At the end of April in Syria, dozens of local residents in several cities and towns sat down together for the first time to finally speak about their experiences during the 14-year conflict that tore society apart and resulted in countless human rights violations. These community dialogues, organized by ICTJ in partnership with the Bridges of Truth project, provided a safe space for participants to share their stories and hardships, discuss their needs, and express their hopes for justice and reconciliation. 

Burkina Faso’s military rulers have dissolved the country’s independent electoral commission, authorities said. Since taking power in a 2022 coup, the West African country’s military leaders have launched sweeping reforms, including postponing elections that were expected to restore civilian rule. 

El Salvador’s top human rights organization, Cristosal, announced on Thursday it is leaving the country because of mounting harassment and legal threats by the government of President Nayib Bukele. The organization has been one of the most visible critics of Bukele, documenting abuses in the strongman’s war on the country’s gangs and the detention of hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in an agreement with the U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Togo has voted in municipal elections amid reports of voter apathy, after the country was rocked by deadly protests last month. Polling stations in Togo’s capital Lome were largely deserted on Thursday. The low turnout came after June’s protests against constitutional reforms that could keep leader Faure Gnassingbe in power indefinitely. 

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, according to a Kremlin aide, as part of an agreement reached during a second round of peace talks in Turkey. 

Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel. 

Bangladeshi security forces on Wednesday clashed with supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaving at least four people dead and scores injured, a hospital official and local media said. 

Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years. The law also effectively restricts the rights of indigenous communities over their ancestral lands.  

An attack by armed assailants on a patrol of a mission by the Indigenous Wampis guards last week in the Peruvian Amazon has again brought into focus the issue of illegal gold mining in the ancestral territory. The 60-member mission was ambushed and shot at as they were patrolling near the Wampis community of Fortaleza on Saturday, just days after the Peruvian government’s sudden withdrawal from a planned joint enforcement operation to confront the illegal mining.

A coalition of countries has announced at a meeting in the Colombian capital of Bogota that they will pursue accountability for Israeli abuses in Gaza, including by preventing the transfer of weapons to Israel. The two-day meeting concluded with two dozen countries agreeing to six measures to “restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.