United Nations delegates working to draft the first-ever treaty to protect the rights of disabled individuals worldwide have nearly completed their task and resolved many issues of concern after a three-week drafting session , according to drafting committee chairman Don MacKay of New Zealand. McKay said the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the [...]

A Russian court has convicted Stanislav M. Dmitriyevsky , director of the US-supported Russian-Chechen Friendship Society , of inciting religious and ethnic hatred by publishing editorial commentaries by two Chechen separatist leaders in 2004. The court handed down a two year suspended sentence for the crime Thursday rather than sending Dmitriyevsky to prison for four [...]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors voted Saturday to report Iran to the UN Security Council , supporting a resolution offered by Britain, France, and Germany and backed by the US addressing concerns over Iran's restarted nuclear program . The IAEA overwhelmingly supported the measure with 27 of the 35 members voting [...]

The British government has said it may restrict a univeral jurisdiction law authorizing citizens to seek international warrants for the arrest of any individual accused of war crimes who enters the country. The Guardian newspaper reported Friday that UK ministers have cited the unpredictable nature of the current law and the strain it puts on [...]

US District Judge Terrence Boyle from the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has ruled that David Passaro , the first US civilian charged with prisoner abuse of a terror detainee, can present evidence at trial to show that he was following government orders. Passaro, a former Army special operations soldier [...]

A formerly secret opinion released by the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals reveals that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney told prosecutors that the Vice President had informed him directly of the identity of Valerie Plame, at the center of the CIA leak investigation . The [...]

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) , the Republican chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee , Friday expressed his strong support for President Bush's controversial domestic surveillance program in a 19-page letter addressed to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee , Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) . Attorney [...]

Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Rwanda, International Court of Justice, February 3, 2006 . Excerpt: While the Court has come to the conclusion that it cannot accept any of the grounds put forward by the DRC to establish its jurisdiction in the present case, and cannot therefore entertain the latter's Application, it stresses that [...]

Address by Denmark Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Muslim ambassadors. February 3, 2006 . Excerpt: We are faced with a problem, which can grow to a more global problem. The cartoons have now been reprinted in a number of newspapers all over Europe. And if the protests in the streets escalate further we maybe [...]

H.R.4659, United States Senate, passed February 2, 2006 . Read the full text of the legislation. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.