[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] Thursday approved a bill [PDF text; HR 1592 summary] to expand federal hate crimes legislation to include violent attacks against people based on gender or sexuality. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 broadens the definition of a hate crime and also makes it easier for federal law enforcement to become involved. A similar bill is circulating in the US Senate. The White House has threatened to veto the legislation [PDF policy statement]. The Senate bill is sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) [official website] and is named for Matthew Shepard [Wikipedia backgrounder], who was killed because of his sexual orientation.

The current federal hate crime bill only protects crimes committed based on race, religion, color or national origin. Socially conservative organizations have denounced the bill in fear it will repress individuals' ability to morally disagree with homosexual lifestyles. The bill has also been criticized for giving special protections to homosexuals while excluding other vulnerable classes like senior citizens, military personnel, and police officers. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for the Canadian government said in an affidavit Thursday that Canada and Afghanistan have formally signed a new agreement allowing for monitoring of prisoners transferred from Canadian to Afghan custody as a safeguard against torture and abuse. Following submission of the affidavit, a Federal Court judge in British Columbia halted an injunction [JURIST report] action brought by Amnesty International and the BC Civil Liberties union which had sought to suspend any additional transfers until effective monitoring was established. CTV News has more.

The Canadian government has been deeply embroiled in controversy over the torture issue since the Toronto Globe and Mail reported [text] late last month that thirty terror suspects were tortured by Afghan security forces after being transferred from the custody of Canadian troops belonging to NATO's ISAF [official website] mission. The detainees gave accounts of being beaten, electrocuted, starved, and left in freezing temperatures while detained in Kandahar province jails. The report prompted calls for the resignation [JURIST report] of Canadian Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor [official profile], for an end to the prison transfers, for a public inquiry, and even for an International Criminal Court investigation of "possible war crimes" [JURIST report] committed by Canadian officials.

In 2005, Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Rick Hillier [official profile] signed an initial Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement [text] authorizing prisoner transfers, but critics said the agreement did not give Canada the power to inspect detainees [JURIST report] after their transfers, thus allowing broad latitude for torture to occur. Last week O'Connor said that Canada had made a new informal agreement with the Afghanistan government [JURIST report] to monitor the condition of transferred prisoners after their release.

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] Thursday ruled [DOC text; press release] that Poland [JURIST news archive] violated the rights of a group of gay rights activists by refusing to authorize a 2005 rally in Warsaw. The Polish government rejected the group's application to hold a march because the group did not present a plan to alleviate traffic congestion. The march took place anyway [JURIST report], but the ECHR held that the ban still violated the organizers' rights to freedom of assembly. The court also found that the ban was discriminatory as other groups that held rallies the same day were not asked to submit any traffic plan. A second gay rights rally was banned [JURIST report] in November 2005 in the Polish city of Poznan.

Poland's governing Law and Justice Party [party website, in Polish] positions itself as a champion of Roman Catholic values, and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official profile] recently said that it was "not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals." Earlier this year Poland's Deputy Education Minister Miroslaw Orzechowski [official profile] announced he would propose legislation to have teachers found to be promoting "homosexual culture" in Polish schools fired, prompting the European Parliament to announce it would launch an investigation into whether Poland was violating any EU anti-discrimination laws. AP has more.

[JURIST] A former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee who was arrested [JURIST report] by authorities upon being returned to his home country of Morocco has been released from custody, relatives reported. Criminal charges against Ahmed Errachidi [Wikipedia profile] were dropped after he appeared before a judge Wednesday, according to a lawyer with advocacy group Reprieve [advocacy website], who was representing Errachidi.

Errachidi lived in Britain for 17 years working as a chef before he was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 after taking a business trip there; he was held at Guantanamo for more than five years. Errachidi was transferred [JURIST report] last week without being charged by US military authorities. An Afghan prisoner was released at the same time. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish; Wikipedia backgrounder] announced Thursday that it has formed a coalition with a small opposition Motherland Party of Turkey (ANAP) [party website, in Turkish; Wikipedia backgrounder] to pass a series of constitutional amendments that would change Turkey's system for electing its president. Under the proposed reforms, the president would be elected by a direct vote rather than chosen by parliament. The announcement comes one day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [BBC profile] called for the amendments [JURIST report] in an attempt to calm political tensions after the Turkish Constitutional Court voided [JURIST report] a parliamentary vote in support of Erdogan's presidential candidate, Islamist-leaning Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul [official website; JURIST news archive]. The Court found the vote invalid because a quorum of legislators did not participate.

Critics have accused Gul of harboring secret plans for Islamist reforms to Turkey's strongly secular state structure. The Turkish army, which has ousted four presidents in four decades and regards itself as the guardian of the secular constitution [text], has also warned against instituting any Islamist reforms. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Commission on International Religious Freedom [official website] Wednesday released [press release] its annual report on worldwide religious freedom [PDF], finding for the first time since the ouster of Saddam Hussein that freedom of religious worship in Iraq is under severe threat. The commission pointed to increasing government abuse and sectarian violence, including arbitrary arrests, torture and rape, against Sunni and Shiite Muslims and religious minorities, in coming to its decision.

The commission maintains a list of countries designated as "countries of particular concern" (CPC) [US Department of State backgrounder], where rights abuses are so widespread that those countries may be subject to US sanctions. The commission also has a Watch List of countries "where conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation" but where violations of religious freedom are nonetheless commonplace and tolerated by the government. Iraq [JURIST news archive] has been added to the Watch List, although three of the four Democratic appointees to the 10 member panel argued that it should be designated as a CPC. The report found that most religious abuses were committed by gangs and terrorist groups, but that the Iraqi government also participated in violations, ignoring attacks on Iraq's minority Sunnis, the most frequent targets of religious violence, by armed Shia factions.

In the 2007 report, the commission listed Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam as CPCs and recommended that they be subjected to US sanctions. Besides Iraq, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria appear on the panel's Watch List. The panel's recommendations are not binding, although the US government may consider them in formulating its foreign policy. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] has launched an internal investigation into whether a top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales considered the political affiliations of candidates for career prosecutor positions in the Department, contrary to federal law [OSC backgrounder] and longstanding practice. A Department spokesman said Wednesday that the Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility [official websites] had begun the probe several weeks ago in connection with procedures possibly followed by Monica Goodling [JURIST news archive], the now-resigned Gonzales White House liaison who reviewed files for federal prosecutors in districts where no US Attorney was in place or where a replacement had not been confirmed by the Senate. It was revealed earlier this week that Goodling also was given broad authority [JURIST report] over the hiring of non-civil service lawyers and officers with the Department, leading Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to express concern that the practice was part of a "systematic scheme to inject political influence into the hiring and firing decisions of key Justice employees." AP has more.

Documents - included written notes by Goodling - handed over by the Department of Justice to the House Judiciary Committee in early April indicated that officials in the Department took sitting federal prosecutors' political activities [JURIST report] and connections to the conservative Federalist Society into account in deciding whether to retain or dismiss them. Goodling resigned last month in the midst of controversy over her role in the firings of eight US Attorneys [JURIST news archive] for allegedly political reasons.

[JURIST] Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [official website; BBC profile] repeated his call for reforming the Japanese constitution [text] on Thursday, the day of the constitution's 60th anniversary. Abe said that the country's pacifist constitution "needs to be revised as its basic framework can no longer proceed with major changes in the administration system, relations between central and local governments, and foreign and security policies." On April 13, the Japanese House of Representatives [official website] approved [JURIST report] a bill authorizing a national referendum on revisions to the constitution. The bill will now need to pass in the House of Councillors [official website, in Japanese] with a two-thirds approval. Abe initiated the bill [JURIST report] in April, hoping it would become law before the current parliamentary session adjourns on June 23.

The proposed revisions are particularly focused on Article 9 [text; Wikipedia backgrounder], which has been interpreted to bar Japan [JURIST news archive] from maintaining military forces and from using force in international conflicts except in self-defense. Some fear the article may potentially hinder Japan's ability to respond to crises [JURIST report]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Lawmakers dismissed in February from Ecuador's Congress clashed with protesters Wednesday in an unsuccessful bid to forcibly retake their seats in the country's assembly. Police cordoned off the Congress building during the confrontation. The legislators were sacked [JURIST report] by Ecuador's electoral tribunal [official website, in Spanish] and eventually replaced by supporters of President Rafael Correa [official website, in Spanish; BBC profile] after they were found to have illegally interfered with Correa's proposed referendum on constitutional reform [JURIST report], which carried by an overwhelming majority [JURIST report] last month. Ecuador's Constitutional Tribunal [official website, in Spanish] subsequently reinstated the dismissed lawmakers, but the infuriated pro-Correa Congress then voted to dismiss the judges of the court [JURIST report].

The dismissed lawmakers fought with police [JURIST report] when they first attempted to retake their seats after the original electoral tribunal decision. In the face of a Correa-instituted police blockade of the Congress building after the high court reinstatement order they at first hesitated to try and force their way in again, but one legislator told Reuters Wednesday, "We will try to enter Congress every day." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Nebraska Supreme Court [official website] issued an order [PDF text] Wednesday staying the execution of Carey Dean Moore [Amnesty profile] while the court determines whether death by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. In a 4-3 decision, the Court noted that recent US Supreme Court decisions have raised the question whether electrocution is constitutional and hence the court's "responsibility to decide whether electrocution is lawful requires us to consider whether any convicted person should be electrocuted before that question is answered." Nebraska adopted a new electrocution method in which first, a single 20-second, 2,450-volt jolt is used then officials wait 18 minutes to determine if an inmate is still alive, and administer a second jolt if needed. The court issued the stay after Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers [official profile] requested that the death penalty process be reviewed before anyone else is put to death. Moore was scheduled to die Tuesday for the murders of two Omaha cab drivers in 1979. Nebraska is the only state to solely rely on the electric chair for capital punishment; its last execution was in 1997. AP has more.

The lethal injection [JURIST news archive] method of execution has also received its share of scrutiny in recent months. Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen issued a moratorium on executions [executive order, PDF; JURIST report] in February and directed the Tennessee Commissioner of Corrections to conduct a comprehensive review of the manner in which death sentences are administered; Bredesen accepted revised death penalty protocols [JURIST report] on Monday, clearing the way for executions to resume in the state. A North Carolina state judge issued an injunction [JURIST report] in January blocking two executions until Governor Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. Capital punishment has also been suspended in Florida, California, and Maryland [JURIST reports]. An increased number of states have begun to review the administration of the death penalty following the botched execution of Angel Diaz [Amnesty profile] in December 2006.

[JURIST] US District Judge Jay Zainey has dismissed part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by families whose relatives died during Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. The son of Ethel Mayo Freeman sued the federal government, including former FEMA director Michael Brown [Wikipedia profile] and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff [official profile], for his mother's death. Wheelchair-bound Freeman died while waiting outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for help. Zainey noted that the government has publicly admitted to the many mistakes it made before and after Hurricane Katrina but it would be pure speculation to decide whether those mistakes caused these deaths.

Though most claims were dismissed by the judge, the families still intend to pursue claims left standing. AP has more. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has local coverage.

[JURIST] Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said Thursday that the government plans to strengthen foreign bribery laws after a government commission concluded that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) corporate website] paid roughly $220 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime to secure $2.3 billion in grain contracts under the now-defunct UN oil-for-food program [JURIST news archive]. The Cole Commission [official website] last year recommended that criminal charges be filed [CC materials; JURIST report] against 12 AWB executives, and also urged several changes to Australian law [recommendations summary].

The government tabled its response [text] to the Cole Commission recommendations in Parliament Thursday. According to a press release [text] from Ruddock's office, the government plans to introduce legislation:

requiring applicants for licenses to import or export under United Nations sanctions to provide information to the Government; criminal penalties will apply for giving false or misleading information;

creating a new offence for breaching UN sanctions;

giving Government agencies the power to obtain evidence about suspected evasion of sanctions so they can be referred to law enforcement agencies;

strengthening laws aimed at bribery of foreign officials; and

making tax laws consistent with foreign bribery laws

[JURIST] UN Undersecretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel [official profile] has been unable to break a deadlock within the Lebanese government preventing approval of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive], Michel told the UN Security Council Wednesday. Michel traveled to Lebanon [JURIST report] last month in an effort to revitalize the ratification process of an agreement [JURIST report] to establish the tribunal. The agreement has been approved by the Lebanese cabinet, but Lebanon's pro-Syrian parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri has refused to convene parliament, preventing the ratification of the agreement. Michel said Wednesday that he saw "no progress" [press briefing summary; recorded video], despite the fact that both the government and opposition have expressed support, in principle, for the tribunal. According to Michel, "the main issue was not the tribunal, but the Government's composition."

The Security Council could establish the tribunal under Chapter VII of the UN Charter [text], which would require Lebanon's compliance, but Michel refused to confirm plans to do so Wednesday. AP has more. The UN News Service has additional coverage.