Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the measures July 24 following a clashthat day that left four Palestinians and two Israeli settlers dead at the village of Tal, near Nablus. Mosques, farmland and vehicles were set afire during the settler attacks that sparked the clash.

Netanyahu ordered the establishment of new settler “outposts” and announced a process to “legalize” several existing outposts. He simultaneously announced new Israeli military operations on the West Bank. Hundreds have since been arrested in sweeps of Palestinian villages.

Guterres reiterated that all settlements, including so-called outposts, “have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law,” calling them a major obstacle to achieving the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace. Israel disputes the international position that its West Bank settlements are illegal, maintaining that most are legal under its own domestic law.

In a separate statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) voiced alarm over escalating violence across the West Bank. Since July 23, at least eight Palestinians, including a child, have been killed and many others injured. At least 10 Palestinian families have been displaced.

OCHA also reported that Israeli forces have tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement across many areas of the West Bank, preventing thousands from accessing emergency medical care and other essential services. Since January, OCHA has documented more than 1,330 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both. According to OCHA, Israeli forces or settlers killed 77 Palestinians this year as of July 25, of whom 18 were children, while three Israelis had been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

The UN, the International Court of Justice, and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank unlawful under international law. In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s settlements breach the Fourth Geneva Convention and that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful.

Guterres issued a similar warning in February after Israel announced a package of measures expanding Israeli authority in the West Bank, including the resumption of land registration; and in June, six governments announced sanctions targeting individuals enabling settler violence, following a similar move by the European Union. Human Rights Watch on July 24 also decried the settler violence at Tal. The UN and its partners have called for the urgent protection of civilians, strict respect for international humanitarian law, and accountability for perpetrators.

From JURIST, July 28. Used with permission.

Photo: Wikipedia

Amnesty International condemned the July 15 decision of Delhi’s lieutenant governor to invoke Section 3(2) of India’s National Security Act (NSA), which effectively grants police the power to hold individuals in administrative detention without procedural guarantees.

The decision to invoke this section of the NSA comes amid mass youth protests in India, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), demanding accountability over apparent examination paper leaks that affected millions of students. The protests began in May after the answers to India’s medical school entrance exam, known as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test—Undergraduate (NEET-UG), were leaked, leading to more than 2 million students needing to re-take the test.

Following extension of the invocation of Section 3(2) of the NSA until Oct. 18, Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India, stated:

This deeply concerning move is an affront to human rights that risks enflaming the situation in Delhi even further. It grants the police a host of discretionary powers to detain people for entirely arbitrary reasons for up to 12 months. Fair trial rights guaranteed under international human rights law are essentially suspended, as detainees are denied legal representation and do not have to be informed of the grounds of their detention for up to 15 days.

Delhi police claim that this a routine administrative measure, but Patel pointed to previous times Indian police have abused this power, such as during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2020 and the 2026 workers’ protests in Noida. The examination paper leaks have resulted in extreme distress among test-takers who had spent years preparing for the grueling exam, leading to at least 20 students committing suicide.

The CJP protests ultimately forced the government to accede to their demands, including a five-point exam reform charter and adequate compensation to the affected families. At the height of the protests on July 20, Delhi police used tear-gas and batons against protestors as they attempted to march towards India’s parliament.

The movement emerged after the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, made derogatory remarks about student protesters, dismissing them as “unemployed youths…who attack the legal system,” and even going so far as to call them “cockroaches.”

Under the NSA, police can detain persons without charge based on the suspicion that they might carry out an activity that undermines public order or national security. Once detained, such individuals have no right to legal representation before the three-member Advisory Board that reviews the grounds on which their detention was ordered.

The NSA has been widely criticized as a contravention of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to liberty and security of person, as well as Article 14 of the ICCPR, which guarantees the right to fair trial.

From JURIST, July 27. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last report on the Gen Z revolutions.

Photo: Pelph Hoters via Wikimedia Commons

In January, Gen Z002 organized an online poll titled “Popular Referendum to Remove El-Sisi,” which asked participants whether they supported removing President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi from power. The poll received more than 330,000 responses and spread across social media platforms through Arabic-language hashtags.

Amnesty International said authorities have arrested at least 50 people connected to the group since late May, including women, tradespeople, and public sector workers. Authorities accused the detainees of terrorism-related offenses, publishing false news, or using online platforms to promote ideas linked to terrorism. The charges are based on Egypt’s Anti-Cyber & Information Technology Crimes Law (Law No. 175/2018) and Anti-Terrorism Law (Law No. 94/2015).

Gen Z002 was created in October 2025 by exiled Egyptian activist Anas Habib as an online community hosted on Discord, a platform that allows users to communicate through text channels, voice chats, and online groups. The group described itself as an “Egyptian national youth movement” focused on social justice. Although the group discussed political issues, it also hosted additional community activities, including discussions about football, online first aid training, a book club, and fitness sessions.

The arrests follow previous concerns over Egypt’s treatment of online critics. In February 2025, Amnesty called for the release of at least 59 people arrested over their alleged support for an online movement called “Revolution of the Joints.” Authorities accused those individuals of participating in online channels calling for destabilization of President El-Sisi’s government.

International organizations have also raised concerns about Egypt’s restrictions on political expression and civil society. Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 14 other press freedom and human rights organizations warned the European Union about what they described as widespread patterns of enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, unfair trials, and restrictions targeting journalists, activists, academics and political opponents.

The Gen Z002 case has drawn parallels to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, often known as the “Facebook Revolution,” which grew from a Facebook page exposing police brutality that ultimately led to the mobilization of thousands against the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

The UN has also criticized Egypt’s use of anti-terrorism legislation against human rights defenders and activists. Critics point out that the use of ambiguous terminology such as “harming national unity” and “disturbing public order” is prone to political weaponization to silence dissent.

From JURIST, July 23. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last posts on the crackdown in Egypt and the Gen Z revolutions.

Image via Facebook

The first attack took place in March on the farming community of San Martín, Sucumbíos province, and was confirmed by the US government as a partnered military operation. The remaining three incidents took place at sea, off Ecuador’s Pacific coast. They are the January disappearance of the Fiorella, an Ecuadorian fishing vessel, and March drone attacks on two other fishing vessels, La Negra Francisco Duarte II and the Don Maca. The US has denied responsibility in these maritime strikes.

In the March 3 operation at San Martín, near the Colombian border, Ecuadorian soldiers detained and tortured four men, burned three properties, and struck two of the three burned properties with air-dropped munitions. The detained men were transported to a military facility, but eventually released when a prosecutor refused to charge them.

The Ecuadorian and US governments categorized the San Martín incident as a successful military operation, named Operation Total Extermination against the Comandos de la Frontera (CDF) drug trafficking group. The target of the operation was reported to be a CDF leader who goes by the alias “Mono Tole.” Secretary of “War” (Defense) Pete Hegseth celebrated the “bombing [of] Narco terrorists on land.”

The Fiorella incident took place on Jan. 20, and resulted in eight of its 10 crew members going missing. After setting sail from the port of Jaramijó in Ecuador on Jan. 13, the vessel entered international waters, where it was reportedly monitored and followed by aircraft, boats and drones bearing US insignia. On Jan. 20, one of the vessel’s two skiffs were put to sea, and those aboard soon heard cries of distress from the Fiorella crew over the radio before losing all communication. They then saw a large column of smoke coming from the vessel’s direction. That was the last news heard of the Fiorella.

La Negra Francisco Duarte II and Don Maca crew members report being struck by a drone on March 17, then being hooded and handcuffed by men who boarded from boats bearing indications of US origin. The presumed US forces subsequently transferred the crew members to Salvadorian custody.

The US has denied involvement in the three fishing vessel incidents, despite their similarity to Operation Southern Spear missions. Southern Spear is the US Department of “War” (Defense) campaign of lethal air-strikes against small boats suspected of smuggling illegal narcotics in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Ecuador has echoed Washington’s hardline anti-narcotic stance, with President Daniel Noboa’s administration implementing a new “Security Bloc” campaign, led by Minister of National Defense Gian Carlo Loffredo and the chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, Henry Delgado Salvador. The administration has pledged to direct more efforts to eradicate criminal activity in the region.

From JURIST, July 22. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Image: Nicolas Raymond via Flickr

In their joint statement, the organizations highlighted that they have consistently expresseddeep concern over collaboration between EU member states and Libyan authorities. Assistance from the EU has facilitated the interception and forced return of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants annually to Libya, where they have faced abuses including indefinite arbitrary detention in cruel and inhumane conditions, unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence, extortion and forced labor.

The rights groups released their statement in the context of heightened cooperation between the EU and Libyan authorities. The NGO Statewatch recently leaked documents dated May 20 that detail how the EU has been collaborating with Libya’s Eastern Forces. The collaboration includes training, technical support and the development of a regional migration control center based in Benghazi. The EU has confirmed plans to establish a “Maritime Rescue Coordination Center” in Benghazi and a surveillance tower with radar in Tobruk, both cities in Eastern Libya controlled by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces. The plan appears to be modelled on a similar 2017 initiative struck with the Western-based government.

Since the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 and the death of the longtime leader Moammar Qaddafi, Libya has become a hotspot for human trafficking. The grim situation is illustrated the repeated discovery of mass graves, most recently in January. The UN has appealed to the EU on the need for life-saving search and rescue operations at sea, and the suspension of interceptions and returns to Libya, among other remedial directives.

Signatories to the joint statement include Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights, Human Rights Watch, Refugees in Libya and Sea-Watch, among others.

From JURIST, July 19. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Map: Perry-Castañeda Library

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Tidball-Binz urged that the investigation adhere to the UN Minnesota Protocol, which governs the investigation of potentially unlawful deaths. Tidball-Binz further stated: “No person, group or institution that participated directly or indirectly in these crimes should remain beyond the reach of justice.”

The killings took place on May 21 at Rigores, a village in the Bajo Aguán region of Colón department. Heavily armed men, some reportedly dressed in police uniforms, opened fire on oil palm plantation workers praying before starting work. The victims, who included women and children, are said to have belonged to a local collective, the Rigores Peasant Movement, made up of local residents seeking lands of their own to work in the area. The international peasant advocacy network La Vía Campesina and the Catholic Church in Honduras both condemned the massacre and demanded an impartial investigation. Additionally, the national council of the Jesuit Order in Honduras called for a UN-backed commission of inquiry. The Jesuits argued that the scale of the crime exceeded the capacity and will of national authorities, necessitating UN involvement.

Honduran President Nasry Asfura condemned the massacre the day after it took place, pledging that security and prosecutorial agencies would investigate. His government then ordered a military deployment to the area. On June 3, authorities announced the arrest of the attack’s alleged mastermind.

The Bajo Aguán is contested by rival criminal groups fighting over drug-trafficking routes, though observers have questioned whether the killings arose from a gang dispute. Rights groups have documented similar killings in the region since 2009, most with no resulting criminal prosecutions. Tidball-Binz warned in 2023 that institutionalized impunity and a lack of serious investigations has obstructed justice for such unlawful deaths. Monitoring groups have repeatedly raised concerns over Honduras’ overall human rights record, noting attacks on journalists and environmental defenders. Amnesty International has additionally warned that climate change is eroding the livelihoods and rights of vulnerable Honduran communities.

The attacks in the Bajo Aguán are especially said to constitute a violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants & Other People Working in Rural Areas.

From JURIST, July 19. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Map: Perry-Castañeda Library

The 131-page complaint, filed under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, names among many defendants senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and State Department official John Armstrong, along with the Heritage Foundation and two online surveillance or “doxxing” groups, Canary Mission and Betar, as well as individual leaders of each organization.

According to the complaint, the Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther in October 2024. This project was a plan to identify and target non-citizen students and scholars who advocated for Palestinian rights for arrest and deportation through a “public-private partnership” with a “willing Administration” in the White House. Canary Mission and Betar would select the targets. An Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified in separate federal proceedings brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that roughly 75% of the names of student activists his agency investigated came from Canary Mission.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident married to a US citizen, was arrested by ICE agents on March 8, 2025. He spent 104 days in immigration detention in Louisiana, missing the birth of his first child. His lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and an injunction barring the defendants from continuing to pursue his removal.

“This case is about far more than what was done to me,” Khalil said in a press release. “It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation.”

From JURIST, July 15. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last reports on Mahmoud Khalil and the pro-Israel doxxing operation.

Photo: Office of Rep. Jim McGovern via Wikimedia Commons

Because the Court is a treaty body that only its member states can dissolve, the US lacks the authority to “dismantle” it. The op-ed does not detail specific measures, but a State Department official told Reuters that options under consideration include travel bans, visa revocations, expanded sanctions against the Court and affiliated entities, and diplomatic pressure on member states to withdraw. The official said countries that rely on US security assistance and decline to reject the Court’s authority over Americans are likely to face increased scrutiny.

Rubio cited the Court’s 2020 authorization of an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan, which included possible crimes by US forces, as well as more recent calls by activists and a former ICC prosecutor to treat Trump administration deportations and military strikes as international crimes. According to Reuters, the Court has taken no recent steps against US personnel, and since 2021 prosecutors have de-prioritized the US role in the Afghanistan investigation in favor of alleged Taliban and Afghan government crimes.

The ICC, established in 2002 under the Rome Statute and seated at The Hague in the Netherlands, has 125 states parties, including nearly every US treaty ally in Europe as well as the UK, Japan, South Korea and Australia. The US is not a member. President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but declined to submit it to the Senate, and Congress in 2002 passed legislation authorizing the president to use all means necessary to free US citizens detained by the Court.

The announced campaign departs from the approach of prior administrations of both parties, which maintained US non-membership while supporting international criminal justice in specific cases. The US helped establish the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals in the 1990s (under Democrat Bill Clinton), and abstained from but did not veto the Security Council’s referral of Darfur to the ICC in 2005 (under Republican George W. Bush). Washington supported the Security Council’s referral of Libya in 2011, expanded its war crimes rewards program to cover ICC fugitives in 2012 (under Democrat Barack Obama), and initiatedsharing of evidence with the Court’s investigation of Russian conduct in Ukraine after it issued a 2023 arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin (under Democrat Joe Biden). In 2008, State Department legal adviser John Bellinger said it was “not the policy of the United States to try to kill the ICC.”

An ICC spokesperson said the Court would not comment at this stage. Last month, three ICC judges sued Trump administration officials over sanctions imposed on them, arguing the measures were unlawful.

From JURIST, July 13. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Photo: Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons

Since President Donald Trump launched the current immigration crackdown, at least 14 Mexican nationals have died in the custody of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and three more have reportedly died in arrests conducted by the agency. Most recently, on July 7, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had been living in the US without legal documentation for more than three decades.

His killing—which sparked protests in Houston, where Araujo had lived for nearly 35 years, and throughout Mexico—marked at least six people shot dead in ICE operations since early 2025, when Trump returned to office and launched a campaign of mass deportations. In addition to several formal diplomatic protest letters to the US government, demanding a “prompt and thorough investigation,” Sheinbaum’s government has also filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). However, in light of the new deaths and the apparent lack of tangible progress in the United States, the Mexican government has decided to escalate the matter to the criminal justice system.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died,” Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference. “We cannot allow the mistreatment of our brothers and sisters who are in the United States—our fellow citizens. Therefore, we will propose other measures.”

She added that her government is prepared to assist all citizens who request it, but especially to “Mexicans whose only crime is working honestly in the United States.”

In addition to formally requesting that the US Department of Justice open criminal investigations into the killings, Sheinbaum said her government will bring civil lawsuits in the US courts against the companies that operate detention centers for ICE.

The announcement represents a significant escalation as relations between the two neighbors continue to worsen. Addressing the press during that day’s conference, Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Robert Velasco stated that a request will also be made to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to demand protection for Mexican nationals in ICE custody.

The move underscores Mexico’s growing willingness to challenge US immigration enforcement through international and legal channels, as pressure mounts for accountability over deaths tied to detention and arrest operations. With tensions already strained, the moves could further deepen the diplomatic rift between Washington and Mexico.

From JURIST, July 10. Used with permission.

See our last report on the struggle in Texas.

Photo of Houston protest against ICE: Jessica Bolanos via Wikimedia Commons

The experts stated that Baloch’s conviction and life sentence represented a misuse of counter-terrorism laws that aimed to suppress human rights activism and freedom of association. The experts found that Baloch was subjected to an unfair trial that disregarded the fundamental rights of the accused, such as the right to attend the trial in person and the right to appoint a legal counsel.

The statement stressed that the right to a fair trial is protected by international law, including Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR), and urged Pakistan authorities to prevent the abuse of counter-terrorism laws to restrict citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Additionally, the experts noted that states have a duty to protect populations from human rights violations related to investment projects affecting local communities. Private companies also have an obligation to carry out due diligence on the social impacts of projects, as required by the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights.

Mahrang Baloch is a human rights activist and leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which advocates for the rights of the Baloch community in Pakistan. She was convicted alongside another BYC member for the death of a Frontier Corps member during a July 2024 protest in Gwadar condemning discrimination, enforced disappearances, and unlawful appropriation of local communities’ lands for mining and foreign investment projects.

According to the court, both BYC members had a common intent to murder the Frontier Corps officer, classifying their conduct as terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Pakistan has previously faced criticism from international organizations for human rights abuses against Baloch community leaders and other activists. In 2025, Amnesty International called on Pakistan to cease its crackdown on Baloch activists following the arrest of several BYC members, including Mahrang Baloch. This January, a Pakistani court sentenced two human rights lawyers to prison for controversial social media posts calling for support for arrested BYC activists, which was condemned by the UN. The UN also expressed concern about the detention conditions of human rights defender Idris Khattak, and the broader compliance of authorities with prisoners’ rights.

From JURIST, July 9. Used with permission.

Photo: The Baloch Circle