A United Nations special rapporteur has accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid in the occupied territories, joining a growing group of international, Israeli and Palestinian rights watchdogs that have sought to recast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a struggle for equal rights instead of a territorial dispute. Strongly denied by Israel and its supporters, who accuse the UN investigator of bias, the claim is the first time that a UN-appointed investigator has accused Israel of apartheid in such an unequivocal way.

World leaders heard impassioned pleas Thursday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more military aid to defend his country and the United States announced new sanctions and humanitarian aid as officials gathered for a trio of summits to discuss next steps in countering Russia’s month-old invasion of its much smaller neighbor. The extraordinary series of summits, hosted by NATO, the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union, reflected alarm that the conflict shows no sign of ending soon and could even spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.

An alleged gang rape in broad daylight has shone a harsh spotlight on the pervasiveness of rape culture in Argentina and prompted fresh calls for men to play a bigger role in the country’s battle against gender violence. The assault of a 20-year-old woman by six men allegedly happened on a holiday Monday afternoon in February, in a parked car in Palermo, one of Buenos Aires’ busiest neighborhoods. 

Myanmar’s military and police deliberately killed civilians opposed to its rule in the six months following the coup in February 2021, in a policy that amounts to crimes against humanity, according to new research published on Thursday.

Some 7,000 members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram have surrendered in northeast Nigeria in the past week, according to local media reports. On Wednesday, the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Major General Christopher Musa, a top commander in the region, as saying that an onslaught targeting ISWAP and Boko Haram fighters has continued to record significant success. Musa said at least 7,000 Boko Haram and ISWAP members surrendered in the last week during the operations. 

This study explores specialized units established in 23 countries to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes. Notwithstanding the challenges faced by these units, the study concludes that countries with a specialized institutional approach are considerably more successful in bringing perpetrators to justice when compared with countries without dedicated capacities. The report also analyses how specialized units have been instrumental in bringing justice to victims of the Syrian conflict.

Over the past decade, Syria’s uprising-turned-civil war has been littered with grave human rights violations that rights groups say could amount to war crimes. The fighting has subsided in many parts of the war-torn country, but millions of Syrians tormented by forced displacement, torture, and the disappearance of their loved ones still wait for any semblance of justice.

European Union countries on Monday accused Russia's military of committing war crimes in Ukraine, but appeared unlikely to target the country's energy sector with sanctions soon despite a clamor across Europe for those responsible for attacks on civilians to be held to account. With civilian deaths mounting in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the increase in Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and theaters.

A Honduran judge has authorized the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez to the United States on drug-trafficking and firearms charges. The decision was announced on Wednesday on the Twitter account of the Central American country’s judicial authority. Hernandez, who was arrested in mid-February following the US extradition request, has three days to appeal the judge’s decision, according to a judicial spokesperson. US authorities say that the right-wing former leader participated in a drug-trafficking scheme between 2004 and 2022.

Thirty years after going public with her story of abduction, rape, and forced prostitution by Japan’s wartime military, Lee Yong-soo fears she’s running out of time to get closure to her ordeal. The 93-year-old is the face of a dwindling group of South Korean sexual slavery survivors who have been demanding since the early 1990s that the Japanese government fully accept culpability and offer an unequivocal apology.