Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Feb. 28 urged that the call by imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan for an end to the organization's decades-long insurgency against Türkiye must serve as a catalyst to end the systematic misuse of terrorism charges against government critics in the country.

Öcalan founded the PKK in 1978, and the party waged an insurgency against Türkiye for four decades, with approximately 40,000 killed in the conflict. The PKK has been declared a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US and EU. Öcalan has been imprisoned on the island of Imrali since his capture in February 1999 for violating the controversial Article 125 of Türkiye’s Penal Code. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002. 

Amnesty International on Feb. 19 called on the Egyptian government to release dozens of arbitrarily detained currently awaiting “unlawful” prosecution. The charges brought against them include disseminating false news, and involvement in anti-government protests.

The Malian Armed Forces command has refuted accusations that soldiers were responsible for an attack that took place on Feb. 17, in which 24 civilians including women and children were killed. The armed forces denied any involvement in the massacre, which is said to have occurred in Tilemsi commune, Gao region. Press reports indicate a caravan of vehicles carrying migrants across the desert was targeted in the attack, which was carried out jointly with Russian mercenaries.

The Taliban announced on Feb. 20 that Afghanistan will no longer recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), stating that the country's 2003 accession to the Rome Statute is declared to be legally void after ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and the Chief Justice of Afghanistan Abdul Hakim Haqqani last month.

UN General Assembly members approved a resolution supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity on Feb. 24, the day marking the third anniversary of Russia's massive invasion of the country. The resolution won 93 votes in favor, with 18 votes against, with 65 abstentions. Washington sided with Russia, as well as Belarus, North Korea and Sudan, to vote against the measure. Hungary, Israel, Eritrea, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Nicaragua also voted against. China and Iran were among the abstentions. The US had declined to co-sponsor the resolution, instead pushing its own language that failed to blame Russia for the war or mention Ukraine's borders.

US conservation groups filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Feb. 19, asserting that the administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by issuing an executive order reversing withdrawals of oil and gas leases. The groups filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Alaska, alleging that the protected waters affected by Trump's order have extensive marine biodiversity that provides social and scientific benefits. The conservationists also noted that the deafening sounds of exploration and drilling activities injure marine life and degrade their habitat, and that the development of just one oil lease would create a 75% chance of an oil spill greater than 1,000 barrels. Pollution from vessels and aircraft around the areas could also cause significant harm, even if an oil spill were not to occur. The conservationists further asserted that surveys and drilling harm commercial fishing, and thereby ultimately harm local economies.

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened Feb. 17 to take Google to court if its map feature continues to show US-based users the label "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico." President Donald Trump's first day in office concluded with an executive order renaming the "Gulf of Mexico" as the "Gulf of America." Trump decreed of Jan. 20 stated that the name change is being made "in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation's economy and its people."

The president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) in Peru on Feb. 17 denounced the use of local children as "human shields" to protect illegal mining activities and demanded the declaration of a state of emergency in the northern Amazon region.

The Wampis Indigenous Nation has more than 10,000 inhabitants. In 2015, the nation formed its Autonomous Territorial Government to manage and protect the territory, which covers lowland rainforest across the Santiago/Kanus and Morona/Kankaim river basins in the northern Peruvian Amazon. Peru is the leading producer of gold, zinc, tin, lead and molybdenum in Latin America. However, long-term illegal mining, principally of gold, has posed significant threats to the environment and human rights.