Bilateral deportation agreements circumvent international law, UN official says News
Bilateral deportation agreements circumvent international law, UN official says

[JURIST] Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], has voiced concern that countries are using diplomatic assurances to circumvent the absolute prohibition in the Convention against Torture [text] against the forcible return to countries where there is a risk of torture or ill-treatment. Nowak said that some countries are deporting aliens to countries that systematically practice torture, if the accepting government promises not torture that particular deportee, and said that this practice fails to "take up the issue of the systematic practice of torture." In August, Nowak criticized [JURIST report] British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to deport Islamic extremists [JURIST report], saying it is likely to result in violations of international human rights law. Britain has reached "Memorandums of Understanding" with Jordan [JURIST report] and Libya [JURIST report], specifying that foreign nationals deported to those countries will not be mistreated upon their return. Earlier this week, the UK and Jordan agreed to allow an independent rights organization to monitor the treatment of deportees [JURIST report]. UN News has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death on November 16, 1849 over his involvement in the progressive Petrashevsky Circle of intellectuals. Dostoevsky and his codefendants were scheduled to be executed on December 22 of that year, but their execution was stayed by Tsar Nicholas I after the execution ritual had been carried out. Dostoevsky was sent to Siberia instead to serve a four-year sentence. Learn more about the mock execution of Dostoevsky.

Canada executed Metis leader for treason

On November 16, 1885, the Canadian government executed Metis leader Louis Riel for high treason in the wake of the "Northwest Rebellion" that had pitted the Metis (descendants of French traders and native tribes) in what is now Saskatchewan against Canadian troops. Although Riel has lately been rehabilitated as an Indigenous francophone patriot of the Canadian West, his trial and execution remain sore points between English and French Canada.

US President Nixon signs Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act

On November 16, 1973, US President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act into law. In addition to creating an oil pipeline across the state, the Act also quashed all environmental-legal challenges regarding its construction.