NewsHere’s the international legal news we covered this week:
The Guatemalan Constitutional Court [official website, in Spanish] on Wednesday withdrew [text, in Spanish] the foreign ministry’s [official website, in Spanish] warning to the head of the UN International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) [official Website], Iván Velásquez.
Iraq’s Supreme Justice Council on Thursday ordered the arrest of Kurdistan Regional Government Vice President Kosrat Rasul on charges of “provocation” against Iraq’s armed forces.
The court order [BBC report] comes after Rasul has spoken out against the increased military presence of Iraqi forces in northern parts of the country.
[JURIST] Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile], his daughter and his son-in-law were indicted by an anti-corruption court on Thursday in connection to leaks that show his family had several offshore shell companies and his purchase of several high-end pieces of property in London.
[JURIST] The Kenyan High Court [official website] on Tuesday lifted [AfricanNews report] a government-imposed ban [Al Jazeera report] on protestation after numerous protests against the Kenyan electoral commission.
[JURIST] Brazil’s federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged [text, PDF, in Portuguese] individuals instrumental in obtaining Brazil’s bid for the Olympic Games held last summer.
Germany’s Constitutional Court [official website] on Wednesday rejected [judgment, in German] a petition to block the Bundesbank [official website] from participating in the European Central Bank [official website] plan to purchase bonds.
US veterans filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in federal court on Tuesday against five big pharmaceutical firms for funding terrorist organizations in Iraq.
Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Tuesday accused [press release] Myanmar security forces of committing crimes against humanity in their expelling of the Rohingya Muslim population.
Quebec’s National Assembly [official website] on Wednesday approved a measure to require those who wear face veils to remove them when using public services.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] ruled [judgment] Wednesday that Greek police cannot enforce a blanket height requirement for police recruits because such a policy discriminates against women.
[JURIST] The legal defense team for former South Korean presidentPark Guen-hye [BBC profile] resigned en masse Monday to protest their client’s corruption trial, citing beliefs [VOA report] that the court was biased against her.
[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled [judgment] Tuesday that the conviction of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for fraud and money laundering was arbitrary and unfair, and granted damages.
The Swiss government said Friday that voters will decide whether to ban the burqa and other full-face coverings after a successful petition by far-right groups, who cited the “dignity of women.”
Activists, including the Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) [party website], collected more than the 100,000 signatures required to put the proposal [text, in German] on the national ballot under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, which lets voters decide major policy issues.
Water Wobmann [official website], an SVP politician leading the campaign and known for his anti-immigration stance, claims that the veils violate Swiss values.
At a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [official website] (OSCE) Minsk Group, on Monday, Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed [AA report] to begin the process of reducing tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which both nations lay claim to the territory.
