Vietnamese authorities on Monday released a Catholic priest and leading rights activist from Hanoi prison. Father Nguyen Van Ly was released early Monday morning and has been reunited with his family in Hue. Ly had been arrested and charged in 2007 under Article 88 of Vietnam's Penal Code , which provides for the incarceration of [...]
A Bill to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes, US Senate Banking Committee, March 15, 2010 . Reported [...]
UN Special Rapporteur for North Korea Vitit Muntarbhorn said Monday that the North Korean human rights situation is continuing to deteriorate. Presenting his report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) , Muntarbhorn noted that any attempt to halt human rights violations in North Korea would require Security Council (SC) action. The rapporteur also said [...]
The Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern , on Sunday proposed holding a referendum later this year to remove the criminal offense of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution . Blasphemy is a punishable offense under section 40 of the constitution, but the language of the text had been deemed too vague [...]
The former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Monday criticized the government's treatment of detained opposition leader General Sarath Fonseka . Sarath Nanda Silva, who retired from the Sri Lankan Supreme Court last year, accused the government of using the military justice system to prevent Fonseka from participating in the upcoming [...]
The US military on Monday transferred Camp Taji , one of the two remaining detention facilities under US control, to Iraqi authorities. Located approximately 25 kilometers north of Baghdad, Taji currently houses about 2,900 detainees held on arrest warrants, detention orders, or as convicted prisoners. About 100 detainees will remain in US custody. During the [...]
The Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) on Sunday approved an amendment to the electoral law mandating equal representation for rural and urban citizens. The electoral reform was adopted at the close of the Third Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress and was hailed by the People's Daily, a publication of the Central Committee of [...]
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that female judges can serve on the State Council (Maglis id-Dowla), an administrative court system with jurisdiction over cases involving the state. In its ruling, the court emphasized the equality of all citizens . Last month, the general assembly of the State Council voted to bar the appointment of [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Geoffrey S. Corn, Lt. Col. US Army (Ret.), a former Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters and currently a professor at South Texas College of Law, says that no matter how much the military commission system for trying detainees is modified, it will never match the [...]
Zach Mueller, Pitt Law '12, recently attended oral arguments in the case of Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder at the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. He shares his thoughts on the experience… The red velvet curtain parted, and Chief Justice John Roberts emerged from the narrow opening behind the elevated bench, prepared to hear [...]
