[JURIST] The Nebraska state senate [official website] voted Friday to amend its controversial 'safe haven' law [LB 157 text, PDF], which allows parents to abandon their children at certain locations without fear of prosecution. Friday's amendments reduce the age at which children can be abandoned from 18 years and under to 30 days and under. The bill advanced [press release] to final stage Wednesday by a vote of 41-6. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman [official website] signed [press release] the bill into law Friday afternoon.

The amendments were made in response to the frequent abandonment of teenagers under the law. The director of Nebraska's Department of Children and Family Services has been critical of the law since September, calling it too broad [press release; JURIST report]. Of the 35 children abandoned since the law was implemented in July, only six were under the age of 10. [NYT report]. On November 14, Heineman called a special session [JURIST report] of the state senate in order to deal with the loophole.

[JURIST] Mexican authorities on Thursday detained former Assistant Attorney General Noe Ramirez, one-time head of Mexico's anti-drug operation in the Assistant Attorney General’s Office Specializing in Organized Crime (SIEDO) [official website], accusing him of receiving monthly payments of $450,000 from the Pacifico drug cartel in exchange for confidential information regarding government anti-drug enforcement efforts. Attorney General Eduardo Medina determined that there were sufficient grounds [official statement] to detain Ramirez after questioning him Wednesday in relation to "Operation Cleaning" investigations. Ramirez, whose arrest comes as part of an ongoing investigation into drug cartels and their connections to senior law enforcement officials, had worked for 14 years [El Financiero report, in Spanish] in the Mexican Office of the Attorney General [official website].

In October, the head of the SIEDO made some of the results of the ongoing internal "Operation Cleaning" investigation public, indicating that both the agency and the US Embassy in Mexico had been infiltrated [JURIST report] by a branch of the Sinaloa drug cartel by paying officials to turn over confidential information. In November, the chief of the Federal Preventative Police, the uniformed branch of the federal police force resigned [JURIST report] in connection to the October investigation. Earlier this month, Mexico's Interior Secretary and several other high ranking anti-drug effort officials were killed in an airplane crash [JURIST report], sparking an investigation despite no obvious signs of foul play.

[JURIST] The Uruguayan Parliament [official site] on Thursday failed to override the presidential veto of a bill that would have decriminalized abortion. In the special meeting of the General Assembly, Uruguayan representatives and senators failed to achieve the requisite three-fifths majority [AFP report] in each house to override a veto [JURIST report] by President Tabare Vazquez [official website; BBC profile]. The bill had passed the Senate [JURIST report] and the Representatives Chamber earlier this month, but did not receive enough votes to overcome the veto. A recent poll [TERRA report, in Spanish] by Factum consultants, made public on Friday, reported that 56 percent of the population was in favor of decriminalizing abortion, and 35 percent were against it. Nine percent declined to answer.

There have been two prior efforts to decriminalize abortion in Uruguay in recent years [MYSU chronology]. With the exception of Cuba, abortion is restricted across Latin American countries [HRW backgrounder], and only a few have passed legislation partially decriminalizing it in some, usually extenuating, circumstances.

[JURIST] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] may have withheld information from the US Department of Justice and other agencies regarding a plane carrying a US missionary family shot down over Peru in 2001, according to excerpts [text, PDF] released Thursday from a classified report by the CIA Inspector General dated August 25. The plane was shot down by the Peruvian Air Force after being tracked by a CIA plane as a narcotrafficker as part of the Narcotics Airbridge Denial Program [legal analysis] (ABDP). The report said that the CIA "characterize[d] the shootdown as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program. In fact, this was not the case." It further concluded:

CIA did not fulfill its legal obligation to keep Congress and the NSC fully informed of significant activities concerning the ABDP. Between 1995 and 2001, the Agency incorrectly reported that the program complied with the laws and policies governing it. In the aftermath of the missionary shootdown, CIA conducted several internal examinations into the circumstances of the shootdown and the broader conduct of the ABDP that documented sustained and significant violations of required intercept procedures dating back to the first shootdown. Yet the Agency denied Congress, the NSC, and the Department of Justice access to these findings. Seeking to avoid both criminal charges against Agency officers and civil liability, OGC advised Agency managers to avoid written products lest they be subject to legal scrutiny.

[JURIST] Sweden's parliament [official website] on Thursday approved the European Union (EU) [official website] reform charter known as the Treaty of Lisbon [full text; JURIST news archive] by a wide margin. There were 243 votes for, 39 against, and 67 absent or abstaining votes [BBC report]. The vote made Sweden the 24th member of the EU to ratify the measure.

The Treaty of Lisbon was signed [JURIST report] by the members of the EU in December 2007 to replace the EU constitution [JURIST news archive] that failed to pass previously because France and the Netherlands did not approve it. All 27 EU nations must ratify for the treaty to take effect. Ireland voted against the treaty [JURIST report] in a referendum earlier this year, but a new Irish Times poll [report; JURIST report] suggested earlier this week that 52.5 percent of Irish voters would approve the Treaty of Lisbon if it were modified.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] on Thursday affirmed [opinion, PDF] a district court decision that individuals cannot sue school districts to seek specific enforcement for provisions listed in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) [official website; JURIST news archive]. The Newark Parents Association brought a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against the Newark Public Schools (NPS) [official website] system alleging that NPS had failed to comply will all provisions of the NCLBA, including notifying parents of failing school status and providing struggling students with supplementary educational materials. The Parents Association further sought an injunction compelling the NPS to comply with these provisions. Both causes of action were denied by the District Court. In affirming the decision of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey [official website], the Court of Appeals noted that the language of the NLCBA did not provide relief for individuals, but rather was concerned with the aggregate condition of groups of low-performing children. In discussing its reason for this conclusion, the Court said:

[T]he District Court found that the nature of the Act's enforcement mechanism supported the conclusion that Congress did not intend to create individual rights. The Act contains no procedures—administrative or judicial—by which individuals can enforce violations of its notice, transfer, or supplemental educational services provisions. Instead, only the Secretary of Education can enforce a State's violation of the Act.

[JURIST] The California Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that the residency requirements associated with Proposition 83 [text, PDF; JURIST news archive] amount to additional punishment for sex offenders [JURIST news archive]. Proposition 83, or Jessica's Law, prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park where children regularly gather. The court did not intend to challenge the legitimacy of Jessica's Law, but it ruled that because residency requirements are an additional punishment beyond the prescribed statutory maximum, defendants have a right to a jury trial. The court stated:

Jessica’s Law survives this opinion untouched. We note only that its residency restriction increases the penalty for the underlying offense beyond the statutory maximum, and so the facts supporting sex offender registration must be found beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury. Imposing a residency restriction based on judicial factfinding violates the right to a jury trial as construed by the United States Supreme Court.

[JURIST] President of the Global Justice Center [advocacy website] Janet Benshoof said [press release] Thursday that judges who participated in the trials and convictions of 60 political activists [JURIST report] in Myanmar [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] last week are co-conspirators of crimes against humanity and should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. In a statement, Benshoof explained that the circumstances of the hearings - in which many defendants did not have legal representation, those who did were not allowed to meet with their lawyers in private, and in which defendants could not question the prosecution witnesses - justified a referral to the ICC. She pointed out direct provisions of the ICC that she felt the judges violated:

these prison sentences are crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including violations of Article 7(1)(e) 'Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law' and 7(1)(h) 'Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender...or other grounds.'

[JURIST] Private security contractors operating in Iraq [CRS backgrounder] will no longer be able to claim immunity from Iraqi laws under the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [CFR materials; McClatchy translation] with the Iraqi government, Bush administration officials said in a briefing for security firms Thursday. US and non-Iraqi contractors had been immune to prosecution under Iraqi law since 2003 under an order by the Coalition Provisional Authority [official website] directing that contractors were to be prosecuted in their home countries [LA Times report]. Government officials addressed [AP report] more than 170 of the security firms operating in Iraq, which employ approximately 174,000 operating in Iraq, including Blackwater Worldwide, KBR Inc., and Dyncorp International [corporate websites] and said that while the SOFA grants limited control over the US military and Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] employees to the Iraq government, private contractors are excluded from this arrangement. Many believe [Middle East Online report] the provisions are the direct result of incidents involving the killings of Iraqis by private security guards, most notoriously the September 16 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] by Blackwater personnel.

Late last week, the Iraqi cabinet voted [JURIST report] in an emergency session to approve a final draft of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [CFR materials] between the US and Iraq. The SOFA, which determines the relationship between Iraqi, American and Multi-National Force Iraq (MNF-I) [official website] forces in the country, requires US and MNF-I forces to exit Iraqi cities by June 30 [UPI report], and calls for the removal of all combat troops by 2011 unless the Iraqi government requests otherwise. This extends the deadline for US troops to remain in Iraq for three years, as the UN mandate expires in December [UN press release]. The SOFA will also define the ongoing relationship between US and MNF-I forces and Iraqi civilian institutions, including the national police service and the Iraqi justice system. In particular, it gives Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction over American military personnel [JURIST report] for crimes committed off base when the troops are not on an authorized mission. The Iraqi parliament began SOFA hearings [UPI report] this past Monday, with a final vote expected sometime after November 24. If approved by parliament the SOFA is expected to take effect in January 2009.

[JURIST] Russia's State Duma [official website, in Russian] Friday approved [RIA Novosti report] amendments to the Russian Constitution [materials] that would extend presidential terms [Article 81(1) text] from four to six years and terms for Duma members [Article 96(1) text] from four to five years. The measure, which passed 392-57, was framed by supporters as a way to provide political stability in light of the country's economic difficulties, but the country's opposition Communist Party [party website] and other critics [Moscow Times op-ed] have said that less frequent elections are simply a way for a majority party to more easily maintain power. Some have speculated that the presidential term extensions have been specifically designed [AFP report] to give former president and now prime minister Vladimir Putin [official website, in Russian; BBC profile] additional time as president should current president Dmitry Medvedev [official website; JURIST news archive] step down so that Putin can again run for the presidency. Before becoming law, the measures approved by the Duma must also be approved by Russia's Federation Council [official website, in Russian], or upper house of parliament, and least two-thirds of the country's regional legislatures.

The amendments were proposed by Medvedev in his first state of the nation address [text; JURIST report] to the Federal Assembly earlier this month, and would be the first amendments to the constitution since it replaced its Soviet-era predecessor [text, in Russian] in 1993. Shortly after the changes were proposed, Duma officials said they would expedite consideration [JURIST report] of the amendments.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Michael Mukasey [official profile; JURIST news archive] collapsed Thursday evening during a speech to the Federalist Society [advocacy website]. Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital [official website], where he remained Friday morning [New York Times report]. Peter Carr, spokesperson for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] released a statement [text] early Friday, saying:

The Attorney General is conscious, conversant and alert. His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits. He is receiving excellent care and appreciates all of the good wishes and prayers he has received. The doctors will keep him overnight for further observations.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Manfred Nowak [official website; JURIST news archive] said Thursday that European countries should grant asylum to Guantanamo detainees [AP report] who are eligible for release, but who risk persecution if returned to their home countries. Nowak called on the countries to accept the estimated 50-60 detainees to allow the incoming Barack Obama administration to close the facility [JURIST report] as planned. Both Obama and current President George W. Bush have said that the potential refoulement [CW backgrounder] of uncharged detainees is a problem that must be solved [JURIST report] before the prison can be closed. In a joint statement [text] earlier this month, advocacy groups Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, Reprieve, and the International Federation for Human Rights [advocacy websites] made the same appeal to European countries and quoted an earlier statement by Nowak:

We are at a critical juncture. It is now possible to anticipate the closing of Guantanamo, the end to the US practice of executive detention, and the re-affirmation of fundamental human rights principles, including the prohibition of torture in all circumstances. But European engagement and support will be essential to get there. One step that European governments should take is to accept into their borders the small number of men at Guantanamo who cannot be repatriated safely. Guantanamo cannot be closed until these men have a country which will accept them, and where their lives and liberty are not in jeopardy.

[JURIST] Prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] met [press release] Thursday with Rwandan prosecutor general Martin Ngoga [New Times profile] to discuss the possible future transfer of cases from the ICTR to Rwandan courts. In a decision [text, PDF; HRA report] by the court earlier this week again denying the transfer of genocide suspect Jean-Baptiste Gatete [TrialWatch profile], the ICTR commended Rwanda for taking steps to improve its judicial and penal systems, but said that it still had reservations about transferring cases to the country's courts:

The Chamber concludes that the Republic of Rwanda has made notable progress in improving its judicial system. Its legal framework contains satisfactory provisions concerning jurisdiction and criminalises Jean-Baptiste Gatete’s alleged conduct. The death penalty has been abolished. However, the Chamber is not satisfied that Gatete will receive a fair trial if transferred to Rwanda. First, it is concerned that he will not be able to call witnesses residing outside Rwanda to the extent and in a manner which will ensure a fair trial. Second, it accepts that the Defence will face problems in obtaining witnesses residing in Rwanda because they will be afraid to testify. Third, there is a risk that Gatete, if convicted to life imprisonment there, may risk solitary confinement due to unclear legal provisions in Rwanda.