Human rights groups have closely scrutinized Kazakhstan's adherence to its international human rights obligations. Kazakhstan submitted to a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the UN Human Rights Council [official websites] in February 2010. Kazakhstan accepted 121 of the recommendations [Kazakhstan UPR materials] to reduce human rights violation, particularly with respect to freedom of the press. In August 2009, the Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of publisher Ramazan Esergepov, who was sentenced to three years in jail for revealing state secrets in his newspaper. A representative of Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) [official websites] said that revealing public corruption [press release] is "the main duty of the journalists acting in the public interest," and that "[c]riminal sanctions for 'breach of secrecy' should only apply to the officials whose job descriptions stipulate the duty to protect sensitive information, but not to citizens."

Everyone had been fearing a tragedy like this for a long time. I am well aware that this is a contentious group, with a complicated history, but leaving them to fester in Camp Ashraf was never going to be a solution. Clearly, since they are unable to go back to Iran, and are in danger in Iraq, the solution is most likely to involve moving them to third countries. I urge governments to take the necessary pragmatic and generous steps to resolve what is an untenable situation.

The PMOI has been designated a foreign terrorist group by the US since 1997, but it stopped military action in 2001 [WP report], and, since 2003, has been without weapons. The group has also touted its actions in providing information about Iran's nuclear program. In July, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] ordered [opinion, PDF] the State Department to reconsider the status of the PMOI [JURIST report]. In 2008, the European Court of First Instance [official website] annulled a decision by the EU [JURIST report] to place the PMOI on a list of terrorist groups. That decision followed an order by the UK Parliament to remove the PMOI from a British list of terrorist groups [JURIST report]. PMOI is Iran's main political opposition organization and part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) [group website], an umbrella coalition of Iranian opposition groups. The PMOI has been at odds with the Iranian government since it chose to support Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] during the 1980s.

The use of GPS technology and other surveillance devices by law enforcement agents continue to be a controversial issue in the US, with courts across the country coming to divergent conclusions. Last week, the Court of Appeals of Virginia [official website] ruled that using a GPS device to track the movement of a suspect in a string of sexual assaults without obtaining a warrant did not violate the Fourth Amendment [JURIST report]. A Pennsylvania appeals court allowed use of evidence obtained with GPS technology [JURIST report] in December. In September, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] that, at times, the government might need a warrant to obtain cell phone data [JURIST report] to track a person's location. Last year, the US Supreme Court unanimously held that, even if there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in work-issued electronic devices, that an employer's search of private text messages does not violate [JURIST report] the Fourth Amendment so long as the search is not excessive and is pursuant to a legitimate work-related purpose.

Allende, a Marxist, was met with opposition after winning the 1970 elections in Chile from those fearing his presidency would support a pro-Soviet communist government. The 1973 coup, backed by the US [JURIST report], was followed by a 17-year military regime lead by Pinochet. In an extraordinary statement released on his 91st birthday Pinochet publicly assumed "full political responsibility" [JURIST report] for the actions of his military regime. Pinochet nonetheless justified the military coup against Allende that brought him to power as having being necessary to preserve Chile's integrity amid "the continuation and worsening of the worse political and economic crisis than one can remember." Pinochet died [JURIST report] in 2006 at the age of 91 without ever facing trial for multiple human rights abuses and tax evasion charges against him.