Civil society organisations from across the Arab region met in Kuwait, from 4 to 5 May, within the framework of the Forum for the Future 2011, and unanimously adopted a declaration calling for the governments of the region to take urgent measures to eliminate discrimination against women. Based on universal standards and international law, the declaration calls on governments to abolish all discriminatory legislation within the next two years; to adopt laws to fight discrimination, violence and trafficking of women; and to withdraw all the reservations they have entered to the Convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW Convention).

Tanzania’s foreign affairs minister, Bernard Membe, is up in arms over the decision by BAE Systems to pay 29.5-million pounds in settlement of the controversial sale of a radar system. He told a press conference in Dar es Salaam that apart from the decision being unfair, the British company’s move was aimed at tarnishing the image of the Tanzania government before the international community. He warned that if BAE Systems went ahead and paid the money to a charity organisation, such an organisation would not be allowed to operate in Tanzania.

This map available on the Global Voices website documents the use of online and mobile technology to promote transparency and accountability around the world and includes several entries from Africa.

Two-and-a-half years into the financial crisis that began in the fall of 2008, workers have begun to fight back on a mass scale, says this World Socialist Web Site article. 'The ruling class and its political representatives are engaged in a worldwide drive to turn back the conditions of workers gained through struggle over generations. The war in Libya and the efforts of the US to bolster the military regime in Egypt are part of a global process that includes historic cuts in social programs in Europe and the United States. The February events in Egypt and the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa were the beginning of a working-class counteroffensive.'

Pharmaceutical industries in emerging markets are shifting their focus away from poor to developed countries, which will affect access to cheap generic medicines. Poor states should tackle this development by capitalising on the international trade exemptions they still enjoy regarding medicines as 'intellectual property'. These comments come from a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), titled 'Investment in Pharmaceutical Production in the Least Developed Countries', or LDCs.

On 8–10 June 2011, key stakeholders from all over the world will gather in New York to review progress of the global response to HIV/AIDS and to plan the way forward. This forum has the potential to reinvigorate the commitment to HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally. In light of this, on 20 May, SECTION27, TAC, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World AIDS Campaign and the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa sent a letter to the Director General for Health calling on the South African government to take the lead in setting ambitious and measurable targets, and encouraging similar commitments from other UN member states.

South Africa President Jacob Zuma arrived in Tripoli on Monday (30 May) for talks on ending the Libyan conflict as Nato said Muammar Gaddafi's 'reign of terror' was near its end. The South African presidency said Zuma is seeking an immediate ceasefire, to boost humanitarian aid and bring about the reforms needed to eliminate the cause of the conflict. But it rejected reports the talks would focus on an exit strategy for Gaddafi, saying the visit is part of African Union efforts to end the conflict between his forces and rebels fighting to oust him.

The credibility of the African Union (AU) is being questioned, after news that Zimbabwe will assume the chairmanship of the bloc’s Peace and Security Council. The rotational chairmanship passes from South Africa to Zimbabwe in June. The Peace and Security Council, in theory, is meant to promote peace, security and stability across Africa, while promoting democracy, good governance and the rule of the law. It is also meant to uphold the protection of human rights.

South African competition authorities approved Wal-Mart's $2.4 billion bid for Massmart on Tuesday (31 May), saying the retailer must not fire workers for two years. The conditions imposed on the deal - including a programme for developing local suppliers - will likely be seen as a win for the world's largest retailer, which said it would walk away from the deal if targets were put on local procurement.

The Kenyan government has pledged to support ongoing investigations into post-election violence, a senior official of the International Criminal Court said. Mr Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division at the court, spoke after a meeting with the Cabinet committee on ICC. Mochochoko said his trip was triggered by government attempts to defer the ICC cases. 'We have received reassurance and recommitment from the government but we will see whether they will change,' he said.

China, India and Saudi Arabia have lately leased vast tracts of land in sub-Saharan Africa at knockdown prices. Their primary aim is to grow food abroad using the water that African countries don't have the infrastructure to exploit. Doing so is cheaper and easier than using water resources back home. But it is a plan that could well backfire. 'There is no doubt that this is not just about land, this is about water,' says Philip Woodhouse of the University of Manchester, UK. Take Saudi Arabia, for instance. Between 2004 and 2009, it leased 376,000 hectares of land in Sudan to grow wheat and rice. At the same time the country cut back on wheat production on home soil, which is irrigated with water from aquifers that are no longer replenished - a finite resource.

The South African ambassador to Uganda, a former columnist for South Africa's Sunday Sun paper, has been found guilty of hate speech for an anti-gay article. South Africa's Equality Court fined Jon Qwelane $14,450 (£8,920) and ordered him to apologise for promoting hatred in the column published in 2008. Headlined 'Call me names but gay is NOT OKAY', it caused an uproar at the time. Mr Qwelane, who was appointed last year to Uganda where homosexual acts are illegal, did not mount a defence.

Rwanda's community-based gacaca courts have helped communities confront the country's 1994 genocide but have failed to provide credible decisions and justice in a number of cases, Human Rights Watch said in a report released 31 May. As the gacaca courts wind down their work, Rwanda should set up specialised units in the national court system to review alleged miscarriages of justice, Human Rights Watch said. The 144-page report, 'Justice Compromised: The Legacy of Rwanda's Community-Based Gacaca Courts', assesses the courts' achievements and outlines a number of serious shortcomings in their work, including corruption and procedural irregularities.

Governments and international institutions that once bankrolled the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak have begun floating aid packages to speed up the economic recovery and transition to democracy in these countries. Arab revolutionaries have reason to be wary. 'Very few details have been offered about the form this aid will take,' cautions Amr Hassanein, chairman of MERIS, a regional affiliate of Moody’s credit ratings agency. 'But as generous as the packages may seem, you can be sure there are strings attached.'

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations are posed to put aside the pledge on fighting poverty in developing nations. Their attention has now shifted to supporting the aspirations of ‘Arab up spring’ through a new commitment called ‘Deauville Partnership’. The world leaders said in a statement that the international development banks could give more than $20 billion to Egypt and Tunisia as they seek to support countries that overthrew dictators this year and are trying to establish free democracies.

Six opposition political parties have launched a coalition in Monrovia in a bid to oust President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the October polls. Johnson-Sirleaf is seeking re-election for a second five-year term, which she has promised to win against all odds. Several interest groups have also signed up with the coalition, arguing that they were supporting the coalition because of the ideals it stood for.

A bomb blast rocked a popular drinking spot by an army barracks in northern Nigeria on Sunday 29 May, killing a dozen people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for his first full term, officials said. A rescue worker who asked not to be identified told Reuters his colleagues had counted 12 dead bodies and that about 25 people had been wounded by the blast.

Figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that during 2011 Angola will leapfrog Morocco to become Africa’s fifth largest economy. Although growing, Angola's immediate influence on African affairs will not supercede that of the region's giants, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, says this article by Dominic Wall on 'The gap between the trio and the rest in economic size, demographics and political clout is considerable. ECOWAS, by far the most sophisticated and active regional bloc, is dependent upon Nigerian funding and manpower, while Southern Africa - besides Angola itself - relies heavily on South Africa. These and other factors mean the traditional giants will continue to dominate. But Angola’s rise has been, and is likely to remain rapid, despite a number of economic weaknesses. And the ability of the Dos Santos regime to influence events on a regional scale cannot be ignored.'

More than ten people were on Friday night (27 May) rounded up by authorities in Las Anod town in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Although no statement has been made on the seizure of the civilians in Sool region, some 1,150 km northwest of Mogadishu, the crackdown appeared to have been related to insecurity.

There is growing unease among green energy developers that there will be even more delays to the procurement of green power - the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced it would release its revised tariffs for renewable energy only in mid-June. They were expected by the end of May. Besides having to wait for clarity about what they can expect to be paid for their power, broader policy uncertainty and other bottlenecks are contributing to unhappiness over the roll-out of green power, despite the government's commitments to boosting the development of renewable energy.