US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher Sunday called on the government of Sri Lanka to provide better human rights protections as it fights separatist rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) . Speaking at a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation conference in Colombo, Boucher pledged [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Michael Waterstone of Loyola Law School Los Angeles says that recent prejudiced comments about autistic and other disabled persons by American talk radio host Michael Savage reflect too-common misunderstandings of disability that warrant Congressional extension of existing legal protections against discrimination… On his nationally-syndicated radio talk show, Michael Savage recently referred to [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University School of Law says that amidst all the attention focused on security problems likely to be associated with an eventual US withdrawal from Iraq, the legal and practical impact of withdrawal on Iraq's millions of Kurds, mostly concentrated in the north of the country, needs to be [...]
The US-led Multi-National Force-Iraq announced Saturday that it has charged two US soldiers with premeditated murder, assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice in connection with the death of an Iraqi detainee. Staff Sgt. Hal M. Warner and First Lt. Michael C. Behenna, members of the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry stationed at [...]
Provisional vote results for a Latvian referendum held Saturday on a proposed amendment to the country's constitution that would have given voters the power to dissolve the country's parliament, the Saeima , indicated Sunday that the referendum failed because of low voter turnout. The amendment specifically provides: Electors, in number comprising not less than one-tenth [...]
A judge in an Egyptian court Saturday convicted a prominent human rights activist and outspoken critic of President Hosni Mubarak in absentia of defaming Egypt and sentenced him to two years in prison. Saad Eddin Ibrahim , a dual US and Egyptian citizen who is a professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist William Montgomery, US Ambassador to Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) from 2001-2004, says that as the euphoria over the arrest of Radovan Karadzic fades and reality sets in, it's clear that his case poses continuing challenges for the Serbian government, the European Union, and of course the prosecutors and judges at [...]
The US military said Saturday that it has released over 10,000 Iraqi detainees this past year. Gen. David H. Petraeus was quoted by AP as saying the releases are part of a program to prepare detainees for re-integration into society. Petraeus also said the recidivism rate for released detainees is less than 1 percent. The [...]
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided for the time being to cease its opposition to the country's ban on wearing headscarves in public universities , according to a party spokesman. The announcement made Thursday came a day after Turkey's Constitutional Court rejected a bid to ban the AKP on the grounds that [...]
Judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled Friday that federal courts have jurisdiction over cases in which 100 or more plaintiffs bring related claims. The case involves 144 plaintiffs claiming injuries from chemicals released by the manufacturing practices of four companies. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that state courts [...]
