Lisa Haugaard : "The United States and the international community's response to the Haitian earthquake must not only be generous, long-term and sustainable. It must also respect and promote rights. To "rebuild with rights," a starting place might be considering these principles. Recovery should be Haitian-led. It should be designed and implemented with the leadership [...]
The head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Friday reassured the Lebanese public that the investigation is on track. When asked about the progress of the investigation into the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , the head of the STL underlined the fact that the Tribunal already has in place all [...]
A US federal court Friday ordered a final judgment of $22 million against Charles Emmanuel "Chuckie" Taylor, Jr." to be paid to five torture victims. Charles was charged with torture while he was in charge of Liberia's Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU). The order issued by the judge outlined: the multiple forms of torture; cruel, inhuman, or [...]
A federal judge ruled Thursday that a lawsuit that accuses Chiquita Brands International Inc. of assisting Marxist rebels who killed Colombian missionaries may go forward. The suit was brought by family members of five North American missionaries who had worked for the New Tribes Mission (NTM) in South America and were killed in separate incidents [...]
Center for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International v. Kenya, African Commission on Human and People's Rights, February 4, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the Kenyan government.
The US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Friday upheld the convictions of two soldiers found guilty of offenses committed as guards at Abu Ghraib prison . Army Spc. Sabrina Harman had been convicted of conspiracy, dereliction of duty and maltreatment of prisoners dating back to November 2003. Sgt. Michael Smith , similarly, [...]
US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on Thursday denounced proposed legislation in the Ugandan parliament that would implement harsh punishments for homosexual behavior, including the death penalty in some circumstances. Obama called the the proposed bill "odious" and said, "we may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday charged former Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Volislav Seselj with contempt of the court. The charge was prompted by Seselj's inclusion of information that could expose the identities of 13 protected witnesses in three books he wrote. Seselj’s trial just resumed in January, after [...]
John Green : "When Honduran President Porfirio Lobo predictably chose several days ago to pardon the military leaders involved in the June 28, 2009 coup against his predecessor, President Manuel Zelaya, he was staying true to traditional Central American form. Lobo, who supported the coup, was "elected" under conditions that seem to take the region [...]
A Vietnamese court on Friday sentenced pro-democracy writer and rights activist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy to three-and-a-half years in prison on assault charges. Thuy and her husband, who received two years' house arrest, were convicted in a one-day trial of assaulting two men during an argument about the parking of their motorbike. Thuy maintains that [...]
