UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told members of her staff Wednesday that she will not seek a second term when her four-year commission ends on June 30, confirming a Monday report by the Washington Post. Arbour reportedly did not specify a reason for her decision, but said she plans to make it [...]

The number of discrimination charges against private employers filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) increased by nine percent in 2007 , the biggest annual increase since the early 1990s, according to EEOC statistics released Wednesday. Of the 82,792 complaints filed with the EEOC in 2007, 37 percent covered allegations of racial discrimination [...]

FBI Director Robert Mueller told the US Senate Judiciary Committee in testimony Wednesday that the FBI had inappropriately accessed private citizens' communication and financial records in 2006 through national security letters (NSLs) , according to an as-yet-unreleased report by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General. A March 2007 DOJ report on the FBI's use [...]

A former Bosnian Serb leader who was convicted in 2004 of war crimes committed during the Bosnian War has been transferred to a Danish prison, a Danish Ministry of Justice spokesman said Wednesday. In 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Radislav Brdjanin to 30 years in prison. In April 2007, [...]

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe declared Tuesday that his country would bring charges against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly "sponsoring and financing genocide" in Colombia. It was not immediately evident, however, how the ICC could take jurisdiction of such a case , and no complaint has yet been filed. [...]

A Pakistani court Wednesday dropped five graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari , the new leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and widower of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto . The court also released Zardari's assets, which had been frozen pending the corruption cases. The court's decision follows a "reconciliation ordinance" signed in [...]

The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday refused to disclose a timeline for the agency's compliance with last year's Supreme Court ruling that the EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the emission of "greenhouse gases," such as carbon dioxide, by automobiles. In its decision, the Supreme [...]

Ass'n of Am. Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. et al., v. Food & Drug Admin., et al., US District Court for the District of Columbia, March 4, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Russian human rights ombudsman said Tuesday that Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev has to honor his declared respect for Russian law and freedoms so that Russian courts and police will follow suit. Vladimir Lukin , a member of the liberal Yabloko party who was appointed as the country's ombudsman in 1997, said that Medvedev must [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Tuesday that he "has not and will not" meet with any member of Uganda's Lord Resistance Army (LRA) . The statement came in response to reports that representatives of LRA leader Joseph Kony were planning to meet with him, apparently to seek the withdrawal of ICC [...]