In August the UN Security Council [official website] reiterated their condemnation [JURIST report] of M23, and called on all foreign entities to cease aiding M23 and begin working with the Congolese government to dismantle the organization. That condemnation came two months after a report was leaked in June about Rwandan involvement in the DRC following an initial call for a halt in the violence in the region [JURIST reports]. Uganda [JURIST news archive] has drawn international criticism lately regarding its human rights record. In June Uganda's government banned 38 NGOs accused of promoting gay rights [JURIST report]. Earlier in June UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] warned [JURIST report] that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] still poses a threat to children in Uganda.

Since its inception in July 2002 the ICC [JURIST backgrounder] has become a dominant organization in international relations and the premiere tribunal for the prosecution of war crimes. During the period since ICC was established, it has investigated and prosecuted atrocities in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Sudan and Uganda. Earlier this month, former militia leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo Thomas Lubanga Dyilo [case materials] appealed [JURIST report] his ICC conviction and sentence. He was convicted [JURIST report] in March for the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities. In August the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC Fatou Bensouda [official profile] filed an updated version [JURIST report] of the charges against the four defendants in the two cases stemming from the 2007 Kenyan post-election violence [JURIST news archive]. The trials against the four defendants have been set to begin [JURIST report] next April after the ICC expressed its desire to start the two Kenyan trials simultaneously [JURIST report] to avoid any appearance of bias in the March 2013 presidential election.

(1) whether the stay applicant has made a strong showing that he is likely to succeed on the merits; (2) whether the applicant will be irreparably injured absent a stay; (3) whether issuance of the stay will substantially injure the other parties interested in the proceeding; and (4) where the public interest lies.

The conflict in Montana is part of a larger movement [JURIST report] that brings the controversial Citizens United decision under fire. Last month the Supreme Court of Appeals for West Virginia [official website] struck down [JURIST report] a campaign law that provided that a publicly financed candidate would receive matching governmental funds after a certain threshold was met for each dollar spent by a private candidate. Earlier that month, a federal appeals court struck down [JURIST report] a Minnesota law that required disclosure of campaign contributions. In August, Nebraska's high court also struck down [JURIST report] its law that would have required the government to contribute to certain candidates to eliminate disparities between them and their opponents.

While the percentage change in violent crime from 2010 to 2011 is relatively large, the actual difference between the rates for those years (3.3 victimizations per 1,000) is below the average annual change in violent crime (4.3 victimizations per 1,000) over the past two decades. The low rates make the percentage change large, but crime still remains at historically low levels. Since 1993, the rate of violent victimization declined 72 percent.

Overall crime rates in the US have been on the decline in recent years. In June the FBI [official website] announced that the violent crime rate had decreased [JURIST report] for the fifth year in a row. This seeming disparity between agencies is due to a broader definition of violent crime utilized by the FBI that is inclusive of murder and other crimes not included in the DOJ report. Crime rates have descended in other North American nations as well. In July Canada reported the lowest crime rates [JURIST report] since 1972. Last year USA Today issued a report showing a decrease in violent crimes [JURIST report] along the US-Mexico border.

Anti-Gaddafi forces captured alive an estimated 150 persons after the battle. They transported some 70 of these survivors to Misrata and held them there in custody, but at least 53 and possibly as many as 66 people were found dead the next day at the nearby Mahari Hotel. Amateur video footage recorded by a Misrata fighter shows 29 of the detained persons being beaten, slapped, insulted and spat upon by their captors, at the place of their capture. Six of the twenty-nine in the video have been identified by Human Rights Watch as being among the bodies photographed later on the grounds of the Mahari Hotel.

Gaddafi's death marked a milestone in the Libya conflict [JURIST backgrounder], which began in February 2011 [JURIST report] as part of a wider protest movement, commonly referred to as the "Arab Spring," that had spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. In August Libya elected [JURIST report] a Gaddafi opponent to be interim president. Last October family members of Gaddafi filed a complaint [JURIST report] against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with the International Criminal Court for its alleged role in Gaddafi's death. Also last October, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] called for a full investigation [JURIST report] into his death.

Westboro's challenge relied heavily on the US Supreme Court's 2011 decision in Snyder [text] which held that funeral protests were a valid exercise of the First Amendment. In Snyder v. Phelps the court ruled [JURIST report] that the protests are protected speech because they are public discourse which speak to broad issues including the "political and moral conduct of the United States and its citizens." It is expected that this most recent ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Instead of being accused for the events in our civil war, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I've done, namely that I did everything in human power to avoid the war; that I succeeded in reducing the suffering of all civilians that the number of victims in our war was three to four times less than the numbers reported in the public; that I proclaimed numerous unilateral ceasefires and military containment and I stopped our army, many times, when they were close to victory; that I constantly sought peace and accepted four out of five peace agreements; that I advocated and initiated and implemented the humanization of the conflict by applying all measures of humanitarian action; that, in addition to my many presidential duties, I personally supervised the supply of humanitarian aid, ceasefires, and the honoring of the international law of warfare. And thus, I was the address for many successes of humanitarian actions. Also, I proclaimed and implemented many acts of mercy.

Karadzic has been accused of participating in the planning of the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], which resulted in the death of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. In August the ICTY denied Karadzic's request for a new trial after he argued that the prosecution had failed to disclose [JURIST reports] crucial information until after trial. The court reasoned that the delay in disclosing evidence has not infringed on Karadzic's right to a fair trial, although the court noted that "the number of disclosure violations in this case has reflected badly on the Prosecution." In early June the judges from the ICTY went on a five-day visit [JURIST report] to locations relevant to the indictment of Karadzic. They visited Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Srebrenica and surrounding areas. This visit came just months after the ICTY sentenced [JURIST report] former president of the municipality of Sokolac, BiH, Milan Tupajic to two months in prison for refusing to testify against Karadzic. In February former Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] accused [JURIST report] the ICTY of being biased.

Ohio officials filed an emergency appeal [text, PDF] with the Supreme Court last Tuesday seeking permission to allow enforcement of a regulation [HB 194] that would have ended early voting for everyone except overseas military members three days before election day. Husted and Attorney General Mike DeWine filed the request to stay an order by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] which ruled that the early voting polls should remain open [opinion, PDF]. President Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) challenged the law as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause [Cornell LII backgrounder] because of its alleged impact on certain groups of voters. Both Obama for America and the Ohio Attorney General [JURIST reports] filed briefs to the Supreme Court on the issue.