Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports Chinese officials sent a letter to UN ambassadors warning them “in the interest of bilateral relations and continued multilateral cooperation,” they should not “co-sponsor, participate in or be present at” a panel event critical of China’s human rights record in Xinjiang.

Delegates from the global South further reported to HRW, Chinese diplomats had personally approached them and advised them not to attend the panel event on 13 March.

The United Nations has condemned Brunei’s new penal code which imposes death by stoning for gay sex, adultery and other offences.

In a statement, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet said, “I appeal to the government to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protection for the people of Brunei if implemented.”

Photograph: UN News

Following the deadly tropical cyclone, Idaihas, which has killed at least 700 people in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised concerns over the “partisan distribution of emergency aid”.

Local media in Zimbabwe has reported seeing supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union-Patriotic Front denying aid, including food, to some cyclone survivors because they were believed to have supported to the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Guatemala’s congress is set to vote on a reform to the national reconciliation law which would give absolute impunity to those accused of crimes against humanity including genocide, rape and forced disappearance.

The current national law exempts those accused of political crimes and has been praised for enabling reconciliation in the aftermath of the 36-year war which left 200,000 people dead or disappeared. The law was enacted alongside the 1996 peace accords but the proposed reforms to the bill have caused international outcry.

Juan Guaidó, Venezuela's opposition leader, has called on his supporters to take to the streets on Saturday in protest of nationwide power cuts. 

Lt Gen Ahmed Gaid Salah, Algeria’s army chief, has demanded that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika be declared unfit to rule in a televised broadcast.

Venezuela has been hit by a second blackout this month, leaving 21 out of 23 states, including the capital, Caracas, without power.

Afghanistan has recalled its ambassador from Pakistan, following controversial remarks from Prime Minister Imran Khan in which he proposed Kabul set up an interim government which would negotiate with Taliban.

Former World Bank economist, Peter Biar Ajak, was one of seven men who were detained in South Sudan and charged with insurgency, sabotage, possession of weapons, and attempting to stage an uprising in the country's main national prison in October.