UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Dec. 2 urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian government. Pillay said that during the eight-month uprising the death toll in Syria has surpassed 4,000 with tens of thousands arrested and over 14,000 detained as a result of the crackdown. The Human Rights Council established an Independent International Commission of Inquiry to investigate the human rights violations in Syria during the eight-month uprising. Pillay stated:

Waves of wildcat strikes continue to spread across China's industrial heartland. More than 200 workers at a Singapore-owned electronics plant in Shanghai remained on strike for a third day Dec. 2 to protest a management plan for mass layoffs and a plant relocation. Blue-jacketed workers, chanting slogans and holding banners demanding management accountability, blocked the entrance to the factory owned by Hi-P International, whose customers include Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. (Reuters, Dec. 2)

Thousands of workers across Greece walked off the job on Dec. 1, in the seventh general strike this year to protest government austerity measures. The strike came two days after the new Greek emergency government won European Union approval for a crucial sixth installment of bailout aid, without which the country would have faced default. National rail service was halted, and ferries were moored in their ports. Courts and schools closed, hospitals were operating with only emergency staff and customs officials walked out. Thousands of workers marched in central Athens, while youths clashed with riot police in the Exarchia district. Public transportation ran a limited service to enable workers to attend protest marches. (NYT, Dec. 2)

A Tunisian military court on Nov. 30 convicted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in absentia on torture charges. Ben Ali and eight others were found guilty of the torture of 17 military generals in connection with a 1991 coup attempt. Ben Ali was sentenced to five years in prison. This week's sentence adds to a 35-year prison sentence handed down in June after his conviction in absentia on charges of theft and illegal possession of money, jewelry, drugs and weapons. Ben Ali, who remains in exile in Saudi Arabia, has denied the charges against him. His most recent conviction resulted from the first trial held against a former Tunisian government official since the new democratically-elected government took power earlier this year.

A team of investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived in Libya on Nov. 30 to begin an inquiry into new allegations of sex crimes committed by loyalists of former leader Moammar Qaddafi. Jane O'Toole is leading the ICC investigation into allegations that Qaddafi ordered mass rapes and provided troops with sexual stimulants for the purpose of enforcing an official rape policy. According to chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC has evidence that rape was used to punish women, instill fear and subdue the population. Ocampo stated his investigation is nearly finished, and the results of this investigation may be used to file additional charges against Libya's chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, among others. It has been alleged that al-Senussi was involved in the ordering and organizing of mass rapes.

In a move initiated by the Obama administration, the US Senate Appropriations Committee voted this month to waive Bush-era human rights restrictions on military aid to the Islam Karimov dictatorship in Uzbekistan. The lifting of the restrictions, now part of the Foreign Operations bill, is before the full Senate and appears to have bipartisan support. (Eurasia Review, Nov. 12)

Hilary Clinton's arrival in Burma Nov. 30—the first visit by a US secretary of state since 1955—is being plugged as an historic step towards normalization of relations between the Washington the Southeast Asian nation. But the day before her arrival, Burmese army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and his Chinese counterpart Gen. Min Aung Hlaing met in Beijing to sign a major new agreement of military cooperation. (BBC News, LAT, The Irrawady, Nov. 30; Vancouver Sun, Nov. 28)

Iranian labor activist Reza Shahabi has begun a prison hunger strike in protest of his undetermined judicial status. The Vahed Company Workers Union website reports that Shahabi has been detained for more than 15 months, and so far the authorities have kept his case in limbo. Shahabi is reportedly suffering from grave ailments in his spine and kidneys. The Jaras opposition website reports that Shahabi’s absence has put his wife and children in financial difficulty, and all their efforts to follow up on his case with the authorities have failed.