[JURIST] A Buddhist monk was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in Myanmar during a visit by UN High Representative for Human Rights Tomas Ojea Quintana [official profile], an opposition lawyer confirmed Saturday. Gaw Thita was convicted [AP report] Wednesday by a special court in Insein Prison [BBC profile] for violating immigration laws in relation to a trip he took to Taiwan, unlawful association, and for failing to declare foreign currency, according to Aung Thein, a former lawyer for the National League for Democracy (NLD) [advocacy website]. Thita was arrested [AFP report] at Yangon International Airport in August along with seven other monks who were later released without charge. According to Thein, Thita had a valid passport and had not committed any immigration violations. Thita's conviction followed those of four dissidents on Monday, coinciding with the commencement of Quintana's five day visit to the country to assess the human rights situation before the planned 2010 general election [BBC report]. At a press conference [transcript, PDF] at the conclusion of his visit, Quintana expressed great disappointment:

Despite anticipation of landmark elections this year, I have not received any indication that the military government is willing to release all prisoners of conscience. ... Without full participation of the people including the 2,200 prisoners of conscience and the environment that allows the parties to engage in a full range of electoral activities, the elections ... will not be credible.

[JURIST] Saudi Justice Minister Mohammed al-Eissa [ministry website, in Arabic] announced Saturday that women will be allowed to argue cases in court under a new law that his department is drafting. The law is expected to be issued in the near future and would allow female lawyers to represent [Arab News report] other women in cases related to family law, such as child custody, marriage, and divorce. The new law would also allow women to perform other legal functions without presenting witnesses, such as preliminary procedures with notaries, authorizing corporate contracts, registering properties, and mortgaging real estate. Eissa described the new law as part of an ongoing judicial reform undertaken by King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz [BBC profile] aimed at developing the legal system, which would also lead to the creation of specialized family courts for women to practice in. Currently, female lawyers are not allowed to practice [Al Jazeera report] before the Saudi judiciary, which is comprised solely of male religious clerics. The Saudi legal system [GlobalLex overview] is based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law, which enforces gender separation. Under this system, female lawyers work in designated sections of law and governmental offices designed to eliminate their interactions with the opposite sex.

Eissa was appointed [CEIP report] as justice minister last February as part of a larger government reorganization undertaken by Abdullah, which included the replacement of the heads of the education, health, and culture and media ministries, and saw the appointment of the first female deputy minister of women's education. In October 2007, Abdullah enacted a wide-ranging judicial reform bill [BBC report], creating new supreme, appeals, and general courts. The judicial reform also allocated two billion dollars to the construction of new court houses and the training of judges, who, before the reform, had wide latitude to rule according to their own interpretations of Islamic law and resisted the codification of laws or the idea of being bound by precedent. These reforms come after significant reforms of women's political rights in neighboring Kuwait, which has resulted in the enfranchisement of women in 2005, the appointment [JURIST reports] of Kuwaiti women to public office a month later, and the election [BBC report] of four women to the Kuwait National Assembly [official website, in Arabic] last June.

[JURIST] Oklahoma state court judge Daniel Owens ruled [press release; docket] Friday that a state law [HB 1595, PDF], making it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion based on the gender of a fetus and requiring numerous reporting requirements, violates the Oklahoma Constitution [text]. Owens found that the law, called the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act, violated the constitutional requirement that a law cover only a single subject. Provisions of the law banned doctors from performing an abortion based on a women's desire for a baby of a specific sex, required doctors to ask a series of more than 35 questions inquiring into a woman's relationships and reasons for wanting an abortion, and set up a website that would have displayed demographics based on the information gathered. The law allowed for criminal charges against doctors who failed to report the information. Oklahoma legislators have said [Oklahoman report] they will work around the ruling by passing separate bills to cover each subject of the invalidated law.

The law was challenged [petition, PDF] last year by the Center for Reproductive Rights [advocacy website] on behalf of two Oklahoma residents. In August a different state law [SB 1878, DOC] requiring women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound within an hour of the procedure was found to be unconstitutional [JURIST report]. That legislation was declared to be invalid based on the same single subject requirement. Provisions of that law also included requirements for abortion clinic signs, the administration of an early-term abortion pill, and rules on lawsuits relating to abortions. That ruling has been appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court [official website].

[JURIST] Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website, in Ukrainian] on Saturday withdrew [press release, in Ukrainian] her lawsuit [JURIST report] filed in the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine claiming that the country's presidential election was corrupt. Tymoshenko dropped the suit claiming she would not receive a fair hearing in the court. She had alleged [Guardian report] that widespread voter fraud allowed her opponent, Viktor Yanukovych [personal website, in Ukrainian], to win the election. The prime minister's allegations of unfairness came after the court refused to consider certain documentary evidence and to call witnesses from the various district and precinct election commissions. Despite dropping her legal challenge, Tymoshenko has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy [BBC report] of Yanukovych's election and has refused his calls for her to step down.

Tymoshenko appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine after an initial fraud appeal to the Ukrainian Central Election Committee [official website, in Ukrainian] was rejected. Tymoshenko had called for the hearing be televised, a request the court refused, as a way of ensuring that the Ukrainian people know the truth. Many believed Tymoshenko had little chance for success. Western leaders, including US President Barack Obama, have already acknowledged [Day report] Yanukovych as the winner and even many of Tymoshenko supporters have questioned her motivation for the lawsuit.