The US Senate on Friday authorized by voice vote settlements between the US government and minority farmers for alleged discrimination. The settlements include $3.4 billion to resolve claims that the Department of the Interior (DOI) mismanaged funds held in trust for American Indian landowners , and $1.2 billion for African American farmers claiming they suffered [...]
Three human rights groups on Friday jointly announced allegations of torture against Libyan security officials. Alkarama, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and TRIAL have obtained documents that purportedly demonstrate that government officials blocked an investigation into the role of the Libyan Internal Security Agency (ISA) in the death of Ismail al Khazmi. Al Khazmi was arrested [...]
More than 9,000 workers who took part in the
Costa Rica filed a complaint Thursday with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Nicaragua of violating its territorial integrity and damaging protected wetlands. Costa Rica contends that 50 Nicaraguan soldiers remain in the area and that Nicaragua is attempting to build a canal there. The filling came after Nicaraguan President Jose Daniel Ortega rejected [...]
The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued a statement lamenting the killing of seven people in a post-election violence in Guinea. The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda , urged security forces to refrain from using excessive force against civilians. The statement asserted that the ICC would evaluate all reported acts of violence [...]
US Attorney General Eric Holder instructed federal prosecutors on Thursday to use DNA evidence as much as possible , in a reversal of Bush administration policy. Among the changes, defendants who plead guilty will no longer have to waive their right to DNA evidence under the Innocence Protection Act of 2004 . The memo also [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Jordan Paust of the University of Houston says recent evidence shows that the US has enabled certain Nazi war criminals to avoid prosecution, but that it is incumbent upon the government to end such impunity by actively prosecuting and/or extraditing suspects to stand trial… In the past, the United States has rightly [...]
International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters Thursday that the ICC has opened preliminary investigations in Honduras and Nigeria. The Honduras investigation will focus on the June 2009 coup that removed Manuel Zeleya from power. Moreno-Ocampo did not elaborate on the Nigeria investigation. Following a preliminary investigation, Article 15 of the Rome [...]
Thirty-three Republican senators filed an amicus curiae brief on Thursday supporting state attorneys general in their legal effort to have the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) declared unconstitutional. The brief, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida supports the suit’s proposed arguments that the PPACA violates the Commerce [...]
The Indian government announced Thursday that it has authorized additional compensation for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal chemical spill disaster . The new package includes USD $15.8 million , adding to the original disbursement in June of USD $148 million. The compensation was approved after the government faced criticism for perceived leniency in the [...]
