Saddam Hussein’s two co-defendants were executed today (1/15/07) in Iraq. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had appealed to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to stay the executions due to concerns over the fairness of the trial and the appeals process. Arbour and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released statements expressing their regret over today’s executions.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21236&Cr=iraq&Cr1=
On January 16th, the Court of First Instance will hear the case Al-Aqsa v. Council. The case concerns common foreign and security policy, and particularly, a 2003 Council decision implementing restrictive measures against certain persons and entities involved in terrorist activities. The applicant, whose assets were frozen, seeks to remove his name from the list of targeted persons. For more information see here.
The UN distributed a one month supply of food to 6,000 people who fled their homes due to recent fighting between Islamic groups and the Ethiopian-backed transitional government. The widespread conflict in Southern Somalia has made it difficult to deliver aid to those displaced. Kenya has closed its borders to new asylum-seekers from Somalia, but has allowed some UN food trucks to cross into Somalia from the Kenyan border. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is investigating reports of new internal displacements and an influx of Somali refugees into Ethiopia.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21219&Cr=somali&Cr1=
On January 11, the ECtHR held in Anheuser-Busch Inc. v. Portugal that there had been no violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property). The applicant, an American beer producer, had applied in 1981 to Portuguese authorities in order to register “Budweiser†as a trade mark. The mark “Budweiser Bier†had already been registered on behalf of a Czechoslovak company, but the applicant obtained a judicial order to set that registration aside. Relying on a 1986 bilateral treaty between Portugal and Czechoslovakia (now applicable in the Czech Republic), the Czech company challenged the decision with success before Portuguese courts. For more information see here.
The WTO Appellate Body ruled January 9 that so-called “zeroing” procedures used by the United States in administering anti-dumping measures violated the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement. The Appellate Body held that US sunset trade reviews employing zeroing, whereby any differentials by which prices in the United States exceed those in home markets are not factored into anti-dumping price ratios, also violate the agreement and encouraged the Dispute Settlement Body to request that the US change its procedures. The full ruling in the case, DS322, can be found here: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/322abr_e.pdf.
The Secretary General of the OSCE and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe have issued a statement calling on the leaders of Albanian political parties to ensure fairness in upcoming local elections.
Find the text of the statement here.
