The United Nations Secretary-General has announced the appointment of a former French judge to lead a legal team in Geneva that will investigate evidence of war crimes being committed in Syria.

Catherine Marchi-Uhel was appointed by UN secretary general António Guterres to head the investigative body known as the “International Impartial and Independent Mechanism”.

Catalonia’s ruling coalition said the region would declare independence from Spain within 48 hours of a referendum to be held in October if voters backed secession, in a draft bill proposed on Tuesday.

Gabriela Serra, a member of the coalition that governs Catalonia told AFP that "if the majority of votes are for creating a Catalan republic, obviously independence will have to be declared immediately".

Responding to the detention of three journalists in Myanmar last week, the European Union urged the government to protest free speech and ensure journalists were not subject to "intimidation, arrest or prosecution". 

"It constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society," the EU said in a statement.

"We therefore call on the government of Myanmar to provide the necessary legal protection for journalists to work in a free and enabling environment without fear of intimidation, arrest or prosecution."

The National Guard of Venezuela’s former chief has been charged with “serious and systematic” human rights violations reports the Atlantic.

Antonio Benavides was removed from his security chief post in June after his troops were captured on film firing at protestors.

Although Mr Benavides was soon reassigned to a position as head of Venezuela’s Capital District government, the state prosecutors’ office announced the charges levelled against him last week.

The Iraqi military may have carried out executions of civilian men and boys fleeing Mosul as they sought to recapture the city from the Islamic State, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week.

“As Iraqi forces are poised to retake the entire city of Mosul, allegations of unlawful killings and beatings significantly raise concerns for the civilians there who have been living under ISIS control,” said deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch Lama Fakih. “Iraqi forces are promising liberation, but they need to find out what’s happening now and stop any abuse.”

The people of Kurdistan should be allowed to express their right to self-determination, said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the US, defending the decision to hold an independence referendum later this year.

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman told The Canadian Press that the people of Kurdistan “have done our best to be partners in Iraq; it has not worked”.

“We believe this is the right time to allow the people of Kurdistan to exercise their democratic right, a right that people across the world have, to express their self-determination,” she continued.

Indigenous people across Canada have boycotted the country’s 150th independence day celebrations, instead holding events to raise awareness and protest the glorification of colonialism and indigenous genocide.

Sudan will extend a unilateral ceasefire with militants until the end of October said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Sunday.

The decision comes as the United States plans to lift a 20 year old trade embargo against Sudan in 2 weeks’ time.

On January 15, Mr Bashir extended the ceasefire for six months in response to the US move, reports Reuters.

The US said that it would unfreeze Sudanese assets and lift financial sanctions as a response to Sudan’s cooperation in fighting Islamic State and other militants groups.

The French banking giant BNP Paribas has been accused of complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with three civil society groups filing a lawsuit claiming the bank transferred $1.3 million that was used to purchase weapons, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

The groups (Sherpa, the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda and Ibuka France) allege that one month after the U.N. implemented an arms embargo against Rwanda, the bank agreed to transfer the funds from the account of the National Rwandan Bank to a South African arms dealer's Swiss bank account.

Myanmar will refuse entry to United Nations investigators focusing on allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims reports The Guardian.

The government previously said it would not cooperate with United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution that mandated a mission to investigate human rights violations by security forces in Myanmar.

The permanent secretary at the Myanmar’s ministry of foreign affairs, Kyaw Zeya, said,