Links on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing

The human rights council has adopted a resolution in which it established for a period of three years a working group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice, and a decision in which it decided to hold a panel discussion on human rights in the context of action taken to address terrorist hostage-taking with a special focus on the primary responsibility of States.

'We call on government to listen to the demands of the poor in Hout Bay. We call on government to immediately end all evictions of poor people in Hout Bay. We call on government to upgrade all homes of poor people in Hout Bay to proper housing. We call on government to end police violence towards poor people in Hout Bay.'

President Robert Mugabe has insisted that foreign investors should embrace Zimbabwe's equity laws, which require them to sell a 51 per cent stakes to locals, or 'stay out'. 'Our resources are ours, they belong to Zimbabweans, they belong to the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe," he said.

The Mozambican Parliament has assured the Mozambican branch of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Mozambique) that a Bill on Freedom of Information will be debated in the near future. Announcing this on 28 September 2010 the Director of MISA-Mozambique, Alfredo Libombo, said that all three political parties in the Assembly (the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) were in agreement on this, and that the assembly’s bill will be based on a draft that MISA deposited with parliament almost five years ago, in November 2005.

Tidiane Kassé

Steve Sharra

Jean-Marie Moukam

This report on the electoral commission of Ghana is part of a broader project on 'Modelling Success: Governance and Institution-building in West Africa', being implemented by the Consortium for Development Partnerships (CDP). This report demonstrates that there are governance institutions in Africa that perform creditably well, referring to Ghana's electoral commission as an example.

The UN has reportedly toned down a document detailing 10 years of gruesome attacks by Rwandan and Ugandan troops against civilians in the Democractic Republic of Congo (DRC) after both countries angrily protested a draft version describing the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus during the 1990s. But according to the Associated Press, the report continues to suggest that Rwandan troops and others may have engaged in genocide and crimes against humanity.

Uganda has taken the lead in the fight against the Islamist militants, with more than 4,000 so-called peacekeepers in the African Union force in Mogadishu. More than 90 trainers from 14 European Union countries are currently giving the Somali army a boost at a Ugandan training base.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro has stressed the importance of all presidential candidates having fair access to media coverage. Soro called on media representatives to ensure strict compliance with article 30 of the election law, which states that candidates must have fair and impartial access to the state - owned media. 'The success of this presidential election, due to be held on 31 October after several years of delays, will require fair and equitable media coverage of the campaign,' Reporters Without Borders said in response.

A Kenyan minister who expressed her opinion in support for HIV and Aids mitigation programmes for gays and lesbians has come under sharp criticism from church and Muslim leaders who said her remarks we 'satanic' and 'contrary to African culture'. Esther Murugi, the special programmes minister in the Kenyan government, challenged the government to help the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community efforts in the war against the scourge.

The October issue of the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Lasting Impacts publication, 'Food Security and Nutrition' has been published. This is the URL for the October issue: Or, you can navigate in from the Lasting Impacts homepage (http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts) and click on October.

A Million Women Rise delegation of British women is to attend the Third International Action of the World March of Women in Bukavu (province of South Kivu) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of a global action to campaign for an end to violence against women. The global action, from 14 - 17 October 2010, involves women from 48 countries travelling to the DRC to express concrete solidarity with Congolese women and all women struggling against poverty and violence.

Efforts to treat children poisoned by lead and to clean up contaminated sites in northern Nigeria's Zamfara State are being hampered by the reticence of communities to divulge cases, for fear of a government ban on lucrative illegal gold mining. Lead poisoning linked to informal mining has killed over 400 children under five since March 2010, according to the United Nations. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the medical relief agency, noticed high numbers of convulsions and deaths among children in Dareta and Yargalma villages in Zamfara State in March 2010, and started investigating.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has expressed deep sorrow and complete solidarity with the board of 'Nichane', a Moroccan magazine that has decided to close down indefinitely as a result of financial difficulties arising from an advertising boycott. Pro-government companies had decided not to place any ads in the magazine because of its editorial line in support of freedoms and addressing corruption.

Google is working on a new service called 'Baraza', which will enable Africans to interact and share knowledge by asking and answering questions, reports the White African Blog. Baraza is the term used for meeting place in Swahili, with Google's interest in developing the service being in seeing more African content coming online.

Women in Nigeria remain victims of gender discrimination, especially in politics. This monograph examines the possibility of utilising the First Lady’s institution to achieve gender mainstreaming and consequently terminate the sustained feminine marginality in Nigerian politics. The study finds that the First Lady’s office is self-serving as successive First Ladies since the Babangida military era are merely utilising their positions to mobilise and rally support for their husbands in power.

The South African University of Johannesburg (UJ) senate has threatened to end its relationship with the Israeli university, Ben-Gurion (BGU), unless certain conditions are met. In a statement released on Wednesday, the South African university's highest academic body said Ben-Gurion University would have to work with Palestinian universities on research projects and stop its 'direct and indirect support for the Israeli military and the occupation'.

In his latest partisan move on Zimbabwe, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma told EU Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Wednesday 29 September that 'the international community should lift sanctions against Zimbabwe', and claimed credit for giving leadership 'before anybody else did and the current power sharing deal was facilitated by South Africa'. Before the EU lifts targeted sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle, they should note that the whole of Zimbabwe is 'a giant crime scene' based on what happened before and after the 2008 elections as well as what is happening on the ground now.

In their latest report on 'Global Trends of Youth Employment' the International Labour Organisation (ILO) found evidence of an increasing gender disparity in unemployment rates in developing countries. The agency expresses concern that policies against gender discrimination are being neglected in efforts to encourage the global economic recovery.