Relatives of Polish victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre are planning to file a complaint against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights to compel the government to disclose information about the killings perpetrated by the secret police. The government of Mikhail Gorbachev admitted in 1989 that Stalin had personally ordered the secret police [...]

In a report released Monday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime criticized the efforts of countries around the world as ineffective in blocking the flow of people smuggled into countries, many of whom are sexually exploited or forced to work as slaves. The report, which calls for a more unified approach through international [...]

A group of prominent physicists has urged President Bush not to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , after recent articles in the Washington Post and the New Yorker reported the administration's willingness to consider nuclear strikes. The Bush administration has denied the reports . The protest came [...]

Evidence of prisoner abuse in facilities operated by Iraq's Interior Ministry was discovered by US inspectors as recently as February 2006, according to a report in Monday's Washington Post. According to the article, a handful of prisoners showing the most severe signs of abuse in one prison were moved to receive medical attention while overcrowding [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Curtis Doebbler, an American member of Saddam Hussein's legal defense team and a professor of law at An-Najah National University on the Palestinian West Bank, says that Hussein's trial is unfair and orchestrated by the United States, and that the rule of law has been irreparably damaged as a result… The [...]

Software giant Microsoft opened day one of an expected five-day appeals hearing before the European Union's Court of First Instance by claiming that it should be allowed to both protect its intellectual property and enhance its programs. In March 2004, the European Commission concluded a five year investigation , determining that Microsoft had failed to [...]

Human Rights Watch Monday called the use of lethal injections by US authorities "incompetent, negligent, and irresponsible" in a report urging the federal government and the 37 out of 38 death penalty states that use that method of execution to suspend injections pending an assessment of alternatives that do not put prisoners at needless risk [...]

Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, April 2005-March 2006, Simon Weisenthal Center, released April 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the report and an accompanying press release. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Uzbekistan officials announced Sunday that they will close the local office of the American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) , in existence since 1995. The Uzbek Justice Ministry claims that an inquiry has revealed that the office has acted counter to its charter by setting up and supporting local NGOs with [...]

US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) Sunday urged Congress to work on passing an immigration bill this year, despite a current lack of agreement . Specter told CNN's Late Edition that "there has to be an agreement between Democrats and Republicans on a list of amendments. And it would be a thorough [...]