The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that extends the definition of federal hate crimes to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed 281-146 as part of the conference report authorizing $681 billion in military [...]

The accused leader of the so-called "Toronto 18" Zakaria Amara pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of planning to bomb three targets within the province of Ontario in 2006. Those targets included the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service office in Toronto, as well as a military base between Toronto and Ottawa. Amara [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that Kuwaiti Guantanamo Bay detainee Khaled Al-Mutairi has been returned to his home country . The US government alleged that Al-Mutairi had fought against American troops in Afghanistan, but in his almost eight years at the facility, no charges were ever filed. Al-Mutairi maintains that he had [...]

Jessica Montell : "In the recent session of the UN Human Rights Council, the US and Israel – each for their own, somewhat disingenuous reasons – argued that a peace process is incompatible with international scrutiny of war crimes in the Cast Lead operation, and that the former is to be preferred over the later. [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 Thursday to approve legislation reauthorizing three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the year. The portions of the act to be renewed allow federal authorities to conduct "roving" wiretaps, compel the production of business, medical and library records, and designate suspects [...]

The UN Security Council agreed Wednesday to reschedule October's meeting on the Middle East in order to discuss the final report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict . The meeting was pushed forward at the request of Libyan diplomats, with the support of many Arab members. US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said [...]

S. 1692: A bill to extend the sunset of certain provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and the authority to issue national security letters, and for other purposes, US Senate Judiciary Committee, October 8, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the USA PATRIOT Act.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged Kenya to establish a local tribunal to prosecute those who perpetrated violence in the wake of the 2007 presidential elections . Annan made the remarks at the end of a three-day visit to Kenya to monitor the progress of the peace agreement and coalition government that he [...]

The Australian public wants legislative protections for human rights in their country, according to a government report released Wednesday by the Human Rights Consultation Committee . According to the report, Australians believe that their country adequately protects human rights, but that further protections could be extended to a number of vulnerable groups. Among those groups [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating IBM for allegations of antitrust violations stemming from their sales of mainframe computers, according to Wednesday media reports. Competitors allege that IBM is dominating the mainframe computer market by not allowing its operating systems to run on non-IBM mainframes. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) maintains [...]