international law

Group: Settlement Info Implicates Israeli Gov't

JERUSALEM - An Israeli rights group plans to use a database detailing the complicity of Israel's government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank settlements to help Palestinians file lawsuits over their lost land, the group said Friday.

Posted in international law, Israel/Palestine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2009
5:09 PM

CONTACT: ACLU

Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org

ACLU Calls on US to Fulfill International Obligations

Obama Orders Compliance With Treaties and an End to Torture

NEW YORK - January 22 - By executive orders issued today, President Obama acted swiftly to end the use of torture by the U.S., to "promote the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody" and "to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions."

The following can be attributed to Jamil Dakwar, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Human Rights Program:

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The ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

ACLU Links:

Posted in international law

US Execution Breached International Law: World Court

THE HAGUE - The execution of a Mexican national in Texas last year breached U.S. obligations under international law, the World Court held on Monday.

The court said its 2004 judgment, in which it ordered the United States to review the death sentences of a number of Mexican nationals, remained binding.

"The United States continues to be under an obligation to fully implement it," said the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court.

Posted in death penalty, Equality/Justice, international law

Sword Mightier Than Pen as Journalist Deaths Rise to Six

NEW DELHI - It has been a bloody start to this year for media workers on the Indian subcontinent.

Out of the six journalists killed across the world this year, four are from this part of the world.

But that's not unusual. South Asia - which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan - is the riskiest place on earth for media workers, says the Brussels-based media watchdog, the International News Safety Institute.

Posted in international law, journalism

Obama Picks a Conscience for The CIA

At long last. Change we can believe in.

In choosing Leon Panetta to take charge of the CIA, President-elect Barak Obama has shown he is determined to put an abrupt end to the lawlessness and deceit with which the administration of George W. Bush has corrupted intelligence operations and analysis.

First and foremost, the appointment gives hope that torture and "rendition" (a euphemism for kidnapping people for delivery to foreign torture chambers) is over - or will be in less than two weeks.

Character counts. And so does integrity.

Posted in beyond obama, intelligence, international law

Rwanda: No Conspiracy, No Genocide Planning ... No Genocide?

The media reports of the December 18 judgment of Chamber-1 at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda focused primarily on the convictions of three of four former top military leaders, who were the supposed “masterminds” of the Rwandan genocide. But, as those who have followed the ICTR closely know, convictions of members of the former Rwandan government and military are scarcely newsworthy.

Posted in Equality/Justice, genocide, international law, Rwanda

Tribunal Sentences Rwandan 'Genocide Mastermind' to Life

ARUSHA, Tanzania - A UN-backed tribunal on Thursday sentenced the man accused of having masterminded Rwanda's 1994 genocide to life in prison for his part in the massacres that killed some 800,000 people.

Theoneste Bagosora was convicted "of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," said judge Erik Mose at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Immediately after the verdict, Bagosora's French lawyer Raphael Constant said his client would appeal against his conviction, which he described as "a disappointment."

Posted in international law, Rwanda

Applying the Rule of Law to All Heads of State

During the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election, legal developments not directly related to the historic McCain-Palin/Obama-Biden contest got little attention. Now that the election is over, several recent but little-reported criminal prosecutions, with potentially great significance for members of the outgoing and incoming administrations, deserve a second look, even though impeachment is a practical impossibility before Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009.

Posted in beyond obama, international law, rule of law, torture

Let the Walls Speak: Collecting the Stories From the War on Terror

When I hear arguments against holding Bush administration officials accountable for authorizing the use of torture and "enhanced interrogation" techniques on men and women rounded up in the ill-defined "war on terror," I think about how I spent my Thanksgiving vacation: in Prague.

Posted in Human Rights, international law, torture

For Bush - and Obama - a Gut Check

George Bush's candid interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson has one moment of awful truth - when the president, asked if he'd have gone to war had he known there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, stated: "That's a do-over that I can't do." If only he could.

Posted in beyond obama, foreign policy, international law, Iraq