Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is set to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a crucial pre-trial hearing next week, a milestone in the long-running international case alleging crimes against humanity linked to Duterte’s administration’s controversial “war on drugs.” The hearing, which will take place from February 23 to 27, has been called [...]

In a briefing delivered to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomed recent initiatives and efforts to bolster stability and improve living conditions for Yemeni citizens amid the country’s long-running conflict, while simultaneously emphasizing the need for continued development and political progress to achieve sustainable [...]

Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname announced Thursday the arrest of nearly 200 individuals in a transnational operation to combat illegal gold mining in the Amazon. Backed by Interpol, the European Union through EL PACCTO 2.0, and a Dutch police unit specializing in environmental crime,  “Operation Guyana Shield” involved over 24,500 [...]

The US on Wednesday announced sanctions against four companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector, declaring four associated oil tankers as blocked property. In the statement released by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US government alleges that some of these vessels are part of the “shadow fleet” serving Venezuelan President Nicolás [...]

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday released a statement calling upon authorities in Guinea-Bissau to bring an immediate end to arbitrary detentions and growing instances of intimidation in the country, warning that the reported abuses undermine fundamental freedoms and may in some cases amount to enforced disappearance. The [...]

A Kenyan parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday accused British soldiers of decades of sexual misconduct, violence, human rights violations, and environmental harm during their tenure in the country. These accusations emerged following a two-year inquiry by the parliamentary Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations (DIFRC), which culminated in a 94-page report detailing alleged assaults, maimings, [...]

Amnesty International called on Tuesday for the immediate and unconditional release of two former members of parliament in the southern African nation of Eswatini, Mthandeni Dube and Bacede Mabuza. The statement comes in response to news of a conditional royal pardon granted earlier this month to MP Dube, resulting in his supervised release.  “Mthandeni Dube’s [...]

The United Nations’ top human rights body on Friday adopted a resolution ordering an urgent and independent fact-finding mission into allegations of human rights violations and other atrocities in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have reportedly committed large-scale atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings, torture, summary executions, and [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday voiced support for the forthcoming “Wakati Wetu Festival,” which will host artists, musicians, policymakers and actvists in Kenya to discuss “historical injustices, the ongoing impact of the slave trade and colonialism, and to imagine what reparatory justice involves.” The festival, whose inaugural debut will take place October 22-23, is the first [...]

International rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday criticized the “baseless charges” brought against two human rights defenders arrested by El Salvador police in May, and called for their immediate release. José Ángel Pérez, 55, and 29-year-old Alejandro Antonio Henríquez were arrested while peacefully protesting the mass eviction of dozens of families from El [...]