Ukraine and society tired of living in those conditions that are dictated to us the changes to the Constitution of 2004. Because these changes were made hastily, in general the political moment, the reasons were clear conflicts in authority. ... As guarantor of the constitution, I will take this decision, as would execute any other.

In February, Tymoshenko withdrew a lawsuit [JURIST reports] filed in the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine claiming that the country's presidential election was corrupt. Tymoshenko dropped the suit claiming she would not receive a fair hearing in the court. The constitutional reforms were originally passed during the protests of 2004, known as the Orange Revolution in which Yanukovych lost to Viktor Yushchenko [BBC profile] in the controversial 2004 presidential election [JURIST report], the results of which were invalidated by the country's Supreme Court [JURIST report] following fraud allegations. Yushchenko was sworn in as president [JURIST report] in January 2005 after winning a re-vote. Yushchenko reluctantly accepted Yanukovych as prime minister last June and the two have since clashed over parliamentary attempts to expand the cabinet's power [JURIST reports] at the expense of the presidency.

The report is intended as a first step towards the sometimes painful but nonetheless essential process of truth-telling after violent conflict. ... [I]t looks to the future by identifying a number of paths that could be pursued by Congolese society to come to terms with its past, to fight impunity, and to face its contemporary challenges in a manner that prevents the re-occurrence of such atrocities.

The release of the long-anticipated report has elicited strong responses [NYT report] from nations and rights organizations. In particular, Rwanda released its own report [text,PDF], calling the UN report, "[a]dangerous and irresponsible attempt . . . to undermine the peace and stability attained in the Great Lakes region." The report alleges that tens of thousands of Hutus were killed by Rwandan troops [JURIST report] during the Congo civil war [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said [press release] that the report exposes grave crimes and, "is a powerful reminder of the scale of the crimes committed in Congo and of the shocking absence of justice."

Illegal immigration continues to be a concern for local governments, as the federal government has failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. In September, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that two ordinances passed by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania making it more difficult for illegal immigrants to live or work in the town are unconstitutional. Earlier that month, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona granted a motion to dismiss [order, PDF; JURIST report] a police officer's suit [JURIST report] challenging Arizona's controversial immigration law [SB 1070 materials, JURIST news archive]. In August Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) [official website] filed the state's opening brief [text, PDF; JURIST report] in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website], asking the court to lift the preliminary injunction preventing the law from taking full effect. Also in August, a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that the Nebraska Supreme Court should be the first forum to address Fremont, Nebraska ordinance [No 5165 text] banning hiring, harboring or renting property to illegal immigrants.

Several countries have recently faced criticism for limiting the rights of expression and assembly. Last week, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] urged [press release] the government of Myanmar to release all political prisoners [JURIST report] ahead of the nation's November elections—the first to be held in 20 years. Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], whose detention has drawn strong criticism from the UN and other rights groups, is among the most well-known of Myanmar's political prisoners. In April, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] encouraged [JURIST report] the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) [official website, in Arabic; GlobalSecurity backgrounder] states to address continuing rights issues[press release], including women's rights, treatment of migrant workers, statelessness, and freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.

An Amsterdam trial court ruled in February held that it has jurisdiction to try Wilders for anti-Islamic statements. The court rejected [JURIST report] Wilders' claim that he should be tried by the Supreme Court as a member of parliament, finding that his alleged crime was committed outside his capacity as an MP. Wilders had hoped to defend his criticisms of Islam and show its dangers by calling to the stand Islamic extremists including Muhammed Bouyeri [JURIST news archive], who is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment for murdering Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. Other countries have also recently taken steps to ban the burqa. Last month, the French Senate [official website, in French] voted 246 to 1 [press release, in French] to approve a bill [materials, in French] that will make it illegal [JURIST report] to wear the burqa or other full face veils in public. The legislation is now pending with the Constitutional Council [official website], which will have one month to confirm the law's legality.

Last month, a federal judge denied [JURIST report] the government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by several drilling companies challenging the latest offshore drilling moratorium. The ruling held that there were "no substantial changes" between the July 12 directive and its predecessor, issued on May 28, that the new moratorium did nothing to amend or prevent the wrongs found in the first and that the wrongful behavior alleged in the original order could reasonably be expected to occur as a result of the more recent iteration. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] rejected a request to reinstate [JURIST report] the May 28 ban in July, weeks after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] similarly declined [JURIST report]. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] originally asked the appeals court to stay the preliminary injunction [JURIST report] in June, on the basis that another deepwater spill could overwhelm the ongoing efforts to clean up the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] with catastrophic results. Lawyers for the DOJ also claimed that the district judge abused his discretion in issuing the injunction. The Deepwater Horizon spill was a result of an oil well blowout that caused an explosion 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf. More than 120 million gallons of oil leaked from the rig's broken pipe, causing the spill to surpass the Exxon Valdez [JURIST news archive] as the worst oil spill in US history.