Homosexuality is illegal in 36 African nations, and South Africa is the only country on the continent where same-sex marriage is not prohibited [BBC report]. Earlier this month, Malawi's government changed its position [JURIST report] on a decision to suspend it laws barring same-sex marriage and homosexuality after being pressured by a number of churches This follows Malawi President Joyce Banda announcement in her first national address [text] in May that she would decriminalize homosexual acts [JURIST report]. This announcement came as a move to normalize relations with Malawi's development partners in response to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration [official websites] pledging to promote LGBT rights when granting foreign aid [JURIST report]. In September 2010 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] called for countries around the world to abolish laws discriminating against gay and lesbian individuals [JURIST report].

Tensions between the country's judiciary and executive branch remain strong amidst the government's near year-long refusal to follow the high court's order to probe corruption allegations against the president. In August the Supreme Court granted Ashraf three additional weeks [JURIST report] to urge Switzerland to revive corruption charges against Zardari. The court in April brought a similar contempt charge [JURIST report] against Ashraf's predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] for his refusal to follow the same January directive. After failing to persuade [JURIST report] the court that the president is immune from prosecution under the country's constitution, Gilani was disqualified [JURIST report] from office and Parliament. As a result, some have since argued that Pakistan's judiciary is becoming too powerful. The conflict between the government and the court originally stems from an order that struck down [JURIST report] the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) [text] in 2009, which granted immunity to Zardari and 8,000 other government officials from charges of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1986 and October 1999.

The impeachment of Bandaranayake sparked heavy criticism among Sri Lanka's citizens. Earlier this month, hundreds of Sri Lankan lawyers and citizens protested [JURIST report] on the street in Colombo calling the government to halt to the impeachment. The impeachment was announced a week earlier after more than 75 percent of the parliament approved it, but specific charges against the chief justice were not revealed at that time. Tension continues to grow between the Sri Lankan government and the judiciary after an outspoken judge was assaulted last month [JURIST report]. Sri Lanka is still struggling to establish rule of law in the wake of a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009. In July the government of Sri Lanka said that it may take up to five years to prosecute people accused of war crimes [JURIST report] during the civil war it fought with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [CFR backgrounder]. Earlier in July Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged Sri Lanka to stop arresting journalists who criticized the government [JURIST report].

The violence and unrest in the eastern part of the DRC has been a focus of the international community. Last month Ugandan officials denied [JURIST report] UN Security Council [official website] allegations that Uganda had helped assisting M23 rebels with troops and supplies in the DRC. Similarly in August, the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST backgrounder] received requests [JURIST report] to investigate Rwandan President Paul Kagame [official profile] for allegedly backing armed rebels in the DRC. In the same month, the UN Security Council reiterated their condemnation [JURIST report] of M23, demanding foreign entities cease aid to the rebel group. In June, Rwanda was urged to stop [JURIST report] assisting accused DRC war criminal General Bosco Ntaganda [case materials], who is wanted by the ICC.

The Russian government has been cracking down on dissent in recent months. Members of Russian feminist rock band Pussy Riot [RASPI backgrounder; JURIST news archive] were given two-year prison sentences after they were convicted [JURIST report] in August of hooliganism in connection with "guerrilla performance" of a protest song in February at the altar of downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. Since the beginning of the trial [JURIST report], the group's lawyers and human rights groups have said the charges were politically motivated by Putin to discredit his opposition. In July Putin signed a bill into the law that re-criminalizes slander and libel in the country after signing into law [JURIST reports] a bill that labels all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive foreign funding as "foreign agents" and requires them to register with the Justice Ministry just a week earlier.

In 2010 Toyota settled [JURIST report] US federal investigations by agreeing to pay a record $32.4 million in extra fines for product defects and poor handling of a recall. The fines stem from two investigations conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) [official website]. The first, a fine of $16.375 million, concerned nearly five million vehicles with accelerator pedals entrapped by floor mats, which caused at least one fatal accident in California. The second, a fine of $16.050 million, resulted from Toyota's failure to notify the NHTSA of a safety defect in several Toyota models' steering relay rods. Toyota has been under federal scrutiny since December 2009, and has conducted several recalls. JURIST Guest Columnist Bruce Aronson says that recent corporate scandals in Japan, including the Toyota recalls, highlight the need for the reform [JURIST report] of that country's corporate governance structure.

Bales is not the first US soldier prosecuted in relation to deaths of civilians in Afghanistan. In February the US Army dropped charges [JURIST report] against Army Specialist Michael Wagnon, the last of five soldiers to be charged in connection with the killing of three Afghan civilians. In November US Sgt. Calvin Gibbs was convicted on 15 charges [JURIST report] of murder, assault, and conspiracy in the same case. Before Gibbs was convicted, in March of last year, Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock admitted to three counts of murder [JURIST report] as part of a plot with other soldiers to kill Afghan civilians.

The Budget Repair Bill has been the subject of copious legal and political controversy since its passage in March 2011. A Dane County Circuit Court judge struck down [JURIST report] the law as it applies to school district and local government workers in September. Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen [official profile] filed an appeal [JURIST report] days later. In July the Wisconsin Supreme Court [official website] refused to reopen a case challenging the Budget Repair Bill because of a justice's refusal to recuse himself [JURIST report]. The Supreme Court's upholding [JURIST report] of the Budget Repair Bill in June 2011 overturned a Dane County Circuit Court's decision [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that struck down the law for violations of the open meetings rule. The law was temporarily blocked [JURIST report] in March 2011 from publication and implementation by the same judge. The bill, which limits collective bargaining rights of state employees and requires them to contribute a percentage of their salaries to their health care and pensions, was signed into law [JURIST report] in March of last year.

Recent estimates of unmet need indicate the significant levels of investment necessary to uphold the right of the world's people to family planning. High levels of unmet need for family planning will be increased in the coming years by the large generation of young people entering their reproductive years. Family planning has been shown to be one of the most cost-effective public health interventions ever developed. Thus any decision regarding how to invest in family planning must counterpose its costs against the range of benefits it brings to individuals, households and nations. ... Improved access to family planning extends life expectancy for both mothers and children, increases incentives to invest in schooling and other forms of human capital, creates opportunities for participation in labour markets, raises the return to participation in labour markets and results in higher incomes and levels of asset accumulation. These add up to significant benefits, particularly if declines in fertility occur quickly enough to generate a demographic dividend

The right to contraceptives, particularly funding issues, continues to be a global issue. Last month France approved [JURIST report] a bill to pay for contraceptive and abortion coverage for minors. The day before that, a US federal appeals court declined [JURIST report] to rehear a Texas Planned Parenthood funding case. In September an Illinois appeals court ruled [JURIST report] that pharmacists can refuse to dispense birth control drugs. Controversy still surrounds contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act as it relates to religious freedom [JURIST feature].

The lawsuit against the South Carolina immigration law was put on hold [JURIST report] in January pending the outcome of Arizona v. United States. South Carolina is one of five states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Utah [JURIST reports] that modeled their recent immigration laws after Arizona's controversial SB 1070. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Arizona v. United States [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in June, lower courts have handed down a variety of rulings. In September, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a controversial provision of Arizona's immigration law] that requires law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of persons they stop or arrest if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the US illegally. In August the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] several provisions of Alabama's controversial immigration law [HB 56, PDF], upheld a few sections of the law and rejected part of Georgia's immigration law [HB 87, text]. That same month, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] again heard arguments [JURIST report] on two anti-illegal immigrant laws enacted in 2006 by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which deny permits to businesses that employ illegal immigrants and fine landlords who extend housing to them.

Plaintiffs cannot, therefore, mix and match FCRA's provisions with the Little Tucker Act's immunity waiver to create an action against the United States. Since FCRA is a detailed remedial scheme, only its own text can determine whether the damages liability Congress crafted extends to the Federal Government. To hold otherwise—to permit plaintiffs to remedy the absence of a waiver of sovereign immunity in specific, detailed statutes by pleading general Tucker Act jurisdiction—would transform the sovereign-immunity landscape.

The court also issued several orders [order list, PDF] on Tuesday. The court denied certiorari in Nix v. Holder [JURIST report], a voting rights [JURIST backgrounder] case, after granting certorari last week in Shelby County v. Holder [JURIST report]. The court also stayed the execution of Texas inmate Anthony Haynes to determine if his appeal will be affected by the recent certiorari grant for Trevino v. Thaler [JURIST report]. The stay provoked an unusual demonstration as Justice Sonia Sotomayor released a brief opinion on the stay and Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from the stay. Scalia argued that even if Trevino could ultimately apply Martinez v. Ryan [JURIST report] to Texas the issue in question has already been adjudicated for Haynes: "Even if the Fifth Circuit is incorrect and Martinez does implicate Texas's system of post conviction review, a stay is unwarranted here because Haynes presents no plausible claim for relief. His complaint is that his trial counsel was ineffective at sentencing. The absolute most to which he would be entitled under Martinez is excuse of his procedural default of this claim, enabling a federal district court to adjudicate the claim on the merits. But that is precisely what the District Court already did on federal habeas review." Haynes was convicted of the murder of an off-duty police officer and has been on death row since 1999.