In March 2010 the Turkish government indicted 33 defendants [JURIST report] on charges of attempting to overthrow the government and establish military rule, and Turkish police detained 20 people [JURIST report] in connection with the Ergenekon plot. Turkish prosecutors charged [JURIST report] an army general and a state prosecutor with belonging to Ergenekon and plotting to overthrow the AKP. In February of that year more than 40 military officers were arrested and charged in a separate coup attempt [JURIST report], the so-called Sledgehammer plot [Al Jazeera backgrounder], to provoke a military confrontation with Greece and take advantage of the ensuing chaos. Trials against the Ergenekon group started [JURIST report] in October 2008, and nearly 400 people have been charged in connection with it. The prosecution of military officials comes amid a larger effort by the AKP to reform the Turkish legal system as a step toward EU accession [materials; CFR backgrounder]. In May 2010, Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party [party website, in Turkish] filed suit [JURIST report] in the country's Constitutional Court [official website, in Turkish] in an effort to halt proposed constitutional amendments that would reform the judiciary allowing military and government officials to be tried in civilian court.

The revised definition includes any gender of victim or perpetrator, and includes instances in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity, including due to the influence of drugs or alcohol or because of age. The ability of the victim to give consent must be determined in accordance with state statute. Physical resistance from the victim is not required to demonstrate lack of consent. The new definition does not change federal or state criminal codes or impact charging and prosecution on the local level.

Last month, the FBI announced that violent crime in the US has dropped [JURIST report], continuing a trend lasting for the past four-and-a-half years. Violent crimes, which include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, dropped 6.4 percent in the first months of 2011 compared to the same time in 2010. Property crimes, including burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft, dropped 3.7 percent and arson decreased 8.6 percent. The FBI data is a compilation of more than 18,000 jurisdictions that voluntarily participate in the FBI's UCR Program. However, with the amended definition of rape, non-forcible rapes and rapes of men will now be included in the statistical analysis, so the violent crime rate next year should reflect that shift.

Belarus has been under increasing criticism for what many see as a rapid decline of human rights in the Eastern European nation. US President Barack Obama [official website] on Tuesday signed the Belarus Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2011 [JURIST report], which will impose new sanctions on Belarus. The new sanctions require the US to investigate Belarus' arms deals and its possible censorship of the Internet, as well as denying visas to a list of Belarusian officials. In November a Belarus court convicted [JURIST report] human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the president of Viasana and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) [advocacy websites], of tax evasion, sentencing him to a four-and-a-half-year prison term amid international criticism. In September UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] suggested a need for UN intervention in Belarus [JURIST report] and demanded the nation free non-violent political prisoners. Her report also cited Belarus as the only European nation to still enforce the death penalty. Ambassador Mikhail Khvostov said his country disagrees with the UN on what constitutes a peaceful demonstration and that Belarus is committed to human rights.

Some commentators support the overall purpose of the JVCA, but disagree [JURIST op-ed] with its specific method of attaining that purpose. First, it is difficult to superimpose new statutory procedures over existing interpretations in case law and there is additional difficulty in integrating the newly codified procedures with the many different interpretations of the existing laws in state courts. Concern has also been expressed over the fact that there were no hearings on the bill since 2005, and thus two potentially beneficial provisions were deleted without debate [JURIST op-ed]. The first would allow a plaintiff to avoid removal based on diversity jurisdiction by stipulating that the amount in controversy is below the required amount for diversity jurisdiction. The second provision, which would abrogate derivative jurisdiction in all cases, was deleted because the Department of Justice [official website] wants to be able to use the rule "when suits involving Federal officers and agencies are removed to Federal court." Other commentators point out [National Law Review report] that "while the Act does not eliminate the prior law's provision that the 30-day removal period is triggered by service or 'receipt' of the pleading, there is no indication that Congress intended to abrogate [the current practice], holding that formal service, not mere receipt, is required."

Because unmarried opposite-sex couples can become eligible for family benefits by marrying, and employers remain free to offer family health care benefits to any other family members, including aunts, nieces, siblings, or cousins, the only family members whom the Public Employee Domestic Partner Benefit Restriction Act bars from receiving family health care benefits are the domestic partners of lesbian and gay workers. The Act therefore imposes on gay and lesbian employees' families alone the burdens of being uninsured or underinsured: financial hardship, health-related anxiety, stress, and medical risk.

Many states, like Michigan, are facing issues pertaining to benefits for same-sex partners. In November the ACLU filed a brief [JURIST report] against a similar bill in Montana after the state approved a law that denied partnership benefits to same-sex couples. They argued that the new law violates of the Montana Constitution. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in September that a bill [text, PDF] rescinding health benefits for same-sex couples in the public sector is against the equal protection clause of the Arizona Constitution.

In October the US Supreme Court [official website] denied certiorari [JURIST report] in Adar v. Smith [backgrounder], in which a same-sex couple asked Louisiana to include both of their names on the birth certificate of their adopted child. The issue presented was whether denying non-married couples from having both names appear on an adopted child's birth certificate is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Gay rights group Lambda Legal [advocacy website] filed the petition for writ of certiorari [JURIST report] in July after the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] en banc against the parents in April, finding that "adoption is not a fundamental right," and that "Louisiana has a legitimate interest in encouraging a stable and nurturing environment for the education and socialization of its adopted children." The appeals court ruling in April overturned a prior decision [JURIST report] in February by a panel of three judges from the Fifth Circuit ordering that the revised birth certificate be issued.

In December 2010 an Italian appeals court upheld the convictions [JURIST report] of 23 former CIA agents convicted in the 2003 kidnapping and rendition [JURIST news archive] of terror suspect Nasr, increasing their sentences. De Sousa's original five-year sentence was increased to seven years. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan in 2003 by CIA agents with the help of Italian operatives, then allegedly transferred to Egypt and tortured by Egypt's State Security Intelligence before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. In September 2009 the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss [JURIST report] the lawsuit brought by De Sousa seeking diplomatic immunity against the Italian charges. The CIA's rendition program has been the source of much controversy and litigation. In 2009 President Barack Obama announced [JURIST report] the US would continue its practice of sending terror detainees to third countries for interrogation with increased oversight by the State Department to prevent torture.