Amsterdam rendered a verdict in the case against Geert Wilders. In a previous submission, I wrote that it was going to be very interesting to see whether the court would accept the claim Wilders made, that he—as a politician—should be able to say the things he [...]
Jailed Iranian journalist Isa Saharkhiz on Wednesday urged UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Dr. Ahmad Shaheed to investigate prison conditions in Iran. Saharkhiz alleged that the treatment of both political and general prisoners in Iran amounts to crimes against humanity , and compared the conduct of prison authorities to that of Joseph Stalin in Soviet-era [...]
Belgium’s interim cabinet announced via the Belgian Official Journal Thursday that the nation will be officially banning the burqa . The Belgian House of Representatives voted 136-0 to approve the law in April 2010 and the Senate approved it in May of that year, but the law’s implementation was delayed by Belgium’s political crisis. Violators [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday urged Kuwait to immediately release two men being detained for posting messages on the Internet criticizing Middle East rulers. HRW reported that in June authorities detained and investigated Nasser Abul for threatening state security using Twitter and Lawrence al-Rashidi for posting a YouTube video criticizing Kuwait leader Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW), Civil Rights Defenders (CRD), Front Line Defenders (FLD), Amnesty International (AI) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) on Thursday released a joint statement urging the Russian government to investigate the murder of rights activist Natalia Estemirova . Estemirova, who was kidnapped in Grozny in July 2009 and shot to death, reported [...]
The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that secret service organizations cannot withhold evidence from opposing parties nor conduct closed trials. The appellants, secret service organizations including MI5 , appealing a May 2010 ruling , requested the creation of a “closed material procedure,” saying the disclosure of their evidence to the appellees, former Guantanamo detainees, would [...]
Former hedge fund trader Danielle Chiesi on Wednesday agreed to pay USD $540,000 to settle a civil charge with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) . Chiesi was accused of communicating non-public information about IBM Corporation, Advanced Microdevices (AMD) and Sun Microsystems (now Sun-Oracle) in 2008 and 2009 to her superiors at New Castle Funds [...]
