Lawyers

• US State Department: Arbitrary detention of human rights lawyers, activist increase in China in 2015

  The U.S. State Department's annual human rights report indicates that arbitrary detention of human rights lawyers and advocates have increased in China in 2015.

• Cambodian lawmakers pass disputed trade union law

  Cambodian lawmakers have approved a proposed law setting rules for creating and running trade unions, which rights groups decried Tuesday as designed to curb workers' rights and limit their ability to stage strikes.

• Russian Court Liquidates Human Rights Group in Heated Crackdown

  The Russian court has recently ruled on shutting down of human rights group Agora. The court alleged that Agora was involved in political activity influencing the public opinion.

• Opposition leader Martin Fayulu arrested before planned demonstration in Congo

  Parliament member Martin Fayulu was arrested and later released two days before a planned anti-government demonstration. The leader of the Commitment to Citizenship and Development political party was arrested for alleged civil disobedience.

• Sri Lanka plans South Africa-style commission to confront war crimes

  Sri Lanka's new government said on Monday it was setting up a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission to look into atrocities during its civil war, as it came under renewed pressure to prosecute perpetrators.

• Government militia guilty of atrocities in Darfur: rights group

  A government militia in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region has been guilty of killings and mass rapes of civilians over the past year and a half in two military campaigns, Human Rights Watch said in a new report published on Wednesday.

• Experts dismiss Mexico's account of apparent student massacre

  Mexico's official account of the abduction and apparent massacre of 43 students last year does not add up, a team of international experts said on Sunday, citing deep flaws in the government's investigation and dismissing its claims that the victims were incinerated in a garbage dump.

• Mubarak's sons freed from Egyptian prison after anniversary of his fall

  The sons of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak were released from prison on Monday, security officials said, a move that could fuel tension after the violent anniversary on Sunday of the 2011 uprising that toppled the autocrat.

• Genocide retrial of Guatemala ex-dictator Rios Montt suspended

  Guatemala's Supreme Court on Monday began a retrial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt for genocide, but in a fresh twist to a bizarre legal saga suspended it as the defense sought the removal of one of the judges hearing the case.

• Four militants hanged in Pakistan as execution campaign widens

  Pakistan hanged four Islamist militants on Sunday in the second set of executions since the government lifted a moratorium after the Taliban massacred 132 children and nine others at a school last week.

• Brazil dictatorship probe urges prosecuting military, companies

  A "truth commission" investigating abuses during Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship called for the prosecution of former military officers and some private companies for their role in human rights atrocities, in a long-awaited report on Wednesday.

• Chad security agents face first trial over 1980s killings, torture

  More than 20 Chadian security agents appeared in a special court charged with murder and torture on Friday, at the start of the country's first trial linked to abuses during the rule of ousted strongman Hissene Habre in the 1980s.

• Saudi Arabia steps up beheadings; some see political message

  Immediately after his sword falls, the Saudi Arabian executioner steps backwards to avoid soiling his clothes with the blood of the condemned man, whose headless body can be seen slumping over backwards in the shaky online film.

• China detains scholar, bans books in crackdown on moderate voices

  China has detained a prominent scholar who helped blind dissident Chen Guangcheng flee to the United States two years ago and has banned books by eight writers in an escalating crackdown on dissent.

• Ex-bodyguard jailed for trying to kill Rwandan President Kagame

  A former bodyguard of Rwanda's Paul Kagame was sentenced to life on Friday for plotting to kill the president, but he complained that he had been kidnapped and said he would appeal.

• Rohingya could face detention under Myanmar draft plan

  Myanmar's national government has drafted a plan that will give around a million members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority a bleak choice: accept ethnic reclassification and the prospect of citizenship, or be detained.