Following the Arizona shooting, lawmakers have largely remained silent [AP report] on issues of firearms reform. This marks the first time Obama has directly addressed reform since the shooting, during which six people were killed and 13 were wounded, including US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) [official website]. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors filed a 49-count indictment [text, PDF; JURIST report] against the suspected gunman, Jared Lee Loughner. The new indictment carries more severe charges than the original indictment [text, PDF; JURIST report] filed in January, accounting for all victims of the attack and carrying more serious penalties. Prosecutors first filed charges against Loughner [JURIST report] in January. Loughner has pleaded not guilty.

The Kenyan government has announced that they will challenge [JURIST report] the admissibility of cases [press release] relating to the post-election violence as well as the jurisdiction of the court. In December, the Kenyan Parliament [official website] approved a motion to withdraw [JURIST report] the country from the ICC. In November, the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, which implicated former Cabinet minster William Ruto of interfering with the ICC investigation, denied accusations that it had bribed witnesses [JURIST report]. Moreno-Campo had also said that the court will not use testimony [JURIST report] from three Kenyan witnesses who claim they were bribed to provide false evidence against a high-ranking government official. In September, Kenyan businessman Joseph Gathungu filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality [JURIST report] of the ICC investigation into the post-election violence.

Last month, French authorities arrested Milorad Momic [JURIST report] under an international arrest warrant for his suspected involvement in the massacre. Prosecutors believe that Momic is part of a Scorpion group that videotaped the murder of Bosnia Muslims near Srebrenica. Momic may be extradited to Serbia to face trial for crimes against humanity. In November, Dragan Crnogorac was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina [JURIST report] on suspicion of having committed genocide. Crnogorac was also a police officer who is alleged to have shot Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

The court's ruling may pave the way for victims of war crimes to obtain civil compensation from war criminals without a criminal trial. Karadzic faces 11 war crimes charges [indictment, PDF], including counts of genocide and murder, for alleged crimes he committed during the war in BiH. Karadzic is defending himself in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] and has denied all of the charges against him. After multiple suspensions [JURIST reports], Karadzic's trial is expected to last through 2012. In 2009, Plavsic was released [JURIST report] from a Swedish prison after serving two-thirds of her sentence for war crimes committed between July 1991 and December 1992. Plavsic voluntarily surrendered herself to the ICTY in 2001 and was sentenced to 11 years in a Swedish prison. The ICTY agreed to grant her release [JURIST report], citing good behavior and "substantial evidence of rehabilitation." In 2010, the ICTY denied [decision, PDF; JURIST report] early release to Krajisnik who was sentenced [JURIST report] by the ICTY in 2006 to 27 years in a British prison for his role in the forced evacuation and displacement of several thousand Muslims and Croatians, including women and children. The ICTY reduced [JURIST report] Krajisnik's sentence to 20 years in 2009, transferring him to a UK prison to serve his time. Mladic, who faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, is currently at large [JURIST report] under the jurisdiction of the ICTY and has yet to be arrested.

Over the past several years, Syria has increased its prosecution of political dissidents, drawing strong criticism from the international community. However, in an interview last month, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad indicated he would push for political reforms including municipal elections and a new media law [CP report]. Soon after the interview, Internet users reported [JURIST report] that social media sites Facebook [website; JURIST news archive] and YouTube [website; JURIST news archive] were accessible without proxy servers or VPNs. This news made it appear as though Syria was lifting the ban imposed in 2007 as a concession to avoid popular upheaval [DP report] in the country. Because both Facebook and YouTube are routinely accessed by Syrians through international proxy servers, the concession may have limited impact. Other websites, such as Amazon and Wikipedia, remain blocked for the time being.

Cannon and Drostleff were initially tried in September, but the judge declared a mistrial [JURIST report] after the jury failed to reach a verdict. In April, a federal grand jury indicted five former Blackwater executives [JURIST report] on charges of weapons violations and lying to investigators. In February 2010, the Iraqi government ordered 250 former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq [JURIST report] in reaction to the dismissal of charges against former Blackwater employees accused in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians [JURIST report] in 2007. That month, the Department of Justice [official website] also opened an investigation [JURIST report] into whether Blackwater bribed the Iraqi government to be permitted to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts expired and were not renewed.

Musharraf himself has come under scrutiny during his time as Pakistan president. Last month, an arrest warrant was issued [JURIST report] for Musharraf by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive]. The court determined Musharraf had not cooperated during the investigation of Bhutto's death, and investigators have alleged that Musharraf did not provide adequate security for Bhutto when she was assassinated during a campaign rally in Pakistan in 2007. Last December, the UK government agreed to settlements [JURIST report] with 16 Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Mohamed, over allegations of torture. Details of the settlement agreement, which are legally bound to a confidentiality agreement, have not been released, although at least seven detainees are expected to receive compensation, with at least one receiving over one million pounds.

The Bahraini government's response to the protests have prompted international concern. In February, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] called for an end to violence against protesters [JURIST report] in the country, referencing attempts to quell protests sweeping across the region. Ban said that he is "disturbed by all these violent means of trying to disperse demonstrators, the freedom of expression, freedom of access to information, particularly the journalists." In conjunction, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile], condemned violence by security forces in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen against anti-government demonstrators as illegal and excessively heavy-handed. Pillay also stressed that Bahrain has an obligation to respect human rights as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [text].

The National Assembly should use the last few weeks before elections in April to end the history of electoral impunity and to create an independent Electoral Offences Commission. Failure to do so would risk further entrenching violence and corruption in the electoral process and continue the disenfranchisement of Nigerian citizens.

In November, a judge for Nigeria's Federal High Court [official website] in Lagos ruled [JURIST report] that an amendment to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution [text] made by NASS cannot become operational law without the assent of the president. The amendment, known as the Constitution (First Amendment) Act 2010 [text, PDF] was passed in June. It repeals the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2006 in order to re-instate the Nigerian Independent National Election Commission (INEC) [official website]. Also in June, the legislature passed [JURIST report] revisions to the constitution to clarify the exercise of executive authority in absence of the president. The constitutional revisions changed federal election law by removing a provision of the constitution that disallowed people who had been charged with fraud from standing for election and requiring candidates for federal office to have a degree beyond secondary education.