Lawmakers in the French Senate have buried a draft bill that would have criminalized any denial that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I constituted genocide. The bill has been taken off the Senate agenda, and as presidential and legislative elections are scheduled for April through June, the new National Assembly [...]

Two human rights groups have called on Canada's Federal Court to review the legality of terrorism detainee transfer procedures under the Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement . Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association filed an application for judicial review Wednesday, alleging that the transfer of terrorist suspects from the custody of the Canadian [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unveiled the First Freedom Project (FFP) Tuesday afternoon, a new Department of Justice initiative aimed at stricter enforcement of laws against religious discrimination and educating the public about their rights in this area. The DOJ will hold training seminars across the US in conjunction with the program, and the FFP [...]

The UN Development Programme ordered an audit Wednesday of the human resources practices of the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , the international tribunal established to try former Khmer Rouge officials, in response to reports of corruption. The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) , which helped train ECCC judges, publicized the corruption [...]

US District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker issued an order Tuesday imposing a limited stay on discovery in a class action lawsuit challenging the legality of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program , despite the government's request to stay discovery pending the outcome of an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in two cases Wednesday, including Wallace v. Kato , where the Court held that the two-year statute of limitations for a false arrest action under under 42 USC 1983 begins accruing at the time of arrest. Andre Wallace was arrested without probable cause in 1994, convicted, and released [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Geoffrey S. Corn, Lt. Col. US Army (Ret.) and former Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters, now a professor at South Texas College of Law, and JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Hansen, also a former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army JAG Corps and now a [...]

The number of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines is critically high, according to UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston , who on Wednesday reported on his 10-day investigation into the surge of political murders in the Philippines . Alston said that many of the killings were committed by the Philippine [...]

Seven Saudis formerly detained at Guantanamo Bay arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after US authorities granted their release earlier this week. The Saudi Press Agency reported their return, and noted that Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz "expressed his appreciation at the level of co-operation with the US authorities, hoping that this step will [...]

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Iraq's leadership to postpone a decision on future control of the city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, citing concerns for the growth of a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. The Iraqi constitution , however, mandates that a referendum on the future of the city must take place by the end [...]