01/28/2010: Members of Congress, retired military officials, career foreign service diplomats, Holocaust Survivors and others file amicus briefs in a landmark case against former Somali Defense Minister Mohammed Ali Samantar.

01/20/2010: Court to decide if former foreign government officials who use torture, rape and killing as tools of repression are above the law, or whether those who avail themselves of all the benefits of living in the U.S. must, like all other Americans, submit themselves to U.S. law.

To learn more, read CJA Executive Director Pamela Merchant's article in the Huffington Post: Is There a War Criminal Living in Your Backyard?

12/10/2009: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an opinion today finding Mexico in violation of human rights conventions under the American Convention of Human Rights and the Convention Belém do Pará in the case of Campo Algodonero v. The United Mexican States. On July 7, 2009, CJA joined several humans rights and women’s rights organizations, law school clinics and law professors as an amicus, urging the Court to find Mexico at fault for failing to fulfill its human rights obligations.

12/03/2009: Judge Santiago Pedraz heard extraordinary testimony from Fredy Peccerelli, Director of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), on hundreds of exhumations conducted across Guatemala to unearth the remains of civilian victims killed in Guatemala during the 1980s. Peccerelli, who was brought into the case as an expert witness by CJA and the Spanish Association for Human Rights (APDHE), presented the Judge with a 900-page report analyzing 363 exhumations conducted by FAFG of victims killed between 1978 and 1984 in five municipalities in Guatemala. Peccerelli’s testimony supported the accounts of dozens of witnesses and survivors who have previously testified.

12/01/2009: The expert testimony of lawyers from the Pro Human Rights Association of Spain and witnesses Terry Karl of Stanford University and Kate Doyle of the National Security Archive was presented before the Spanish National Court in the Jesuits Massacre Case. Two Salvadoran witnesses, whose names are being withheld for security reasons, also testified.

11/30/2009: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $19 million judgment against Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, the former leader of Haiti’s notorious death squad known as FRAPH. The appeal was based on the judgment of the district court finding Constant liable for torture, including rape, attempted extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity carried out as part of FRAPH’s reign of terror during the period of military rule in Haiti from 1991 to 1994. Today’s ruling is a momentous step for accountability for the state-sponsored campaign of rape that destroyed so many families in Haiti.

11/04/2009: The Spanish government enacted a bill that would limit the reach of its universal jurisdiction law and may restrict Spain’s ability to prosecute serious human rights crimes. The bill was passed by the Congress of Deputies, or lower house, on June 25 and then went to the Senate, which made minor amendments and approved the bill on October 15. The bill passed with support from Spain’s ruling party, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) and its main opposition party, the Partido Popular (PP). It was opposed by parties representing the Basque region, Catalonia and Galicia, as well as the United Left, who called the bill a setback for the defense of human rights.

10/22/2009: October 22, 6-8pm, San Francisco -- CJA hosted a panel discussion where, for the first time, CJA clients from all around the world talked about their experiences as part of international justice efforts. We heard their perspectives as survivors of torture, crimes against humanity and other abuses. The forum was organized at the initiative of our clients and other survivors who shared their experiences in the struggle against impunity.

10/09/2009: On October 5, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear former Salvadoran Vice-Minister of Defense, Colonel Nicolás Carranza's petition to review a 2005 jury verdict for crimes against humanity. The very next day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it will launch deportation proceedings against former Salvadoran Ministers of Defense General José Guillermo Garcia and General Eugenio Vides Casanova for assisting in the torture of Salvadoran civilians.

07/01/2009: In 2009 CJA joined the Truth Commission of Ecuador to assist in their efforts to prosecute crimes against humanity and other international crimes. As an international legal advisor, CJA will work to analyze evidence and craft accountability mechanisms.

04/07/2009: Peru's Supreme Court has sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori to 25 years in prison for the murder of 25 innocent civilians by government-backed death squads.