The New Zealand government on Sept. 11 revealed its plans to move forward with drafting a controversial bill that would redefine the nation's founding document, te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi, despite official advice opposing the policy. Associate Justice Minister David Seymour, leader of the ACT New Zealand Party who secured support for the Treaty Principles Bill in the government's coalition agreement last November, announced the cabinet's approval for the new policy and plans to introduce it to Parliament.

Three Pacific island nations have proposed that ecocide become a crime under international law, which would see the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecute cases of environmental destruction alongside war crimes and genocide. The Sept. 9 move by Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa is unlikely to see fast results but is expected to force ICC member states to at least consider the problem. The initiative could one day lead to company leaders, or even nations, facing prosecution. However, ICC member states notably those do not include China, Russia, India or the United States.

The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, issued a stern condemnation Sept. 14 of recent attacks on Sufi shrines across the country. Bangladesh has experienced a recent rise of extremist violence targeting religious and cultural sites, including both Sufi shrines and Hindu temples. Yunus assured the public that law enforcement agencies have been instructed to take immediate action to protect these religious and cultural landmarks, promising that those behind the attacks will be held accountable.

Chile filed a declaration of intervention Sept. 13 in South Africa's genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The South American country submitted its declaration under Article 63 of the Statute of the ICJ, which gives states a right to intervene in the interpretation of a multilateral convention. Chile's intervention focuses on the duty to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention.

Over 26 rights organizations, including the Kurdistan Human Rights Network and Center for Human Rights in Iran, issued a joint statement Sept. 9 calling for the immediate revocation of the death sentence imposed on Kurdish women's rights activist Pakhshan Azizi. This sentence, handed down by the Iranian judiciary, has sparked international outrage, with the organizations calling it "a blatant violation of human rights principles and standards as well as international conventions and treaties."

Four Black nationalists affiliated with the Uhuru Movement, an arm of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP), are on trial for acting as agents of a Russian propaganda network, in what they are calling "the free speech trial of the century." Regardless of whether their activities were protected by the First Amendment, the case reveals the very strangest of political bedfellows. Tucker Carlson, who similarly serves as a conduit for Russian propaganda, is also mentioned (although not charged) in a new federal indictment. Carlson is scheduled to appear onstage with JD Vance later this month, and recently hosted an uncloseted Nazi-nostalgist on his Twitter program. The absurd irony of the APSP platforming Kremlin demonization of Ukraine as a "Nazi" state is heightened by Russia's serial massacres of Black Africans in its new military adventures on the continent. The Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), which seemingly cultivated Uhuru/APSP, is similarly cultivating white supremacists, who are overtly Trump-aligned and marched at the Charlottesville hate-fest in 2017. The ultimate stateside beneficiary of this Kremlin-orchestrated propaganda effort is of course Donald Trump—who as president in 2020 sought to unleash the military against that year's Black Lives Matter uprising. Yet while too many "radicals" take the Kremlin bait, once-reviled "liberals" like the National Urban League actually take a more progressive position on Russia and Ukraine. In Episode 243 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores how the American radical left went through the proverbial looking glass, including with analogies from the (last) Cold War.

Last week, a UN fact-finding mission for Sudan called for an independent and impartial force to be deployed "without delay" to protect civilians. Its case would not have been harmed by reports this week of a new set of grave human rights violations in the country. In southeastern Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were accused of killing 40 people in artillery strikes on local markets and residential areas, while in North Darfur's famine-stricken Zam Zam displacement site, the RSF reportedly tightened a siege and arrested traders trying to supply the camp.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement Sept. 6 condemning the treason charges leveled against protestors in Nigeria last month. A total of 124 people were arrested during the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria campaign in August, and 10 of those individuals have been charged with treason. The crime of treason can be punishable by death in the West African country.