Human Rights

The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises,[1] John Ruggie, submitted his final Report to the Human Rights Council on June 3, 2008.[2] The Report and its attendant documents

I. Introduction

On February 28, 2008, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) handed down its judgment in Saadi v Italy.[1] In this case, Italy and the United Kingdom (as third party intervener) claimed that the climate of international terrorism called into question the appropriateness of the ECtHR's existing jurisprudence on states' non-refoulement obligation under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (European Conve

On April 3, 2008, Trial Chamber I (Trial Chamber) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) delivered the judgment in Prosecutor v.

On March 25, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Medellin v. Texas,[1] a case in which a Mexican national on death row in Texas challenged his conviction on the basis that he was not afforded his right of consular notification under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that the 2004 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Mexico v.

Introduction

In early November 2007, the Spanish Supreme Court's Criminal Chamber ("Supreme Court") released its judgment upholding, by a vote of 11-4, the conviction of former Argentine naval officer Adolfo Scilingo for his involvement in murders and illegal detentions in Argentina. Scilingo was convicted by a trial chamber of the Audiencia Nacional ("Audiencia"), Spain's special court for serious international crimes.

On September 16, 2007, security guards employed by Blackwater USA (Blackwater) fired on a crowd in Baghdad's Nisour square, killing 17 people. At the time of this incident, Blackwater was under contract with the U.S. Department of State to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. This incident triggered controversy in Iraq, the United States, and the international community concerning what law applied to Blackwater's actions and to the actions of other private security contractors (PSCs) hired by the United States to provide services in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Introduction

On July 17, 2007, Rwanda notified the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that it plans to import the HIV-drug TriAvir from the Canadian company Apotex and will not enforce any patents granted in that respect in Rwanda.[1] Two months later, Canada issued a compulsory license allowing Apotex to use nine patented inventions for manufacturing and exporting TriAvir to Rwanda.