[JURIST] Mexico [JURIST news archive] may ask the UN to intervene in a brewing border fence dispute with the United States, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez [Mexican Foreign Ministry website] said Monday. Legal experts are investigating the legality of the US Secure Fence Act of 2006 [text, PDF] before asking the UN to intervene. Dobez said it was a "shame" the US government was using the creation of a border fence for short term political gain, rather than addressing the real concerns between the neighboring countries.

The Mexican government sent President Bush a diplomatic note last week requesting that he veto the bill [JURIST report] which would construct a 700 mile fence [JURIST news archive] between the countries. Bush has since signed Homeland Security funding legislation [AP report] which covers the cost of building the fence. AP has more.

[JURIST] An April trial date has been set for former Cabinet Office spokesman David Keogh and former parliamentary researcher Leo O'Connor, accused of violating Section 3 of Britain's Official Secrets Act [text] by leaking a secret memo in which President Bush was said to have told Prime Minister Tony Blair [official profile] in April 2004 of a plan to bomb Arab broadcaster Aljazeera [media website] at the height of the US campaign against Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah. The Qatar-based satellite channel had aroused US ire by broadcasting pictures of Iraqi casualties and victims of the offensive across the Arab world. Media will be banned from the trial, according to a ruling [JURIST report] made by Judge Richard Aikens back in July.

Both Keogh and O’Connor have denied respective charges of making damaging disclosures of part of a government document and making a damaging disclosure of a document passed illegally. Keogh is said to have given the memo to O'Connor at some point between April 15, 2004 and May 29, 2004. Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper reported [text] in November 2005 that Blair resisted Bush's proposal to bomb Aljazeera, adding that sources disagreed as to the seriousness of Bush's suggestion. The White House has called the report "outlandish and inconceivable," while Blair has said he had no information about any proposed US action against Aljazeera. AP has more. BBC news has local coverage.

[JURIST] Khaled el-Masri [JURIST news archive] wept Monday as he testified before a Spanish judge about his alleged extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] to Afghanistan by US intelligence agents. El-Masri, a German citizen born in Kuwait, described how he was abducted in December 2003 while vacationing along the Serbian-Madedonian border, tortured for 23 days at a Skopje hotel, and then flown to Kabul, where he was imprisoned and tortured for five months before being released without charge in Albania. El-Masri believes the agents intended to seize a suspected terrorist with a similar name.

El-Masri was the first witness to testify during National Court Judge Ismael Moreno's investigation of whether CIA rendition flights stopped at Spanish airports [JURIST report] before transferring terrorism suspects to countries where they could be tortured. In June, a German investigator concluded that no evidence has surfaced to disprove el-Masri's allegations [JURIST report] that he was abducted, transferred and harshly interrogated. The American Civil Liberties Union has appealed the dismissal of a US lawsuit suit by el-Masri [JURIST report] against CIA officials. AP has more.

[JURIST] British Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] Monday outlined steps to combat the increasingly urgent problem of prison overcrowding [BBC backgrounder; Guardian Q&A]. Over the weekend, the prison population of England and Wales [JURIST news archive] reached a record of 79,843, theoretically leaving space available for only 125 more prisoners. In a speech to Parliament [BBC recorded video], Reid announced the implementation of Operation Safeguard, which will make space for as many as 500 prisoners in police holding cells - a solution that Reid called "tried and tested," though "not ideal." Reid also unveiled a year-long pilot program that would encourage foreign prisoners to serve their time outside the European Economic Area (EEA) [country list] by offering them £500 to £2,500 (roughly US $1,000-$5,000) in in-kind "reintegration support," such as education, medical care and job training. British prisons now house about 8,000 inmates from outside the EEA, at an average cost of £28,000 a year.

In response to Reid's plan, the crime-reduction charity Nacro [advocacy website] suggested advising judges to avoid sending less serious offenders to prison. Over the weekend, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales expressed doubts about whether prison rehabilitates nonviolent offenders [JURIST report]. The Guardian has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Navy lawyer who successfully represented the plaintiff Guantanamo detainee in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [JURIST news archive] and took his case all the way to the US Supreme Court has been denied a promotion and will leave the military by spring, the Miami Herald reports. Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift [profile], who has worked in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions [official website] since 2003, said he learned about two weeks after the Hamdan decision that he would not receive a promotion to commander. Because of the military's "up or out" promotion policy, Swift must retire, although he said he would continue to represent Salim Hamdan [Wikipedia profile], a Yemeni who worked as Osama bin Laden's driver, as a civilian attorney. Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, chief defense counsel in the Office of Military Commissions, praised Swift's work as "really extraordinary" and said that the timing of the promotion decision was "quite a coincidence."

In the Hamdan case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's military commissions [JURIST news archive] for terrorism suspects lacked proper legal authorization [opinion text] as initially constituted, forcing the White House to win congressional approval of new legislation [JURIST report] setting up the commissions and defining appropriate procedures. AP has more. The Miami Herald has additional coverage.

[JURIST] JURIST is seeking to expand its Webby award-winning staff of professional editors by hiring a talented, public-service oriented individual with law and/or journalism experience to serve as a part-time legal news editor based in California.

JURIST's West Coast Editor will share responsibility for managing JURIST's daily research, writing and publishing operations and will help supervise production of content for Paper Chase, JURIST's real-time news arm, by working with JURIST's student staff of legal news writers, helping them research and write stories in real time as they are drafted, editing the product as presented, and publishing their reports to JURIST's website.

For more details, read the full job description.

[JURIST] Leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder] on Monday repeated their call for the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] to lift international arrest warrants [PDF] against five top LRA leaders, and threatened to continue their violent resistance movement otherwise. Although the Ugandan government and the LRA have pledged to work out a peace agreement, LRA leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile] and deputy Vincent Otti [MIPT profile] have refused to attend peace talks hosted by Sudan, fearing that the ICC will arrest them when they emerge from hiding for the talks. LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo told journalists Monday that "as long as the ICC indictments still stand, no single soldier is going to come out of the bush."

The ICC has thus far refused [JURIST report] to cancel the indictments, despite requests [JURIST report] from the Ugandan government [official website]. Although LRA rebels led a brutal insurgency against Ugandans, Ayoo says that most Ugandans are willing to sacrifice prosecution of LRA leaders in exchange for successful peace negotiations. LRA leaders rejected [JURIST report] an earlier offer of amnesty from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [official website; BBC profile], saying that accepting amnesty "presupposes surrender". Kony was indicted by the ICC [JURIST report] along with four LRA lieutenants last October on charges that they orchestrated the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with Museveni's government. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] Monday nominated Ban Ki-Moon [official profile], the current South Korean Foreign Minister, to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] when Annan's term ends in January. Ban won the Council's nomination after four straw polls in the Security Council definitively favored him over six other contenders from Asian countries. South Korea nominated Ban as a candidate [JURIST report] in February. The UN Charter [text] requires the General Assembly to elect the secretary-general [official website] after receiving a recommendation from the Security Council, and the Assembly will likely schedule a confirmation vote later this month.

Although Annan praised Ban and expressed support for his nomination [statement text], the announcement was overshadowed by an emergency session [JURIST report] of the Security Council called to discuss North Korea's defiant nuclear weapon tests. Ban told reporters that he plans to act as an impartial mediator and that he is prepared to travel to North Korea to facilitate discussions about ending its nuclear program. AFP has more. The UN News Service has additional coverage.

[JURIST] French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [BBC profile] has said that France [JURIST news archive] will impose a smoking ban [press release, in French] in public locations in February 2007, and will likely extend a smoking ban in restaurants, clubs and bars in 2008. The ban will include schools, train stations, airports, offices, public buildings and other enclosed public spaces. Individuals who violate the law will be fined $100 and property owners that fail to prohibit smoking will be fined $200. The ban will not include streets or private places, including hotel rooms. Villepin also told news reporters Sunday that France will pay part of the costs of anti-smoking aids for individuals trying to quit smoking in a move to facilitate healthier lifestyles.

Citing public health concerns, Villepin noted that France loses 60,000 people per year due to smoking, and another 5,000 a year from second-hand smoke. Several other European countries have already implemented nationwide smoking bans, including Scotland, Ireland [BBC reports], Spain, Britain [BBC backgrounder] and Italy [BBC report; JURIST report]. CBC News has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont [official website; BBC profile] has declined to set a timeline for lifting martial law in Thailand, but will return the country to normalcy "as soon as possible," a government spokesperson said Monday. The spokesperson said the decision would be made in consultation with the new cabinet, which was installed [BBC report] Monday after gaining the approval of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The Council for Democratic Reform, now the Council for National Security [Bangkok Post backgrounder], imposed martial law nationwide on the night of Sept 19, immediately after the Thai Army seized power [JURIST report] in a coup. Early in October, King Adulyadej approved a new 39-article interim constitution [text; JURIST report] that provides for a civilian government but, as anticipated [JURIST report], preserves the military's say in policy through the Council for National Security, which, among other things, has the power to dismiss the administration. Human rights groups and the US government [JURIST reports] have urged Thailand to revoke martial law as soon as possible. The Bangkok Post has local coverage. Xinhua has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein's genocide trial [JURIST news archive; BBC timeline] continued Monday in Baghdad as a witness for the prosecution testified that troops under Hussein's command bulldozed her family into a mass grave. The woman was 13 during the alleged 1988 atrocities, living in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. She further testified that after the mass burials, she was taken to Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, where the women were separated from male family members before imprisonment and forced to shower naked in front of Iraqi troops.

The testimony was heard despite the continued defense team boycott [JURIST report] over the replacement of the original trial judge in the case. Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, the initial judge who presided over the trial, was replaced at the urging of the Iraqi government [JURIST report] for saying that Hussein was "not a dictator." Before resuming Monday, the trial had been adjourned to give defendants time to instruct court-appointed counsel on the details of their case, or to persuade their own lawyers to end the boycott.

Hussein faces genocide charges [JURIST report] for the 1988 deaths of 180,000 Kurdish villagers in the so-called "Anfal" campaign [HRW backgrounder]. He also faces separate crimes against humanity charges [JURIST report] in connection with the murder, torture and illegal arrest of hundreds of people in Dujail as part of a crackdown in the town after an assassination attempt on Hussein's life. The verdict in the Dujail case had been scheduled to be handed down next week but has been delayed [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith [official profile] on Sunday voiced tentative support for a formal, written UK constitution, saying that the possibility merited "serious" consideration. Goldsmith, however, rejected a proposal by Conservative leader David Cameron for a written bill of rights to replace the UK Human Rights Act [text], Britain's codification of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text]. In June, Cameron proposed a US-style bill of rights [JURIST report] to replace the Human Rights Act to balance the protection of civil rights with the responsibility to defend the country against terrorist acts and other threats. Cameron initially called for revisions to the Act [JURIST report], or for the Act to be scrapped altogether, in reaction to a May 2005 High Court decision to allow nine Afghani airplane hijackers to remain in the United Kingdom rather than deport the convicts back to Afghanistan for fear they would be tortured in their home country.

Last year, UK jurists warned that Blair's efforts to pressure the judiciary to favorably interpret the Human Rights Act, coupled with restrictions on traditional civil liberties in anti-terror legislation, risked turning the country into a police state [JURIST report]. The Guardian has more.

[JURIST] Militia attacks in Sudan's Darfur region [JURIST news archive] may have killed hundreds of people in August, many more than previously thought, according to a report [DOC text] issued Monday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile]. Arbour also urged the Sudanese government to open an independent investigation [press release] into the alleged killings, though she noted that "the attacks appear to have been conducted with the knowledge and material support of Government authorities." The attacks were allegedly carried out on tribes of "African" origin in the Buram area in the south of Darfur.

On Saturday, a Sudanese official accused local NGOs of "fabricating" reports of human rights violations [JURIST report], while the UN insisted that the sources were reliable and that all information had been verified before the reports were sent to the Security Council. The fighting between the government and rebel factions in Darfur, which continues to surge even after a May peace deal, has killed or displaced millions of people since it began three years ago. The peace deal [JURIST report], which has yet to take effect, would allow UN peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan and take over the peacekeeping mission currently led by the African Union (AU) [official website]. So far, Sudan has not allowed UN troops to come in, though Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has announced that he would allow UN support for the AU mission. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council is set to meet [AP report] in emergency session to discuss possible courses of action after North Korea (DPRK) [JURIST news archive] exploded several test nuclear weapons underground Monday. North Korea's official Central News Agency [media website] reported that the tests were performed safely and no radiation leakage was detected. North Korea pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [PDF text; IAEA backgrounder] in 2003 and international law regarding nuclear weapons is therefore largely inapplicable to the country. In a statement [text] made last week announcing its intent to conduct the nuclear test, North Korea said:

The US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defence.

Secondly, the DPRK will never use nuclear weapons first but strictly prohibit any threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear transfer.