[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Friday vacated [order, PDF] a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring Ohio's secretary of state to establish a system that allows county elections boards to confirm newly registered voters' eligibility. The Court granted a request by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner [official website] to stay the TRO, which was upheld [JURIST report] on Tuesday by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website]. In the TRO, the district court ordered Brunner to comply with an anti-fraud provision [text] of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) [FEC materials] that requires state election and motor vehicles officials to match information between their databases to ensure voter eligibility. According to the Supreme Court's brief per curiam opinion,

[t]he Secretary argues both that the District Court had no jurisdiction to enter the TRO and that its ruling on the merits was erroneous. We express no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented. Respondents, however, are not sufficiently likely to prevail on the question whether Congress has authorized the District Court to enforce Section 303 in an action brought by a private litigant to justify the issuance of a TRO.

[JURIST] The Russian Foreign Ministry [official website, in Russian] has released a statement [text, in Russian] downplaying the recent order of provisional measures [JURIST report] against both Russia and Georgia by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] in respect of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia [JURIST news archive] and challenging the court's jurisdiction to proceed to the merits of the case. The ICJ issued the provisional measures last Wednesday, rejecting [decision text, PDF] an emergency request by the Georgian Republic to order an outright halt to the alleged killing and mass displacement of citizens in the conflict region, and instead calling on both Georgia and Russia to meet their obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [text]. The Russian statement emphasized the provisional nature of the ICJ order, and the close vote taken to approve the action:

...The court addressed measures to both sides. They are general in nature and pointed to the need for the parties to comply with the obligations under the [CERD]. However, even such a decision was taken by only one vote. 7 out of 15 [sic] judges agreed with the Russian position on the apparent lack of jurisdiction of the [ICJ] in this case. ...

Given that the [ICJ's] decision on jurisdiction in the context of interim measures is preliminary in nature, we intend to continue to prove that the [ICJ] has no jurisdiction in this case, at the next stage of the proceedings.

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] on Thursday ruled [judgment, DOC text; press release] that France [JURIST news archive] had violated the human rights of a psychotic inmate by failing to prevent his suicide. The court unanimously found that French authorities had breached Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text] by failing to protect Joselito Renolde's right to life and had violated Article 3 of the convention by treating him in an inhumane and degrading manner. According to the judgment,

the Court is struck by the fact that, despite Joselito Renolde’s suicide attempt and the diagnosis of his mental condition, it does not appear that there was ever any discussion of whether he should be admitted to a psychiatric institution. The experts noted in their report that “[his] disorders could perhaps have called for a discussion of the advisability of admission to a psychiatric unit”. However, not until Joselito Renolde’s lawyer requested steps to be taken on 12 July 2000 was an expert assessment envisaged as to whether his condition was compatible with detention.

In the light of the State’s positive obligation to take preventive operational measures to protect an individual whose life is at risk, it might have been expected that the authorities, faced with a prisoner known to be suffering from serious mental disturbance and to pose a suicide risk, would take special measures geared to his condition to ensure its compatibility with continued detention.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Thursday condemned what it called obstruction and interference by the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe [official profile, in Spanish; BBC profile] in the investigation and prosecution of far-right militias in the country. A new report [text, PDF; HRW press release] released by the rights group entitled "Breaking the Grip: Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia," criticized Uribe's actions with respect to the investigation into right-wing military groups and their relationships with political leaders and institutions [Washington Post report]. The report applauded efforts against the militias by judges and prosecutors, but said:

Unfortunately, the administration of President Álvaro Uribe is squandering much of the opportunity to truly dismantle paramilitaries’ mafias. While there has been progress in some areas, some of the administration’s actions are undermining the investigations that have the best chance of making a difference.

Of greatest concern, the Uribe administration has:

- Repeatedly launched public personal attacks on the Supreme Court and its members in what increasingly looks like a concerted campaign to smear and discredit the Court.

- Opposed and effectively blocked meaningful efforts to reform the Congress to eliminate paramilitary influence.

- Proposed constitutional reforms that would remove the “parapolitics” investigations from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

If the Uribe administration continues on this path, it is likely that the enormous efforts made by Colombia’s courts and prosecutors to hold paramilitaries’ accomplices accountable will ultimately fail to break their power. Unless it changes course, Colombia may remain a democracy in a formal sense, but violence, threats, and corruption will continue to be common tools for obtaining and exercizing power in the country.

[JURIST] The European Commission [official website] has launched a series of legal actions in the European Court of Justice [official website; JURIST news archive] against EU member states for failures to abide by EU laws, according to press statements [text] released by the Commission on Thursday. Filings ranged from infringement proceedings against Poland and Sweden for failing to fully implement rules providing common conditions for the reuse of information produced, collected and shared by public bodies in the EU to actions against Portugal and France over the non-reimbursement of the costs for medical treatment in other EU countries. Ten member-states – Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom – were subjected to infringement proceedings for their failure to implement certain Internal Market Directives into national law. Legal action was taken against Italy for several matters, including the failure to implement regulations on compulsory maximum legal fees, the adoption of tax legislation which discriminates against regenerated oil coming from other EU states, and its questionable compliance with a court order concerning the purchase of helicopters.

The European Commission is responsible for ensuring EU law is applied throughout all Member States. The Commission's Secretariat-General [official website] is tasked with monitoring support given by national authorities to commercial organizations, keeping track of the measures taken by the authorities in the Member States to incorporate EU law into their national law, and taking action when they fail to do so properly. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Wednesday requested [court order, PDF] more information on an arrest warrant application for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for atrocities committed in the country's Darfur region [JURIST news archive]. The pretrial chamber requested that Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] submit “additional supporting materials in relation to some confidential aspects” of his application no later than November 17, 2008. The ICC’s request coincided with the start of a three-day peace conference in Khartoum, which included delegates from dozens of political parties and civic groups in Sudan. Rebel groups from the western Sudanese region, however, were not in attendance, dismissing the meeting as an attempt by al-Bashir to whitewash his reputation and avoid international prosecution. AFP has more.

Moreno-Ocampo applied for the arrest warrant [application, PDF; JURIST report] last July for crimes al-Bashir allegedly committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. The application, which followed a three-year investigation involving more than 100 witnesses in 18 countries, began in 2005 with the referral of the situation to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor [JURIST report]. This past June, Moreno-Ocampo stated before the UN Security Council [official website] that “evidence shows that the commission of such crimes on such a scale, over a period of five years, and throughout Darfur, has required the sustained mobilization of the entire Sudanese state apparatus.” The Security Council has repeatedly called on Sudan to comply with the ICC investigation [JURIST report], but Sudan has refused to do so, labeling Moreno-Ocampo a "terrorist" [JURIST report] and suggesting that he should be removed from office.

[JURIST] Former Argentine president Carlos Menem [official website] failed to appear in a Buenos Aires court Thursday as he and other former officials went on trial on arms trafficking charges. The court excused Menem's absence after a defense lawyer presented a medical certificate indicating that the former president had been suffering from acute anemia. Menem, who led Argentina from 1989 to 1999, and his co-defendants are accused of arranging weapons sales to Croatia, in violation of a 1991 UN Security Council resolution [text] prohibiting the delivery of weapons to the former Yugoslavia, and to Ecuador, breaching a ban by the Organization of American States (OAS) [official website] on sales to that nation and Peru during their 1995 border conflict [AFP report]. The judges presiding over the case plan to send a representative [La Nacion report, in Spanish] to Menem's home in La Rioja province to verify his health claims and are reportedly considering whether to travel there with the prosecutor to fulfill a requirement that the indictment be read in Menem's presence. The trial is expected to last seven months. AP has more.

In May, an Argentine prosecutor filed a petition [JURIST report] seeking the arrests of Menem and five others accused of obstructing an investigation into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center [AMIA backgrounder, in Spanish] in Buenos Aires. In 2004, an Argentine judge conducted an investigation [JURIST report] into the possible connection between Swiss bank accounts allegedly held by Menem and the bombing, which killed 85 people. Menem was placed under house arrest [CNN report] on arms-trafficking charges in 2001 but was freed later that year. In 2004, he moved to Chile, where a court refused to extradite him [BBC report] for questioning on corruption charges. He returned to Argentina [JURIST report] later that year after arrest warrants were withdrawn. He was elected to the Argentine Senate in 2005.

[JURIST] The US Defense Department (DOD) [official website] has released a revised directive [PDF text] mandating military supervision of intelligence interrogations and questioning conducted by other US government agencies, foreign governments and contractors. The directive, issued October 9 by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England [official profile] but only made public this week, supersedes a 2005 version [PDF text] that merely required non-DOD entities conducting such procedures to conform to Pentagon policies. According to the new directive,

[a]ll individuals representing other U.S. Government agencies, foreign governments, or any other non-DoD entity must comply with applicable DoD interrogation policies and procedures when conducting intelligence interrogations, debriefings, or other questioning of persons detained by the Department of Defense. These individuals shall sign a written agreement to abide by DoD interrogation policies and procedures before being allowed access to any detainee in the custody or effective control of the Department of Defense.