The European arrest warrant for the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was dropped by Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday after the extradition request was refused by Germany. 

Mr Puigdemont accused of rebellion and sedition after declaring Catalonia independent following a referendum last year. 

A Rwandan academic has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment after being cleared of all but one charge, being found guilty of genocide revisionism.

Dr Leopold Munyakazi who was extradited to Rwanda by the US government in 2016 was cleared of the charges of genocide, complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide and murder by the specialised chamber for international crimes which is affiliated to Rwanda’s High Court.

The President of Nigeria urged all states that have not yet done so to accede to the Rome Statute so that it can become a universal treaty.

Speaking at the International Criminal Court’s 20 Anniversary commemorations, Preisdent Buhari said "I urge all States that have not yet done so to, as a matter of deliberate State policy, accede to the Rome Statute of the ICC so that it can become a universal treaty."

President of the Court, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, said at the event:

 "Let us ensure that allegations of the most serious crimes are met with a robust, fair and impartial judicial response – at the international level as a last resort, where national systems prove unable to give victims their day in court. Let us make sure that we do not let down those who worked so hard to make the Statute of an International Criminal Court a reality.”

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Israel’s Knesset has passed a controversial new law which declares the country is an exclusively Jewish nation state, as Arab lawmakers were thrown out of the parliament in protest.

The bill states that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it” and that a "united Jerusalem" is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country's official language.

Turkey has ended its 2 year state of emergency, which was first imposed after a failed coup on July 20, 2016.

The measure normally lasts three months but was extended seven times by the President Erdogan.

The state of emergency saw the detention of around 80,000 people and double the number sacked from public jobs.

Although alleged supporters of the coup were targeted, the Turkish government used emergency laws to crackdown particularly on Kurdish activists.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is deeply disappointed by India’s reaction to the publication of the first ever UN human rights report on Kashmir last month.

Spain’s Constitutional Court said it had blocked a motion passed in Catalonia’s parliament to resume steps to declare independence, following an appeal against the move filed by Spain’s central government.

The Catalan parliament can appeal against the decision within the next 20 days.

Both the court and the Spanish government have said that Catalonia cannot hold a referendum on independence under Spain’s constitution.

A senior US commander has confirmed that the United States is prepared to have direct talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, in an effort to reach a peace deal in the country.

General John Nicholson, who leads the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said that,

"Our secretary of state, Mr [Mike] Pompeo, has said that we, the United States, are ready to talk to the Taliban and discuss the role of international forces".

In Southern Iraq protests have spread over issues of corruption and a failure to provide basic services for people, including electricity and water shortages.

The government of Iraq has approved a proposal by Yezidi activists to convert a village school in to a museum commemorating the genocide of Yezidis by ISIS.

In 2014 ISIS launched an attack on Shingal, Kurdistan and its surrounding areas, kidnapping more than 6500 Yezidis.

The new Spanish government is to set up a truth commission to investigate crimes against humanity committed under the former dictator, Francisco Franco. 

The government has pledged to search for those disappeared during his rule, including carrying out public exhumations every year and recording the number of people found. 

The US State of Connecticut will officially mark ‘Sikh Genocide Day’ on November 30 to commemorate the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984 which saw around 3000 Sikhs in Delhi killed by Hindu mobs, aided by Indian law enforcement and government officials.

The bill declaring Sikh genocide day was signed in to law by the Governor of Connecticut.

Last year the government of the Canadian province of Ontario also recognised the pogrom as genocide.

As many as 32 people have been arrested in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, after the murder a Muslim man on Friday – reportedly sparked by rumors circulating on WhatsApp.

Mohammad Azam, a 27 year old Google employee, was lynched by villagers, who accused him of abducting children. This follows a worrying trend in India in which more than 20 people, mostly non-local, have been killed due to accusations of child abduction in the last two months.

Iceland has been elected to replace the USA on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The UN General Assembly elected Iceland as the replacement effective immediately until the end of next year.

The US announced its decision to withdraw from the UNHRC last month, citing anti-Israel bias and hypocrisy.

The US was a key partner in passing the Resolution 30/1 on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, which Sri Lanka co-sponsored.