Spanish National Court judges have prosecuted foreign cases aggressively under Spanish laws on the exercise of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder; JURIST news archive] amended [JURIST report] by Spain's parliament in November 2009. The law limits the use of universal jurisdiction to offenses committed by or against Spaniards, or where the perpetrators are in Spain. This lawsuit was originally brought before crusading judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], who has been known for using universal jurisdiction extensively in the past to bring several high-profile cases, including those against Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archives]. In May, the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) [official website, in Spanish] voted unanimously to suspend Garzon [JURIST report] for abusing his power by opening an unrelated investigation into war crimes allegedly committed under Francisco Franco [BBC backgrounder] during the Spanish Civil War [LOC backgrounder].

While maintaining rule and order are important, the responsibility of the Government to protect the rights to life, liberty and security is paramount. I call on the Government to take concrete measures to guarantee the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, including by restoring free use of mobile phones and social networks. ... People must be entitled to express their grievances against violations of their civil and political rights as well as their frustrations at lack of realisation of their economic rights, the right to work and the right to an adequate standard of living.

More than 1,000 protesters have been detained [JURIST report] in Egypt as demonstrations against the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile] entered their third day on Thursday. Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei [Nobel Prize profile] has expressed his willingness to lead a transitional government [BBC report]. Elbaradei, who previously led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website], has returned to Egypt [BBC report] and is reported to have joined the protests. According to some commentators, the unrest in Egypt is modeled after recent civil unrest in Tunisia that culminated with the resignation of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali [JURIST report] earlier this month.

The conclusion of the START treaty is clearly the achievement of national policy. First, the ratification of the treaty will have a positive impact in all areas of bilateral cooperation the signing of START-3 completely draws a line under the Cold War. Secondly, the New START treaty fully meets the interests of Russia, who chose a less costly and more rational approach.

Russia's lower house originally approved the treaty [JURIST report] in December. Earlier that month, the US Senate voted 71-26 [JURIST report] to ratify the treaty. US President Barack Obama and Medvedev signed the treaty [JURIST report] in Prague in April. The agreement, reached [JURIST report] last February, is the first nuclear agreement between the two nations in nearly 20 years. The US State Department began negotiating [JURIST report] the treaty with Russia in 2009. Nuclear disarmament between the US and Russia, whose nuclear arsenals comprise 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, languished during the Bush administration. The treaty is considered a key part of easing tensions between the two countries, which reached a high point after the 2008 Georgia conflict [BBC backgrounder].

The Wyoming House approved legislation Monday [JURIST report] that would prevent Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages and civil unions performed out of state. House Bill 74, Validity of Marriage [text, PDF] was passed by a 32-27 House vote and will now be turned over to the Senate. The act has been described as a backup [Billings Gazette report] in case the constitutional amendment fails, a concern based on the slim vote margin for the House bill. The House has rejected similar legislation [Star-Tribune report] twice in recent years. Opponents of the bill organized an "Equality Rally" in Casper, Wyoming to protest the legislation [Star-Tribune report]. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington, DC [JURIST reports].

In addition to facing allegations relating to violence in the DRC, Mbarushimana has also been linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide [JURIST news archive]. In December, a French judge charged Mbarushimana [JURIST report] with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the genocide. In 2008, Mbarushimana was arrested by German border police [JURIST report] as he attempted to travel to Russia on charges that he killed 32 people during the Rwandan genocide. In 2005, the UN asked France to bring genocide charges [JURIST report] against Mbarushimana, who was then in the country under refugee status. Carla Del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website], refused to charge him and said the ICTR did not file an indictment against Mbarushimana because it lacked sufficient evidence against him.

Suu Kyi originally filed the suit in November and April [JURIST reports], but both claims were dismissed. She had asked the court to annul the part of the election law that bars political prisoners [JURIST report] from participating in elections and also to establish a parliament of lawmakers who won in the 1990 elections. The dissolution of the party was seen as political move by the military government in order to keep the NLD from participating in Myanmar's 2010 elections, the first in 20 years. Suu Kyi was released [JURIST report] following the controversial elections [JURIST report] last November after almost eight years of house arrest. Her release came days after the Myanmar Supreme Court rejected an appeal [JURIST report] challenging the conditions of her house arrest.

Both foreign and domestic courts are increasingly having to rule on the issue of gay marriage. In the US, judges in Wisconsin, California and Texas [JURIST reports] confronted the issue last year. Governments in Mexico, Kenya, Argentina, Portugal and Germany [JURIST reports] are also addressing the issue. In 2007, the French Court of Cassation ruled that same-sex marriages were not valid under French law [JURIST report] and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. The case arose in 2004 when Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married [JURIST report], after which both a local court and intermediate appeals court ruled that the marriage was invalid. State lawyers argued that it was not an issue for the courts to decide, but rather was a question to be answered by parliament.

Allende, a Marxist, was met with opposition after winning the 1970 elections in Chile from those fearing his presidency would support a pro-Soviet communist government. The 1973 coup, backed by the US [JURIST report], was followed by a 17-year military regime lead by Pinochet. In an extraordinary statement released on his 91st birthday Pinochet publicly assumed "full political responsibility" [JURIST report] for the actions of his military regime. Pinochet nonetheless justified the military coup against Allende that brought him to power as having being necessary to preserve Chile's integrity amid "the continuation and worsening of the worse political and economic crisis than one can remember." Pinochet died [JURIST report] in 2006 at the age of 91 without ever facing trial for multiple human rights abuses and tax evasion charges against him.

According to statistics, 60% of people who die in the villages die not because they're deathly ill, but because a doctor can't reach them in time, because there is no transportation in the villages and no way for a doctor or nurse to reach the sick. That's why we used state guarantees to purchase 1,000 vehicles for 3,000 villages that helped save more than 100,000 lives in 2010 alone.

This is not the first time the Ukrainian government has investigated Tymoshenko. In December, prosecutors filed criminal charges against her [JURIST report] for allegedly misappropriating state funds during her time in office from 2007-2010. In May, prosecutors reopened a separate criminal investigation [JURIST report] into allegations that Tymoshenko attempted to bribe Supreme Court judges. The probe was initiated in May 2004 and then suspended [JURIST report] in June 2005. Last 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 had alleged that widespread voter fraud allowed Yanukovych to win the election.