Min Myat Kyaw : "The sentencing of four supporters of democracy party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to two years' imprisonment last week is the latest instance of how courts in Burma (Myanmar) operate under the military regime there to defeat civil and political rights, without regard to the terms of the very laws [...]
The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Saturday called for an independent investigation into allegations that the government had knowledge of and was complicit in the torture of Binyam Mohamed and 24 other British residents and citizens while they were held abroad as terror suspects. The EHRC's statement cites a letter from the [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has overruled the findings of a report released Friday concluding that two Bush administration lawyers committed professional misconduct when they wrote memos authorizing the use of certain interrogation techniques that critics have called torture. Instead, the DOJ said that John Yoo , and Jay Bybee were only guilty of [...]
International Criminal Court (ICC) deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Friday that Guinean authorities likely committed crimes against humanity when more than 150 pro-democracy protesters killed in Conarky in September 2009. At the conclusion of her three day visit , Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer, said that the ICC would work with the Guinean legal system to [...]
The Council of Europe (COE) reached a joint declaration Friday to undertake reforms of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by the end of 2011 in order to address the increasing number of complaints. The ECHR currently has a backlog of approximately 120,000 cases, of which an estimated 90 percent are inadmissible or lack [...]
Investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel's Concerning Issues Relating to the Central Intelligence Agency's Use of "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" on Suspected Terrorists, US Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, released publicly February 19, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the memos.
Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a 2006 district court ruling that held the tobacco industry liable under civil racketeering laws for deceiving American consumers as to the health effects of their products. Philip Morris argued that the trial court's decision did not properly consider issues involving [...]
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley moved for summary judgment Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) . The case will be decided in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts . If the motion for summary judgment is granted, the DOMA, which defines marriage as [...]
Lawyers for former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega filed a petition with the US Supreme Court Friday seeking to block his extradition to France. Noriega is relying on the dissenting opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in the court's January decision to deny certiorari in Noriega's appeal of a lower court's decision allowing extradition . Noriega [...]
The US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced a $1.25 billion settlement for African American farmers claiming they suffered racial discrimination in USDA loan programs. The settlement arises from the Pigford Case , a class-action suit that was re-opened with the passage of a 2008 Farm Bill to farmers left out [...]
