UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Wednesday urged the adoption of an increasingly-problematic draft of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , a proposed treaty to protect the rights of the disabled. Arbour said the agreement would "address the stereotypes and prejudices that deny persons with disabilities enjoyment of [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved the over-the-counter sale of the "morning after" or Plan B emergency contraceptive pill , to women 18 and over. A controversial provision of the FDA's approval requires a doctor's prescription for women under 18 years old. The drug's manufacturer, Barr Laboratories , will be responsible [...]

Chen Guangcheng , a blind Chinese human rights legal activist, was sentenced Thursday to four years and three months in prison for damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." Chen supporters have said, however, that the charges were fabricated and he was actually arrested for reporting complaints of government mandated abortions and forced [...]

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into how CBS News and other media outlets learned of a criminal investigation into the activities of two pro-Israel lobbyists before they were formally charged. In an opinion released Tuesday, US District Judge T.S. Ellis III declined to throw out the evidence against [...]

A lawsuit filed by the United Mine Workers of America , seeking to compel the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to perform periodic checks of "self-contained self-rescuers" oxygen units and lead mandatory emergency training for all mine workers, was dismissed Wednesday. The claim was filed in June in response to Congressional changes to [...]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate Peter Miguel Camejo must pay more than $80,000 in expenses for a lawsuit challenging Nader's petition drive and nominating papers to appear on the 2004 Pennsylvania ballot. A group of voters filed a lawsuit challenging the documents, and [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Mark Brown, holder of the Newton D. Baker/Baker and Hostetler Chair at Capital University School of Law, says that forcing unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader to pay after-the-fact for a ballot contest instigated against him in Pennsylvania when his campaign was found to have committed no wrongdoing is constitutionally dubious… The [...]

Murphy v. IRS, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Deliberate destruction or "collateral damage"? Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure, Amnesty International, August 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Tashkent City Court in Uzbekistan Wednesday ordered the closure of another US nongovernmental organization (NGO) operating in the country, stating the group's failure to provide accurate information about its activities as one of the chief reasons. Crosslink Development International is the most recent activist group forced to close its offices in Uzbekistan as part [...]