These reprisals against individuals and/or groups engaging directly with the UN, the ACHPR and the IACHR, or otherwise providing information on particular countries human rights situations, take the form of smear campaigns, harassment, intimidation, direct threats, physical attacks and killings.

Such steps towards full accountability for reprisals are an important preventive measure that should be combined with those that facilitate, rather than deter, civil society's safe and unimpeded access to the UN and the regional human rights institutions.

Sekkagya reported [press release] in October that human rights defenders are still being harassed [JURIST report], attacked and killed despite the international declaration adopted for their protection more than a decade ago. In her fourth report [text, PDF] on the right to defend human rights, issued in December 2011, the UN rapporteur stressed that implementing the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders [text, PDF] is essential to allowing the defenders to carry out their work, and that failing to implement these international standards creates an undermined, ineffective process. Protection of human rights remains a central concern for the UN, as rights groups and individual activists across the globe remain subject to ongoing violence, harassment, and arrest.

The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo [ICC information sheet] is a landmark case for the ICC. Not only is the trial verdict the first issued by the court since its inception 10 years ago, but Lubanga was the first suspect taken into custody [JURIST report]. Lubanga was taken into ICC custody [JURIST report] in March 2006, becoming the first DRC war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC. Lubanga was charged with enlisting child soldiers in his militia, and his trial began in January 2009 after being delayed for evidentiary reasons and was then halted soon afterward when one of the child witnesses recanted his testimony [JURIST reports] that Lubanga had recruited him for the militia. The prosecution concluded its case [JURIST report] in July 2009 after presenting 22 weeks of testimony. Lubanga has maintained his innocence [JURIST report] regarding the charges against him.

In January the ICTY announced that Seselj is suing them for USD $2.6 million in damages due to alleged unreasonable delays [JURIST report] in his trial. His war crimes trial began [JURIST report] in 2007 after he was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. His trial was briefly suspended [JURIST report] in 2009 because of concerns witnesses were being intimidated. The trial resumed in 2010 after the delay, and was again ordered to continue in 2011 after Seselj sought to have the charges dismissed [case sheet, PDF]. The trial recently resumed in January, after Seslj's third contempt conviction [JURIST report].

Virginia Tech has faced several lawsuits over the shooting incident. In June 2008 24 of the 32 victims' families agreed to the $11 million dollar settlement [JURIST report]. The settlement gave each family $100,000 plus medical expenses and provided for meetings with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech administration and police officials. Many of the families had considered wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits against the state of Virginia after an independent state panel reported that different school policies could have avoided some of the deaths, but the settlement terms required the families to release their claims. In December 2007 Congress passed by voice vote an act that closes a loophole [JURIST reports] that allowed Cho to purchase firearms despite a court order mandating psychiatric treatment. The Virginia Tech shootings left 33 people dead and 25 wounded in the deadliest shooting incident in US history [WP backgrounder].

The Kony 2012 campaign has renewed interest in the search for the alleged Ugandan war criminal. Last week, International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] expressed his support [JURIST report] for the campaign by Invisible Children to capture Kony. The ICC issued an arrest warrant [text, PDF] against Kony in 2005 on 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual enslavement, rape and abduction. In 2009, ICC stated that it is still seeking to arrest Kony [JURIST report]. He has denied the allegations [JURIST report] against him. Despite ICC's calling for global cooperation [JURIST report] after issuing the warrant to arrest Kony, he has remained at large.

Congress set a terrible precedent by passing this backdoor rider that took away protection from wolves. Scientists, not politicians, need to decide which species need protection. That’s the law. And that’s what makes sense if we’re going to save animals and plants from extinction. We will continue to fight the good fight on behalf of wolves across the country. These incredible animals deserve a shot at recovery beyond just the few pockets where they eke out a living today.

Three environmental groups filed an emergency motion [JURIST report] with the Ninth Circuit court in August requesting that the court halt the wolf hunt. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Services [official website] gave control of the wolf population only to state governments in Montana and Idaho, restricting the wolves in Wyoming under Federal guidelines. Days earlier, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Montana [official website] ruled [order, PDF] that Congress' removal of the gray wolf from the ESA, not through amending it but through attaching a "wolf rider" to an appropriations bill, was legal [JURIST report]. In August 2010, Judge Malloy ruled that it was improper to remove restrictions in one jurisdiction and not another, and put the wolves back on the ESA entirely. In response, the "wolf rider" was attached to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriation Act of 2011 [materials] bill by Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson [official website] and Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester [official website], opening the door to these hunts. Controversy began over the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf in 2009 when Fish and Wildlife Services removed [federal registrar notice, PDF] them from the ESA, after a controversial Interior Department memo was published that several animals should be taken off the list despite their numbers not being at a sustainable level.

In large part due to defendant Lively's contributions to the conspiracy to persecute LGBTI persons in Uganda, plaintiff SMUG, as an entity, as well as its individual staff-members and member organizations, have suffered severe deptivations of fundamental rights. Their very existence has been demonized through a coordinated campaign, which Lively has largely initiated, instigated and directed, to attribute to the "genocidal" "gay movement" an irrepressible predilection to commit rape and child sexual abuse. ... [T]hey have endured severe discrimination in virtually every meaningful aspect of their civil and political lives; their association has been criminalized; their advocacy on issues central to their health and political participating has been suppressed and punished; and they have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. As a result, many individual members of SMUG and its constituent organizations live in persistent fear of harassment, arbitrary arrest and physical harm, including death.

Uganda's growing anti-LGBTI actions have been internationally scrutinized since the murder of prominent gay rights activist David Kato [BBC report] last January. Kato was the advocacy officer of SMUG. In November, the Ugandan High Court sentenced a man to 30 years in prison [JURIST report] for Kato's murder. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released a statement last month condemning the recent anti-gay actions [JURIST report] by the government. Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo shut down an LGBT workshop that month by advocacy group Freedom and Roam, declaring it illegal and trying to arrest the leader. That incident occurred shortly after the Parliament of Uganda [official website] brought back the aforementioned anti-gay bill [JURIST report]. In February 2010, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly denounced the proposed legislation and the month before, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that it could harm Uganda's reputation [JURIST reports] internationally.

There are now 32 US states [NCSL backgrounder] that require voters to present some form of ID at the polls, but the issue remains controversial. Earlier this week a Wisconsin judge permanently enjoined [JURIST report] that state's voter ID law. Last month the Virginia Senate approved a voter ID law [JURIST report]. Also in February South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed suit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over its ruling that barred South Carolina [JURIST reports] from enforcing its voter ID law. In November Mississippi voters approved a ballot measure [JURIST report] to implement a voter ID law. In June Missouri Governor Jay Nixon [official website] vetoed [JURIST report] a law requiring persons to present photo ID at voting booth. Last March the Georgia Supreme Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a law requiring voters to present one of six government-issued photo IDs in order to vote. In contrast, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] a portion of Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration in October 2010.