The Kenyan government Friday said in response to a report by the UN Committee on Torture focusing on post-election violence that occurred in the country in late 2007 and early 2008 that it was taking initiatives to eliminate torture and other inhumane treatment. CAT highlighted cases of gender-based violence and gang rapes by police and [...]

An Italian court on Thursday acquitted 16 police officers and convicted 13 officers on charges of violence in raiding a school that protesters of the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa were using as headquarters. In addition, the court awarded damages to some of the injured protesters. The 13 convicted officers were sentenced to 35 years [...]

Switzerland's Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (FDFA) condemned Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem as a violation of international humanitarian law in a statement Thursday and called on Israel to stop the demolitions. According to the FDFA, Israel is under a duty to protect the civilians in East Jerusalem as it is part [...]

A panel of Scotland's High Court of Justiciary Friday denied bail to convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi . The plane was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 on board , including 180 Americans, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on Americans prior to [...]

A Moroccan criminal court on Thursday convicted Moroccan citizen Said Boujandia of crimes associated with terrorist acts. The Sale Criminal Court sentenced Boujandia to 10 years in a Moroccan prison. Boujandia admitted his association with with a terrorist organization who sought to aid the Taliban, but has denied committing any crime. Boujandia was held in [...]

The parliament of Algeria approved a constitutional amendment Wednesday that removed the law limiting the country's president to two terms in office. In a joint vote, both houses of the Algerian parliament, the Council of Nation and the National People's Assembly, overwhelmingly approved the amendment 500-21 with eight abstaining, which will allow current President Abdelaziz [...]

The Center for Public Policy Priorities said Thursday that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not do enough to protect the rights and welfare of minors who have entered the country illegally. In a new report the group estimated that 43,000 undocumented, unaccompanied minors are removed from the US each year, and criticized [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law, says that the recent conviction of “Chuckie" Taylor suggests that President-elect Obama has a chance to demonstrate, by example, what the Rule of Law and “equality before the law,” means to the new administration…and to him… During the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election, [...]

Lawyers providing legal services to at least 100 Chinese children sickened by tainted milk products have decided to continue with a class action lawsuit against government-owned dairy farm Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., the focus of recalls following the scandal, according to Thursday media reports. Lawyers providing free legal support for families had said last month [...]

The Russian Supreme Court classified northern Africa group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as a terrorist organization in a ruling Thursday, prohibiting the organization from conducting activities in Russia. The court ruled after the Russian Prosecutor General asked the court to ban the organization and put it on a national blacklist of terrorist [...]