US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson defended last month's EPA proposal to toughen standards for US air quality during testimony at a Wednesday Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing . Johnson testified that the current standard does not adequately protect public health. While many Democrats, including chair of Wednesday's [...]

Amnesty International Wednesday called for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to dismiss a UK request for a reconsideration of the absolute ban on torture and coercion in ECHR case law. The court is currently holding hearings in the case of Saadi v. Italy, where Nassim Saadi, a Tunisian national lawfully residing in Italy [...]

A military investigating officer in the case against Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt , accused in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha in November 2005, has recommended dropping all charges against Sharratt according to Wednesday reports. In his Investigating Officer's Report , released by Sharratt's lawyers Tuesday, Ware described the government's allegations that [...]

A Chilean judge rejected a request by Peru Wednesday seeking the extradition of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori , who has been charged in his former country with corruption and human rights violations. In the 122-point rejection, Judge Orlando Alvarez said flimsy evidence led him to reject the grounds for extradition. Alvarez also said the [...]

The European Court of First Instance Wednesday overturned the European Union's freezing of assets against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman Jose Maria Sison and the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa Foundation , finding that the Council did not give its reasons or provide an opportunity for plaintiffs to challenge the legal basis or evidence used to [...]

Iran has opened an investigation into the judge who ordered the stoning execution of a man convicted of adultery , the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported Wednesday. According to ISNA, an unnamed judicial official said the action was in violation of the 2002 directive of judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi and would be [...]

The Council of Europe's European Commission for Democracy through Law issued an opinion Wednesday finding that the use of public video surveillance constitutes "an undeniable threat to fundamental rights such as the right to privacy and the right of respect for his or her private life." The commission urged European governments to enact specific regulations [...]

The Rwandan senate has approved a bill to abolish the death penalty , according to Wednesday reports by Radio Rwanda. The bill, proposed last year by Rwandan President Paul Kagame with the support of his party and passed by the lower house of parliament last month, is expected to come into force by the end [...]

The United Kingdom and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) signed an agreement Tuesday formalizing a British commitment to imprison former Liberian President Charles Taylor in Britain if Taylor is convicted by the SCSL. In June, the UK House of Commons passed the International Tribunals (Sierra Leone) Act 2007 , establishing a legal basis [...]

Jose Maria Sison, et al. v. Council of the European Union, et al., and Stichting Al-Aqsa v. Council of the European Union, et al., European Court of First Instance, July 11, 2007 . Read the full text of the Sison judgment, and the full text of the Al-Aqsa judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.