Florida had faced several legal complaints and criticism for its voting laws. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU-FL) [advocacy website] announced [JURIST report] that it will file a suit against seeking to end Florida's controversial purging of voter rolls. It contended that the state's policy violates federal law, discriminates against racial minorities, and that in practice, citizens are frequently forced to re-verify their citizenship or lose their right to vote. Earlier this month, judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida [official website] blocked [JURIST report] part of a new Florida election law that required any group that conducts a voter registration drive to turn in registration forms within 48 hours of collecting them or else face a $1,000 per day fine. Florida took also initiatives against the federal government interfering with state's enactment of voting laws. Last October, the state submitted a request [JURIST report] to a federal court challenging the VRA.

The confinement of immigration detainees at PCJ, at least under current conditions, has no place in any system that aspires to civility. ... The continued pattern of inhumane treatment and deficient conditions at PCJ—conditions inconsistent even with constitutional minima for convicted prisoners—not only make a mockery of the administration's stated commitment to humane detention reform, but also present an invitation to suit.

US prisons have been criticized for conditions leading to human rights abuses and overcrowding. An investigation by Amnesty International (AI) in April reported that solitary confinement conditions in Arizona's maximum security prisons violate international human rights law [JURIST report]. In January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its annual World Report and criticized US illegal detention programs [JURIST report], pointing to extreme prisoner rights abuses and a high level of incarceration of illegal immigrants and racial minorities. A week earlier, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) criticized the US human rights record, including the indefinite detention [JURIST report] of Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainees, in a report that called the situation in Guantanamo "the main outstanding [human rights] issue" in the US. Last year, the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Plata [Cornell LII backgrounder] to uphold an order requiring California to release up to 46,000 prisoners [JURIST report] to remedy the state's overcrowded prisons [JURIST news archive].

Moldova had been urged to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination laws. In early May, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged [JURIST report] the Moldovan government to adopt laws that would protect the human rights of religious minorities, the Roma population and LGBT rights in the nation. A similar call [JURIST report] was made few weeks after by the UN Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice that called the country to enact laws to ensure equal treatment of men and women.

Bolivia has been very strict in prosecuting state officials for various crimes. Last year Bolivia's Supreme Court of Justice [official website, in Spanish] convicted [JURIST report] seven officials—five military officers and two former cabinet ministers—of committing genocide. The military officials received sentences of 10 to 15 years while the former cabinet ministers received three-year sentences for complicity in the murders. They were prohibited from appealing the decision. The case for the genocide began in 2009 [JURIST report] when the court initiated the trial against former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Bolivian officials requested extradition [JURIST report] of Sanchez de Lozada and two other defendants from the US to face trial under a 1995 extradition treaty.

In May, the appeals chamber of the ICC rejected [JURIST report] the appeal challenging the court's jurisdiction in the two cases related to the post-election violence. The charges against Ruto and Sang were confirmed [JURIST report] by the pre-trial chamber in January. In March last year, the ICC had issued summons [JURIST report] for six individuals charged with their crimes committed during the unrest.

Despite calls and demands by international communities to end the violence in Myanmar, the government has failed to control the violence and protect the victims of such. In March, HRW reported [JURIST report] that violence and rights abuses continue in Myanmar's northern state of Kachin due to the conflict between Myanmar's armed forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) [BBC backgrounder]. During the same month, Tomas Ojea Quintana [official profile], the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar urged [JURIST report] the country to ensure the protection of human rights. In November, Human rights group Partners Relief and Development [advocacy website] issued [JURIST report] a report [text, PDF, graphic content] which alleged that the army may be committing war crimes including torture and forced labor against ethnic communities in Kachin state.

The alliance between Pakistan and the US became vulnerable after the controversial killing of Bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan. In May, a Pakistani doctor who helped the US government to find Bin Laden was convicted [JURIST report] for his association to a Pakistani militant group, not for his ties to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website], as was originally reported [JURIST report].

Gbagbo's hearing date was set [JURIST report] in December during his pre-trial hearing in the Pre-Trial Chamber III of the ICC. During the hearing the court verified Gbagbo's identity and ensured that he was informed of the four charges against him, including murder, persecution, inhumane acts, and rape and other forms of sexual violence allegedly committed during last year's post-election violence [JURIST news archive] in the Ivory Coast. A month earlier, he was taken into custody [JURIST report] by the ICC after national authorities of the Ivory Coast surrendered him to the international court.

These forms of sexual harassment, sexual assault and other forms of ill-treatment against women protesters are an attempt to intimidate them and prevent them from participating fully in public life. The authorities have so far done nothing to investigate these attacks. The impunity so far enjoyed by those attacking women protesters seems to have encouraged the trend of sexual harassment and assault to continue. The epidemic of sexual harassment in Egypt will only stop if the authorities, and society at large, confront the men who act as if women are commodities. The prevailing climate on impunity must stop by bringing perpetrators to justice.

Egypt has been heavily criticized for the way it treated protesters during the Egyptian revolution. Last month an Egyptian court convicted five police officers [JURIST report] in absentia for the death of protesters last year and sentenced each to 10 years in prison. AI and Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] released reports that protesters had been tortured and improperly detained [JURIST reports]. AI has also criticized the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) [NYT backgrounder], stating that human rights violations against protesters committed by the SCAF may be equal to those committed under Mubarak.

In December, the USITC ruled in favor of Apple [JURIST report] in its claim against HTC for infringing its "data tapping" patents. A month earlier, the same agency found for Apple [JURIST report] and held that the company did not infringe HTC's patents it obtained from acquiring the subsidiary S3 Graphics Co. In August, HTC filed three patent complaints against Apple after the USITC ruled against HTC [JURIST reports] for patent infringement relating to cell phones that run the Android operating system (OS) in July. The conflict between the two companies arose after Apple initially filed suit [JURIST report] against HTC in the US District Court for the District of Delaware [official website] in March 2010 alleging that HTC infringed ten of Apple's patents including hardware designs, touch-screen interfaces and graphical user interfaces. Apple filed an additional suit with the USITC to bar HTC from importing its products to the US market. A second lawsuit was initiated by Apple in July last year when it filed a claim against HTC [JURIST report] with the USITC for patent infringement related to scrolling and touchscreen features.

It is not the first time that Syria has been criticized for its crimes against children. Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council [official website] condemned [JURIST report] Syria after a 41-3 vote for killing more than 100 civilians in the Houla region including women and children. Few days earlier, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] revealed [JURIST report] that most of the victims in the Houla incident were shot at close range, an indication of an mass execution. In April, the Human Rights Council had called Syria [JURIST report] to end the violence by approving a legally binding resolution. In February, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) [official website] reported [JURIST report] that the prevalent violence in Syria had caused the death and injuries of hundreds of children.

Tension between Bahrain's government and protesters has escalated recently. Prominent rights activist and BCHR president Nabeel Rajab was arrested and returned to prison [JURIST report] last week after posting critical comments about the government on his social media page. Last week, pro-democracy activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] ended his hunger strike [JURIST report] weeks after he and 20 other incarcerated protestors were granted a retrial [JURIST report] by a Bahrain appeals court. Last month, Al-Khawaja's daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja, was sentenced [JURIST report] to one month in prison for trying to organize an anti-government protest. Earlier in May, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called for the immediate release [JURIST report] of the leader's of last year's anti-government protests, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja.

More than half of the states in the US have enacted a variation of the stand your ground law. The law does not require someone who reasonably believes to be threatened or immediate danger to retreat but rather allows the use of deadly force. The law has been criticized for its vagueness and potential for bias-based use against minorities. For example, Rev. Markel Hutchins, a civil rights activist, filed suit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia [official website] challenging the state's "No Duty to Retreat" law [text, PDF] because it is too vague and can lead to misuse of killing minority members. Hutchins also declared that his challenge derived from the recent killing of Martin. Georgia enacted its "No Duty to Retreat" law in 2006 while Florida enacted [JURIST reports] its "Stand Your Ground" law in 2005.

Earlier this month, a pre-trial chamber of the ICC granted a request by the Libyan government to postpone an order to transfer [JURIST report] Saif al-Islam to ICC custody. The issue of which court is going to try Saif al-Islam has been in dispute since he was captured [JURIST report] by Libyan rebel forces in November. In April ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] stated that the maximum penalty for Saif al-Islam in the ICC would be life in prison, but if convicted in a national court he could face the death penalty [JURIST report]. Earlier that month Ocampo asked the ICC to report Libya to the UN Security Council for failing to turn over Saif al-Islam. Libya expressly denied [JURIST report] the ICC's request for such action and stated that Saif al-Islam will face trial within the country. In February 2011, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to refer the matter in Libya to the ICC prosecutor [JURIST report]. The ICC claimed jurisdiction over Saif al-Islam despite its announcement in November that it may allow Libya to conduct the trial [JURIST report].

Wal-Mart's board has repeatedly rebuffed our office and the New York City Pension Funds when we have raised concerns over the company's failure to comply with legal and ethical standards. Rooting out the directors and executives responsible for the current crisis would be a first step, but Wal-Mart also needs corporate governance reforms and an independent board that will protect outside shareholders and safeguard against another breakdown of internal controls.

Wal-Mart has recently been no stranger to lawsuits. Last year the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] in that a group of women seeking to recover damages from Wal-Mart failed to meet the requirements for class certification. In February 2011 Wal-Mart also escaped liability after a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled [JURIST report] that Wal-Mart did not wrongly fire an employee who had been using medical marijuana to treat a brain tumor.