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China making limited progress on human rights: UN panel
A report issued Wednesday by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commended China's developmental progress, while urging the nation to share best practices in poverty reduction and to improve the national standard of living. The report follows (More) |
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Military commissions overseer orders charges dropped in last Guantanamo trial
Convening authority of military commissions Susan Crawford [official profile, PDF; JURIST news archive] announced Thursday that the Pentagon has formally dropped charges against suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahimal al-Nashiri [DOD materials; JU (More) |
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Guantanamo judge rejects government request for delay of proceedings
The chief judge for US military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay detention center rejected Thursday the request of government prosecutors to delay the proceedings against alleged USS Cole plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [GlobalSecurity profile; (More) |
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Japan executes 4 despite pressure to drop death penalty
Japan's Ministry of Justice announced Thursday that four death row inmates were executed, despite international pressure to end the practice. The executions [Mainichi Daily News report] are the country's first of 2009. Last year, the Minist (More) |
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Fourth Circuit hears arguments in Moussaoui appeal
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday heard oral arguments by lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], requesting Moussaoui's guilty plea and life sentence be withdrawn and a new trial be granted. T (More) |
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China court sentences 2 to death over tainted milk scandal
A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced two people to death and several to life imprisonment for their involvement in the melamine-tainted milk scandal that sickened almost 300,000 children and killed at least six. Chairwoman of the now-bankrupt San (More) |
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Uganda high court rules death penalty constitutional
The Supreme Court of Uganda on Wednesday ruled that the death penalty is not prohibited by Uganda's constitution because it does not constitute cruel and inhuman punishment. The decision comes on an appeal by over 400 inmates on death row of (More) |
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Supreme Court eases standard of immunity for constitutional violations
The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] issued decisions in five cases Wednesday. The Court ruled unanimously in Pearson v. Callahan [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that the test for whether a government official is e (More) |
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Guantanamo military commission hearings for alleged 9/11 conspirators proceed
Pre-trial hearings for five men detained at Guantanamo Bay as 9/11 conspirators proceeded on Monday despite the Pentagon's chief prosecutor's earlier request that they be delayed. Army Colonel Stephen Henley , the presiding judge, question (More) |
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Supreme Court hears EPA, Iran compensation, clemency cases
The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; briefs] Monday in three cases. In Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and Alaska v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council , the (More) |
WWI gas attack on Canadians led to first chemical weapons ban
On April 24, 1915, the German army used chlorine gas against Canadian troops at Ypres. Gas was later employed by British and French forces against the Germans.
Learn more about early efforts by the Red Cross to ban chemical weapons and review the June 1925 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.
