Kenya will pay compensation to almost 2,000 victims of protest-related human rights abuses, President William Ruto said on Monday, marking a rare national reparations process outside the judicial system. 

The victims of human rights abuses will begin receiving compensation from next week after vetting by the state-funded human rights commission. The total payout is expected to total $15 million. 

A Dutch court has sentenced a Syrian man to 26 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during his time working for the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

The court in The Hague handed down the sentence to Rafik A on Monday, having found that he tortured and raped prisoners while working as an interrogator. 

The Pristina Basic Court has placed five former members of the Serbian police force into 30-day custody, it announced on Monday. The men are suspected of involvement in the January 15, 1999 massacre in Recak/Racak, which was the catalyst for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two months later. The five suspects were arrested and remanded on Sunday.  

Armenia’s polling authority on Sunday confirmed that the party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won a general election seen as a vote on its geopolitical future and a test of Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus country. 

Pashinyan’s government is seeking closer relations with the European Union and the United States despite longstanding ties with Russia that have been championed by his critics. 

Colombia has just become the first Latin American country to approve nationwide legislation prohibiting female genital mutilation, or FGM. 

Recognized by the World Health Organization as a human rights violation, female genital mutilation is defined as the full or partial removal of genitalia for non-medical reasons, through methods like cutting or burning. 

Wednesday marked the fourth and final debate for Colombia's Bill 440, known by the slogan "Ninas sin ablacion" or "Girls without mutilation". 

South Korea’s ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sending military drones into North Korea, a move prosecutors argued was aimed at creating a pretext for his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024. 

The drone flights, which Pyongyang said included the dropping of propaganda leaflets, triggered a spike in military tensions between the nations in October 2024. 

Niger’s military junta announced a new penal code that criminalizes homosexuality, an adviser to the justice minister said Friday. 

The West African nation is the latest to criminalize homosexuality, following similar measures earlier this year in Senegal. 

The new penal code punishes anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts” with between five and 10 years in prison and a fine, according to the text of the new penal code. 

Amnesty International accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank with the intention to annex the Palestinian territory. 

More than 3,000 Malawians, including hundreds of children, are staying in an open field in South Africa’s port city of Durban, after fleeing escalating anti-immigrant threats and attacks. 

The unrest is pushing thousands to seek an escape. Nigeria repatriated a first group of 260 nationals on Thursday and plans to move out more of its citizens in the coming days. Ghana, Mozambique, and Malawi have carried out similar operations in recent weeks. 

At least 117.8 million people, or one in 70 individuals worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to a report - released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today.  

Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of all refugees came from just seven countries: Venezuela (6.4 million), Palestine (6 million), Ukraine (5.2 million), Syria (4.9 million), Afghanistan (3.7 million), Sudan (2.8 million), South Sudan (2.4 million).