Turkmenistan has been undergoing a transitional phase as it attempts to emerge from its authoritarian past as part of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan gained its independence upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The country adopted a new constitution [JURIST report] in 2008, which envisioned a new multi-party political process and provided for limits on presidential power. Political reforms in Turkmenistan came after President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, who remained in office for 21 years, died in 2006 [BBC obituary]. The government has been cited by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights [advocacy website] for widespread interference in judicial affairs, as well as using torture, and suppressing political opposition, the media, and civil society.

Overcrowding has been a significant problem for California prisons for many years. In August 2009, a special panel of federal judges ordered [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] California to reduce its prison population by approximately 46,000 inmates or construct more facilities to handle the prisoners. It is apparent that California is unable to build the prisons and will have to release the prisoners. California has also considered plans to release some inmates early, in light of its budget crisis. In July 2009, state lawmakers passed a budget with $1.2 billion in cuts to the prison system, but no specific plan was formulated [AFP report]. The same panel of judges issued a tentative ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in February, reaching the same conclusion. At that time, Brown, acting as Attorney General, opposed the decision, commenting [press release], "[t]he court's tentative ruling is not constitutionally justified. Therefore, the state will appeal directly to the US Supreme Court when the final order is issued." In August 2008, California's court-appointed prison medical overseer J. Clark Kelso [official profile] asked the court to force the state to pay $8 billion [JURIST report] over the next five years to improve prison hospitals and bring inmate health care up to constitutional standards. Two months earlier, a California court ruled [JURIST report] that the state constitution permitted easing overcrowding by transferring prisoners to out-of-state facilities. The transfers had been ordered in an emergency proclamation [text; JURIST report] issued by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

On January 5, thousands of protesters gathered [Al Jazeera report] to protest the allegedly fraudulent October re-election of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. When Mbowe, along with secretary general Dr. Willibrod Slaa, was arrested and detained, the protest turned violent. Tanzanian police killed two protesters [BBC report] and injured at least nine more.

gives Georgians a reason to fear that they may be stripped of their constitutional rights simply because of the way they look or sound. Laws that promote this kind of bare-bones discrimination are out of step with history and cannot be allowed to stand. We are confident that the Court will agree that unconstitutional attempts to drive a wedge between Georgian communities should not be allowed.

Last month, the Georgia bill was signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal [official website]. HB 87 allows law enforcement officers to ask about immigration status when questioning suspects in criminal investigations. The law also imposes fines and prison sentences of up to one year for anyone who knowingly transports illegal immigrants during the commission of a crime, and requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify [official website] system to check the immigration status of potential employees, providing that workers convicted of using fake identification to gain employment could face up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Also last month, the ACLU filed two similar lawsuits to block immigration laws in both Indiana and Utah [JURIST reports]. A decision by US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] last month on preemption of an state immigration laws may have an impact on such lawsuits. The court held in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that a controversial Arizona employment law [materials] that imposes penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants is not preempted by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) [text].

The idea that the international drug control system is immutable, and that any amendment—however reasonable or slight—is a threat to the integrity of the entire system, is short-sighted. As with all multilateral agreements, the drug conventions need to be subject to constant review and modernization in light of changing and variable circumstances. Specifically, national governments must be enabled to exercise the freedom to experiment with responses more suited to their circumstances. This analysis and exchange of experiences is a crucial element of the process of learning about the relative effectiveness of different approaches, but the belief that we all need to have exactly the same laws, restrictions and programs has been an unhelpful restriction.

Members of the panel include: former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile], Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou [official website], Richard Branson [official profile] and former US Secretary of State George Shultz. Although the report was critical of the US, drug policy has shifted from past stricter policies in recent years. Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder [official website] recommended the retroactive application of a new law [JURIST report] bringing the sentences for crack cocaine more in line for those of powder cocaine. This could reduce the sentences of some currently incarcerated on crack cocaine convictions by an average of three years. Arizona legalized medical marijuana [JURIST report] in November 2010, but Governor Jan Brewer (R) [official website] filed a federal lawsuit [JURIST report] seeking a declaratory judgment over the legality of the law under federal guidelines. Medical marijuana is currently legal in 14 US states. In October 2009, Holder issued guidelines for a new policy [JURIST report] for investigating and prosecuting state-sanctioned medical marijuana use. Those guidelines reflect a pledge made by Holder in March to stop federal raids [JURIST report] on medical marijuana dispensaries that comply with state laws. However, Holder has emphasized that if a state legalizes drugs for recreational use, federal law will be enforced [LAT report], as California attempted to legalize marijuana last year [JURIST report].

China has been involved in a number of cybersecurity issues recently. In December, the New York Times reported [text] that Chinese officials allegedly orchestrated the hacking [JURIST report] of Google, which caused the Internet company to briefly pull out of China earlier in 2010. In November, Google urged the international community to ensure the free flow of online information [white paper text; JURIST report] by establishing new rules to protect against limitations on the Internet. In September, the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China [official website, in Chinese] released a position paper [JURIST report] claiming that it has heightened Internet freedoms and describing how the Internet has become a tool for the Chinese government to promote transparency and consult the public before developing certain policies. In July, a Chinese government official said that Google had agreed to follow Chinese censorship laws [JURIST report] to gain a license renewal that would still prevent users from accessing sites that threatened national security, while not requiring Google to censor its China or Hong Kong based websites. This agreement was reached [JURIST report] in June after a dispute concerning Google's practice of redirecting mainland users to the Hong Kong-based website as a means of working around censorship laws. China responded by reiterating its commitment to open Internet [JURIST report], but stressing that international Internet companies must follow Chinese law. In February, the government announced new regulations [JURIST report] further restricting Internet use by requiring Chinese citizens to submit identity cards and meet with regulars before registering a website, prompting many to register sites overseas to avoid regulation.

A human rights activist and critic of the Kremlin, Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in an elevator of her apartment building in Moscow as she was returning home. Politkovskaya investigated human rights abuses in Chechnya and high-level corruption across Russia, and her death raised concerns about the safety of journalists and other critics of the government. At the time she was working for the low-circulation independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta [official website, in Russian] where she was writing reports on Chechnya. Her death was widely believed to be a contract killing. Two of Makhmudov's brothers and a former police officer are currently awaiting trial for the murder in Moscow. A district court acquitted those three men in February 2009 due to a lack of prosecutorial evidence, but the Russian Supreme Court vacated the acquittal and ordered a reinvestigation of the case [JURIST reports].

Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers from providing services that are funded under the program because of a provider's scope of practice. Such a restriction would have a particular effect on beneficiaries' ability to access family planning providers, who are subject to additional protections under [the Social Security Act].

Last month, a federal judge refused to block [JURIST report] the Indiana law signed by Governor Mitch Daniels [official profile] earlier that week. Several other states have acted recently to tighten restrictions on abortions. Last month, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy websites] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging a South Dakota law requiring women to seek counseling at a pregnancy center and wait three days before obtaining an abortion. Earlier that week, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton [official website] vetoed a pair of bills [JURIST report] that restricted state funding for abortions and banned them altogether after 20 weeks. Also in May, Texas Governor Rick Perry [official website] signed into law a bill that requires women seeking an abortion to first get a sonogram [JURIST report]. Multiple states have acted to ban abortions after 20 weeks, when some studies suggest a fetus can begin feeling pain, including Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, Ohio, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Idaho [JURIST reports].

Several activists in the capital told Human Rights Watch that they believed that the increased security at Baghdad's Tahrir Square and the recent arrests were an attempt to head off reinvigoration of public protests, amid efforts by various small protest groups to work together. They said that neighborhood officials had warned them that security forces had made increased inquiries into the activists' whereabouts and activities over the past two weeks.

Numerous human rights groups have accused Iraq of detainee torture and other human rights violations. AI alleged in February that the Iraqi government is operating secret prisons [JURIST report], and suspects held in Iraqi custody have been systematically tortured since before the 2003 US invasion. In September, AI published a different report alleging that the Iraqi government is unlawfully detaining and torturing [JURIST report] thousands of detainees. In June, UN Special Representative to Iraq Ad Melkert urged the Iraqi government [JURIST report] to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [text]. Melkert stated that Iraq had made several advances in recognizing human rights violations, but the government's policy implementation still faces several obstacles. The convention was adopted by the UN in 1984 and has been ratified by 147 countries. Iraq remains one of 45 member-countries that have yet to ratify the treaty. In April 2010, HRW reported on the repeated torture [JURIST report] of Iraqi detainees in a secret prison in Baghdad. HRW reported that detainees held at the secret Muthanna facility, run by Iraqi authorities, were hung upside-down, deprived of air, kicked, whipped, beaten, given electric shocks and sodomized during torture sessions that detainees faced every three to four days.

Before any decisions on drilling are made, it is our responsibility to follow the facts and understand the public health and safety effects posed by potential natural gas development. The federal government has an obligation to undertake the necessary studies, and as I made clear last month, this office will compel it to do so. The welfare of those living near the Delaware River Basin, as well as the millions of New Yorkers who rely on its pure drinking water each day, will not be ignored.

Fracking, has become a controversial issue as it is implemented in the US and around the world. France's lower house, the National Assembly [official website, in French], approved a bill [TA Bill No. 658, materials, in French; JURIST report] in May to prohibit the drilling of gas and oil through hydraulic fracturing and to repeal hydraulic fracturing licenses granted to companies. Fracking is a process by which water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground to create fractures in rocks which releases trapped gas and oil to the surface. Environmental and health concerns associated with hydraulic fracturing include contamination of ground water, migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface and the potential mishandling of waste.

[I]n denying it immunity, 'the courts below disregarded the clear mandates of this Court shielding discretionary governmental decisions from liability and have allowed, even encouraged, the use of tort law to second-guess these considered policy choices.' Contending it did not breach its proprietary duty, it says, 'Earlier premises liability cases established that private landlords must take only 'minimal measures' to prevent foreseeable criminal intrusions. The Port Authority's counterterrorism measures easily surpassed that standard.' Regarding its share of liability, it says, "Holding the Port Authority more than twice as culpable as the actual terrorists is per se unreasonable and undermines confidence in our system of justice.'

The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic radicals killed six and injured 1,000 through a car bomb placed in the basement parking garage of the WTC. Five men were captured and sentenced to life in prison for the attack. After the bombing, 648 plaintiffs filed 174 negligence actions against the Port Authority for "alleged breach of its proprietary duty to maintain its premises in a reasonably safe condition." Negligence was assessed against the Port Authority after documents revealed that the WTC garage had been ignoring safety fears since 1984. The Port Authority police superintendent, at the time, stated the parking areas "[we]re accessible to the public and are highly susceptible to car bombings."

Before oral arguments the judges asked the parties to file briefs on whether the parties had standing [JURIST report] to bring a challenge before the effective date of the law. The individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [HR 3590 materials], passed as part of the health care law, has been controversial spurring multiple lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. Earlier this month, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) [advocacy website] sought to have its challenge reinstated in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] after it was dismissed by the lower court. Last February, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) asked federal judge Roger Vinson to clarify that states must continue to enact the health care reform law as the government appeals from Vinson's January ruling finding the law unconstitutional [JURIST reports].

The US military charged [JURIST report] Ali in the stabbing death of another contractor in February 2008. Prior to the 2006 UCMJ amendment, contractors working in Iraq were exempt from prosecution in that country. The amendment, found in Section 522 of the 2007 defense authorization bill [2 2766 materials; LawReader backgrounder], significantly changed the military's jurisdiction to bring civilian contractors within the military's jurisdiction during a "contingency operation" rather than its previous requirement that Congress actually declare war. In 2007, Congress took further steps [JURIST report] to bring US contractors within the jurisdiction of the military with the 2008 defense authorization bill [HR 1585 materials]. Victor Hansen indicated that Ali's seemingly unremarkable case could have a significant impact on military law [JURIST op-ed].

Government employees go to work, do their jobs, pay their bills and contribute to their communities just like anyone else. There is no suggestion that government workers use drugs more than the public at large so to single them out for government searches is unnecessary, expensive and offensive.

The US Supreme Court [official website] handed down a decision in January regarding background checks into federal contract employees' possible past drug use and their impact on Fifth Amendment rights. In NASA v. Nelson [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report], the court upheld that NASA's background investigation into whether a federal contract employee has received counseling or treatment for illegal drug use did not violate the employee's constitutional right to informational privacy under the Fifth Amendment. The Ninth Circuit held that the background checks did violate this right, but the Supreme Court reversed [JURIST report], stating that the government has an interest in conducting basic employment background checks to ensure "the security of its facilities and in employing a competent, reliable work-force."

If gacaca courts review alleged miscarriages of justice, there is a risk of repeating some of the same problems. Instead, the government should ensure the formal justice system reviews these cases in a professional, fair, and impartial way. This would help secure gacaca's legacy and strengthen Rwanda's justice system for generations to come.

Higher-level cases related to the 1994 genocide have been tried in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website], a creation of the UN Security Council. Last month, the ICTR convicted former Rwandan army chief [JURIST report] Augustin Bizimungu and three others for their involvement in the 1994 genocide. Bizimungu was found guilty of six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for murder, extermination and rape in addition to violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions [text]. Bizimungu ordered soldiers and policemen to exterminate [HRW report] tens of thousands of Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge in churches, hospitals and schools during the genocide. In March, the ICTR sentenced [JURIST report] Jean-Baptiste Gatete, the former mayor of the Murambi Commune in Byumna prefecture, to life imprisonment after he was convicted on charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, and rape. Gatete was found to have murdered and carried out orders to rape and murder thousand of Tutsi citizens. An estimated total of 800,000 people were killed during the genocide that took place in the span of 100 days.

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that Government forces used excessive force against demonstrators, at least in the early days of the protests, leading to significant deaths and injuries. Such actions represented a serious breach of a range of rights under international human rights law, including the right to life, the right to security of person, the right to freedom of assembly and the right to freedom of expression.

Last month, International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official websites] announced he is seeking arrest warrants [JURIST report] for Gaddafi and two others in his "inner circle" on charges of crimes against humanity. Ocampo has since sent a letter to Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi, warning against diplomats covering up crimes for Gaddafi. Further, Ocampo alleged that cover-ups in Libya go so far that any trace of a crime is destroyed. Ocampo revealed in April that his office had uncovered evidence [JURIST report] that Gaddafi planned to attack civilians to forestall regime-toppling revolution. Ocampo indicated that the plans were made in response to the conflicts in Tunisia and Egypt and included shooting civilians. In March, Ocampo told the press that he was 100 percent certain his office would bring charges [JURIST report] against Gaddafi. Also in March, the ICC launched a probe into allegations of crimes against humanity [JURIST report] by the Libyan government.