UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday called on the 47 member states of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to "create an environment of trust" and "spur greater accountability for action on human rights." In his speech at the opening of the Council's seventh session in Geneva, Ban emphasized the importance of accountability and transparency [...]

Arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) "remain in effect and have to be executed" despite requests from Uganda that they be withdrawn, according to a statement issued by the office of ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Monday. The LRA has refused to sign [...]

An Iraqi court has dropped all pending criminal charges against former Iraqi Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili and Brigadier General Hameed al-Shimmari "for lack of evidence," in part because many witness accounts were based on hearsay, Iraqi chief prosecutor Ghadanfar Mahmoud said Monday. The two high-level officials were accused of channeling millions in government money [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in two cases Monday, including Boulware v. US , where the Court overturned a Ninth Circuit decision upholding a criminal tax evasion prosecution. The Supreme Court wrote: Sections 301 and 316(a) of the Internal Revenue Code set the conditions for treating certain corporate distributions as returns of capital, [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will not seek a second term when her commission ends on June 30, the Washington Post reported Monday citing anonymous sources. While serving as the UN's top human rights official, the Canadian-born Arbour has frequently spoken out against rights abuses by world powers, including the United States [...]

Pakistani police clashed with protesting lawyers outside the home of former Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry Monday, as the country's Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) announced plans to hold new demonstrations to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to reinstatement former Supreme Court justices who were ousted after Musharraf declared emergency rule in November 2007. The [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told AP on Sunday that multiple sources have confirmed that the US detained terror suspects at the US military base on the British island of Diego Garcia between 2002 and 2003, a claim which the US has previously denied. According to Nowak, his sources are "credible" and include [...]

Election observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monday expressed reservations about the fairness of Russia's weekend presidential election, pointing to media restrictions and alleged polling irregularities that hampered opposition candidates. In a statement , PACE said: this election repeated most of the flaws revealed during the Duma elections of December [...]

A suspect in the assassination attempt against East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta turned himself in late Saturday, several weeks after the February 11 attempt on Horta's life outside his home. The suspect, Amaro da Costa, was described as an ex-police officer and is the only suspect in custody to date, though police have issued [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law says that although all the Republican presidential candidates have recited the GOP litany regarding appointments demanded of every serious contender, John McCain's judicial selection record warrants more evaluation… On Tuesday, Republicans in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont will vote in the [...]