[JURIST] Former Cambodian Foreign Minister Ieng Sary [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive] is set to appeal his provisional detention in a June 30 open hearing to be broadcast on radio and TV stations, according to documents [scheduling order, PDF; hearing invitation, PDF] released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who served as minister for social affairs, were arrested [PDF press release; JURIST report] in November 2007 and charged [JURIST report] with crimes against humanity and war crimes for breaches of the Geneva Conventions [text] based on their role in the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] communist regime of the 1970s. Sary and his wife have cited health concerns in their appeals against detention orders. Sary has been hospitalized twice [JURIST report] so far this year.

Sary was pardoned in 1996 [NYT report] by King Norodom Sihanouk, but in a response [PDF text] to the hearing by the civil party in the case, the pardon was said to violate international law, and is non-binding on the ECCC, which was established by in 2001 to investigate and try surviving Khmer Rouge officials. According to published proceedings [PDF text], Sary is punishable under articles 5, 6, 29, and 39 of the Law on the Establishment of the ECCC [text]. The Khmer Rouge is generally held responsible for the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians [PPU backgrounder] who died between 1975 and 1979. To date, no top Khmer Rouge officials have faced trial. Sary and Thirith are two of five former Khmer Rouge leaders in the custody of the court.

[JURIST] The Afghan juvenile justice system is in serious need of reform, according to a study [PDF] conducted by the Afghan Independent Human Right Commission (AIHRC) [official website] in collaboration with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) [official website]. The report, released on Thursday, says that child detainees in Afghanistan face ongoing rights violations and are deprived of access to education, legal services, and health care. One of the worst problems in the country’s juvenile justice system is reportedly its inability to ensure due process:

Only 8% of juveniles were explained their rights upon arrest. 56% of respondents reported that they had not given their statement voluntarily, while only 38% of juveniles had seen ‘their’ statement. In detention only 23% of respondents had access to a lawyer (17% of males and 62% of females) while in court this increased to only 38% of juveniles having a defence lawyer. In relation to their status as juveniles, only 7% were presented before a children’s court, while only 8% of children had a parent, guardian or social worker present when their statement was taken, and only 43% had a parent or guardian present during the trial.

[JURIST] US firearm ownership advocacy groups filed lawsuits in Chicago and San Francisco [court documents] late this week seeking to overturn laws which ban handguns within the cities. The lawsuits were filed within a day of the US Supreme Court decision [JURIST report] in District of Columbia v. Heller [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST report], in which the Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment [text] to the US Constitution prohibits the District of Columbia ban on private handgun ownership. Four residents of Chicago joined by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) [advocacy website] and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) [official website] filed suit against the City of Chicago and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley [official website] in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking to overturn the citywide handgun ban [municipal code text]. SAF's founder, Alan Gottlieb, said in a statement [press release] "Chicago’s handgun ban has failed to stop violent crime. It’s time to give the Constitution a chance." The National Rifle Association (NRA) [advocacy website] filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking a ruling against the city's ban on handguns in public housing. The lawsuit was joined by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) [advocacy website] and a resident of one of San Francisco's housing projects. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom [official website] said in a recent press release [text] that despite the Supreme Court decision, the laws will be upheld. AP has more.

The Supreme Court ruling was the first that directly addressed the Second Amendment since 1939's US v. Miller [case materials]. In September 2007, Washington DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and DC Attorney General Linda Singer [official profiles] formally appealed a March 2007 federal court ruling which invalidated the District of Columbia's handgun ban [JURIST reports]. The decision affirms the March DC Circuit holding [opinion, PDF] that the city's 30-year-old ban on private possession of handguns was unconstitutionally broad.

[JURIST] A proposal by the Italian government [JURIST news archive] to fingerprint the country’s Roma minority drew fierce criticism from the human rights community and Roma advocates [European Roma Rights Centre website] on Friday. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni [OECD profile] announced plans on Thursday to fingerprint thousands of Roma children, saying that the process would help to reduce street begging and keep children in school. The plan would also involve fingerprinting all adult Roma, and was immediately criticized by officials as a method of "ethnic screening." Vincenzo Spadafora, head of UNICEF in Italy [official website], said UNICEF was "deeply concerned" by the proposal, commenting that "[i]f this is being brought in to protect the rights of Roma children, Italian children should also be fingerprinted to protect them as well.” Amos Luzzarto, the former president of Italy's Union of Jewish Communities [official website, in Italian], condemned the plan as a form of "ethnic surveying,” stating that “[t]he racism of this initiative is evident and unacceptable.” Reuters has more.

In November 2005, the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) [advocacy website] reported that Roma minorities are the ethnic group most susceptible to racism in the European Union [JURIST report]. Two years later, in November 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled [opinion text] rejected the educational separation of Roma children in the Czech Republic, holding that the practice amounted to racial discrimination and violated principles of human rights.