The power-sharing government of Northern Ireland is on the verge of collapse due to a clause in the agreement that will trigger fresh elections as a result of Sinn Fein’s decision to not find a replacement Deputy First Minister.

Northern Ireland is expected to hold fresh elections after Sinn Feinn failed to find a replacement Deputy first minister following Martin McGuinness’s resignation over a lack of transparency in the Northern Ireland Government.

The United States has said that it is troubled by the decision of an Egyptian court to freeze the assets of human rights defenders.

“This decision comes against a wider backdrop of restrictions on Egyptian civil society activity and will produce neither stability nor security,” the State Department said in a press release on Wednesday.

The full text of the press release is below.

The former leader of Chad, Hissene Habre this week sought to appeal his conviction for war crimes committed during his rule in the 1980s.

Mr Habre was sentenced in Senegal in May 2016 to life imprisonment for instructing torture and mass murder during his time in office. 

Claiming the composition of the jury was unfair and there were irregularities in the trial, Habre's defence team was quoted by Reuters as saying, "the decisions must be annulled and invalidated." 

"I am not proud of the conditions in which the accused was tried," said Habre's lawyer Mounir Ballal. 

Amnesty International called on the international community to expedite efforts in setting up a hybrid with international judges will try war crimes suspect in the Central African Republic, warning that “impunity on a staggering scale” exists in the country.

In a new report entitled “The long wait for justice: Accountability in Central African Republic”, the human rights organisation stressed the need to radically reform the country’s justice system and witness protection programs.

Radovan Karadzic’s senior advisor Jovan Tintor went on trial in Bosnian courts for charges of unlawful detention, torture, forced labour and murder of Bosniak and Croat victims.

Mr Tintor was the former president of the Crisis Committee of the Vogosca municipality. The charges against him outline eight counts of widespread and systematic attack against the non-Serb population in the municipality from April to August in 1992. He pleaded not guilty. 

Indian policemen raped or sexually assaulted at least 16 women in a 2015 operation against communist insurgents in Chhattisgarh, the country's human rights watchdog has found.

The National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the Chhattisgarh state government that state police had raped and sexually or physically assualted at least 16 tribal women, with the testimonies of 20 victims still to be heard.

The commission also held the state liable for the crimes and have asked state leaders to respond against having to pay compensation in the form of 'interim monetary relief' to the victims.

Israel will be cutting its contribution to the UN in protest of a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

Approximately six million dollars will be cut, which the country's UN mission says represents the portion of Israel's contribution allocated to 'anti-Israel bodies'.

The bodies mentioned were the UN agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the Division for Palestinian Rights, the committee investigating Israeli practices affecting Palestinian human rights, and information programs on “the Question of Palestine”.

Three French judges investing claims of rape perpetrated by French peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) have not requested to bring charges.

A Paris prosecutor is to make the final decision whether charges should be laid – otherwise the case could be closed.

The investigation is on the allegation that up to six soldiers sexually assaulted children that they had been mandated to protect in M’Poko three years ago. The abuse is alleged to have occurred in a centre for displaced communities between when the peacekeeping operation began in March of 2013 till June of 2014.

Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of Kosovo and guerilla commander during the Kosovo war, has been arrested in France on Serbian warrant.

“He was stopped by French authorities based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia in 2004, which for us is unacceptable,” stated Kosovo’s foreign ministry. The ministry further stated that action is being taken to secure Haradinaj’s release.

A commission carried out by the Myanmar government rejected allegations of genocide against the Rohingya population in its interim report, published this week. 

The report described reports of human rights violations as "external allegations". Warning readers against believing "fabricated news and rumours", it said there was “insufficient evidence of mass rape”. 

Human Rights Watch expressed concern over the report. HRW's deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said, "this commission is looking more and more like the Myanmar government whitewash mechanism that we feared it would be."