The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on Tuesday filed an International Criminal Court (ICC) complaint against Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, for systematic sexual abuse and subsequent concealment of over 10,000 incidents. The group filed the complaint on behalf of clergy sex abuse survivors from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) [...]

The US Court of Military Commission Review on Friday ruled that Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul , media secretary of Osama bin Laden , was properly convicted of being a propagandist and should spend the rest of this life in prison. The 7-0 vote rejects the 2009 appeal of his conviction and life sentence [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Monday heard arguments over whether state courts can consider international law—and in particular, Sharia law—in their decisions. State Question 755 allows state courts to look only to legal precedents of other states for guidance, provided that state does not use Islamic law. The amendment also [...]

A South African court on Monday found the controversial African National Congress (ANC) Youth League President Julius Malema guilty of hate speech for singing the apartheid-era protest song “Shoot the Boer.” Boer is the Afrikaans word for farmer and broadly refers to whites in general and Afrikaners in particular. Malema argued earlier that the words [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday said that at least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria in the crackdown on anti-government protesters in the country. During her address to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) , Pillay said “that, according to reliable sources on the ground, the number of those [...]

The Pechersk District Court announced on Monday that the trial of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of office would be adjourned for two weeks . Judge Rodion Kireyev said he would delay further proceedings “in order to ensure the defendant’s right to defense, the court is giving additional time to prepare [...]

The Afghan Local Police (ALP) force is committing serious abuses , and the Afghan government is doing little to hold the officials accountable, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced Monday. In a report entitled “Just Don’t Call It a Militia: Impunity, Militias, and the Afghan Local Police,” HRW alleges that the national army and police have [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague on Monday began hearing arguments from Germany and Italy, which is seeking damages from Germany for crimes committed by Nazis during World War II. In November 2008, Germany filed a lawsuit against Italy in the ICJ in a bid to block new claims for personal damages [...]

Ugandan Supreme Court Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki on Friday said the Judiciary lacks independence as a result of interference by African governments. At the Southern African Chief Justices Forum in Kampala, Odoki pointed to surveys by the World Bank and the World Economic Forum that rank African countries below other countries with respect to judicial [...]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday accepted the resignation of the country’s lead corruption watchdog, Raheem Uqaili. Uqaili was the chairman of Iraq’s Integrity Commission , an independent corruption monitoring agency that investigates officials from the Defense Ministry and other government agencies. Uqaili supporters say political conflict prevented him from taking on key cases [...]