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 Legal news from Wednesday, June 20, 2007 |
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007 |
German policy paper proposes abandoning EU constitution talks
Caitlin Price at 6:56 PM ET
[JURIST] A German Presidency policy paper proposing that European Union nations abandon talks on a constitutional treaty [JURIST news archive] circulated Wednesday, just prior to Thursday's summit meeting of European Council [EU Council press release] in Brussels. Last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website], the summit chair, expressed doubts [JURIST report] that the meeting would see any progress beyond a road map to an eventual European constitution. The Wednesday paper, which said that the treaty concept was "abandoned," conceded several key points of dispute, including a provision allowing nations to decline to enforce EU criminal law policies. Germany also proposed having no EU foreign minister and increasing the ability of national parliaments to overrule EU laws.
A number of stumbling blocks have arisen during the treaty talks. France and Spain have called [JURIST report] for a "mini-treaty" to replace the originally proposed Constitution for Europe [text]. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined four non-negotiable issues [JURIST report] for the UK, including opposition to the German-backed proposal to give legal effect to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [European Parliament materials]. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said last week that Poland will not agree to any proposed treaty [JURIST report] unless negotiations on the EU's voting system remain open; the latest German proposal acknowledges this point in a footnote. BBC News has more.
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Colombia senate blocks gay rights bill
Caitlin Price at 5:07 PM ET
[JURIST] The Colombian Senate [official website, in Spanish] voted 34-29 against landmark gay rights legislation Tuesday. The bill, endorsed by President Alvaro Uribe [official website in Spanish; BBC profile], was approved by the lower house [JURIST report] 62-43 last week. Many of the 102 Senators were not present Tuesday for what was expected to be a routine bloc vote, but a conservative call for a floor vote found the bill short individual supporters. Bill sponsors immediately announced plans to revisit the legislation when Congress reconvenes in July. AP has more.
The measure, opposed by the Roman Catholic church, would make Colombia the first Latin American nation to give same-sex couples who have cohabited for over a period of two years similar rights as persons in heterosexual common law marriages. It would also guarantee equal rights in areas such as welfare benefits and property inheritance, though it would not provide for same-sex marriage or adoption. In February, the Constitutional Court of Colombia [official website] invalidated a 1990 law [summary; JURIST report] creating a presumption that property held by "a man and a woman" who lived together in de facto marriage for at least two years was held in common because it did not accord the same property rights to same-sex couples as to other unmarried couples.
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SEC votes to relax accounting rules for foreign companies trading in US
Gabriel Haboubi at 4:46 PM ET
[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] Wednesday moved to ease accounting procedures [meeting agenda; recorded video, (00:41:15) WMV] required for foreign companies trading on US exchanges. The SEC commissioners voted 5-0 to amend federal regulations to accept financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) [Wikipedia backgrounder], as published by the International Accounting Standards Board [official website], rather than in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) [official backgrounder] used in the US. Foreign companies have argued that reconciling the two standards is time-consuming and expensive, and have pushed for US acceptance of the internationally recognized standards.
Some analysts believe that by accepting the IFRS, it will be more difficult for investors to compare the foreign companies with domestic companies using the GAAP system. Formal adoption of the change will come after a public comment period, and would apply to 2008 reports. AP has more.
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New York Assembly passes Spitzer gay marriage bill
Gabriel Haboubi at 4:13 PM ET
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ACLU lawsuit claims US forcibly drugged immigrants during deportation bids
Gabriel Haboubi at 3:02 PM ET
[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) [advocacy website] brought a federal class action lawsuit against the US Tuesday on behalf of two immigrants who said they were forcibly drugged with sedatives during deportation proceedings. The ACLU/SC began an investigation [press release] into the alleged incidents soon after the allegations were made. In one incident from December 2004, Rev. Raymond Soeoth, a minister from Indonesia, claims that he was held down by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] officers and injected with Haldol [Wikipedia backgrounder], a powerful anti-psychotic, despite refusing the medication. Amadou Diouf, a Senegalese man married to a US citizen, was allegedly injected with an unidentified psychotropic drug while resisting an illegal deportation in 2005. Diouf was allegedly drugged while attempting to speak to the pilots, to inform them of his court ordered protection from deportation. Neither of the men have a history of mental illness, and the ACLU/SC alleges the druggings were merely meant to silence them.
Speaking to Reuters, a Los Angeles ICE spokeswoman said that sedatives are only administered to immigrants if authorized by a court, and are not used to facilitate transport. After approximately 2 years in ICE custody, Soeoth and Diouf were both released and remain in the United States. Reuters has more.
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Bush vetoes bill easing funding limits on embryonic stem cell research
Gabriel Haboubi at 2:19 PM ET
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Europe states should stay flexible on EU treaty: European Commision chief
Michael at 1:22 PM ET
[JURIST] European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso [official profile] urged EU member states to compromise to resolve key differences in negotiations over the proposed constitutional treaty [JURIST news archive] during a press conference [video excerpts; talking points, PDF] Tuesday, reiterating that the EU must continue to demonstrate pragmatism, flexibility, and unity to iron out its differences. He also asked state leaders to refrain from using the "outdated language of victory or defeat."
Barroso's comments follow strong statements from UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official profiles] setting rigid non-negotiable demands for their approval of the EU treaty. On Monday, Blair identified four non-negotiable issues [JURIST report] for the UK. Kaczynski said last week that Poland will not agree to any proposed treaty [JURIST report] unless negotiations on EU's voting system remained open to increase Poland's comparative voting power. On Friday, Kaczynski expressed optimism [JURIST report] following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but Polish officials saw little chance of a breakthrough with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who remains doubtful [JURIST report] about what can actually be accomplished at the Brussels summit. Blair and Sarkozy have agreed that the controversial European constitution should be reconstituted into a "simplified treaty" [JURIST report] whose ratification would not require the support of the voters of the individual countries. In 2005, voters in France and the Netherlands [JURIST reports] rejected the original draft constitution in national referenda, effectively derailing the ratification process and throwing the constitution into legal limbo. BBC News has more.
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House votes to start unsolved crimes unit for cold civil rights cases
Gabriel Haboubi at 1:20 PM ET
[JURIST] The US House of Representatives Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act [HR 923 bill information] by 422-2 [roll call]. The bill would establish an Unsolved Crimes Section within the civil rights [JURIST news archive] divisions of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official websites], funded by an allocation of $10 million per year over the next ten years. It would also provide $2 million a year for state and local investigations. The act is named for Emmett Till [Wikipedia backgrounder; JURIST news archive], a black teenager who was murdered in 1955 by unknown parties in Mississippi after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, had testified [transcript; press release] in support of the bill. A senate version [S 535 bill information] is expected to pass without difficulty.
Several cold cases have been reopened [US News backgrounder] in the past few years. Last week a federal jury convicted [JURIST report] former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member James Ford Seale [Wikipedia profile] for his role in the deaths of two 19-year-olds in Mississippi in 1964. Earlier this year Mississippi upheld the 2005 sentencing [JURIST reports] of ex-KKK member Edgar Ray Killen [Wikipedia profile], now in his 80s, to the maximum 60 years in prison for the 1964 deaths of three civil rights activists. AP has more.
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Libya top court sets date for foreign AIDS medics verdict
Michael at 12:37 PM ET
[JURIST] The Libyan Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will rule on the appeal of six foreign medics [JURIST news archive] in three weeks. The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were convicted [JURIST report] last year of knowingly infecting over 400 Libyan patients with the HIV virus. Analysts say that the court, which heard the medics' appeal [JURIST report] this week, is expected to uphold the convictions and refer the case to the High Judicial Council, a government body that has the authority to amend or overturn acts of the judiciary. Observers say that the Libyan government is likely to overturn the convictions if western states agree to its demands to provide medical expenses and financial compensation for the patients. Libya has previously demanded up to €10 million euros [JURIST report] (approximately $13 million) for each infected patient. Also on Tuesday, the Bulgarian government announced it has granted the Palestinian doctor Bulgarian citizenship so that he will be included in any settlement. Bulgaria, the EU and the US have been involved in negotiations with Libya but have previously rejected Libya's proposal, fearing it will amount to an admission of guilt.
The six medics have been imprisoned in Libya [JURIST news archive] since 1999 but have consistently maintained their innocence, saying that they are being scapegoated for unsanitary conditions in the Libyan hospitals where they worked. The medics were sentenced to death in their second trial on December 19 after the initial guilty verdict was overturned by the Libyan Supreme Court in 2005 and a retrial ordered [JURIST reports]. Bulgaria and its allies, including the US [JURIST report] and the European Union, contend that the nurses are innocent and have said they have been tortured into admitting guilt [HRW report]. BBC News has more. Reuters has additional coverage.
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Sierra Leone war crimes court hands down first convictions in trial of junta leaders
Michael at 12:04 PM ET
[JURIST] The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) [official website] on Wednesday convicted [press release, PDF] three former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council [MIPT backgrounder] of crimes against humanity including collective punishments, murder, rape, conscripting or enlisting child soldiers, enslavement, and pillage. The verdict, the first judgments to be handed down by the SCSL, also represents the first conviction on the recruitment and use of child soldiers in an international tribunal.
The trial [JURIST report; SCSL materials] of Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu, began in March 2005. The three are scheduled to be sentenced on July 16. AFP has more.
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UN Hariri chief investigator resigns as ICC deputy prosecutor
Michael at 11:16 AM ET
[JURIST] Serge Brammertz [official profile], the deputy prosecutor for investigations at the International Criminal Court, resigned [press release] on June 14, according to a Tuesday announcement from the International Criminal Court [official website; JURIST news archive]. Brammertz will continue to head the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC), which is currently investigating the February 2005 Rafiq Hariri assassination [JURIST news archive] and the more recent bombing death of an anti-Syrian legislator [JURIST report].
Brammertz, who was appointed in January 2006 [JURIST report] to head the IIIC, may be resigning his position at the ICC to focus his resources on the IIIC after the Security Council approved a resolution [JURIST report] to establish an ad hoc international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to approve a request by Brammertz to extend [JURIST report] the IIIC's mandate, created by UN Security Council Resolution 1595 [PDF text], past its current June expiration date. AFP has more.
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Poland to appeal ECHR abortion ruling
Michael at 10:24 AM ET
[JURIST] Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski [official profile] said Tuesday that Poland plans to appeal a ruling [DOC text] by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website; JURIST news archive] that found Poland in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text] for prohibiting a pregnant woman who had a serious risk of vision loss if she carried the pregnancy to term from obtaining an abortion. Kaczynski said the ruling threatened to undermine Poland's current anti-abortion laws [CRR backgrounder], some of Europe's strictest, which allow abortions when a woman's life or health is threatened by pregnancy, the baby is likely to be handicapped, or when a pregnancy is a result of rape. The ECHR found, however, that the Polish government did not provide any procedural framework to resolve a dispute concerning whether a medical exception should be granted, or to facilitate "effective mechanisms capable of determining whether the conditions for obtaining a lawful abortion had been met."
Alicia Tysiac, whose case reached the ECHR [JURIST report] in February 2006, had on multiple instances requested a certificate for the termination of her pregnancy on the risk to mother's health exception, but was denied. Tysiac suffered a retinal hemorrhage as a result, and was declared "significantly disabled" by a panel of doctors. The ECHR ordered Poland to compensate Tysiac €39,000 euros (approximately $52,000) in non-pecuniary damages, costs and expenses. In April, the Polish parliament rejected constitutional amendments [JURIST report] advanced by the conservative ruling League of Polish Families and Law and Justice [party websites, in Polish], that sought to ban abortions altogether or strengthen existing anti-abortion legislation. Reuters has more.
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CIA general counsel nominee faces skepticism from Senators over torture memo
Michael at 8:57 AM ET
[JURIST] Members of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website] expressed reservations Tuesday about the nomination of John Rizzo [official profile] as CIA general counsel, questioning the career CIA-lawyer's decision to sign off on the controversial 2002 "Bybee Memo" [PDF text; PBS backgrounder] in which the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) [official website] defined torture as physical pain equivalent in "in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions, or even death." During a hearing [committee materials] on his nomination, Rizzo, who is currently serving as acting CIA general counsel, said he did not have any "specific objections" to the memo and even in retrospect does not think he should have objected to a memo which he has characterized as being "over broad." Rizzo has served as a CIA lawyer for 32 years and has been acting general counsel since August 2004. President Bush nominated [announcement; White House materials] him to oversee the CIA's Office of General Counsel [official website] in March 2006. If confirmed, Rizzo will be the first CIA general counsel ever to come up through the ranks.
The Bybee Memorandum has been an issue for many legal appointees of the Bush administration. In 2005, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed the confirmation of then Attorney General nominee and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive] because of the controversial memo, which was disavowed [JURIST report] by the White House in 2004. AP has more.
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Taiwan president seeking UN membership referendum
Michael at 7:52 AM ET
[JURIST] Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian [BBC profile] is proceeding with plans to hold a largely symbolic national referendum on whether Taiwan [JURIST news archive] should attempt rejoining the United Nations (UN) [official website] under the name of Taiwan, despite opposition from China, the United States, and members of the opposition party, presidential spokesperson David Lee said Wednesday. The proposal, which will require a million signatures to end up on the ballot, appears to be an apparent departure from Chen's 2000 "Four Noes and One Without" [Wikipedia backgrounder] inaugural pledge, in which Chen promised not to formally declare Taiwanese independence, alter the national title and constitution to pursue Taiwanese independence, promote a national referendum on the issue of Taiwanese independence, and not to abolish the the National Unification Council (NUC) [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Chen effectively scrapped the NUC [BBC report] in February 2006.
Reiterating the US position on the issue, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack [official profile] told reporters at the daily press briefing [transcript; recorded video] Tuesday that:the United States opposes any initiative that appears designed to change Taiwan's status unilaterally. This would include a referendum on whether to apply to the UN under the name of Taiwan. While such a referendum would have no practical impact on Taiwan's UN status, it would increase tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is of vital interest to the people of Taiwan and serves U.S. security interests as well. Moreover, such a move would appear to run counter to President Chen's repeated commitments to President Bush and the international community. We urge President Chen to exercise leadership by rejecting such a proposed referendum. The proposed referendum, which Chen hopes will be on the ballot during the next Legislative Yuan [official website] elections on January 12, 2008, or the still-unscheduled 2008 presidential elections, will not affect whether Taiwan will be able to rejoin the UN because Taiwan lacks the support in the UN General Assembly and China wields a UN Security Council veto. Critics allege that the referendum is an attempt by Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [party website] to attract independence-leaning voters amid low-approval ratings. Taiwan, which officially refers to itself as the Republic of China (ROC), was kicked out of the UN by General Assembly Resolution 2758 [PDF text]. The ROC government retreated from the mainland in 1949 following its defeat in the Chinese Civil War. AP has more.
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