The Supreme Court of Seychelles on Monday convicted a group of Somali pirates , sentencing them to 10 years in prison. The 11 men were apprehended in the Indian Ocean following the attempted hijacking of a Seychelles coastguard ship in December. The trial began in March , after Seychelles amended its criminal code to allow [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday called on the US government to provide greater protection for those with mental disabilities in the US immigration system. In a joint report, “Deportation by Default” , the rights organizations criticized the US immigration system, which they claim often disadvantages those with [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday released a partially redacted opinion on the habeas corpus petition of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Hussain Salem Mohammad Almerfedi , which was granted by the court earlier this month . Judge Paul Friedman granted the petition after finding that the Obama administration did not [...]

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) announced Sunday that it had issued four arrest warrants for the leaders of the Islamist group Jamaat e Islami (JI) for crimes committed during 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War . The ICT was established in March to try those accused of committing war crimes during the 1971 war, in which Bangladeshi [...]

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said Monday that the Afghan War Diaries , a compilation of 91,000 documents leaked to the organization on the US war effort in Afghanistan, may provide evidence of war crimes committed by US forces. The statement comes after the release of the Afghan War Diaries on Sunday, which has been described [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Monday handed down its first conviction in the case of former Khmer Rouge official Kaing Guek Eav , also known as “Duch.” The court found Kaing guilty of crimes against humanity and of violating the 1949 Geneva Conventions, sentencing him to 35 years in prison. [...]

The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that a Federal Court decision calling for the government to protect the rights of Omar Khadr while in US custody overstepped judicial boundaries. Chief Justice Pierre Blais criticized the lower court ruling , which gave the Canadian government one week to come up with a list of [...]

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday stated his willingness to consider changes to a law that allows the military to interfere in domestic matters. Article 35 of Turkish Armed Forces Services Law, which gives the military the authority to intervene in domestic affairs in certain situations, has been used in the past to [...]

Israel will likely not cooperate with a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) investigation to look into an Israeli military raid of a flotilla in Gaza that took place at the end of May. While the Israeli government has not yet made an official announcement regarding its position, an unnamed senior Israeli official called the investigation [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Friday granted a preliminary injunction against an amendment to an Arizona law regarding health benefits for the families of state employees. The amendment, added as subsection O, would remove language from the law allowing interdependent domestic partners to receive health benefits by [...]