[JURIST] The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) [official website] in The Hague issued an order [text, PDF; materials] Wednesday redrawing boundaries of Sudan's oil-producing Abyei region. The borders of the region had been disputed by the country's southern Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) [group website] and its northern, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) [party website]. The borders had originally been drawn by the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) [report text] following a 2005 peace agreement [text, PDF] between the SPLM and NCP, but the PCA held that the ABC had exceeded its mandate when it determined some of the region's boundaries. The issue was brought to the PCA [arbitration agreement, PDF] by the SPLM and NCP, and both parties have said they will abide [VOA report] by the court's decision.

Control of revenues derived from the Abyei region's oil reserves was one of the factors that contributed to the country's violent civil war. A peace deal between the government and the SPLM was reached in late 2004, while a comprehensive peace deal, which also covered the country's Darfur region, was signed in early 2005 [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] Saudi Arabian officials are allegedly using anti-terrorism measures as an excuse to secretly detain, imprison, torture, and even kill thousands of people, according to a Wednesday report [text] by Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website]. In its report, AI also called on the international community to apply pressure to Saudi Arabia, specifically urging the League of Arab States [official website, in Arabic] to "[r]eview the Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism and amend it in accordance with international standards, balancing the combating of terrorism with the need to ensure appropriate protection of human rights." AI emphasized that the nation's importance in global affairs makes pressuring it to improve human rights norms all the more important:

audi Arabia [is] strategically crucial for world powers and ... the country [has] enormous influence over regional and international affairs. ... However, the authorities in Saudi Arabia also use this religious, political and economic clout to shield the government from criticism on its human rights record by its allies.

[JURIST] Federal immigration agents conducting home raids have committed numerous constitutional violations, according a report [text, PDF] released Wednesday by the Immigration Justice Clinic [academic website] at the Cardozo School of Law. The report found that, since 2006, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] agents routinely entered private homes in the middle of the night without warrants and seized residents without a legal basis in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The report also found that Latinos were disproportionately likely to be arrested during home raids, suggesting a pattern of racial profiling. Clinic director and co-author of the report Peter Markowitz said:

This report reveals an alarming pattern of federal immigration officials breaking into people's homes and bedrooms in the pre-dawn hours in flagrant violation of the Constitution. The government's heavy handed tactics are a monumental waste of public resources resulting primarily in the arrest of hard working immigrants who pose no danger at all to society.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] on Wednesday called on world leaders to take new steps [statement; press release] to combat genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights abuses, introducing a report [materials] detailing a new campaign against the offenses. Called the "Responsibility to Protect" [campaign website], the campaign focuses on holding states responsible for preventing the abuses from happening to their citizens, drawing on international support to help countries prevent the abuses from occurring, and quickly enlisting the international community to end the abuses when they arise. Ban said that he hoped the implementation of such a campaign would help to prevent future atrocities:

Four years ago, our heads of state and government unanimously committed themselves to preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, as well as their incitement. This universal and irrevocable commitment was made at the highest level, without contradiction or challenge. Our common task now is to deliver on this historic pledge to the peoples of the world.

My report offers some initial ideas on how to go about this. These proposals, not the world leaders' solemn commitments, are to be the focus of our deliberations this week. The question before us is not whether, but how. From day one, I have made the patient work of turning lofty words into practical deeds among the highest priorities of my administration. In that spirit, it is high time to turn the promise of the responsibility to protect into practice.

The strategy outlined in my report, based on the 2005 Outcome Document, rests on three pillars: state responsibility; international assistance and capacity-building; and timely and decisive response.

[JURIST] Convicted murderer Marvallous Keene on Tuesday became the 1000th person to be executed by lethal injection in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia [opinion text]. In 1993, Keene was found guilty of five counts of murder based on his participation in a series of six killings committed over three days the previous December. The Ohio Adult Parole Authority unanimously recommended against clemency [clemency report, PDF] late last month and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland denied Keene clemency [WHIOTV report] last week. Keene refused to speak with the parole board and instructed his appointed public defenders not to present any arguments on his behalf.

Last month, Ohio first used its new lethal injection method [JURIST report], called "set-to-die." The procedure requires officials to shake and call out to the prisoner after a sedative has been administered, and a second dose can then be given, if necessary. A de facto national moratorium [JURIST report] on the death penalty ended last year when the US Supreme Court ruled in Baze v. Rees [JURIST report] that the three-drug lethal injection sequence [DPIC backgrounder] used in most states does not violate the Constitution.

[JURIST] The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded Tuesday that the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official websites] did not violate prohibitions on propaganda [report text] by having retired military officers (RMOs) offer public support to the Bush administration's war policies. The GAO found that the DOD was not in violation of Pub L No 110-417, § 1056(c) [text, PDF], which provides that "[n]o part of any funds authorized to be appropriated in this or any other Act shall be used by the Department of Defense for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not otherwise specifically authorized by law," when it had RMOs make media appearances as part of its "Public Affairs Outreach Program." The officers met repeatedly with Pentagon officials and even toured the military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] before making appearances on various television news programs. In its opinion, the GAO found:

Clearly, DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to the Administration's war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through the RMOs. However, as we discuss below, and based on the record before us in this case, we conclude that DOD's public affairs outreach program to RMOs did not violate the prohibition. We found no evidence that DOD attempted to conceal from the public its outreach to RMOs or its role in providing RMOs with information, materials, access to department officials, travel, and luncheons. Moreover, we found no evidence that DOD contracted with or paid RMOs for positive commentary or analysis. Consequently, DOD's public affairs activities involving RMOs, in our opinion, did not violate the publicity or propaganda prohibition.

[JURIST] Lithuanian Justice Minister Remigijus Simasius [official profile, in Lithuanian] said Tuesday that the country does not plan [AP report] to increase the amount of restitution it will pay to Jewish Holocaust survivors in the country, according to the Associated Press. The ministry has recommended that approximately $53 million be paid to the country's 5,000 remaining Jews as restitution for property seized by the Nazis during WWII, but Jewish groups have argued that the amount is too small. Simasius said that it would be impossible to restore all property rights lost by the community, but World Jewish Restitution Organization [advocacy website] President Ronald Lauder said that the government had arbitrarily ignored [press release] many of the properties that his organization had identified as having been taken. The government's plan must be approved by the Lithuanian Parliament [official website] later this year, and would provide for restitution payments beginning in 2012.

Other European countries have also recently addressed Holocaust restitution. In March 2008, a Belgian government commission found [text, PDF, in French; JURIST report] that Holocaust survivors, victims' families, and the general Belgian Jewish community should receive $170 million to compensate for the money and goods they lost during World War II. In 2007, the commission found that the Belgian government had been complicit [JURIST report] in Nazi persecution of the Jewish population during the Holocaust, and the country's courts failed to hold Belgian authorities accountable for persecuting and deporting Jews after WWII.

[JURIST] International corporations that purchase minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo [BBC country profile] are responsible for prolonging the conflict in the African country, according to a report [text, PDF] issued Tuesday by human rights group Global Witness [advocacy website]. The report was critical of several specific corporations, including Amalgamated Metal Corporation, Afrimex, and Traxys [corporate websites], for "turning a blind-eye" to the source of minerals they purchase and then sell to manufacturers. In the war-torn country, the Congolese military and numerous militia groups control mines responsible for production of gold and wolframite, and the report alleges that the unregulated market brings significant profit to these groups [BBC report], fueling the conflict. The report concluded that despite some promising developments, there is still much work to be done to end the conflict, and that ending the conflict will not be easy:

The stakes are high, and those benefiting from the illicit exploitation of resources will not be willing to give up these riches easily. As evidence by patterns of the last 12 years, it is in the interests of all sides in the conflict, as well as unscrupulous businessmen, to prolong the anarchy, as it delivers financial benefits without accountability.

[JURIST] The US House Financial Services Committee [official website] on Tuesday delayed action on legislation [HR 3126 materials] that would create a consumer financial protection agency, slowing progress on a key Obama administration project. The delay was granted at the behest of financial industry leaders, who on Monday sent a letter [text, PDF] to the ranking members of the committee requesting a more measured approach to deliberations. The agency, proposed by the Obama administration [JURIST report] last month and put forth by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) [official website], would assume significant oversight of the financial industry from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Comptroller of Currency [official websites]. With the delay, the bill will not be the focus of House action until after the August recess.

Greater protection for consumers and regulation of the financial industry has been a priority of the Obama administration in the wake of the economic crisis of the past 16 months. In March, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner [official profile] indicated that the Department of the Treasury [official website] would propose stronger rules [prepared remarks; JURIST report] in response to the current economic crisis, and called for both the Reserve and Treasury to be given broader powers. In February, Geithner had emphasized increasing restrictions on financial institutions [press release, JURIST report] receiving government assistance.