Amnesty International (AI) accused forces loyal to Moammar Qaddafi of committing war crimes in Misrata in a report issued May 5. According to the report, Qaddafi's troops have employed excessive use of lethal force against unarmed protesters, turned sniper fire on civilians in residential areas of the city, and deliberately used civilians as "human shields." "Shielding," AI asserted, "is a violation of international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime." Additionally, according to AI, Qaddafi's forces used cluster munitions, which are heavily criticized by international observers and have been the subject of international eradication efforts. Misrata appears to be targeted as a result of its declaration in February of allegiance to opposition forces. While many have been able to escape the widespread violence, those left behind continue to suffer:

Egyptian public prosecutor Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud on April 25 ordered ousted president Hosni Mubarak transferred from a private hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh to a prison hospital in Cairo. Mahmoud ordered the transfer after Mubarak's doctor cleared him to travel. Mubarak was hospitalized for heart trouble shortly after his resignation. Prosecutors have urged Mubarak's transfer so that he may be questioned by officials about allegations ranging from embezzlement to murder. The Egyptian Ministry of Interior will oversee Mubarak's transfer first to a military prison and then to the hospital in Tora Prison where he will be held for questioning.

WikiLeaks on April 24 began publishing "The Guantanamo Files," a collection of more than 700 classified documents relating to the evidence against and treatment of almost all detainees held at Guantánamo Bay between 2002 and 2008. The documents—detailing things such as the circumstances of detention, the evidence justifying detention, detainee risk evaluations, and the decision process of which detainees to transfer, hold, or release of 758 of the 779 total detainees—were published in part on the WikiLeaks website and released to media outlets. According to the media outlets that have analyzed the documents, they reveal that 220 "high value" al-Qaeda operatives had been held at Guantánamo, in addition to 150 who had been held for years without significant evidence against them. The documents also detailed the practice of US forces detaining people in Afghanistan based on their wearing a particular model of watch that is known to be used by al-Qaeda leaders. Additionally, 20 juveniles were held at the detention facility, including Omar Khadr, who was classified as a high value detainee by the Obama administration and agreed to a plea agreement after eight years in detention.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on April 22 urged the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to reverse its decision to dissolve the board of directors of a prominent civil rights group. UAE social affairs minister, Mariam Mohammed Khalfan Al-Roumi, dismissed the elected board members of the Jurist Association civil rights group and appointed state officials in their stead. The decree dismissing the board members alleged that the Jurist Association violated UAE's recently enacted laws that prohibit nongovernmental organizations and its members from interfering "in politics or in matters that impair State security and its ruling regime." Al-Roumi issued the decree in response to a petition filed by the Jurist Association, other nongovernmental organizations, and hundreds of UAE citizens seeking political reform. The petitioners are calling for increased representation in the UAE government and Federal National Council, the country's legislative body.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced April 20 that high-value Guantánamo Bay detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri will be subject to capital charges and tried in a military court. According to the Pentagon, the chief prosecutor for the DoD's Office of Military Commissions plans to charge al-Nashiri with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that left 17 dead and 40 injured. The office will also bring charges in connection with an attack that same year on a French oil freighter that claimed the life of one crewmember and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments April 19 in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut regarding whether electric utilities contributed to global warming. The court is being asked to decide (1) whether states and private parties have standing to seek judicially-fashioned emissions caps on five utilities for their alleged contribution to harms claimed to arise from global climate change caused by more than a century of emissions by billions of independent sources; (2) whether a cause of action to cap carbon dioxide emissions can be implied under federal common law where no statute creates such a cause of action, and the Clean Air Act speaks directly to the same subject matter and assigns federal responsibility for regulating such emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency; and (3) whether claims seeking to cap defendants' carbon dioxide emissions at "reasonable" levels, based on a court's weighing of the potential risks of climate change against the socioeconomic utility of defendants' conduct, would be governed by "judicially discoverable and manageable standards" or could be resolved without "initial policy determination[s] of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion."

A Tunisian court on April 19 dropped charges against a police officer who incited protests in several Arab countries when she allegedly slapped a local fruit vendor. Police woman Fedia Hamdi was accused of slapping Mohamed Bouazizi in December in a dispute during which Bouazizi's cart was confiscated after he was allegedly found without a permit. As a result of the encounter, Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the governor's office on Dec. 17 and died three weeks later. Pro-democracy protesters generally discontented with unemployment, corruption and repression staged several demonstrations following Bouazizi's death. The mother of the late vendor withdrew her complaint against Hamdi, and the Sidi Bouzid Court of First Instance subsequently dismissed the case.

A former Guantánamo Bay detainee announced April 15 that he is suing members of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime over allegations that he was tortured by the government while in Egyptian custody. Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen, was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 following the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the US. He was released from Guantánamo in 2005 without charges being filed against him, after being held at the detention facility for three years. Habib claims that he was tortured and beaten after being taken to Egypt as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. He claims Egypt's former vice-president Omar Suleiman and Mubarak's son Gamal supervised the torture, and indicated that he is seeking compensation and that he hopes those responsible will be imprisoned.