News Clips – June 1, 2010

• Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights enters into force today, introducing a number of changes to decrease the Court’s backlog, strengthen enforcement in order to reduce repetitive applications, concentrate its efforts on cases where applicants have suffered a “significant disadvantage”, and allow the European Commissioner for Human Rights to intervene as a third party [ECHR]

• Amnesty International releases its 2010 report, State of the World’s Human Rights

• UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions reports continuing killings by Brazilian police [UN]

• UN Security Council calls for impartial investigation of deaths on Gaza flotilla [Washington Post]

• Efforts by Jamaican police to arrest suspected drug dealer, wanted for extradition by the U.S., claim dozens of lives, raising concerns of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [IACHR, Washington Post]

• U.S. Supreme Court decides Samantar v. Yousuf, holding that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Actdoes not grant immunity to former Somali prime minister against torture suit brought by victims of abuse [CJA, SCOTUSblog, Washington Post]

• IACHR grants precautionary measures to indigenous communities affected by Goldcorp’s Marlin mine in Guatemala, in order to prevent environmental contamination [IACHR]

• UN experts condemn attacks against religious minority in Pakistan [UN]

• UN High Commissioner on Human Rights urges creation of internationalized mechanism to investigate Sri Lanka conflict, over newly-created governmental Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation[AFP]

• Tropical Storm Agatha claims lives in Central America, as flooding and landslides continue [Washington Post]

• UN Working Body on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances expresses concern over suspension of Spain’s Judge Garzón

• Human rights defenders at risk in Russia, the Philippines, Colombia and Mexico, UN and European Union warn

• Bahrain prohibits news outlet Al Jazeera from operating within its territory [Impunity Watch]

• UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food highlights progress and proposes tactics for the integration of the right to food, in recent reports [UN]

• U.S. Supreme Court decides Berghuis v. Thomkins, holding that Miranda waiver was implied by man’s admission after over two hours of silence, reinterpreting Miranda to require explicit invocation of right to remain silence [Washington Post, SCOTUSblog]

• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for investigation of crackdown on political protesters in Thailand [AFP]