The UK Parliament voted 483-111 Monday against holding a national referendum on remaining a member of the European Union (EU) . The referendum would have put forward three options to the public for a vote: to remain in the EU, to leave the EU or to re-negotiate membership terms. Motion for debate on the topic [...]

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Monday urging member states to make piracy a crime and establish anti-piracy courts because of the rise in maritime piracy crime off the coast of Somalia. The request was due in part to the recent conclusion by the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center that despite increased [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Monday temporarily blocked a new Florida law that had required welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits. Judge Mary Scriven said that the law might violate applicants’ Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizures. She concluded: mposing [...]

Manssor Arbabsiar pleaded not guilty in a New York district court on Monday to charges stemming from his role in the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir , Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, on US soil. Arbabsiar, a US citizen, is alleged to have participated in a $1.5 million plot hire a Mexican [...]

Tunisia conducted its first free elections Sunday, with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay emphasizing the importance of adherence to the rule of law as the country moves forward. The election for the new constituent assembly was a success with a turnout rate of over 90 percent, according to the official results . [...]

An Australian citizen has filed two counts of war crimes charges against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for abuses that he allegedly witnessed in 2007 and 2008 as the Sri Lankan civil war drew to a close. Jegen Warran claims to have witnessed intentional attacks by Sri Lankan military forces against civilian targets including a [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) to investigate the apparent “mass execution” of 53 Muammar Gaddafi supporters whose bodies were discovered at an abandoned hotel in an area of Sirte that was under anti-Gaddafi control. HRW emergencies director Peter Bouckaert called on the NTC to immediately investigate and hold [...]

Antonio Cassese , a renowned Italian international war crimes expert and key figure in the establishment of two international criminal tribunals, died Saturday in Florence, Italy, at the age of 74. Cassese was the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the first President of the UN Special Tribunal [...]

Defense lawyers for Nuon Chea , a former leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime filed a lawsuit Monday against Prime Minister Hun Sen for interfering with the UN-backed war crimes tribunal. Chea’s lawyers accused the prime minister of criminally conspiring to block some of the defense witnesses from testifying and consequently interfering with Chea’s right [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Gabriela Knaul called Friday for integration of a gender perspective into countries’ criminal justice systems. The annual report “addresses the need to consider and integrate a gender perspective in the criminal justice system as a fundamental step towards allowing equal access to justice for [...]