[JURIST] US Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern [appointment release] said Sunday that the country was committed to the creation of an international treaty designed to combat global warming [recorded video, RealPlayer], but that such efforts would only succeed if they were economically feasible. Stern made the comments during the opening of a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) [official website] meeting [materials] in Bonn, Germany. He said that the US would make substantial cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions, but that it was impractical for the country to meet earlier UNFCCC targets [press release] which called for industrial countries to reduce emissions to 60-75% of 1990 levels by 2020. In his own opening remarks [video, RM], UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer [official profile], called for both industrialized and developing countries to either cut or slow the increase of emissions, but said that developing countries would likely need financial support in making their cuts. The US on Saturday announced that it would be holding additional climate change talks [press release] with the 17 countries with the largest economies in April.

The purpose of the UNFCCC meeting is to advance the negotiation of a new international agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol [text; JURIST news archive]. Participating countries hope to finalize the agreement in December, and the agenda [press release, PDF; JURIST report] for the meeting was set last May in Bangkok. General guidelines for the talks were established in the 2007 Bali Roadmap [PDF text; JURIST report] negotiated in Bali, Indonesia. The new deal is expected to enter into force by 2013, following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

[JURIST] Former US State Department (DOS) [official website] lawyer Vijay Padmanabhan [faculty profile] criticized the administration of former president George W. Bush for approving the use of extreme interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects, in an interview [AP report] with the Associated Press reported Friday. Padmanabhan, who now teaches at Cardozo School of Law in New York, served as the DOS's chief counsel on Guantanamo Bay and Iraq [JURIST news archive] detentions, and said that he believed the interrogation tactics used against some detainees constituted torture. He said the Bush administration was wrong to argue that the detainees were not protected by Geneva Convention [materials] rights, and that the tactics were an overreaction to the 9/11 attacks against the US.

Earlier this month, excerpts from a previously-undisclosed report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] characterizing tactics used against terrorism suspects at Guantanamo as torture [text; JURIST report] were published in the New York Review of Books. Also this month, former Colin Powell [JURIST news archive] aide Lawrence Wilkerson criticized the Bush administration for arbitrarily detaining innocent civilians at the base [Washington Notes blog post; JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Israeli Cabinet voted in a meeting [minutes] Sunday to deny Hamas [JURIST news archive] prisoners privileges not required by law, such as education, entertainment and some visitation. The move, recommended by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann [official profile; JURIST news archive], is intended to pressure Hamas [Haaretz report] into releasing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit [BBC Q&A; JURIST news archive], who was captured in Gaza in 2006. The new policy [Arutz Sheva report] will place strict limits on family visits and money transfers, as well as remove opportunities for prisoners to take high school and university classes. The new rules were among the recommendations of a commission established by Friedmann after talks for the release of Shalit failed earlier this month. Freidmann said prisoners will continue to receive visits from the Red Cross [organization website], unlike Shalit, who has been denied them since his capture. The Israel Prison Service [official website, in Hebrew] has already begun to act [AFP report] on the recommendations of the commission.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces arrested 12 Hamas leaders [JURIST report] during raids in the West Bank after Israel and Hamas failed to reach an agreement on a prisoner exchange involving Shalit. Soon after Shalit's capture, Israel seized Hamas leaders [JURIST report] including Palestinian Cabinet ministers and lawmakers. Prisoner exchange negotiations between Israel and Hamas have failed before, although Egypt has been attempting to mediate [JURIST reports] such negotiations since 2006.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called Sunday for the US and Yemen [JURIST news archive] to agree on a repatriation plan that provides "meaningful legal process" for the nearly 100 Yemeni detainees still at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. A new HRW report [PDF; press release] criticized any proposal involving indefinite suspension at a Yemeni facility and expressed fears of detainee mistreatment after repatriation. The organization called for genuine rehabilitation efforts, questioning a Yemeni proposal in which detainees could be held for more than a year and face movement restrictions after release. The report called on Yemen to comply with the UN Convention against Torture [text] and commit to fair trials for any detainees who are charged. HRW's fears of detainee mistreatment are based in part on its follow-up with the 14 Yemeni detainees who have already been repatriated. One said he was beaten by investigators during his two-year detention. The report asked the US to refrain from pressuring Yemen to hold detainees without charges and called for a truth commission [JURIST news archive] to investigate alleged abuse of detainees. Any detainee who cannot return to Yemen due to a credible fear of persecution should be resettled in a safe third country, the report said.

In January, US President Barack Obama [official profile] issued an executive order [text; JURIST report] directing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within one year. In July 2008, Yemeni officials met with a visiting US delegation [JURIST report] to discuss the possible transfer of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, with the US voicing concerns that they would be freed upon their return. In October 2007, US officials criticized [JURIST report] the Yemeni government over reports that it had released suspected USS Cole bomber Jamal al-Badawi [GlobalSecurity profile] after he turned himself in. In May 2007, a senior Yemeni official said the country had agreed [JURIST report] to receive most Yemeni detainees being held at Guantanamo. In June 2006, Yemeni officials called for investigations into the Guantanamo suicides of three detainees [JURIST reports], including one Yemeni national, saying that the deaths exemplified the "inhumane conditions of detainees" at the US military prison.