[JURIST] The Washington State Senate [official website] passed a domestic partnership bill (SB 5336) [PDF text; legislative history] Thursday which would establish a domestic partner registry, giving same-sex couples enhanced rights including inheritance, hospital visitation, and the power to authorize medical procedures. The bill, sponsored by openly gay Sen. Ed Murray (D) [official website] passed by a vote of 28-19, defeating a proposed amendment [PDF text] by Senator Don Benton (R) [official website] that would have added a referendum clause. Benton and others who voted against the bill said it was an attempt to undermine traditional marriage [press release]. The bill now moves to the house as House Bill 1351 [PDF text; legislative history]. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire [official website] is expected to sign the measure if it passes.

Last year Washington passed a landmark gay civil rights act [JURIST report] sponsored by Murray, which rewrote Washington's Civil Rights Act to include the phrase "sexual orientation" among the classes of people protected from discrimination in housing, lending, and employment. Last week the state determined that a heterosexual woman could not use that law to secure health care benefits for her male partner [JURIST report] because a federal law on the topic trumps it. AP has more.

[JURIST] The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) [official website] officially launched [press release; fact sheet and FAQs, PDFs] Thursday, taking over and expanding the responsibilities of the former European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) [official backgrounder]. The new independent agency [JURIST report] will initially study issues of racial, gender, and religious tensions in the European Union [JURIST news archive] caused by large influxes of immigrants, but will eventually study other fundamental rights issues as well. Through its mandate [PDF text] the body has authorization to conduct studies, collect data, raise awareness, and advise the EU and its member states. It does not have the power to examine individual complaints, nor can it act in any regulatory capacity.

Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called the FRA a "step in the right direction" but also heavily criticized the limited nature of the agency's mandate [press release]. AI characterized the mandate negotiations as being more about protecting member states than about holding member states to account for rights violations. Despite its reservations, AI said that it looks forward to working with the FRA in its studies of racism and discrimination. AP has more.

[JURIST] Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [BBC profile; official website, in Japanese] on Thursday denied that the Japanese military forced Korean and Chinese women into prostitution during World War II, echoing sentiments by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso [official website] last month that a proposed US resolution urging Japan to apologize for the alleged practice was based on bad information [JURIST report]. Abe said there was little proof that any of the so-called "comfort women" [SFCU backgrounder] working in the Imperial Japanese Army [Wikipedia backgrounder] brothels were coerced into service. Many Japanese nationalists say the women were professional prostitutes, working in the brothels by choice. These claims are contradicted by testimony of victims [AI report] and soldiers, and by documents [GMU backgrounder] found in 1992 that show the military authorities worked directly with contractors to force approximately 200,000 women into sex slavery.

Abe is one of a number of politicians pushing for the government to revisit a 1993 official apology [text] to victims and downplay government involvement. In 1995 the Asian Women's Fund [official website] was created to compensate victims. The fund provides 2 Million yen ( about $20,000 USD) per victim from private donations, while the Japanese government allocated a total of 700 Million yen (about $6,000,000 USD) for victim medical expenses. Its mandate expires at the end of the month. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Florida commission convened to investigate the botched December execution [JURIST report] of Angel Diaz [AI profile] determined Thursday that more oversight is necessary to ensure inmates are properly sedated before execution. Currently Florida uses the chemicals sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride [Wikipedia backgrounders], to sedate, paralyze and kill inmates. According to the testimony of an anesthesiologist, if an inmate is improperly sedated they may experience agonizing pain as they die without the ability to display it. The commission recommended to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist [official profile] that the state find "less problematic" alternative chemicals that have less potential to fail. The commission also recommended monitoring executions via closed circuit cameras, stationing an additional law enforcement official to act as an observer, and for executioners to maintain radio communication with the supervising warden.

Former Governor Jeb Bush suspended all Florida executions in December and appointed this commission to investigate Florida's lethal injection procedures [PDF] after Diaz's botched execution. Last week a Maryland judge temporarily suspended executions [JURIST report] until the status of the death penalty within the state was resolved. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense [official website] announced [press release] Thursday that it has transferred five more Guantanamo Bay detainees [GlobalSecurity.org timeline] to their home countries for detention or release, bringing the total number of detainees released from Guantanamo [JURIST news archive] so far this year to twelve. Three of the newly freed detainees have been transferred to Tajikistan, and two to Afghanistan. In a press release, the Defense Department said the transfer should signal to critics that "the US does not desire to hold detainees any longer than necessary."

Last week, seven Saudis formerly detained at the prison were returned to Saudi Arabia [JURIST report]. Some 85 other detainees at Guantanamo are currently eligible for transfer or release, but have not yet been handed over to their home governments. The US still holds another 385 prisoners at Guantanamo. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A German probe into the US detention of Murat Kurnaz [AI case sheet; JURIST news archive], a Turkish citizen born in Germany who was held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] for nearly five years, is being delayed because official documents are being withheld by authorities in the state of Bremen, the chairman of the government investigation committee said Thursday. Siegfried Kauder [personal website] said he had received confirmation weeks ago from Bremen authorities that the documents would arrive soon. The papers are reported to include reports by German intelligence that link Kurnaz to radical Islamists. Reuters has more.

US officials in Pakistan arrested Kurnaz shortly after September 11 and kept him in custody at Guantanamo from 2002 until 2006. Kurnaz has alleged he suffered abuse and torture [Deutsche Welle report] as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay; last October Germany opened an investigation [JURIST report] into the charges. In response to growing criticism [JURIST report] of the circumstances behind Kurnaz' detention, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier [BBC profile] has denied [JURIST report] that he knew about a US offer to release Kurnaz to Germany in 2002, notwithstanding a finding by a committee of the European parliament investigating CIA activity in Europe [JURIST report] that Germany refused the offer and extended Kurnaz' detention for three years.

[JURIST] The Chinese parliament will consider amending a law allowing the state to send criminal suspects to labor camps without a trial during the National People's Congress (NPC) [official website, in Chinese] scheduled for next week, the China Daily reported Thursday. The system, called "re-education through labor," or "laojiao" [HRW backgrounder], currently allows the police to send those suspected of committing petty crimes, such as theft, prostitution, and illegal drug use, to jail for up to four years. Judicial review is only granted after time has been served at the jail. The changes being considered next week would limit incarceration to less than 18 months and make judicial review more lenient. The camps would be called "correctional centers," instead of "re-education centers."

Since its inception in 1957, laojiao has detained as many as 400,000 criminals. Critics say the government uses the system to detain political and religious activists. The reform being considered next week was initially added to the NPC agenda in 2005 [HRIC brief, PDF], but was postponed for two years due to disagreements about its terms. In 2005, Human Rights in China (HRIC) [advocacy website] said the reform would be a major improvement but still called for the complete eradication of the entire system. Among 20 other items on next week's agenda are proposed amendments to laws involving education, corporate tax, and property rights. BBC News has more. The China Daily has local coverage.

[JURIST] The US military on Thursday formally referred the charges against David Hicks [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] to a military commission. Under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the Manual for Military Commissions (MMC) [DOD materials; JURIST report], Hicks, an Australian citizen, will face arraignment within 30 days after he is served with the charges, and the military commission will be assembled within 120 days, after which the trial date will be scheduled. Hicks is charged with one count of providing material support to terrorists [DOD press release] and faces a potential life sentence. Although prosecutors initially also sought an attempted murder charge against Hicks, only the material support charge with two specifications was referred to a military commission by the Convening Authority. AP has more.

Also on Thursday, the Australian Lawyers Alliance [group website] presented a report [materials; ABC Australia report] to Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock that characterizes the US military commission plan as "unfair and unreasonable." Specifically, the report states the MMC is unacceptable because:

its jurisdiction is retrospective and wide-ranging;

the hearsay rule is unfair to the accused and dilutes the common law rules of hearsay;

important procedural rules are not predicated on principles of fairness;

any custodial sentence imposed does not take into account time already served by the accused;

involuntary confessions are admissible; and

appeal provisions favour positive outcomes for the prosecution.

[JURIST] Former US Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) [Sourcewatch profile] reported to prison Thursday morning to begin serving his 30-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution [BOP backgrounder], a minimum-security prison in Morgantown, West Virginia. The district judge who presided over Ney's sentencing hearing [JURIST report] rejected Ney's claim that his alcohol dependency clouded his judgment, finding that it didn't fully explain his corrupt behavior or excuse violating laws he was "sworn to enforce and uphold. He will likely undergo rehabilitation for alcoholism as recommended by the judge at his sentencing hearing.

Ney pleaded guilty [plea agreement, PDF; JURIST report] last October to conspiracy and making false statements in relation to his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive], from whom he received gifts and illegal campaign contributions. In response to the political corruption scandal, the Republican congressman in November resigned from the US House of Representatives. AP has more.

[JURIST] A 2000 decision by the Canadian Parliament [official website] to deny retroactive survivor pension benefits to persons in same-sex relationships was unconstitutional discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text], the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] held in a ruling [text] Thursday. Parliament passed legislation in 2000 to recognize the legal rights of same-sex couples, but decided not to award survivor benefits to couples where one partner died before 1998. In finding the 1998 cut-off date unconstitutional, the Court considered the right of Parliament to limit government payments and the potential financial burden a retroactive decision might have on the mandatory Canada Pension Plan [text; official backgrounder]. The court held that each of the class-action litigants would receive only one year of survivor benefits.

The class action was launched by gay rights activist George Hislop [Wikipedia profile] and was eventually joined by over 10,000 plaintiffs. The Supreme Court heard the case in May after the federal government appealed a 2004 lower court ruling [JURIST report] finding same-sex couples eligible for survivor pension benefits but not retroactive awards. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] Former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] pleaded not guilty Thursday before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] to 37 counts of war crimes, including murder, persecution, and rape. Haradinaj, whose trial is scheduled to begin Monday [ICTY press release], was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army [FAS backgrounder], the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force that opposed Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war. Also appearing before the ICTY Thursday were Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj [Trial Watch profiles], two other former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters. According to prosecutors, all three conspired to expel Serbian forces from Dukagjin, in Western Kosovo, during the war. A conviction on a single charge could carry a sentence of life in prison.

Haradinaj, who was indicted by United Nations prosecutors in 2005 [text], originally appeared with Balaj and Brahimaj before the ICTY last year, where they pleaded not guilty to 37 charges entered against them [JURIST report]. Prosecutors amended the indictments, requiring new pleas to be entered in front of the tribunal Thursday. Last March, an appeals panel of the ICTY ruled that Haradinaj could return to politics [JURIST report] in Kosovo during his provisional release pending trial, but only on condition that any requests by him to engage in public political activities be cleared by the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) [official website]. AP has more.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] Wednesday criticized a US federal appeals court ruling [PDF text; JURIST report] supporting Congressional legislation denying "enemy combatants" the right to challenge their detentions in federal court. In a press conference [recorded video; summary] Wednesday, Arbour expressed concern at "insufficient judicial supervision," saying:

I hope we will see the American judicial system rise to its long-standing reputation as a guardian of fundamental human rights and civil liberties and provide the protection to all that are under the authority, control, and, therefore, in my view, jurisdiction, of the United States.

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[JURIST] US Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) [official website] and 78 other House of Representatives members introduced a bill [HR 1252 summary] Wednesday that would crack down on gasoline price gouging by instituting harsh criminal and civil penalties on oil and gas corporations and on individuals. The bill would permit the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] to investigate alleged price gouging in the crude oil, home heating oil, propane and natural gas sectors. Currently, the FTC is limited to investigating antitrust violations in connection with the industries, but lacks authority to probe price gouging. Although twenty-nine states have price-gouging laws, FTC Commissioner Deborah Platt Majoras [official profile] cautioned against federal legislation last year due to the difficulty in distinguishing reasonable price fluctuations from price gouging and the deleterious effect the penalties would have on consumers.

Last May, the House passed a similar bill [JURIST report], the Federal Energy Price Protection Act [text, PDF; HR 5253 summary], that would have required the FTC to define price gouging within six months of the bill's final passage. In addition, fuel refiners, wholesalers and retailers who engage in price gouging would have faced fines from $2 million to $150 million, the possibility of imprisonment, and increased civil penalties up to three times the amount of profits earned. The bill did not gain passage in the Senate. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Oklahoma State House of Representatives committee approved a strict immigration bill on Wednesday for a full vote in the Oklahoma House. The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 [HB 1804 text, DOC] seeks to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining state identification, and would require all state and local agencies to verify citizenship status of applicants before authorizing benefits. The bill would also require public employers to enter job applicants into an electronic immigration database to verify legal status, and would repeal a 2003 law that permits illegal immigrants to attend state colleges at in-state tuition levels. The proposed bill states in part:

The State of Oklahoma finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged by public agencies within this state that provide public benefits without verifying immigration status. The State of Oklahoma further finds that illegal immigrants have been harbored and sheltered in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the issuance of identification cards that are issued without verifying immigration status, and that these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Oklahoma. Therefore, the people of the State of Oklahoma declare that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

[JURIST] Attorneys for US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) [official website] on Wednesday requested the return of the materials seized from the congressman's office [JURIST report] during an 18-hour raid in May 2006 by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] as part of an investigation into bribery allegations. Jefferson's defense team has argued that the search violated constitutional separation of powers principles that protect some legislative information from the executive branch of the government. Jefferson claims that nearly 19,000 documents and electronic files, including computer hard drives, seized by the DOJ fall under the separation of powers rubric, an argument made previously [JURIST report] by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The request was filed with the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals [official website], which in July 2006 ordered [JURIST report] the DOJ to suspend review of the seized materials until Jefferson has an opportunity to review them himself [remand order] to determine which might fall under the legislative privilege defined in the US Constitution's so-called Speech or Debate Clause [text].

Jefferson has not been charged with any crime, and has denied accusations that he took bribes from a Kentucky telecommunications company in exchange for brokering a deal with the government of Nigeria. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, and FBI Director Robert Mueller were among a host of government officials who said they would resign [JURIST report] if forced to hand back information gathered during the search, causing President Bush to order the documents to be sealed for 45 days [JURIST report] until the matter could be resolved. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Egyptian judge on Wednesday upheld a prosecutor's decision to freeze the assets of 29 financiers for the Muslim Brotherhood [party website; JURIST news archive]. The Brotherhood is the largest Islamic group in Egypt and, while it is considered to be illegal, the group currently holds 88 seats in the Egyptian Parliament [official website] and is believed to have tens of thousands of members. The financiers are now in prison awaiting a military trial on charges of money laundering and financing a terrorist organization. AP has more.

Egyptian police have arrested at least 300 members of the Brotherhood since December, including 72 in a February raid [JURIST report]. The government accuses the organization of trying to create an Islamic theocracy, but the Brotherhood has claimed that the crackdown is meant to quell opposition to constitutional amendments [JURIST report] proposed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile; JURIST news archive] last year. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif announced in December an 18-month timetable [JURIST report] for lifting the state of emergency that Egypt [JURIST news archive] has existed in the country since 1981.

[JURIST] The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced a settlement [press release] Wednesday in the case against the Progress for America Voter Fund (PFA-VF) [advocacy website] for violating campaign finance laws during the 2004 election cycle. The conciliation agreement [PDF text] indicates that PFA-VF will pay a $750,000 fine, the third largest fine in FEC history, and that PFA-VF agreed to register as a political organization.

The FEC had alleged that PFA-VF violated several campaign finance laws in 2004 by "failing to register as a political committee with the Commission, by failing to report contributions and expenditures, by knowingly accepting contributions in amounts exceeding $5,000 from individuals, and by knowingly accepting corporate and/or union contributions..." PFA-VF is a tax-exempt 527 group [Opensecrets.org backgrounder], which have been criticized as vehicles for political interest groups to avoid the soft-money restrictions required by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 [FEC materials], popularly known as the McCain-Feingold law. In the run-up to the 2004 election, the FEC decided to regulate 527 groups on a case-by-case basis, prompting a legal challenge [JURIST report] where the district judge demanded that the FEC explain why 527 groups would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

The PFA-VF website indicated on Wednesday that:

The FEC's inactions left all 527 groups, including PFA-VF, to their own interpretation of the law. The FEC subsequently announced a "case by case" enforcement policy and opened investigations into violations of the very statutes for which the Commission had refused to provide guidance...Given the ambiguous legal nature of this situation and the cost of litigating this dispute, PFA-VF has decided it is a more prudent use of its resources and energy to conclude this proceeding.