UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday urged Iraq to stop carrying out death sentences , saying that the use of capital punishment despite threats of violence against the judiciary and the continued lack of independent tribunals and adequate defense counsel violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and [...]

A Republican-sponsored amendment to a North Carolina bill aimed at allowing capital punishment to resume in the state failed Monday when state House Democrats struck down language that would have forbidden the North Carolina Medical Board (NCMB) from disciplining a doctor for participating in an execution . The amendment, proposed by Republican House Minority Leader [...]

Thai police Tuesday charged former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with concealing assets and illegally holding stock in publicly listed companies, as interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont repeated his previous guarantee for Thaksin's personal safety . Department of Special Investigations (DSI) Director General Sunai Manomaiudom ordered Thaksin to return to Thailand to face charges and said [...]

Members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNCHR) on Monday reached an agreement on final rules governing the body, agreeing to a final text that requires proposed resolutions condemning human rights violators to have the support of at least 15 members before they can be submitted to the 47-member body for a simple majority vote. [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled unanimously Monday that the warrantless search of e-mails stored on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) violates the Fourth Amendment , finding that e-mail users correctly maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy and rejecting the government's contention that an ISP's right to screen e-mails for spam and [...]

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed a bill Monday that sought to hold a national referendum on whether the president should be elected by popular vote, on the grounds that it conflicted with the Turkish constitution . The proposed national referendum, approved in parliament and supported by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey's ruling [...]

Lawyers representing approximately three million Vietnamese plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of their civil lawsuit to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Monday. The plaintiffs argued that more than 30 American chemical companies should be held liable for billions of dollars in compensatory damages and environmental cleanup costs for producing and supplying defoliants [...]

The UK government is planning to proceed with proposals designed to increase rape convictions despite objections from the Council of Circuit Judges (COCJ) , the Guardian reported Monday. Solicitor General Mike O'Brien said that the reforms, including a proposal to allow expert testimony to dispel rape myths and the automatic introduction of videotaped interviews with [...]

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Larry Johnson called for greater acceptance of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism Monday, noting an "urgent need to enhance international cooperation" to both prevent terrorism and punish terrorists. Johnson was moderating a panel discussion between experts on the topic of nuclear terrorism at [...]

The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee said Monday that e-mail records for 51 of 88 White House officials being investigated for potential Presidential Records Act (PRA) violations were missing , finding that there have been "extensive destruction" of e-mail records of officials who used accounts issued by the Republican National Committee (RNC). The Oversight [...]