Vuyiseka Dubula, general secretary of the will be speaking on ‘HIV/AIDS: The struggle for human rights and dignity in South Africa’ on 4 November 2009 in Oxford, England, at an event hosted by Ruskin College and Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice.

The International Council on Human Rights Policy has released a new report, When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-State Law. This report highlights human rights impacts and dilemmas associated with plural state and non-state laws, such as family laws based on religion, customary justice practices and Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. Drawing on examples of such plural legal orders from around the world, it proposes principles and a framework to guide human rights practitioners and policy-makers.

With the click of a mouse, students at Canadian universities find information quickly and download what they need at high speeds. They could not imagine doing research without using the Internet to supplement material from their university library.But it’s a different story in most parts of Africa, where limited library collections make access to the Internet even more critical for research, yet that access is harder to come by.

Gender Links is commissioning submissions that will be used as part of activities for 16 Days of Activism 2009. Commissioned pieces may be used in a booklet to be launched on Human Rights Day entitled “World Cup 2010: Problems and Possibilities" and/ or distributed to mainstream media and through the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.

The conference on contractual teachers, called Bamako +5, ended in the Malian capital, Bamako, with an appeal to African governments to mobilize more resources to ensure a better quality of their education systems and the training of contractual teachersThe conference in a declaration called on African governments to initiate political dialogue between stakeholders of their educational systems in order to find ways and means to build leadership in schools. They should also allocate at least 20% of their national budgets to education.

The Constitutional Court in Tunisia has validated the results of Sunday's presidential election, won by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali with more than 86.62% of the votes, official sources said. The 73-year-old Ben Ali, who was the candidate of the ruling party in power for 22 years, beat three opposition candidates to win his fifth, consecutive five-year term, which should be his last, since the constitution prescribes 75 years as the maximum age for presidential candidates.

Germany has granted 23 million euros to the Organization coordinating the fight against Endemics in Central Africa (OCEAC) as part of its project for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Central Africa. An agreement to this effect signed Monday in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, by a representative of the German Development Bank (KFW), Hubert Eisele, and the Secretary-General of OCEAC, Dr. Jean Jacques Moka.

Kenya is to carry out a census of its gay population in an effort to bolster the fight against HIV/Aids - despite homosexuality being against the law. Nicholas Muraguri, head of Kenya's Aids prevention programme Nascop, told the BBC it was vital that the government reached out to the gay community.

What are the key strategies for closing the gender gap in agricultural production? This paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute reviews attempts to increase poor female farmers’ access to, and control of, productive resources in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

The total number of people forced from their homes in the past six months by persistent violent conflict in Central and Eastern Africa has topped 1 million, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. According to the data compiled by OCHA’s regional office, the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) across the region has now passed the 10 million mark.

Following the tabling of the Anti-Homosexual Bill in the Ugandan parliament, a new Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law has been formed, set to respond to the draconian bill which, according to the coalition undermines basic human rights and the Constitution of Uganda.

People living in a slum district of the Algerian capital have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against job and housing shortages. Residents of the Diar Echams area, frustrated over high unemployment and inadequate housing, clashed with police on Wednesday having started their protest on Monday night.

Julia Nyaberi's* "clinic" in Majengo, a slum in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, caters to one type of client only - pregnant women seeking abortions. Young women writhe in pain on the floor of the poorly lit house; the neighbours all know what happens here and have become immune to the moans and wails.

MISA-Swaziland notes with great concern that the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), with due respect, seems to be playing double standards in that it has unilaterally decided to go ahead and propose a statutory media council when it initially endorsed voluntary self-regulation and has been in the forefront of this process with previous Ministers leading it.

Dr Darsi Ferrer is one of the most important civil rights leaders in Cuba today, and a tireless, courageous fighter against social exclusion. Dr Ferrer was arrested more than three months ago, and jailed on absurd, untrue charges of having 'stolen materials' from the state.

Well known gay rights activist, Zanele Muholi, has been awarded a Fanny Ann Eddy accolade, by the International Resource Network in Africa (IRN-Africa), for her outstanding contributions in the study of sexuality in Africa, at the recent Genders & Sexualities in Africa Conference held in Syracuse, New York.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organisation fighting corruption worldwide, will release its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on 17 November 2009. The index ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. Released annually since 1995, the CPI helps to highlight the propensity of domestic corruption and its damaging influence.

The human rights record of the Zambian military is being tested in court by two former air force officers who allege they were fired for being HIV positive. Stanley Kingaipe and Charles Chookole claim they were tested and treated for HIV without their knowledge, and then discharged for being medically unfit a year later.

In this week’s [mp3] The Kennedy Thirteen, members of the embattled shackdwellers’ movememt Abahlali baseMjondolo are arraigned in court, miners stage a sit-in at a Mpumalanga mine, and Tanzanian workers push for salary review implementation. This bulletin is part of a partnership between Worker’s World Media Productions and Pambazuka News that seeks to highlight labour issues affecting Africa’s workers.