UK report accuses US of human rights violations in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay News
UK report accuses US of human rights violations in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay

[JURIST] The UK parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] released its annual report on human rights Friday, accusing the US of committing "grave violations of human rights" against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Afghanistan and Iraq. The committee has recommended that the British government "make it clear to the United States administration, both in public and private, that such treatment of detainees is unacceptable." The report also calls on UK officials [AP report] to clear up whether it uses intelligence passed on by other countries that may have been gathered by torturing suspects, saying that "to operate a general policy of use of information extracted under torture would be to condone and even to encourage torture by repressive states." The committee's report is not yet available online. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.