Libyan civil society organizations are fighting against all odds to support victims of human rights violations. In doing so, they themselves risk violence and do their work despite the visible and invisible pain they feel and the innumerable obstacles placed in front of them. Renewed global attention on the Libyan conflict and two new draft laws to protect activists and others may help.

The foreign minister of ethnically divided Cyprus offered a bleak outlook Thursday for resuming stalled peace talks any time soon even though a senior United Nations official affirmed the commitment of the world body’s chief to remain engaged in resolving one of Europe’s most intractable conflicts.

Cyprus divided into ethnically Greek and ethnically Turkish sides in 1974, when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has told his family in a letter that he has ended a seven-month hunger strike in prison in Egypt.

"At one level, a very basic level, [I am] relieved. But at another level I am even more worried," said Mona Seif, Abdel Fattah's sister. "Alaa is a very serious, thoughtful, committed person. And to go on hunger strike, maintain it for 220 days and then break it, we need to know the circumstances."

Read more here.

The Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent research group, said in a report earlier this month that as of Nov. 2, at least 1,650,661 people had been forced to escape conflict in regions that include Sagaing, Magway, Bago, Chin and Kayah in the more than 21 months since the military took power in Myanmar.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has called on the Dominican Republic to cease forced deportations of Haitian migrants and people of Haitian ancestry amid a growing human rights crisis in Haiti, to which the country's president responded with a statement that the Dominican Republic would only step up deportations.

The Dominican Republic deported an estimated 60,000 Haitians and people of Haitian ancestry between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31.

Sudan's Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition said on Wednesday it was seeking to sign a framework agreement with the military as a first step to ending the political deadlock that has gripped the country since an October 2021 coup.

The military takeover ended a partnership with the FFC following the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir and plunged the country into political and economic turmoil.

Even as the parties to the war in Yemen fail to extend the UN-brokered ceasefire, field monitors of the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights (NCIAVHR) continue to document and investigate human rights violations despite enormous challenges and serious risks to their safety.

A court in Iran has issued the first death sentence to a person arrested for taking part in the protests that have engulfed the country, state media say.

At least 20 people are currently facing charges punishable by death, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, citing official reports.

Its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, called on the international community to take urgent action and "strongly warn the Islamic Republic of the consequences of executing protesters".

The resolution approved at UN headquarters in New York asks that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) "urgently" weigh in on Israel's "prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory," which it said were violating the Palestinians' right to self-determination. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem—areas that Palestinians want for a state—in a 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a statement that 98 countries supported the resolution, 52 abstained, and 17 voted against.

The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo on Monday that they are on the edge of a precipice and must resolve their dispute over vehicle license plates before next week or face the prospect of a return to their violent past.