The Vermont Legislature on Tuesday voted to override Governor Jim Douglas' veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Both the House and Senate surpassed the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto , which Douglas executed Monday , with votes of 100-49 and 23-5, respectively. New Hampshire appears to be the next [...]

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of committing human rights abuses during his 1990-2000 rule by a special court in Lima Tuesday. Fujimori, who maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, was convicted on charges of approving the November 1991 killing of 15 people in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood and the July 1992 kidnapping [...]

Austrian Interior Minister Maria Fekter said Monday that the country would not accept released Guantanamo Bay  detainees from the US, according to a report by the Associated Press. Fekter said the detainees could pose a security threat to the European Union (EU) during a meeting of EU leaders in Luxembourg. The leaders convened to discuss a request by US President Barack Obama [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Noah Bialostozky of White & Case LLP says that while the US may help make the UN Human Rights Council a more meaningful forum for constructive, diplomatic engagement on human rights issues if it is elected to a seat in May, its presence should not be expected to achieve instant transformation [...]

Medical professionals violated codes of medical ethics by participating in and assisting in ill-treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees, says a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross , made public Monday. The report , which was written in 2007 based on interviews of fourteen detainees, alleges that doctors and psychologists in Guantanamo at [...]

A US immigration judge on Monday revoked a stay of deportation issued Friday for accused Nazi prison camp guard John Demjanjuk . The stay had been ordered Friday after Demjanjuk filed a motion to reopen his case. On Monday, the judge ruled that the stay had been ordered in error and revoked it, saying that [...]

A group of 17 Chinese Uighur Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center filed a petition for certiorari with the US Supreme Court Monday, asking the Court to order their release. The petition seeks the Court's review of a February decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in Kiyemba v. [...]

The US Supreme Court denied certiorari Monday in the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Beard . The Court offered no explanation for their refusal to hear the appeal of journalist and former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal , sentenced to death for killing a police officer in Philadelphia in 1981. Abu-Jamal appealed his conviction based [...]

The US Supreme Court issued two opinions Monday. The Court ruled 5-4 in Corley v. United States that federal statutory and case law require suppression of a confession given more than six hours after arrest but before the defendant is presented to a judge if law enforcement authorities unreasonably delay presentment. The US Court of [...]

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that a law which severely limits the rights of married Shi’ite women in Afghanistan would not be enforced until the country's Ministry of Justice has complete reviewing the law. A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the law had been placed on hold and submitted for review. [...]