Amnesty

The Moldova director of the rights organisation Amnesty International, AIM, Cristina Pereteatcu, has told BIRN that they believe 48 Turkish residents in Moldova are under surveillance by the Moldovan authorities - and could share the same fate as seven Turkish teachers recently expelled from the country. 

Amnesty International said on Friday that it has obtained a video of Cameroonian soldiers, some armed with Serbian guns, burning structures which are likely to be homes and then killing 12 people in the village of Achigaya in the far north of the country.

Moldova lawmakers on Friday, the last day before the summer recess, voted to reschedule the next parliamentary elections to February 24, 2019. Initially, the election should have taken place by the end of November.

The decision comes after the majority in parliament voted no less than 50 draft bills in just two days - Thursday and Friday.

Kosovo's Foreign Ministry on Sunday accused Serbia of selling - or even giving away - weapons to countries, to dissuade them from recognising its independence.

Amnesty International told BIRN that Cameroon has used Serbian-made weapons in a pattern of "systematic violations" of human rights, and has called on Serbia to suspend arms export to the African state.

Amnesty International has given Greece a scathing review in regards to its human rights record in 2017, and particularly over the country's treatment of asylum-seekers and migrants.

Amnesty International's annual report, published on Thursday, shone a light on human rights violations in all Balkan countries and pointed especially to a lack of will to deal with war crimes.

The report presented the state of human rights during 2017 in 159 countries and territories.

Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the only official mission investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria, reported BBC.

The Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) was set up in 2015 to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks.

It is due to report later this week on a deadly nerve agent attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April.

German campaigner Peter Steudtner is among the 11 human rights activists on trial in Turkey, accused of belonging to and aiding terror groups. Critics say the charges are politically motivated, Deutsche Welle reported.

The trial of the 11 activists was set to begin on Wednesday, with the defendants facing up to 15 years in jail on terrorism related charges. 

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - El Salvador has launched its first commission to find people still missing from the nation's civil war (1979-1992) in another small step toward reconciling with its past after years of demands from citizens for such an agency.