The US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the effects of the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , which eased restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations. The hearing, entitled "We the People? Corporate Spending in American Elections after Citizens United," did not focus on any specific [...]
The Italian Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , to postpone criminal proceedings against them on the grounds that they would interfere with official duties. The legislation, passed by a vote of 169-126 with three members abstaining, will allow officials to suspend [...]
Myanmar's military junta announced the implementation of another election law on Wednesday that establishes procedures for the country's first election in 20 years. The Political Parties Registration Law prevents political prisoners from participating in the election and also makes it illegal for members of religious orders, insurgent groups, and foreigners to join political parties. The [...]
An Iranian court on Tuesday began the trial of 12 Iranian prison officials accused of torturing three prisoners to death, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) . The three victims, identified as Mohsen Rouholamini, Mohammad Kamrani, and Amir Javadifar, were arrested for their involvement in the protests following the June 12 presidential [...]
An international group of human rights lawyers on Tuesday petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to condemn to the detention of Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng , missing for more than a year. The group is seeking a declaration that Gao's detention is a violation of international law. According to the petition, [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says a recent effort by a conservative advocacy website to besmirsch the reputations of current DOJ lawyers who previously represented detainees should not distract the US government from criminally prosecuting DOJ lawyers from the past administration who made torture possible…. I recently [...]
India's upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha , on Tuesday approved a bill to ensure that one-third of seats in parliament are reserved for women. The Women's Reservation Bill , introduced Monday, would increase the number of women serving in the 543-seat legislature, which currently has no gender quota, from 59 to at least [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to hold civilian trials for accused 9/11 conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed . Scheinin called the military commissions system "fatally flawed" and said that reforming the system would not help. Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak also [...]
China and India agreed Tuesday to endorse the non-binding Copenhagen Accord , which calls for self-imposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions . Some 100 countries have already agreed to be associated with the non-binding accord, which arose from the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) held in Copenhagen in December. China and India, nations that are [...]
Myanmar's military junta on Tuesday unveiled the first of five laws that will set the stage for the country's first election in 20 years. The Union Election Commission Law, the first of the five laws enacted Monday to be published in state-run newspapers, states that the military government will appoint the five-member commission that will [...]
