[JURIST] In his weekly radio address [transcript; recorded audio] Saturday President Bush publicly pressed his case for immigration reform for the third time this week and urged the Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration bill by the end of May so that negotiations can begin with the House on a compromise he can sign into law. In addition to repeating his pledge to send up to 6000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border [JURIST report] and calling once more for a temporary worker program, Bush called for a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the US in what could be construed as an appeal to his own conservative base:

Some people think any proposal short of mass deportation is amnesty. I disagree. There's a rational middle ground between automatic citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation. Illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty, pay their taxes, learn English, and work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions should be able to apply for citizenship -- but approval will not be automatic, and they will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law.

[JURIST] The UN Committee against Torture [official website] has given Senegal 90 days to fulfill its obligations under the Convention Against Torture [text] to put former Chad President Hissene Habre [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on trial for torture crimes and rights offenses stemming from his 1982-90 rule in Chad or extradite him to Belgium where he has been charged with crimes against humanity [JURIST report] under Belgium's universal jurisdiction laws [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Habre has been living in exile in Senegal since 1990 and in 2005 Belgium issued an international arrest warrant on torture and murder charges. In November, a Senegal appeals court ruled that it was "not competent" to extradite Habre [JURIST report] to Belgium to face the charges.

In a ruling [PDF text, in French; press release] made public Friday, the UN committee said that by failing to bring Habre to justice or extraditing him to Belgium, Senegal had failed to live up to its obligations under Articles 5 and 7 of the convention. VOA has more.

[JURIST] UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said Saturday that the British government will ask the European Court of Human Rights [official website] to review a long-standing ban against EU countries deporting individuals to countries where they would be at risk of torture or death, a practice known in international law by the French term refoulement [backgrounder]. The ban arises under the court's interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF], implemented in the UK under the 1998 Human Rights Act [text], which took effect in 2000.

The deportation issue has come up in the UK several times this year. Last week a High Court ruling [JURIST document] to grant asylum to nine Afghans who had hijacked a plane to a UK airport but who could not be safely returned prompted a public outcry from government leaders, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, who insisted that application of the Act, and the underlying Convention, should be subject to a "public safety" exception. Earlier this month ex-Home Secretary Charles Clarke lost his cabinet post [JURIST report] after revelations that following an administrative error, hundreds of foreign criminals had been released back into the population before deportation review. In the context of the British government's anti-terror efforts [JURIST report] since the July 2005 London bombings, the UK has also been negotiating safe return agreements - so-called Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) [Amnesty International backgrounder] - with countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya which are said to have engaged in torture, under which they guarantee that no harm will come to returned nationals. An additional agreement with Algeria [HRW backgrounder] is reportedly in process.

In the same interview Saturday, Goldsmith reiterated his belief, first publicly asserted in a speech [JURIST report] 10 days ago, that the American prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay had "rightly or wrongly" become a symbol of injustice that was "wrong in principle" and also "wrong in practice," and that the facility should be closed. BBC News has more. Listen to the full interview [recorded audio] with Lord Goldsmith on BBC Radio 4's Today program.

[JURIST] Russia [JURIST report] Friday assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers [official website] of the Council of Europe (COE) [official website; JURIST news archive], the assembly responsible for maintaining human rights and democracy in Europe. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov [Wikipedia profile] outlined his country's priorities [press release] as head of the organization, which include working toward creating "pan-European" legal standards through the "uniform interpretation and full application" of legal conventions, and "reinforcing national human rights protection mechanisms."

Russia has recently been targeted by international observers [JURIST report] and senior US officials [JURIST report] for violating the rights of its own citizens, for limiting free expression and for clamping down on political opposition and NGOs. Last month, the COE urged Russia to officially abolish the death penalty [JURIST report] before assuming the chairmanship, but Russia, which imposed a moratorium on the practice as part of the country's entry agreement into the COE, has yet to do so. Russia will serve as chair of the committee for 6 months, succeeding Romania. See the statement of Romania's chairmanship [press release]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers representing Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] evacuees filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court on Friday, seeking an injunction against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [official website] preventing the agency from ending housing benefits after the twelve-month housing vouchers issued by FEMA expire. The suit, filed by Houston-based law firm Caddell & Chapman [firm website] and a collection of public interest groups, alleges that FEMA's system of denying benefits to evacuees resulted in arbitrary or unfair outcomes. The lawsuit requests that FEMA be required to continue the rent voucher program through at least June 30, enlarge the program to cover utilities as well as rent, and to develop clear decision-making criteria for the administration of benefits. While FEMA argues that the vouchers were not intended to be a long-term solution to the disaster, federal law does not set a one-year time limit on emergency benefits.

Last December, a federal judge presiding over another evacuee class action against FEMA [JURIST report] ruled that the agency was required to extend its hotel stay plan [JURIST report] for evacuees. Last month, a Senate panel recommended that FEMA be replaced [JURIST report] with a more responsive emergency management system. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The UN Committee against Torture [official website] report [JURIST document] released Friday on US compliance with the Convention Against Torture [text] urged the US to do more to protect domestic prisoners and suspects from violence and threats of violence, in addition to calling on it to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, stop renditions, and reveal secret prisons [JURIST report]. The committee said the 2003 federal Prison Rape Elimination Act [NIC materials; US DOJ report] requiring states to develop prevention and data-gathering mechanisms was a step in the right direction, but it expressed concern about reports of continuing sexual abuse in detention facilities, and asked the US to provide it with accurate statistics, cross-referenced by sex, age, and sexual orientation, of all sexual assault complaints received by correctional institutions The report also recommended that all allegations of police brutality be thoroughly and quickly investigated by independent actors.

The committee was also troubled by US treatment of women in detention, demanded that all children be separated from adults even if they were tried as adults, and suggested that the Prison Litigation Reform Act [text] should be rewritten so that it provides a civil remedy to all inmates, even those who suffer only mental anguish without physical injury. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Court Judge Robin Cauthron Friday struck down [opinion, PDF] a two year-old amendment [text] to the Oklahoma Constitution [text] that prevented Oklahoma from recognizing adoptions by gay parents that were finalized in other US or foreign jurisdictions. Cauthron found that the amendment violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause [text] of the Fourth Amendment, and prohibits the state from considering the fitness of parents or the well-being of children when breaking up the relationship. Cauthron wrote, "The very fact that the adoptions have occurred is evidence that a court of law has found the adoptions to be in the best interests of the children... To now attempt to strip a child of one of his or her parents seems far removed from the statute’s purpose and therefore from Defendants’ asserted important government objective."

Lambda Legal [advocacy website], the gay rights group that successfully argued the case [Lamda press release] on behalf of three same-sex couples, called the ruling a victory for same-sex couples everywhere, while Rep. Thad Balkman (R-OK) said the ruling was another example of activist judges "legislating from the bench."

Read the 2004 official opinion [text, PDF] of the Attorney General of Oklahoma, finding that the amendment would violate the Ninth Amendment. AP has more.