[JURIST] Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail [official website] said Sunday that Sudan would reject any UN resolution calling for the prosecution of Sudanese nationals suspected of war crimes in a court abroad. The UN Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a French draft resolution that would send those charged with war crimes in the Darfur region to the International Criminal Court [official website]. European nations support that venue, but the US has proposed a new UN-African Union tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN has meanwhile approved the dispatch of 10,000 troops to perform peacekeeping activities in the region [UN press release]. The Sudan Tribune has more.

[JURIST] France's largest Muslim organization, the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) [organization website, in French], has argued at a national conference of French Muslims that the state should reconsider its ban on Islamic headscarves [BBC Q&A on headscarf ban; JURIST news archive on religious dress] in schools and recognize Islamic holy days. The French Education Ministry [official website, in French] ordered the ban on "conspicuous religious signs" in state schools last March, in an attempt to slow the rising influence of radical Islamists on the nation's youth. National legislation on the subject took affect this past September. UOIF Secretary-General Fouad Alaoui called for the freedom for girls to choose what to wear and for recognition of Islam's main feast days, including Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha feasts following Ramadan and the Haj pilgrimage, and the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, Seven of France's 13 legal holidays are Christian holidays. Read Alaoui's speech [in French], delivered Saturday. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Australian attorney general Philip Ruddock has asked the US to expedite proceedings against Australian detainee David Hicks [AFP report], the only Australian still held at Guantanamo Bay. Hicks [Fair Go for David advocacy website] was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and suspected of working with Al-Qaeda. Ruddock and Australia's ambassador to the US say they want to avoid another case like that of Mamdouh Habib, who was held for three years then released without charges in January. Habib recently appeared at an anti-war rally [Sydney Morning Herald report] to call for Hicks' release. Hicks' father has come out in support [Melbourne Age report] of changes to detainees' legal rights [New York Times report] at Guantanamo reportedly under consideration by high-level Bush administration and military officials.

[JURIST] According to military and Bush administration officials, the US Department of Defense is considering substantial changes to the tribunal process [New York Times report] at Guantanamo Bay for foreign terror suspects. The changes, designed in response to widespread criticism from foreign governments, human rights groups, and the federal courts, include strengthening the rights of defendants, establishing more independant judges to lead the panels, and excluding confessions obtained by torture. The tribunals have been the subject of important legal battles. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld [PDF text] that detainees had the right to challenge their detention in federal court. Later in 2004, a US District Court halted proceedings in another case [Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, PDF text] ruling that the defendant first had to be determined an enemy combatant by a "competent tribunal" [AP report]. It's uncertain what changes, if any will be adopted in the current procedures. Some government officials have said that pending litigation on the system makes change premature. Others, including Vice President Dick Cheney, oppose making any changes unless ordered to do so by the courts.