Nominations are being accepted for a 2008 Human Rights Defenders award with a deadline of August 31, 2008. Nominees must be individuals, not organizations, who promote and protect human rights and who have faced, are currently facing, or are at risk of facing negative consequences as a result of their work. Award recipients will receive cash awards and the opportunity to establish contacts with several relevant stakeholders in Europe. More

According to Texas authorities, Mexican national José Ernesto Medellín Rojas has exhausted all available legal remedies and will be executed by lethal injection after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 for his role in two murders fifteen years ago. His planned execution brazenly defies the July 16, 2008 order by the International Court of Justice requiring that the United States "shall take all measures necessary" to prevent the execution of Mr. Medellín and four other Mexican nationals on death row pending Mexico's request for interpretation of the Avena Judgment. In Avena, the ICJ concluded that the United States violated its international legal obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by failing to inform 51 Mexican nationals, including Mr. Medellín, of their right to consular notification. Texas officials maintain that Mr. Medellín's due process rights were not prejudiced by the failure to adhere to the Vienna Convention, that he failed to raise the claim in a timely manner, and that Texas legal and political actors are not bound by the decisions of the International Court of Justice. Subsequently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas state courts are not bound by the ICJ judgment because the right to consular notification was not directly enforceable as domestic law and thus requires Congressional legislation for effectuation. Given that his appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has proven to be politically ineffective, his remaining hope is for the U.S. Supreme Court to order a stay of execution to allow time for Congress to adopt a law conferring a justiciable right by individuals to a remedy for the harm done by the treaty violation. His latest petition to the Supreme Court, filed on July 31, 2008, likely will be unsuccessful given the Court's earlier holding and the speculative nature of future Congressional action. This latest confrontation of international and domestic frameworks promises to yield legal and political repercussions for the fair treatment of foreign nationals domestically and U.S. nationals abroad. More