UNITED NATIONS

African countries on Thursday slowed down their call for the top human rights body of the United Nations to launch its most intense scrutiny on the hot-button issues of police brutality and systemic racism in the United States, after American officials led back-channel talks to air opposition to anti-West and anti-American ideas, diplomats said.

Canada on Wednesday lost out to two European countries for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, after Norway and Ireland were picked to join the U.N.'s powerful decision-making body instead.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged countries to address today’s systemic racism and “centuries of violence and discrimination” through reparations and other processes.

The brother of George Floyd made an earnest plea on Wednesday, urging the top human rights body of the United Nations to launch intense international scrutiny of systemic racism, the killing of black people by police and violence against peaceful protesters in the United States.

As the top human rights body of the United Nations seeks international scrutiny of systemic racism against people of African descent in response to the recent killings of African Americans by police, some countries are wondering if there is a double standard at play for America rather than the ways other countries are targeted for human rights violations because of dehumanizing their people.

A violent clash with Chinese troops in northern India Monday night resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers according to Indian government officials.

The U.S. government made it clear in March that it would not cooperate with an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan, and late last week, the Trump administration doubled-down on its stance by issuing an executive order that paves the way for ICC employees and their families to be barred from entry to the United States, and slapped with economic sanctions.

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday said it would hold a debate on “systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests” amid global demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd in the U.S.

In the depths of Central California Women’s maximum-security prison, hundreds of the incarcerated women have had to undergo forced sterilizations, according to a new documentary shown last week as the opener to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) Film Festival.

Ukrainian officials on Saturday announced they intercepted a $6 million bribe attempt to stop a criminal investigation into the president of Burisma, the natural-gas company at the center of President Trump’s impeachment investigation.