Latest War crimes News

UN-backed human rights experts decry new evidence of torture of Ukrainian POWs by Russia

Mar. 15, 2024 08:49 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts said Friday they have gathered new evidence of “horrific” torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war by their Russian jailers, saying such practices could amount to war crimes. The Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said human rights...

Swiss refer Syrian president's uncle to trial for alleged war crimes over 4 decades ago

Mar. 12, 2024 08:16 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of the war-battered country's current president, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago. ...

UN rights office says Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas amount to a 'war crime'

Mar. 08, 2024 09:33 AM EST

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office says in a report published Friday that the establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem amount to a war crime. The report covers the one-year period from Nov. 1, 2022, to Oct. 31, 2023, when it...

UN experts: Sudan's paramilitary forces carried out ethnic killings and rapes that may be war crimes

Mar. 01, 2024 01:27 AM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Paramilitary forces and their allied militias fighting to take power in Sudan carried out widespread ethnic killings and rapes while taking control of much of western Darfur that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, United Nations experts said in a new...

Turkey bears responsibility for possible war crimes in Syria, Human Rights Watch says

Feb. 29, 2024 05:17 AM EST

BEIRUT (AP) — Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Turkey bears responsibility for some of the abuses and possible war crimes committed in Syria, mostly against Kurdish residents in northern Syria. The New York-based watchdog said the abuses were committed by Turkish forces and...

Rape and sexual violence in Sudan's ongoing conflict may amount to war crimes, a new UN report says

Feb. 23, 2024 05:19 AM EST

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office said in a new report Friday that scores of people, including children, have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence in the ongoinng conflict in Sudan, assaults that may amount to war crimes. Sudan plunged into chaos in...

At least 60 civilians were killed in Burkina Faso last year in military drone strikes, watchdog says

Jan. 25, 2024 10:41 AM EST

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Burkina Faso’s security forces last year killed at least 60 civilians in three different drone strikes, which the group says may have constituted war crimes. The West African nation’s government claimed the strikes...

Dutch court convicts pro-Syrian government militia member of illegally detaining, torturing civilian

Jan. 22, 2024 10:13 AM EST

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court convicted Monday a former high-ranking member of a pro-Syrian government militia of illegal detention and complicity in torture, sentencing him to 12 years in prison. The defendant, identified only as Mustafa A. in line with Dutch privacy...