UN investigators begin legal inquiry into 1999 East Timor violence News
UN investigators begin legal inquiry into 1999 East Timor violence

[JURIST] UN legal experts met with Indonesian leaders Thursday to launch an inquiry [JURIST report] into the violence and pro-Indonesian militia killings that followed the 1999 independence vote in East Timor [Wikipedia backgrounder] and eventually led to the territory's emergence in 2002 as a fully independent state under the name of Timor-Leste [government website], after a brief period of direct UN administration [UNTEAT website]. The UN is concerned because so far almost all of the defendants tried for their role in the disturbances in Indonesian courts have been acquitted. Others have not faced trial [Washington Post report]. Indonesia and Timor-Leste recently set up a Commission on Truth and Friendship [terms of reference] to review issues related to the 1999 violence, but the Commission, which starts work in August, is not authorized to punish perpetrators. Reuters has more. Meanwhile, the last UN peacekeepers [UMISET website] will leave East Timor on Friday. A scaled-down down staff will remain for another year. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.