[JURIST] Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) [advocacy website] released a report [PDF text; press release] Wednesday criticizing the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights [official website] for its failure to effectively institute a court to adjudicate human rights issues on the continent. MRGI said the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights [AICT backgrounder] has not yet begun to hear cases despite its establishment 10 years ago, attributing the delay to disputes between the court and the commission and a lack of strong support from African Union (AU) [official website] countries. According to the report,

[t]here is no doubt about the scale of the needs. In the time that has elapsed, countless human rights violations have taken place on the African continent, with minorities and indigenous peoples particularly affected. As some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities on the continent, minority and indigenous people experience multiple human rights violations on a daily basis. Yet, due to their marginalized position, states are often indifferent to their plight. A strong legal mechanism is therefore essential if the rights of Africa’s minorities and indigenous peoples are to be realised. [sic]

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Council completed its ninth session [UNHRC materials; UNOG report] in Geneva Wednesday by adopting 24 texts, one of which included a decision [press release; UN News Centre report] to extend the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, Sina Samar [official website], until June 2009. The President of the Council, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibi, said that the decision was reached through sponsorship by both the EU and the African Group. Uhomoibi added praise for the work of both sides in renewing the mandate, saying that the resolution

gives room and recognition to some of the positive steps that the Sudanese Government has taken. The idea is not to be punitive. The idea is to encourage. It is meant to do what is needed in the interest of human rights and the rights of all citizens.

[JURIST] A US military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] filed a declaration with the US military commissions [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] Wednesday stating that he is resigning because of ethical concerns. Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld said potentially exculpatory evidence had been withheld from defense attorneys for Afghan detainee Mohammed Jawad [DOD materials; JURIST news archive], who is accused [JURIST report] of throwing a grenade at US soldiers and an interpreter. As quoted in media reports, Vandeveld wrote in the sworn statement:

My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery. I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain "procedure" for affording defense counsel discovery.

[JURIST] The Iraqi Parliament [official website, in Arabic] on Wednesday approved a controversial bill providing for provincial elections in much of the country. Kurdish legislators had strongly opposed a provision establishing a provincial council in Kirkuk [GlobalSecurity.org backgrounder] made up of equal numbers of Kurdish, Arab and Turkmenian representatives. After several failures [JURIST report], the parliament accepted a UN-proposed compromise [White House press release] allowing elections in the rest of the country to proceed, as former opponents of the plan said they were confident an agreement could be reached to carry out elections in Kirkuk. The legislation is expected to be approved by the three-member Presidency Council, allowing for elections by January. Earlier this month, Iraqi lawmakers agreed to temporarily divide control of Kirkuk [JURIST report] among the city's ethnic groups until a permanent governing plan is established. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In July, Kurdish parliamentarians staged a walkout [JURIST report], delaying a vote on the proposed provincial election bill that they said was unconstitutional. The bill passed despite the boycott, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [official website, in Arabic; party profile] and the two other members of the Iraqi Presidency Council later refused to sign it [JURIST report] because it had been passed by an incomplete parliament. In February, Iraq's Presidency Council rejected an earlier draft elections law [JURIST report] that detailed the relationship between Iraq's central and local governments, sending the legislation back to parliament. The draft law was part of a package of legislation, approved [JURIST report] by the parliament earlier that month, that also included the 2008 budget and an amnesty bill [JURIST report] allowing the release of roughly 5,000 prisoners.

[JURIST] Jury selection began Wednesday in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website] for the torture trial of Charles McArthur Emmanuel [JURIST news archive], son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Earlier this month, Emmanuel pleaded [JURIST report] not guilty after he was indicted [JURIST report] in December on charges that he was involved with killings and torture in Liberia. Emmanuel, a US citizen raised in Boston, was the first person indicted under a 1994 federal anti-torture statute [18 USC 2340A text]. The eight-count indictment [PDF text; DOJ press release] accused Emmanuel of using electric shocks, lit cigarettes, stinging ants, molten plastic and bayonets to torture victims from 1999 to 2002. More specifically, he was accused of shooting three random victims at a April 1999 bridge checkpoint and then ordering another's throat slit after he attempted to escape. AP has more. The Miami Herald has local coverage.

In July, US District Judge Cecilia Altonaga upheld [JURIST report] the torture charges, rejecting Emmanuel's argument that the federal statute under which he was charged exceeds Congressional authority because it criminalizes behavior of foreign government officials outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Last December, a federal judge denied bail [JURIST report] for Emmanuel, ruling that he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

[JURIST] Thirteen state attorneys general urged the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [official website] Wednesday to withdraw a proposed rule [PDF text] that they said could threaten women's access to abortion [JURIST news archive] and birth control. The Provider Conscience Regulation, published [HHS press release] last month, is intended to reinforce federal statutes [CRS backgrounder, PDF] protecting healthcare providers who refuse to take part in abortions or other healthcare services on moral or religious grounds. Specifically, the proposed rule would require certain recipients of HHS funds to certify compliance with the conscience requirements and would strengthen mechanisms for enforcing them. In their formal comments [press release and text] filed with HHS, the attorneys general wrote:

Health care institutions should not be penalized and stripped of vital federal funding for ensuring that victims of rape and other sexual assault are provided prompt and adequate birth control and other medically necessary health care services. Vagueness and broad application, together with the penalty of withdrawal of critical federal health care funding to a health care entity that violates - even inadvertently - the proposed regulation may have substantial and significant consequences for the provision of health care to many Americans.

The proposed regulation completely obliterates the rights of patients to legal and medically necessary health care services in favor of a single-minded focus on protecting a health care provider's right to claim a personal moral or religious belief. [sic]

[JURIST] The Thailand Court of Appeals ruled against former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Thursday, upholding defamation convictions against him and an associate, Dusit Siriwan. The charges stem from a 2006 television appearance in which both men allegedly insinuated that former Bangkok deputy governor Samart Rajpolasidhi was involved in a vote-rigging scheme. Samak and Dusit were convicted of four counts of libel and sentenced to two years in prison. Samak was ousted [JURIST report] by the Constitutional Court of Thailand [official website, in Thai] earlier this month on charges that he violated the constitution when he accepted payment for his appearance on a television cooking program [SkyNews report, with video]. At trial, the court unanimously rejected Samak's defense that he received only an honorarium [Bloomberg report] as a freelance actor when he appeared on the show. AP has more. The Nation has local coverage.

Early this month, Samak imposed a state of emergency [press release] in Bangkok following weeks of anti-government protests. Members of the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) party refused to recognize the order as they demanded Samak's resignation. Samak resisted those calls and instead proposed a national referendum [JURIST report] on whether he should continue in office. PAD announced plans to seek Samak's impeachment [JURIST report] in July after a series of court decisions against key officials in the government and the PPP. Three weeks ago, Thailand's Election Commission voted to recommend [JURIST report] that the PPP be disbanded for election fraud allegedly committed by one of its former top officers.

[JURIST] Former Rwandan deputy state prosecutor Siméon Nchamihigo [TrialWatch profile] was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Nchamihigo was charged with four counts of genocide, murder, extermination, and other crimes against humanity. According to an amended indictment [text, PDF], Nchamihigo ordered an accomplice to kill a Tutsi victim by lighting a mattress on fire, and ordered the same person to kill a Tutsi family by lighting their car on fire. Other allegations, contained in the amended indictment and the original indictment [PDF text] filed in 2001, allege that Nchamihigo ordered the deaths of other Tutsis and drafted a list of opposition leaders to be murdered. After the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder], Nchamihigo worked as an investigator for the ICTR under an assumed name. BBC News has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In 2006, the ICTR settled [JURIST report] a dispute with the Rwandan government [JURIST report] over the hiring of employees having connections with the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder] by agreeing to run more background checks. Nchamihigo was taken into custody by court security staff in 2001 while working as an investigator [Dowjones report] for the legal team defending former Rwandan army officer Samuel Imanishimwe.

[JURIST] Congress passed legislation [H.R. 6983 text, PDF] Tuesday to reduce inequities in the insurance coverage of mental health and addiction treatment, bringing the insurance costs for such treatment in line with those of conventional medical procedures. The bill, known as the "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008," and often referred to as mental health parity legislation, passed in the Senate as part of a tax amendment bill by a vote of 93-2 [H.R. 6049 roll call vote] and in the House of Representatives by a vote of 376-47 [roll call vote]. The bill now heads to a joint committee for arrangement in a final form to be presented to President George W. Bush for signature. The legislation amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) [text] to provide that insurance and group health care plans that provide both medical and surgical benefits as well as mental health or substance abuse benefits ensure that:

the financial requirements applicable to such mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant financial requirements applied to substantially all medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan (or coverage), and there are no separate cost sharing requirements that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits; and ... the treatment limitations applicable to such mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant treatment limitations applied to substantially all medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan (or coverage) and there are no separate treatment limitations that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.