On Wednesday, Amnesty International in its 2007 annual report on human rights said that the 'war on terror' has eroded human rights in the US and other western nations, with Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan characterizing it as an attempt "to roll back some fundamental principles of human rights."

The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) said Wednesday that a controversial 700-mile fence along the US-Mexican border may violate the 1970 Boundary Treaty, which resolved all pending boundary differences between the United States and Mexico. Sally Spener, spokesperson for the IBWC, said that impermeable fences on US territory but between existing rivers and levees could violate the treaty by deflecting or obstructing the natural water flow. The treaty established the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the international boundary between the two countries, and established provisions to avoid the loss of territory by either party as a result of changes to the river's flow due to causes other than natural lateral movement. Spener said that the IBWC is still waiting for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] to submit specific proposals detailing the fence's design and location before it can make a final determination. The IBWC is a a bi-national body created by the United States and Mexico in 1889 to administer boundary and water-rights treaties between the two parties.

President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 in October 2006. The legislation authorizes the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000 mile US-Mexican border. Critics of the fence include locals in border communities, who feel that the the federal government has not addressed their concerns that a border fence would interfere with irrigation, harm wildlife, as well as disrupt Mexican consumers and investors that positively contribute to the local economy. The Vatican and the Mexican government have voiced strong criticism of the fence, characterizing it as "inhumane" and an embarrassment that "hurts bilateral relations and goes against the spirit of cooperation needed to guarantee security." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it is scheduled to complete over half of the authorized fence by the end of 2008.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Tuesday that the European Union should avoid any radical changes to the draft European Constitution, telling European Parliament members that a compromise on the treaty is not an adequate solution for Europe. Prodi told MEPs that Italy will likely not agree to any compromises, and instead proposed the idea of a "two-speed" Europe, in which some nations would not have to proceed with reforms as rapidly as others. Prodi said that:

We do not necessarily have to proceed all together at the same speed. Already now, some significant European projects, such as the euro and Schengen, have been implemented by only some Member States. Not "against" anybody and not to "exclude" anyone, but always keeping the door open.
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged EU members to work together to advance the constitution, which has largely stalled since it failed in referendums in both France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi of the European Court of Justice upheld the rights of trade unions in two opinions Wednesday. In Laval v. Partneri (C-341/05) [opinion; press release, PDF in French], Mengozzi advised the court to allow trade unions to force companies from foreign EU member states to pay their workers the same that domestic workers would otherwise receive. Latvian construction company Laval was hired to build a school in Sweden, but Sweden's construction trade union Byggnads sought to force Laval to pay its workers more. In the second case, International Transport Workers' Federation v. Viking Line ABP (C-438/05), Mengozzi said trade unions should be able to act to dissuade a company from moving to another EU member state for the purposes of lowering wages.

Advocate General opinions are not binding, although generally the final opinions of the court, which will not be released for several months, follow them. By advocating more power for trade unions, Mengozzi seems to be granting greater weight to a country's internal autonomy, over the rules of the EU single market.

Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks was transferred to a maximum security prison near his hometown of Adelaide South Australia Sunday to serve the remainder of his nine-month prison sentence. In March, a US military commission at Guantanamo Bay recommended sentencing Hicks to seven years in prison, but all but nine months of that were effectively suspended by a military judge under the terms of a plea agreement kept secret from the panel of military officers during its deliberations.

Hicks has spent more than five years in US custody since being captured in Afghanistan. Under the plea agreement, Hicks was required to state that he "has never been illegally treated" while being held as an enemy combatant by the United States and that his detention was lawful pursuant to the laws of armed conflict. Hicks is also prohibited from having contact with the media for a period of one year, is to not take any legal action against the United States for his treatment during his 5 year detention, and is required to turn over any profits from an eventual sale of his story to the Australian government.

Lawyers for the US government argued for the extradition of Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri in a hearing before a London court Thursday. Al-Masri is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence  in Britain for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims and using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior" to stir up racial hatred. Hamza faces US charges of attempting to establish terrorist training camps both in Oregon and in Afghanistan. The hearing, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed to give Hamza time to recover from an operation.

The US called for Hamza's extradition last year, but hearings were delayed pending his appeal of his current conviction in the UK courts. The appeals were dismissed in November. Hamza's lawyers say the extradition warrant should be dismissed because it was issued on evidence obtained by torture.