JURIST - World Legal News

[JURIST] UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Dr. Augustine Mahiga told the press on Friday that the Elders of Somalia will select delegates for the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) by June 20, which will convene on July 2 to approve Somalia's new constitution [press release, PDF]. The NCA will have until July 10 to adopt the constitution, and the new Somali Parliament will be chosen by July 15. Mahiga announced this after returning from a three-day trip to Somalia for...... [full story]

[JURIST] Moshe Harel was arrested in connection with the organ trafficking operation in Kosovo during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] the European Union Rule of Law Mission to Kosovo (EULEX) [official website] said Friday. A report [text] authored by Council of Europe (COE) [official website] member Dick Marty [BBC profile] details how criminals harvested the organs of civilian detainees killed on Albanian territory near the Albania-Kosovo border and sold the organs on the black market for...... [full story]

[JURIST] US resident Dejan Radojkovic was deported to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Thursday in order to face charges related to his actions as a police commander in Srebrenica during the Bosnian Civil War [JURIST news archive] in 1995. Radojkovic is accused of rounding up more than 200 Bonian-Muslims who were then taken to another area where they were executed. He immigrated to the US in 1999. After an investigation uncovered that Radojkovic had not disclosed his involvement in the...... [full story]

[JURIST] The Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) war crimes court [official website] ruled [materials] on Thursday that two former Bosnian Serb police officers were guilty of aiding and abetting genocide. The court convicted Dusko Jevic and Mendeljev Djuric for taking part in the killing of 1,000 Muslim men during the 1995 Srebenica massacre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Jevic and Djuric oversaw the transportation of Srebenica's men to execution sites [RFE/RL report]. The court sentenced Jevic to 35 years in jail...... [full story]

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] insisted on Friday that anyone who engaged in violent acts relating to the April 12 coup d'etat in Guinea-Bissau [BBC backgrounder] should be held accountable [press release] for their actions. In the press release, Pillay voiced concern that the unstable situation in Guinea-Bissau following the coup could lead to crackdowns on human rights:I cannot stress enough the importance of full respect for the fundamental human rights of freedom of...... [full story]

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] criticized the Hungarian government [press release] on Friday for ignoring recommendations by the Council of Europe [official website] to change its media laws that allegedly curtail press freedom. HRW expressed concern that the media laws' requirement for journalists to register with the national government, as well as a mandate of "balanced" reporting would have a chilling effect on investigative journalism. In the press release, Lydia Gall, an HRW researcher, declared that the Hungarian...... [full story]

[JURIST] The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on Thursday rejected challenges [press release] to the court's jurisdiction in two cases stemming from the 2007 Kenyan post-election violence [JURIST news archive], clearing the way for trial. The pre-trial chamber confirmed charges [JURIST report] against four suspects in January, and their defense lawyers appealed, arguing that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the cases. The appeals chamber rejected the appeals of Francis Muthaura and Uhuru Kenyatta...... [full story]

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday ordered [opinion, PDF] the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] to turn over three videotapes depicting Kuwaiti Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainees being forcibly removed from their cells. The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [official website] lawsuit [materials] filed in 2008 by the International Counsel Bureau [firm website] on behalf of relatives of several detainees. The government argued...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Department of State (DOS) [official website] on Friday released the 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [materials]. The reports outline the prevailing trends that shaped human rights last year. These include uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, positive reforms in Myanmar, the persecution of religious minorities and the use of new connective technologies. In her preface to the reports, Secretary of State Hillary of Clinton [official website] said:Our reports are founded on the simple...... [full story]

[JURIST] The top UN human rights official urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Thursday to ensure that Zimbabwe's next elections are legitimate and free from violence [press release]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile; JURIST news archive], visiting Zimbabwe for the first time, stated in the press release that her meeting with Mugabe was productive:It was a very important meeting with President Mugabe, where he recounted to me the past history...... [full story]

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