[JURIST] Afghan President Hamid Karzai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] said Saturday that he has ordered the review of a law which severely limits the rights of married Shi'ite women in the country. The Shi'ite Personal Status Law was enacted last month [JURIST report] and has not yet been published, but opponents say the law requires a woman to seek her husband's permission before leaving the house, and effectively condones rape [NYT report] within a marriage. Karzai said the bill has been misunderstood [VOA report] by Western media, but that he has ordered the country's Ministry of Justice [official website] to review the law. Karzai that the law would be returned to the Afghan parliament if changes need to be made. Among those calling for changes to the law were UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown [Guardian report], US President Barack Obama, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [press releases]. The Afghanistan constitution [text, PDF] requires equal rights for both both men and women, but allows for the country's Shia [BBC backgrounder] population to observe some of its own religious laws.

Signing the law was one of several actions that Karzai has been criticized for since his appointment as Afghanistan's interim president in 2002. In early March, the UN reported that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is worsening [JURIST report], one week after a similar US report rebuked Afghanistan for, among other problems, continued use of child labor [JURIST report]. In November, the UN urged Afghanistan to discontinue use of the death penalty [JURIST report], which Karzai had reinstated following a four-year moratorium [JURIST report]. In April 2008, the Taliban attempted to assassinate Karzai [Guardian report] during a military parade, the third attempt on his life since 2001.

[JURIST] Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz [official profile] said Sunday that he intends to charge former prime minister Ehmud Olmert [JURIST news archive] with additional corruption charges for allegedly abusing a previous governmental post to benefit friends and business partners. Mazuz alleged that, before becoming prime minister, Olmert used a position at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor [official website] to give government grants [Jerusalem Post report] to former law partner Uri Messer [Haaretz backgrounder] and his clients. Investigators into the case said that Olmert should have recused himself [Haaretz report] from ministerial consideration of the grants given his conflict of interest. Mazuz said that there must still be a final hearing on the charges before an indictment is filed against Olmert.

This is the third set of corruption charges that Olmert, who resigned in September, may face. Last month, Mazuz announced that he may charge Olmert [JURIST report] with fraud, violation of public confidence, and the receipt of illicit perquisites for violating the 1973 Party Financing Law [text] by soliciting more than $150,000 from businessman Morris Talansky [JURIST report]. Olmert may also face criminal charges for double billing [JURIST report] the state and charitable donors for travel expenses in 2002-2006.

[JURIST] Officials in Malaysia [JURIST news archive] on Sunday announced the release of 13 people who were detained under the country's controversial Internal Security Act (ISA) [text, PDF; HRW backgrounder], in a move called for Friday by Prime Minister Najib Razak [official website; BBC profile] in his first address to the nation [text, PDF]. Two ethnic Indian leaders of the banned Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) were among those removed from a detention center, but they remained in police custody [Malaysian Insider report] Sunday, and police said the 13 would be placed under "police supervision" [AFP report]. In his address, Najib also lifted bans on two newspapers and promised a "comprehensive review" of the ISA, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

In November, Malaysian High Court Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad ordered the release [JURIST report] of blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, finding insufficient grounds for his arrest under the ISA. In June, Malaysian rights group Suaram cited the continued use of the ISA in saying that human rights conditions in the country had worsened [JURIST report] in the past year. In May, the Federal Court of Malaysia [official website] rejected an appeal [JURIST report] by five ethnic Indian protesters being detained by Malaysian authorities under the ISA. In January 2008, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) [advocacy website, in French] called for Malaysia to lift the ISA [JURIST report], saying the law was being used to stifle peaceful dissent.

[JURIST] The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) [official website] on Friday called on the government of Rwanda [JURIST news archive] to investigate reports of killings during and after the uprising by the Rwandan Patriotic Army to end the 1994 genocide [HRW backgrounder]. In its concluding observations [text, DOC] after reviewing Rwanda's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) [text], the committee praised the nation's abolition of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] but called for an end to life sentences in solitary confinement. The UNHRC criticized Rwanda's prison conditions, while calling for greater availability of free legal defense and an end to arbitrary prosecutions of members of vulnerable groups. The committee claimed that even though Rwanda's constitution calls for gender equality, discriminatory statutes are still in place, and girls and boys do not have equal educational opportunities. The UNHRC also said Rwanda should ease restrictions on the media and allow human rights organizations to operate without interference. As it concluded its session in New York [materials; press release], the UNHRC also commented [text, DOC] on problems with Australia's 2005 Anti-Terrorism Act [text, PDF] and expressed concern [text, DOC] over violence against women in Sweden [JURIST news archive].

In March, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile; JURIST news archive] pledged his ongoing support [JURIST report] for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [JURIST news archive] (ICTR) and stressed that the international community must continue to combat genocide. In July, a report [text, PDF] released by Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] said the Rwandan government [official website] had made substantial progress [JURIST report] in reforming its justice system but fallen short in several key areas. In July 2007, HRW urged [JURIST report] Rwanda to conduct an "independent and impartial" investigation [press release] into an increasing number of alleged extrajudicial killings, saying in a report [HRW materials] that Rwanda National Police officers had killed at least 20 prisoners in seven months.