As of July 5 the Guatemalan government had still failed to comply with instructions from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish) to help more than 600 campesino families that had been evicted from land in the Polochic Valley in the northeastern department of Alta Verapaz. The IACHR, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States (OAS), gave the government 15 days to carry out "precautionary measures" (medidas cautelares) to guarantee the life and physical integrity of the displaced campesinos, to ensure that they had food and shelter, and to report on investigations into the violence that accompanied the evictions.

Residents of Caracol, a village in Haiti's Northeast department, say they were never consulted or even warned about plans to build a huge new "free trade zone" (FTZ, a complex of assembly plants) on land where many of them have been farming for some 20 years. "It's the most fertile area we have at Caracol," resident Renel Pierre told journalist Sylvestre Fils Dorcilus. "It's inconceivable and unacceptable that the government could choose this part of the land to set up an industrial park."

We have had plenty of occasion to point out before: Isn't it funny that those who invoke the supposed superiority of Western culture the loudest are the quickest to betray those values which supposedly make it superior (pluralism, tolerance, etc.)? It is nearly hilariously ironic in the case of Israel, whose apologists repeat like a mantra that it is "the Middle East's only democracy," in contradistinction to all those Arab dictatorships. When push comes to shove, however, pluralism and tolerance get chucked overboard. The Knesset has just passed a law banning calls for a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The Israel-based website BoycottIsrael!—"Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within"—remains online at the moment, and it will be interesting to see if any action is taken against it. Here are the basic facts from Ha'aretz, July 11:

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on July 8 rejected two appeals from Swiss Muslims challenging Switzerland's ban on construction of minarets. The court ruled that the appeals were inadmissible because the complaints failed to meet the requirements of Article 35 Section 3 and 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, the court found that since the appeals were only meant to challenge a constitutional provision in a general manner in Switzerland, the applicants had failed to show any specific injury. Supporters and opponents were not surprised by the ECHR's decision. Hafid Ouardiri, one of the challengers, characterized his failed challenge as a necessary step and was encouraged by the court's statement that the Swiss courts "would be able to would be able to examine the compatibility of a possible refusal to authorise the construction of a minaret with the European Human Rights Convention."

Some 40,000 people gathered July 11 to remember the massacre of an estimated 8,000 captive Muslim men and boys on that day in 1995 at the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, when it was overrun by besieging Serb rebel forces. Religious rites were held by Bosnian Muslim spiritual leader Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric as 613 new victims exhumed from various locations since last year's commemoration were buried in the memorial cemetery at Potocari, six kilometers outside the town. Many of those in attendance walked for days from mountain villages which had sheltered refugees from Srebrenica during the war, in what has become an annual pilgrimage. The event was attended by international dignitaries, including Croatian president Ivo Josipovic and Turkish vice-premier Bulent Arinc. Serbian president Boris Tadic, who attended last year's ceremony, was absent this year, but sent a message saying Serbia is determined to punish all war criminals—although he stressed that he expected the same from other countries. The Muslim member of Bosnia's rotating presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, praised Tadic for keeping his promise made at last year's commemoration to arrest wartime Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. But he protested that a "greater part of Serbian people still evades facing the truth," and glorify Mladic "as a hero." (AKI, July 11; AP, July 8)

The Israeli army last week began tearing down a section of its separation barrier in the West Bank near Bil'in village, where weekly protests have become a symbol of opposition to the wall's encroachment on Palestinian land. The rerouting of the barrier, after long delays, was a rare instance in which Israeli military officials were forced to change plans by a court order. It comes four years after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on a petition by villagers that the barrier's route did not serve security needs, but cut through village farmland for purposes of expanding the adjacent Israeli settlement of Modi’in Ilit, a fast-growing town of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The court ordered the barrier torn down and rebuilt closer to the settlement.

Tens of thousands of people again rallied in the army-beseiged Syrian city of Hama on Friday July 8, calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad. Activists said security forces shot dead 13 people elsewhere in Syria during Friday protests, including six in the town of Dumair near Damascus. Amid the continued repression, a Human Rights Watch report based on interviews with defecting soldiers found that troops have been ordered to disperse unarmed protesters with a "shoot to kill" policy. HRW said it "interviewed eight soldiers and four members of the security agencies who had defected since anti-government protests erupted in March 2011... The soldiers...reported participating in and witnessing the shooting and injury of dozens of protesters, and the arbitrary arrest and detention of hundreds."

Salva Kiir was officially been sworn in July 9 as the first president of South Sudan, moments after he signed the country’s transitional constitution before tens of thousands in the new republic's capital, Juba. Wearing his trademark cowboy hat, Kiir repeated his offer of an amnesty to the six rebel groups that have risen in South Sudan: “I want to offer public amnesty to all those who took arms against the people of South Sudan. Let them lay down these arms and help us in building this new nation,” Kiir said. He also pledged to work for a resolution to the conflicts in the border enclave of Abyei, and the North Sudan regions of Darfur and Kordofan. "I want to assure the people of Abyei, Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan that we have not forgotten you. When you cry, we cry. When you bleed, we bleed. I pledge to you today that we will find a just peace for all," he said. (Sudan Tribune, July 9)