The US was first elected [JURIST report] to a seat on the UNHRC in May 2009 when the country received 90 percent of the votes from the UNGA. In April of that year, the US State Department [official website] released a set of commitments and pledges [text, PDF] to human rights in anticipation of the election. Also in April, the US openly announced its intent to seek a seat on the UNHRC [JURIST report].

Rating agencies have received consistent criticism for not predicting the subprime mortgage debt crisis of 2008 and 2009. In general, many European policymakers contend that the agencies were too quick to downgrade EU nations in the face of various bailouts and austerity programs. In a procedural ruling last week, the Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County [official website] ruled that the state's attorney general may proceed [WSJ report] with a case accusing S&P of misleading investors during the financial crisis. Also last week, an Australian court ruled that S&P did mislead investors [AP report] when it gave its highest investment rating to risky securities just before the global financial crisis. In August 2011, S&P received considerable criticism from American policy makers [CBS News report] after the agency downgraded the US credit-rating from AAA to AA+.

The SIAC denied bail [JURIST report] to Qatada in May. In early February he was released on bail [JURIST report] after he made an application for bail following the ECHR block of his deportation, but he was arrested again in April to begin deportation proceedings. Qatada was granted political asylum by the UK in 1994. When he was arrested in 2001 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989, police seized a sizable sum of money in various currencies for which no explanation was given. Later in 2001, he went into hiding to avoid being arrested and detained under the then-proposed Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. He was arrested again in 2002 and held until March 2005 when he was released pursuant to a House of Lords judgment declaring his detention without trial to be unlawful. In February 2009 the ECHR ordered the UK to pay £2,500 in damages [JURIST report] to Qatada after determining that his imprisonment violated the European Convention on Human Rights [materials]. Despite his previous grant of asylum and fears of torture and persecution, UK Law Lords in February 2009 ruled that Qatada could be returned [JURIST report] to Jordan to face terrorism charges. The February decision overruled an April 2008 Court of Appeal decision blocking his deportation [JURIST report].

Tunisia extradited [JURIST report] Mahmoudi to Libya in June. The extradition came a month after the Tunisian government announced [JURIST report] that it was going to do so upon Libya's assurance that al-Mahmoudi would have a fair trial. Libya's former prime minister had been under detention despite the Tunisian court dropping charges [JURIST report] against him in February, five months after he was arrested in southern Tunisia last September for illegally entering the country. In January, several human rights groups such as the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy websites] had called on Tunisia not to extradite [JURIST report] al-Mahmoudi to Libya over concerns that he could not get a fair trial in Libya.

The original text of Uganda's bill also included the death penalty for some offenses related to homosexual acts. In February of this year Ugandan MP David Bahati announced that clauses mandating the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" would be dropped [JURIST report] from the controversial bill. In November of last year the Ugandan High Court sentenced a man to 30 years in prison [JURIST report] for beating to death prominent gay rights activist David Kato. In January 2011 the Ugandan High Court issued a permanent injunction [JURIST report] and awarded damages to three plaintiffs who were among 100 people alleged to be homosexuals by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper, The Rolling Stone. In January 2010 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized the original anti-gay legislation [JURIST report], saying that it could harm Uganda's reputation internationally. In February 2010, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly denounced the proposed legislation [JURIST report].

Although the high court's 2011 decision was hailed as a landmark decision, it did not give reporters free reign in the courtroom. At that time the court said it would not allow broadcasters to bring in their own cameras but would instead provide a single, stationary, widescreen camera. No panning or zooming was to be allowed, and broadcasters would have been obligated to show the entire proceedings from beginning to end each day, commercial free. The Philippines Department of Justice [official website] had implicated Andal Ampatuan Sr., the leader of a Muslim clan in the Philippines' semi-autonomous southern province of Maguindanao, and several of his followers in the November 2009 slayings of campaign workers, journalists and supporters of family political rival Esmael Mangudadatu. The court noted that broadcasting the trial was important because of the impossibility of fitting the large number of interested parties into the courtroom, including the families of those killed and of the witnesses. Also in June 2011, a Philippine court froze USD $23 million worth of assets [JURIST report] owned by the Ampatuan family, who are accused of ordering the 2009 slayings, while investigators determine how the Ampatuans accumulated accumulated the assets.