[JURIST] Judges of the India Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday decided to disclose their assets and make them available on the court's website. The decision, lauded by Indian political parties [Hindu report], legal authorities, and newspapers [Hindu editorial] as a victory for accountability and transparency, was delivered by the 23 judges of the high court. The judicial watchdog group Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform [advocacy website] called the decision [press release] a good first step, but cautioned that it

does not obviate the need for a law to make such public declarations compulsory. Indeed, the law must provide for an annual public declaration of assets and liabilities as well as income tax returns of all public servants, including judges. It is only when people can compare the assets of public servants with their legal sources of income, that one can catch public servants who have acquired assets disproportionate to their legal income.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] should establish an independent criminal tribunal [press release] to investigate and prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses stemming from East Timor's 1999 referendum for independence [BBC backgrounder] from Indonesia, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] urged in a report [text, PDF] Thursday. AI's report, based on a June visit to East Timor, claims that officials responsible for human rights abuses between 1975 and 1999 have yet to be prosecuted before an impartial tribunal. According to the report:

Today, despite various national and internationally-sponsored justice initiatives over the last decade, most of those who were suspected of committing the 1999 crimes are still at large in Indonesia, and are yet to be brought before an independent court. Of those who have been prosecuted in Indonesia, all have been acquitted in proceedings which have been severely criticized as fundamentally flawed. Only one remains imprisoned in Timor-Leste. Similarly, a comprehensive programme of justice and reparations are yet to be delivered for victims of the pre-1999 crimes, although the crimes against humanity and other human rights violations which occurred then have been thoroughly documented by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor.

[JURIST] The lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Mohammed Jawad [ACLU materials; JURIST news archive] said Thursday that the Afghan citizen will sue the US government for compensation for mistreatment. Jawad, who was detained in 2002 under suspicion of throwing a grenade at US forces in Afghanistan, alleges continuous, widespread mistreatment [Al-Jazeera report] including that US soldiers made insults towards Islam and behaved in an "inhumane way." Jawad's military lawyer Major Eric Montalvo said in an interview with Al-Jazeera English that he "had concern and disgust with things taking a protracted period of time," but stopped short of calling for the prosecution of those soldiers responsible for the alleged mistreatment. Montalvo indicated he would help [AP report] Jawad's legal team, though the timetable for the suit and his exact role are not clear.

Earlier this week, Jawad was repatriated to Afghanistan [JURIST report], one month after a US district judge ordered he be released from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The same judge had previously suppressed all out of court statements [JURIST report] made by Jawad that may have been obtained through torture. In May, Jawad's military lawyers asked the Supreme Court of Afghanistan [JURIST report] to demand Jawad's return from the facility after President Barack Obama's announcement that Guantanamo Bay will be closed caused yet another delay in the trial.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] Wednesday demanding access to documents related to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) [official website] policy of searching travelers' laptop computers. The ACLU originally requested the documents [FOIA request, PDF] in June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text] and filed suit Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] to enforce that request. The ACLU alleges that the laptop search policy violates travelers' Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures because laptops are searched without "individualized suspicion" of wrongdoing. ACLU National Security Project staff attorney Larry Schwartztol said:

Under CBP's policy, innumerable international travelers have had their most personal information searched by government officials and retained by the government indefinitely. The disclosure of these records is necessary to better understand the extent to which US border and customs officials may be violating the Constitution.

[JURIST] Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure [BBC profile] announced Wednesday that he will not sign a controversial law expanding women's rights, after objections by the country's High Islamic Council. The announcement followed a mass demonstration [JURIST report] against the law by various Muslim groups on Sunday. Initially passed by the National Assembly [official website, in French], the law grants women greater inheritance rights, raises the minimum age to marry to 18, and provides that wives are no longer required to obey their husbands. The law will now be sent back to parliament [AFP report] for further review. Toure is a supporter of the law [BBC report] and is hoping that further parliamentary review will help gain broader support from the country's predominately Muslim citizens.

Women's rights in Muslim countries have caused recent controversy. An Afghanistan law that restricts women's rights was criticized [JURIST report] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] earlier this month, even after it was revised to remove a sexual submission in marriage provision that received international criticism. According to HRW, the revised law still allows a husband to withhold basic maintenance from his wife if she refuses his sexual demands, grants guardianship of children to males and requires women to get spousal permission to work. US President Barack Obama [official profile] called the original Afghanistan law "abhorrent," saying that respect for women and their freedom is an important principle [transcript text] that all nations should uphold.

[JURIST] Chinese Vice-Minister of Health Huang Jiefu [official profile] estimated Wednesday that 65 percent of organs transplanted in China are from executed prisoners [China Daily report], contradicting the official posture that China has maintained for years. Huang's statement coincides with an announcement that China is testing an organ donor system [press release] in 10 provinces. The program is a joint effort between the Red Cross Society of China [advocacy website] and the Chinese Ministry of Health [official website, in Chinese]. It purports to increase organ donation, form a donor registry system, and create a distribution system with guidelines meant to curb illegal trafficking. In China, current organ transplant law allows donations to take place solely from living donors to their relatives or spouses, or to someone with whom they have an emotional link.

Earlier this month, China announced [China Daily report] that all 164 accredited transplant hospitals in the country would be re-evaluated in order to keep their licenses, attempting to address reports of "transplant tourism," with hospitals illegally selling human organs and performing transplants for foreigners. Anti-death-penalty group Hands Off Cain [advocacy website] reported last month that China continues to account for more executions than any other country [JURIST report], but, Chinese authorities recently pledged to reduce the number of executions [China Daily report] by enacting legislation. In 2006, the British Transplantation Society [advocacy website] accused [JURIST report] China of harvesting and transplanting the organs of executed prisoners. China responded by approving new regulations [JURIST report] governing the use and international transport of corpses, which was followed within months by a BBC report [text] claiming that the sales of executed prisoners' organs to foreigners was a routine practice. Chinese officials denied [JURIST report] that report.

[JURIST] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] conducted overseas interrogations that included sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, and physical abuse, according to documents [ACLU materials; page 2] made available earlier this week. The letters and memoranda, originally sent to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel [official website], were released Monday pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act suit [materials] brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy websites]. One of the documents provides an account of the detention, interrogation, and rendition process from beginning to end, including descriptions of sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, and forced nudity. A memo [text, PDF] sent to CIA general counsel John Rizzo describes interrogation techniques used in "covert overseas facilities" that include head shaving, facial slaps and holds, white noise, 24-hour lighting in cells, and dietary manipulation. The memo analyzed the legality of such techniques and claimed that the "enhanced interrogation" procedures were critical to the CIA and a "key reason why al-Qaida has failed to launch a spectacular attack" in the US since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The ACLU alleges [press release] that the use of such techniques violates the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 [text], which prohibits such conduct.

Enhanced interrogation techniques and legal memoranda justifying their use have lately been the subject of intensified controversy. On Monday, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] announced [press release] that the DOJ will "open a preliminary review" [JURIST report] into allegations of prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators during the Bush administration. Last month, a former CIA counter-terrorism agent reported that waterboarding techniques were used prior to the issuance of legal memos that authorized the practice [JURIST reports]. Also in July, former DOJ lawyer John Yoo and memo author declared his intent to appeal a ruling that allowed a lawsuit [JURIST reports] against him for complicity in torture. The suit claims that Yoo's legal opinions endorsing certain interrogation techniques led to torture. A number of organizations have called for the drafters of the memos to be disbarred [JURIST report]. In April, UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak insisted that, under international law, the US must prosecute [JURIST report] the DOJ lawyers who drafted the memos. US President Barack Obama has said that he would not rule out [JURIST report] the possibility of prosecution.

[JURIST] The Venezuelan National Assembly [official website, in Spanish] unanimously gave preliminary approval [press release, in Spanish] on Tuesday to a bill to ban violent toys and video games. According to the Patria Para Todos (PPT) [party website, in Spanish], the party sponsoring the bill, the proposed law would help reduce violence in the country by protecting the development of children who can become predisposed to aggression by playing with such toys. If the bill becomes law, the Institute for the Defense of People's Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS) [official website, in Spanish] would penalize the making, importing, distribution, rental, and sale of such toys. The state would have the responsibility of promoting production, distribution, sale, and use of toys that "exercise and stimulate in children respect for life ... and understanding among humans." The National Assembly must vote on the bill a second time before it becomes law.

Voting on the bill coincides with a study released this week by the Civil Council for Public Safety and Penal Justice (CCSP) [advocacy website, in Spanish], a Mexican think tank, which reported that Caracas is the second most violent city worldwide. The report received much coverage [El Universal report, in Spanish; El Nacional report] in Venezuelan media. Spokesperson for Civil Watch Association for Security, Defense, and Armed Forces [advocacy website, in Spanish] Rocio San Miguel characterized [BBC report, in Spanish] the law as sterile in light of recent statements by national leaders inciting civilians to be prepared for armed conflict. Earlier this month, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called [AFP report] for South Americans to be prepared in case of war after Colombia agreed to allow the US to use seven of its military bases.