1) Ending and preventing the recruitment and use of children in Somalia's National Armed Forces; 2) With the support of the United Nations, reintegrating all children released from Armed Forces; 3) Criminalizing the recruitment and use of children through national legislation; [and] 4) Providing the UN with unimpeded access to military installations to verify the presence of children.

In February, Somalia [DOS backgrounder; JURIST news archive] reached an agreement [JURIST report] at the Garowe II Constitutional Conference [Garowe Online report] to organize diplomats and establish a federal constitution. However, Somalia has been under heavy criticism for human rights violations. In August, Human Rights Watch (HRW) advocacy website] accused [JURIST report] parties in the Somalia conflict to be involved in abuses of citizens and urged them to cease all of such activities immediately. In July, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] release [JURIST report] a report which alleged that children continued to be victims of the conflict. In the 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [materials] however, noted [JURIST report] progress in Somalia for human rights. In 2009, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] said [JURIST report] that human rights violations committed during Somalian conflicts may amount to war crimes [press release].

There are now 31 US states [NCSL backgrounder] that require voters to present some form of ID at the polls, including 15 states that require photo ID, but the issue remains controversial. In March a Wisconsin judge in the Dane County Circuit Court [official website] issued an injunction [JURIST report] temporarily blocking enforcement of the state's controversial new voter identification law, Wisconsin Act 23 [text, PDF]. In August South Carolina's Senate Minority Caucus filed an objection [JURIST report] with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website], asking it to reject the state's new voter identification law. In June, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon [official website] vetoed [JURIST report] a law requiring persons to present photo identification at voting booth. Last March the Georgia Supreme Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a law requiring voters to present one of six government-issued photo identifications in order to vote. In contrast, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] a portion of Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration in October 2010.

Amnesty International welcomes the release of some political prisoners, but it is shameful that the Myanmar government continues to incarcerate hundreds of its citizens just for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and assembly. All prisoners of conscience must be released immediately.

In June Aung San Suu Kyi urged the international community to support Myanmar [JURIST report] in its attempt to build a stronger democracy and uphold the rule of law. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] welcomed the release of hundreds of political prisoners in October of last year while calling [JURIST reports] the country to free the remaining prisoners as well. A month earlier Myanmar formed [JURIST report] the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) to promote and safeguard the country's constitutional rights. In November 2010 the Myanmar Police Force released [JURIST report] Suu Kyi in November 2010 from her almost eight years house arrest.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and was officially banned by the Egyptian government first in 1948 and again in 1954. In June 2011 an Egyptian elections commission approved the formation [JURIST report] of the MB's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Incumbent president of Egypt Mohamed Morsi [State Information Service profile, in Arabic], who was just sworn-in last week [JURIST report], was the FJP presidential candidate and has been a longtime member of MB, although he resigned from FJP [NYT report] at the end of June after winning the presidential election.

Last year ... the General Assembly tried — and failed — to take North Carolina backwards by passing a bill that would have undone the Racial Justice Act. This year's Senate Bill 416 is not a "compromise bill"; it guts the Racial Justice Act and renders it meaningless. ... [The] majority in the General Assembly could have tried to strengthen our efforts to fix the flaws in our system. Instead, they chose to turn a blind eye to the problem and eviscerate the Racial Justice Act. Willfully ignoring the pernicious effects of discrimination will not make those problems go away.

The new legislation came on the heels of a state judge's decision in April to commute a death row inmate's sentence [JURIST report] to life in prison without parole. The judge vacated the death sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson after determining that racial bias was a major influence behind the original sentence, passed 18 years ago. Specifically the judge determined that race was a significant factor in choosing members of the jury for Robinson's trial. Also in April, in contrast to the legislative moves in North Carolina, the Connecticut legislature voted to repeal the death penalty [JURIST report] completely in that state, although earlier attempts to abolish the sentence through referendum were unsuccessful upon final vote.

A military judge ordered Hutchins' release in 2010, two months after his conviction was reversed [JURIST reports] by the Navy-Marine Court for Criminal Appeals [official website], which cited lack of a fair trial. In addition to Hutchins' original conviction, six Marines pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to charges related to their roles in the incident, in which Awad was removed from his residence and killed, then arranged with a shovel and firearm to appear as if he were planting an improvised explosive device. The murder trial of another US Marine began in January in the Western Judicial Military Circuit Court at Camp Pendleton [official website], in which a US Marine squad leader was charged with having been responsible for the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005. Such investigations are not limited to the Iraq conflict, as in May 2010 when the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] announced an investigation [JURIST report] into allegations that a "small number" of soldiers are responsible for the unlawful deaths of three civilians in Afghanistan war [JURIST news archive].