<p>A Belgian court has sentenced a Rwandan official, Fabien Neretse, to 25 years in jail over his role in the 1994 Rwandan massacre.</p> <p>Neretse was initially arrested in 2011 whilst in France and found guilty of genocide and war crimes by the high court in Brussels. The court has specified that&nbsp; he was guilty of 11 war crimes and argued that he was involved in the killing of 11 civilians. He is the first person to have been convicted by Belgium 25 years after the masscres in Rwanda which killed 800,000 people.</p>

Sudan has announced that it will open an inquiry into the crimes committed in Darfur by former President Omar al-Bashir as well as 51 members of his regime, who have been accused of committing genocide and war crimes.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of anti-semitism following the announcement of the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, that she would launch a full investigation into war crimes committed in Palestinian controlled land. 

The investigation would examine war crimes committed in the West Bank and will include the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Speaking on the announcement, Netanyahu described the move as “pure anti-semitism”. He further stated; 

Nine more people died in the Northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday as Indian police clashed with thousands of protestors opposing the disputed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The latest deaths, which included an eight-year-old boy, have taken the nationwide death toll to 23, with dozens injured, as unrest over the CAA continue for a second week. The eight-year-old boy had died as a result of a stampede when police forces attempted to quell protestors.

The law, which will grant citizenship to persecuted immigrants of six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, has been criticised for excluding Eelam Tamils and Muslims.

<p>The United States announced yesterday that it will restrict visas for Iranian officials who were responsible for repressing peaceful protests.</p> <p>“We’re restricting visas for current or former Iranian officials and individuals responsible for, or complicit in, the abuse, detention or killing of peaceful protesters or for inhibiting their rights to freedom of expression or assembly,” US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said.</p> <p>Protests in Iran sparked on November 15 when the government raised fuel prices. Protesters have been demanding that clerical leaders step down. 304 people have been killed since the protests began.</p>

Donald Trump’s administration has rejected a US Senate resolution formally recognising the mass killings of Armenians between 1915-1923 as genocide, despite a unanimous vote by US lawmakers acknowledging it as such.  

Before the resolution was passed, the Trump administration requested Republican senators to block the passage several times on the basis that it would jeopardise negotiations and relationships with Turkey.

Baloch activists on Monday took to Twitter to campaign for the return of two disappeared students, abducted over sixth months earlier allegedly by Pakistani intelligence forces.

The two students Feroz Baloch and Jamil Baloch were reportedly made to disembark from a passenger bus by plain-clothes intelligence officers in May 2019.

A Twitter campaign initiated by the sister of Feroz Baloch saw thousands of users posting under the hashtag #RecoverFerozAndJamil, causing the campaign to trend in Pakistan.

Airstrikes in Idlib, in northwest Syria, conducted by the Russian government have resulted in the deaths of at least 22 civilians including many children.

The airstrikes have caused a mass exodus as civilians are fleeing towards internally displaced people (IDP) camps set up near the Turkish border. 

"The sound of barrel bombs has not stopped all day," said a White Helmets volunteer. "Bombardment was targeting civilians fleeing from towns and villages near the main highway... This is a vicious and systematic bombing camping to force people out of the northern region."

<p>The former president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf was sentenced to death by Pakistani courts today, accused of committing treason.&nbsp;</p> <p>He came to international prominence when he seized power in a 1999 coup and was head of state from 2001 to 2008. The sentence is in relation to his 2007 suspension of the constitution, as he stated that the country was in a state of emergency. This is a first for Pakistan.&nbsp;</p> <p>The former president&nbsp;is currently residing in Dubai and the penalty is therefore unlikely to be carried out.</p>

<p>The UN human rights office has called India’s new citizenship law ‘fundamentally discriminatory’ as it excludes citizenship for certain religious minorities.</p> <p>In a<a href="https://twitter.com/UNHumanRights/status/1205451656495861761"><u> tweet</u></a>, the UN human rights office wrote:</p> <p>“India: We are concerned that the new Citizenship Amendment Act is fundamentally discriminatory in nature. Goal of protecting persecuted groups is welcomed, but new law does not extend protection to Muslims, including minority sects.”</p>