US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has called for a review of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace immigration raid that occurred in Bellingham, Washington on Tuesday. In a Wednesday hearing, Napolitano told lawmakers that she was not made aware of the raid which resulted in the arrest of 28 foreign nationals, adding: [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced on Wednesday that the Committee is set to begin hearings on the creation of a truth commission charged with investigating the national security policies of the George W. Bush administration. Speaking on the Senate floor, Leahy called the hearing “Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission [...]
Human Rights Watch released a new report on Thursday stating that Germany's bans on religious clothing and symbols, particularly those focused on the headscarves worn by Muslim women, are discriminatory and violate international human rights standards. The report details the impact that the ban has on autonomy and the rights to privacy, self-expression, and religion. [...]
Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic on Thursday was acquitted of all charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Also Thursday, five other former high-ranking Yugoslav officials were convicted for crimes against humanity by the ICTY. Of the five, former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister [...]
The US State Department (DOS) on Wednesday released its 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices . Announcing the release , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the new Barack Obama administration is seeking to both improve the US rights record at home and to continue to promote the recognition and protection of human [...]
Jo Cartwright : "We are pleased that Debbie Purdy's appeal has gone some way to clarify the law for her. The Appeals Court was able to go further than the High Court did in stating that the principles in the judgment given by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Daniel James case would also [...]
A judge in Lebanon on Wednesday granted bail to three men suspected of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . The judge did not explain why he released them within days of the planned start-up date for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SLT) . Of the three men, who [...]
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Wednesday found three former guerrilla leaders guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the country's civil war. Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao are the three highest-ranking surviving Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leaders, after founder Foday Sankoy died before being [...]
The US Supreme Court decided two cases Wednesday. In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum the Court ruled unanimously that privately donated monuments displayed in public parks qualify as government speech, and that their display is therefore not subject to freedom of expression considerations that apply to private speech. The case involved Pleasant Grove's refusal to [...]
Jennifer Gratz : "Attorney General Holder recently called the American people a "nation of cowards" with respect to the issue of race. For the most part, I agree with him but in, I suspect, a very different way than what he meant with his comment. The civil rights establishment led by the likes of the [...]
