[JURIST] The head of the UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) [official website] expressed concern Saturday about increased human rights violations by security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo [JURIST news archive], particularly those in the remote eastern portions of the country. MONUC Chief of Mission William Swing [official profile] told Reuters in an interview that it would become increasingly difficult to cooperate with the Congolese army if the abuses continued.

The UN Security Council established MONUC to facilitate the implementation of the 1999 Lusaka Accord that ended a bloody civil war in the Congo [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] that had drawn in seven other African nations. Congolese soldiers and UN peacekeepers attached to MONUC deployed [Reuters report; UN Mission press release] to the western Congolese province of Bas-Congo after political protests following a gubernatorial election there on Friday left at least 77 people dead. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush signed a bill [text; summary] Friday to help monitor US congressional pages [program backgrounder, PDF] by expanding the supervisory House Page Board to include a former page and a current or former page's parent. Reps. Dale Kildee, (D-MI), the new board chairman, and Shelley Moore Capito,(R-WV), co-sponsored the bill in response to the 2006 scandal involving improper e-mail correspondence between former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) [Congressional profile] and a former congressional page from Louisiana. AP has more.

Foley resigned from Congress after the messages became public last September, spurring former House Speaker Dennis Hastert [official website] to call on the DOJ [JURIST report] to launch a formal investigation. In December, the US House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct [official website] concluded that Republican leaders failed to protect young pages [JURIST report] from inappropriate communications and Hastert most likely received at least two emails detailing Foley's abuses, but did not act on the claims for fear of creating scandal.

[JURIST] The governor of Texas [JURIST news archive] signed an executive order Friday making that state the first to require that girls be vaccinated for human papilloma virus (HPV) [US CDC fact sheet], which is the primary cause of cervical cancer. Gov. Rick Perry's order [text], which directs the state Department of Health and Human Services [official website] to promulgate rules mandating the vaccinations for girls entering the sixth grade next year, takes the issue out of the hands of the Texas Legislature [official website], where such a proposal faced strong opposition [Houston Chronicle report]. "The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," Perry said in a press release [text]. "Requiring young girls to get vaccinated before they come into contact with HPV is responsible health and fiscal policy that has the potential to significantly reduce cases of cervical cancer and mitigate future medical costs." To address concerns about the vaccine's cost - more than $360 for a series of three injections - the executive order makes it available through the subsidized Texas Vaccines For Children program [official website; TVFC memo] and through Medicaid. Finally, the executive order authorizes the Department of State Health Services [official website] to modify the process for parents to opt their children out of mandatory vaccinations. Parents will be allowed to submit "conscientious objection" affidavits [TX Dep't of Health news release] online rather than on paper. The Dallas Morning News has more. The Houston Chronicle has additional coverage.

Legislatures in nearly a dozen other states are considering whether to mandate HPV vaccinations. Among them are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin [media reports]. In Maryland, a lawmaker who introduced such a bill withdrew it [Baltimore Sun report] this past week, saying the "timing is just not right." A legislator in Michigan is re-introducing such a bill [Grand Rapids Press report] that was defeated last year. Additionally, lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania either have introduced or plan to introduce bills that would require insurers to pay for the HPV vaccine [Courier-Post report; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report].

The vaccination proposals are controversial because of the sexually transmitted nature of HPV. It is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, affecting some 20 million people at any time. In January, the American Cancer Society recommended routine HPV vaccination [article text] for girls 11 to 12 years old. While also recommending vaccination for girls 13 to 19, the Society found insufficient evidence to support routine vaccination for women as old as 26.

This report was prepared in partnership with the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law.

[JURIST] The UN Working Group of Experts on People of Africa Descent [official website] Friday called for a global ban on racial profiling [JURIST news archive] at the conclusion of its annual 5-day session [background materials]. The group urged "states to clearly define and adopt explicit legislative provisions banning racial profiling," a practice which European expert Joe Frans described as being "widespread, yet remains little documented and not clearly prohibited under European law." The group found that "systematic and historic targeting" of persons of African descent contributes to the stigmatization and stereotype "of persons of African descent as having a propensity to criminality." The group also noted a greater reliance on racial profiling following the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States. The working group stated [text, PDF] that "the explicit targeting of specific groups by law enforcement officials violates a number of provisions" of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) [text]. The group also described racial profiling as "a new term for an old practice [formerly known as] institutional racism and discrimination."

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established by the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] in 2002 following the 2001 World Conference Against Racism to study and address issues concerning the well-being of people of African descent. Civil rights groups in the US have recently been pushing Democratic lawmakers [JURIST report] to reconsider a bill banning racial profiling by any US federal, state or local government entity. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, the US Marine defense coordinator for the western US, told the Associated Press Friday that his paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, has been accused of having made a false statement by Army Col. Richard Basset. Bassett was ordered to investigate alleged abuses of detainees [JURIST report] at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] after Cerveny provided a two-page sworn statement [PDF] last October claiming she conversed with a group of off-duty Marines who bragged of beating and abusing detainees.

Cerveny said the Marines identified themselves as guards, and led her to believe that the mistreatment - including the arbitrary denial of privileges, physically striking detainees, and depriving the detainees of hydration - was common practice and laughed at stories of how prisoners had been handled. Basset submitted his report [AP report] in December but it has not been made public. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland [official website, in German] ruled Friday that people with serious mental illnesses may be permitted to commit physician-assisted suicide under certain conditions. The decision recognized "that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical [disorder]" and extended Switzerland's current physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill for such patients. Patients suffering from serious mental illnesses will be required to demonstrate that the desire is not the "expression of a curable, psychiatric disorder" but a "well-considered and permanent decision" based on rational judgment. Basler Zeitung has local coverage [in German].

Netherlands legalized euthanasia [JURIST news archive; BBC report] in 2001 and Belgium in 2002. Under Article 115 [text, in German] of the Swiss penal code, assisting another in suicide is not criminal unless the assistance was rendered with a "selfish" motive. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US military announced Friday it has drafted new charges against three high-profile Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees. Col. Morris Davis (USAF) [official profile, PDF], chief prosecutor for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, said that the new charges against Australian David Hicks [JURIST news archive; 2004 charges, PDF], Canadian Omar Khadr [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive; 2004 charges, PDF], and Yemeni Salim Ahmed Hamdan [Trial Watch profile; JURIST news archive; 2004 charges, PDF] included murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorists under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [PDF text; CRS summary; JURIST news archive]. The original charges against the three had to be dropped after the US Supreme Court ruled the original military commissions system established by President Bush unconstitutional without Congressional authorization [JURIST report].

The new charges will not be considered formal until they are approved, which Davis said is expected to take an additional two weeks. With regard to Hicks, who faces charges for attempted murder, Davis told the Melbourne Age that he did not intend to "argue for [the maximum penalty of a] life sentence". AP has more. The Age has local coverage from Australia on the Hicks charges. The Toronto Globe & Mail has local coverage on the charges against Omar Khadr. Reuters has additional coverage.