The Icelandic Althingi on Friday unanimously passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage . The legislation would end the system of registered partnerships that has been in place in Iceland since 1996, replacing it with a gender-neutral marriage law. Additionally, the marriage law contains a religious exception, allowing the Church of Iceland to decline to perform marriages [...]

The Guatemalan Constitutional Court on Thursday removed Attorney General Conrado Reyes from power. Reyes was appointed to the position by Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom late last month, but he came under close scrutiny earlier this week when the head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) , Carlos Castresana, accused him of having [...]

Florida Governor Charlie Crist on Friday vetoed a bill that would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound or listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure would be performed. A woman would be exempt from the requirement only if she could prove she was the victim of rape, [...]

The Italian Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down controversial legislation that imposed increased prison sentences and fines on illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in Italy. The court held that it was unconstitutional to allow judges to impose sentences and fines on illegal immigrants three times greater then those handed down to people living in the [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that the dissolution of a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses by a Russian court violates Articles 9 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights . The court found that in enacting the ban, the Russian government denied the congregation its rights to religious freedom, a [...]

The Italian Senate on Thursday approved a bill restricting the use of wiretaps and criminalizing the reporting of wiretap transcripts by the news media. Under the proposed legislation, a three-judge panel would be required to grant a wiretap, and the wiretap would only be valid for a two-month period. Any publication reporting on the contents [...]

Four men sentenced to death for the murder of a US Agency for International Development (USAID) official and his driver in Sudan escaped prison on Thursday, according to police officials. John Granville and his Sudanese driver Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama were shot and killed in Khartoum while returning from a New Year's Eve party in January [...]

US Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) on Wednesday introduced a resolution calling on the Rwandan government to release detained US lawyer and JURIST Forum contributor Peter Erlinder . In a press release , McCollum explained the purpose of the resolution as designed to "prevent … an impasse in relations" between the US [...]

A Finnish court on Friday convicted former Rwandan pastor Francois Bazaramba on charges relating to his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide , sentencing him to life in prison. Bazaramba had denied charges of involvement in the genocide as well as the 15 counts of murder against him, but the court found that he ordered [...]

The Taiwan High Court on Friday reduced the life sentence of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian to 20 years, finding that he had not embezzled as much money as previously thought. Additionally, the court reduced the fine imposed on Chen from NT $200 million (USD $6.2 million) to NT $170 million (USD $5.25 million) and [...]