There has been a major struggle to put an end to Syrian violence since the protests began earlier this year. Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called for Syria to immediately halt the killings [JURIST report] and violence against civilian protesters in response to the fatal shootings of peaceful anti-government protesters. Also last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [Al Jazeera profile] ended [JURIST report] the country's 48-year-old state of emergency, but protests have continued. Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [text] that Syrian security forces have stopped medical personnel [JURIST report], sometimes violently, from attending to injured protesters. A spokesperson for the group called the practice "both inhumane and illegal." Last month, Pillay urged the Syrian government [JURIST report] to ensure protesters' rights to peaceful expression and to work toward addressing their concerns instead of responding with violence. As demonstrations continued throughout the country in March, the government freed 260 political detainees [AFP report] in an overture to the protesters.

The hardship a preliminary injunction would impose upon ... researchers ... would be certain and substantial. The injunction entered by the district court would preclude the NIH [National Institutes of Health] from funding new ... projects it has or would have deemed meritorious, thereby inevitably denying other scientists funds they would have received. Even more problematic, the injunction would bar further disbursements to ... researchers who have already begun multi-year projects in reliance upon a grant from the NIH; their investments in project planning would be a loss, their expenditures for equipment a waste, and their staffs out of a job.

Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has been a long uphill battle for the Obama administration. In 2009, President Barack Obama [official website] signed [press release] an executive order [text; JURIST report] which removed the previous administration's eight-year restriction on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. After the preliminary injunction on stem research was granted last year, the Obama administration appealed [JURIST report] the injunction, arguing that the ruling was overbroad, endangering an array of research across multiple programs and centers while only serving a very attenuated economic interest of the plaintiffs in the case. While the appeals process was underway, the court granted a long-term stay which allowed federal funding to continue [JURIST report] while the court reached a decision.

Cambodia's border with Vietnam has also been a point of controversy. Early last month, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy [party profile; JURIST news archive] lost his final appeal in the Cambodian Supreme Court on charges [JURIST reports] of intentionally destroying posts marking the Cambodia-Vietnam border and inciting racial discrimination. The ruling was given in absentia because Rainsy has been in self-imposed exile since 2005. At the hearing, Rainsy's representative stated that this was a political issue, not a criminal one. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] criticized the ruling [JURIST report] as demonstrating the government's control over the judiciary.

Earlier this month, the UN opened its own investigation [JURIST report] into alleged human rights violations, to work in concert with the ICC investigation which was opened in early March [JURIST report]. Moreno-Ocampo specifically identified Gaddafi, his sons and political allies as targets of the investigation and warned that any Libyan official complicit in the crimes risked prosecution and would not be granted immunity [JURIST report]. The UN General Assembly [official website] voted last month to suspend Libya [JURIST report] from the UN Human Rights Council [official website] in response to the Libyan government's attacks against civilians.

Rwandan Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga announced in October that Erlinder would be summoned to face charges of genocide denial [JURIST report] in Rwanda, after Erlinder said that it was incorrect to place the blame for the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive] on one side. The appeals chamber of the ICTR released a decision earlier in October that allowed the Rwandan government to pursue charges [JURIST report] against Erlinder. In a reversal of a previous statement [JURIST report], the ICTR decided that Erlinder was charged for actions committed outside the scope of his ICTR employment as a defense lawyer. Erlinder returned to the US in June after spending 21 days in a Rwandan prison following his arrest [JURIST reports] on charges that he denied the genocide, and he has since been touring the US [NYT report] and speaking about his experiences. A week before his return, the High Court of Rwanda [GlobaLex backgrounder] had released Erlinder on bail due to persisting medical problems from what Rwandan officials say was a suicide attempt [JURIST reports].