Last week, Kyrgyz interim President Roza Otunbayeva [Telegraph profile] established a commission [JURIST report] to investigate the recent ethnic violence against the country's Uzbek population. The commission is comprised of 30 former government officials [VOR report], human rights activists and professors, headed by former parliament speaker Abdygany Erkebayev. It will consult with government and international experts and present its findings [AP report] on the causes and repercussions of the violence in September. Earlier this month, the Kyrgyz government announced that it has opened more than 1,000 criminal cases [JURIST report] stemming from the recent violence. Regional officials in Osh, an area in southern Kyrgyzstan, announced that 106 individuals had already been detained [ITAR-TASS report]. The violence resulted from a clash between the Kyrgyz majority and the Uzbek minority and official estimates place the death toll at 309, with an additional 2,000 reportedly injured. Property damage estimates exceed $71 million.

In June 2009, the Dutch Supreme Court [official website, in Dutch] upheld [judgment, in Dutch; JURIST report] Van Anraat's conviction finding that the record, including his continuing role as Iraq's sole supplier of TDG after the death of 5,000 Iraqis in the 1988 Hajabla attack [JURIST report], showed that his participation was intentional. Prior to the Supreme Court hearing the case, Van Anraat had appealed his conviction on charges of complicity in war crimes to the Court of Appeal, which also upheld the conviction [judgment, in Dutch] in May 2007. In January, Iraqi officials executed [press release, in Arabic] Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], better known as "Chemical Ali," for ordering the Hajabla attack.

I think there's a good reason for a conservative to vote yes, and that's provided in the Constitution itself. ... All of us abhor judicial activism, ... [but] are we living in an age of legislative activism[?] ... I could give you a hundred reasons to vote 'no,' ... but the Constitution in my view puts a requirement on me as a senator to not replace my judgment for [the president's], ... it puts upon me a standard ... that's stood the test of time: is the person qualified, is it a person of good character, is it someone who understands the difference between being a judge and being a politician, and quite frankly, I think [Kagan has] passed all those tests.

Last week, the committee delayed the vote on the confirmation [JURIST report] at the request of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) [official website]. In requesting the delay, Sessions described the confirmation process as moving in an "expeditious manner," [hearing video] and went on to outline his potential objections to Kagan's confirmation. Among them, he called Kagan's answers to questions during her confirmation hearings as "less than candid" and expressed concern over her positions on legislation during her time working in the Clinton administration. Kagan's confirmation hearings concluded last month [JURIST report]. During the hearings, Kagan addressed the effect of political bias on the court and stressed the importance of not bringing politics to the bench. Kagan's confirmation hearings began [JURIST report] with Democratic and Republican senators offering contrasting interpretations of Kagan's judicial philosophy and lack of experience on the bench. Obama nominated Kagan [JURIST report] in May to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his retirement [JURIST report] in April. Kagan became the first woman confirmed as Solicitor General [JURIST report] in 2009.

The Obama administration continues its push to close the Guantanamo Bay facility, despite missing its self-imposed one-year deadline [JURIST report] in January. The administration has run into several hurdles in closing the prison, including opposition from members of Congress and the suspension of detainee transfers to Yemen [JURIST report]. In May, the US House Armed Services Committee [official website] approved a bill [JURIST report] prohibiting the Obama administration from modifying or building a facility in the US to hold detainees currently held at Guantanamo. The bill requires that any plan to construct or modify US facilities to accommodate Guantanamo transfers be "accompanied by a thorough and comprehensive plan that outlines the merits, costs and risks associated with utilizing such a facility." As the Obama administration has not presented such a plan to Congress, the bill prohibits the use of any funds for the purpose of preparing a US facility for Guantanamo transfers. The number of detainees at Guantanamo has been significantly reduced as the administration continues to transfer detainees to a growing list of countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, Maldives, Georgia, Albania, Latvia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Somaliland, Palau, Belgium, Afghanistan and Bermuda [JURIST reports].

In February, China issued new regulations tightening restrictions on Internet use [JURIST report] by requiring citizens operating websites to submit identity cards and meet with regulators before their sites can be registered. The new policies came amid negotiations with Google regarding the Internet company's January threat to discontinue operations in China [JURIST report] due to the country's overarching Internet censorship. Google's action was in response to a cyber attack on its Gmail service in December, which targeted the e-mail accounts of human rights activists in China and drew the ire of rights groups around the world. Google indicated that it would work with the Chinese government to find a way to allow an, "unfiltered search engine within the law as well," but also noted that if an agreement cannot be reached, it would close its offices there and shut down its google.cn website. China responded by reiterating its commitment [JURIST report] to open Internet, but stressed that international Internet companies must follow Chinese law.

[IGLHRC] does invaluable work around the globe to protect basic human rights, combat discrimination, and fight against the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Today's vote reaffirmed the Economic and Social Council's commitment to include a diverse range of voices from civil society in the work of the UN. Most important, the vote was a significant achievement for all those who work to see the United Nations embody its founding principles and advance the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In March 2009, US President Barack Obama [official profile] endorsed a UN declaration [JURIST report] calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality, reversing the decision of his predecessor. In signing UN General Assembly Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity [text, PDF], the US joined 66 other nations in supporting the document that divided the UN General Assembly [official website]. Nearly 60 nations signed an opposing statement, among them were China, Russia, members of the Islamic Conference and the Vatican.

Last week's ruling, which also reaffirmed a previous ruling finding the land reform program racially motivated [JURIST report], discriminatory and contrary to the SADC treaty [text, DOC], marks the third time that the Tribunal has referred Zimbabwe to the SADC summit meeting for non-compliance with court orders, continued human rights abuses and violation of the SADC treaty. The summit has yet to act in any of these instances. In bringing the case to the Tribunal, the dispossessed farmers urged the SADC to suspend Zimbabwe from membership until it either halted the seizures or compensated the farmers, as previously ordered by the Tribunal. The farmers have alleged that they face ongoing violence and harassment by government forces seeking to evict them from their farmland. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe [PBS profile; JURIST news archive] has defended the law, calling it necessary to correct historical racial disparities resulting from the country's history as a British colony.

In June, the trial of 33 retired and active naval officers began [JURIST report]. The officers were accused of attempting to overthrow the government and establish military rule in another plot planned by a group called Ergenekon [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The group allegedly planned to assassinate prominent members of Turkey's Christian and Jewish minority groups, blame Islamic terrorists for the deaths and use this to delegitimize the AKP. Prosecutors in the case will attempt to link [BBC report] the 33 defendants to a plan to detonate a bomb in an Istanbul museum and the deaths of a Catholic priest, Protestant missionaries and journalist Hrant Dink. The investigations have strained relations between the religiously-inclined government and the secular military, which has been responsible for four coups in the last fifty years. Since the founding of the modern republic in 1923, the military has regarded itself as the defender [Guardian report] of the secular legacy of founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk [Turkish News profile].

bore in mind that the accused[,] ... while in detention in the USA, admitted his guilt and expressed his remorse. The accused stated that he was aware of the crimes he committed and the suffering he caused, and that he must be punished for his actions. Moreover, the accused ... did not seek extradition to Croatia; he holds Croatian citizenship and would thus become unavailable to [Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH)] judicial authorities. Instead, he expressed his wish to be deported to BiH, to admit his guilt for the crimes charged and to be punished for the crimes that he had committed.

Boskic was charged [JURIST report] in August 2004 with five counts of making false declarations on US immigration applications and in an interview with federal agents. He pleaded not guilty [JURIST report], claiming he had been held in a Serbian prison camp and threatened with a gun to his head if he did not take part in the killings. He was convicted in July on two counts of concealing his military record. Boskic was first arrested [Boston Globe report] in the US in 2004, when immigration officials charged him with fraud and misuse of a visa for not reporting his foreign military service.

Black originally faced 17 counts of fraud, obstruction of justice, racketeering and tax evasion. He was accused [indictment, PDF] by the US government of diverting more than $80 million from Hollinger International and its shareholders [JURIST report] during Hollinger's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. In July 2007 Black was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and sentenced [JURIST report] to 78 months in prison. The court of appeals initially rejected Black's appeal, holding that § 1346 may be applied in a private setting [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] regardless of whether the defendant's conduct risked any foreseeable economic harm to the victim. The Supreme Court granted certiorari [JURIST report] last year to determine the scope of the "honest services" clause. Black is also currently facing charges [docket] before the US Tax Court [official website] for failure to pay nearly $71 million in taxes [Bloomberg report]. He denies being obligated to pay the taxes because he is not a US citizen.

Last week, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar [official profile] issued a new six-month drilling moratorium [JURIST report], citing new evidence regarding safety concerns after the BP oil spill. Unlike the previously ordered moratorium, this one is not based on the depths at which drilling occurs, but affects drilling with specific technologies, which are most often used during deepshore drilling and will not affect shallow water drilling operations. Also last week, Government lawyers asked the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] to lift its order barring the previous moratorium [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] because the new plan had been filed. Earlier this month, the Obama administration filed a brief asking the court to reinstate the original offshore drilling ban [JURIST report] after Feldman issued his preliminary injunction [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. The BP spill has now surpassed the Exxon Valdez oil spill [JURIST news archive] as the worst in US history.