The open Internet is a crucial American marketplace, and I believe that it is appropriate for the FCC to safeguard it by adopting an Order that will establish clear rules to protect consumers' access. The Commission has worked tirelessly to offer a set of guidelines that, while not as strong as they could be, will nonetheless protect consumers as they explore, learn, and innovate online.

The FCC has long been trying to exert more control over Internet regulation. In July, US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) [official website] introduced legislation [text, PDF; JURIST report] intended to block the FCC from implementing its National Broadband Plan [official website; materials]. The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act would remove the FCC's ability to declare the actions of a communications provider illegal unless there was a clear showing that the practice causes harm to consumers and will not be corrected by market forces. A month earlier, the FCC opened a new proceeding [JURIST report] to identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to develop universal access to "high quality" Internet broadband services. A previous court ruling [JURIST report] found that the FCC lacks the power to enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is thought by supporters to be essential to the goal of an open flow of information over the Internet regardless of the amount of revenue generated by the information. Telecommunications companies Verizon, AT&T and Comcast [corporate websites] argue that net neutrality would inhibit their ability to effectively manage Internet traffic.

The referendum is meant to be the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) [UN press release] that ended two decades of civil war. In September, the UN Security Council issued a statement [text] calling on the CPA parties to take "urgent action to facilitate peaceful and on-time referenda that reflect the will of the Sudanese people, to respect their results, and to resolve key remaining post-referenda issues." In April, Sudan attempted to have its first democratic multi-party election in almost a quarter of a century, but it was fraught with controversy. Two political parties in eastern Sudan accused the ruling NCP [JURIST report] of using voter fraud and intimidation in gaining electoral victories in their region of the country during the national elections.

In June, an Iranian lawmaker claimed there was $14 billion worth of corruption [Persian2English report] in the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. In 2009, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei [BBC profile] criticized Ahmadinejad [Guardian report] after the president attempted to distance his regime from previous regimes that he hinted were corrupt. In 2008, an Ahmadinejad associate in Parliament accused members of Iran's judiciary [Times report] of being corrupt.

In April, Toyota accepted a record civil penalty of $16.375 million [JURIST report], imposed by the NHTSA for a four-month delay in notifying the agency about a problem with "sticky" and "slow to return pedal" gas pedals in various car models. A week earlier, the US Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation (MDL) [official website] consolidated [JURIST report] more than 150 pending lawsuits against Toyota and transferred them to the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website]. In March, the NHTSA enlisted the help of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and NASA [official websites] to conduct a 15-month investigation into the sources of recent safety defects. Toyota has been under federal scrutiny since December 2009, and has conducted several recalls. Toyota's product recalls have been analyzed by Forum guest columnist Bruce Aronson of Creighton University School of Law in the op-ed Learning from Toyota's Troubles - Where's the Board? [JURIST op-ed].

The BiH war crimes court was established in 2005 to assist with the ICTY caseload. Last month, a suspected war criminal was arrested [JURIST report] in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre during the end of the Bosnian civil war. The Prosecutors Office for BiH [official website] announced that Dragan Crnogorac was arrested on suspicion for having committed genocide under Article 171 of the BiH criminal code [text, PDF]. In August, Spanish officials extradited accused Montenegrin war criminal [JURIST report] Veselin Vlahovic, known as the "monster of Grbavica," to Sarajevo. He is wanted on three international arrest warrants, including one for the rape, torture and murder of more than 100 women and children and is expected to face genocide charges before the country's war war crimes court. Also in August, the court issued genocide charges [JURIST report] against four former Bosnian Serb soldiers in connection with the Srebrenica massacr, alleging that they were all members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment in the army of Republika Srpska. They are accused of participating in the murder of more than 800 Bosnian Muslims during the massacre. In April, the court convicted two men of genocide [JURIST report], Radomir Vukovic and Zoran Tomic, for their roles in the Srebrenica massacre and sentenced each to 31 years imprisonment.

The Venezuelan government has faced criticism for repeatedly restricting freedom of expression. In June, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) [official website] sent a letter to the Venezuelan government expressing concern over the increasing threat to freedom of expression [press release; JURIST report] in the country. In July 2009, Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega proposed legislation [press release, in Spanish; JURIST report] to limit the media's freedom of expression in certain circumstances, citing the importance of national security. Under the proposed law, journalists would face up to four years in prison for "threatening the social peace, security and independence of the nation, public order, stability of state institutions, mental health, and public morals and for generating a climate of impunity or insecurity. Prior to the proposed legislation, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) [official website] added Venezuela to its "watch list" [JURIST report] of countries that limit religious freedom in May 2009. In February 2009, the US State Department (DOS) [official website] criticized Venezuela [JURIST report] for press restrictions in its 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

The carrying out of executions remained controversial and cumbersome in 2010. Over 40 execution dates were stayed, many because of continuing problems with the process of lethal injections. ... Evidence of critical errors made in cases where an execution has occurred continued to mount in Texas. ... Such examples have caused deep concerns about the death penalty not only in Texas but across the country.

The trends are similar to those observed in the DPIC's 2009 report [text, PDF; JURIST report]. While the report did show that the number of executions increased from 37 in 2008 [text, PDF; JURIST report], it attributed those numbers to a backlog of cases resulting from a de facto moratorium [JURIST report] on the death penalty. Executions resumed in the US in April 2008 after the Supreme Court lifted an effective ban on the death penalty by upholding the constitutionality of lethal injection [JURIST report].

The United States strongly condemns all election day violence in Belarus. We are especially concerned over excessive use of force by the authorities, including the beating and detention of several presidential candidates and violence against journalists and civil society activists. ... We call on the Government of Belarus to exercise restraint during the remainder of the electoral process, which should be free of further intimidation and violence.

Hundreds of activists were arrested after protesting Lukashenko's 2006 presidential win, including opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich [JURIST reports].While Lukashenko has since sought to improve his country's ties with western nations, the US State Department [official website] has historically criticized Belarus' human rights record [2009 report; JURIST report]. The UN General Assembly Third Committee and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights [JURIST reports] have similarly denounced Belarus for human rights abuses. In 2008, the Belarus KGB [official website] detained at least 16 journalists [JURIST report] and searched their homes and offices for materials that allegedly libel Lukashenko. Also in 2008, Belarusian district courts sentenced at least 55 demonstrators [JURIST report], including journalists, for participating in a banned "Freedom Day" rally [BBC report] in Minsk to protest the presidency of Lukashenko. An opposition activist who was critical of Lukashenko during his 2006 presidential campaign [JURIST report] was sentenced [JURIST report] to three years in jail in 2008 by a Belarusian court after being arrested for making comments that Lukashenko was connected to the disappearances of opposition leaders Yuri Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky [US State Department backgrounder].