[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin [official website; JURIST news archive] has called for greater protection of individual rights and increased oversight of intelligence agencies in a report [text, PDF] to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website]. The report, obtained by AP, is critical of the weak supervision of intelligence agencies by national governments after the agencies were given increased power in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive]. Scheinin's report particularly criticizes joint counterterrorism operations organized by the United States, the presence of foreign intelligence agents [Washington Post report] during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, and the use of non-traditional and extra-statutory powers to arrest, detain, and interrogate terrorism suspects. Scheinin concludes:

The increased powers of intelligence services to conduct measures that seriously interfere with individuals’ rights, as well as the increasing relevance of intelligence for legal and administrative actions, make it essential that adequate accountability mechanisms are put in place to prevent human rights abuses. Under international human rights law, States are under a positive obligation to conduct independent investigations into alleged violations of the right to life, freedom from torture or other inhuman treatment, enforced disappearances or arbitrary detention, to bring to justice those responsible for such acts, and to provide reparations where they have participated in such violations. States retain this positive obligation to protect human rights where they grant privileges within their national territory to another State, including to intelligence services.

[JURIST] The Argentina Ministry of Defense (MOD) [official website, in Spanish] announced Friday the implementation of a new law containing provisions aimed at bringing the military and its justice system under increased civilian control. The legislation was signed into law last August. The law is seen by many [AP report] as a response to the return of democracy and the rise of independent political institutions following widespread human rights violations during the country's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, known as the "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Included in the law are provisions [MOD press release, in Spanish] that eliminate the death penalty, move trials against service members for offenses to civilian courts, and amend the military legal disciplinary system.

It is estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 people were forcibly kidnapped or "disappeared" during the military dictatorship's campaign against suspected dissidents. In 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court struck down amnesty laws [JURIST report] adopted in the 1980s to protect potential defendants, prompting the government to reopen hundreds of human rights cases. In July, an Argentine court sentenced former general Luciano Benjamin Menendez and four others to life in prison for the 1977 kidnapping, torture, and killing of four political dissidents during the "Dirty War," and in August, a court convicted Mendendez and another former general [JURIST reports] and sentenced them to life terms for kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Peronist politician Guillermo Vargas Aignasse in 1976 during the coup that brought the military to power.

[JURIST] China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (SCNPC) [official backgrounder], approved a new food safety law Saturday which will setup a commission to supervise the country's food monitoring system, according to state media reports. The law passed [China Daily report] by a vote of 158-7 and is to take effect June 1. It is intended to improve the monitoring system by implementing new national safety standards, recalling unsafe or inferior products, and provides strict punishment for those who violate the law. The law also includes provisions reducing the number of government agencies involved in food safety supervision [China Daily report], as this was a major point of criticism of the current system.

The new law follows a series of food scandals in China [JURIST news archive] over the last few years. News of milk powder contamination by the chemical melamine first broke in September [Guardian report], which lead to massive recalls [BBC report] of both liquid milk products and milk powders. The contaminated milk is believed to have caused [AP report] the deaths of at least six infants along with sickening about 300,000 others. In 2007 China came under fire after chemicals were found in toothpaste [NYT report], toys and seafood, and was generally blamed for toxins found in pet food [IHT report] that killed hundreds of dogs and cats in the US.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] Friday denied [opinion, PDF] an appeal by the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] seeking to stop a lawsuit [JURIST report] brought by an Islamic charity alleging it was the subject of an illegal wiretap by the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website]. The denial upholds last month's ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by US District Judge Vaughn Walker allowing the case brought by the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation [JURIST news archive] to go forward. At the heart of the appeal was the Obama administration's fight to keep a classified document, a call log which allegedly shows the foundation had been wiretapped, secret. The call log had been deemed a state secret [SourceWatch backgrounder; JURIST report] but Vaughn's decision had ordered the government to allow the foundation to view the document. The DOJ had argued that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would jeopardize national security. While the denial of the appeal [AP report] appears to grant al-Haramain's lawyers access, the DOJ argued in a filing [San Francisco Chronicle report] just hours after the appeals court ruling that the original order has no authority.

The document was accidentally released to Al-Haramain in 2004 during the DOJ's investigation which ultimately lead to the foundation being classified as a terrorist organization. The original lawsuit [JURIST report], filed by the foundation in February 2006, alleged that the NSA illegally taped several conversations between the charity and its lawyers. Walker had previously dismissed the suit [JURIST report], finding that Al-Haramain lacked a cause of action because the state secrets privilege [JURIST news archive] trumped procedural requirements under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive].