[JURIST] Myanmar's parliament [official website] will draft a bill that forms groups to monitor court proceedings, a lawmaker said Saturday. Thura Aung Ko [campaign profile], the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee chairman, said that the purpose of the court monitoring bill [Eleven Myanmar report] was to crack down on corruption … [read more]

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] on Monday urged the international community [statement] to help facilitate negotiations between warring parties in Syria. Although Pillay criticized global leaders for not acting sooner to stop the violent conflict in Syria, she warned that a military response would … [read more]

[JURIST] Fiji's draft constitution does not adequately protect basic human rights [press release], Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said Wednesday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] also released a statement on Wednesday calling on Fiji to revise its draft constitution [press release] to include protections for freedom of speech, assembly … [read more]

[JURIST] Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged Communist-era prison commander Alexander Visinescu with genocide. Visinescu, the former chief of the Ramnicu Sarat prison under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu [Telegraph profile] faces genocide charges for beating and starving political prisoners [AFP report] between 1956 and 1963, the height of Communist repression against … [read more]

[JURIST] The New York Police Department (NYPD) [official website; JURIST news archive] has secretly launched at least a dozen terrorism investigations into mosques since the 9/11 attacks [JURIST backgrounder], the Associated Press reported [text] Wednesday. By designating mosques as "terrorism enterprises," the AP claims the NYPD allowed police to spy … [read more]

[JURIST] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], the son of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive] was charged on Tuesday with murder, relating to the 2011 Libya conflict [JURIST backgrounder], a Libyan prosecutor said. Prosecutors also charged former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi [BBC profile; JURIST … [read more]

[JURIST] At the beginning of a week-long visit to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official website; JURIST news archive] pledged to raise concerns with the government's human rights record, particularly with regard to alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils. Sri Lanka's government fought a brutal … [read more]

[JURIST] Ecuador's criminal code, which prohibit abortions even in the case of rape, threatens the health of victims of sexual violence, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [text, PDF; press release] Friday. Ecuador's abortion laws impose prison terms ranging from one to five years for women who obtain abortions. … [read more]

[JURIST] A Russian court on Thursday sentenced political activist and lawyer Alexei Navalny [BBC profile] to five years in prison for embezzling USD $500,000 from a state-owned timber company. Navalny, a strong critic of President Vladimir Putin [official website, in Russian] and a crusader against alleged governmental corruption, declared that … [read more]

[JURIST] Judge Sang Hyun Song [official profile], the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], on Tuesday urged the international community [press release] to commit to bringing perpetrators of war crimes and genocide to justice. Song's statement marked International Criminal Justice Day, July 17, which was the date … [read more]

[JURIST] Pakistan's new government on Thursday lifted the country's moratorium on executions. The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), a center-right party, took power during elections in May, defeating the incumbent Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [official websites]. PML-N Interior Ministry spokesman Umer Hameed declared [AFP report] that the government will begin to … [read more]

[JURIST] The North Carolina Senate [official website] passed 29-12 legislation [HB 695, materials] on Wednesday that places severe restrictions on abortion. The bill will likely shut down most of the state's abortion clinics because it requires clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgery centers [AP report]. The bill … [read more]

[JURIST] A court in Bangladesh on Friday sentenced nine politicians from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) [party website] to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Gautam Das [CPJ backgrounder] in 2005. Shortly before his murder, Das published a series of reports [AFP report] detailing corruption by BNP officials. … [read more]

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit filed by five residents of American Samoa who claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment [text] guarantees them US citizenship at birth. Although American Samoans are considered US nationals, American … [read more]

[JURIST] A judge for the Dane County Circuit Court [official website] on Friday allowed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging Wisconsin's controversial collective bargaining law [Budget Repair Bill, text] to proceed, despite objections from the state's Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website]. The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) [union website], a … [read more]

[JURIST] Kansas Governor Sam Brownback [official website] on Friday signed the strict anti-abortion legislation [HB 2253, PDF] into law. The legislation prohibits abortions based on the baby's sex, prevents abortion providers from receiving certain tax breaks and proclaims that life begins at fertilization. The provision dealing with tax breaks is … [read more]

[JURIST] A state judge in North Dakota said Thursday that he will rule that a 2011 North Dakota law [HB 1297, PDF] that restricts drug-induced abortions is unconstitutional. Judge Wickham Corwin of the Cass County District Court [official website] announced [Inforum report] that the law creates an "insurmountable barrier" to … [read more]

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] passed a bill [S 716, material] on Friday that exempts senior government officials from having to report their financial information online. The bill amends the Stop Insider Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) [S 2030, PDF] to remove many senior government … [read more]

[JURIST] The trial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile; JURIST news archive] ended only a few minutes after it began on Saturday when the judge recused himself because of a conflict of interest. Mubarak, who ruled Egypt from 1981 until 2011, faced re-trial on charges relating to … [read more]

[JURIST] The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) [official website] issued a report [text, PDF; press release] on Friday calling on the government of South Sudan to protect communities that are at risk of violence. The UNMISS report detailed the findings of a human rights investigation into the killing of … [read more]

[JURIST] A court in Pakistan ruled [judgment, PDF] on Friday that election officials must refrain from asking irrelevant and intrusive questions of candidates for public office. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court [official website] issued the ruling in the wake of Returning Officers, who are primarily … [read more]

[JURIST] A group of prominent Chinese lawyers signed a letter on Friday calling on the Jinjiang People's Court [official website] to explain why it detained a lawyer who defended the Falun Gong [group website; BBC backgrounder], which is banned in China. An online statement from the court said that Wang … [read more]

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that portions of an Indiana immigration law [SEA 590, text] are unconstitutional. At issue were two provisions in the law: one that allows police to arrest non-citizens without a warrant … [read more]

[JURIST] The New York Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [decision, PDF] on Thursday that New York may impose a sales tax on out-of-state retailers that do business within the state. At issue in the case was a 2008 state tax law known as the Internet Tax [text, PDF], which … [read more]

[JURIST] Police in China arrested and detained the brother-in-law of Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy activist Liu Xiaobo [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Friday on charges of fraud. Liu Hui was formally charged two weeks ago in a real estate dispute. Liu Hui's arrest may be retaliation [AP … [read more]