[JURIST] British families of soldiers killed in Iraq petitioned the UK High Court Thursday for permission to launch a legal challenge against the government's refusal to hold an independent inquiry into the country's involvement in the Iraq war. Their group, Military Families Against the War [advocacy website], which called for an inquiry [JURIST report] in May, argues that the refusal violates article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text] requiring that a proper, adequate investigation be conducted when lives are lost. A lawyer for the families said in a hearing Thursday that an investigation was necessary unless the war in Iraq was found to be legal under international and domestic law. Earlier this year, the families filed suit against UK Prime Minister Tony Blair for war crimes [JURIST report] in the International Criminal Court [official website]. Blair has said it is not necessary to go "back over this ground again and again" since the inquiry has already been denied. From the UK, the Guardian has local coverage.

[JURIST] Syria has requested a formal "cooperation protocol" with the United Nations which would govern the country's assistance with a UN investigation [UN materials] into the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri [JURIST news archive]. A draft given to the UN indicates that Syria wants chief UN investigator and German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis to only question suspects and potential witnesses inside Syria with their lawyers present, and also wants Mehlis to share his findings with Syrian investigators [JURIST report]. The UN Security Council [official website] has said that it will not accept Syria's cooperation restrictions. Mehlis, who released an interim report [text] last month saying he has evidence of Syrian and Lebanese involvement in Hariri's murder, has insisted on questioning six key Syrian officials but a venue for the interviews has not been agreed upon [JURIST report]. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara indicated that the document was only a starting point for negotiations and that the country may give in to a venue decision if an agreement is reached, but also said that a rejection of the document shows that the UN is not cooperating with Syria. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Dutch Foreign Ministry [official website] said Wednesday that the Netherlands [JURIST news archive] wants to secure a prisoners' rights guarantee in Afghanistan with its NATO [official website] allies, including the United States, before deciding whether to send additional troops there. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot [official profile] told parliament "We want very good guarantees. That is an important condition for the cabinet for taking a decision concerning a new, dangerous mission with a thousand soldiers to the Southern Afghan province of Uruzgan." The Netherlands currently have approximately 330 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of a 12,500-member International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) [official website] peacekeeping operation led by NATO. The US has asked its European allies to carry more of the burden of combatting the Taliban in Afghanistan after receiving sharp criticism by human rights groups and former detainees regarding prisoner abuse [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] New German chancellor Angela Merkel [official website in German; campaign website; BBC profile] said Wednesday that she plans to revive the European constitution [JURIST news archive], on hold since French and Dutch voters rejected the charter [JURIST reports] earlier this year. While indicating that the charter will be at the top of her agenda when Berlin assumes the EU presidency [current UK presidency website] in 2007, the first woman chancellor said Germany will "not be pushing too hard" for the charter's adoption, but will rather "wait for things to happen first." Merkel also said the German government does not want to split up the constitution but seeks ratification of the charter as a whole. EUobserver has more.

[JURIST] Austria has joined several other countries investigating whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] conducted unauthorized flights through their airspace in 2003 while transporting terror detainees. An Austrian air force commander told state radio that a US transport plane traveling from Germany to Azerbaijan crossed Austrian airspace on Jan. 21, 2003. Austria refused to allow the US to use its airspace during the invasion of Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, said the US would not disclose which countries a military plane may fly over "or make brief refueling stops in during detainee movements ... (because) doing so would constitute a safety risk to both the detainees and our troops." Since it was alleged in early November that the US may have interrogated key suspects in secret prisons [JURIST report] in eastern Europe, several countries have begun investigating whether CIA aircraft entered their airspace. Airports or airspace may have been used in Spain, Cyprus, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Macedonia and Malta, as well as the US air base at Ramstein, Germany. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase:

• Memphis law office implicated in CIA rendition flights
• Canada investigates reports of CIA prisoner flights
• CIA prison flights may have refueled in Romania
• Sweden opens inquiry into alleged CIA plane landings
• Spain to investigate CIA prisoner transfers
• European court considering probe into CIA rendition practices

[JURIST] Defense lawyers in the Saddam Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] announced Thursday that they will attend the next session of the trial scheduled for November 28 despite the recent assassination of two of their colleagues. The defense team had threatened to boycott the proceeding unless security was provided to both the lawyers and their families, which has not been forthcoming. Defense spokesman Issam Ghazawi said "The lawyers are forced to attend the hearings, despite serious threats on their lives, but they want to do that to serve justice." On October 20, lawyer Saadoun al-Janabi was kidnapped and killed [JURIST report]. On November 8, Adel al-Zubeidi was killed and Thamir al-Khuzaie was wounded [JURIST report] in an ambush. AP has more.

[JURIST] Members of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website; JURIST news archive] meeting in Vienna agreed Thursday to pursue a Russian compromise proposal rather than report Tehran to the UN Security Council [JURIST report] for its nuclear activities. Iran has refused to suspend uranium enrichment, claiming it wants to develop its nuclear power capabilities, not weapons. Moscow has proposed allowing Iran to conduct uranium processing in Iran, then sending the material to Russia, where a Russian-Iranian joint venture would handle the critical enrichment process. The decision not to refer Iran to the Security Council [official website] was likely endorsed by the US and EU so as to avoid disagreements with Russia and China. The European Union has expressed concern that Iran received papers from black marketeers describing in part how to build the core of a nuclear bomb. Peter Jenkins, British envoy to the IAEA, said while the EU had opted to give Iran more time to weigh Moscow's proposal, the "widow of opportunity" will not remain open indefinitely. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A group of gay marriage opponents in Massachusetts said Wednesday they had gathered enough signatures to put a proposed constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage on the state ballot. The group, lead by the Massachusetts Family Institute [advocacy website] and comprised of Christian and conservative activists, was required to gather 65,825 signatures before state lawmakers could decide whether to put the question to a public referendum in 2008. If the petition signatures are verified, supporters of the constitutional amendment would still need 25% of the legislators in the 200-member state legislature to support it in two sittings, once in 2006 and once in 2007, before the issue could reach voters in 2008. In September, State Attorney General Tom Reilly ruled [JURIST report] that the state constitution [text] allows voters to overturn court decisions, permitting supporters to move forward with the process to have the initiative placed on the ballot. Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts was legalized by May 2004 ruling of the state Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health [PDF]. Gay rights [JURIST news archive] lawyers plan to sue the attorney general, arguing a ballot initiative cannot overturn the judicial decree. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The National Education Association (NEA) [association website] has promised to appeal a Wednesday ruling by a federal judge in Michigan dismissing its lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) [PDF text; executive summary; US Dept. Ed. factsheet]. According to the complaint [PDF; NEA case summary], filed by the NEA and individual school districts in Texas, Michigan and Vermont, school districts should not be forced to comply with parts of the law not funded by the federal government. US District Judge Bernard Friedman held that if Congress had intended the law to be fully funded, it would have done so in the legislation. NCLB requires states improve their academic achievement and measure progress through standardized tests. School districts whose students fail to make progress may be sanctioned with loss of funding, dismissal of and replacement of staff, or the transfer of students to better performing schools. NEA President Reg Weaver said [NEA press release], "Parents in communities where school districts are financially strained were promised that this law would close the achievement gaps. Instead, their tax dollars are being used to cover unpaid bills sent from Washington for costly regulations that do not help improve education." AP has more. The NEA has more on the legal challenge. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] has not yet posted Judge Friedman's decision.

[JURIST] Leading Thursday's international brief, the Turkish Parliament [government website in Turkish] has voted to investigate the grenade bombing of a former Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) [advocacy website] member in the primarily Kurdish town of Semdinli. The attacker, an informant for the paramilitary police, was chased from the scene and captured at his vehicle, along with two paramilitary police officers. Parliament set up a 12 member commission to investigate the connection between the bombing and the police and military officials. The commission will have the power to recommend prosecution of suspects from its investigation. Kurdish opposition groups have long maintained that the Turkish government allows extra-judicial attacks by its military and paramilitary police forces. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Turkey [JURIST news archive]. Reuters has more.

In other international legal news ...

• The UN Security Council [official website] passed Resolution 1640 on Wednesday threatening Eritrea with sanctions unless the nation lifts the restrictions it instituted at the beginning of October against UN peacekeeping forces patrolling the Eritrean-Ethiopian border. The restrictions prohibited members of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea [official website] from flying helicopters within a buffer zone above the contested border and denied peacekeepers the right to patrol the border region at night. The restrictions have led to UN forces leaving 18 of its 40 posts in the area and prompted the Security Council to threaten sanctions against the government if it continues to enforce the restrictions. Read the official UN press release. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage
  
  
• The Ugandan Government [official website] announced Wednesday that it has suspended all public demonstrations and meetings concerning the arrest and trial of Kizza Besigye [BBC profile], president of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change party and chief challenger to incumbent President Yoweri Museveni in the 2006 election, on charges of treason and rape [JURIST report]. Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda also announced that all radio programs were prohibited from mentioning the trial until its conclusion before the courts. On Thursday, the Ugandan government stepped up security around the courthouse where Besigye is being tried. Besigye was granted bail, but didn't leave the jail when it became apparent that military police were on hand to rearrest him on charges before the military court. The US government has called on Uganda [JURIST report] to ensure that the trial is completed prior to the scheduled 2006 election. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Uganda [JURIST news archive]. IRIN News has more.
  
  
• South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has received the case file from the Praetorian police concerning allegations that former South African Vice-President Jacob Zuma [ANC profile] committed rape. The NPA has the authority to decide whether or not to pursue a criminal prosecution of any individual. Zuma, fired by South African President Thabo Mbeki [official profile] for allegations of corruption [JURIST report], has been the center of controversy for the ruling African National Congress party [official website], as many constituents still support Zuma as Mbeki's natural political successor and view the corruption and now the rape charges as political tactics to ensure he cannot run for office. The NPA said a spokesman will announce its decision, but refuses to comment any further in the interests of the accused's rights. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Africa [JURIST news archive]. South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online has local coverage.