The US Department of Defense on Dec. 27 announced the repatriation of four Guantánamo Bay detainees to Afghanistan. The prisoners—Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani and Mohammed Zahir—were released after a review of their cases. Although originally detained on suspicion of being associated with groups such as the Taliban and other terrorist organizations, they had been cleared for transfer for quite some time. They were considered "low-level detainees" and not security risks in their home country. With the release, the population of Guantánamo has been reduced to 132 prisoners. The release of the four men is part of an effort by the Obama administration to close Guantánamo Bay, despite restrictions in the latest defense spending bill, which President Obama signed Dec. 19 with a statement that expressed dissatisfaction over the provisions.

Kenya's parliament on Dec. 18 passed a sweeping new anti-terrorism law after some of its members engaged in a shoving match that led to blows being exchanged. Those opposed to the law, citing violations of free speech and other civil liberties, shouted, threw water, and even threw books at the Speaker in protest of the bill. The law allows security services to detain suspected criminals without charging them for up to 360 days, allows media members to be persecuted for publishing material that is likely to cause fear or alarm, and enables a domestic spy force to carry out secret operations. President Uhuru Kenyatta has backed the bill due to increased pressure to improve security in the country after a 2013 terrorist attack by Somali al-Shabaab rebels that killed 67 people.

Egypt's top prosecutor on Dec. 13 referred 439 individuals to a military tribunal for the killing of three police officers last year. The group was composed  of about 139 Islamists from the southern province of Minya and 300 from the Nile Delta province of Beheira. The prosecutor's case was based on the violence last year in response to a dispersal by police of an Islamist sit-in. The prosecutor's case is part of a program that Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi started last year in which the military is to join with police to protect state interests, and anyone involved in attacks against state facilities is to be prosecuted by military tribunals. Human Rights Watch stated that these military tribunals "lack even the shaky due process guarantees provided by regular courts."

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Dec. 11 confirmed four charges of crimes against humanity against Charles Blé Goudé, and committed the ally of former President Laurent Gbagbo to trial at The Hague. Blé Goudé is accused of working with Gbagbo to orchestrate a wave of post-election violence between December 2010 and April 2011. Both Goude and Gbagbo are in ICC custody, and the prosecutor's office will seek to join Gbagbo's trial with Goudé's. The charges were a result of a five-month post-election crisis in which Gbagbo refused to step down after internationally recognized results of the November 2010 election proclaimed the current president, Alassane Ouattara, the winner. At least 3,000 people were killed and 150 women raped during the crisis. Much of the violence was carried out along ethnic, political and religious lines. Goude is allegedly responsible for murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence and other inhuman acts.

Brazil's National Truth Commission released a report on Dec. 10 declaring that state agents engaged in human rights violations between 1964 and 1985 when the country was under military rule. The human rights violations include enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence, executions and hiding bodies. At least 434 people are believed to have died or disappeared at the hands of the military during this period, and 210 bodies have never been found. The report urges the prosecution of those who were involved in the violations. The commission began investigating the abuses in May 2012, gathering thousands of testimonies and holding public hearings throughout 20 Brazilian states. Brazil's current president, Dilma Rousseff, was one of the victims tortured and imprisoned during the 1970s.

The so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed during the Bush administration were "ineffective," according to a long-awaited report (PDF) released Dec. 9 by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. According to the report, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deliberately misled Congress and the White House about information obtained using "enhanced interrogation techniques" between 2002 and 2007, which were more brutal than the public was led to believe. The more than 600 pages of materials that were released to the public are based on millions of internal CIA documents and took over five years to produce. The full report, totaling more than 6,700 pages, remains classified but has been shared with the White House.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) on Dec. 8 announced the transfer of six detainees from the Guantánamo Bay detention center to Uruguay. This move is the result of a 2009 Executive Order issued by President Obama instructing the Guantánamo Bay Review Force to review these cases. The decision to transfer the detainees was unanimous amongst all parties constituting the inter-agency task force (PDF): the DoD, Department of Justice, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The six detainees are Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan, Omar Mahmoud Faraj, Jihad Diyab, Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy and Mohammed Tahanmatan. The men comprise four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian, and they will be granted refugee status by the Uruguayan government. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel informed Congress of the US' intent to transfer and its accordance with statutory requirement. After this transfer, there will be 136 detainees left at Guantánamo Bay.

International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda dropped the charges of murder, rape, persecution, deportation, and other inhumane acts against Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta on Dec. 5. This action comes after an ICC trial chamber order that required the prosecutor to either withdraw the charges or show sufficient evidence to proceed to trial. The prosecutor's office ceased action for lack of evidentiary support which was identified by Bensouda as a consequence of the Kenyan government's refusal to cooperate and failure to provide important records of Kenyatta's activities. ICC judges have not made a formal declaration of non-cooperation by the government, but they have expressed that the government's interaction with the investigation did not comport to the standards of good faith set out under the ICC's founding treaty.