The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruled Tuesday that the law under which the former head of media advocacy NGO Educated Media Foundation (EMF) was charged in 2007 was unconstitutionally vague , requiring that smuggling charges against her be dropped. Manana Aslamaziyan was arrested after she entered the country without declaring over $12,000 in [...]

A group of 35 members of anti-war activism organization Witness Against Torture appeared in a DC Superior Court Tuesday. The 35 were arrested at a protest in front of the US Supreme Court in January, where they were demonstrating for the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay , and were indicted on [...]

Terrorism cases should be tried in the US federal criminal court system , rather than by military tribunals or special terrorism courts, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights First in conjunction with two former federal prosecutors. Consolidating materials from over 120 international terrorism cases, the report argues that federal courts are versatile [...]

The Supreme Court of British Columbia Tuesday ruled that Canadian laws on drug possession and trafficking are unconstitutional as they violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . Justice Ian Pitfield gave the Canadian government until next June to amend the drug law to bring it in line with the Charter. The case concerns [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon Tuesday promised to step up efforts to combat child exploitation and sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by UN peacekeeping forces. In a short statement released by his spokesperson, Ban expressed his concern over recent allegations of misconduct. The statement read, in part: The United Nations is committed to training and monitoring our [...]

Bonnie Docherty : "Negotiations for a new convention banning cluster munitions are coming to a close, and perhaps the biggest remaining obstacle to achieving a strong treaty is a country not even present, the United States. The United States has applied pressure to states around the world, particularly to its NATO allies. Campaigners at the [...]

Several public health and environmental groups filed a petition for review of new US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Tuesday. Non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice is handling the suit, which alleges that the EPA ignored the input of top scientists in issuing its smog [...]

Bill Van Esveld : "The Egyptian government has extended for two more years Law 162 of 1958 that authorizes prolonged detention without charge and severe limitations on freedom of assembly and expression. Egypt's state of emergency, first implemented in 1967, has been continuously in force throughout President Hosni Mubarak's 27-year rule. The emergency law has [...]

Competing Palestinian governments controlled by Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza have been committing human rights violations in their bids for dominance over the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) said Tuesday. PICCR reported that it had received over 2,000 reports of human rights abuses in 2007, including [...]

The 601-member Nepalese Constituent Assembly voted Wednesday to abolish the country's monarchy and establish a republic. The decision gives King Gyanendera fifteen days to abandon the royal palace in the capital Kathmandu, and declares him to be an ordinary citizen. Wednesday's vote finalizes a development that had been expected since December 2007, when Nepal's interim [...]