The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it has opened a “full-fledged preliminary examination” into crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar’s military this week.

Thousands of Rohingya have been killed and over 700,000 displaced, with a United Nations report calling for senior Burmese military figures to be investigated for genocide.

Burundi has threatened to withdraw from the UN human rights council after a commission of inquiry on the country presented its findings, which include allegations of possible crimes against humanity committed by the government.

The state has refused to cooperate with the commission and last week declared the three commissioners to be personae non-gratae.

The Burundian ambassador to the UN in Geneva said the report was “full of lies” and “politically motivated” and threatened to sue the commissioners for defamation.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said the International Criminal Court was needed when a state is “unwilling or unable to deliver justice” as she spoke on the punishment and prevention of genocide in Geneva this week.

Addressing a high level panel at the 39th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Bachelet said that “ending impunity is central to ending genocide”.

“Prevention and punishment – the explicitly stated twin aims of the genocide convention – can never be seen in isolation from each other,” she said. “Punishment is key to prevention. Impunity is an enabler of genocide: accountability is its nemesis.”

Four people were killed in a Saudi-led air strike on a radio station in the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah in Yemen.

Four employees of the Almaraweah radio station were killed, reports Reuters, three of them guards.

The attack exerts further pressure on the international community as UN officials scramble to arrange a resumption of peace talks for the four-year-old conflict.

Chinese officials have rejected claims of mistreatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, after growing international outcry and instead claimed they are offering 'education' to counter religious extremism.

The comments came shortly after Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a new report entitled 'Eradicating Ideological Viruses', detailing the abuses suffered in ‘re-education centres’ and the intense surveillance the Uighur population suffer.

The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet on Monday urged an international mechanism to collect evidence of crimes committed by the Myanmar army against the Rohingya population in order to pursue prosecutions. 

“This mechanism would also complement and support the preliminary examination of the ICC (International Criminal Court) prosecutor," she said."

“I urge the Council to pass a resolution and refer the matter to the General Assembly for its endorsement so that such a mechanism can be established."

French police have arrested a Liberian man accused of committing crimes against humanity, whilst being a commander in the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) in the 1990’s.

The man, identified as Kunti K, is a naturalised Dutch citizen. He is accused of torture, murder, slavery, the use of child soldiers and cannibalism between 1993 and 1997.

He was arrested in the northeast Paris suburb of Bobigny on Tuesday.

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India's Supreme Court today decriminalised homosexuality in a land mark ruling by a constitution bench of five judges. 

The Court unanimously decided to overturn the 158 year old law which criminalised consensual 'unnatural' sex, arguing that the colonial era law violated the right to equality. 

"Any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violates fundamental rights," the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said. 

The German government handed back the remains of indigenous Namibians that were killed more than 100 years ago, but refused to issue an official apology for the genocide.

Remains that included 19 skulls, a scalp and bones, were handed to a Namibian government official at a church service in Berlin. The service marked the third time that Germany has handed over human remains to Namibia, after they were sent to Germany for now-discredited research to prove the racial superiority of white Europeans.

Two Reuters journalists who were arrested and detained for over 200 days whilst investigating ongoing massacres of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have been sentenced to seven years in prison.

In a landmark case that has evoked international condemnation, the Myanmar judge said his verdict is based on documents found on mobile phones of the reporters, that “can be useful to enemies of the country or the ones who oppose the country”.

US ambassador Scot Marciel, who attended the hearing said,

“one has to ask will this process increase or decrease the confidence the people of Myanmar have in their justice system”.