[JURIST] New UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] said Tuesday that resolving the crisis in Darfur [JURIST news archive] was "very high" on his agenda [remarks] and would be one of his top priorities. Ban, whose tenure as secretary-general officially began Monday, said that he has already spoken to Jan Eliasson, former UN General Assembly President and current Special Representative for Sudan [UN News report], and that he has a meeting with Eliasson scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the Darfur situation. Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan had in the final weeks of his own term pressed UN bodies - especially the new UN Human Rights Council - to focus more on Darfur [JURIST report].

In comments to reporters, Ban also addressed Saddam Hussein's weekend execution [JURIST report] and the death penalty generally, saying:

Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against the Iraqi people. We should never forget the victims of his crimes. The issue of capital punishment is for each and every Member State to decide. As a Secretary-General, at the same time, while I am firmly against impunity, I also hope that the members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian laws. During my entire tenure, I will try my best to help Member States, the international community, to strengthen the rule of law.

[JURIST] A top Iraqi legal official whose presence at the Saddam execution [JURIST report] was required by law told Reuters Tuesday that he threatened to walk out of the execution after Shiite supporters began jeering the ousted leader. Munkith al-Faroon said that hecklers began chanting support for militant Shiite cleric and head of the Mehdi Army militia Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile] while Saddam stood on the gallows, awaiting execution. Faroon's absence or exit would have halted the hanging.

An unofficial and grainy video [WARNING: graphic images] of the entire execution of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive; BBC obituary], including his actual hanging, was posted on the Web late Saturday and has prompted investigations [JURIST report] by the Iraqi government. The video was apparently shot with a cell phone camera by a witness to the hanging and shows Hussein's body dropping through the trap door of the gallows. Faroon can be heard on the tape calling for order. He told Reuters that although "the Americans took all our phones" prior to the execution, two senior government officials got phones in and one took the video. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Massachusetts lawmakers Tuesday pushed forward a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Sixty-two members of the Massachusetts legislature [official website] voted for the measure and 132 against on a second vote, putting it 12 votes over the 50 vote threshold it needed to stay alive for further consideration by the next legislative session, which can then put it on the 2008 ballot. The proposed amendment [text, DOC], which has garnered over 170,000 support signatures, would strictly define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, though it would leave existing Massachusetts same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] intact. When the state legislature last considered it in November, opponents of the measure failed to amass the 151 votes necessary to kill it, instead voting 109-87 to recess [JURIST report] a joint session with the Senate until January. AP has more. The Boston Herald has local coverage.

Outgoing Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney [official profile] welcomed the advancement of the ban, calling it a "huge victory for the people of Massachusetts." After the legislature originally balked at the vote, Romney sued the Commonwealth [JURIST report]. Late last month the state Supreme Judicial Court [official website] ruled [PDF text] that it could not compel the legislature, but it nonetheless criticized the failure of lawmakers [Boston Globe report] to vote on the measure.

Massachusetts is currently the only US state to recognize same-sex marriage, after a November 2003 state high court ruling [JURIST report; background materials], and more than 8,000 couples have since been wed there.

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [official website; BBC profile] said Tuesday that he would push the United Nations to adopt a universal ban on the death penalty [press release, in Italian] after this weekend's execution [JURIST report] of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive]. Italy, which assumed a two-year non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council [official website] Monday, was one of 85 UN member states that in December joined together to urge the abolition of the death penalty [Amnesty press release] and institute a moratorium on executions. Reuters has more.

Hussein's execution has prompted criticism from rights groups and world leaders [JURIST reports], both for its imposition of the death penalty and the circumstances surrounding Hussein's trial and hanging. Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Europe's human rights watchdog, said in a statement posted on the COE website Tuesday: "The trial of Saddam Hussein was a missed opportunity in a country which does not have many opportunities. It was an opportunity for Iraq to join the civilised world. The former Iraqi dictator was a ruthless criminal who deserved to be punished, but it was wrong to kill him.... The death penalty is cruel and barbaric, and I call on the Iraqi authorities to abolish it. It is late, but not too late, for Iraq to join the great majority of civilised and democratic countries in the world who have already abolished the death penalty."

[JURIST] Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock [official profile] said Tuesday that Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] will be among the first of the Guantanamo detainees to be brought to trial before new US military commissions. In a news conference [transcript], Ruddock said that US counterpart Alberto Gonzales had assured him that Hicks would be charged soon after regulations setting forth procedures for military commissions [JURIST news archive] are promulgated. Ruddock said that is expected by January 17. Hicks also stressed that Australian Prime Minister John Howard "has made it clear that we are very anxious that this matter be resolved as quickly as possible. And we continue to press the United States on those matters, and we're not happy about the delay." The Australian government has been under increasing pressure [JURIST report] to call for Hicks' release, a step which Howard, a staunch US ally, has been extremely reluctant to take. Over the weekend, however, Howard seemed to signal a shift on Hicks with a comment [Melbourne Age report] that "the acceptability of him being kept in custody diminishes by the day." AAP has more.

Ruddock's comments come the day after Australia's new independent military prosecutor called the treatment of Hicks "abominable," saying that he is entitled to a fair trial [JURIST report]. Hicks has been held by the US since 2001 when he was captured in Afghanistan. President Bush has promised that a trial will be held [JURIST report], but has offered no timetable.

[JURIST] A government official in Nepal [JURIST news archive] said Tuesday that the country's interim constitution [eKantipur highlights; JURIST news archive] will be promulgated by the middle of January when the requisite arms management process outlined in the Nepalese peace plan [JURIST report] begins. Nepal's House of Representatives must first approve the interim constitution, which simultaneously provides for the creation of an interim parliament and the dissolution of the current House.

Last month, Nepalese government negotiators and Maoist rebels reached an agreement [JURIST report] on the 168 articles of the interim constitution to replace Nepal's current constitution [text], following the end of the decade-long Maoist guerilla insurgency against the Nepalese government that left over 13,000 people dead. The interim constitution fails to resolve the status of King Gyanendra [official profile] and the Nepalese monarchy, leaving that task for a new representative body and the drafters of a permanent constitution. PTI News has more.

[JURIST] The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] initiated an investigation Tuesday into the taping and distribution of a graphic camera phone video [JURIST report] showing the actual Saturday execution [JURIST report] of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive; BBC obituary] and the unruly process surrounding it. The video's release has already prompted protest [JURIST report] from Sunnis. Iraqi officials said they also hope to discover the identity of the individual who during the hanging shouted out the name of Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile], a militant Shiite cleric and head of the Mehdi Army militia. The video has also prompted outrage outside of Iraq, with the deputy UK prime minister calling the actions of those witnessing the execution "deplorable" and saying the release of the video was "unacceptable" [BBC report]. AFP has more.

In related news, the Iraqi Interior Ministry [JURIST news archive] has forced the Baghdad office of satellite television station Al-Sharqiya [official website; Wikipedia backgrounder] to close down over its coverage of the Hussein execution. Officials said they decided to close the Dubai-based television station's Iraqi office because of an allegedly false report. Al-Sharqiya has been criticized by some for its allegedly sympathetic coverage of Hussein's execution during which an on-air reporter chose to wear black mourning clothes. The Interior Ministry previously announced the formation of a specialized unit to monitor news coverage [JURIST report] and correct "fabricated and false news." AP has more.

[JURIST] Sunnis demonstrated in the streets of Iraq Monday in continuing opposition to the Saturday execution [JURIST report] of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive; BBC obituary], which was captured on camera phone video [JURIST report] taken at the scene. Most notably, Sunni protestors in Samarra stormed into a damaged Shiite Mosque bearing a photograph of Hussein and a fake coffin. At a prison in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, news of Hussein's execution also prompted rioting by inmates, many believed to be Sunni Arabs. Prisoners clashed with guards after learning of the news during visiting hours Monday, leaving seven prison officials and three inmates injured. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis have responded largely along sectarian lines [JURIST report] to news of Hussein's hanging, with Shiites celebrating in the streets Saturday as many Sunnis mourned the death of the ousted Iraqi president. World leaders have also been divided [JURIST report] on the execution, with many European nations criticizing the imposition of the death penalty.

[JURIST] Rizgar Mohammed Amin [JURIST news archive], the Iraqi Kurdish judge who presided over the Saddam Hussein Dujail trial [JURIST news archive] before resigning [JURIST report] in early 2006 over criticisms of his handling of the case, has said that Hussein's execution [JURIST report] violated Iraqi law banning executions during the Muslim Eid holiday. Sunnis began celebrating the holiday on Saturday, the day Hussein's death sentence [JURIST report] was carried out, but Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie has defended the timing of the execution, saying it took place before daylight, when Eid begins. Amin also said that the execution violated a requirement that executions be carried out 30 days after the appeals judgment on a death sentence is handed down, an assertion which the appeals chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] disagreed with in its December 26 judgment [JURIST report]. The court said that Article 27 of the statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal [PDF text] requires an affirmed death sentence to be carried out within 30 days of the appeals decision. AFP has more.

Meanwhile, CNN reported Tuesday that US officials tried to persuade Iraqi officials to delay Hussein's execution for up to two weeks in order to help combat the impression that the death sentence was carried out in retribution. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki allegedly refused US requests to delay the hanging, instead insisting that the execution be carried out before Eid. US officials are also said to have been concerned with the legal process [JURIST report] leading up to the execution, in particular the status of the constitutional requirement [JURIST report] that a death warrant be approved by Iraq's president and vice-president, which created a problem as President Jalal Talabani, an opponent of the death penalty, refused to sign any warrant himself [JURIST report]. A panel of Iraqi judges ultimately ruled that the constitutional provision was void in the context of the law governing the sentence handed down by the Iraqi High Tribunal, but the process was rushed. CNN has more.

[JURIST] Federal courts are closed Tuesday under a proclamation [text] issued last week appointing Tuesday as a National Day of Mourning for former US President Gerald R. Ford [official profile; Ford Library timeline], who died [JURIST report] last week at the age of 93. President Bush ordered [text] most federal offices to be closed Tuesday as a mark of respect for Ford, though some Justice Department offices will remain open, as will other federal offices the operation of which is deemed necessary for national security reasons.

Ford's state funeral [AP report; official press releases] is set for Tuesday morning in Washington, DC. AP has more.