UN to re-open anti-terror treaty negotiations News
UN to re-open anti-terror treaty negotiations

[JURIST] Negotiations over a global anti-terrorism treaty get under way again the week of July 25, according to Mohamed Bennouna, chairman of the UN General Assemby's treaty-writing (Sixth) legal committee. Earlier this month G8 leaders called for early agreement [JURIST report] on a draft of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism [PDF proposed text], which has been stalled in the legal committee for nine years over the definition of "terrorism," in reaction to the recent terror attacks in London. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has also pressed for an agreement, urging "I think a simple, clear definition that gets across the message that killing of innocent civilians or noncombatants, regardless of one's cause, is terrorism pure and simple, will suffice." It is unclear whether the definition would apply to the US invasion of Iraq. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

No lynchings reported in US for first time

On December 30, 1952, the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year of no lynchings of African Americans in the United States in the 71 years it had kept records. Learn more about lynching and listen to Billie Holiday's jazz recording of the 1938 protest song Strange Fruit.

USSR established

On December 30, 1922, representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucus approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During World War II, the USSR would also annex Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. Learn more about the history of the USSR from the BBC.