The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court, hearing the case of torture brought by Gambian journalist Musa Saidykhan against operatives of the Gambia's notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), dismissed preliminary objections raised by the Gambian government, the defendant in the case. According to the Community Court, Saidykhan is a citizen of West Africa and the court is mandated by the ECOWAS protocol to hear human rights violation cases brought before it.

Urban Voices International Arts Festival 2009 promises again to deliver the most original, diverse and cutting edge spoken word for the South African aficionados of the arts. “As always, the Southern African Arts Exchange has scouted far and wide across the world, searching for the most talented and relevant poets for the South African audiences”, says Roshnie Moonsammy, executive director and founder of Urban Voices and its mother body the Southern African Arts Exchange (SAAE). The Urban Voices Poetry Festival takes place in three cities, Joburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009 Human Rights Defenders Tulip award. Anyone can submit a nomination. The nomination form can be found on this page. Nominations must be received by 23 August 2009. Established in 2008, the Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award is an initiative of the Dutch government. It is awarded to acknowledge “persons who have shown exceptional moral courage in protecting and promoting the rights of fellow human beings.”

"You are sick and it is the weekend. You have a fever and you're sweating and vomiting so you fear you have malaria. You need medical attention. All the money you have is what is in your pocket, a total of $3.59. You never went to school so you do not know how to read or write. You live in the Kibera slums."This was one scenario played out on a leafy Washington campus, as students in the summer program at the Washington International School struggled to understand life on the edge for children in Nairobi's notorious slums.

In this book, gender justice activists from Men for Gender Equality Now (MEGEN Kenya) share their personal experiences as individuals and as Changemakers. Besides personal stories told by activists, this publication also includes short briefs on the work of MEGEN Kenya, highlighting the challenges, successes and lessons learned in different program areas.

A group of forty-one (41) Congolese refugees and asylum seekers (men, women and children) have this morning finally fled Namibia for their lives to an undisclosed destination through the neighboring Republic of Botswana. The group includes 23 children between the ages 1 and 17. According to NSHR’s latest information, the group is stranded, without food, in ‘no[wo]man’s’ land between Namibia and Botswana, some 300 kilometers east of the Namibian capital of Windhoek. NSHR has appealed to the Government of the Republic of Botswana to “accord them all the necessary assistance on humanitarian grounds”.

In Kenyan history, the land issue has been an emotive issue. To address this problem, the government embarked on the formation of a national land Policy through a widely consultative process with the aim of producing a policy whose vision was to guide the country towards efficient, sustainable and equitable use of land for prosperity and posterity.

The Special Nigerian edition of the methodological workshops that is on offer for 2009 is designed for doctoral students and young, mid-career African researchers based in Nigeria. The working language to be employed during the workshop will be English. The session will be led by a director who will be assisted by a team of three lecturers, all with an acknowledged expertise in the application of social science research methods.

Leaders of churches in West Africa have cautioned the political authorities in the sub-region against signing the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) by African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in its present form. The leaders said the EPA in its current form was not beneficial and would not give member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) enough political and economic leeway to improve production of staple foods.

The and Cutting Edge Art & Culture Works is presenting 'Blue Tales, Other Narratives and Beyond: The Art of Khalid Kodi, New Works of Story Telling', on Saturday 11 July in New York.

On Sunday 28th June President José Manuel Zelaya, who was constitutionally and democratically elected by the Honduran people, was taken hostage by soldiers led by groups belonging to the country's oligarchies. The Organisations of La Via Campesina of Central America issued a statement in response to this.

Nigeria’s E.C. Osondu has won the 2009 , described as Africa’s leading literary award, for ‘Waiting’ from Guernicamag.com, October 2008. The chair of judges, New Statesman Chief Sub-Editor Nana Yaa Mensah, announced E.C. as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held on Monday 6 July at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the prize.

Today, almost 15 years after Nelson Mandela took office in South Africa, the U.S. requires a comprehensive new Africa policy that builds upon affirmative general principles and fosters multilateral African-led solutions to create a stronger foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship.

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The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), Osun State hereby call for the immediate implementation of the long-awaited Teacher’s Salary Scale by the Oyinlola government.

On the occasion of the annual consultations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with non-governmental organisations (Geneva 30 June), Fahamu asked the Africa Bureau to respond to the report ‘Coercion and Intimidation in the Voluntary Repatriation of 37,000 Burundian Refugees from Mtabila Camp, Tanzania.’

A coalition of Nigerian and International civil society organisations and churches have strongly condemned the recent campaign of terror that has been inflicted upon the so-called ‘child witches’ at the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network Centre (CRARN) in Eket, Akwa Ibom State by Lagos-based police officers.

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) hereby solidarise with workers in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in their current struggle to end illegal deduction from their salaries by the Prof. Michael Faborode-led university management running to over N400 million.

In a ruling Thursday, the Delhi High Court overturned a 148-year-old colonial law criminalizing consensual homosexual acts saying that it was a violation of fundamental human rights protected under India’s Constitution. In so holding, the court reasoned that “the criminalization of homosexuality condemns in perpetuity a sizable section of society and forces them to live their lives in the shadow of harassment, exploitation, humiliation, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the law enforcement machinery … A provision of law branding one section of people as criminal based wholly on the State's moral disapproval of that class goes counter to the equality guaranteed under Articles 14 and 15 under any standard of review.”

The governing body of the United Nations trade and development agency has convened a meeting in Geneva to highlight the need to keep the food crisis affecting Africa from being forgotten as governments focus on tackling the global economic downturn. While the food crisis may not be making the headlines it did last year, food security is still a major concern in many African countries, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).