A coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced formation of a parallel government in Sudan, further cementing the country's territorial split between army-held and RSF-held regions. Paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ("Hemedti") will head a 15-person council with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N rebel group, as deputy. The African Union urged member states to not recognize the new administration. The RSF-led government wants to rival the Port Sudan-based army-led transitional government, which installed a prime minister in May, former UN official Kamil Idris.

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil July 28—three days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on July 5 praised the previous day's advisory opinion on the climate crisis from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) as a "landmark step forward," urging states to take meaningful action through legislation, policymaking and international cooperation. Advisory Opinion 32/25 addresses signatory states' human rights obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San José) in the face of climate change. The opinion was issued in response to a request submitted by the governments of Chile and Colombia last year.

A coalition of independent UN human rights experts on April 3 called on additional states to join the Hague Group. The statement urges states to ensure accountability for Israel's violations of international law and to cooperate with the international courts to restore the rule-based international order. ​

An eight-year-old Venezuelan girl died and 20 survivors were rescued by Panamanian authorities from a Feb. 21 shipwreck during a journey from Panama's northern port of Llano Carti to the Colombian border.

President Trump has ordered the construction of a 30,000-bed facility to hold migrants at the notorious US naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his mass deportation campaign. The US base has been used to house terrorism suspects since 2002, becoming synonymous with torture and unlawful imprisonment. The US has secretively detained refugees and migrants intercepted at sea at Guantánamo Bay for decades, but the facility has not previously been used for people apprehended on US soil or at this scale.

Human rights organizations, including the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), have urged an immediate end to violence between illegal armed groups in the northeast Colombian region of Catatumbo. WOLA joined the Colombian movement "Defendamos la Paz" in a call for armed groups in Catatumbo to suspend their conflict. In the Jan. 19 statement, WOLA wrote: "The Ejercito Nacional de Liberación (ELN) must cease human rights violations and adopt a truce to halt armed confrontations with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) dissidents." The rights organizations also called on the Colombian government to provide immediate humanitarian aid for the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region. WOLA urged the armed groups involved to "respect international humanitarian law and allow relief efforts to reach those in need."

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) on Nov. 2 adopted several important agreements regarding an expanded role for indigenous peoples and local communities in biodiversity preservation efforts. A new agreement on Article 8J of the Convention aims to enhance the place of indigenous knowledge and participation in crafting the Global Biodiversity Framework.