A coalition of international and African human rights groups Monday criticized Senegal for delays in the prosecution of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre and called on the African Union to press the issue at an upcoming summit. The Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, the Chadian Association of Victims of Political [...]

An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring in the Department of Justice Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program, US DOJ Office of the Inspector General, June 24, 2008 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed a petition Monday asking the court not to consider releasing suspected war criminal Thomas Lubanga . The petition also seeks leave from the court to appeal the ICC's June 16 decision to indefinitely stay the proceedings in Lubanga's case. The ICC had granted the stay [...]

The UN Security Council condemned the increasing violence against opposition activists and politicians in Zimbabwe in a presidential statement issued Monday. The statement calls on the government of Zimbabwe to "stop the violence, to cease political intimidation, to end the restrictions on the right of assembly and to release the political leaders who have been [...]

The UK House of Commons and the House of Lords Monday approved a draft order to remove the opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) from the country's list of prohibited organizations. The votes confirm a May court ruling  that there was no evidence that the PMOI had been involved with terrorism since 2003 [...]

Corruption and repression are increasingly threatening legal rights in former Soviet republics like Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, according to a Monday report released by rights group Freedom House . The group said that Russia especially has seen a significant deterioration of the rule of law, finding that the country's court system is controlled by powerful [...]

The Supreme Court of Israel Monday denied a request to suspend the opening of border crossings between the country and the Palestinian Gaza Strip . The appeal was made by the father of Sgt. Gilad Schalit , an Israeli soldier held prisoner by Hamas after being captured by the group in 2006, and it asked [...]

The Pakistan National Assembly Sunday passed a bill which not only approved the country's 2008-2009 budget, but also expanded the membership of the country's Supreme Court from 16 to 29 justices. Passage of the so-called Finance Bill was sharply criticized by several opposition groups and members of the country's lawyers' movement , who fear that [...]

Special national security courts to try terrorism suspects are "unnecessary" and "dangerous to traditional constitutional protections," according to a report issued Monday by the Constitution Project . The report was endorsed by a panel of national security experts and legal scholars including General Wesley Clark, Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, former FBI director William [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Monday ordered the US government to release or transfer a Chinese Uighur Muslim detained at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that Huzaifa Parhat had been improperly designated as an enemy combatant by a US Combatant Status Review Tribunal . Barring release or transfer, the [...]