[JURIST] Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre [HRW materials; JURIST news archive] will not go on trial this year for crimes against humanity, according to an EU official sent to Senegal to advise the court where Habre will be tried [press release]. Bruno Cathala, [official profile] Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], said Wednesday that the length of time necessary to complete investigations into the charges against Habre, as well as issues regarding the cost and structure of the trial, will delay it until at least 2009. Cathala's comments echoed the statement of Senegalese officials last year who said that a three-year delay was to be expected before Habre was brought to trial [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

Last July, the government determined that Habre would stand trial in a criminal court [JURIST report] rather than in front of a special tribunal, possibly hastening the trial. Human rights groups, however, have still criticized Senegal for its lack of progress. African Union [official website] leaders decided in July 2006 that Habre would face trial in Senegal [decision, PDF; JURIST report] for committing some 40,000 alleged acts of murder and torture of political opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990, after which he fled to Senegal. Following an initial attempt to have charges brought against Habre in Senegal failed, victims took their case to Belgium, where prosecutors indicted him on crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture charges in 2005 under Belgium's universal jurisdiction laws. Senegal has since agreed to the AU's determination that Habre should face trial in that country, with Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade saying that his country was "best-placed" to try Habre. Rights groups have urged Senegal to build on the work of Belgian investigators to speed up the trial. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Addressing a special session [official website] of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official profile] said [transcript] Wednesday that Israel's policy of collective punishment, disproportionate use of force and targeted killings, coupled with the Palestinian militant practice of indiscriminate firings of bombs and rockets, has led to the current crisis in the Gaza Strip. Israel had compounded the situation, she said, by blockading Gaza, preventing citizens from getting basic necessities such as food, gas, water, electricity and medicine. Arbour stressed that sovereign states have a primary duty to protect their citizens from war crimes and other crimes against humanity, but agreed with the Syrian and Palestinian representatives that international enforcement through processes such as independent investigation of international law violations is also necessary under the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit [text, PDF].

Syrian and Palestinian representatives had requested [meeting order, DOC] a council review of possible human rights violations stemming from Israel's military incursions into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. A Syrian and Pakistani draft resolution [text, PDF] now before the body cites severe humanitarian and environmental consequences of recent Israeli military action, urges immediate international action to stop the Israeli campaign and requests that Israel itself stop committing human rights violations.

The Israeli blockade began last Friday, when Israel closed crossings into Gaza and cut off electricity, fuel and emergency aid to the area after more than 45 rockets hit Israeli towns. United Nations officials Tuesday chided Israel for its response to the rocket attacks [Zeenews report], saying it was targeting civilians in illegal collective punishment rather than punishing Hamas-led militants. On the same day, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] warned [AP report] of a pending humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Israel's action, foreshadowing the destruction of the blockade. Israel and the United States boycotted Wednesday's UNHRC session, claiming [Haaretz report] that the draft resolution presented to the council regarding the blockade failed to mention the rocket attacks as a justification.

[JURIST] A federal judge ruled [text, PDF] Wednesday that the healthcare provided in California prisons does not meet constitutional standards even though medical services have improved significantly since the court assumed oversight of the system in 2005. US District Judge Thelton Henderson of the Northern District of California acknowledged the progress of the current supervisory team, led by receiver Robert Sillen [official profile], including the hiring of more clinical workers and licensed nurses and increased contracting with outside medical specialists. But Henderson also said that the prison system needs new oversight to help implement planned improvements and to reintegrate prison leadership into the prison system, and he appointed law professor J. Clark Kelso [official profile] as receiver effective immediately to achieve those goals. Efforts to achieve reform bringing the state's prison system up to constitutional standards could take as long as four years, according to officials at the California Health Care Receivership [official website]. Reuters has more. The Los Angeles Times has local coverage.

Henderson appointed Sillen [order, PDF] in February 2006 after assuming oversight of the healthcare system [JURIST report] in 2005. In July 2007, the court ordered the formation of a special three-judge panel [JURIST report] to supervise and reduce California's prison population after finding that California's prison overcrowding was preventing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) [official website] from adequately providing mental health care. The receivership was designed to oversee the development of remedies for the systematic constitutional violation and to monitor implementation of court-approved remedies. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] is now considering a mass release of nonviolent prisoners [JURIST report] to help ease the system's financial strains that contribute to the prison system's poor healthcare performance.

[JURIST] The UK Identity and Passport Service [official website] will delay issuing ID cards [Home Office backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to British nationals until 2010, according to documents leaked from the UK Home Office [official website]. Plans are still underway for foreign nationals living in the UK to be issued biometric visas [eGov backgrounder] later this year, while people in "positions of trust," such as security guards, will be required to have IDs by 2009. The IDs are part of an effort to clamp down on illegal immigration [JURIST report] in the UK, but have met with criticism from both Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians who fear they will waste government money and infringe on civil liberties. BBC News has more.

The UK House of Lords and House of Commons [official websites] approved [JURIST report] the controversial Identity Cards Bill [PDF text; JURIST news archive] in March 2006. The legislation had bounced back and forth between both houses of parliament for months with the Lords objecting to a Commons provision to effectively make the cards mandatory by requiring ID registration for all British citizens applying for passports. A compromise bill mitigated the provision somewhat by allowing passport applicants to opt out of taking an ID cards until January 2010 so long as they registered in a national computer database.

[JURIST] US Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday urged the US Congress to renew and expand the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] when it meets for a scheduled Thursday vote. In a speech [text] to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, Cheney called on Congress to amend FISA to grant immunity to telecommunications companies [JURIST report] from lawsuits related to their participation in the NSA warrantless surveillance program [JURIST news archive], saying that government agencies did not have the resources to fight terror without cooperation from private telecom providers.

The temporary Protect America Act [S-1927 materials; JURIST report], enacted as a stopgap while Congress worked on long-term legislation to "modernize" FISA, is set to expire February 1. The Protect Act currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of a conversation is reasonably perceived to have been outside of the US. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans defeated an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [official website] to extend the Protect Act for an additional month. On Wednesday, Reid sent a letter to US President George W. Bush asking that he support an extension to the Protect Act [The Hill report] as it is unlikely that Congress will agree to reauthorize FISA before the February 1 deadline. AP has more. The Washington Post has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A Dutch appeals court Wednesday overturned the convictions of seven men [BBC report] who were charged with being in a terrorist network that included Muslim extremist Mohammed Bouyeri [Wikipedia profile]. Bouyeri confessed to the November 2004 murder [BBC report; JURIST report] of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh [Wikipedia profile]. The seven men were suspected of belonging to the Dutch Muslim Hofstad Network [Wikipedia backgrounder] terror group and were convicted of planning attacks on Dutch politicians. The appeals court upheld a separate sentence of 15 years for Jason Walters, the son of a US citizen, for throwing a hand grenade at police during a siege of a barricaded house. The court reduced the sentence of another man, Ismael Aknikh, from 13 years to 15 months. A third man, Nouredine el Fahtni, is serving a four year sentence on a separate terrorism conviction, while the remaining four men have already been freed after serving sentences of less than two years. The Hague Appeals Court declined to classify the Hofstad network as a terrorist organization because the group had no lasting and structured cooperation and members did not share a common ideology.

Bouyeri, who was sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report], said he killed Van Gogh in response to his film, "Submission" [BBC report], which criticized the treatment of women under Islam. As a result of the rise in terrorist activity, the Dutch parliament [official website] in 2006 approved a new anti-terror bill [JURIST report] that dramatically lowered the amount of evidence needed for Dutch police to arrest terror suspects and allowed officials to hold suspects for up to two weeks without charge. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Dutch government plans to ban burqas [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in schools and government offices, rejecting a proposal by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders [official website, in Dutch] to prohibit wearing burqas in public altogether, according to Wednesday media reports. Wilders submitted a legislative proposal [JURIST report] in July 2007 which would punish those wearing burqas in public with a fine of up to €3,350 euros or 12 days in jail [press release]. Although the issue will be discussed at next week's cabinet meeting, the cabinet has decided that a general public ban on burqas would violate freedom of religion. Wilders, who has previously made controversial remarks against Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, criticized the government's decision against a public ban. A final decision has not yet been made on the ban, which will be discussed at a cabinet meeting next Friday.

In November 2006, then-Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk [official profile] announced plans to prohibit the public wearing of face coverings [JURIST report] for "security reasons" and to promote the integration of Dutch society. The proposal was met by protests [JURIST report], and in the wake of a national election, was abandoned [JURIST report] in March 2007 by Verdonk's successor. Among the country's 1 million Muslims, the Muslim community has said that only 50 women wear the burqa. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 [HR 4986 materials], a military spending bill that includes a provision exemptimg Iraq from US lawsuits dating back to the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive]. Sponsored by Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO) [official website], the bill passed the Senate 91-3 [roll call]. The House of Representatives passed an identical bill last week which also authorizes US military programs in 2008. When Congress passed a different version of the bill in late 2007 that would have allowed some lawsuits against Iraq to go ahead, the Iraqi government expressed concern that financial resources needed for the reconstruction of Iraq could be consumed by potential litigation. President Bush used a pocket veto [Senate backgrounder] and rejected the previous version [press release] of the bill, saying that the legislation would "imperil billions of dollars of Iraqi assets at a crucial juncture in that nation's reconstruction efforts and ... would undermine the foreign policy and commercial interests of the United States."

Other law-related provisions of the present bill allow private lawsuits against Libya for actions taken between 1979 and 2000 when the US designated the state as a terror sponsor. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The office of Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Wednesday that Vukcevic has received death threats for his involvement in pursuing war crimes fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official websites] for their roles in the 1990 Balkan Wars. Four war crimes suspects are still at large, including former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. A spokesman for the office said that these are not the first threats that Vukcevic has received in his role as prosecutor.

Serbia said in September it would increase efforts [JURIST report] to locate and arrest the four war crimes suspects believed to be hiding in the country in order to receive a favorable report from the ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte to the EU concerning the EU's pending pre-membership deal with Serbia. New ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz [JURIST report; ICC profile] has said that he will not alter his predecessor's tough stance on Serbian cooperation [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Pojamarn Shinawatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], told the Thailand Supreme Court Tuesday that Thaksin will return to Thailand in May to battle corruption charges laid against him after he was ousted in a military coup [JURIST report] in September 2006. Pojamarn herself faces charges of conflict of interest and malfeasance for a 2003 purchase of land from the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website] worth three times more than the $26 million she paid for it. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, and requested 90 days to prepare for the hearing.

A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Thaksin and his wife in August and a second warrant in September [JURIST reports]. Thaksin and Pojamarn have been accused of abuse of power for personal gain [JURIST report], conflict of interest violations, and dereliction of duty for personal gain in charges stemming from the land purchase. Both have previously refused to return to Thailand to face charges, saying they did not expect to receive a fair trial [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israel and the United States plan to boycott a special session [news release] of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] in Geneva Wednesday called to discuss possible human rights violations in Gaza in the wake of a blockade imposed by Israel [BBC report] on the area last Friday. Israel closed crossings into Gaza after more than 45 rockets attacks Israeli towns and then cut off electricity, fuel, and emergency aid. United Nations officials Tuesday chided Israel for its response to the rocket attacks [Zeenews report], saying it was targeting civilians in illegal "collective punishment" and not Hamas-led militants. Israel and the US claim [Haaretz report] that the draft resolution [PDF text] presented to the UNHRC regarding the blockade fails to mention the rocket attacks as a justification. Other countries have refused to boycott the meeting, despite pressure from Israel.

On Tuesday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] warned of a pending humanitarian crisis in Gaza following Israel's action. Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into Egypt [BBC report] Wednesday after militants blasted gaps in a Gaza border wall, allowing people to cross over to buy needed food and supplies. AP has more.

[JURIST] The City Council of Farmers Branch [official website; JURIST news archive], a Dallas, Texas suburb, on Tuesday approved a measure [Ordinance 2952 text, PDF] that would require all adults to apply for a city license before they can lease a house or apartment. The application obliges rental applicants to disclose whether they are a US citizen or a legal alien in the US, and local law enforcement would subsequently cross-check the information with a federal database. Any applicant can move into their rental immediately, but if the database fails to confirm the applicant's legal status, the applicant must prove their legal residency within 60 days or lose the city license.

Ordinance 2952 is the town's second attempt at prohibiting landlords within the city limits from renting housing to illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive], and is designed to appease opponents of an earlier ordinance [Ordinance 2903 text, DOC], which placed the burden of enforcement on landlords rather than the government. In June 2007, a US federal judge extended a temporary restraining order [JURIST report] blocking Farmers Branch from enforcing Ordinance 2903, which had been approved by voters [JURIST report]. The ordinance approved Tuesday will go into effect 15 days after a final judgment is made in the lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the constitutionality of Ordinance 2903. AP has more.