Posted by hpcr on April 04, 2014  |   Comment  |   Subscribe

[As part of its research and policy project on monitoring, reporting, and fact-finding, the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University aggregates news detailing recent developments in this domain. For more information about this project, visit the project’s web page.]

• The mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar has been extended by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which also reiterated that it wants to open a country office in Myanmar.
• Faith Pansy Tlakula, the African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, and Reine Alapini-Gansou, the African Union Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in South Africa, have urged the Swaziland government to release Thulani Rudolf Maseko, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender, and Bheki Makhubu, Editor-in-Chief of the Nation Magazine, who are currently detained in the country.
• The United Nations Human Rights Council has denounced the violence in Syria and adopted a resolution to extend the mandate of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, originally created in 2011. The resolution urges Syria to cooperate with the commission and to provide unhindered access to its territory.
• A United Nations panel of eight human rights experts pressed the Egyptian government to overturn 529 death sentences that were announced in Egypt last week and to grant the defendants new and transparent trials in accordance with international human rights law.
• The United Nations Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran for one year.
• The United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the report that the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea published on March 17 that documented crimes against humanity committed over the past several decades by the North Korean government. 
• The United Nations Human Rights Council mandated an international investigation into possible war crimes that were committed by the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels during the 26-year civil war that concluded in 2009.