Sonya Sceats : "Claims by Binyam Mohamed that the UK security service colluded in his 'medieval' torture while detained in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan have reignited an important debate about the standing of the torture ban in UK foreign policy. According to Mohamed, British officials not only failed to protect him from torture they probably [...]

Russian officials announced on Wednesday that the body of Russian human rights activist Andrei Kulagin had been found in a quarry. Kulagin, the former head of rights group Spravedlivost, had been missing since May . Although officials did not comment on the cause of death, Spravedlivost director Andrei Stolbunov believes Kulagin was murdered. The announcement [...]

Former Credit Suisse broker Julian Tzolov pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy before the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York . Tzolov is accused of defrauding clients out of more than $400 million by selling high-risk, mortgage-backed securities to clients who requested low-risk investments, in violation of [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday summoned former president Pervez Musharraf to appear before the court and justify his November 2007 declaration of emergency rule in the country. Under the rules, Musharraf had dismissed many members of the country's judiciary, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry . Musharraf had argued that the courts had [...]

The US Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposed amendment to a military appropriations bill that would allow individuals with permits to carry concealed firearms across state lines. The amendment was proposed by Senator John Thune (R-SD) and had been a hotly contested issue, reflected by the 58-39 vote. Sixty votes were needed for passage. Thune [...]

Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, July 22, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the war crimes.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague issued an order Wednesday redrawing boundaries of Sudan's oil-producing Abyei region. The borders of the region had been disputed by the country's southern Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its northern, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) . The borders had originally been drawn by the Abyei [...]

Saudi Arabian officials are allegedly using anti-terrorism measures as an excuse to secretly detain, imprison, torture, and even kill thousands of people, according to a Wednesday report by Amnesty International (AI) . In its report, AI also called on the international community to apply pressure to Saudi Arabia, specifically urging the League of Arab States [...]

Federal immigration agents conducting home raids have committed numerous constitutional violations, according a report released Wednesday by the Immigration Justice Clinic at the Cardozo School of Law. The report found that, since 2006, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents routinely entered private homes in the middle of the night without warrants and seized residents [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on world leaders to take new steps to combat genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses, introducing a report detailing a new campaign against the offenses. Called the "Responsibility to Protect" , the campaign focuses on holding states responsible for preventing the abuses from [...]