Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled today that the federal government could not use the testimony of a reportedly key witness in the prosecution’s case against former Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani, who is on trial for his suspected involvement in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Read moreCategory: due process & judicial protection
News Clips – September 20, 2010
In a heartbreaking blow to Afghan hopes for peace, several U.S. soldiers are under investigation for murdering at least three Afghan civilians last year as part of a rogue “kill team” that was allegedly formed when a staff sergeant who had served in Iraq in 2004 joined the platoon stationed in Kandahar province. [Washington Post] The French Senate has approved
Read moreNews Clips – through Sept. 14, 2010
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Syria welcomes its first visit from a UN special rapporteur, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in a showing of increased participation with the UN Human Rights Council’s monitoring mechanisms, including its upcoming Universal Periodic Review. [The National; OHCHR] The Special Rapporteur estimates that 2 to 3 million people face food insecurity in
Read moreNinth Circuit Dismisses Rendition Lawsuit against Boeing Subsidiary, Granting Government’s Invocation of State Secrets Privilege
On September 8, an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a civil suit filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act by five extraordinary rendition victims against a Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen DataPlan, Inc. for its role in their rendition. [Amnesty International USA ; ACLU] The federal government intervened in the suit, arguing that
Read moreLori Berenson Released from Peruvian Prison Six Years after Sentence Upheld by Inter-American Court
American citizen Lori Berenson has been paroled from Peruvian prison for the remaining five years of her 20-year sentence, stirring the animosity of those who believe she participated in terrorist activity during Peru’s decades-long struggle between government forces and militant leftist groups. [El Pais, Reuters] After being arrested in 1995, she was convicted—first before the discredited Peruvian military tribunals and
Read moreNews Clips – June 13, 2010
Physicians for Human Rights has published a report documenting illegal experimentation and torture by CIA medical personnel in the “war on terror”. The report is available here. Following the paper’s publication, PHR and other organizations filed a formal complaint before the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protection against the CIA. [PHR] Human Rights Watch
Read moreIACHR Submits Cases Involving Disappearance and Indigenous Land Rights to Inter-American Court
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced today that it will litigate two cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (against Argentina and Ecuador), while the press and civil society reported that a third case against the Dominican Republic will also be heard by the court. The IACHR press release states: On April 18, 2010, the IACHR filed an
Read moreThis Week at the ECHR
The European Court of Human Rights issued Chamber judgments in a diverse group of cases this week, finding: Russia responsible for violating, inter alia, article 6.2 (presumption of innocence) for a politician’s public comments about a defendant who had been criminally charged with rape and was pending trial at the time (Kuzmin v. Russia); Moldova responsible for violating article 2
Read moreECHR Finds Violation in British Transfer of Detainees to Iraqi Custody
Last Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights issued its decision in Al-Saadoon & Mufdhi v. the United Kingdom, finding that the U.K. had violated its international human rights obligations when it transferred two Iraqi nationals to Iraqi custody because there was a real risk they would face the death penalty. See the press release and judgment. The application was
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