Earlier this month, the ICC set the trial dates [JURIST report] for the post-election violence cases against the four accused for next April. The trial of Ruto and Arap Sang is expected to start [decision, PDF] on April 10, 2013 , while the trial of Kenyatta and Muthaura is to begin [decision, PDF] on April 11, 2013. Last month the ICC expressed its desire to start the two Kenyan trials simultaneously [JURIST report] to avoid any appearance of bias in the March 2013 presidential election. Ruto is considered a leading candidate in the election which will take place March 4, 2013. The four men have been accused and charged with involvement in the 2007 post-election violence. Ruto and Sang are facing three counts of murder, forcible transfer and persecution while Kenyatta and Muthaura are facing five counts of orchestrating murder, rape, forcible transfer and persecution in the polls' aftermath. In May, the appeals chamber of the ICC rejected [JURIST report] the jurisdiction challenges in the two cases presented by the defense, clearing the way for trial. The defense lawyers had argued that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the cases. The appeal stemmed from the pre-trial chamber's decision to confirm the charges [JURIST report] against the four men in January. The ICC claimed jurisdiction over the case despite Kenya's calls for dismissal [JURIST report]. The Kenyan government argued that it was capable of prosecuting the accused men domestically.

In March, Picard and the owners of the New York Mets reached a $162 million settlement for victims of the Madoff scheme [JURIST report], avoiding a trial that would determine whether the owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, were "willfully blind" to the Madoff scheme. Judge Jed Rakoff ruled in January that Picard could not appeal a ruling [JURIST report] that precluded them from taking an interlocutory appeal on his earlier judgment throwing out 9 of the 11 claims sought by the plaintiffs. This ruling allowed Picard to pursue only $300 million of the original $1 billion dollar suit. Last July the court approved [JURIST report] the first payouts to Madoff's victims. Picard filed almost 60 lawsuits [JURIST report] for victims of Madoff's fraud in December 2010, including suits against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. Judge Louis Stanton made Picard the trustee of Bernard L Madoff Securities, LLC in December 2008. Madoff was sentenced [JURIST report] in June 2009 to 150 years in prison for securities fraud stemming from his Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to 11 counts of securities fraud in March 2009.

Earlier this month South African Minister of Home Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was elected the first female leader [JURIST report] of the African Union (AU) [official website; JURIST news archive], securing 37 out of 54 votes to win the required two-thirds majority. She is also the first South African to hold the post. In April South Africa announced that it will issue pardons to 35,000 convicts [JURIST report] in order to ease prison overcrowding. South African President Jacob Zuma [BBC profile] issued the pardons, known as "special remissions," in honor of Freedom Day, which commemorates Nelson Mandela winning the nation's first all-race elections in 1994.

The UNCC had approved [JURIST report] the final claims from victims of the 1990 invasion in June 2005 in the total amount of $52.5 billion. With the finalization of claims the 15 member-panel of the UNCC, who are also members of the UN Security Council, awarded the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Jordan a total of $366 million. In August of the same year Iraqi legislators accused [JURIST report] Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil by drilling oil posts at angles into Iraqi territories. A month earlier Iraq's deputy UN ambassador Feisal al-Istrabadi claimed [JURIST report] that there was evidence of gross mismanagement and potential corruption related to the UN Oil-for-Food program. Independent Inquiry Committee [official website] investigators probed into controversial expenditures by the UNCC and whether the Iraqi government should be paid for overcharges by UN agencies.

Earlier this month Chile enacted a hate crime law [JURIST report] following the March beating death of a young gay man in a Santiago park. Last month the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) [advocacy website] reported that incidents of hate-based murders against LGBT individuals in the US increased in 2011 [JURIST report]. The annual report, entitled "Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-affected Communities in the U.S. in 2011," found that 30 LGBT individuals were killed in 2011 in hate-based murders, the highest number that the NCAVP has recorded. The number of murders against LGBT people has increased in each of the past three years. President Barack Obama signed [JURIST report] the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law in October 2009.

The HHS mandate has raised concerns in religiously affiliated institutions across the country. There are currently 24 separate lawsuits challenging the mandate. Last week, Wheaton College [official website], a Christian institution in Illinois, filed a lawsuit [press release] challenging the HHS mandate. In May, more than 40 Catholic dioceses and other Catholic institutions around the US filed lawsuits [JURIST report] against the Obama administration alleging the mandate violated their right to religious freedom. In a statement, the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, said that the lawsuit was not about access to contraception, but rather "it is about whether the government may force religious institutions and individuals to facilitate and fund services which violate their religious beliefs."

We follow "the general rule that the validity of a marriage is governed by the law of the State where the marriage is contracted." ... As such, we ordinarily extend recognition of out-of-State marriages under principles of comity, even if such marriages would be prohibited here, unless the marriage violated Massachusetts public policy, including polygamy, consanguinity and affinity. ... Here, the initial question is whether we should extend recognition of the plaintiff's civil union in the same manner as we would an out-of-State marriage under principles of comity.

Earlier this week Massachusetts officials filed documents [JURIST report] in the US Supreme Court [official website] challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive]. Attorney General Martha Coakley argued in her brief [text, PDF] that Section 3 of DOMA violates the Tenth Amendment as well as the Spending Clause (Article I, Section 8) [Cornell LII backgrounders]. On the same day, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman [official website] filed an amicus brief with the Court, supporting the case of an elderly New York woman who last week petitioned the Court to expedite her DOMA challenge [JURIST reports], which is currently pending appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website].

Microsoft and Motorola has been in litigation against each other around the globe. Earlier this month, both companies filed [JURIST report] a joint motion in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] asking the court to suspend three patent cases between the parties until a trial is held on a licensing disagreement. Microsoft had alleged that Motorola failed to license Google [corporate website], which owns the company since 2010, certain video and Wi-Fi technology on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. In May the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] concluded [JURIST report] its investigation into a complaint that a number of Motorola mobile phones infringed on several Microsoft patents.

The UN report was leaked to the media in late June. Foreign Policy magazine revealed information [JURIST report] from the report last month, but the Rwandan government rejected the allegations. Earlier in June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Rwandan government to stop [JURIST report] assisting accused DRC war criminal, General Bosco Ntaganda [ICC case materials], who is wanted by the ICC. In 2010, a UN report claimed [JURIST report] that troops from Rwanda had committed crimes in the DRC that could amount to genocide. The unrest in the eastern part of the DRC has been a focus of the international community recently. Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern [JURIST report] about the safety of the civilians in the region. Last month, former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo sought the immediate arrest [JURIST report] of Ntaganda along with Sylvestre Mudacumura [ICC fact sheet, PDF], a foreign militia leader in the DRC.

Cuba has had a history of suppressing political dissent [HRW backgrounder] through criminal prosecutions. In December the government announced [JURIST report] that it would grant amnesty to and release 2,900 prisoners, including political prisoners. The announcement came in the wake of a scheduled visit by Pope Benedict XVI. Human rights activists have criticized the proposed amnesty because it was merely a protection of the country's image rather than a step towards a real reform. Alan Gross, a US contractor, who was sentenced [JURIST report] to 15 years in prison for attempting to undermine the communist government of Cuba, was not given amnesty.

The abusive practices documented in this report violate international law and suppress and chill protest rights, not only by undermining individual liberty, but also by causing both minor and serious physical injuries, inhibiting collective debate and the capacity to effectively press for social and economic change, and making people afraid to attend otherwise peaceful assemblies.

The NYPD has come under scrutiny recently for alleged misconduct. Last month, a Muslim rights group filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey seeking to end a controversial NYPD surveillance program, which allegedly targets individuals based on religious affiliation. JURIST guest columnist Samar Warsi in May questioned [JURIST comment] the NYPD policies stating: "It is vital to be cautious when government officials use glittering generalities such as 'national security' and 'counterterrorism' to legitimize acts and policies in clear contravention of basic constitutional guarantees." In May, New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa concluded that the NYPD's surveillance program did not violate the Constitution [AP report]. Chiesa had launched an investigation into the program after a series of AP articles sparked outrage in New Jersey in February. In March, NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly adamantly denied [speech; press release] that the surveillance programs were unconstitutional.

By refusing to recognize for federal purposes marriages that are valid under state law, DOMA intrudes on matters historically within the control of the States, and undermines and denigrates New York's law designed to ensure equality of same-sex and different-sex married couples. Thus DOMA threatens basic principles of federalism. Moreover, it classifies and determines access to rights, benefits, and protections based on sexual orientation, and also based on sex. ... For each of these reasons, considered separately or together, DOMA should be subjected to heightened scrutiny under the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, and it cannot withstand such scrutiny.

Windsor and spouse Thea Spyer were legally married in 2007 after being engaged for 40 years. Spyer, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, died just two years later, leaving all of her property to Windsor. Windsor challenged the assessment of over $363,000 in federal estate taxes on property transferred to her upon her wife's death—taxes that would not have been assessed on such a transfer between married partners of opposite sex. Windsor's Supreme Court petition is the fourth in recent weeks to challenge the constitutionality of DOMA. Last week a lesbian couple filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] in a DOMA challenge that seeks to achieve for gay and lesbian couples the same federal immigration rights afforded to heterosexual couples [JURIST report] under the Immigration and Nationality Act [materials]. Also last week 132 members of the US House of Representatives [official website] filed an amicus brief [JURIST report] arguing that statutory classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to heightened judicial scrutiny, and that DOMA should be overturned as unconstitutional under any level of judicial scrutiny. The brief was filed in the appeal of Karen Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, the landmark case in which the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] ruled that DOMA is unconstitutional [JURIST report].

It is still unclear whether the recent decision and the possible violence that could arise out of it would have detrimental effects on the scheduled election in 2013. In addition, almost simultaneously to the election the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] will start its trial for two Kenyan cases stemming from violence following the 2007 elections. The ICC set the trial date [JURIST report] for next April, a month after the election. The trial of former Kenyan minister William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang [case materials] will begin [decision, PDF] on April 10, 2013, while the trial of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former civil service chief Francis Muthaura [case materials] is to begin [decision, PDF] on April 11, 2013. Last month the ICC expressed its desire to start the two Kenyan trials simultaneously [JURIST report] to avoid any appearance of bias in the March 2013 presidential election. Ruto is considered a leading candidate in the election which will take place on March 4, 2013.

Collection of DNA from arrestees is a controversial issue throughout the US, and courts have been split on the issue. Earlier this month, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stayed [JURIST report] a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling that police could not collect DNA from individuals arrested for violent crimes and burglaries. The appeals court struck down [JURIST report] the DNA collection law in April, finding a violation of the arrestee's right to privacy. In January the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld a state statute requiring people convicted of crimes to submit a DNA sample, ruling that such a mandate does not violate the Fourth Amendment [JURIST report]. US Attorney General Eric Holder instructed federal prosecutors in November 2010 to use DNA evidence as much as possible [JURIST report] reversing the previous policy of the Bush administration. In May 2009, a California district court upheld the constitutionality of mandatory DNA collection [JURIST report] for all persons arrested or detained under federal authority. That same year a South Carolina law was upheld that requires convicted first degree sex offenders to submit to a DNA test [JURIST report] prior to their release.

Amnesty International has been documenting unlawful killings carried out by state forces and government militias in Syria for months. Our field research in northern Syria found scores of mainly men and boys—most of whom who had not been engaged in hostilities—being summarily killed by government forces, and shabiha militia members, after prolonged shelling of city districts, towns and villages suspected of harbouring opposition fighters and supporters.

Syria has recently been facing international criticism for human rights violations. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday expressed his concern that Syria could potentially use chemical weapons [JURIST report] in its ongoing conflict. Ban expressed his hopes that the international community would keep a close eye on the situation, even though the Syrian government has stated it would not use such weapons of mass destruction against its own citizens. Last Friday the UN Security Council extended the UN monitoring mission in Syria [JURIST report] for an additional 30 days. The mandate for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) [official website], deployed as part of the peace plan of UN Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, received a unanimous vote for a 30-day extension in the Security Council. AI and three other rights groups had urged the UN to renew the mandate [JURIST report], stating that human rights abuses in the country are on the rise and that the UN must continue to pressure the government to improve humanitarian conditions.