Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan condemned the United States and other "Western democratic states" Wednesday for what she characterized as attempts "to roll back some fundamental principles of human rights" in their efforts to fight terrorism. Khan's remarks came with the release of the Amnesty International Report 2007 , which condemned the US for maintaining [...]

The Court of Appeals for England and Wales ruled Wednesday that provisions of the Asylum and Immigration Act 2004 are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights , and upheld a 2005 lower court decision striking them down. The Act, designed to combat "sham marriages" entered into for immigration purposes required people born outside [...]

The UK Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld a 2006 lower court ruling that a group of Indian Ocean islanders known as the Chagossians must be allowed to return to the group of islands comprising their homeland. In dismissing the British government's appeal, the court said that the government had negated "one of the most fundamental [...]

The Paris Court of Appeal Tuesday raised the sentences of nine Islamic militants convicted of "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise" from nine years to the maximum of 10 years in prison. The nine were among 25 defendants convicted in June 2006 of plotting a terrorist attack foiled in December 2002 after investigators [...]

Ali Ahmed Kurd, a senior lawyer on the defense team for suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry , accused Pakistani government lawyers Tuesday of "wasting the time of and the entire nation" by stalling judicial proceedings in his case. Kurd made the statement before the Supreme Court of Pakistan after government lawyers spent a third [...]

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Tuesday that the European Union should avoid any radical changes to the draft European Constitution , telling European Parliament members that a compromise on the treaty is not an adequate solution for Europe. Prodi told MEPs that Italy will likely not agree to any compromises, and instead proposed the [...]

US federal agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General conducted a joint raid on a poultry processing plant owned by George's Processing Inc. in Butterfield, Missouri Tuesday, arresting more than 100 employees for immigration violations. Pete Baird, the agent in charge of the Kansas City, [...]

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales told a British parliamentary committee Tuesday that top judges were very concerned with the establishment of the new Ministry of Justice (MOJ) after they and the government failed to reach any agreement on resolution of constitutional problems surrounding the ministry's recent split from the Home Office . [...]

Former Department of Justice aide Monica Goodling told the House Judiciary Committee in a letter Tuesday that she will not give up documents sought by the committee in compliance with a subpoena for e-mails and other papers relating to the firings of eight US attorneys . Goodling's lawyer said that she will not turn over [...]

The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) has issued a report criticizing Japan's justice system on a wide range of issues at the conclusion of its 38th Session . The committee expressed concern that Japan needed to "reinforce the independence of judiciary," by ensuring the security of judges' tenure, which currently lacks safeguards from political interference. [...]