[JURIST] Avid anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan [Wikipedia profile] and 45 other protesters were arrested Monday at the US Capitol in Washington, DC after refusing to leave the office and hallway of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) [official website] while calling for the impeachment of both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. According to police, they will all be charged with the misdemeanor of disorderly conduct and will be released quickly. Sheehan was previously arrested [JURIST report] for protesting outside the White House in 2005.

Critics of the Iraq war have long called for the impeachment of the president and vice president [Wikipedia backgrounder] for "misleading" the United States into the Iraq war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official profile] has rejected such calls, saying legislative efforts should be put into ending the war and bringing US troops home. Conyers had suggested impeachment before last year's elections, when the Democrats took control of Congress. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] European Union (EU) [official website] foreign ministers decided Monday during a meeting in Brussels to step up their involvement in the UN-supervised independence plan for Kosovo [JURIST news archive], which has been at an impasse after running into intense resistance from Russia. Previous UN proposals regarding the future of Kosovo have been rejected by Russia, including the most recent, which did not call for immediate independence. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov [official website] had said that the latest resolution was substantially the same as earlier drafts and that it simply assumed an independence plan by UN Kosovo Envoy Martti Ahtisaari [official website] would go into effect if 120 days of additional negotiations failed to produce results. The EU ministers Monday avoided mention of independence but instead backed a "troika," joint oversight of diplomacy talks [Deutsche Presse report] between Serbia and Kosovo, backed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to determine Kosovo's status.

On Friday, the UN Security Council [official website] abandoned a resolution [JURIST report] on the independence plan out of concern that Russia would veto the proposal. Kosovar Prime Minister Agim Ceku [official website] has urged the international community to quickly adopt a UN-supervised independence plan for Kosovo, saying that the Kosovar people's desire for an identity should not be held "hostage" to the opposition. In April, Kosovo's parliament voted 100-1 to support a UN plan [JURIST reports] to establish an independent Kosovar state under UN supervision. Ceku said Friday that the UN negotiations had hit a dead-end and that the Kosovar parliament should adopt a resolution setting November 28 as a possible date for declaring the province's independence. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] European diplomats working for the release of six foreign medics [BBC Q&A: JURIST news archive] sentenced by Libya to life in prison [JURIST report] for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus said Monday that the Libyan government is seeking additional funds for the treatment of the survivors. The diplomats also said that the Libyan government wants closer ties with the European Union in exchange for their release. The EU is reportedly unwilling to agree to a compensation deal that suggests that the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor are guilty.

Last Tuesday, Libya's Supreme Judiciary Council commuted the death sentences [JURIST report] of the six medics when the families of the infected patients dropped calls for execution after each received $1 million in compensation [JURIST report]. In June, the Bulgarian government granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor [JURIST report] so that he will be included in any settlement along with the Bulgarian nurses. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) announced Monday that the Committee will meet on Wednesday to vote [press release] on whether to proceed with contempt of Congress [backgrounder; 2 USC Sec. 192] citations against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profiles] for their refusal to comply with subpoenas [JURIST report] issued in the congressional probe of the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive]. Conyers said the decision to move forward with contempt was a "reluctant but necessary" step to ensure that the executive branch will cooperate with congressional efforts to investigate alleged wrongdoing.

Miers, who was scheduled [press release] to appear before the committee on July 12, has repeatedly refused to testify [JURIST report], citing President George W. Bush's order that she not to cooperate with the investigation on the grounds of executive privilege [JURIST report]. Bolten has refused to turn over White House documents demanded by the Committee. Last Thursday, an anonymous White House official said that the administration will not allow the Department of Justice to pursue any contempt charges [JURIST report] brought against White House officials because it believes Congress cannot force the US Attorney for the District of Columbia [official website] to refer charges to a grand jury once the executive has invoked executive privilege. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] formally requested [press release] Monday that the government of the Netherlands consider hosting the ad hoc tribunal that will investigate and try suspects involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive]. In a letter to the Dutch government, Ban stressed that The Hague has valuable experience in hosting international tribunals as it is the site of other courts and tribunals including the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official websites].

The UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) [authorizing resolution; UN materials] is set to turn its investigation over to the tribunal after the IIIC's mandate expires in December. The tribunal, which was unilaterally established [JURIST report] by the UN Security Council in May, will be known as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. It will also investigate [JURIST report] and possibly try suspects in 17 other attempted or successful political assassinations in Lebanon. The UN News Centre has more.

[JURIST] Washington state's domestic partnership law [PDF text] entered into effect Monday, allowing same-sex couples over the age of 18 residing together to register with the state's domestic partnership registry. Registered same-sex couples will be afforded hospital visitation rights, inheritance rights, and the right to authorize medical decisions for one's partner. The registry will also allow heterosexual couples to register as domestic partners if one partner is over the age of 62, as a way to give legal recognition to couples deterred from marrying by possible repercussions on pensions and social security benefits.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed [press release; JURIST report] the legislation in April. Last June, Washington rewrote its Civil Rights Act [JURIST report] to include sexual orientation amongst the classes of characteristics protected from housing, lending, and employment discrimination. AP has more.

[JURIST] Philippine President Gloria Arroyo [official website; BBC profile] Monday urged lawmakers from both houses of Congress to pass legislation to curb extrajudicial killings and disappearances [transcript], adding that the Philippines must also move forward with electoral reform, such as computerized ballot counting, and impose harsher penalties for election violence. Speaking before Congress during her annual "State of the Nation Address," Arroyo said:

We fight terrorism. It threatens our sovereign, democratic, compassionate and decent way of life. Therefore, in the fight against lawless violence, we must uphold these values. It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror.

I ask Congress...I urge you to enact laws to transform state response to political violence: First, laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers. Second, laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special courts. Third, laws to impose harsher penalties for political killings. Fourth, laws reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust and bring shame to the greater number of their colleagues who are patriotic.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] said Monday that he will stay at the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] to improve its damaged image. In prepared testimony [text] released Monday, Gonzales said that he feels "very strongly" that political considerations should not affect the hiring of US Attorneys and reiterated that the DOJ has an ongoing internal investigation of whether political factors affected US Attorney firings [JURIST report]. Gonzales did not address the apparent discrepancy [JURIST report] between his assertion that he did not speak with anyone involved in the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive] and former DOJ aide Monica Goodling's May 23 testimony [JURIST report] that Gonzales "recounted to [Goodling] his recollections of the process leading up to and including" the firings during a meeting in March. Gonzales is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Tuesday.

Last Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] took the unusual step of sending Gonzales a letter listing 12 written questions [PDF text; JURIST report] that Leahy hopes Gonzales will be prepared to answer during the Tuesday hearing. The committee is also expected to question Gonzales over allegations that he received reports that the FBI had broke privacy laws [JURIST report] prior to testifying before Congress that "there has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" in 2005. AP has more.

[JURIST] Foreign ministers of EU member states began formal negotiations on the proposed Reform Treaty [materials, in French] Monday. Foreign ministers convened the 2007 Intergovernmental Conference [official website; conference agenda, PDF] in Brussels, circulating drafts of the proposed treaty so that the respective states' legal experts can meet Tuesday and Wednesday to begin preliminary negotiations to finalize the details of the landmark agreement [JURIST report; press release] reached between EU members in June. Portugal, which took over the EU Presidency [official website] on July 1, is hoping to complete the negotiation process by October [JURIST report], so that member states can sign the treaty at a December summit and complete the ratification process before the June 2009 European parliamentary elections.

The reform treaty, essentially a cut-down version of the stalled European constitution [JURIST news archive], has generated much debate between EU members. In June, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official profile] sought to reopen debate on the proposal by insisting a different interpretation [JURIST report] of the reform agreement reached by EU leaders, which could derail the process. In early June, the UK government also insisted on four-non-negotiable "red lines" [JURIST report], objecting in particular to any incorporation of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights [European Parliament materials]. EUobserver has more.

[JURIST] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Sunday reassured Venezuelans that any future socialist constitutional reforms will protect private property rights, dispelling what Chavez called "dogmatic" allegations by critics that the impending constitutional reforms will negate private property rights. Chavez, who is expected to submit his proposals in the upcoming weeks to the National Assembly [official website, in Spanish], also said Sunday that foreign nationals who publicly criticize Chavez or the Venezuelan government will be expelled [AP report; Union Radio report, in Spanish].

Chavez, who won reelection last December and was granted the power to enact laws by presidential decree [JURIST report] until mid-2008, is pushing for "revolutionary laws" to nationalize sectors of the economy including mining, telecommunications, utilities, and the petroleum industry. Chavez is also reportedly seeking to abolish presidential term limits in the constitution [text], allowing him to run for an unprecedented forth term in 2012. Xinhua has more.

[JURIST] US Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) [official website] Sunday announced his intention to introduce two censure resolutions [press release] against President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and other administration officials, saying that the formal condemnation is necessary because of the administration's conduct "before and during the Iraq war, and for undermining the rule of law at home." One of the censure resolutions will focus on the administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program, its "extreme policies on torture, the Geneva conventions" and detention at Guantanamo Bay, and also the administration's refusal to "recognize legitimate congressional oversight" into the controversial firings of US Attorneys [JURIST news archives]. Feingold said the other censure resolution will focus on the administration's handling of Iraq, which Feingold claims has overstretched the US armed forces in a conflict falsely justified by overstated claims of Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and links with terrorism. Feingold also said the administration continues to repeatedly distort the situation on the ground to justify the US' continued military presence, and has failed to adequately plan for the occupation problems that the intelligence community had predicted.

Last March, Feingold introduced [JURIST report] a censure resolution against President Bush for his approval of the NSA surveillance program, which received lukewarm reception [JURIST report] from congressional Democrats. The proposal failed to proceed further than a hearing [materials; JURIST report] in the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell [official profile] insisted Sunday that the "United States does not engage in torture" [transcript; recorded video], but refused to elaborate on the specific methods used during enhanced interrogations of terror suspects. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," McConnell said that revealing the specific measures would aid those who want to resist the measures:

I would rather not be specific on eliminating exactly what the techniques are with regard to any, any specific. When I was in a situation where I had to sign off, as a member of the process, my name to this executive order, I sat down with those who had been trained to do it, the doctors who monitor it, understanding that no one is subjected to torture. They're, they're treated in a way that they have adequate diet, not exposed to heat or cold. They're not abused in any way. But I did understand, when exposed to the techniques, how they work and why they work, all under medical supervision. And one of the things that's very important, I think, for the American public to know, in the history of this program, it's been fewer than 100 people. And so this, this is a program where we capture someone known to be a terrorist, we need information that they possess, and it has saved countless lives. Because, because they believe these techniques might involve torture and they don't understand them, they tend to speak to us, talk to us in very—a very candid way. ...

Let me just leave it by saying the, the techniques work, it's not torture. They're not subjected to heat or cold, but it is effective. And it's a psychological approach to causing someone to have uncertainty and in a situation where they will feel compelled to talk to you about what you're asking about. ...

I would not want a U.S. citizen to go through the process, but it is not torture, and there would be no permanent damage to that citizen.

[JURIST] Bangkok police spokesperson Supisarn Bhakdinaruenart said Monday that six anti-coup protesters involved in Sunday's clash with police [AP report] have been charged with disturbing the peace, injuring police, and destroying government property. The clash erupted after approximately 5,000 protesters, consisting of supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile] and anti-coup activists, were prevented from marching to the home of Prem Tinsulanonda [official website], a retired army general who was allegedly involved in planning last September's coup [JURIST report].

The anti-coup protesters also voiced their opposition to the interim-government's proposed draft constitution [JURIST report], which is scheduled for a general referendum on August 19. Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont [official profile; BBC profile] has ordered government officials to promote support for the draft [Bangkok Post report], and the National Legislative Assembly [Wikipedia backgrounder] is expected to pass legislation later this month to penalize opposition to the referendum. If the draft constitution is rejected by popular referendum, military leaders are authorized under the interim constitution to revise an earlier constitution. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev on Monday criticized evidence provided by the United Kingdom to support the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy [JURIST news archive] for the poisoning-murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko [BBC profile; BBC timeline], saying that the materials gave no evidence that the UK conducted an objective investigation of Litvinenko's death. Meanwhile, in an interview [transcript] published Monday by Interfax and the Kommersant [media websites], UK Ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton urged Russian authorities to interpret the Russian constitution in "light of the circumstances" and rejected assertions by the Russian Foreign Ministry that the UK was hypocritical in its demand for Lugovoy's extradition while simultaneously refusing to extradite Russian billionaire and alleged coup plotter Boris Berezovsky [JURIST news archive]. Brenton said that the "British Government cannot just 'decide' to extradite anyone," and that independent British courts make extradition determinations based upon evidence submitted by Russian authorities.

Russia has repeatedly rebuffed UK requests to extradite Lugovoy, saying that to do so would violate the Russian constitution [MFA statement; JURIST report], which prohibits extraditing citizens for crimes allegedly committed abroad. Last Monday, the UK expelled four Russian diplomats [press release; JURIST report], blaming Russia's "failure to cooperate to find a solution" to the two countries' differences. Russia responded by expelling four British diplomats [MFA press release; JURIST report]. AP has more.