[JURIST] US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp [official profile; introduction by Professor Charles Jalloh, PDF] said Thursday that no US president is likely to present the Rome Statute [text] of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] to the US Senate for ratification in the "foreseeable future." Speaking at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Rapp said that while the US has an important role in international criminal justice, it is unlikely to join the ICC anytime soon. Rapp cited fears that US officials would be unfairly prosecuted and the US's strong national court system as reasons it would be difficult to overcome opposition to ratification. Rapp also said that the US has a role to play in a three-part system for ending international impunity. The US must work to strengthen national court systems, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the US must work with countries that exercise universal jurisdiction [JURIST news archive] when there is some relation between the country and the crime, and the US should continue to support the work of international criminal tribunals.

In August, the Obama administration was urged by the Heritage Foundation [advocacy website] not to re-sign and ratify [JURIST report] the Rome Statute. The study came in response to media reports that suggested the Obama administration might be considering joining the ICC. Earlier that month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Kenya that it is a "great regret" [Reuters report] that the US is not a signatory to the ICC. The Rome Statute was approved in 1998, and the ICC was established in 2002. The US signed, but never ratified the treaty. Then-president George W. Bush later "un-signed" the treaty by notifying the UN that the US did not intend to ratify it. As of August 2009, only 110 of the 192 UN member states have ratified the treaty. Other states that have refused to ratify it include China, India, and Russia.

[JURIST] Ireland's restrictive abortion laws [advocacy backgrounder] increase health risks to women and expose them to deliberate misinformation about abortion procedures, according to a report [text; press release] released on Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. Ireland's current legislation prohibits abortion for any reason except when the mother's life is threatened and carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment. The report states that Ireland's restrictive laws create a heavy financial and emotional burden on women who are forced to find alternatives either secretly or abroad. According to HRW, "[s]ince 1980, hundreds of thousands of women have traveled to the UK from Ireland to terminate their pregnancies." HRW women's rights advocacy director Marianne Mollmann said:

Women in need of abortion services should, as a matter of international law and - frankly - human decency, be able to count on support from their government as they face a difficult situation. But in Ireland they are actively stonewalled, stigmatized, and written out.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Supreme Court's recent decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission [JURIST report], which eased restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations and labor unions, in his State of the Union Address [transcript] Wednesday night. Obama warned of the increased potential for powerful interest groups, both foreign and domestic, to wield excessive influence over American elections and called for bipartisan support of legislation to counteract the decision. In addition to his support for campaign finance reform, the president also reiterated his previous commitment to repeal the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits gay Americans from serving in the military, despite the advice of Pentagon lawyers [JURIST reports] to postpone reviewing the matter. Health care and clean energy initiatives were also addressed. Obama acknowledged the difficulties facing comprehensive health care reform [JURIST news archive], but encouraged lawmakers to continue working toward a functional and acceptable solution. Stressing the importance of clean energy [JURIST news archive], the president pushed for legislation to support investment in such technologies to promote both job creation and climate change.

In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court cited First Amendment concerns in overturning Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) [text, PDF], which prohibited corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech defined as an "electioneering communication" or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate. The Court, in a 5-4 decision [opinion, PDF], said that, "[t]he Government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether." The White House immediately responded [press release] by pledging to work with Congress "to develop a forceful response."

[JURIST] The Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner [official website] announced Thursday that it would launch a new probe [new release] of Facebook [website] to investigate privacy issues in response to a recent complaint. Facebook's privacy tool, which it introduced in December, requires users to review their privacy settings. The complaint alleges that these default privacy settings "have made his information more readily available than the settings he had previously put in place." Elizabeth Denham [official profile], the assistant privacy commissioner who led last year's investigation, noted that the complaint reflected concerns currently held by the office and reported to Facebook in recent months.

In August, Facebook announced [press release; JURIST report] that it would give users more control over the private information they share through their profiles. The changes were announced after discussions with the Canadian privacy commissioner, who in July released a report [text, PDF] that was critical of Facebook's compliance with Canadian privacy laws. Also in August, five Facebook users filed suit [JURIST report] in a US federal court alleging that the site violates California privacy laws. In late July, Facebook announced it had corrected a loophole [CNET report] whereby users could see strangers' posted photos without those individuals' knowledge. In February, Facebook, facing a federal complaint [PC World report], reversed a change to its Terms of Use policy that gave Faceboook ownership of all information posted on a user's profile, even if the page were deleted.

[JURIST] Honduran President Porfirio Lobo [NYT profile] on Wednesday granted amnesty to both former president Manuel Zelaya [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and military leaders accused of participation in a June 2009 coup [JURIST report] against Zelaya. Making the decree during his inaugural address [Wall Street Journal report], Lobo said that it would allow the country to move past the conflict. He also said that he would appoint a special commission to investigate the circumstances of the coup, even though no prosecutions would result. Commentators suspect that Lobo may face trouble legitimizing his presidency [NYT report], though the US sent a delegation to his inauguration [press release] as a sign of support for the leader. Also Wednesday, Zelaya left the country to go into exile in the Dominican Republic.

The amnesty decree was approved by the Honduran National Congress [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the Honduran Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] exonerated six military leaders [JURIST report] accused of abuse of power for their alleged role in the coup. Last month, the Honduran Congress voted 111-14 not to reinstate [JURIST report] Zelaya. His ouster was the result of a judicial order [press release, in Spanish] that asserted that Zelaya had broken Honduran law by attempting to conduct a controversial referendum on constitutional reform [JURIST report], contrary to a Supreme Court ruling. Zelaya, along with the UN, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the European Union, maintain that his removal was a coup.

[JURIST] Two Iranians were executed [ISNA report, in Persian] Thursday and nine others have been sentenced to death for their roles in last summer's post-election protests [JURIST news archive], according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) [media website]. The two executed men, identified as Momammed Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were convicted [NYT report] on charges of mohareb, or being enemies of God, and had earlier been appeared in televised show trials. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] condemned [press release] the executions, saying, "[t]hese shocking executions show that the Iranian authorities will stop at nothing to stamp out the peaceful protests that persist since the election."

Earlier this month, Iran's Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei [GlobalSecurity profile] called for sedition trials [JURIST report] against leaders of protests following last June's contested presidential election. The Iranian government has faced significant international scrutiny for its handling of the post-election protests and treatment of thousands arrested as a result. Last month, AI labeled [JURIST report] human rights violations committed by the Iranian government following the election among the worst of the past 20 years. In September, human rights groups called for [JURIST report] the UN General Assembly [official website] to appoint a special envoy to investigate allegations of rights violations. Alleged human rights abuses of detainees include sexual assault, beatings, and forced confessions [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] Apple [corporate website] could face legal problems in registering a trademark for its new iPad tablet computer product announced [press release] on Wednesday. Since 2003, the computing company Fujitsu has been attempting to register the "IPAD" [USPTO record] mark in the US for a wireless retail computing device. Apple, however recently filed for an extension [USPTO materials, PDF] to allow itself sufficient time to prepare an opposition to Fujitsu's registration of the mark. It may be possible for both companies to register the mark [Bloomberg report], as long as Apple can successfully argue that there would not be any likelihood of confusion between its personal tablet and Fujitsu's retail device.

Apple's potential dispute over trademark rights with Fujitsu is the latest example of Apple's intellectual property issues. In October, Nokia sued Apple alleging that the iPhone contains technology that infringes 10 Nokia patents [JURIST report]. In April, Apple was found to have infringed a predictive snooping patent [Ars Technica report] owned by Opti. Inc. In July 2008, the inventor of so-called "visual voicemail" settled a patent infringement case [Reuters report] with Apple over the company's use of that function in the iPhone.

[JURIST] A French court on Thursday acquitted former prime minister Dominique de Villepin [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] of all charges for his role in an alleged plot to defame several businessmen, including current President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, in French; JURIST news archive]. Prosecutors claimed de Villepin failed to stop the circulation of false documents [France24 report], alleging Sarkozy profited from illegal arms deals when the two were vying for the presidency. Before his acquittal, de Villepin had faced the possibility of an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine. Sarkozy said Thursday that he will not appeal the verdict [NYT report].

In October, de Villepin denied breaking the law and claimed that Sarkozy ordered the prosecution [JURIST report] for personal and political reasons. De Villepin and his alleged co-conspirators went on trial [JURIST report] last September. In November 2008, de Villepin was ordered to stand trial [JURIST report] for his connection with the long-running political scandal known as the Clearstream Affair [BBC backgrounder]. De Villepin's political image was tainted by the allegations as well as by his advance of an unpopular youth labor law [JURIST news archive] during his time as prime minister.

[JURIST] French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, in French; JURIST news archive] called Wednesday for strong banking regulations [speech, PDF; press release] to restore the "moral dimensions" of capitalism. Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting [official website] in Davos, Switzerland, Sarkozy called the current financial malaise a "crisis of globalization." He promised to target trade imbalances [Times report] between the East and West and called for a new currency exchange system [FT report] to prevent monetary dumping, as well as writing new laws to curb banks from speculating [Independent report]. Sarkozy said:

The other question we can no longer avoid is that of the role banks must play in the economy. The banker's job is not to speculate, it is to analyse credit risk, assess the capacity of borrowers to repay their loans and finance growth of the economy. If financial capitalism went so wrong, it was, first and foremost, because many banks were no longer doing their job. Why take the risk of lending to entrepreneurs when it is so easy to earn money by speculating on the markets? Why lend only to those who can repay the loan when it is so easy to shift the risks off the balance sheet?

President Obama is right when he says that banks must be dissuaded from engaging in proprietary speculation or financing speculative funds. But this debate cannot be confined to a single country, whatever its weight in global finance. This debate must be settled within the G20.

[JURIST] Russian racial hate crimes decreased slightly in 2009 [press release] because of increased police efforts, according to the SOVA Center [advocacy website] on Wednesday. According to the group, 71 people were killed and 333 wounded in racially motivated attacks in 2009, down from 110 killed and 487 wounded in 2008. Deputy head of SOVA Galina Kozhevnikova credited the first decrease in hate crimes in the last six years [Moscow Times report] to a combination of revised legislation, extended criminal trials, and enhanced police tactics. Despite the lower violent crime statistics, Sova's annual report also noted the increasing volume of xenophobic propaganda [AP report], particularly among right-wing, political youth groups.

Last year, the SOVA Center reported a slight rise in hate crimes in 2008 after a 13 percent rise in hate crimes in 2007 [JURIST reports]. Kozhevnikova criticized Russian authorities at the time for not responding to the increase in violence, saying that many hate crimes were only prosecuted as incidents of hooliganism, which would carry a lighter sentence than hate crimes. In 2008, Human Rights First [advocacy website] published a hate crime survey [text] that called attention to the then increasing number of violent crimes against immigrants and non-Slavic people in Russia.

[JURIST] New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg [official website] on Wednesday cited costs and potential disruptions to the lives of New Yorkers in urging the federal government not to try alleged 9/11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [JURIST news archive] and other high-profile terror suspects in New York City. Bloomberg said a military base may be a more appropriate venue [AFP report] for the trial since they are generally in secluded areas, though he said his request was not based on security concerns. Earlier this month Bloomberg claimed [JURIST report] that providing security for the trial in New York would cost the city more than $216 million in the first year and $206 million in any additional years. Bloomberg originally backed the idea of trying some of the terrorists currently held in the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] in Manhattan due to its proximity to ground zero and the symbolic significance of convicting the suspects there.

In November, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official website] appeared before the Senate to defend plans [JURIST reports] to try Mohammed, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh [JURIST news archive], Walid Bin Attash, Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Al Hawsaw in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Earlier in November, the US Senate defeated [JURIST report] an amendment [S AMDT 2669 materials] to an appropriations bill [HR 2847 materials] that would have prevented Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in 9/11 from being tried in federal courts. In October, US President Barack Obama signed [JURIST report] into law the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010 [HR 2892 materials], which allows for Guantanamo Bay detainees to be transferred to the US for prosecution and, among other provisions, requires certain information about each transferred detainee to be disclosed to Congress including costs, legal rationales, and possible risks.

[JURIST] US citizen David Headley pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 12 charges related to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and an alleged conspiracy against the Danish creator and publishers of controversial cartoons [JURIST news archive] depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The government has accused [indictment, PDF] Headley of conducting surveillance for terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) [CFR backgrounder] in Mumbai to prepare for the 2008 attack. Headley and two others are also charged in the same indictment with conspiring to bomb the headquarters of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten [media website, in Danish], which published the cartoons. Tahawwur Rana, an alleged LeT member who was charged with Headley, also pleaded not guilty in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [official website]. The US government has not yet apprehended the two men accused of plotting with Headley to attack Jyllands-Posten. A hearing is scheduled for February 23.

Earlier this week, an Indian court rejected [JURIST report] a request by the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks for an international trial. Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab claims he will not receive a fair trial in India. Kasab, whom India claims participated directly in the Mumbai attacks, said during his trial that he met Headley, but only while in jail after being arrested. Headley was indicted [JURIST report] earlier this month along with Rana, a Canadian citizen living in Chicago, retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman, and Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terrorist leader believed to have ties to al Qaeda. The indictment was a superseding indictment, reiterating charges originally brought [JURIST report] against Headley in December.

[JURIST] A US immigration judge granted asylum [press release] to a German family on Tuesday, ruling that Germany's laws against homeschooling [HSLDA backgrounder] gave the family a well-founded fear of persecution. The Romeike family fled Germany [AP report] in 2008, two years after pulling their children out of German public school so that they could be homeschooled, and one year after a controversial German court ruling that social service workers could remove children from the home if the parents refused to send them to school. Judge Lawrence Burman's opinion was critical of German policy regarding educational freedom, calling the country's laws against homeschooling a violation of basic human rights. The case has caused controversy over religious persecution in Germany [Der Spiegel report], as the Romeikes claimed that German curriculum has turned against Christian values with the passage of time. It is not known if the US government will appeal the ruling.

Unlike in Germany, homeschooling is legal and increasing in popularity in the US, with recent figures suggesting that as many as 1.7 million children [USA Today report] are homeschooled. Each state has its own homeschooling laws [HSLDA backgrounder] with varying levels of regulatory scrutiny, ranging from no notice required to homeschool children to mandatory notification of achievement and compliance with state curriculum. Homeschooling was outlawed in Germany in 1919 [constitution text], and the ban is enshrined within article 7 [text] of the current constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.