• Fighting halts in western Syria

    Feb 26
    Fighting in western Syria halted on Saturday as the Russia-US plan for a temporary "cessation of hostilities" took effect.

     "Let's pray that this works because frankly this is the best opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last five years in order to see something better and hopefully something related to peace," the UN's envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura was quoted by Reuters as saying.
  • Saudi Arabia continues bombing campaign in Yemen
    Air strikes by the Saudi-Arabia led coalition continued in Yemen and killed at least 40 people.

    The air-strike campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen continued despite the EU voting for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia for their involvement in the death of civilians in Yemen, reports Reuters.
  • Guatemala court sentences 2 former soldiers over war time rape
    A Guatemalan court this week sentenced two former soldiers for crimes against humanity for the systematic rape of women during 1982 and 1983 at the Sepur Zarco military base.

    The two men, Coronel Esteelmer Reyes Giron and Valdez Asig were also found guilty for the enforced disappearance of seven men. They have been sentences for 120 and 240 years.

    “We find the treatment of the women of Sepur Zarco to have been completely humiliating and degrading," the judge, Jazmin Barrios said.

    “There was a strategic design to pulverize the social fabric and to prevent its reproductive," she added.

  • African Union to send human rights and military monitors to Burundi
    The African Union will send 100 human rights monitors and 100 military monitors to Burundi, announced South Africa’s president after a visit to the country, reports Reuters.

    Speaking after his two day visit to the country where 400 people have been killed since April last year, President Zuma said,
  • US proposes 'strongest ever' UN sanctions on North Korea
    The United States presented a draft to the United Nations Security Council resolution seeking to dramatically tighten existing restrictions on North Korea, reports Reuters.

    The draft calls on UN member states to conduct inspections of all cargo passing through their territory to or from North Korea to look for illicit goods.
  • EU votes for arms embargo on Saudi Arabia
    The European Union has voted for an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia in response to the states heavy bombing of Yemen during its campaign against Houthi militants.

    The non-binding motion was passed by 359 votes to 212, and adds to a code of conduct agreed by the EU in 2008 where countries promised to not sell weapons to countries where they might be used “to commit serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
  • All sides guilty of war crimes says UN Libya report
    A report by released by the UN on Thursday states that all sides of the conflict in Libya are likely to have committed war crimes, including rape, extrajudicial executions and torture.

    “A multitude of actors, both state and non-state, are accused of very serious violations and abuses that may, in many cases, amount to war crimes,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.
  • UN air drops aid in Syria
    The UN on Wednesday air dropped 21 tonnes of humanitarian aid goods to Syria, in its first air drop to the region.

    The air drop took place in the region of Deir la-Zour, where the UN estimates over 200,000 civilians have become besieged by Islamic State forces.
  • ‘Exclude countries that do not discipline peacekeepers’ – NYT
    States that have not taken action against troops that have been accused of sexual abuse whilst taking part in United Nations peacekeeping missions should be excluded, said the New York Times in an editorial this week.

    “The United Nations is failing some of the most vulnerable children it is supposed to protect,” said the newspaper. “A decade ago, the organization acknowledged that some of the peacekeepers sent to international conflict zones were sexually abusing local women and children, and it promised corrective action. The scourge continues, prompting one senior United Nations official to recoil at what he called the “constant horror story of allegations” against the peacekeepers.”

    The editorial follows reports that girls were raped or sexually exploited last year in the Central African Republic by troops from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    “Countries that contribute troops to vital multimillion-dollar peacekeeping missions bear the primary responsibility for crimes committed by their forces,” said the New York Times. “But the United Nations urgently needs to intensify its oversight, documenting abuse cases; keeping better track of whether the abuses are followed up with prosecutions; and holding countries publicly accountable when they let abusive troops off the hook, which seems to be the pattern.”

    “And despite the difficulties in recruiting enough troops for peacekeeping duties, it is time to exclude countries that do not impose the necessary discipline to make zero tolerance possible.”
  • Bosnian Serb war criminal arrested again on further charges
    A former Bosnian Serb police officer who was convicted and jailed in 2004 for 17 years by international war crimes tribunal in the Hague, was arrested again on Monday along with two other Bosnian Serbs for further charges of war crimes.

    Darko Mrdja, who was released from prison in 2013, confessed to have played a part in the killing of over 150 Bosnian Muslims in 1992.
  • MSF hospital in Syria hit in air strike
    A Medicins Sans Frontier hospital in Syria was hit in an air strike on Monday, killing nine people, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    "A building that housed a hospital supported by MSF was destroyed on Monday by aircraft, presumably Russian," the organisation said.

    A spokesperson for MSF said an air strike damaged a hospital in Maaret al-Numen.

  • Calais refugee camp faces attacks against refugees and possible evictions
    On Friday, a top French official announced that up to 1000 refugees living in the make-shift camp in Calais would be evicted. The camp, unofficially referred to as the “jungle”, is estimated to currently contain around 4000 asylum-seekers.
     
  • Bahrain detains US journalist and crew
    Award winning US journalist Anna Therese Day and 3 members of her camera crew have been detained in Bahrain confirmed Reporters Without Borders on Monday.

    The group called on Bahrain to release the four American citizens without harm.
  • Turkey strikes Kurdish militia in Syria
     Turkey’s military shelled Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria and demanded that the group withdraw from the area, reports Reuters.
  • Obama calls on Russia to end airstrikes against 'moderates' in Syria
    US President Barack Obama called on Russia to stop airstrikes on ‘moderate’ Syrian militants in a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

    The conversation came after major powers, including Russia, agreed to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria on Friday.
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