The International Journal of Transitional Justice invites submissions for its 2011 special issue titled ‘Civil Society, Social Movements and Transitional Justice,' to be guest edited by Moses Chrispus Okello, Senior Research Advisor, Refugee Law Project and Coordinator, Beyond Juba Project, Uganda and Lucy Hovil, Senior Researcher, Citizenship and Displacement in the Great Lakes region, International Refugee Rights Initiative.

Officers from Bulawayo police’s law and order section say calling for the ratification of the Convention Against Torture and the abolition of torture is offensive and causes disharmony. Chief Superintendent Patrick Moyo summoned representatives of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) over billboards and street pole signs calling for the abolition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Despite having agreed to a meeting for 12 November, the Forum representatives found most of the billboards already destroyed.

A Zambia ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) politician has been jailed for assaulting journalists who had gone to cover President Rupiah Banda at the Lusaka International Airport last July. Lusaka Province MMD youth chairman Chris Chalwe was convicted on 9 November by the Lusaka Magistrates Court which found him guilty of assaulting journalists from state-owned Times of Zambia and the privately-owned the Post newspaper when they went to cover President Rupiah Banda at the Lusaka International Airport.

The Guinean authorities have declared a state of emergency as violence continues in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election. Reports say three people were found dead in the capital Conakry after the latest clashes between the security forces and opposition supporters. The winning candidate, Alpha Conde, says he wants to lead a process of national reconciliation.

Reporters Without Borders has hailed the release of Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, the blogger known as Kareem Amer. He was finally set free on the evening of 15 November, 10 days after completing a four-year jail sentence, and is now reunited with his family. He has decided for the time being to make no statement. The blogger was again subjected to physical mistreatment at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria during the 10 days he was held illegally after 5 November, the date he should have been released.

International donors meeting in Dakar next week are expected to finance the prosecution of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré nearly two decades after his removal from power, according to a coalition of rights organisations. Legal proceedings against Habré - who is accused of thousands of political murders and brutal torture during his rule of Chad from 1982 to 1990 - have been delayed for nearly a decade since he was first indicted in Senegal in February 2000.

The gender unit of TWN-Africa is hosting a round-table on gender and regional economic integration in Africa on 18-19 November, 2010, in Accra, Ghana. The meeting will bring together scholars, feminist economists and gender experts, as well as policy-makers, to discuss issues of gender equity and Africa’s economic integration.

Ghana's efforts to provide universal healthcare coverage for its nearly 24 million people won the hearts of researchers and medics gathered for the world's first-ever conference on health research. A modest West African nation usually classified as just one of the few developing countries closer to meeting the UN poverty goals, Ghana has been increasing its healthcare funding in line with the Abuja declaration on healthcare funding.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and ARC International are deeply disappointed with yesterday’s vote in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly to remove a reference to sexual orientation from a resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The resolution urges States to protect the right to life of all people, including by calling on states to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds. For the past 10 years, the resolution has included sexual orientation in the list of discriminatory grounds on which killings are often based.

The occupation of the premises of Mine Line and TAP Engineering in Krugersdorp, West Rand, by disgruntled employees is entering its 27th day on Monday. The employees, who are members of the Metal and Electrical Workers Union of South Africa (Mewusa), embarked on the occupation of the two companies, which are under one roof, following an application for the companies’ voluntary liquidation by Mulder. The workers say they have adopted their action to secure the assets of the companies and ultimately to take over the two entities to protect their jobs, and recover unpaid wages and benefits.

A researcher from the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-Southern Africa) traveled by road in public transport from Namibia (Windhoek) to Zimbabwe (Harare) via Botswana through the Mamuno border post. The journey to and fro Zimbabwe was an eye-opener on the nature and extent of corruption bedeviling traffic police officers in the three countries. In a nutshell, the following findings were made:
- Zimbabwean traffic police officials are more corrupt than their counterparts in Botswana and Namibia.
- The governments of Namibia and Zimbabwe could be losing significant amounts of revenue due to corruption in which police officers are involved.
- Transport business operators are losing income due to bribes paid to traffic police officers.
- There were no indications of corruption by traffic police officials in Botswana.

Military officers in Madagascar say they have taken over the island nation. Col Charles Andrianasoavina, who made the announcement, was one of the officers behind a coup that brought Andry Rajoelina to power last year.

Nigeria's military confirmed on Thursday it had freed 19 foreign and local hostages being held by militants in the Niger Delta oil region. The hostages included two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Indonesians, one Canadian and 12 Nigerians, Major General Charles Omoregie, commander of a military taskforce in the Niger Delta, told a news conference in oil hub Port Harcourt.

Reporters Without Borders has called for the withdrawal of bill which is about to be submitted to parliament and which would allow the authorities to block public access to official documents including judicial decisions, new legislation and public records. Announced on 22 October and called the 'General Law Amendment Bill', the proposed law’s sole aim seems to be to place additional obstacles in the way of access to information and thereby hamper the work of the media even more.

The United States’ policy to double agricultural exports shows that its government 'has learnt nothing' from the last food crisis, a problem reflected in the dramatic increase in that country’s trade-distorting farm subsidies between 2007 and 2008. The US’s recent official report on its farm subsidies for 2008 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that trade-distorting subsidies doubled from the previous year, while permissible 'green box' subsidies reached a historic high.

A group of human rights campaigners have protested outside the Tel Aviv Opera House, denouncing the Cape Town Opera for what they say is its support of Israeli oppression of Palestinians, SA Artists Against Apartheid said on Tuesday. See a video of the protest at

On 30 October, Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services raided a Khartoum office shared by Radio Dabanga and Darfuri human rights activists, arresting 13 people, reports the Washington Post. According to Radio Dabanga's Dutch-based director, Hildebrand Bijleveld, the detainees are being held incommunicado in unknown locations.

'Morocco has been able to persist in flouting its international legal obligations toward Western Sahara largely because France and the United States have continued to arm Moroccan occupation forces and blocked the enforcement of resolutions in the UN Security Council demanding that Morocco allow for self-determination or even simply the stationing of unarmed human rights monitors in the occupied country,' writes Stephen Zunes on 'Despite 35 years of exile, war, repression and international neglect, Sahrawi nationalism is at least as strong within the younger generation as their elders, as is their will to resist. How soon they will succeed in their struggle for self-determination, however, may well rest on such acts of international solidarity by global civil society.'

The deadline for the first call for papers is 31 December 2010. The conference is organised by ?Reading Association of Botswana (RAB) ?International Development Committee - Africa (IDC-A) ?and International Reading Association (IRA). The complete application and conference information is at: All inquiries can be made to: Dr. D. Kasule, [email]KASULED@mopipi.ub.bw

Six independent UN experts have condemned the recent public execution, by firing squad, of two teenage girls in central Somalia, saying the executions are the latest manifestation of the 'appalling human rights crisis that is plaguing the country'. The six experts called on the parties to the conflict 'to immediately refrain from committing acts of extrajudicial executions, torture, stonings, decapitation, amputations and floggings as well as other human rights violations, including with regard to freedom of religion'.