The UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights has said that Britain's Human Rights Act has "been used as a convenient scapegoat for unrelated administrative failings within government," in a new report released Tuesday. Several members of the British government, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, have lately called for possible revisions to the Act , [...]
Recently released Turkish-German Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz has told Turkey's CNN Turk that while he was at the US military prison he was subjected to systematic torture at the hands of US personnel, including electric shocks, having his head submerged in water and being shackled to the ceiling for days at a time. Kurnaz [...]
A federal judge ruled Monday that officials at the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility must stop using non-medical restraints on prisoners because the "practice constitutes torture and violates the Eighth Amendment." Judge Richard Enslen of the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan issued the opinion in the case of Timothy Souders, a mentally [...]
The US Department of Justice argued Monday that immigrants arrested while in the US and labeled as enemy combatants under an expansive definition in the new Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) can be indefinitely detained and are prohibited from challenging their detention in civilian courts. In a motion to dismiss filed Monday in the [...]
The South African National Assembly passed the Civil Unions Bill Tuesday by a 230-41 vote, becoming the first African nation to recognize same-sex unions . The bill, without specific reference to heterosexual or same-sex couples, recognizes the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union." It [...]
Eleven former Abu Ghraib detainees and one Guantanamo detainee all claiming to have been victims of US torture initiated a criminal complaint in Germany Tuesday asking that the German Federal Prosecutor investigate and ultimately prosecute former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials and advisors for authorizing the commission of war crimes [...]
US District Judge Reggie Walton ruled Monday that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's proposal to limit what classified evidence I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby can present to the jury in the CIA leak trial goes too far. Libby, charged with obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of the identity of [...]
Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Tuesday that martial law will not be lifted in Thailand, as had been anticipated . Thai Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtas said last week that Surayud was contemplating lifting martial law before leaving for an international summit in Vietnam on November 18, but Surayud said Tuesday that he had been [...]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has agreed to investigate allegations that government forces and the rebel group Karuna has been using children in its fights against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , or the "Tamil Tigers," a UN representative said Monday. Allan Rock , special advisor to the UN Special Representative for Children [...]
US Marine Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. will plead guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection to the alleged murder and kidnapping of an unarmed Iraqi civilian in Hamdania , Shumate's lawyer said Monday. In exchange for the guilty plea, expected to be entered next Monday, more serious murder and [...]
