[JURIST] The UN-backed Global Migration Group (GMG) [official website] released a report [PDF text; UNFPA report] Friday asserting that nations have a duty to protect the human rights of migrants even while exercising their sovereign power because it increases their ability to contribute to the development of their destination countries. The report is intended to give countries guidance in designing a human rights-based migration policy by providing a comprehensive outline of existing definitions, the international legal framework, and illustrations of the problems faced by various migrant groups. The report is expected to be presented at the Global Forum on Migration and Development [official website] to be held this week in Manila. The UN News Centre has more.

Members of the GMG include UN organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) [official website] and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) [official website], along with groups like the International Labour Organization (ILO) [official website] and the World Bank [official website].

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Manfred Nowak [official website; JURIST news archive] said [statement, PDF] Friday that despite numerous international conventions banning torture and other abusive treatment, its use is still widespread around the world. Reporting [press release] to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the UN General Assembly, Nowak praised the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Convention Against Torture [texts] and other global and regional efforts to stem abuse, but said that the agreements alone had failed to improve conditions in numerous countries. Nowak said that the reliance of many criminal justice systems on confessions, combined with the isolation in which suspects are held creates conditions that promote and conceal abusive treatment. He also said that frequently the isolated, harsh conditions in which detainees are held themselves constitute inhuman treatment independent of any physical coercion, and that detainees with disabilities or that are held in solitary confinement are at greatest risk of mistreatment. Summarizing his findings, Nowak said in the statement:

...it is very unclear whether the scale on which torture and other forms of ill-treatment are committed worldwide has actually decreased. Based on my work as UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, including numerous fact finding missions and unannounced visits to places of detention, I unfortunately have observed time and again that detainees are among the most vulnerable and forgotten groups of human beings in most societies, that the general conditions of detention are all too often appalling, constituting themselves cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that torture is still a frequent or even standard practice in many countries of today’s world.

[JURIST] Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania [official website] on Friday dismissed [case materials] a lawsuit challenging the citizenship status and eligibility of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to become US president. The lawsuit [complaint, PDF], filed by Pennsylvania attorney Philip Berg, had alleged that Obama did not meet the constitutional requirement [LII backgrounder] of being a "natural born" US citizen, arguing that Obama had lost his citizenship as a child when his mother married an Indonesian man, and had failed to reclaim it upon becoming an adult. Berg also alleged that there was insufficient evidence that Obama had been born in the US, and challenged the veracity of his Hawaiian birth certificate [certificate image]. Surrick dismissed the case, finding that Berg lacked standing to bring the suit because he did not face direct harm even if the allegations were true. Berg has said that he plans to appeal [press release] the suit's dismissal. AP has more.

A similar court challenge was previously made to the citizenship of Obama's presidential rival, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), arguing [NYT report] that McCain did not qualify as a "natural born" US citizen because he was born at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, a military installation outside of US territory. US District Judge William Alsup dismissed that lawsuit [order, PDF] in September for lack of standing.