Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is a necessary, but not sufficient, cause of tuberculosis (TB), as only approximately 10% of those infected ever develop tuberculosis. This process of progressing to disease after infection is poorly understood. A well known risk factors for this progression is HIV/AIDS. In a letter that will appear in Emerging Infectious Diseases several scientists hypothesize on epidemiological grounds that, in addition to HIV, there likely exists another sexually transmitted virus that causes tuberculosis after tuberculous infection.

African Colours, online since July 2000, is a portal for Contemporary Art, as well as a dynamic force to link artists from different parts of the world so that they can share their ideas and culture and achieve a common goal. To make a contribution, you can send your news and editorials to editorials@africancolours.com. To subscribe to their mailing list and receive African Colours Updates, please send an email to friends@africancolours.com.

A conference was held Sep. 29 in Bergen City, southern Norway, which brought together 70 education specialists from Africa, Europe and Asia. Governments, civil society and donor agencies were represented at the meeting, entitled 'Quality in Education for All'. Various African governments received a stinging rebuke this week for failing to live up to promises to improve children’s education in their countries.

Statewatch is calling for the draft EU common list of "safe countries of origin" to be scrapped. An analysis by Statewatch shows that EU member states are divided over the proposed list of ten "safe countries of origin" (seven in Africa, three in Latin America).The list was proposed in March as part of the draft EU asylum procedures Directive, which was politically agreed by the member states in April 2004. A broad coalition of refugee and human rights organisations has already called for this Directive to be withdrawn.

Two African television programmes have been nominated for the prestigious International Emmy Awards Gala to be held November 22 2004, in New York. "Stokvel" by Penguin Films (South Africa) was nominated in the comedy category and the other African nomination is for the special Iemmy/UNICEF International Children's day of broadcasting (ICDB) award. In this special category, Kenyan Nation TV's Channel 42 has been nominated for its "International Children's Day of Broadcasting Special".

In March 2004, Equality Now launched its report, Words and Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable in the Beijing + 10 Review Process. Since then, countries have made some developments regarding the laws given in the report and more recommended actions have been made. Please find a copy of the full report in the Women and Gender section of this newsletter or go to www.equalitynow.org.

The fundamental right to equality has been affirmed and reaffirmed repeatedly by governments in international treaties, declarations, and conferences, as well as in domestic constitutions. Nevertheless, discrimination against women in its most blatant forms continues in countries around the world. In September 1995, 6,000 delegates from 189 countries at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing adopted a Declaration reaffirming their fundamental commitment to "the equal rights and inherent dignity of women and men." They also adopted the Beijing Platform for Action in which they pledged to "ensure equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice," and more specifically in Paragraph 232(d) to "revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex and remove gender bias in the administration of justice." In June 2000, a Special Session of the General Assembly reviewed implementation of the Platform for Action, and governments pledged in the Outcome Document they adopted to review domestic legislation "with a view to striving to remove discriminatory provisions as soon as possible, preferably by 2005…" The 2005 deadline is fast approaching, yet laws that explicitly discriminate against women remain in force in many countries.

In 1999, Equality Now published Words and Deeds: Holding Governments Accountable in the Beijing +5 Review Process, a report highlighting a representative sampling of discriminatory laws in forty-five countries around the world and calling on their governments to rescind these laws in accordance with the commitment made in the Beijing Platform for Action. There have been a number of significant legal reforms in some countries. Equality Now welcomes the reforms that have been made by the Governments of The Bahamas, Costa Rica, France, Jordan, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Switzerland, Turkey, Venezuela and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Republic of Serbia, to eliminate the discriminatory laws highlighted by Equality Now in its initial report. These reforms demonstrate a commitment to equality and respect for the undertakings made in Beijing and other international legal obligations. They set an example that should be followed by all governments. The Government of Nepal amended several property laws to remove discriminatory provisions, including a law that gave daughters the right to a share of family property only if they were 35 years old and unmarried. It failed, however, to repeal a provision that requires women to return any such property upon marriage.

A large majority of the discriminatory laws cited by Equality Now in its report five years ago are still in force. The updated report attached to this Women's Action Update includes these laws and other laws that explicitly perpetuate de jure discrimination with regard to personal status, economic status, marital status and violence against women. These are a few of the many existing laws that fundamentally contradict the words and spirit of the Platform for Action (as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). In anticipation of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action and the target date of 2005 for elimination of discriminatory laws, Equality Now calls on all governments to rescind these laws within the next year, to demonstrate their commitment to implement the Beijing Platform for Action.

Explicitly discriminatory laws that mention women by name are only a small part of the discrimination women face daily in every country in the world. In many and varied ways, women's right to equality is pervasively and invisibly denied and precluded, their social inequality officially ratified. Some constitutions specifically exempt from equality guarantees certain laws that particularly and profoundly affect women's lives, such as family law and property inheritance, in deference to discriminatory religious or customary laws. Laws adopted to promote equality in employment rarely guarantee equal pay for work of comparable value, and domestic work is almost never covered by labor laws, with the result that women in the most sex-segregated jobs continue to be underpaid and unprotected.

Authorities in most countries are typically reluctant to respond vigorously to domestic violence with the result that women, the primary victims of intimate assault, have less personal security. Some countries make selling sex a crime while buying sex is not, thereby criminalizing those who are exploited, mainly women, while at the same time not holding those who exploit them, almost always men, accountable for this abuse. In countries where abortion is a crime, women are forced to carry pregnancy to term or are exclusively burdened with the danger of illegal abortions, which can be fatal. Whenever laws promote or perpetuate women's inequality, even when their language appears gender-neutral, they constitute discrimination in violation of international norms. To implement the Beijing Platform for Action, which calls for "non-discrimination under the law and in practice," governments must review all laws that have a discriminatory impact and remedy this discrimination.

Law is the most formal expression of government policy. A government that allows discriminatory laws to remain in force endorses and promotes inequality. Without equality under law, women have no recourse when they face discrimination that affects all aspects of their lives including security, bodily integrity, family life, community status, and political, economic and social prospects. The fact that there are any laws - in fact so many laws - that explicitly discriminate against women nearly 10 years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, 25 years after the adoption of CEDAW and 55 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirming that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," is unacceptable.

Recommended Actions Please write to the heads of state of the countries mentioned in this report and call on them to ensure that the laws mentioned, and any other discriminatory laws in force, are repealed or amended before the agreed target date of 2005. Urge them to undertake and complete these reforms as a demonstration of their genuine commitment to the words and spirit of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document adopted in 2000. To address the harmful and disproportionate impact on women of laws that are gender neutral in language, call on your own government to undertake a comprehensive review, in conjunction with women's groups in the country, of existing laws to identify and address any sex discriminatory impact these laws might have, through legal reform or other measures needed to ensure non-discriminatory implementation of the law. This appeal should be addressed to your Minister of Justice, as well as your President or Prime Minister. Share this report and your concerns with the media and the general public, to enlist their support in this campaign to hold governments accountable to the promises they made in the Beijing Platform for Action. Please keep us updated on your campaign efforts and let us know about discriminatory laws in your country and efforts underway to change them.

Please keep Equality Now updated on your efforts and send information or copies of replies you receive to: Equality Now, P.O. Box 20646, Columbus Circle Station, New York, NY 10023 USA or Equality Now Africa Regional Office, P.O. Box 2018 KNH, Nairobi, KENYA

Delegates at a racism conference urged blacks worldwide to work toward greater economic power, while the gathering faced criticism of a decision to exclude non-blacks from some deliberations. The six-day conference in Suriname is bringing together more than 100 delegates from Africa, Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. The Global African Conference was created during a 2002 meeting in Barbados, billed as a follow-up to the 2001 United Nations anti-racism conference in South Africa.

If you would like to receive the UN senior vacancy job lists attachment for
Fall 2004, send your request directly to annewalker@iwtc.org. For requirements, eligibility and application deadlines, please visit the United Nations website at UN Human Resources e-Staffing System at: https://jobs.un.org/release1/vacancy/vacancy.asp.

Young Africans will soon have a better chance of getting education and training, thanks to a new Canadian program. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is assisting the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) to launch this fall a two-year $1.4 million pilot project designed to benefit up to 250 young men and women in eight African countries.

Freedom in the World, the annual global survey of civil liberties and political rights, is now available on Freedom House's website. Covering 192 countries and 18 territories, the survey rates them according to criteria based largely on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to freedom of expression. Countries and territories are given a rating of "Free," "Partly Free" or "Not Free."

Three new working papers have been published by the Refugee Studies Centre under the RSC Working Paper series which is intended to stimulate discussion among the worldwide community of scholars, policymakers and practitioners. They are distributed free of charge in PDF format. Bound hard copies may also be purchased. The new titles are: "AIDS, gender and the Refugee Protection Framework", "The Meaning of Place in a World of Movement: Lessons from Long-Term Field Research in Southern Ethiopia" and "Refugees and their Human Rights."

Women's eNews would like nominations of women or men of all ages, heritages, countries and professions who have made a positive impact on the lives of women. These leaders will be honored at the annual Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century gala to be held on May 17th, 2005 in New York City.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) look unlikely to be fulfilled. Current rates of progress in improving incomes, health and education across the world are too slow. Under-investment in basic social services by national governments and inadequate support from the international agencies has hampered advancements. Research from the United Nations Development Programme argues that the MDGs are all feasible and affordable but governments and international bodies need to spend more money if they are to be achieved.

An international conference to press for the eradication of female genital mutilation in Africa and around the world took place in Kenya from 16-18 September. A testimony from a thirteen-year-old Kenyan girl was especially shocking as she described what it is like to be forcibly circumcised at the age of 11 to ambassadors, activists, health workers, policy-makers and other guests.

The United States government has approved the sum of N28 billion ($200) million dollars to encourage educational development in Africa even after the US-sponsored Educational for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) handed over five community resource centers in Nigeria.

For many African parents, raising their children abroad (particularly the U.S), is a very daunting and challenging task. The reasons are many, including the culture of the society, which gives enormous powers to the child. Torn between two cultures, African parents are therefore in a dilemma as to where to raise their children. And many believe that there is no substitute for education anchored on traditional African values.

To learn more about the seldom-publicized legal battle for massive reparations for all Afro-Descendants in the Western Hemisphere, visit the All for Reparations and Emancipation website.

The Nigerian Federal Government has blacklisted an oil service company linked to the current United States Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited (HENSL), based on negligent conduct. The company is currently facing a probe over alleged fraudulent deals in Nigeria and Iraq. It has also been indicted over the loss of two ionizing radioactive materials from Nigeria in 2002 and lack of co-operation with the Federal Government in ensuring the return of the materials to the country.

The objective of the NEPAD Youth Expert Panel is to support youth mainstreaming in the implementation of the NEPAD goals through the three tiers of the NEPAD implementation framework. The Panel will consist of one representative from each country selected through a process that is gender sensitive and with intellectual diversity as well as knowledge of the African development environment.