Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno (R) , a supporter of statehood, signed legislation establishing a two-part referendum on Wednesday that would allow Puerto Ricans to voice their opinions regarding Puerto Rico’s political status and connection to the US. The referendum would be held on November 6, 2012. The first part of the referendum asks whether [...]

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued a report on Wednesday strongly criticizing the human rights record of a number of countries including the United States. Twenty pages of the 90-page report focus on the United States , and list a number of practices and conditions that the MFA views as violations of basic [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Nathan Crombie, Columbia Law School Class of 2012, is currently researching the influence of international human rights law on same-sex marriage. Here he argues that international law should influence the Ninth Circuit’s ruling on same-sex marriage… The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is currently considering the constitutionality of Proposition [...]

Philippine authorities filed a second criminal complaint against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo , the former Philippine president who has been under hospital arrest for previous charges of corruption and electoral fraud. The second complaint alleges that Arroyo approved a $329-million national broadband network deal with the Chinese company ZTE Corporation in return for millions of dollars in [...]

The Obama administration, arguing as amicus curiae in Perry, et al. v. Perez, et al., pressed the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject a redistricting map drawn by the Texas legislature which was not cleared pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) . In its stead, the administration argued, the interim [...]

Navy rear Adm. David Woods , commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, has proposed a new rule that would require military officials to review all legal correspondence between lawyers and the detainees accused of involvement in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks , the AP reported Tuesday. The new rules would require all correspondence [...]

An Egyptian court on Wednesday resumed the trial of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak after a month-long adjournment. The trial was adjourned in October in order to allow the court time to rule on a motion made by lawyers representing the victims’ families to have the three judge panel in the case removed. Lawyers for [...]

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Human Rights Section of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) issued two reports on Tuesday detailing activities such as torture and unlawful killings allegedly carried out by Haitian National Police (HNP) , and urged Haitian leaders in investigate and prosecute those [...]

The US has extradited Rasema Handanovic, a woman accused of killing Bosnian Croat civilians during the 1992-1995 Bosnian Civil War , according to US officials Tuesday. Handanovic, along with Edin Dzeko who was extradited last week, served in a unit of the Bosnian Army that attacked a village in Trusina on April 16, 1993, resulting [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Alaska on Tuesday dismissed the petition of federal prosecutors, finding that British Petroleum (BP) was not negligent in a 2009 oil spill. Because the spill, which released 13,500 gallons of oil onto the North Slope of Alaska, was not a result of BP’s negligence, [...]