Joram Gumbo, a Zimbabwean delegate to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and member of the ruling party of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe , expressed outrage and contempt Sunday for the African organization's decision to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to investigate allegations of ongoing human rights abuses. Gumbo referred to the Pan-African Parliament, the African [...]

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has signed legislation making English the official state language. The bill , which was signed Friday and takes effect July 1, also gives state and local governments the discretion to provide official documents or hold meetings in non-English languages, and grants an exception to Native American tribal school districts to "provide [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Jonathan Hafetz, Counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, says that DOJ-proposed restrictions on lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees would chill communications between lawyers and their clients, suppress information about detentions, and inhibit detainees from meaningfully contesting the allegations against them… On Tuesday, the U.S. [...]

Japan's House of Councillors , the upper house of the National Diet, approved legislation Monday establishing procedures to facilitate a national constitutional referendum. The legislation requires a three-year public consultation period before parliament can vote on possible constitutional amendments, which must be approved by both houses of the National Diet by a two-thirds vote before [...]

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf traded barbs and accusations with opponents over the weekend after 39 people were killed Saturday in Karachi in clashes sparked by the arrival of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry , who had traveled there to address a meeting of lawyers supporting him in his fight against his March 9 suspension. The deaths [...]

Moscow City Court has rejected a bid by a surviving member of the Russian Romanov imperial dynasty to declare Tsar Nicholas II exonerated of the Soviet-era criminal charge against him and declare his 1918 murder at the hands of revolutionary Bolsheviks a political killing. A lower court had ruled similarly, and the Moscow City Court [...]

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Karzai would await a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of parliament dismissing government ministers before relieving Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta after Spanta lost a no-confidence vote. A previous effort to oust Spanta on Thursday failed by a narrow margin, but parliament did vote [...]

Voters in Farmers Branch, Texas approved a city ordinance Saturday which requires apartment renters to show proof of US residency and penalizes landlords who rent to illegal immigrants . Landlords who do not comply with the law will face fines up to $500. The ordinance does not require minors and tenants who are 62 years [...]

Over 250,000 people gathered in Rome Saturday to protest a bill currently before parliament which would give legal status to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples . The bill was approved by Italy's cabinet in February, but has been harshly criticized by the Italian justice minister and the top Italian bishop . The proposal would give [...]

Outgoing UK Home Secretary John Reid told a meeting of ministers from major EU states Saturday that European human rights laws needed to be "modernized" to provide better protection from new terrorism threats. Addressing a conference of EU home affairs and interior ministers in Venice, Reid said more attention had to be paid to the [...]