A Chinese court on Friday convicted a Uighur journalist of endangering national security for statements made following the 2009 Xinjiang riots . The Intermediate People’s Court of Urumqi sentenced Gheyret Niyaz, editor of uighurbiz.net and two state-run websites, to 15 years in prison after the one-day trial for statements he made had to foreign media [...]
Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Thursday called for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir , saying that he will eventually face trial before the ICC. Last week, the ICC charged al-Bashir with three counts of genocide in relation to the Darfur conflict . The genocide charges were added [...]
Laws criminalizing homosexual activity are contributing to the spread of HIV and AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the findings of a study announced Wednesday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) . The study, “Legal environments, human rights and HIV responses among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Asia and [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday granted the habeas corpus petition of Yemeni citizen Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif and ordered his immediate release from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Latif, who has been in custody for over eight years, contends that he was in Pakistan for medical [...]
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Thursday that Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia did not violate international law. Serbia argued that UN Resolution 1244 , which ended the war in Kosovo, solidified the country’s boundaries, which included the southern region of Kosovo. Kosovo argued that the resolution was not meant to exclude [...]
Kenya’s High Court ruled Wednesday that Kenyan authorities had violated the fundamental rights of 21 former political prisoners subjected to torture, awarding them Ksh 40 million (USD $500,000) in compensation. The former prisoners were held during the 1980s by the government of former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi , who ruled from 1978-2002, and subjected [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged Wednesday that Chinese authorities used excessive force in responding to the 2008 Tibetan demonstrations and tortured those in custody following the demonstrations in violation of international law. In a report, “I Saw It With My Own Eyes” , HRW said that the Chinese government violated the UN Basic Principles on [...]
The Spanish Interior Ministry announced Thursday that the country has accepted its third Guantanamo Bay detainee. The man, an Afghan national, arrived in Spain on Wednesday and will be given residency and work permits. The ministry also noted that the former-detainee has no pending charges of terrorism against him in any jurisdiction. This is the [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that no criminal charges will be brought against Bush administration officials for the firing of nine US Attorneys in 2006. In a letter sent from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) , Weich detailed the findings of a two-year investigation [...]
A report released Thursday by Transparency International (TI) named Burundi as the most corrupt East-African nation, with a corruption index of 36.7 percent. Also cited by TI for having high rates of corruption were Uganda, with a rate of 33 percent, Kenya at 31.9 percent and Tanzania at 28.6 percent. The survey was expanded this [...]
