A local official in Burundi's northwestern province of Cibitoke has expressed concern over a security threat posed by Rwandan Hutu militiamen, known as Interahamwe, who have staged raids in the province in the last month, looting property in two communes. "Interahamwe militias have been hiding in the Kibira forest neighbouring the communes of Mabayi and Bukinanyana for about a month now," Benoit Ntigurirwa, the Cibitoke governor, told IRIN on Wednesday. The Interahamwe fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cibitoke Province is on the border with the DRC and Rwanda.

Efforts to close the “digital divide” between rich and poor societies and create “knowledge societies” will fail unless developing nations embrace freedom of expression, the Director General of the World Association of Newspapers said Wednesday. “In more and more countries, the struggle for freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, is today being fought out on the internet rather than in print, where it has traditionally taken place,” said the WAN Director General, Timothy Balding, in a speech to the World Electronic Media Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

Globalization has been a mixed blessing for human rights around the world, undermining the economic power of national governments but strengthening a sense of world community, according to a new analysis from the United Nations University. The Globalization of Human Rights report says progress on social and economic human rights is being undermined by the growing power of the global marketplace and the erosion of the ability of national governments to protect citizens from economic fluctuations. At the same time, however, globalization is fostering a greater sense of world community and international solidarity, leading to, for example, unprecedented collective interventions in internal national conflicts on compassionate humanitarian grounds.

While the ninth Conference of the Parties (COP-9) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held between 1-12 December in Milan, Italy had a rocky start, it ended on a positive note, according to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. Calling the Protocol "an unrealistic and ever-increasing regulatory straitjacket," US Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky had written in a major financial newspaper that the "only acceptable, cost-effective option" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was the American way. This viewpoint was argued vigorously (albeit unconvincingly, according to most observers), by the 60-strong US delegation in Milan. Days later, an advisor in the Russian presidency, "thought out loud" that Russian ratification was unlikely. Nevertheless, these statements did not detract Parties from keeping the process on track. In fact, the overwhelming message from the high-level segment was that the Protocol is the "only show in town." COP-9 not only highlighted the division between developed and developing countries, but also the leadership and initiative gaps between negotiators and constituency groups. While resolving differences on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis remains complex, the significant number of side events signals a change towards a more positive outlook for future COP sessions.

UNEP, the principal United Nations organisation in the field of environment is seeking suitably qualified candidates for the post of Senior Liaison Officer, Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific, based in Beijing, China.

The emerging trends in Namibia’s political culture offer reason for concern. The different chapters in this stock- taking volume suggest in different ways that the long struggle for national liberation and human rights has not been followed by a process towards genuine democracy and tolerance.

"The International Criminal Court came into being on July 1, 2002. To its supporters, the new court represents nothing less than a milestone in the evolution of global justice. The court’s opponents also portray it in highly dramatic terms. The Bush administration says it is so concerned that the court may launch politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. citizens that it has started a worldwide drive to secure immunity agreements from other countries, withholding military aid from many of those who refuse. Yet in the immediate future, the court’s impact may be much less than its supporters and critics believe. The setting up of the International Criminal Court presents the odd spectacle of an event of enormous symbolic resonance, whose practical effects are likely to remain fairly modest, at least for some time to come." The Crimes of War Project December magazine features the International Criminal Court. You can read the full magazine by clicking on the URL provided.

The Damocles Network, the legal arm of Reporters Without Borders, is launching a new site in French and English entitled Toolbox. Designed for professionals but also for the use of anyone interested in freedom of expression www.damocles.org carries basic texts that guarantee press freedom along with extracts from codes of ethics. The site also offers publications that can be downloaded like the Practical Guide for Journalists and the Charter for the Safety of Journalists working in War Zones or Dangerous Areas. An International Justice section offers a Guide to the International Criminal Court for the use of victims and advises on legal procedures to put together a case for anyone who is a victim of an international crime. Freelance journalists covering foreign stories will find practical information on low cost insurance policies and the loan of flak jackets from Reporters Without Borders.

Ninety-five countries signed the U.N. Convention against Corruption over a three-day conference in Mexico, a top Mexican Foreign Ministry official said last Thursday at the close of the gathering. The convention will enter into force once 30 governments have ratified it. Kenya, with a new government, was the first to sign and ratify. When the convention was opened for signatures last Wednesday, Kenya, the United States, Mexico, Italy, Paraguay, Japan, Mauritius, Kuwait and Sierra Leone were the first signers.

Some 65 million girls worldwide are kept out of school, increasing the risks that they will suffer from extreme poverty, die in childbirth or from AIDS and pass those dangers on to future generations, the U.N. children's fund said Thursday. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said investment in education was the best way to close the gender gap. ``We believe that the failure to invest in girls' education puts in jeopardy more development goals than any other single action that could take place,'' she said.
Related Link:
* State of the World's Children Report
http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/

Following privatisation in developing countries, aid donors such as the European Union have promoted a model of regulatory 'best practice' based on the western European and north American example of regulatory agencies independent of government control. But there is a reality gap here between donors' ideas of best practice and the real legal, administrative, economic and political processes which exist in developing countries.

Corruption is deeply embedded in the political culture and poverty of many less developed countries (LDCs). Regulatory bodies are particularly vulnerable to corruption as they have the power to make key decisions on profit-making activities. Corrupt regulatory bodies can thus dangerously impede economic development. And the problem with prescribed remedies is that they are too ambitious. Corruption is likely to remain a factor in many LDCs until substantial changes in their political cultures and economic structures have been achieved.

The Group of 20 will be working on a critical programme the following week, in a bid to spur the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha trade negotiations that collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, in September. The talks ended in a deadlock after developed nations and an alliance of developing nations failed to agree on key issues such as market access, domestic support and export competition in agriculture.

The main WTO negotiations carried out these days in Geneva, convened by the Chairman of the General Council, are held amongst only a very small group of about 30 delegations. This includes the all-important issue of agriculture. As one developing world negotiator informally commented: ‘We have been excluded from all the consultations post-Cancun. The process also has to be inclusive. How else are we going to ensure that our concerns are taken on board?’

UNICEF will launch its annual flagship report, The State of the World's Children, on 11 December 2003. The 2004 report presents girls' education as one of the most crucial issues facing the international development community.

This book grew out of a shared interest in and commitment to the approaches of contemporary social movements to alternative visions of globalisation.

A U.N. conference on climate change opened Monday, with organisers stressing there was "unquestionable" scientific proof that human beings caused global warming. The meeting was clouded by new doubts that the U.S.-rejected Kyoto pact on curbing greenhouse gas emissions would ever go into effect.

The number of people fleeing war, persecution, environmental destruction, poverty - or just seeking a better life - is nearing a staggering 250 million. As efforts to help the involuntarily uprooted evolve, significant questions arise: Which responsibilities should governments shoulder, which the international community? How can refugees best be protected? And if, as many believe, the number of uprooted continues to grow, how will the protection regime need to evolve? Although the price of aid may be great, failing to help the displaced may in the end carry an even higher price.

The challenge of the coming decade demands new approaches in dealing with the underlying causes of poverty in Africa. Importantly there is a need for the African Development Bank (AfDB) to transform into a development finance institution that is relevant to Africa’s long term development. There is a need to establish alliances with grassroots organisations and civil society in developing breakthrough solutions to the myriad of problems that besiege the African continent, says this paper from AFRODAD, a research, lobby and advocacy organisation.

The town of Kuruman in the Northern Cape turned into a battle field following an assault on a black customer by a white business owner. A mob from the black community then ran amok in what was believed to be revenge and caused serious damage to the nearby businesses, vehicles and injuries to locals.