Human Rights Watch has urged the European Union to "fill the leadership void on human rights" left after allegations of torture and US detention practices have undermined American credibility in the human rights arena. In the introduction to HRW's World Report 2007 , released Thursday, HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth wrote: In the past, many [...]
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The Bush Administration said Thursday it will propose legislation easing some anti-terrorism restrictions in order to allow foreigners who have helped armed groups not considered terrorists to seek asylum or resettle in the United States. As a result of antiterrorism laws such as the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act put in place after [...]
A political confrontation between the Verkhovna Rada , the Ukraine parliament, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko appears to be heading to the country's Constitutional Court after the parliament Friday passed legislation to define and expand the powers of the cabinet in defiance of an earlier presidential veto. Yushchenko promised to challenge the new legislation, supported [...]
A Chinese court rejected the final appeal Friday of Chen Guangcheng , a blind Chinese human rights legal activist, who was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." The Intermediate Court in Linyi city upheld the verdict and sentence after a Chinese intermediate [...]
Peruvian president Alan Garcia Thursday proposed a national referendum on introducing capital punishment for convicted terrorists after a legislative proposal to that effect was defeated 49-26 in the Peruvian Congress on Wednesday. Garcia described the defeat as one contrary to the will of the Peruvian people, and " duty to fulfill what promised… in campaign." [...]
The French Court of Cassation , the country's highest court on civil and criminal affairs, has ruled that a war crimes investigation against Republic of Congo (ROC) President Denis Sassou Ngusseo and other officials for crimes against humanity can proceed. The decision overturned a 2004 judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal that halted the [...]
Texas District Judge Bruce Priddy granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on Thursday preventing anti-illegal immigrant measures from going into effect as scheduled on Friday in Farmers Branch, Texas. The ordinances, passed last month in the Dallas suburb , were challenged by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties [...]
The trial of Dragomir Milosevic began Thursday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia . Milosevic, a former Bosnian Serb general not related to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, has been indicted on crimes against humanity and war crimes charges for his role in the shelling of civilians in Sarajevo during the Bosnian [...]
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday that Germany would place a high emphasis on containing illegal immigration originating from North Africa and Eastern Europe during the six-month German presidency of the EU. Schaeuble is expected to urge member state internal and justice ministers, scheduled to meet informally in Dresden next week, to increase member [...]
US Army Specialist William Hunsaker has received an 18-year prison sentence after pleading guilty Thursday to murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice charges relating to the killing of several Iraqi detainees after a May 9 2006 raid in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra, in Iraq's Salahuddin province. A group of four soldiers released [...]
