In March, an aid to Ingabire who had been convicted in absentia, pleaded guilty to genocide charges [JURIST report] in exchange for a reduced prison sentence of 17 years. Last month, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR affirmed the genocide conviction [JURIST report] of popular Rwandan singer-songwriter Simon Bikindi [Trial Watch profile]. The court also reversed the conviction for counts of genocide, murder, and extermination against Rwandan district attorney Simeon Nchamihigo. Earlier in March, Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of assassinated Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, was arrested [JURIST report] in France on suspicions of complicity in genocide and was later released on bail. In January, the Rwandan government released a report [JURIST report] concluding that the assassination of then-president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the genocide, was the work of Hutu extremists. Also in January, Rwandan lawmakers introduced a bill [JURIST report] to increase the criminal penalty for genocide denial imposed by a 2003 law.

In April, the prosecution was ordered to release [JURIST report] a 91-page government proffer outlining evidence in its case against Blagojevich. According to the proffer, Blagojevich tried to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama, made appointments based on anticipated campaign contributions, and took kickbacks from a number of companies. In March, Blagojevich pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to eight amended corruption charges. In January 2009, the Illinois State Senate voted unanimously to convict Blagojevich of abuse of power and remove him from office [JURIST report], making him the first Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were initially arrested [JURIST report] in December 2008 on allegations that they had conspired to sell the Senate seat.

The peace process in Nepal has been hampered by human rights abuses, but several strides have been taken since the secular government inception in 2008. In March, Nepalese rights groups praised two recent judgments [JURIST report] by the District Court in Baitadi against caste-based discrimination. The court sentenced a man accused of assaulting the father of the groom during a July 2009 wedding for practicing "rituals reserved for high-caste communities" to one year in prison and a fine of 5,000 rupees. In a similar decision upheld by the Kanchanpur Appellate Court last August, the Baitadi District Court sentenced the main defendant accused of physically assaulting 12 Dalits during a festival to two years imprisonment and a fine of 25,000 rupees. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Nepal directed the country's government to end sexual orientation-based discrimination [JURIST report] and to extend equal rights to gender minorities, including same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. The order came in a lawsuit brought by several gay rights groups and follows a December 2007 ruling [BBC report] recognizing homosexuals as citizens under the classification "third sex." Nepal also has a history of human rights abuses stemming from the country's internal conflict. The decade-long Maoist guerrilla insurgency that left more than 13,000 people dead ended [JURIST report] in late 2006 when the Nepalese government signed a peace agreement that established the Constituent Assembly. The assembly was elected in April 2008 and voted to abolish the monarchy [JURIST reports].

We have done all we could regarding the documents in question. We have handed over the documents we have found, and as regards to those we haven't found, our investigations have clearly established their chain of custody. We have very clearly described it [in our report] and sent it to the prosecutor.

Croatia has been working hard to settle many of the human rights issues that have previously blocked its EU accession. In March, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the practice of segregating Roma [JURIST news archive] minority primary school students in Croatia from other pupils is discriminatory. The court declared the practice to be in contravention of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF], which prohibits discrimination, and of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1, which guarantees the right to an education. In January, the Serbian government filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Croatia in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website], accusing the Croatian government of committing genocide during the Balkan war. The suit [press release, in Croation] is in response to a similar suit [case materials] filed by Croatia against Serbia in 1999. The ICJ ruled [JURIST report] last year that it has jurisdiction to hear that case. Serbia is also looking to gain membership into the EU in 2012, and will be assessed by Brammetz in June in regards to capture of two high-level Serbian targets still at large under the jurisdiction of the ICTY, Ratko Mladic [case materials; JURIST news archive] and Goran Hadzic [case materials].