A court has ordered militant supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to stop exhuming hundreds of skeletons they say were the victims of colonial-era massacres. The judge said the exhumations violated all international protocols on investigating suspected human rights violations and amounted to 'interference or tampering with crime scenes'.

Political opposition parties have tabled submissions calling for the scope of the Protection of Information Bill to be whittled down after progress on the legislation appeared to stall in recent months. In its document, the Democratic Alliance called for the scrapping of entire chapters of the bill, which is widely seen as a regressive bid to prevent scrutiny and criticism of the state.

There are concerns about the future of organic cotton in Burkina Faso, reports Farm Radio Weekly. The concern is caused by a jump in plantings of genetically modified or GM cotton. By 2009, genes from GM crops had been found in organic cotton. At that time, only 10 per cent of conventional cotton farmers were growing GM varieties. But with the massive spread of GM cotton in 2010, almost 90 per cent of conventional producers now grow GM cotton.

The privately-owned Standard newspaper which was in 2010 banned by the Gambia authorities has been given the green-light to operate. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that the decision was announced by the newly appointed State House Press Secretary, Fatou Camara, during a rare interaction between President Yahya Jammeh and media owners and editors in the country.

A new report released by the US Department of State documents the ongoing violation of human rights and basic freedoms by the government of Equatorial Guinea against its citizens, the group EG Justice has said. The report’s findings strongly contradict the Equatoguinean government’s claim that it has 'turned the page' and disassociated itself from the abuses that have marred the country for decades, EG Justice says.

On 6 April, officials of a branch of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) - the Rapid Intervention Force (FIR) - used violence to put an end to a protest by the employees of the private security firm Group Four Security (G4S). Allegedly, reports Global Voices, G4S has been illegally discounting employees' salaries, and they were now complaining about an worsening situation since June 2010. At the demonstration, workers appealed for payment of unreasonable discounted pay by the employer, as well as for the payment of holiday bonuses and overtime.

In the shadow of the extraordinary events under way in the Middle East, Djibouti's presidential vote was always going to struggle for attention. Indeed, the plight of this tiny country, sandwiched between Somalia and Yemen, remains almost completely ignored. But as the primary seaport to 85 million landlocked Ethiopians, the center of anti-piracy efforts in the Horn of Africa, and a reliable Western ally in the war on terror, Djibouti is a strategically vital country in an unstable neighbourhood.

Good practices and lessons learned on integrating gender into security sector institutions (SSIs) and security sector reform (SSR) processes in West Africa were the topics of a three-day working level regional conference organised by the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in partnership with the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (ECOWAS GDC), the Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) and the Alliance for Migration, Leadership and Development (AMLD). The conference took place in Saly, Senegal, from 22 to 24 June 2010 and a report from the meeting is now available.

The course objective is to improve the capacity to inform and influence national and regional policies to improve pastoral livelihoods in East Africa, particularly on issues of access to and control over natural resources, livestock health and trade and regional and global integration.

Who should attend: Leaders of pastoral civil society groups, policy makers, including government and donors at local, regional and national levels, project staff, researchers, MPs and other key actors from the public and private sectors.

For more information on the course and fees, please contact the Course Administrator at
MS-Training Centre for Dev. Cooperation
P.O.Box 254, Arusha Tanzania
[email]mstcdc@mstcdc.or.tz

University of Namibia students are participating in a range of activities to create awareness on the need to stamp out gender-based violence after research showed that the problem - which has become an acknowledged social challenge in the country - exists at their institution. Lucy Edwards, one of two UNAM lecturers who led the research, said that gender-based violence had lately been rearing its ugly head in various forms at the university and that both male and female students were taking a stand against it. The research conducted by Edwards and her colleague is collaboration between five universities in Southern Africa and the African Gender Institute.

Across Zimbabwe, economic and political crisis has forced students to do without books, classroom furniture, teachers - the basics of a conducive learning environment. These learners cannot go to libraries, so the libraries have gone to them. In recent years, Zimbabwe’s rural schools have become notorious for their under-funding and dilapidation. For two decades, mobile libraries have formed a crucial part of encouraging a reading culture and promoting literacy in hard-to-reach places. The donkey-drawn libraries have helped spur Zimbabwe’s literacy levels according to Sylvester Nkomo, a headmaster stationed in Inyati, about 60 kilometers north-west of Bulawayo.

This practically-focussed course, consisting of six two-hour seminars on consecutive Monday evenings (and an additional study seminar), places international human rights law as it affects children in perspective.

Climate change negotiations have not delivered what is needed to stop climate change. Following on from the outcomes of the past two years, the Durban hosted COP17 could be a defining moment for climate activists. At a January meeting of South African environmental, social, trade union, faith community and climate justice organisations, the Civil Society Committee for COP17 (C17) was mandated to facilitate civil society engagement in COP17. The C17 will work towards coordinating joint actions at and in the lead-up to COP17.

Anger at Egypt’s privatisation programme, involving the transfer of billions of dollars worth of public assets to private hands, aided the Egyptian revolution that elbowed the Western-backed Hosni Mubarak out of office in February, a top army general said. Prodded by the Washington-based trio – the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – Egypt under Mubarak adopted an aggressive programme to sell public companies to both local and foreign investors since the early 1990s.

What’s green, controversial, 15km wide, 7,775km long, cuts across 11 African countries and is designed to reduce livestock deaths and boost food security for millions of people? Nothing yet, but the Great Green Wall project, a pipe-dream for decades, was recently endorsed by a swathe of African states stretching from Senegal to Djibouti. The project has faced opposition, despite its stated commitment to combating drought and desertification, which have exacted a heavy toll on the region as a whole. Wally Menne, a member of Timberwatch, the African NGO focal point for the Global Forest Coalition, told IRIN the organisation was sceptical. 'In our view it seems poorly conceived in terms of both ecological and socio-economic considerations. Its chances of being a success could be limited, and it may even cause more harm to the environment,' he said.

The popular uprisings in the middle east and north Africa have invigorated arguments about the power of new information and communication technologies (ICT), says Armine Ishkanian on 'The new tools and technologies certainly provide unprecedented means of connecting and coordinating. But there should be caution about reproducing technologically determinist and normative arguments which are often unsupported by strong empirical evidence or rigorous research,' Ishkanian cautions.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Martha Karua fears nothing and no one, but when her adversaries look back at her long track record in politics, they must get nervous. This previously staunch supporter of Mwai Kibaki resigned as justice minister in 2009, and will challenge all comers for the presidency at the head of her own party next year. The veteran politician has been around since the heyday of Daniel Arap Moi, who ruled Kenya from 1978 until 2002. Karua helped form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) that won the 2003 general election, and ended nearly four decades of rule by KANU. When she entered parliament, there were six female MPs. Now there are 22 out of a total of 222.

The current food shortage in Kenya might soon be declared a national disaster, but one refugee does not take hunger lying down. With eight children and a ninth one soon, Ms Husna Mohammed, 30, is taking charge of her plates of food at Dagahaley in Dadaab Refugee Camp in North Eastern Province. She keeps a vegetable garden outside her tent to supplement her food ration. Refugees at this camp receive food rations every two weeks. The amount given depends on the family size.

The GAVI Alliance has already established a panel of potential Independent Review Committee (IRC) members to support their innovative grant proposal process, and progress monitoring and evaluation system. GAVI is keen that this panel should grow and more closely reflect the demographic profile of its low and middle income partner countries. Applications to join the IRC panel are therefore invited from suitably post graduate qualified and experienced health and public health experts with a range of backgrounds. Below are English and French versions of the advert, together with links to .PDF files of the adverts.