[JURIST] Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari [CBS news profile] has asked the UN Security Council [official website] to renew resolution 1546 [UN summary], authorizing a US-led multinational force [MNF-Iraq official website] to remain in Iraq. Citing the latest wave of violence and the limited number of trained Iraqi security forces, Zebari has requested that the resolution be extended until the political transition is completed, or until Iraq can provide for its security needs on its own. The council is expected to meet and approve the request next week. AP has more.

[JURIST] Hong Kong acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang [BBC profile] tendered his resignation Wednesday, shortly after the Legislative Council [official website, English] passed a controversial amendment to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance that will cut short the term of the next chief executive. Tsang's resignation will allow him to campaign for the July election to replace Hong Kong's former leader, Tung Chee-hwa, who abruptly resigned [JURIST report] in March. Tung's resignation led to a dispute over the length of the term to be served by his successor, and Chinese government officials decided that the winner of July's election would only serve two years, the remainder of Tung's term. Pro-democracy groups argued that the law clearly allowed Tung's elected replacement to serve a full five-year term. Hong Kong officials asked China's National People's Congress [official website] for an interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law [text, English]; the NPC endorsed a limited term [JURIST report] and asked Hong Kong's legislature to clarify the election ordinance by passing an amendment saying that if a chief executive resigned, the next elected leader would serve out the rest of the term. Read the Hong Kong goverment press release on Tsang's resignation. AP has more. Hong Kong's Standard has local coverage.

[JURIST] Leading Wednesday's international brief, South Africa's Constitutional Court [government website] has issued a unanimous ruling ordering the South African Department of Justice to expedite the alternative sentencing of the 62 individuals currently sitting on death row. South Africa [government website] placed a moratorium on all executions in 1989 and abolished the death penalty in 1995. Part of that ruling required that all individuals currently on death row be assigned alternative sentences in a new hearing. The Constitutional Court ruled on the issue following a suit brought by four men who had been death row inmates since before the moratorium went into effect and were still waiting for a change of sentence. The Court ruled that new trials were not required for current death row inmates, but did find that the Department of Justice [government website] had been unacceptably slow in applying new sentences. The Court ordered a progress report from the Justice Department by August 15. Read the full judgement [official PDF text] of the Constitutional Court. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Africa [JURIST news archive]. South Africa's News 24 has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• The largest NGO in Zimbabwe [government website], the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights [Zim Human Rights Forum backgrounder] has announced its intent to sue the city government of Harare for its recent crackdown on illegal street vendors [JURIST report] and unlicensed housing. ZLHR alleges that the actions by police and city officials in arresting nearly 10,000 street vendors and abolishing the unlicensed dwellings of nearly 50% of the city's inhabitants is a violation of those citizens' rights under Zimbabwean law. ZLHR is specifically challenging the lack of any court order authorizing the actions of police and public works officials. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST news archive]. Zim Online has local coverage.
  
  
• The Central African Republic has announced final official election results for its three month long parliamentary and presidental polls. Francois Bozize [Wikipedia profile] won nearly 65% of the vote in what international observers and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan referred to as an "exemplary election process." CAR has been in a state of political unrest since Bozize seized power from a largely corrupt government in 2003 with the backing of a popular revolution. Since then, the country has faced increasing economic hardships and is currently seeking to resume negotiations with the World Bank [official website] and the International Monetary Fund [official website] to obtain funding to pay nearly five months of back salary for civil servants. IRIN has more.

[JURIST] After three hours of talks Wednesday, Iran agreed to maintain a suspension of its nuclear program while European Union foreign ministers agreed to come up with further proposals and give them to Iran in July or August of this year. The European group, including ministers from Britain, Germany, and France met with Iranian officials after months of fruitless meetings seemed to be pushing the EU to the US position - that Iran be placed before the UN Security Council [official website] for suspected nuclear development in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty [UN backgrounder]. In hopes of a long term agreement over the nuclear program, the EU had previously used economic incentives and a free trade pact to entice Iran into cooperation [JURIST report]. Tehran has indicated that some of the more sensitive nuclear work could be performed abroad and that it may authorize the presence of international inspectors on a permanent basis. AFP has more.

[JURIST] With the last ten opinion polls putting the no [Gaullist website] camp ahead, suggesting that the European Union constitutional treaty will be rejected when French voters go to the polls Sunday, those members of the yes [Ensemble pour le "oui" website] campaign not resigned to losing are desperate to reach undecided voters. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin [Wikipedia profile] has said that with up to 20 percent of voters undecided it was foolish for the "Oui" camp to abandon hope. President Jacques Chirac [official website] is due to appear on television Thursday evening to urge voters to endorse the more democratic, better integrated EU he believes the constitution will provide. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Activists calling for a boycott of the government-supported referendum [JURIST report] on constitutional changes to clear the way for multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt were beaten and arrested by policemen and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak [official website] on Wednesday. The demonstrators say the referendum offers no real democratic changes and instead insures that Mubarak will not face any serious challengers, allowing the National Democratic Party [official website] to maintain its tight control in Egypt. In some instances during the protests, members of the anti-Mubarak movement Kifaya [Wikipedia entry] were beaten by pro-Mubarak gangs as police withdrew their forces to allow the attacks to continue. The referendum, expected to receive the necessary 51% of votes, will lay out the rules for the upcoming September elections. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen [court profile] to the US Circuit Court of Appeals by a 56-43 vote that fell largely along party lines. The vote was the first to confirm one of President Bush's disputed judicial nominees and was made possible by the compromise [JURIST report] implemented to avert the "nuclear option" of banning judicial filibusters. Owen was among ten appeals court candidates blocked by Senate Democrats in the last Congress. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] International donors and African countries meet Thursday to discuss increasing their support for the African Union's peacekeeping efforts. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konaré will host the conference, which will bring together officials from the United States, European Union countries and African nations to increase support for the African Union mission in Sudan (AMIS) for Darfur. The African Union [official website], a 53-member pan-African body, is seeking $480 million from various international sources to triple its peacekeeping presence in Sudan's Darfur region. The AU has deployed 2,300 troops to monitor the cease-fire in the region that has lost 180,000 people to disease, famine and violence. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Amnesty International Wednesday released [press release] its 2005 Report [overview], condemning governments for failing to show principled leadership, betraying promises on human rights, failing to confront their lack of success with fighting terrorism, and persisting with failed but politically convenient strategies. The report says US policies which came to light after the Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive] prisoner abuse allegations, "dilute the absolute ban on torture". According to the summary of Amnesty's findings on the US:

Photographic evidence of the torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by US soldiers became public in late April, causing widespread national and international concern. President Bush and other officials immediately asserted that the problem was restricted to Abu Ghraib and a few wayward soldiers.

On 22 June, after the leaking of earlier government documents relating to the "war on terror" suggesting that torture and ill-treatment had been envisaged, the administration took the step of declassifying selected documents to "set the record straight". However, the released documents showed that the administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the UN Convention against Torture and that the President had stated in a central policy memorandum dated 7 February 2002 that, although the USA's values "call for us to treat detainees humanely", there are some "who are not legally entitled to such treatment". The documents discussed, among other things, ways in which US agents could avoid the international prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including by arguing that the President could override international and national laws prohibiting such treatment....

[JURIST] Indiana governor Mitch Daniels refused [press release] to grant clemency or a 90-day stay of execution for Gregory Scott Johnson, a convicted murderer [Indiana Supreme Court's denial of post conviction relief] who hoped to give his kidney and liver to his sister, who suffers from non-alcoholic hepatitis. In a statement released after his death Wednesday morning, Johnson accused the parole board of failing to recognize he had changed while in prison and was capable of this humane act. The governor said he would have been amenable to a short delay if Johnson's donation offered "a clear, demonstrated medical advantage to his sister." Doctors decided Johnson was not a good match because of his weight and hepatitis B diagnosis, and the doctors reasoned Johnson's sister would likely get a liver and kidney from the transplant waiting list shortly. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), has dropped her plan to use procedural delays to postpone a debate on the nomination of John Bolton [official profile] to become US Ambassador to the United Nations. Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) plans to begin the debate on Bolton's nomination on Wednesday and a vote is expected by the end of the week. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] The US House voted 238-194 Tuesday to loosen restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and the legislation now goes to the Senate, where it has strong bi-partisan support. However, President Bush has promised [Washington Post report] to veto the bill. Under the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act [bill summary], the federal government could fund research involving embryonic stem cells donated from fertility clinics, regardless of when they were created. Although the majority fell far short of the two-thirds needed to override a veto, sponsors of the legislation, Reps. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) [Castle's stem cell website] and Dianna DeGette (D-Colo.) [official website] hope the vote will convince the President that a compromise is needed. A recent Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans find stem cell research morally acceptable. In a separate vote Tuesday, the House also approved 431-1 the Stem Cell Therapeutic Research Act [text], to provide $79 million in federal funds to collect stem cells from umbilical cord blood, facilitate medical research on therapeutic uses, and set up a national registry to help patients find matches. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Justice Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola [profile], President of the Special Court of Sierra Leone [official website], the tribunal created by the UN to hear cases of serious crimes committed during the West African country's civil war, warned [SCSL statement, PDF] the UN Security Council Tuesday that the court was close to financial crisis. The justice asked for $40 million in financial support and urged the Council [press release] to assist in maintaining security and securing the transfer of indictees still at large, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile], and the leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, Paul Koroma. Council members expressed [statement by Security Council President Ellen Margrethe Loj] their strong support of the court and urged other UN states to make voluntary contributions. UN News Centre has more.