Colombians on Sunday vote on whether to accept or reject the peace agreement signed last month between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

Opinion polls carried out in preceding days indicate that the peace deal will be accepted by the people. 

The deal was struck after 50 years of armed conflict and signed by the FARC leader, Rodrigo Londono (alias Timochenko) last Monday. 

It guarantees FARC 10 seats in the congress without election until 2026 as well as allowing FARC members to run for the 2018 presidential and legislative elections. 

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide slammed the president of the Philippines for calling for a campaign to kill millions of drug addicts in a manner similar to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, where over 6 million Jews were systematically killed by the government.

Special Adviser Adama Dieng said recently elected Rodrigo Duterte’s comments were “deeply disrespectful of the right to life of all human beings,” in a statement issued on Friday.

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted in favour of establishing a UN commission of inquiry into alleged human rights violations that took place in Burundi over the past year and a half. 

Burundi, which is facing calls to be removed from the Council, voted against the inquiry unsurprisingly. Nineteen members voted in favour, with 7 against and 21 abstentions. 

Welcoming the inquiry the United States assistance secretary for democracy and human rights, Tom Malinowski tweeted: 

Amnesty International on Thursday published evidence of Sudanese government forces appearing to use chemical weapons on civilians in Darfur. 

An investigation using satellite images and interviews with over 200 survivors has revealed that at least 30 chemical attacks are likely to have occurred since January 2016. 

“This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalogue of crimes under international law by the Sudanese military against civilians in Darfur, but also a new level of hubris by the government towards the international community,” Amnesty's director of crisis research, Tirana Hassan said. 

At least two Pakistani soldiers are reported to have been killed in air strikes carried out by the Indian military in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir shortly after midnight.

The Indian military said it had conducted “surgical strikes” against “terrorists… waiting to infiltrate the nation”. India’s director-general of military operations Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said the attack had caused “significant casualties … to terrorists and those trying to shield them”.

He went on to state that India had captured militants during last night’s operation and they had “confessed to their training in Pakistan or in Pakistan-controlled region”.

The International Criminal Court has sentenced a militant from Mali over the destruction of shrines in Timbuktu, in a landmark case that has seen the destruction of cultural sites successfully prosecuted as a war crime by the court.

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi was found guilty of organising the smashing of the shrines in 2012 after militants captured areas of northern Mali. As the head of the Ansar Dine morality brigade, Mr Al Mahdi called for and directly participated in the destruction of the ancient structures said judge Raul Cano Pangalangan.

A former Serbian paramilitary commander who had fled to Australia, has begun a war crimes trial in Croatia, after being extradited last year.

Dragan Vasiljkovic pleaded not guilty to charges related to the torture and execution of Croatian soldiers during the Balkan conflict, stating that his actions were only part of protecting his homeland.

"He knew that Croatian civilians and prisoners were systematically beaten on a daily basis," said prosecutor Zivana Beros.

The United Kingdom has reportedly blocked efforts to establish an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes in Yemen, by refusing to support European Union efforts at the UN Human Rights Council.

A proposal by the Netherlands for an international inquiry had to be replaced instead with calls for  the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) dispatch a mission “with assistance from relevant experts, to monitor and report on the situation ... in Yemen, ”without British support for the initial proposal, reports the Guardian.

Minister from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation reaffirmed their support for the self determination of the Kashmiri people this week.

In an annual meeting, 57 members of the OIC called for UN Security Council resolutions to be enforced and said the international community needed to take a more determined role in the region.

Pakisatan’s Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz criticised the Indian government’s actions in the region at the meeting.

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A historic peace agreement was signed today in Cartagena, Colombia, between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (FARC).

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban President Raul Castro were amongst thsoe present as the Colombian president and FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez, signed the peace accord, with a pen made from a bullet.