On February 29, 2024, The Gambia-Economic Community of West African States Joint Technical Committee held its inaugural meeting on the establishment of a hybrid court to hold to account those responsible for gross human rights violations committed in the country between July 1994 and January 2017 during the dictatorship of former President Yahya Jammeh. Such an internationalized court presents an opportunity to deliver criminal accountability to the victims and Gambian society as whole. It is also just the latest step in The Gambia’s transitional justice journey.

Members of a transitional presidential council who will be responsible for selecting a new prime minister issued their first official statement on March 27, pledging to restore “public and democratic order” in Haiti.

The statement, although signed by eight members of what is supposed to be a nine-member council, is still considered a sign that a contentious and drawn-out nomination process is ending and that the council might soon assume its official duties.

Venezuela’s main opposition coalition said it has been blocked from registering its candidate to challenge President Nicolas Maduro in the upcoming elections on July 28.

In a video statement on March 26, the Plataforma Unitaria Democratica explained it had been unable to formally register its presidential candidate, Corina Yoris, on the electoral authority’s online registration system. The deadline for registration had been set for midnight, at the end of March 25.

Parents of more than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren who were rescued after more than two weeks in captivity said they saw them on March 27 and that they couldn’t hold back tears of joy during the long-awaited reunion.

The meeting, three days after the children were freed, took place at a government facility in the city of Kaduna, where the children are staying while receiving medical support, the parents and a teacher told The Associated Press.

A Houthi court sentenced 32 men, 9 of them to death, on January 23, 2024, in an unfair mass trial based on dubious charges of “sodomy,” Human Rights Watch said on March 27. The Houthis should end their use of the death penalty and other forms of cruel and degrading punishment and provide fair trials for those charged.

There are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is committing genocide in the besieged Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, according to a report issued by a United Nations-appointed expert.

In the report, issued late on March 25, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese said there are clear indications that Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention.

A prominent journalist in Belarus was designated a political prisoner on March 26 by the country’s leading human rights group following his conviction on charges widely seen as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.

Ihar Karnei, who used to write for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other news outlets, was handed a three-year prison sentence on March 22 on charges of participation in an extremist group.

Thailand's parliament passed a same-sex marriage bill on March 27, paving the way for the kingdom to become the first Southeast Asian nation to recognise LGBTQ marriage equality. Across Asia only Taiwan and Nepal recognise same-sex marriage, with India's highest court deferring the decision to parliament in October.

The bill sailed through on 399 to 10 votes in the lower house, although it must still be approved by the Senate before it is endorsed by the king, and then published in the Royal Gazette.

As El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele embarks on his second term in office, an international rights group has warned that his war on gangs has created a spiralling human rights crisis.

As of February 2024, Bukele’s draconian two-year campaign, which has seen the authorities detain about 78,000 people, has caused 235 deaths in state custody, said Amnesty International on March 27. Citing a local rights group, it also reported 327 cases of enforced disappearances.