In December, a French judge placed Chirac under preliminary investigation [JURIST report]. Chirac was ordered to stand trial [JURIST report] on related charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds last October. Chirac will be the first former French president to stand trial [JURIST comment] since the formation of the current Republic in 1958. The charges were originally filed in 2007 [JURIST report] after Chirac's presidency ended and he no longer had judicial immunity. In July 2007, French investigating magistrates questioned Chirac as a material witness [JURIST report] in their probe of the corruption allegations.

In July, a group of lawyers in Morocco filed a complaint against Israeli officials [JURIST report], including former prime minister Ehud Barak, for violation of anti-terror laws during Operation Cast Lead. A similar complaint was previously filed in the UK, prompting Israeli military officials to cancel a January trip [JURIST report] to that nation amid fears that they would be arrested. Earlier in July, Israel announced that several soldiers would face disciplinary action [JURIST report] for their role in the conflict, including a charge of manslaughter for one soldier.

In July, the Serbian National Assembly [official website] passed a resolution [JURIST report] that Serbia would never recognize Kosovo's independence. Earlier that month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [official website] ruled that Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia [JURIST reports] did not violate international law In June, a group of 25 countries that recognize Kosovo's independence urged the government to increase its efforts [JURIST report] to battle crime and corruption after meeting with Sejdiu and Thaci.

Words will never adequately express our regret that women and children were killed and injured during the incident on 12 February 2009. These were people we were risking our lives to protect. However, it should not be forgotten that the casualties were ultimately caused by the callous and reckless act of an insurgent who chose to repeatedly fire upon us at extreme close range from within a room he knew contained women and children. This forced us to make split-second decisions, under fire, which almost certainly saved the lives of our fellow Australian and Afghan soldiers.

The announcement by the Australian military prosecutor comes on the same day that a former UN official called for an investigation [JURIST report] into war crimes committed by both the Taliban and coalition forces in Afghanistan. In June, a US soldier was charged with three counts of murder [JURIST report] in the deaths of three Afghan civilians that occurred between January and May of this year. The charges against the Australian soldiers do not represent the first time that personnel from that country have faced scrutiny for actions in Afghanistan. In 2008, an internal probe cleared members of the Australian military [JURIST report] of allegations that they mistreated Taliban detainees.

China's stable and rapid economic development, improving citizens' living conditions, per capita income, and public health; Strengthened civil and political rights and furthering democracy and the legal system; Improvements to judicial protections of human rights and law enforcement; The Chinese government's promotion of citizens' economic, social, and cultural rights; Equal access to the Chinese constitution and civil rights for all ethnic groups and increased support for minority groups; Increased protection to the rights of people with disabilities; and China's active cooperation and participation in the area of international human rights causes.

In July, Chinese Internet regulators planned to drastically reduce Internet anonymity [JURIST report] by requiring users to use their real names when posting on certain Chinese websites, according to documents [text] released by New York-based human rights group Human Rights in China (HRIC) [advocacy website]. HRIC's revelation comes on the heels of a June announcement that Google will continue to operate its google.cn Internet search engine in mainland China, ending a four-month period during which the site simply redirected to the uncensored google.hk [search websites; JURIST report] after the company threatened in January to pull out of China entirely [JURIST report]. Earlier that month, the Chinese government defended [JURIST report] its Internet censorship laws in a report [materials] on Internet usage in the country. In February, the government announced new regulations [JURIST report] further restricting Internet use by requiring Chinese citizens to submit identity cards and meet with regulars before registering a website, prompting many to register sites overseas to avoid regulation.

In September, ICTY judges warned that trial might take another four years [JURIST report], two years longer than expected. Karadzic's trial previously resumed in April, after the ICTY dismissed [JURIST reports] his latest motion to delay court proceedings, in which he argued that there had been a violation of his right to a fair hearing because the court had rejected previous evidentiary challenges. In March, Karadzic lost another motion [JURIST report] to postpone his war crimes trial on charges related to crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. Karadzic claimed that a February ruling increasing the remuneration for his defense lawyers should also give him extra time to prepare for his case. Earlier in March, the ICTY heard opening statements [JURIST report]. Karadzic claimed that attacks against Bosnian Muslims were "staged," denying [JURIST report] any involvement in war crimes. In February, the ICTY rejected [JURIST report] Karadzic's imposition of a court-appointed defense lawyer, claiming the right to legal assistance of his own choosing.

If states are not carrying out reasonably neutral investigations and prosecutions of what appear to be serious violations, it does leave open the possibility that the international community should be intervening in some way. The problem is that the ICC can't hold the Taliban to account, and nor can they hold the Americans to account in any practical sense.

In August, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called for the Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan to be tried for war crimes [JURIST report] for targeting civilians. The statement was released following the 2010 Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict [text; UN News Centre report] from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) [official website]. The report found that, in the first six months of 2010, there were 3,268 civilian deaths and injuries, 76 percent of which were attributed to the Taliban and allied groups fighting NATO forces and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai [official profile]. In March, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the Afghan government to retract a law granting amnesty [JURIST report] for war crimes and human rights abuses committed by the Taliban and others prior to December 2001. The law contradicted a plan adopted by the Afghan government [JURIST report] in 2005 to investigate war crimes and human rights violations committed while the Taliban controlled the government.

In these cases, the guidance suggests that the officer can proceed provided the risks can be mitigated through caveats or assurances or if Ministers have been consulted. ... The government now has the opportunity to bring its guidance within the law so that the intelligence service itself and its individual officers do not unwittingly leave themselves open to costly and time consuming court action.

In July, the UK high court announced [JURIST report] that a lawsuit, filed by former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees and alleging that the UK government was complicit in their torture, could proceed. The lawsuit, filed by 12 ex-detainees, alleges that British agents took part in their mistreatment while they were held in prisons in foreign countries, including Pakistan and Morocco. Also in July, Cameron announced [JURIST report] the creation of a panel to investigate these complicity claims. A similar lawsuit was filed by the human rights group Reprieve [advocacy website], which had been seeking a review of the country's torture policy. Additional claims of complicity were made against the government in a July report [materials] released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. According to HRW, intelligence services in France, Germany and the UK lack proper oversight of intelligence information that is received from countries that torture.

In April, federal prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty [JURIST report] against Drotleff and Cannon, but the defendant's could still face life imprisonment. Also in April, a federal grand jury indicted [JURIST report] five former Blackwater executives on charges of weapons violations and lying to criminal investigators. In February, the Iraqi government ordered approximately 250 former Blackwater employees to leave Iraq [JURIST report]. The government was reacting to a US federal court's December decision to dismiss charges against five former Blackwater employees accused of killing 17 innocent Iraqi civilians [JURIST reports] in 2007 because information against the defendants was obtained unconstitutionally. Earlier that month, the New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice [official website] is investigating [JURIST report] Blackwater, now known as Xe, to determine whether the company bribed the Iraqi government to allow it to continue operating in Iraq following the 2007 shootings. Blackwater ceased operations in Baghdad [JURIST report] in May 2009 when its security contracts for the protection of US diplomats expired.