The ICE's 287(g) program has been controversial [JURIST op-ed] since its inception despite amendments in 2009 [JURIST report]. The changes were supposed to address the current ACLU claim that police may arrest immigrants for minor offenses by providing for uniform standards for agencies requiring the pursuit of all criminal charges leading to an immigrant's arrest and prioritized cases of immigrants accused of major drug offenses or violent crimes.

US state and federal courts have been forced to interpret medical marijuana statutes in recent years. Earlier this month the Montana Supreme Court [official website] found there was no constitutional right [JURIST report] to medical marijuana use. In January a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] granted an American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] motion to dismiss a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging Arizona's voter approved medical marijuana law. In August 2011 a Michigan court of appeals ruled [JURIST report] that medical marijuana cannot be sold at private dispensaries. In January 2010 the California Supreme Court [official website] overturned [JURIST report] a 2003 law limiting the amount of marijuana that may be possessed under the state's Medical Marijuana Program.

Kantanga's case in the ICC has been ongoing for over five years. In July 2010 the court's Appeals Chamber denied his request [JURIST report] for stay of proceedings and declaration of unlawful detention by Congo before his transfer to The Hague. Kantanga originally pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] in November 2009 to three crimes against humanity and seven war crimes, including murder, sexual slavery, pillage and the use of child soldiers. In September 2009 the Appeals Chamber upheld the admissibility [JURIST report] of Kantanga's case after he argued that the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him should be dropped because he was being charged for the same crimes in the the Congo, thus violating the ICC principle of complementarity. The Appeals Chamber upheld the trial chamber's June 2009 dismissal of Katanga's challenge on the grounds that the there were no domestic proceedings against him at the time the charges were filed, and that subsequent investigations did not result in domestic charges. The trial chamber confirmed the charges [JURIST report] against him in September 2008. Kantanga, the former commander in the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri [IRIN backgrounder], surrendered to the ICC and was transferred to The Hague in October 2007 after a warrant [text, PDF, in French] was issued for his arrest in July 2007.

In 2010 a commission created by Guinea's junta announced that former Guinean junta aide Lieutenant Aboubacar Cherif "Toumba" Diakite is the sole government official to blame for the massacre [JURIST report]. The commission's conclusion contradicted a UN report [JURIST report] that blamed military junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara [BBC profile], Minister for Special Services Moussa Tiegboro Camara and Toumba for the September 28 slayings. In October 2009 the International Criminal Court placed the Guinean military under preliminary investigation for human rights violations related to the Conakry incident, and the UN and Guinea both announced they were creating commissions to investigate [JURIST reports] the killings.

This is the most recent development in the ongoing same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] debate. Earlier this month the US Department of Justice filed petitions in the US Supreme Court asking it to consider two additional challenges to DOMA [JURIST report], including Windsor's case. Days earlier, several groups joined Windsor's challenge [JURIST report] to the legislation. In July a lesbian couple filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Central District of California 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] In addition, JURIST has published two editorials related to DOMA last month. The first focuses the potential constitutional flaws of DOMA [JURIST comment] and the second discusses the deeper federalism issues that are contained in the law [JURIST op-ed].

In July Hungarian prosecutors charged Csatary [JURIST report] with the "unlawful torture of human beings," a war crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Csatary was at the top of the SWC's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals [BBC backgrounder], and the SWC had already called on the Hungarian government to prosecute the Nazi war criminal [JURIST report] when the center issued its annual report in April. Nazi prosecution continues regardless of the ages of the criminals. In January the Ingolstadt Prosecutor's Office [official website, in German] filed a motion [JURIST report] to jail Klaas Faber, a Dutch native who fled to Germany after being convicted in the Netherlands in 1947 of Nazi war crimes. Germany reopened investigations into former Nazi death camp guards in October, which stemmed from the conviction of John Demjanjuk [JURIST reports], a former guard at a camp in Poland who was deported to Germany to stand trial for his alleged Nazi crimes. Last September alleged Nazi Sandor Kepiro died while he awaited an appeal [JURIST report] on his acquittal on war crimes charges.

Last week a judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court [official website] denied Garcia's request [JURIST report] for a temporary restraining order to remove the film from YouTube. Earlier that week UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai [official website] condemned the recent violence [JURIST report] that erupted after the film's release. Kiai stated that protests and rallies must be peaceful to be protected by international human rights law and urged the Middle East states to prosecute those responsible for the violence. Last week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] urged religious and political leaders [JURIST report] to encourage an end to the violence that followed the release of the film. While Pillay said she "fully understand[s] why people wish to protest strongly against" the film, she "utterly condemn[s]" the violence that has resulted from the protests. Also last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official website] declared that the US had nothing to do with the anti-Muslim film [Reuters report] despite its apparent production in America, in turn labeling it disgusting and reprehensible.

Ai spent 81 days in secret detention last year. In July the Chaoyang District Court rejected another tax penalty appeal by Ai [JURIST report]. In June the court banned Ai from attending [JURIST report] the first hearing in the case and further banned him from attending any hearings, including the delivery of the verdict. Ai's wife Lu Qing, the legal representative of Fake Cultural Development, attended the hearing with other lawyers and reported that during the hearing witnesses they requested were blocked from testifying including Ai. Other rights activists such as Hu Jia [advocacy blog; JURIST news archive] were also barred from attending the hearing. The court also closed the five-seat chamber to journalists and filming. The court agreed to hear [JURIST report] the case in May, surprising many with its ruling since Chinese courts rarely accept appeals claims brought by dissidents and their relatives.

The conditions and length of imprisonment in California's isolation units are simply shocking. To deprive prisoners in a segregated environment of natural light, adequate exercise or meaningful human contact is unnecessarily punitive and unjustifiable in all circumstances. Access to natural light and exercise are basic needs, essential for physical and mental health.

US prisons have been criticized for conditions leading to human rights abuses and overcrowding. In April AI contended that solitary confinement conditions in Arizona's maximum security prisons violate international human rights law [JURIST report]. In January Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] 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) [official website] 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].

A report published by the Center for American Progress (CAP) [advocacy website] in April asserted that Tennessee is one of the five worst states for voting rights [JURIST report]. The report criticized the tide of recently-passed state voter ID laws as an attempt by conservatives and lobbyists to "return to past practices of voter suppression to preserve their political power." The Tennessee law states that any ID that is not distributed by state or local governments, including student IDs, are not valid forms of voter identification. There are now 32 US states [NCSL backgrounder] that require voters to present some form of ID at the polls.

Human trafficking is an ongoing issue in countries throughout the world, and countries have been struggling to enforce regulations against it. In July a federal judge in Hawaii dismissed human trafficking charges [JURIST report] against six executives accused of bringing 600 Thai nationals to the US, falsely promising them job opportunities and then forcing them to work on farms. In June a UN human rights expert urged [JURIST report] the international community to focus on the issue and released a report [PDF] recommending strategies for dealing with it. A week earlier, the European Union [official website] announced a plan to end human trafficking in Europe [JURIST report].