Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and the International Crisis Group (ICG) , on Thursday declined an invitation from Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to testify before the probe investigating the end of the nation’s civil war . In rejecting the LLRC’s invitation the groups stated: While we would welcome the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday that the words “one state under God” in the Texas Pledge of Allegiance do not violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution, upholding a 2009 district court opinion . A Texan couple filed the suit against the state, arguing that the pledge violated [...]

The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled Wednesday that a witness does not have to remove her niqab unless the failure to do so will prevent the accused from receiving a fair trial. The court stopped short of issuing a ruling that would require all courts to follow in a similar fashion. The decision emphasizes [...]

The Indonesian Constitutional Court on Wednesday overturned a law that has allowed the Indonesian government to ban books it deemed controversial for nearly 50 years. The court found that giving the Attorney General the authority to ban books violated the Indonesian Constitution by denying basic human rights without due process of the law. While the [...]

Attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia announced Wednesday that they have formed a bipartisan group called the Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group (MFMG), which will be investigating allegations of procedural defects committed by mortgage loan companies during foreclosure processes. The group also includes state bank and mortgage regulators. In a joint [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says despite United Nations Human Rights Council findings that Israel clearly broke international law in its raid of the Gaza Strip Flotilla, the US has yet to condemn the action… On May 31, the Israeli military attacked a flotilla of ships in International waters. [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Skinner v. Switzer on a convicted prisoner’s right to seek access to DNA testing. The issue is whether a convicted prisoner seeking access to biological evidence for DNA testing may assert a civil rights claim under Section 1983 or if such a claim is cognizable only [...]

The Stockholm District Court on Wednesday began proceedings in the the country’s first war crimes trial of Swedish citizen and former Bosnian prison guard Ahmet Makitan . Makitan is accused of violating the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by kidnapping people and torturing and insulting prisoners at a camp in Dretelj, [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged the Congolese government to arrest Bosco Ntaganda , a Congolese general wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. HRW claims that, since January, Ntaganda has been implicated in the assassination of at least eight people, arbitrary arrests of another seven and the abduction and disappearance [...]

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday heard opening statements in the first civilian trial of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. An attorney for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani argued during the opening statements that al Qaeda took advantage of Ghailani’s youth and that Ghailani was unaware of the terrorists’ criminal [...]