The UN Human Rights Council this week appointed a three member commission of inquiry “to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military assaults on the large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.” 

David Michael Crane (United States), Sara Hossain (Bangladesh) and Kaari Betty Murungi (Kenya) we’re appointed to the panel with Mr Crane serving as the chair. 

The former cricket player, Imran Khan declared victory yesterday in Pakistan’s election, which has been marred by both violence and claims of election rigging.

On the day of the election a suicide bomber killed 31 people at a polling station. The human rights commission had previously warned of “blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate” the outcome of the election.

The United States has launched a Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program, the country’s Vice President announced on Thursday.

Under the new program, which will begin in Iraq, the US State Department and USAID will partner with local faith and community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted communities, Vice President Mike Pence said.

Describing the atrocities against Yezidis by Islamic State as genocide, and also mentioning the persecution of other groups in Iraq including Christians and Muslims, the Vice President said that America would help victims “reclaim their lands, rebuild their lives, and replant their roots in their ancient homelands.”

Saudi Arabia and Kurdistan launched a joint economic cooperation committee this month, aimed at expanding investment between the two regions, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. 

“The investment law in Kurdistan provides good opportunities for Saudi businessmen to invest in the region and we are all trying to enable the private sector to play an active role in this field and to form task forces to activate investments in the near future,” the chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers of Commerce, Sami bin Abdullah al-Obeidi told the paper. 

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua is set to have seven new offices across the country, its chairman, Benny Wenda told Vanuatu Daily Post. 

Three offices have already been opened and another four are planned. 

Mr Wenda expressed concern that the new offices could be attacked by the Indonesian military. 

Offices in Wamena and Fak Fak have previously been attacked, he added. 
 

Both the Prime Minister of India and the President of China have paid tribute to the victims of the Rwanda genocide, in separate visits to the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda this week.

An aide to former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was jailed for life under accusations of selling 500kg of a key drug-making chemical on Saturday, just days before the country’s general election in which he was running as a candidate.

Hanif Abbasi is accused of supplying the chemical ephedrine to a smuggler.

Former fighters from the guerrilla movement FARC took their seats in Colombia’s Congress in a swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

Under the terms of the 2016 peace deal between the FARC and the Colombian government, the group formed a political party, kept its famous acronym as the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, and was awarded five seats each in the 108-member Senate and the 172-member lower house through 2026.

The European arrest warrant for the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was dropped by Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday after the extradition request was refused by Germany. 

Mr Puigdemont accused of rebellion and sedition after declaring Catalonia independent following a referendum last year. 

The arrest warrants for five other Catalan leaders was also dropped, including that of the former Catalan Education Minister Clara Ponsati who is currently living in Scotland. 

“Withdrawing the European arrest warrants demonstrates the immense weakness of this case,” Mr Puigdemont tweeted.

A Rwandan academic has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment after being cleared of all but one charge, being found guilty of genocide revisionism.

Dr Leopold Munyakazi who was extradited to Rwanda by the US government in 2016 was cleared of the charges of genocide, complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide and murder by the specialised chamber for international crimes which is affiliated to Rwanda’s High Court.

He was however convicted of genocide revisionism for his use of academic space for trivialising the genocide against the Tutsi while in the USA, where he had fled in 2008 and continued work in academia.