On 11 July, the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Congress voted to reject proposed reforms to the Criminal Code that failed to decriminalize abortion in limited circumstances and continued to violate the rights of women and girls.

Siblings and human rights defenders Anairis Miranda Leyva, Adairis Miranda Leyva and Fidel Manuel Batista Leyva ended the hunger strike they began on 8 June after being harassed and intimidated in Cuba following their conditional release from prison.

Venezuelan prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López was transferred from prison to his house in Caracas, the capital, on 8 July, where he will continue to serve his sentence.

Bahraini human rights defender, Ebtisam al-Saegh, has been under continuous and lengthy interrogation since her arrest on 3 July when she also started a hunger strike.

While Salvadoran legislators have, for months, been postponing the debate on the Criminal Code reform that would decriminalize abortion, another rape survivor has been sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for having suffered pregnancy-related complications.

The Chilean Senate has begun discussing a proposed law aimed at decriminalizing abortion under specific circumstances, and is set to vote on the law next week.

Four men from Iran’s Kurdish minority have been subjected to enforced disappearance since their arrests on 23 and 24 June.

Aliaksei Mikhalenya was sentenced to death by the Homel Regional Court, in southeast Belarus, on 17 March. His sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on 30 June and he is now at risk of imminent execution.

Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, also known as blogger Mẹ Nấm (Mother Mushroom), was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on 29 June 2017 for “conducting propaganda” against the state under Article 88 of the Penal Code.

Stanislav Aseev, a freelance journalist, has been missing in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) in eastern Ukraine since 2 June.