The commission was funded by both the Haitian government and the UN and was composed of three foreign and two Haiti experts led by Lt. Gen. Salvatore Carra of Italy and Florence Elie, Haiti's ombudsman. The January earthquake strained the Haiti prison system and allowed many prisoners to escape. In February, the acting head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti [official website] urged Haitians to turn in prisoners who escaped [JURIST reports] when the earthquake destroyed prisons and jails. The aftermath of the earthquake also placed a strain on detainees arrested since the disaster, as limited space and limited access to judges burdened the country's already tenuous criminal justice system.

Khodorkovsky was once Russia's richest man and large political campaign contributor. He and Lebedev are currently serving eight-year prison sentences after being convicted [JURIST report] in 2005 on fraud and tax evasion charges stemming from an attempt to embezzle and strip their Yukos [JURIST news archive] oil company of valuable assets. Earlier this year, former Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov [BBC profile] testified that former president Vladimir Putin [official website; JURIST news archive] ordered the arrest [JURIST report] of Khodorkovsky because he had funded the Communist Party [party website, in Russian] without first getting approval to do so from the president.

This is the third time the runoff election has been postponed. The first election, scheduled for July 18, was canceled due to allegations of misconduct during balloting [BBC report]. The second election, scheduled for September 19, was canceled amid violence [BBC Report] sparked by the election fraud conviction [JURIST report] of two senior election officials. The votes have divided primarily along ethnic lines, with all candidates running on a similar platform of economic expansion and the rule of law. The presidential election is seen as the first free election in Guinea since attaining independence in 1958. In May, the International Criminal Court (ICC) sent a delegation from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) [official websites] to Guinea to further investigate the killing [JURIST report] of more than 150 pro-democracy protesters in Conakry [BBC backgrounder] in September 2009. The protesters had rallied against Guinean military leader Moussa Dadis Camara [BBC profile], who announced in October that he intended to push elections forward three months and stand for election, breaking a promise not to run made shortly after he took power. An assassination attempt on Camara two months later eventually drove him into exile.

If relevant information is available by other means and, therefore, could be obtained without requiring a journalist to break the undertaking of confidentiality, then those avenues ought to be exhausted. The necessity requirement, like the earlier threshold requirement of relevancy, acts as a further buffer against fishing expeditions and any unnecessary interference with the work of the media. Requiring a journalist to breach a confidentiality undertaking with a source should be done only as a last resort.

Protection for journalists [JURIST news archive] and their sources continues to be a worldwide concern. In April, Germany announced plans to enact legislation [JURIST report] meant to increase freedom of the press. In February, the Icelandic Parliament [official website, in Icelandic] began considering measures [JURIST report] aimed at increasing protections for journalists and promoting freedom of speech and transparency in government. Last December, the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] approved a bill [JURIST report] that would protect journalists' abilities to shield sources in federal court proceedings. Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] ranked Iceland number one in press freedom in 2009 [2009 rankings], while ranking Germany eighteenth, Canada nineteenth, and the US twentieth. Their profile of Canada [materials] notes LeBlanc's case.

Wilders is known for calling Islam "fascist," comparing the Quran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and advocating prohibiting Muslims from immigrating to the Netherlands. Earlier this month, he announced [JURIST report] that the Dutch government will attempt to ban the burqa [JURIST news archive] and other full Islamic veils to secure the support of his Freedom Party in forming a coalition government. An Amsterdam trial court ruled in February held that it had 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 claimed that his right of freedom of speech was guaranteed to him as a Dutch man first, not a politician.

The Indonesian government has also faced criticism over other human rights issues. Earlier this month, the Indonesian Constitutional Court [official website, in Bahasa] overturned a law [JURIST report] that has allowed the Indonesian government to ban books it deemed controversial for nearly 50 years. The court found that giving the Attorney General the authority to ban books violated the Indonesian Constitution [text] by denying basic human rights without due process of the law. In April, the Constitutional Court voted 8-1 to uphold [JURIST report] a controversial anti-blasphemy law enacted in 1965 by the first Indonesian president. In 2008, HRW called for Indonesia to protect freedom of religion [JURIST report] and reverse a decree that provides for the prosecution of members of a controversial Islamic sect and to uphold its commitments under the ICCPR.

Officials first charged the officers for failure to assist in 2007. In 2006, an internal police investigation found that the officers had pursued the youths [JURIST report], a charge the officers originally denied, and that the officers acted with a "lack of thought" in not calling the power company to have the substation shut down immediately. Also In 2006, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [JURIST news archive] promised to strengthen anti-vandalism laws [JURIST report] in France after a man was injured in violence marking the one-year anniversary of the 2005 riots. In 2006, France began to deport [JURIST report] some of the foreign rioters. In early 2006, France lifted its state of emergency [JURIST report] implemented during the riots. The riots began in late October 2005 and continued into November [JURIST report] of that year.

Since the enactment of DADT in 1993, approximately 13,000 servicemen and women have been discharged from the armed forces as a result of the policy. In September, the Senate [official website] rejected a cloture motion [JURIST report] on a defense appropriations bill that would have repealed the policy. In May, the House of Representatives [official website] and the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to repeal the policy after President Barack Obama and Gates agreed to a compromise [JURIST reports] that would prevent the repeal from taking effect until the completion of a review to determine what effects the repeal would have on military effectiveness, soldier retention and family readiness. In March, Gates announced changes to the enforcement [JURIST report] of the policy to make it more difficult to expel openly gay service members from the military. The changes including raising the level of who can initiate and conduct investigations and revisions both to what constituted credible information to initiate an investigation, as well as to what constituted a "reliable person" for initiating an investigation.

Last week, international human rights groups Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and the International Crisis Group (ICG) [advocacy websites] publicly declined an invitation [joint letter; JURIST report] to testify before the LLRC. In rejecting Sri Lanka's invitation, the groups stated that they would welcome the opportunity to appear before the commission if they felt it was a genuine and credible effort to pursue accountability and reconciliation. The rights groups criticized the commission's failure "to meet basic international standards for independent and impartial inquiries" and "government failure to address impunity and continuing human rights abuses". The groups went on to state that the LLRC's mandate, composition, procedures and the nation's human rights environment make it impossible to carry out a free and independent inquiry into war crimes. AI is particularly concerned about the suitability of a number of former officials serving on the commission who have defended Sri Lanka against war crimes accusations, and the lack of witness protection provisions. In the recent past, the advocacy groups have accused [JURIST report; JURIST report] Sri Lanka of carrying out various human rights violations during the final months of the 30-year civil war.

The Prize was established in 1988 to honor individuals or organizations for their efforts on behalf of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Named after Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov [EP profile], winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize and referred to as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, the award is given to "exceptional individuals or organizations fighting against oppression, intolerance and injustice." Past winners include the Russian human rights group Memorial [advocacy website, in Russian; JURIST report], Hu Jia, Alexander Milinkevich [JURIST reports], former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan [official profile], Nelson Mandela [Nobel Peace Prize profile] and Oswaldo Jose Paya Sardinas [official website, in Spanish], one of Cuba's most prominent dissidents.

The appeals chamber of the ICTR released a decision [text, PDF; JURIST report] earlier in October that allowed the Rwandan government to pursue charges against Erlinder. In a reversal of a previous statement [JURIST report], the ICTR decided that Erlinder was charged for actions committed outside the scope of his ICTR employment as a defense lawyer. Therefore, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations [text, PDF], a treaty to which Rwanda is a party that prevents legal action of any kind against UN employees working in an official capacity, does not apply, and Erlinder is not immune from the prosecution. Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama praised the ICTR decision, emphasizing the country's reverence for the immunities treaty and announcing that Rwanda will continue with the prosecution. Erlinder returned to the US in June after spending 21 days in a Rwandan prison following his arrest [JURIST reports] on charges that he denied the genocide. The High Court of Rwanda [GlobaLex backgrounder] a week earlier had released Erlinder on bail due to persisting medical problems from what Rwandan officials say was a suicide attempt [JURIST reports].