Many international jurisdictions are currently debating legislation that would ban full-face scarves and the burqa. UK Immigration Minister Damian Green [official profile] indicated Sunday that Britain's coalition government would not seek or support a British law banning [JURIST report] the wearing of the Islamic burqa [JURIST news archive] or other face coverings in public. Last Tuesday the French National Assembly [official website, in French] voted [JURIST report] to give police the authority to require women wearing the veils to show their face, and, if they refuse, they could be forced to attend citizenship classes or be charged a USD $185 fine. The proposed legislation would also make it a crime to force a woman to cover her face, with a penalty of one year in prison and a fine of USD $18,555. Similar legislation is also being considered in Belgium, where, in April, the Belgian House of Representatives voted to approve [JURIST report] a bill that would ban the burqa and other full-face veils in public.

The generally negative report comes despite continued efforts to streamline and oversee intelligence gathering and coordinate government agencies. In July 2008, former president George W. Bush [official profile] issued an executive order [JURIST report] giving the DNI the authority to coordinate information sharing between different US and foreign intelligence services and to make funding decisions for the various US agencies. Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 into law in December 2004, implementing a series of intelligence reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission [official website] and authorizing the broadest re-working of the US intelligence structure since President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947.

AI's report was released one week after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [case materials; JURIST news archive] was charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] with three counts of genocide [warrant, PDF; JURIST report] in relation to the Darfur conflict [BBC backgrounder]. The charges included "genocide by killing, genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm and genocide by deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction." They were issued after the Appeals Chamber reversed a prior decision [JURIST report] by the lower chamber denying the prosecutor's request for genocide charges. ICC prosecutors appealed the decision [JURIST report] not to charge al-Bashir with genocide in July 2009. Bashir has eluded arrest since the issuance of the first warrant. The warrant has been controversial, with Egypt, Sudan, the African Union and others calling for the proceedings against Bashir to be delayed, and African Union leaders agreeing [JURIST reports] not to cooperate with the warrant.

Last month, Florida Governor Charlie Crist [official website] vetoed [veto letter text, PDF; JURIST report] a bill [HB 1143 materials] that also would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound or listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure would be performed. Crist said that "personal views should not result in laws that unwisely expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary. In this case, such action would violate a woman's right to privacy." In May, Oklahoma lawmakers approved a bill [JURIST report] requiring women seeking an abortion to complete a questionnaire containing information on marital status, reason for seeking the abortion and whether the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. In April, the Oklahoma Senate voted to override a veto [JURIST report] of two anti-abortion bills, resulting in the bills immediately becoming law. The first bill [HB 2526 text, RTF] prevents "wrongful life" lawsuits in which parents seek damages for a child born with a birth defect because the mother was unable to obtain an abortion. The second bill is the one blocked by the court Monday.

The US-Swiss agreement was before the Swiss parliament due to a court ruling in January, when the Federal Administrative Court ruled [JURIST report] that an American taxpayer's financial information at UBS may not be disclosed to the IRS pursuant to an August 2009 agreement [JURIST report]. Also in January, the Federal Administrative Court ruled [JURIST report] that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority [official website, in German] violated the law in February 2009 when it ordered UBS to disclose information to the US on more than 250 of the bank's clients without the authority to do so. In September, the US and Switzerland signed a treaty [JURIST report] that would increase the amount of information shared between the two nations on would-be tax evaders. The agreement came one month after a Swiss banker and lawyer were indicted in US federal court [JURIST report] for helping clients hide assets. In March 2009, the Swiss announced their intention to adopt a more stringent definition [JURIST report] of tax evasion and to work with other countries to investigate such claims.

Hicks' 2001-06 detention was as a belligerent captured in war, not for a crime. This was and remains lawful under the Geneva Conventions - as was confirmed by the US Supreme Court in the June 2006 Hamdan ruling - and is not disputed by any serious international lawyer. ... [W]hether Hicks' later separate criminal trial, conviction and sentence by US Military Commission was justified in international law or not remains understandably controversial. But it does not change the factual and moral situations that if Hicks was to commit the same acts today as he has freely admitted doing in 2000-01 he would commit an offence against Australian law. Even ignoring Hicks' own admissions and boasts about voluntarily joining terrorist training camps, in moral terms [Hicks should] never have his name cleared of any terrorism links.

Hicks was released from prison in December 2007 after being transferred from Guantanamo to Australia [JURIST reports] in May of that year to serve the remainder of his sentence at a maximum security prison near his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. He was later made subject to a control order which was lifted [JURIST reports] in December 2008.

Federal authorities have indicated that the workload would continue to grow [AP report] if Arizona's new immigration enforcement law [SB 1070 materials; JURIST news archive] is implemented. The Arizona law criminalizes illegal immigration and requires police officers to question an individual's immigration status if the officer has a "reasonable suspicion" to believe an individual is in the country illegally. The constitutionality of the law has been widely disputed, and the legislation is now facing several lawsuits [JURIST report]. Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama called for comprehensive immigration reform [statement; JURIST report], noting the role of immigrants throughout US history and indicating that immigrants must continue to play a role as the country grows and develops. He acknowledged the continuing difficulty with securing the border but cited efforts made by the administration to improve enforcement of current laws, including increased numbers of enforcement agents.

Russia faces ongoing criticism from the international community regarding its human rights record. In October, the UN Human Rights Committee [official website] issued a report [text; JURIST report] criticizing Russia's record on human rights and calling on the country to take extensive legal reform in order to guarantee its citizens rights such as fair trials and freedoms of speech and of the press. Last June, the Council of Europe (COE) [official website] urged substantial reforms [JURIST report] to correct systemic problems in the Russian legal system, including the prevalence of political prosecutions and a lack of judicial independence. Medvedev has acknowledged the need for judicial reform [JURIST report], saying that transparent courts would restore faith in the justice system and prevent people from seeking redress in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website].

The ABA has long opposed initiatives such as S.B. 1070 that, by their plain language, can only be implemented by usurping the federal government's exclusive authority to make immigration law and set immigration policy. While the ABA believes ... that the federal immigration system must be reformed, and while the ABA appreciates Arizona's desire to tackle the problems faced by that state, the ABA also urges that our Constitution does not allow for unilateral state action in the formulation of immigration law. Immigration matters are and must remain federal, and states should not be permitted to enforce immigration law independently of specific federal authorization; the practical result of the contrary would be the undermining of uniformity in immigration law and immigration law enforcement.

Earlier this month, the ABA filed their first brief in support of a class-action lawsuit led by the ACLU, arguing that the law will increase the use of racial profiling, resulting in unlawful and unreasonable detentions and increase the burden on the state's indigent defense system. The ABA usually waits until a case reaches the appellate level to file an amicus curiae brief, but ABA President Carolyn Lamm [professional profile] said this case requires "extraordinary action." The ACLU filed the class action lawsuit [JURIST report] in May. Two week ago, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] filed suit seeking to permanently enjoin [JURIST report] the law from taking effect, arguing that the Constitution and federal law "do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country," and calling it counterproductive to national immigration policy. The suit was filed against the State of Arizona and Governor Jan Brewer (R) [official website], who signed the legislation into law [JURIST report] by in April.

The Israeli Knesset [official website, in Hebrew] approved the amnesty law in January. The amnesty measure, which passed by a vote of 51-9 [Haaretz report], does not extend immunity to people who committed acts that endangered human life, but rather mainly affects approximately 400 teenagers who were charged with committing minor criminal infractions. This is the third general amnesty measure issued by Israel. The first two were issued after the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1948 and 1967 [NPR backgrounders].

Camp Cropper, the last US-run detention facility in Iraq, and the 1,600 prisoners held there were transferred to the Iraqi government [BBC report] on Thursday. In March, the US military transferred Camp Taji prison [JURIST report] to Iraqi authorities. The US began to scale back its Iraq detention facilities in September when Camp Bucca [JURIST news archive] in southern Iraq was closed [JURIST report] pursuant to the Status of Forces Agreement [text, PDF]. According to the agreement, all US troops must be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011, and the US must release all prisoners or transfer them to the control of Iraqi authorities. The Iraqi government must have arrest warrants or detention orders to accept transferred prisoners into Iraqi facilities, otherwise risking release. A fourth US-run prison, Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive], was transferred back to Iraqi control [JURIST report] in 2006. The Iraqi government has recently faced criticism for its treatment of prisoners from Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. In April, the rights group claimed that Iraqi detainees were repeatedly tortured [JURIST report] in a secret prison in Baghdad.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere [official website, in German] announced earlier this month that Germany would accept two detainees from Guantanamo. The Obama administration had originally asked Germany to take up to 10 detainees [JURIST report] from the facility. De Maiziere emphasized at the time that Germany had informed the US it would not consider any further requests [DW report] to accept detainees. There are currently 181 detainees remaining at the Guantanamo facility. The Obama administration continues its push to close the Guantanamo Bay facility, despite missing its self-imposed one-year deadline [JURIST report] in January.

Abortion remains a controversial issue at both the state and federal levels. Last week, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Nebraska [official website] issued a preliminary injunction [order, PDF; JURIST report] preventing a new Nebraska abortion law [LB 594 materials] from being enforced. The law would require physicians to evaluate the mental health of the woman seeking the abortion and to inform the patient of all risk factors and complications [LB 594 text] statistically associated with the procedure. Last month, Florida Governor Charlie Crist [official website] vetoed a bill [JURIST report] that would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound or listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure would be performed. In May, Oklahoma lawmakers approved a bill [JURIST report] requiring women seeking an abortion to complete a questionnaire containing information on marital status, reason for seeking the abortion and whether the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. In April, the Nebraska legislature approved a bill prohibiting abortions at or past 20 weeks [JURIST report] on the theory that a fetus can allegedly feel pain following that point. Advocacy groups have criticized the laws and indicated they will challenge them in court.