Gunesh Bakgalova, Pitt Law LLM '09, compares "right to rest" laws in her native Turkmenistan with American labor regulation: When I came to the United States I was very surprised to hear that employers are not required to give employees paid vacations, or to include paid leave in employment contracts. The so-called "Right to Rest" [...]
Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos has said he will push for legislation limiting the country's universal jurisdiction policies to prevent the investigation of Israeli officials, according to Friday statements by Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni . The pledge follows a decision by Spanish judge Fernando Andreu to issue an order opening an investigation into alleged [...]
Former US detainee and Canadian citizen Maher Arar said Thursday that he was shocked and saddened to learn that US government officials had testified at the US military commission trial of fellow Canadian citizen Omar Khadr that Arar had lived with terrorists in Afghanistan. FBI agent Robert Fuller testified that Khadr had identified Arar as [...]
Pakistani Minister for Law and Justice Farooq Naek told reporters Friday that the superior court judges the government had returned to office after their November 2007 ouster under then-president Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule had been 'reappointed', not reinstated, because Pakistan's constitution does not provide for such a procedure. Naek also rejected the latest [...]
China's State Council on Friday ended the authority of the state-run Xinhua News Agency to screen foreign financial and other news entering the country. In a decree signed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao , the government reassigned the power to the State Council Information Office . A reason for the change was not given, but [...]
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro on Thursday called on US President Barack Obama to turn over control of the Guantanamo Bay military base to Cuba once the detention facility there is closed. In an op-ed published in the online newspaper CubaDebate , Castro wrote that continuing to hold the base would be a violation of international law. Castro [...]
The Cameroon government has participated in and encouraged unlawful executions, torture, and other human rights violations of political dissenters, according to an Amnesty International (AI) report released Thursday. The report alleges that such violations have been taking place for more than 10 years and may increase with the current global economic crisis and continued political [...]
Cameroon: Impunity Underpins Persistent Abuse, Amnesty International, January 29, 2009 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
United States of America v. Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed Abdu Al-Nashiri, US Military Commissions, January 29, 2009 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The Illinois State Senate voted unanimously Thursday to convict Governor Rod Blagojevich of abuse of power and remove him from office. Blagojevich, who had been boycotting the impeachment proceedings , arrived on the Senate floor Thursday to make a final plea to remain in office. Although Blagojevich claimed innocence, the senators were unconvinced, voting 59-0 [...]
