Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis on Tuesday called on officials to end discrimination against Europe's Roma minority . Davis' comments came in response to a Monday confrontation between Czech police and far-right protesters attempting to attack a Roma suburb near the town of Litvinov. The head of the European human rights organization said: [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Amos Guiora of the University of Utah College of Law says that creation of a special US domestic court to try terrorism suspects need not be an exercise in "rights denial" but can in fact be a practical, rights-based solution to a problem requiring an immediate legal answer… Although I very much [...]

Eric Holder , Deputy US Attorney General during the Clinton administration, has been asked and has agreed to serve as US Attorney General for the incoming administration of now President-elect Barack Obama, according to media reports citing unnamed sources late Tuesday. If officially nominated and if confirmed by the Senate, Holder would be the first [...]

Dr. Almerindo Ojeda : "The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas (CSHRA) recently posted an analysis of miltary and diplomatic testimonies showing that the State Department had underreported, to the United Nations, the number of children seized and taken to Guantanamo by a 50 percent margin. In response to [...]

Two alleged Bosnian war criminals were arrested Tuesday on orders from the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Radivoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic are charged with war crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo , when both men worked in the Kula prison. They are accused of committing multiple ethnically-motivated crimes, including unlawful [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday lifted a suspension imposed on the trial of Congolese ex-militia leader Thomas Lubanga after prosecutors in the case agreed to share as-yet undisclosed evidence with the court. In June, the ICC had imposed an indefinite stay on Lubanga's war crimes trial after accusing the prosecution of using confidentiality [...]

California Attorney General Jerry Brown on Monday urged the state Supreme Court to review the petitions raised in reference to the recent passage of Proposition 8 , the voter initiative that amended the state constitution to make same-sex marriage illegal in California. The filing comes after weeks of protests against the initiative. In a preliminary [...]

Iraqi human rights activists are concerned about the treatment of detainees due to be transferred from US military custody to Iraqi authorities under the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) , according to an IRIN report Monday. The pact, approved the Iraqi cabinet on Sunday and awaiting approval from the country's parliament, calls for roughly [...]

Over 100 retired admirals and generals of the United States military called Monday for a repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding homosexuals in the armed forces. The controversial policy requires the dismissal of openly gay or lesbian service members. The statement was released by Admiral Charles Larson and was distributed by The [...]

UN envoy to Iraq Staffan de Mistura praised the country's new Independent High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) on Monday, calling it a "milestone" for human rights in the region. The IHCHR was instituted on Sunday by the Iraqi Council of Representatives and is mandated by the Iraqi Constitution . The new body will focus [...]