Tunisian authorities arrested the leader of the Ennahda opposition Islamist movement in a crackdown on rival politicians and critics of the North African country’s increasingly authoritarian president Kais Saied, lawyers said Tuesday.

Israel’s far-right cabinet has approved the legalization of nine illegal settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, which called the move an “open war” against its people.

More than half a million Israelis live in more than 200 settlements built on Palestinian land considered illegal under international laws. Palestinians say the settlement expansion threatens the viability of the future Palestinian state as part of the two-state solution.

One of Cambodia’s last free media outlets, Voice of Democracy (VoD) radio, ceased operations on Monday after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered its closure for allegedly slandering his son in a story.

VoD has reported extensively on sensitive issues such as land grabbing and criminal gangs operating with near impunity to carry out internet scams with people, especially foreigners, tricked into working under conditions of near slavery. A previous media clampdown has already forced several outlets out of business on disputed grounds that they had not properly paid their taxes.

The UN’s human rights chief on Friday urged the international community to consider deploying a specialized armed force to Haiti, warning that violent gangs are creating a “living nightmare” for thousands of people.

The appeal from UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk came at the end of a two-day visit to Haiti at the request of a government unable to control gangs that are killing, raping, and pillaging in a growing number of neighborhoods. Violence has spiked in the impoverished country since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Peace talks between the Colombian government and the largest remaining rebel group in the South American country, the National Liberation Army (ELN), are to resume this week in Mexico City.

Eritrea has punished the family members of thousands of alleged draft evaders during a conscription drive intended to bolster its military campaign in neighboring Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.

This briefing paper examines the various actions that Ukrainian officials and members of the international community have launched to investigate and prosecute war crimes and other human rights violations committed in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. It explores the myriad challenges they face and how tools from transitional justice can be applied in tandem to deliver justice and reparation to victims and lay the foundation for a more inclusive and democratic Ukraine.

The devastating earthquake around the Turkish-Syrian border struck an area that is home to millions of refugees already battling desperate circumstances. The United Nations said Tuesday that it was trying to reach refugees affected by the 7.8-magnitude quake, though its existing aid programs are woefully underfunded.

Kosovo's prime minister Albin Kurti said on Monday he accepted a proposed European Union plan aimed at normalizing relations with Serbia despite concerns over Western demands to give more rights to local Serbs that have so far hindered a peace deal.

A prominent rights group in Pakistan has expressed “considerable alarm” over the state of religious freedom in the country.

In its report titled A Breach of Faith: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2021-22 released on Tuesday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said incidents of the country’s religious minorities facing persecution remained consistent between July 2021 and June 2022. The HRCP report focused on forced conversions, the desecration of places of worship belonging to minorities and the marginalization of the Ahmadi community.