[JURIST] Making the first US appearance before the UN Human Rights Committee [committee materials] in more than a decade, American officials on Monday defended their position that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [text] does not govern many aspects of the war on terror. In a media roundtable [transcript] in conjunction with a committee hearing in Geneva, Mark Lagon [official profile], deputy assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, said that US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and practices such as extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] "lie beyond the scope of the treaty" because they either involve US conduct outside American territory or are governed by the law of war rather than human rights law. Lagon said that the US would nevertheless answer committee members' questions about those matters "as a matter of openness to the international community." In his opening statement [text] to the committee, Matthew Waxman [official profile], principal deputy director for policy planning at the State Department and the leader of the American delegation in Geneva, said:

it is the long-standing view of the United States that the Covenant by its very terms does not apply outside of the territory of a State Party. We are aware of the views of members of this Committee regarding the extraterritorial application of the Covenant, including the Committee's General Comment No. 31. While we have great respect for the Committee’s views, as the Committee is aware, the United States has a principled and long-held view that the Covenant applies only to a State Party's territory. It is the long-standing view of my government that applying the basic rules for the interpretation of treaties described in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties leads to the conclusion that the language in Article 2, Paragraph 1, establishes that States Parties are required to respect and ensure the rights in the Covenant only to individuals who are BOTH within the territory of a State Party and subject to its jurisdiction. ...

Accordingly, to those who suggest that the U.S. interpretation regarding the scope of the treaty is new or novel, I must say that this is simply not fair or correct. This has been the U.S. position for more than 55 years.

Although we explained the U.S. interpretation of the territorial scope of the Covenant in great detail in Annex 1 of the report, I have reiterated and expanded upon it here for two reasons. First, because the United States is committed to upholding its Covenant obligations, it is important that the United States state when those obligations apply. Let me be clear: while the U.S. obligations under the Covenant do not apply outside of U.S. territory, it is important to recall that there is a body of both domestic and international law that protects individuals outside U.S. territory. Furthermore, as a matter of domestic U.S. constitutional law, U.S. citizens enjoy a wide range of constitutional protections outside of U.S. territory.

Second, clarifying our position on the scope of the Covenant, we hope, is useful in explaining our responses to this Committee's questions relating to military operations outside the territory of the United States. In keeping with the approach we took in drafting the U.S. report, and in light of our principled and longstanding view on the scope and application of U.S. obligations under the Covenant, the United States has not included in its formal response to the Committee's written questions information regarding activities outside of its territory or governed by the law of armed conflict.

[JURIST] Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer [official website; BBC profile] has signed the controversial anti-terrorism bill which the country's parliament [official website] passed [JURIST report] on June 29, but says he will allow the country's constitutional court [official website] to delete several clauses without specifying which would be stricken. The law has been criticized by media and human rights groups which claim legislators approved the measure in order to increase the country's likelihood for a successful membership bid [JURIST report] to the European Union [official website]. The bill allows for one to three-year prison sentences for individuals who publish statements given by terrorist organizations, which press groups claim diminishes the eased restrictions on media outlets provided by the government over the past few years.

The new law also establishes prison sentences for spreading terrorist propaganda and allows judges to give 30-day suspensions to publications that praise terrorist acts. The bill was proposed [JURIST report] after a surge in violent acts committed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party [FAS backgrounder], which is deemed to be a terrorist group by Turkey, the US, and the European Union. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] Monday approved a bill by voice vote that would make a 2000 treaty between the US and Russia [text] effective to protect the future of the world's polar bears (Ursus maritimus) [backgrounder; video]. The bill establishes quotas for allowable polar bear hunting in the two countries and prohibits the possession, sale or purchase of any polar bear or polar bear part not authorized by the treaty. The bill also calls for the creation of a joint committee between the US and Russia to ensure compliance with the treaty and budgets $2 million per year to fund the compliance program until the year 2010.

Currently, the US only allows native populations to hunt polar bears for subsistence. According to the Bering Sea Ecoregion Program of the World Wildlife Fund, Russia has not allowed polar bear hunting since 1956, but illegal hunting has been a problem in the country. The Polar Bear Specialist Group [advocacy website] of the World Conservation Union [advocacy website] cites climatic warming, pollution and overhunting as major threats to the polar bear population. In June, the US Senate [official website] approved a bill [PDF] similar to the one passed Monday and the details of the two measures will need to be reconciled. Earlier this year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service [official website] initiated a status review of the polar bear [JURIST report] to determine whether it should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Democratic Party officials in Missouri [JURIST news archive] filed a class-action lawsuit Monday seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of a new state law [SB 1014 summary; text] that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls [Missouri Dept. Revenue backgrounder]. The law, signed by Gov. Matt Blunt [governor's press release] last month, allows voters who can't produce ID to cast provisional ballots that will be checked against signatures in election records. The plaintiffs argue that the law violates a provision of the Missouri Constitution [Article X Section 21 text] prohibiting the state government from passing on unfunded mandates to local governments and that it would disenfranchise some voters.

A similar law in Georgia is also being challenged in court. Last week, a federal district judge there issued a preliminary injunction [JURIST report] against the Georgia legislation, suggesting that it may unconstitutionally discriminate against some voters. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Chile [official website] has upheld a lower court's ruling stripping former dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive] of immunity, allowing a homicide case against him to proceed. The court's public relations office announced Monday that the justices had voted to uphold the appellate court's decision [JURIST report], although they have not yet written an opinion. Pinochet may now be prosecuted for the firing-squad deaths of two bodyguards of former President Salvador Allende during the so-called Caravan of Death [BBC backgrounder] that followed the coup in which Pinochet seized power and Allende was killed. Pinochet was originally charged in the case in 2000, but the Chilean Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that he was unfit to stand trial because of dementia and other ailments. Last year, however, the court ruled [JURIST report] that Pinochet was not too ill to stand trial on other charges of human right abuses.

A judge questioned Pinochet this month [Prensa Latina report] in another Caravan of Death case. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Pinochet claimed not to remember the killing at issue in that case but appeared to be lucid. Earlier this year, a Chilean judge announced indictments [JURIST report] and ordered the arrests of 13 retired military officers accused of directly participating in the Caravan of Death. Reuters has more. From Santiago, La Nacion has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] and EU diplomats have criticized a new Serbian plan to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] as too vague, although they acknowledged "positive elements." The six-point document [FT report], which Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [official profile] discussed with EU diplomats Monday in Brussels, emphasizes improved coordination between Serb authorities and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive], greater involvement of Serbian intelligence agencies and a better understanding of the arrest effort among the public, promoted through the media. Serbia hopes the plan can jump-start its EU membership talks [EU accession materials], which were suspended [JURIST report] in May because of Serbia's failure to capture and deliver Mladic. One diplomat who participated, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, expressed skepticism about Serbia's ability to carry through on the plan, saying, "I will believe it when I see it."

Mladic, who is believed to be hiding in Serbia [JURIST report], and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [JURIST news archive] are wanted by the ICTY for alleged crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including organizing the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [JURIST news archive]. The US has cut off financial aid to Serbia [JURIST report] because of its failure to arrest Mladic. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British Home Secretary John Reid [official profile; BBC profile] announced Monday that he is banning four groups under the UK Terrorism Act 2006 [PDF text; Home Office backgrounder]. The UK-based Al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect [advocacy websites], as well as the foreign groups Baluchistan Liberation Army [MIPT backgrounder] and Teyrebaz Azadiye Kurdistan, are the first groups to be named under a controversial Terrorist Act provision that criminalizes the "glorification" of terrorism. The act prohibits membership in the groups and encouragement of support for them. In announcing the bans, Reid said [Home Office press release]:

Proscribing these groups - which are either engaged in terrorism or which glorify terrorist acts - sends a strong signal that the United Kingdom is not prepared to tolerate those who support terrorism here or anywhere in the world.

I am determined to act against those who, while not directly involved in committing acts of terrorism, provide support for and make statements that glorify, celebrate and exalt the atrocities of terrorist groups. I am also committed to ensuring that those organisations that change their name do not avoid the consequences of proscription.

Protecting the public and strengthening national security is my top priority. Proscription powers are an important tool in our armoury in the fight against terrorism. The new, widened, criteria introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006 allows us to create an even more hostile environment in which terrorists find it more difficult to operate, and will assist us in tackling every part of the terrorist network.

[JURIST] The government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero [BBC profile] is planning to introduce a new law that will clear victims' names and "correct" trial records in an effort to bring justice to victims of former Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco [Wikipedia profile]. Some 55,000 people were killed during Franco's 36-year regime. Officials plan to reveal the text of the Law of Historical Memory on Friday, three days after the 70th anniversary of the civil war that brought Franco to power.

Though the government has kept a tight lid on the law, the proposal is expected to compensate victims for land seized by the government, increase pension benefits for victims and establish processes to identify those buried in unmarked graves. Spanish political parties agreed to not to speak about the Spanish civil war [Wikipedia backgrounder] after Franco died in 1975 in an effort to facilitate a peaceful transition to democracy. Victims groups had sought judicial recognition that Franco's regime was illegitimate [DPA report], but the law is not expected to include such a provision. EFE has more. The UK Guardian has additional coverage. El Pais has local coverage.

[JURIST] Leaders of the US House of Representatives [official website] have decided to move forward with a vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment [PDF text; H.J. Res. 88 summary], which would amend the US constitution to ban same-sex marriage, despite a failed vote on the Senate floor [JURIST report] in June. As with the Senate vote, the House vote on Tuesday is expected to fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to approve the measure. The House fell 40 votes short [JURIST report] of advancing the constitutional amendment two years ago.

President Bush urged Congress to approve the amendment [JURIST report] prior to the Senate debate, condemning "activist" judges [JURIST report] that have struck down state laws banning same-sex marriage. To become law, a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in each house of Congress followed by ratification by three-quarters of the states. AP has more.

[JURIST] British officials from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) [official website] have decided not to prosecute [CPS press release] any individual police officers for the death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot and killed by London police [JURIST report] last year after the July London bombings [JURIST news archive]. CPS said there is "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against any individual police officer." CPS will, however, charge [BBC Q&A] the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) [official website] under health and safety laws [backgrounder] for "failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of de Menezes, whom police mistook as a suicide bomber boarding a train. MPS officials expressed disappointment [MPS press release] about the health and safety charges under sections 3 and 33 of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act [text], but also expressed relief for the individual police officers involved in the death.

CPS originally hoped to charge individual police officers [JURIST report] who oversaw the operation with tampering with evidence and obstructing public justice, accusing police surveillance officers of trying to hide the fact that they had mistaken de Menezes for alleged terrorist Hussain Osman [BBC summary of charges] by changing a police log to read "And it was not Osman" instead of "it was Osman." Police allegedly made the change so that surveillance officers could claim the officers involved in the shooting had fired on the wrong man despite having been warned that he was not Osman. De Menezes' family has pushed for a public inquiry into the shooting and have brought a separate case against Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair [profile], claiming he misled the public in statements following the tragedy [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] and three co-defendants have entered their tenth day of a hunger strike [JURIST report] protesting the lack of security for defense lawyers in their trial, US military spokesman Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry said Monday. Hussein began the hunger strike in protest of trial court procedures and the killings of three defense lawyers, which the defendants believe occurred because of inadequate security provided by US forces. Curry said that all four defendants "are in good health and receiving appropriate medical care," noting that Hussein has been drinking coffee with sugar and water with nutrients.

Armed gunmen abducted and killed Hussein defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi [JURIST report] last month, just two days after the prosecution presented its closing arguments in the trial, calling for the death penalty [JURIST report] for Hussein and four of his co-defendants. Hussein went on a brief hunger strike [JURIST report] shortly afterwards. He and his seven co-defendants face crimes against humanity charges [JURIST report] of killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents, as well as committing other inhumane acts in response to an alleged 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein. The trial currently stands adjourned [JURIST report] until July 24 in hopes that lead defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi and his colleagues will end their latest boycott [JURIST report] of the proceedings, based in part on the same security concerns. AP has more.

[JURIST] The United States will not help Germany investigate the alleged abduction of Khaled el-Masri [JURIST news archive], a Lebanese born German citizen who claims that the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] seized him in Macedonia in 2003 in an instance of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive], the German Justice Ministry [official website, in German] said Sunday. El-Masri has sued the CIA [case materials] in the United States for allegedly holding him at a secret Afghanistan prison for five months, subjecting him to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation, and eventually releasing him in Albania in 2004 without charge. A federal judge in May dismissed the lawsuit [order, PDF; JURIST report] on state secrets ground, but the American Civil Liberties Union has said that it will "continue to pursue a fair hearing" for el-Masri [press release]. The US Justice Department [official website] reportedly told the German Justice Ministry that it cannot help in Germany's investigation because of the lawsuit against the CIA.

In June, a German investigator announced that no evidence has surfaced to disprove [JURIST report] the extraordinary rendition allegations brought by el-Masri, adding that an alleged German-speaking captor on the plane to Afghanistan was not necessarily a German agent or official. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israel is using "internationally prohibited weapons against civilians" in Lebanon as the country faces "real annihilation," according to a statement from Lebanon Information Minister Ghazi Aridi Sunday after an emergency cabinet meeting. Lebanese media reports state that Israel used phosphorus incendiary bombs and vacuum bombs [GlobalSecurity backgrounders] that suck up air and facilitate building collapses. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned by Protocol III to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons [text] since 1980. Lebanon's accusations come amid increasing violence [Bloomberg report; BBC Q&A] between Israel over the weekend and Hezbollah militants [BBC backgrounder] based in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora [BBC profile] said in a separate address to the Lebanese people [text] Sunday that Israel's actions "violated Lebanon's sovereignty and its citizens' rights and dignity." Siniora also said that "Israel is imposing a collective punishment that does not have any moral or legal legitimacy." AP has more.

[JURIST] Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], who lost the July 2 presidential election [JURIST report] by 0.6 percent of the vote to conservative Felipe Calderon [campaign website, in Spanish; Wikipedia profile], asked supporters Sunday to begin a campaign of "peaceful civil resistance" to bring about a manual recount of the election. Without specifying what supporters should do to facilitate a recount, Lopez Obrador said that Mexico needs a manual recount "for the economic, political and financial stability of the country," while Lopez Obrador adviser Manuel Camacho added that whomever officially wins the election may struggle to govern Mexico without a manual recount for verification.

Lopez Obrador filed a petition in the Federal Electoral Court (TRIFE) [official website, in Spanish] last week asking the court to order a manual recount because of alleged fraud [JURIST reports] and dirty campaign practices relation to the election, claiming that some polling stations counted more votes than registered voters, the ruling party helped finance Calderon's campaign, and that a software program skewed initial vote-count reports. Lopez Obrador later added new evidence [JURIST report] for his claims of extensive fraud, showing reporters television ads by several consumer product companies allegedly containing subliminal messages supporting the campaign of Calderon, and accusing election officials - even some of his own poll workers - of manipulating vote counts. TRIFE has until September 6 to declare a winner of the election. AP has more.

[JURIST] Ek Choeun, also known as Ta Mok [Trial Watch profile] has slipped into a coma in a Phnom Penh hospital. His lawyer has told reporters he could die this week and is unlikely to survive until the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal [official task force website; timeline] begins holding trials next year. The one-legged Ta Mok, formerly a zone secretary and central committee member of the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive], has been suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis, respiratory and other problems and was hospitalized late last month [JURIST report]. Reach Sambath, spokesman for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia called Ta Mok "the key person if he is indicted by the ECCC," and noted that "we need him to recover."

In a related development Monday, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), reacting to reports by medical personnel that doctors tried to move Ta Mok to a different hospital but were denied permission due to security reasons, has called on the government and the UN to send the former Khmer Rouge leader from a Cambodian military hospital to a better facility. Prime Minister Hun Sen's advisor Om Yentieng said that NGOs are not doctors, and that "the doctors know their work." He added that the CHRAC was abusing the doctors' rights by asking for the relocation.

Ta Mok, captured in 1999, and Duch, the former S-21 [Wikipedia backgrounder] torture center chief, are the only two former Khmer Rouge leaders that are currently imprisoned. Prosecutors officially began their investigation last week [JURIST report] into criminal acts allegedly committed by surviving leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge regime which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1978 and was responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Cambodians by execution, forced hardships, or starvation in the so-called "Killing Fields." Prosecutors have warned, however, that it could take several months to return indictments [JURIST report]. Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, and Khieu Samphan who all remain free, are also among the Khmer Rouge leaders likely to face prosecution if they survive through the trial. BBC news has more. The Phnom Penh Post has local coverage [subscription required].

Andrew Wood is an Associate Editor for JURIST working in Cambodia this summer.