Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Thursday called for the resignation of Iraq Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani in response to Shahristani's remarks that oil contracts signed by the KRG with several global companies are illegal. At a Tuesday meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) , Shahristani contended the contracts are illegal because the [...]

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) released a report Wednesday saying that fair use exceptions to US copyright laws create more than $4.5 trillion in revenue in the US annually, employ millions of workers, and represented one-sixth of the total US GDP in 2006. The report, released at a briefing on Capitol Hill, indicates [...]

2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, September 14, 2007 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Google called for new international laws to protect personal information online at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference Friday, urging that an international body such as the UN or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) create the guidelines. Google global privacy attorney Peter Fleischer noted that the existing guidelines [...]

China's Supreme People's Court handed down anticipated new guidelines for capital punishment cases Thursday, saying that swift executions should only be imposed on people who have committed heinous crimes, with "ironclad evidence that result in serious social damage." In less serious capital punishment cases, the court said convicted persons should be given a two-year reprieve [...]

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will be allowed to return to Pakistan to campaign for office but will face corruption charges , the Pakistani government said Friday. Bhutto, who left the country in 1999 under the cloud of corruption allegations after her government collapsed, will return October 18, according to her party; her supporters [...]

A US delegation walked out of a conference on victims of terrorism hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Thursday, protesting the OSCE's refusal to allow the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society , a small NGO that reported on human rights violations and disappearances in the Northern Caucasus, to participate in the talks. [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Thursday called on state members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to open their records and allow the Council to adhere to its mandate to serve as an effective watchdog. The organization has been bogged down in debate since its inception over how to effectively conduct [...]

The UN General Assembly Thursday adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , a non-binding treaty outlining the global human rights of approximately 370 million indigenous people and bans discrimination against them. The General Assembly passed the measure with the support of an overwhelming majority of member states . Enactment of the treaty [...]

Canadian chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand Thursday resisted calls by Canadian lawmakers to invoke his discretionary powers, reserved for exceptional circumstances, to require women to remove traditional Muslim niqabs or burqas when they vote in by-elections in the province of Quebec on Monday. Mayrand said in testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on [...]