The International Criminal Court (ICC) March 14 issued its first verdict, a unanimous decision that Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty of the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities. The three-judge Trial Chamber I found that Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo established beyond a reasonable doubt that Lubanga, former president of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), coordinated and actively supported the enlistment of child soldiers into his Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC) militia, the military wing of the UPC believed to have committed large-scale human rights abuses in Congo's violent Ituri district. Lubanga and his co-perpetrators designed to build an army for the purpose of establishing and maintaining political and military control over Ituri, a plan which resulted in boys and girls under the age of 15 being conscripted and used to participate actively in hostilities in 2002 and 2003. The court determined that Lubanga's contribution was essential to the common plan, that Lubanga personally used children below the age of 15 as his bodyguards, sex slaves and fighters and that he regularly saw guards of other UPC/FPLC staff members who were below the age of 15. Lubanga requested a separate sentencing hearing under article 76(2) of the Rome Statute, and he is entitled to appeal his conviction within 30 days. He faces life imprisonment.

In a surprise move on March 13, agents of Peru's National Police arrested three leaders of the struggle against the controversial Conga gold mining project in the northern region of Cajamarca, while charges were announced against some 40 others. Wilfredo Saavedra Marreros, leader of Cajamarca's Environmental Defense Front, was detained in the southern city of Tacna, where he had been invited to speak by student groups. Nearly simultaneoulsy in Cajamarca, police agents arrested Lucio Díaz Chávez, former regional president of the teachers union SUTEP, and César Tafur Tacilla, secretary general of the local construction workers union. Saavedra was taken in police custody to Cajamarca, where he was freed the next morning along with Díaz and Tafur. All three are charged with obstruction of public transport in connection with last year's protest mobilization against the Conga mine, and await orders to appear before a judge. The next day, the Cajamarca branch of the Fiscalía, Peru's attorney general, released a list of 41 activists facing identical charges—including virtually all the prominent leaders of the Cajamarca protest movement.

Hundreds of Haitians marked International Women's Day on March 8 with a march in downtown Port-au-Prince to demand justice for the women who were victims of the 1957-1986 Duvalier family dictatorship and to call for the departure of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 11,200-member international police and military force.

Mexican governance secretary Alejandro Poiré formally apologized to indigenous campesina Inés Fernández Ortega at a ceremony in Ayutla de los Libres in the southwestern state of Guerrero on March 6 for her rape by three Mexican soldiers in 2002. Along with Valentina Rosendo, who was raped by soldiers in a separate incident, Fernández filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), which ruled in October 2010 that the Mexican government was responsible and must apologize to the two women. Federal attorney general Marisela Morales and Guerrero governor Angel Aguirre were also present for the apology.

Nicaragua's National Assembly observed International Women's Day on March 8 by unanimously passing a law which requires political parties to have women as at least 50% of their candidates for municipal posts. The government's special attorney for women, Deborah Gradinson, said Nicaraguan society remains in many ways "tolerant" of violence against women, with at least 17 women murdered so far in 2012 by partners, former partners or acquaintances. The María Elena Cuadra Movement of Working and Unemployed Women reported that only half of the 81 cases of women killed by violence in 2011 ever reached a court. "Justice for women, no more impunity" should be the slogan for the day, according to human rights activist Vilma Núñez.

This year the United Nations designated March 8, International Women's Day, as an occasion to honor rural women, but as in previous years, many of the marches and protests celebrating the day focused on violence against women; others emphasized demands for abortion rights and equality in political representation.

Thousands of demonstrators led by Paúl Carrasco, prefect of Azuay province, filled the streets of Cuenca, Ecuador, on March 11, to launch the regional feeder march of the cross-country Walk in Defense of Water, Life and Dignity, which is to coverge on Quito from several points around the country later this month. Carrasco, addressing the crowd of protesters, aimed his comments at President Rafael Correa, demanding that plans for be dropped for massive new mineral development in the region. "Señor Correa, the mineral project in Cuenca will not go ahead," he said. Although the march was peaceful, many protesters wore masks, saying they feared retribution from the authorities. (Hoy, Quito, March 11, El Comercio, Quito, March 10).

Led by the National Confederation of Artisenal Miners (CONAMI), small-scale independent gold miners led strikes and protests across several regions of Peru last week. The southern rainforest region of Madre de Dios was most affected, with regional capital Puerto Maldonado virtually shut down for several days following initiation of the paro (civil strike) on March 5. Thousands of miners filled the streets, wearing helmets and plastic ponchos color-coordinated to represent their geographic zone. Other social movements observed the paro in solidarity, and most businesses shut down. The region's estimated 18,000 artisenal miners—the vast majority of them "informal"—are demanding the aborgation of recent presidential decrees mandating that only legally recognized mining activity will be permitted. Some 3,000 miners are currently camped out in Puerto Maldonado as they await the arrival of a cabinet-level commission led by Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal and Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Merino to establish a dialogue on "formalization" of the artisenal miners. Luis Otzuka, leader of the Madre de Dios Regional Artisenal Mining Federation (FEDEMIN), said the strike will be maintained until a solution is reached.