Three Indonesian soldiers accused of torturing Papuan detainees received prison sentences Monday of less than one year. Citing lack of evidence , a military judge convicted the men of the lesser crime of insubordination instead of torture. He sentenced one of the men to 10 months imprisonment, one to nine months and the third to [...]

A civilian committee assigned to investigate the May 31 Israeli raid on several Turkish ships bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip on concluded that Israel did not violate international law . The Turkel Commission , headed by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Yakov Tirkel, along with Shabbtai Rosen, an international law professor and former Israeli [...]

An overwhelming 98.8 percent of voters in Southern Sudan’s Independence Referendum last week voted in favor of secession according to preliminary results released Saturday by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission . The poll results are not yet final, as election officials will reportedly quarantine some results after voter turnout in ten Sudanese counties exceeded 100 [...]

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William F. Highberger approved a settlement on Friday effectively limiting the use of seniority in layoffs in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) . The class action suit against the State of California and LAUSD was originally filed in February 2010 by the American Civil Liberties Union of [...]

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) on Friday filed suit against the US Department of Education (DOE) in federal court seeking to overturn three regulations promulgated by the department. The challenged rules are a part of the DOE’s final regulations adopted in October. One rule challenged by the suit would stop deceptive [...]

Former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo went to trial on Friday facing charges of embezzlement . Portillo denies accusations that he diverted approximately USD $15 million in funds from the Ministry of Defense while he was in power between 2000 and 2004. Former Defense Minister Eduardo Arevalo and former Finance Minister Manuel Maza are also on [...]

Amnesty International (AI) announced Friday that Haitian authorities will investigate crimes committed against humanity allegedly committed under the rule of Jean-Claude Duvalier during the 1970s and 80s. The announcement comes one day after an Amnesty International researcher met with Haitian prosecutor Harycidas Auguste, giving him documents pertaining to dozens of cases of detention without trial, [...]

Gerolf Hagens : “On November 4th, 1950 the European Convention on Human Rights was brought to life; 13 countries (including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Greece and the Netherlands) signed the convention in Rome. Over time, 47 countries have joined the Council of Europe, which promotes human rights and coordinates the proper application of the European [...]

The appellate division of the War Crimes Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Friday sentenced Sefik Alic, a Muslim commander, to 10 years in prison, overturning his 2008 acquittal. The prosecutor appealed the original verdict on the grounds that the lower court “erroneously and incompletely established the state of facts” leading it to misapply [...]

A Paris criminal court on Friday convicted former Vivendi SA chairman and CEO Jean-Marie Messier of misleading investors during his tenure at the helm of the French entertainment giant. Canadian Edgar Bronfman Jr., former vice-chairman of Vivendi and current Warner Music Group chairman and CEO, was convicted of insider trading and fined five million euros. [...]