The British government intends to present legislation that would allow for members of the House of Lords to be removed for improper behavior, according to a statement by UK Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw during a Sunday interview with BBC Radio 4. The announcement comes a week after members of [...]

The director of Guatemala's National Compensation Program Cesar Davila announced Friday that the Guatemalan government has filed more than 3,000 criminal complaints for human rights violations allegedly committed during the country's 1960-1996 civil war . The complaints were filed on behalf of more than 5,000 victims who allege they were subjected to forced disappearance, forced [...]

An official from the US State Department said Friday that the Blackwater Worldwide contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq will not be renewed when it expires in May. The State Department has yet to make an official statement but is expected to do so soon. The decision not to renew the contract was made [...]

Spain is considering legislation to limit the the scope of universal jurisdiction  applied by the country's National Court , according to Spanish media reports  Sunday. If adopted, the Reform of the Judiciary Act would limit the court's jurisdiction over war crimes and genocide charges to those cases that have a substantial link to the country [...]

Egypt's Agouza Appeals Court Saturday overturned the prison sentences of four newspaper editors convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) . The four men, Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Al Dustour; Adel Hammouda, editor of Al-Fagr ; Wael Al-Abrashi, editor of the independent newspaper Sawt Al-Umma; and Abdel-Halim Qandil, former [...]

Former Sanlu Group chairwoman Tian Wenhua on Sunday appealed the life sentence she received after pleading guilty to charges in China's tainted milk scandal . Tian's lawyer claims it was not his client who decided to sell milk with higher levels of melamine , but a board member tabbed by New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday reversed and remanded a lower court ruling, reviving two lawsuits brought by Nigerian families against Pfizer . The consolidated lawsuits allege that Pfizer violated international law when it administered an experimental antibiotic to Nigerian children without the consent or knowledge of their patients. The [...]

JURIST Staffer Necia Hobbes, Pitt Law '11, volunteered in Chiang Rai before starting graduate school: In the United States, citizenship is granted to those born within US borders or to US citizen parents, and can be obtained through naturalization. The Kingdom of Thailand, however, places more severe restrictions on obtaining citizenship, effectively limiting human rights [...]

Four human rights groups sent a letter Friday urging US President Barack Obama to permit them full access to the Guantanamo Bay detention center to assess the conditions and report on possible recommendations for changing US detention policies. The four groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International (AI), and [...]

Jennifer Turner : "President Obama's recent executive orders to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp within a year and to reverse many of the Bush Administration's most egregious detention and torture policies were a huge first step in restoring America's standing in the world. With his swift actions, Obama sent a message to the world [...]