[JURIST] A proposed UK anti-terror bill [materials; BBC Q/A] that would allow authorities to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days [JURIST news archive] has been amended to only apply in cases of "grave and exceptional" terrorist threats, UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said [BBC Radio 4 recorded audio] Tuesday. Current British law authorizes detention without charge for 28 days [JURIST report], but bill proponents have argued that this time-limit endangers national security. Under the amended measure, British law enforcement authorities could only detain terror suspects past the old limit if there is an immediate threat of terrorism, if Parliament approves the longer holding within seven days of detention, and if the judiciary considers the case. The Guardian has more.

Smith first proposed a 42-day detention period [JURIST report] in December 2007. The proposal followed statements made in June 2007 by then-UK Home Secretary John Reid calling for longer pre-charge time limits, and a proposal [JURIST reports] was floated last July that would have allowed the extension of the 28-day limit after a declared state of emergency and permitted judges to authorize weekly extensions for up to 56 days subject to parliamentary notification. Former UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and European rights commissioner Thomas Hammarberg [JURIST reports] have joined backbench MPs and rights activists in speaking out publicly against Smith's 42-day plan.

[JURIST] The recent dismissal [JURIST report] of the US military judge presiding over the military commission trial of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] was not politically motivated, chief Guantanamo judge Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann said Monday. Kohlman said that Col. Peter Brownback was removed because the Army did not renew his recall orders [official statement]. Khadr's defense lawyers had speculated that the dismissal was related to Brownback's threat in early May to suspend the military commission proceedings [JURIST report] against Khadr until the US government submits daily records of Khadr's detention; Kohlmann denied any connection. Reuters has more.

Khadr, 21, faces life imprisonment for crimes allegedly committed at the age of 15 while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was charged [charge sheet, PDF; JURIST report] in April 2007 with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, as well as spying. In June Brownback dismissed the charges for lack of jurisdiction, but then a special military commission review tribunal reinstated [JURIST reports] them. Khadr's lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed [JURIST report] earlier this year, saying that it violated the Optional Protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [text], which gives special protection to children under 18 involved in armed conflicts. Brownback rejected the claim and ruled [PDF text] that Khadr was not a child soldier when he was captured in Afghanistan.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] released a statement [text] Tuesday asserting that Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank violate international law. The statement was delivered by Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Max Gaylard at the opening of the UN International Meeting on the Question of Palestine [UN press release] in Malta. In his statement, Ban noted that:

Both sides must seize the current window of opportunity to push the peace process forward, especially by acting on their obligations under the Road Map.

Some actions have already been taken. The Palestinian Authority under Prime Minister Fayyad has acted to improve its security capabilities and to implement fiscal reform. Israel has agreed to remove some of the obstacles that hinder Palestinian movement in the West Bank. It has also consented to the issuance of entry permits to Israel for thousands of Palestinian workers.

These are welcome steps. But much more remains needs to be done. Continuing settlement activity contravenes both international law and Israel's obligations under the Road Map.

[JURIST] The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor [official website] released a report [materials; press conference recorded video] Tuesday emphasizing the essential nature of the rule of law in eliminating poverty. The report's findings indicated that a vast majority of the world's poor live outside the protections of the law. Many are not registered with any state legal entity, making their existence essentially undocumented and creating additional barriers to exercising their rights:

Four billion people around the world are robbed of the chance to better their lives and climb out of poverty, because they are excluded from the rule of law. Whether living below or slightly above the poverty line, these men, women, and children lack the protections and rights afforded by the law. They may be citizens of the country in which they live, but their resources, modest at best, can neither be properly protected nor leveraged. Thus it is not the absence of assets or lack of work that holds them back, but the fact that the assets and work are insecure, unprotected, and far less productive than they might be. There are further vulnerabilities, as well. Indigenous communities may be deprived of a political voice and their human rights violated. In addition to exclusion based on their poverty and their gender, poor women may also be denied the right to inherit property. In our own era then, vast poverty must be understood as created by society itself.

In too many countries, the laws, institutions, and policies governing economic, social, and political affairs deny a large part of society the chance to participate on equal terms. The rules of the game are unfair. This is not only morally unacceptable; it stunts economic development and can readily undermine stability and security. The outcomes of governance – that is, the cumulative effect of policies and institutions on peoples’ lives – will only change if the processes of governance are fundamentally changed.

[JURIST] Last month's constitutional referendum [JURIST report] in Myanmar approving a new national charter put forward by the military has effectively "washed away" any mandate to govern claimed by opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD), state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar [media website] said Tuesday. The NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], won the 1990 general elections easily, but the ruling military government did not recognize the result and placed Suu Kyi under house arrest. The NLD has rejected the legitimacy of the referendum [Mizzima.com report], which overwhelmingly approved [JURIST report] the junta-backed draft constitution [JURIST news archive]. Voice of America has more. AFP has additional coverage.

The draft constitution reportedly reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military [AP report; JURIST report] and also blocks Suu Kyi from seeking office. Last Tuesday, the military junta extended Suu Kyi's house arrest [JURIST report], to the frustration and anger of the international community.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Tuesday called on China to release the remaining imprisoned Tiananmen Square [BBC backgrounder] protesters as part of a wider effort to improve the nation's human rights image before the 2008 Olympic Games. HRW urged [press release] the government to reverse its official 1989 classification of the protests as a "counterrevolutionary rebellion", release a complete list of casualties, compensate the victims, and allow future public demands for government accountability. Chinese officials have consistently refused to reverse [AFP report] the official 1989 classification, and a spokesman would not comment on the remaining HRW demands. Reuters has more.

The Tiananmen protests began in April of 1989 with mainly students and laborers protesting the Communist Party of China. The Chinese government declared martial law in May, and initiated the violent dispersal of protesters by the People's Liberation Army on June 4. The Chinese government has never publicized official figures, but the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy [advocacy website] reported Tuesday that unnamed sources had estimated 600 people were killed [ICHR report, in Chinese].

[JURIST] The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal [official website] Monday heard an Islamic advocacy group's allegations that a 2006 article published in Canadian news magazine Maclean's [media website] discriminated against Muslims. Mohamed Elmasry and Naiyer Habib, members of the Canadian Islamic Conference (CIC) [organization website], allege that the article, written by Canadian author Mark Steyn and entitled "The future belongs to Islam" [text], subjects them and all Muslim residents of British Columbia to discrimination based on their religion and exposes them to hatred, in violation of section 7 of the British Columbia Human Rights Code [text]. The allegations have sparked fierce debate in Canada over the intersection of freedom of the press and the protection of human rights. CBC News has more.

The CIC's allegations have drawn criticism from a number of other groups, including the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) [advocacy website], who won intervenor status [CAJ press release] at the Tribunal on Monday. The CAJ intends to defend freedom of the press and to argue that the Tribunal does not have the constitutional right to hear Elmasry and Habib's complaint. Earlier, a group of Ontario law students filed the same complaint against Maclean's with the Ontario Human Rights Commission [official website]. Ultimately, the Commission decided it could not refer the allegations to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario [official website] since it lacked the jurisdiction to do so under the Ontario Human Rights Code [text]. The Commission nonetheless released a statement explaining its decision, criticizing Maclean's, and characterizing its activities as "contributing to Islamophobia and promoting societal intolerance towards Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Canadians."

[JURIST] Voters in two rural Bolivian states Sunday voted in favor of autonomy measures [ABI provisional poll results, in Spanish; IPS report] that would allow the provincial governments to form legislatures, gather police forces and become more independent of national control. Bolivian President Evo Morales [official website; BBC profile] characterized the referenda in Beni and Pando as an illegal and unconstitutional effort to undo reforms aiding the nation's historically disenfranchised Indian population. State leaders said the vote showed a movement away from Morales' leftist and centralized government policies. The provisional poll results show that about 80 percent of Beni voters and 86 percent of Panto voters supported the changes. AP has more.

In 2006, governors from six of Bolivia's nine states vowed to break off relations with Morales following a bid to give his leftist party more power [JURIST reports] to rewrite the Bolivian constitution [JURIST news archive]. A proposed national referendum on the new draft constitution, which had originally been blocked [JURIST report], was narrowly approved in February by the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly [official website, in Spanish] amid reports that Morales supporters prevented many draft opponents from entering the constitutional building and participating in the vote. In May, the Bolivian National Congress [official website, in Spanish] voted to hold a national referendum [JURIST report] on Morales and 10 other officials within 90 days, in which the officials must win more than 53.74 percent of the vote to keep their positions. Last month, voters in the Bolivian state of Santa Cruz also approved [JURIST report] an autonomy referendum.

[JURIST] Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party websites] leaders said Tuesday that it will likely take months for parliament to pass a proposed constitutional amendment package [JURIST report] that would restore the judiciary deposed by President Musharraf and limit executive powers. Some top Pakistani lawmakers expressed skepticism that the measures would be approved at all. A spokesperson for the PML-N said that the two parties still do not agree on exactly how to restore the judges: the PPP maintains that it should be accomplished constitutionally, while the PML-N holds that it should occur through a parliamentary resolution and an order from the prime minister. From Pakistan, the News has more.

On Tuesday, a PMN-L member accused the PPP of stalling on the issue, saying that delays could lead to violence if progress is not made before the country's lawyers' movement [New York Times backgrounder] stages its protest [JURIST report], set for June 10. On Monday, a PML-N spokesman said that his party's acceptance of the package turned on the package's backing by the lawyers' movement. In comments Saturday, ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] cautioned lawyers to continue fighting for a restored judiciary and not to succumb to efforts to divide them [Dawn report].

[JURIST] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev [official profile] Monday encouraged the Russian parliament to reject a bill that would allow officials to close media outlets suspected of spreading libel or slander. The measure, which passed the parliament's first reading [St. Petersburg Times report] by an overwhelming majority on April 25, would amend Russian media law [Article 4 text], expanding the definition of libel to "dissemination of deliberately false information damaging individual honor and dignity" and giving officials more power over the media. In a letter [text, in Russian] to parliament, Medvedev wrote that the amendment could severely limit journalism without stopping the spread of extremism, the purported goal of the bill. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Extremism has been a major concern for Russian politicians [JURIST report]. In 2006, then-President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law [JURIST report] that criminalized publicly defending terrorism, "humiliating national merit," and publicly slandering government officials. Last year, a lead prosecutor suggested censoring the Internet [JURIST report] to combat extremism. Opponents of the new bill see its dismissal by Medvedev as a continuation of his inaugural promise to respect Russian laws and rights [JURIST report] and as a departure from Putin's tight control over the media during his presidency.

[JURIST] A California ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution [text] to ban same-sex marriage is set to appear on the November ballot, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen [official website] said Monday. If approved by voters, the California Marriage Protection Act [ballot materials, PDF; proposition website] would amend the state constitution to read, "[o]nly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Proponents gathered nearly 1.1 million signatures in support of the initiative, far more than the 694,354 signatures required for approval by the California Secretary of State. The ballot initiative comes in reaction to a May 15 California Supreme Court decision [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] overturning a ban on same-sex marriage in the state. AP has more. The Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times have local coverage.

The approval of the ballot initiative comes after the Attorneys General of ten states submitted a brief [JURIST report] to the Supreme Court of California [official website] last Friday, asking it to stay its decision until after the November elections. They asserted that allowing same-sex marriages would cause citizens in their own states to become "marriage tourists" in California, and their own state courts would then face unfair, extensive, and burdensome litigation on whether to recognize the marriages. Little more than a week ago, a conservative advocacy group filed a similar petition [JURIST report] requesting a stay until November. Last Wednesday, the California Office of Vital Records [official website] issued a memorandum [JURIST report] setting June 17 as the start day for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The court's May 15 decision stemmed from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Chinese official has dismissed a new US report on the state of Chinese human rights, calling it incorrect and groundless [official statement]. Findings in the US Department of State's 2008 Advancing Freedom and Democracy Reports [text], released late last month, accuse the Chinese government of denying its citizens basic human rights and also describe the need for judicial reform and improved governmental transparency. Special mention was made of the recent violence in Tibet, which had its origins in peaceful protests put down by security forces. Chinese Foreign Ministry [official website] spokesman Qin Gang insisted Sunday that China has made many improvements, and chastised the US:

We urge the US to pay more attention to its own human rights issues, stop using democracy and human rights issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs and do more to enhance the mutual trust between China and the US and the development of bilateral relations.