Ben Davis : "Alberto Gonzales has said that one of the reasons the Administration departed from the Geneva Conventions in early 2002 was to provide more "flexibility" to the President. This week, some of the ironies of the Military Commission Bills of the President and Senators McCain-Warner-Graham are (1) the rejection of the flexibility of [...]
About 14,000 people are currently being detained by the US in overseas prisons in uncertain legal circumstances, the Associated Press reported Sunday. Some 13,000 are being held in Iraq. US officials have told the Red Cross that 70 to 90 percent of the tens of thousands of Iraqis detained in recent years have been "mistakes." [...]
Women's rights activists in Pakistan urged the government Sunday to suspend controversial religious laws that make it extremely difficult to prosecute rapists in the country. The Pakistan parliament delayed the introduction of a revised 2006 Protection of Women Bill as planned on Friday because Islamic leaders do not want to change the laws, called the [...]
UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith called on the US Saturday to close down Guantanamo Bay at an International Bar Association event in Chicago. While acknowledging that the September 11 attacks required a response to terrorism, he stressed that key principles of democracy and the rule of law had to be upheld in the process:I am [...]
Losing leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador established a parallel government for Mexico Saturday representing what he called a "true, authentic republic" in the wake of a late-August electoral court rule certifying his defeat. Supporters of Lopez Obrador turned out for a symbolic vote at a rally in Mexico City and with a show [...]
Thousands of protestors took to the streets across South Africa Saturday demonstrating against same-sex marriage as South Africa's parliament prepares to hold hearings on a bill that would place same-sex partnerships on equal footing with traditional marriage. The parliament is set to debate the Civil Unions Bill , drafted in response to a December 2005 [...]
President Bush used his weekly radio address Saturday to reiterate his call to members of Congress to pass his proposed legislation on military commissions for terror detainees. Bush focused his remarks on provisions that would provide what the White House has described as "clear rules" for US interrogators, disputing allegations that it is proposing to [...]
Top US military lawyers signed two letters sent to Congress earlier this week supporting President Bush's proposed legislation on military commissions after being urged to do so by the Pentagon's politically-appointed top civilian counsel, the New York Times reported Saturday. Members of the Judge Advocate General's Corps signed the letters Wednesday addressed to Rep. Duncan [...]
Voters in Portugal could go to the polls in January 2007 to vote in a referendum on the legalization of abortion after the ruling Socialist Party made the proposal on Friday. A party spokesperson stated that current legislation that bans abortions is "socially unjust." The opposition Christian Democrats, however, plan to fight to keep abortion [...]
A US Army spokesman said Friday that the Army has added a new specification to charges against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada based on a speech he gave in August to Veterans for Peace in which Watada advocated that "to stop an illegal and unjust war, soldiers can choose to stop fighting it." The Army says [...]
