China has passed several other measures in response to social issues and demographic shifts. In October, the NPC adopted [JURIST] the nation's first mental health law to protect the rights of the mentally ill, according to a report by the country's state-run news agency. The new law was designed to protect the safety and privacy of individuals with mental illnesses and specifically targeted protection of the identities and personal information of individuals receiving care in psychiatric facilities. In April 2009 the Chinese government issued [JURIST report] its first national plan aimed at protecting human rights. The plan set forth measures to protect people's rights to education, employment, medical and old-age care, and housing, and also sought to protect ethnic minorities, promote gender equality, guarantee suspects the right to an impartial trial, and prohibit illegal detentions and the use of torture to extract confessions from suspects. In addition China also sought to provide basic nationwide health care, slow its greenhouse-gas emissions, and protect normal religious activities.

Raj Rajaratnam's case has been called the largest hedge fund insider trading case in US history, and his sentence is the longest term ever imposed for insider trading. The 11-year sentence [JURIST report] was significantly lower than the 24 1/2-year sentence requested by prosecutors and less than the 19 1/2-year minimum indicated by the non-obligatory federal sentencing guidelines. Calling his crime an assault on free markets and a virus in business culture in need of eradication, Judge Richard Holwell cited Rajaratnam's charitable financial help for victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the earthquakes in Pakistan and the 9/11 attacks, as well as his impeding kidney failure due to advanced Type II diabetes as reasons for the comparatively lenient sentence. Several other defendants have pleaded guilty in connection with the case. Danielle Chiesi pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in January 2011. Former IBM senior vice president Robert Moffat was sentenced to six months in prison in September 2011 and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for his role in the scheme after pleading guilty [JURIST reports] in March 2010. Former Intel Capital executive Rajiv Goel pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to insider trading charges in February 2010. Rajaratnam, Chiesi, Goel and Moffat were arrested in October 2009 and charged along with two other individuals and two business entities with insider trading. The complaint alleged that the individuals provided Galleon Group and another hedge fund with material nonpublic information about several corporations upon which the funds traded, generating $25 million in illicit gain.

Hobby Lobby will continue their appeal before the Tenth Circuit. The Supreme Court merely decided not to get involved in the case at this time. It left open the possibility of review after their appeal is completed in the Tenth Circuit. The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.

US Supreme Court [official website] Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday denied [opinion, PDF] the Green family's application for injunction which would have prevented enforcement of the provision in the PPACA pending its appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] challenging the provision. Sotomayor ruled that the Oklahoma City family's religiously oriented business did not meet the requirements to allow an injunction against the PPACA's mandate. The opinion stated that the Hobby Lobby family did not meet the standard of showing that they have an "indisputably clear" legal right to an injunction while appeal is pending. The organizations are appealing an order by the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma that ruled [opinion, PDF] that despite the family's religious values, the businesses do not qualify for an injunction. "However, Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations. Plaintiffs have not cited, and the court has not found, any case concluding that secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion."

Egypt is still attempting to reconcile the political crash arising out of the Egyptian revolution [JURIST backgrounder] last year, particularly regarding the constitution. The final draft of the constitution is backed by the Islamists and has been extremely controversial. Earlier in this month, the UN Working Group on discrimination against women [official website] expressed grave concern [JURIST report] over the draft constitution. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] has also expressed concern at the rising death toll during the ongoing political chaos in Egypt, saying that Egypt's draft constitution presents serious problems for human rights [JURIST report]. Pillay complained [UN News Centre report] that the draft constitution was passed without the participation of Christian or liberal legislators. Pillay also said that she was concerned about the draft constitution's omission of references to international human rights treaties that Egypt ratified in the past. While Pillay commended the fact that the draft constitution imposes term limits on President Mohammed Morsi and provides some protections for freedom of expression and religion, she noted that these protections were not strong enough.

In October a Cambodian court sentenced a prominent Cambodian radio broadcaster [JURIST report] and rights activist to 20 years imprisonment for inciting rebellion against the state. He was arrested in July on accusations of being involved in a plot to incite villagers in eastern Kratie to rebel against the Cambodian government in an effort to establish an autonomous region in the province. A month earlier, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] released the former "First Lady" of the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] regime, Ieng Thirith. The court ruled that she should be released due her degenerative illness, said to likely be Alzheimer's. Thirith, the sister-in-law of former leader Pol Pot [BBC backgrounder], has always denied any wrongdoing. The ECCC has only convicted one former Khmer Rouge leader, Kaing Guek Eav [JURIST news archive]. Earlier in September the ECCC announced that it would declassify more than 1,700 war crimes documents [JURIST report] in efforts toward more convictions. Ieng Thirith was indicted [JURIST report] in September 2010 along with Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea. The ECCC ruled in November that Ieng Thirith was unfit to stand trial, but the Supreme Court Chamber ordered that she remain in detention [JURIST reports] and that the Trial Chamber exhaust all measures so that she can stand trial.

The Russian government’s politically motivated decision will reduce adoption possibilities for children who are now under institutional care. We regret that the Russian government has taken this step rather than seek to implement the bilateral adoption agreement that entered into force in November. We are further concerned about statements that adoptions already underway may be stopped and hope that the Russian government would allow those children who have already met and bonded with their future parents to finish the necessary legal procedures so that they can join their families.

The Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) [official website], a legal information agency which operates in coordination with Russian courts, reports the Yakovlev initiative was adopted in retaliation [RAPSI report] against the US Magnitsky Act [text]. The new US legislation places financial and visa sanctions on officials connected to the arrest, imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky [BBC report], a lawyer and whistleblower who unearthed a US$230 million tax fraud, and was subsequently arrested by the police officers he accused of carrying out the fraud. Magnitsky died in prison in 2009 [JURIST report]. The Yakovlev initiative comes just months after Russia and the US entered into an agreement [JURIST report] tightening restrictions on international adoptions.