A landmark lawsuit filed on 29 March in US federal court seeks to invalidate Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seeds and to prohibit the company from suing those whose crops become genetically contaminated. The Public Patent Foundation filed suit on behalf of 270,000 people from 60 organic and sustainable businesses and trade associations, including thousands of certified-organic farmers, arguing the invalidity of any patent that poisons people and the environment, and that is not useful to society, two hallmarks of US patent law.

Sudan has accused Israel of carrying out an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti said one man was Sudanese, but the identity of the other passenger was unknown. There has been no comment from Israel. But correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza.

The human rights organisation Front Line launched its second Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders which highlights global trends and developments in the situation of human rights defenders in 2010 and analyses the situation in each region of the world. The report highlights the fact that despite some positive developments and the wave of uprisings sweeping across the Middle East at year end, overall 2010 was not a good year for human rights defenders who continued to face harassment and repression in many countries.

The current financial crisis is likely to affect women particularly severely. In many developing countries where women work in export-led factories, or in countries where migrant women workers are the backbone of service industries, women’s jobs have taken the greatest hit. The International Labour Organisation estimates that the economic downturn could lead to 22 million more unemployed women in 2009, jeopardising the gains made in the last few decades in women’s empowerment. In many countries, however, the impact goes far beyond the loss of formal jobs, as the majority of women tend to work in the informal sector.

A row has broken out about the infant mortality rate in Cape Town, following claims from the Democratic Alliance that they are responsible for a decrease. But critics from the Treatment Action Campaign and Social Justice Coalition have slammed the claims. 'The Democratic Alliance claims that it is responsible for a significant drop in infant deaths. It also makes much of the fact that the City of Cape Town has a much lower infant death rate than the rest of South Africa. This is both misleading and false,' say the blog Writing Rights. 'It is misleading because even under apartheid, the City of Cape Town had lower infant mortality than the homeland of KwaZulu and most other cities in the country. Historically health care is better in Johannesburg and Cape Town than elsewhere because of apartheid. It is false because any significant drop in infant mortality in Cape Town in the last decade, took place before the DA came to power.'

Hendrik Hesselman is a small-scale farmer and picks the wild indigenous rooibos plant or cultivates it in small fields. They sell it overseas as a fair trade organic product. But as local and international markets for rooibos continue to grow, climate change is a growing threat. Mr. Hesselman explains: 'In 2003 the winter rains arrived three months late. After [the rain] in August that year did not provide enough rain to replenish the groundwater, drought set in and held this area in its grip for three years.'

A majority of Kenyans want the six suspected sponsors of 2007/2008 post election violence to stand trial at the International Criminal Court, a new opinion poll shows. Of those polled, 61 per cent said they prefer the Ocampo Six (as the suspects are popularly known) to answer charges at The Hague-based court, the survey by research firm Synovate showed.

By limiting access to internet, claiming to avoid obscenity and preserve gender and sexual norms, governments are actually preventing communities from exercising their rights and freedoms. The growing practice of regulation may have an impact in how people learn about sexuality and express it – especially the most affected by regulation, women and people of diverse sexualities. The Association for Progressive Communication's EroTICs project conducted research in five countries: Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and the United States. The EroTICs issue paper contains executive summaries for each country.

'This edition of the journal is produced within the context of the 2015 deadline set by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which calls for gender parity within the media, as well as equal voice and fair treatment of women and men in editorial content.'

South African families are in crisis according to a new report released by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). Titled ‘The First Steps to Healing the South African Family’, the report documents the extent of family breakdown in South Africa and the effect this is having on children and the youth. The research includes often under-acknowledged influences on children and young people that affect many issues in South Africa - from violent crime, through to entrenching a cycle of poverty, as well as the values and norms South Africans hold.

The British Government’s efforts to cover up one of the darkest episodes in colonial history have been revealed by the discovery of a vast cache of documents relating to the bloody Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. The papers, documenting efforts to put down insurgency, were spirited out of Kenya on the eve of independence and have been held in secret British government archives for half a century.

After a month and a half of conflict in Libya, the situation of political prisoners and prisoners of war on both sides is uncertain, and their fundamental rights are at risk. More than 400 people in eastern Libya have gone missing since the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi began on 15 February, according to Human Rights Watch and the Libyan Red Crescent in Benghazi.

Two factors may shape the coming transition period in Sudan more than any other, says a new briefing from the International Crisis Group. '...first, the degree to which the South’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) allows an opening of political space in which a vibrant multi-party system can grow; secondly, the will to undertake democratic reform within the SPLM, as intra-party politics continue to dominate the political arena in the near term.'

Supporters of Laurent Gbagbo and presidential rival Alassane Ouattara are trading accusations over the reported deaths of hundreds of civilians in the western Ivoirian town of Duékoué. Residents of Duékoué said the killings on 30 March were a 'settling of scores' facilitated by the capture of the town by pro-Ouattara forces. Ouattara has denied his forces are responsible for the deaths of over 800 civilians, but the internationally recognised president is facing tough questions from human rights groups.

Jean-Paul Pougal

Moustapha Kassé

Afrographique is a blog that aims to collect as much data as possible with the aim of presenting the information in an exciting and digestible format to all. It has graphics on foreign investment in Africa, Facebook users, African CO2 emissions and more.

The rapid increase in attempts by foreign investors to acquire large tracts of land in Africa for
biofuel developments has generated substantial concern about their potential negative impact on
the communities living in the targeted areas. This paper from the Land Deal Politics Initiative in collaboration with The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) examines three case studies of proposed biofuel developments in Mozambique and Sierra Leone.

Speaker in the House of Assembly Prince Guduza says Swaziland and Lesotho signed the interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union under duress. He said both countries signed the agreement because they had certain export quotas to the EU. He noted that the EPA sowed a seed of confusion in the Southern Africa Development Community.

Malian men involved in same sex practices say blatant homophobia makes it difficult for them to live their lives freely and to express their sexual orientation. Although there is no law that specifically criminalises homosexuality in Mali, religion and ancestral traditions still play a huge role in the country’s society and same sex practices are highly condemned and seen as immoral by the vast majority of the population.

A new initiative was recently launched to promote government transparency and increase people's access to information in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. The Access to Information in Africa: Transparency Models and Lessons Learned (ATI in Africa) project is coordinated by the World Resources Institute in partnership with the Centre for Democratic Development in Ghana, Greenwatch in Uganda and the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC) in South Africa.