The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) has obtained secret documents from Syria that have led members to believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can be successfully prosecuted for war crimes. The documents allegedly prove that Assad was the commander responsible for the torture and killing of his own citizens. This is the first international [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that the only way to prevent future atrocities like the Rwandan genocide is to take shared responsibility and shared action to prevent them. Speaking at the General Assembly commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda , the secretary acknowledged the “bravery” of the survivors [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday threw out a constitutional challenge to Utah’s anti-bigamy laws . The lawsuit was brought in 2011 by the family from TLC’s reality TV show Sister Wives after their polygamous relationship was threatened by a county prosecutor under the state’s bigamy law. The court determined [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Valentina Azarova of Birzeit University Institute of Law discusses how the UK Note is a reminder that greater clarity is needed in the context of the use of boycotts as a means of international law enforcement… On February 17, 2016, after much anticipation, the UK Crown Commercial Service issued a “Procurement Policy [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday argued that a proposed Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Turkmenistan should be halted until Turkmenistan meets human rights benchmarks. The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on Monday to debate the conclusion of a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Turkmenistan. The agreement is a [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Gregory S. Gordon of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law discusses the ICTY’s acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj and the serious set-back it could represent for the development of international criminal law … On March 31, 2016, in a resounding victory for the culture of impunity, two Trial Chamber judges [...]
Three UN human rights experts experts urged Egypt on Monday to cease its ongoing crackdown on humans rights defenders and organizations. They stated that Egypt is failing in its international responsibility to provide a safe and enabling environment for civil society in the country. The experts added that the Egyptian government must immediately put an [...]
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe on Sunday offered amendments to an alternative execution bill (HB 815) that would have required the use of the electric chair if lethal injections are unavailable. McAuliffe scrapped the bill’s provision allowing for electrocution stating that Virginians “do not wish to be forced into using this terrible form of punishment.” McAuliffe [...]
Former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Sabrina de Sousa filed an appeal in Portugal’s Constitutional Court Monday in a last attempt to prevent her extradition to Italy to serve a six-year sentence for her involvement in a US extraordinary renditions program. De Sousa was arrested in a Portuguese airport after she had been convicted [...]
A labor arbitration panel in China on Monday opened a hearing in the country’s first transgender job discrimination lawsuit, filed by a 28-year-old plaintiff known as Mr. C. C was born as a woman but has considered himself a man since college. C alleges he was fired from a sales job at a health services [...]
