New Japanese Minister of Justice Seiken Sugiura on Tuesday had to retreat from a statement he made earlier in the day indicating that he would not sign execution orders. Sugiura initially said that he would not sign...

Lebanese authorities said Saturday that they have apprehended a man who called President Emile Lahoud shortly before the February 4 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri . Lebanon Public Prosecutor Saeed Meerza issued a warrant...

The UN's special rapporteur for human rights in Sudan said Saturday that the Sudanese government has failed to try persons responsible for war crimes in Darfur . Dr. Sima Samar [BBC profile...

Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants announced Saturday that they would boycott their trial unless the court was moved outside of Iraq for their own safety. The statement comes after Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, a defense...

The UN human rights chief in Haiti said Friday that the human rights situation in the Caribbean nation had become "catastrophic". Thierry Fagart, who heads a team of some 30 UN observers, cited numerous violations of...

Explicitly evoking images of Germany in the 1930s, senior British judges and lawyers are warning that the Blair government's efforts to put pressure on the judiciary in the interpretation of the Human Rights Act while restricting traditional civil...

Fears have arisen in The Netherlands over the safety of Dutch Integration Minister Rita Verdonk after police Friday arrested seven people suspected of planning to assassinate two other Dutch politicians named on a Islamist "hit list" pinned...

A Russian military court in the North Caucasus region has found two Russian soldiers not guilty of murdering three civilians during operations in the war-torn region of Chechnya . Interior Force officers Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev were...

A US congressional panel said Tuesday that China had made no significant progress in human rights or law reform over the past year despite announced efforts in those areas. The 2005 Annual Report of...

Former French UN ambassador Jean-Bernard Merimee is expected to appear before a French judge Wednesday after having been detained by authorities investigating allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN Oil-for-Food program . Merimee was...