The Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) outlines the stigmatisation of people based on sexual orientation in the context of the African Commission rejecting an application for observer status from the Coalition of African Lesbians.

‘If the body that is supposed to protect our human rights denies us that space … everyone is going to take advantage of that denial to harass us,’ says activist Kasha Jacqueline, following the ACHPR’s refusal to grant observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians.

Black London’s Film Heritage invites submissions from any organisation or individual holding film material which depicts an African?Caribbean presence in London. To be considered for inclusion in this project, submissions for previewing will be accepted on all formats, but if possible preferably digital or VHS tape.

Fishing communities are organising to demand fishing laws change to include their right to participate in planning, implementing and managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to protect marine and coastal biodiversity. But what are the underlying issues and how does policy creation need to shift? One case study in Struisbaai highlights key issues and examines if current small-scale fisher policy processes create an enabling environment for fishers. Indigenous and local communities have many customs and lengthy histories of using South Africa’s well-established network of MPAs, covering 21 per cent of the 3,000km coastline. Fishing in Struisbaai (population: 2,052 in 1,588 households) can be traced to the first nation KhoiSan who used vyfers (fish traps) in the inter-tidal zone to catch elf (Pomatomus saltatrix), harder (Liza richardsonii), kolstert (Diplodus sargus capensis), strepie (Sarpa salpa) and galjoen (Dichistius capensis). Traditionally, clans and families maintain traps; women harvest, gut, cut and cook.

Zambia has been named among several countries in Africa that have failed to account for about US$13 million believed to have been misapplied and embezzled under the Global Fund. According to media reports, citing the November 2010 edition of the Global Fund report, Zambia is on the list together with Cameroun, Mauritania and Mali that are said to have misapplied in excess of US$25 million meant for assistance to the health sector.

Polio was on the brink of eradication in Angola at the end of 2004, when the country had experienced three consecutive years without new cases. Then, in 2005, the wild poliovirus reappeared here. Angola now has one of the biggest polio caseloads in Africa.

The Chinese government will provide 60 annual scholarships for Angolans wishing to study in China, the Angolan Ambassador to China, Joao Bernardo, said here Sunday in an interview with the country's News Agency (ANGOP). The diplomat disclosed this while appraising the visit to Angola of China's Vice President, Xi Jinping. According to the ambassador, as part of the agreement signed Friday, China had raised the scholarships from 20 to 60.

ANC veteran Pallo Jordan has criticised his party's media appeals tribunal plans and the Protection of Information Bill at a debate, saying it was a 'fool's errand'. 'How did it [the ANC] paint itself into a corner where it can be portrayed as being opposed to media freedom? All the legislation we now have, including the Protection of Access to Information Act, was developed by the ANC,' said Jordan, according to a report in Business Day newspaper on Tuesday.

As the international community commemorated Africa Industrialisation Day last week, United Nations officials expressed mixed emotions about a beleaguered continent plagued by a rash of political, economic and military crises. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that a continuing global economic crisis has not only reduced the demand for African exports but also constricted foreign aid and hindered the flow of remittances to the cash-strapped continent.

Although police deny it, residents in the embattled Khayelitsha TR Section that has been ablaze with protests for eight weeks, say an 8pm curfew is being enforced, with police firing rubber bullets at will. Over 50 residents spoken to in TR Section said police in blue SAPS uniforms, but with their faces covered with balaclavas, patrolled the area at night and shot at anyone they saw outdoors after 8pm.

'We find it reprehensible that CAL's application was rejected, considering that they meet all the criteria set out for groups to obtain observer status and that they represent a minority group whose vulnerability to human rights abuse is well documented.'

Priority will be given to qualified applicants from Senegal, other West African French-speaking countries and Maghreb region.

This Thursday marks the United Nations recognised International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and in an effort to raise awareness about his important issue, Earthlife Africa will be gathering at the Fountain, St. Georges Mall, Strand Street end in Cape Town, on Saturday, 27 November, between 10am and 1pm, to raise their concerns and spread awareness. 'Little known impacts of nuclear radiation on women and children, especially women that are pregnant, must be brought out into the open,' said Earthlife Africa Cape Town’s Gray Maguire. 'The ongoing threat to the unborn in our country is at a higher level than ever before, given plans to build multiple nuclear power stations across the country..

Egyptian authorities must independently investigate, without delay, allegations that a young man was tortured to death at a police station in Alexandria, and guarantee the safety of another young man still in custody there, Amnesty International has said. The family of Ahmed Shaaban, a 19-year-old man, allege that he died after being tortured and physically abused by police officers at Sidi Gaber police station on 7 November.

Namibia's land redistribution programme has progressed at a snail'space, with farms not changing hands as fast as government would have wanted. White commercial farmers and inflated prices of land have emerged as a bulwark against much vaunted promises for land. Ongoing flare-ups over ancestral land in cases which have been dramatised by direct defiance of court rulings are only a microcosm of a much bigger problem. The plan by government for blacks to own land is flagging, observers and analysts have concluded.

Few people from Southern Sudan who live in the north are turning out to enrol as voters for the referenda on the future of the south, the chairperson of the United Nations-appointed panel monitoring the process said today, citing various reasons for the dismal turnout, including lack of awareness and uncertainty. The people of Southern Sudan are scheduled to vote on 9 January on whether the south should secede from the rest of the country, while the final status of Abyei will be determined in a separate vote on the same day, as set out in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended two decades of war between the north and the south.

With the help of a Micro-grant awarded by Rising Voices, AZUR Development organisation trained communication officers of different AIDS organisations in Congo in digital story telling, podcasting, and the creation of blogs. The goal was that these participants would document the stigma and discrimination of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS in Congo and use them as an advocacy tools.

Burundi is cracking down on civil society, media, and opposition parties in the wake of troubled local and national elections from May through September 2010, Human Rights Watch has said in a new report. The 69-page report, 'Closing Doors?: The Narrowing of Democratic Space in Burundi', documents abuses including torture, arbitrary arrests, banning of opposition activities, and harassment of civil society groups.

The Humbo plateau, some 400 kilometres south of Ethiopia's capital, is in the most densely populated part of Ethiopia. It's a dry and dusty district that has experienced frequent drought; average rainfall is 800-900 mm and temperatures routinely rise to 40 degrees. The stripping of trees has made the low-lying areas susceptible to flooding. But a Clean Development Mechanism project initiated by international development organisation World Vision has organised 40,000 people in the worst-affected areas to regenerate and protect 2,700 hectares of forest land.

The International Freedom of Expression Exchange Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG), a coalition of 20 IFEX members, is deeply concerned that five years after hosting the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Tunisia remains one of the most repressive countries for independent journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders. Access to the Internet is heavily censored, independent websites are blocked or hacked, and emails and phone calls are intercepted.