In June, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), in coordination with the UNAIDS Secretariat [official websites], launched the Global Commission on HIV and the Law [JURIST report] in order to better understand the role played by the law in facilitating universal access to AIDS prevention and treatment. The commission also plans to address some of the most challenging HIV legal issues, including the criminalization of HIV/AIDS transmission and behavioral practices such as drug use and sexual activity. China has struggled to deal with the HIV/AIDs problem. In April, the Chinese government lifted a ban on entry into the country [JURIST report] for individuals with HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. In 2006, China responded to the growing numbers of those afflicted with the disease and issued it first guidelines [JURIST report] on HIV/AIDS, banning discrimination against those infected by the virus and providing for free treatment.

With the likelihood of Congress repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" fading with each passing day, judicial relief continues to be perhaps the most viable avenue for ending this unconstitutional policy. We and Log Cabin Republicans will continue to fight on to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans who want to serve in our military without regard to their sexual orientation.

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. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on the 112th Congress to repeal DADT [JURIST report]. In October, Gates issued a memorandum limiting the authority to discharge openly gay service members [JURIST report] to five senior Department of Defense officials. In September, a federal judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] ordered [JURIST report] a US Air Force officer to be reinstated after being previously discharged under DADT. Also in September, the US Senate [official website] rejected a cloture motion [JURIST report] on a defense appropriations bill that would have repealed the policy. In May, the US House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) [official websites] voted to repeal the policy after 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.

Ingabire has been subject to multiple arrests since returning to Rwanda in January after being exiled for 16 years. In October, Ingabire was arrested [JURIST report] on charges of being involved in the formation of a terrorist organization. Ingabire was implicated, authorities say, during investigations [AP report] into the activities of Joseph Ntawangundi, an aid to Ingabire, who was accused of commanding a Hutu militia group operating in neighboring Congo. In April, Ingabire was arrested [JURIST report] on accusations of denying the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Authorities cited Ingabire's call for the prosecution [AFP report] of those who killed Hutus during the genocide, in which over 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slain, as evidence of her denial of the genocide. In May, Rwandan authorities arrested [JURIST report] US lawyer and JURIST Forum [website] contributor Peter Erlinder [professional profile; JURIST news archive] on charges of genocide denial while he was in Rwanda to prepare his defense of Ingabire. Erlinder returned to the US [JURIST report] in June after spending 21 days in a Rwandan prison.

The Obama administration filed a brief [text, PDF; JURIST report] Wednesday asking the US Supreme Court [official website] not to rescind the stay preventing suspension of DADT. The filing is in response to a petition filed last week [text; JURIST report] by the Log Cabin Republicans [advocacy website] asking the court to overturn the indefinite extension [order, PDF; JURIST report] of a temporary stay [JURIST report] issued by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website]. The government asked the court not to interrupt the policy while it is being considered in lower courts. The filing noted that President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates oppose the policy, but also stressed their support for the repeal of the policy through legislative measures, citing the need for deliberation, advance planning and training before transitioning from the 17-year-old policy. 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, a businessman challenged the legality of the ICC investigation, claiming it was made illegal by Kenya's recently ratified constitution [JURIST reports]. However, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo [official website], said the government supports the investigation [JURIST report]. The ICC began conducting an investigation in March after the Kenyan parliament rejected [JURIST reports] conducting their own in February. The Kenyan presidential election of 2007 [JURIST report] left at least 1,000 people dead and 500,000 displaced in Kenya after protests erupted from allegations that President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] committed voter fraud.

The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President's acknowledgement [sic] that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president. That founding principle of our democracy would mean little if it were ignored with respect to those in whom the public most invests its trust. It would also be profoundly unfair for Mr. Durham to focus his inquiry on low-level officials charged with implementing official policy but to ignore the role of those who authorized or ordered the use of torture.

In July, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) [official website] and federal judge Jay Bybee [official profile] denied approving a number of interrogation techniques used by the CIA [JURIST report]. Bybee was questioned by the committee in May in a closed-door hearing about controversial memos written by the OLC during the Bush administration, which asserted the legality of certain enhanced interrogation techniques [JURIST news archive]. The CIA subsequently used the enhanced interrogation techniques on prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] prison facility. According to Bybee, a number of the techniques, including repetitive waterboarding, extended isolation, the use of blackout goggles and daily beatings, were not authorized by the OLC memos. Bybee admitted to authorizing limited use of waterboarding when performed in a specific way, but he contended that the manner in which the CIA used the technique went beyond the recommendations made in the memos.

The alleged assassination of a prominent rights activist by law enforcement is merely the latest in the ongoing human rights issues facing the DRC. In early October, Human Rights Watch called for the DRC government [JURIST report] to arrest general Bosco Ntaganda pursuant to an outstanding warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. Earlier that same week French authorities arrested a leader [JURIST report] of the Democratic Force for the Liberation of Rwanda for crimes committed by that group in the DRC. Earlier in October, UN peacekeeping forces and the DRC government arrested Mai Mai Cheka [JURIST report] for allegedly leading a rebel group responsible for mass rapes in the country.

After living in the UK for 20 years, Bakri fled to Lebanon in 2005 after being named in an investigation by British authorities for allegedly making remarks in support of the London bombers [JURIST reports]. Bakri also reportedly praised insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan while vowing not to inform authorities of any information he learned about future terrorist attacks. In 2005, he denied talking about the bombings and said he planed to return to London. While living in Britain, Bakri headed the now-dissolved Islamist group al-Muhajiroun.

In 2009, Fatullayev received, in absentia, one of Committee to Project Journalist's (CPJ) prestigious International Press Freedom Awards [press release; video] and AI's Award for Journalism Under Threat [BBC report]. Fatullayev, who was editor-in-chief of the Realny Azerbaijan and Gundalik Azerbaijan newspapers until his imprisonment, formerly worked with well-known Azeri journalist Elmar Huseynov [BBC backgrounder] on the Monitor magazine until Huseynov was murdered [BBC report] in 2005. CPJ reported recently that Fatuallyev's imprisonment could be related to his attempts to solve [report] his colleague's murder. Azerbaijan's incumbent president Ilham Aliyev has been accused by members of the press of heavy-handed repression of the media [JURIST report].

Net neutrality remains a controversial issue. In the US, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) [official website] introduced legislation [JURIST report] in July intended to block the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [official website] from implementing its National Broadband Plan [official website; materials]. The FCC opened a new proceeding [JURIST report] a month earlier to identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to develop universal access to "high quality" Internet broadband services after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in April that the commission lacks authority to require broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. Telecommunications companies Verizon, AT&T and Comcast [corporate websites] argue that net neutrality would inhibit their ability to effectively manage Internet traffic.