[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] announced Friday that the Swedish government has accepted [ICTY statement] its invitation to conduct an audit of the Scheveningen detention unit [BBC backgrounder] outside of The Hague where Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] died [JURIST report] of a heart attack in mid-March. The audit will cover all areas relating to the management and administration of the unit, but it may not extend to actual conditions of detention, overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Operations at Scheveningen have been independently audited before, but suggestions in the wake of Milosevic's death that security was inadequate and that unauthorized drugs and other substances could be and have been brought into the prison have put pressure on the ICTY to seek this latest review. The speculation surrounding Scheveningen has been made all the more compelling by the possibility of new high-profile detainees arriving there in the future, including former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic [JURIST news archive] if and when he is surrendered, and ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor, presuming his trial is shifted from Sierra Leone [JURIST report] as requested by the Chief Prosecutor of the UN-backed Special Court there. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] sparred Friday at a hearing [agenda and statements] on a resolution [text, PDF; JURIST news archive] put forward by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) [official website] to censure President Bush for his approval of the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program [JURIST news archive]. Republican senators expressed dismay at the censure resolution, asserting that some Democrats simply want to score political points in an election year and condemning the censure resolution as a threat to national security. Feingold meanwhile continued to challenge Bush’s actions [statement] declaring censure necessary for Congress to “stand up for ourselves and the American people, [so] we [do not] become complicit in the lawbreaking.” Committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] insisted that Feingold’s resolution lacked merit, but embraced the opportunity to discuss the issues surrounding the NSA wiretapping program in depth. Expert witness John Dean [Wikipedia backgrounder], a former White House lawyer for President Nixon involved in the Watergate coverup, spoke in favor of censure, suggesting that "Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented."

The Judiciary Committee did not vote on the resolution on Friday, and likely will not vote on it at all. Sen. Feingold introduced [JURIST report] the censure resolution in early March, receiving only lukewarm reception [JURIST report] from fellow Democrats. AP has more. The New York Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Desmond de Silva told the Associated Press in an interview Friday that Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] is being closely guarded by UN peacekeepers from Mongolia and Ireland as he awaits a war crimes trial. The prison where Taylor is being held has taken extraordinary measures to prevent his escape, given his experience in other facilities. On Thursday that SCSL asked the Netherlands [JURIST report] to host Taylor’s war crimes trial in The Hague, on the basis that keeping it in Sierra Leone could create instability and threaten peace in the country. The Dutch government hopes a UN Security Council resolution will give a solid legal basis for such a transfer, and Dutch officials said Friday that an appropriate resolution could pass within days. In the meantime, however, Taylor's first court appearance [AFP report] is scheduled to take place at the SCSL building in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Monday.

Taylor, who was arrested [JURIST report] in Nigeria Wednesday while trying to flee to Cameroon, faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity under an amended indictment [PDF text; PDF case timeline] for his role in Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war and for masterminding several West African regional conflicts that claimed up to 300,000 lives. AP has more.

[JURIST] The EU on Friday extended its deadline for Serbia [JURIST news archive] to hand over wanted war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] to April 30 after chief ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte [BBC News profile, JURIST news archive] confirmed the country's willingness to cooperate with the tribunal. Mladic has been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] for genocide and crimes against humanity including the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre [JURIST report]. Based upon del Ponte's favorable report, the EU decided not to suspend membership talks with Serbia [JURIST report] as it warned was a possibility. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn [official website] said Friday that he has received a "firm commitment" from the Serbian prime minister that efforts would be made to "locate, arrest and transfer" Mladic to the ICTY "without delay."

The ICTY has pressured Serbia to deliver Mladic to The Hague for some time, while Serbia has requested patience on the matter [JURIST report], citing a "complex political situation" as the source of delay. AP has more.

[JURIST] French President Jacques Chirac [official profile] said Friday that he will sign the First Employment Contract (CPE) [text], a controversial labor law which, in its current form, includes a provision allowing employers to hire workers under 26 for a conditional two-year period at the end of which they can be dismissed without cause. In a televised address [transcript, in French; recorded video via TF1; recorded audio], Chirac said he supported the law because it had been approved by Parliament and because he believed it could be "an effective tool for employment", but he promised to urge the goverment of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [official profile] to make immediate amendments, including shortening the period during which younger workers can be fired and requiring employers to provide a basis for dismissal.

The CPE [official backgrounder, in English; JURIST news archive] has sparked a wave of protests [JURIST report] across France in recent weeks, primarily by students and labor unionists who fear it will increase unemployment and destroy job security among younger workers. Earlier this week, many workers went on strike [JURIST report] and over a million people demonstrated across the country. France's Constitutional Council [official website] on Thursday ruled [decision, in French; case materials, in French] that the law does not violate the country's constitution [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Labor Law Protests in France: 1968 Encore? | Comment: French labor law protests and the Constitutional Council ruling

[JURIST] Tony Rudy [SourceWatch backgrounder], former deputy chief of staff and press secretary to US Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) [official website, JURIST news archive], pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy Friday. Rudy admitted to working with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff [BBC Q&A, JURIST report], among other people, to corrupt public officials and defraud clients while he was employed by DeLay and later while a partner in the now defunct [Washington Post report] Washington lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group [SourceWatch backgrounder]. The plea deal [press release] contains no allegations of wrongdoing by DeLay, but court documents [criminal information, PDF] do state that Rudy was involved in planning a golf trip to Scotland for Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) [official website] and members of his staff. Rudy's plea also includes a promise to cooperate in further investigations of bribery and lobbying fraud. In exchange, prosecutors will not further charge Rudy or his wife.

Rudy faces a maximum of five years in prison, but US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle [official profile] stated that he could receive much less time based upon his admission of the crime, lack of criminal record, and participation in the ongoing investigation. That participation is expected to provide a "crucial window" [Bloomberg report] into federal lobbying fraud investigations. Abramoff's indictment for bank fraud [JURIST report] sparked a federal probe [JURIST report] into lobbying practices, resulting in three arrests and the lobbying reform bill [JURIST report] passed by the US Senate earlier this week. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a verdict upholding gender equality, the Supreme Court of Nepal [official website] ruled Thursday that men can no longer divorce their wives on grounds of the latter's infertility. A special bench of the court declared a provision in the 43-year old Civil Code relating to husband and wife "ultra vires." The discriminatory provision in the code let men seek divorce if their spouses could not give birth to any children for 10 years since marriage and their partner's infertility was affirmed by a government-recognized medical board.

The bench also ordered the Nepalese government to formulate a non-discriminatory marital law. "The verdict is a step forward towards gender equality," advocate Mira Dhungana, who challenged the provision at the court, commented. Women's rights activists said the verdict is a step forward toward gender equality in this Himalayan Kingdom where patriarchal social system is pervasive. It is not known how many women have become victims of the discriminatory provision. "We do not know the exact number of women who have suffered from the discriminatory provision. But we have received many complaints," said Dhunga, who represents FWLD, an NGO working for justice for women in Nepal.

The gender-biased provision has been in existence since 1963 despite the fact that Nepal's constitution [text] prohibits gender discrimination and Nepal signed the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women [text] in 1979.

Kiran Chapagain is a special correspondent for JURIST writing from Nepal. He is an Assistant Senior Reporter for the Kathmandu Post.

[JURIST] Polish prosecutors on Friday charged General Wojciech Jaruzelski [BBC profile] with "organizing crimes of a military nature" and "carrying out crimes that consisted of the deprivation of freedom through internment" for his imposition of martial law [Polish government backgrounder] in Poland on December 13, 1981. The charges, which prosecutors have been preparing [JURIST report] since late last year, were brought by the Institute of National Remembrance [official website], a government body responsible for looking into Nazi-era and Communist-era crimes. Jaruzelski was previously tried for ordering troops to fire on striking ship workers [BBC report] in the 1970s, but the trial ended without a verdict and a second trial is expected.

About 100 people are said to have died as a result of the declaration of martial law and subsequent arrests of Solidarity movement [official website] leaders, including Lech Walesa [BBC profile], and approximately 10,000 people were held in internment camps during martial law. Jaruzelski has argued that his decision to impose martial law was necessary to maintain order and prevent foreign intervention in Poland. BBC News has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] has called for the United Nations [official website] to reduce the number of reports it produces each year as part of his ongoing UN reform [JURIST news archive, UN materials] agenda first announced in March 2005. In a report [text and resources] delivered to the General Assembly [press release] on Thursday, Annan indicated that the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights alone produced more than 44,000 pages of documents in 2004 which were then translated into six official languages. Annan said the huge volume of reports requested and produced threatens to overwhelm the UN, and called for the 191 member states to fund the things they ask for and reduce their demands.

The report also called for a sweeping overhaul of the UN bureaucracy, responding to critics who have long questioned its many reports, statements, conferences, and expert panels, claiming that dozens of committees are redundant or are assigned to study outdated issues. Annan also proposed a review of any UN mandate more than five years old in order to eliminate or streamline redundant or outdated requests, and urged the General Assembly [official website] to reconsider their practice of automatically renewing the mandates every year. AP has more. The UN News Centre has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Alabama House of Representatives [official website] has unanimously passed a bill that would pardon Rosa Parks [TIME profile] and others arrested for violating segregation-era laws. Under the proposal, arrest records of those pardoned would not be removed from the public record, but instead would be sent to the Alabama Department of Archives and History [official website] in order to preserve the history of the Civil Rights era. The bill now goes the Alabama Senate [official website] for debate.

Parks was known as the "mother of the civil rights movement" for her arrest in December 1955 after refusing to give her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. She died last year [JURIST report] at the age of 92. AP has more.

[JURIST] Manfred Nowak [official profile, DOC], the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], has said that he is certain that the United States has secret detention facilities in Europe [JURIST news archive] and has demanded access to the facilities. In an interview with the Associated Press Thursday, Nowak cited the refusal [JURIST report] of the United States to provide details of interrogations used in terrorism trials in Germany as evidence, but did not say how this proved the existence of secret US facilities. Allegations of secret CIA-run detention facilities have prompted separate investigations by the European Parliament [official website] and the Council of Europe [official website]. US officials have neither confirmed nor denied the accusations and refuse to comment on matters of intelligence. A recent report [PDF text; COE materials] from COE Secretary General Terry Davis found no evidence [JURIST report] of secret US prisons in Europe. Investigators conducting a separate inquiry for the COE's parliamentary assembly, however, have asserted [JURIST report] that secret US prisons exist in Europe, but thus far have been unable to provide concrete proof.

The US has also come under heavy scrutiny [JURIST report] from Human Rights Watch [HRW backgrounder] and Amnesty International [AI report] which have joined in accusing the US of running secret prison centers in Europe and of transporting suspects to the prisons on rendition flights [JURIST news archive]. The United States has been at the center of investigations into secret prisons and rendition of prisoners for the past several months, but continues to defend the legality of its rendition practices [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The FBI has said that it will look into allegations of illegal activities connected to the distribution of millions of dollars worth of Red Cross [official website] supplies in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. The announcement [Red Cross press release] comes in the midst of a pending state investigation [JURIST report] regarding similar accusations. Investigators will look into reports of improper diversion of supplies, the hiring of felons, and other breaches of Red Cross rules. The Red Cross has already severed ties with three volunteers as a result of the allegations.

The case will be investigated by the Katrina Fraud Task Force [official website], a group of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies headed by the Department of Justice, that will investigate past and continuing abuses in the relief effort. Jack McGuire, interim president and CEO of the Red Cross, said that $2 million in emergency funds that was obtained by fraud or improperly distributed has already been returned to the Red Cross and he urged more people to come forward with information related to the improprieties. Friday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The US Transportation Security Administration lawyer who allegedly coached government witnesses [JURIST report] in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial [JURIST news archive] and nearly scuttled the prosecution's case is under criminal investigation by the US Attorney's Office in Philadelphia and "may very well" face charges, according to newly-unsealed minutes of a March 21 hearing involving Judge Leonie Brinkema and other lawyers. Carla Martin [Wikipedia profile] shared portions of the prosecution's argument with Federal Aviation Administration witnesses despite Brinkema's witness sequestration order [PDF].

Martin's lawyer has characterized public reaction to her conduct as unwarranted, saying that she will explain herself in due time, but the TSA has placed her on administrative leave [JURIST report]. Her disclosure of part of the government case initially led Brinkema to reject [JURIST report] all aviation witnesses, testimony and exhibits presented by the government, which would have essentially gutted the government's case against Moussaoui. In response to a governmental motion to reconsider, Brinkema subsequently narrowed the order [JURIST report] to cover only evidence handled by Martin. Moussaoui faces the death penalty if the government can prove that disclosure to the FBI of his al Qaeda links following his arrest in August 2001 might have prevented the Sept. 11 terror attacks. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy [LII profile] on Thursday urged greater attention to reports of genocide in Sudan's Darfur region [HRW materials]. In a speech to the annual meeting [agenda] of the American Society of International Law [official website] in Washington, DC, Kennedy said that lawyers have a responsibility to work to prevent genocide and that "It is the duty of the world to do more than watch." Kennedy pointed to the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder] and said that should serve as a lesson to the world.

The International Criminal Court [official website] last year launched an investigation [JURIST report] into war crimes allegations stemming from the Darfur conflict [JURIST news archive], though no international prosecutions have yet begun. Sudan has established its own courts to try Darfur war criminals, but international observers have expressed doubt [JURIST report] over whether the Sudanese judicial system is capable of effectively prosecuting those involved in human rights abuses there. The Sudanese government has also denied that the conflict rises to the level of genocide, although the characterization has been repeatedly used by US government officials [JURIST report]. AP has more. Tony Mauro of the Legal Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Over 780 new allegations of clergy sex abuse [JURIST news archive] were reported to the US Catholic Church in 2005, though a majority of the claims relate to incidents which occurred in past decades, according to a new audit released Thursday by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops [official website]. The report [PDF text; press release] is the third annual audit released by the church to monitor compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People [text], drafted in 2002 in response to widespread reports of sexual abuse committed by clergymen. In addition to the new abuse allegations, the report also notes that only 88.5 percent of dioceses were in full compliance with the charter, down from 95 percent in 2004. The 2005 report has come under some criticism as the review was not conducted according to the same methods as previous audits [JURIST report]. In 2003 and 2004, all 195 dioceses were visited on-site, but in 2005, 104 dioceses filled out questionnaires while the remainder were visited by auditors.

The church has received over 12,000 abuse claims since 1950, including the 783 new accusations raised in 2005. Catholic dioceses have spent over $1 billion since 1950 to deal with the problem, and almost $467 million in 2005 which includes a $22 million settlement [JURIST report] by the Hartford Archdiocese and a $56 million settlement [JURIST report] by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland in California. AP has more.