Formation of Hague Group comes amid challenges to ICJ and ICC rulings

South Africa and Malaysia will launch a campaign to protect and uphold the rulings of the international court of justice (ICJ) and the international criminal court (ICC) in the face of what they describe as defiance of ICJ orders and attempts by US Congress to hit the ICC through the use of sanctions.

The aim of the nine-nation Hague Group – which includes Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Senegal and Namibia - is to defend the institutions and rulings of the international legal order.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s family reveal letters showing his despair after initial hopes David Lammy could get him freed from Cairo jail

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian political dissident held in a Cairo jail for more than five years, has reached such a state of despair over the UK’s inability to secure his release that he has contemplated renouncing both his British and Egyptian citizenship, his letters reveal.

His family have given permission for some of his private letters to be published to show his situation and his concern for his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, on hunger strike seeking his release.