Niger's media regulatory body, the High Communication Council (CSC), on June
8, 2009 banned all live discussions on the prevailing political situation in
the country by privately-owned electronic media outlets. The CSC Chairman, Daouda Diallo, who announced the ban, said it has become necessary as it would prevent what he termed as "risk of media excesses".

Boubacar Messaoud

Moustapha Kadi

We are civil society organizations from throughout the world that have contributed to the Human Rights Council and its work since its establishment. We have observed with increasing concern developments in the Council, including at the current 11th Session, that are undermining the work of the Council’s Special Procedures. This session has seen extraordinary personal attacks by some States on the integrity of mandate holders and specific threats to their independence.

calls on the US government to fundamentally shift US policy towards Zimbabwe to promote the expansion of democratic space, good governance, economic recovery and truth, justice and reconciliation.

This statement from The Center for Elections and Governance in Zambia, on the occasion of the Day of the African Child (16 June), calls for heads of state, members of parliament, elected councilors and public workers to be more accountable and responsive to needs of children.

Political groups and civil society from Southern Africa issue a call for open and credible talks between the monarch and representatives of the Swazi people

AFRODAD, a pan-African regional organization providing research-based lobby and advocacy in issues of Debt, Development Aid and Economic Governance is seeking to recruit a Team of competent people to fill the positions of Executive Director, Policy Advisor on Debt, Policy Advisor on Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanisms on Debt; Policy Advisor on Economic Governance and Development Aid. The Team will be based at the AFRODAD Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe. Application deadline is 28th June 2009.

South African shackdwellers movement calls for the electricity supply and upgrading of informal settlements, as well as a moratorium on new developments, in the wake of a

Pambazuka readers respond to Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji’s commentary on settlement. Although some see the settlement as a step in the right direction, other ask questions about the part played by the federal government of Nigeria in the executions. There is recognition all round though, that the struggle for justice for the people of the Niger Delta continues.

The Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union organised, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Fifth Citizens’ Continental Conference on the 13th African Union (AU) summit themed ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’. The civil society organisations convened drew up recommendations on issues including agriculture, land management and food security and peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Jacques Diouf called the growing trend of leasing or selling huge and fertile African land to foreign investors for large-scale agricultural projects and biofuel production a form of ‘neo-colonialism’. Indeed as the African Union prepares for its summit in Lybia under the theme ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’, analysts observe that the export oriented African agriculture of cash crops such as cocoa, cotton and fresh fruits for the international market ‘caters for the foreign consumers more than for the local communities’, which forces Africa states to import subsistence crops like rice, millet, manioc and maize especially from China and the European Union.

Members of the United Nations Security Council delegation recently concluded a visit to Africa aiming to enhance collaboration with the AU to promote peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, heads of State and government of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa called on the International Criminal Court to suspend its arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Further, Richard Cornwell, of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, suggests that ‘many of Africa’s states have complex legal codes, but no real rule of law’. Meanwhile, as the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the future legislative body of the AU, held elections, it is suggested that PAP ‘has neither any tangible impact’ on the lives of Africans ‘nor a public profile to speak of’.

Dambisa Moyo argues in her book ‘Dead Aid’ that ‘no country on Earth has ever achieved long-term growth and reduced poverty in a meaningful way by relying on aid’ and that the strategy of aid that has no ‘evidence of working anywhere on Earth’ could not work in Africa. Finally, Asare Otchere-Darkothe of the Danquah Institute examines the reasons ‘why Ghana is now the subject of strategic U.S. energy and military interests which, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, has raised the stakes considerably in Ghana–United States relations’.

This Oilwatch International paper on divide and rule strategy in climate politics outlines many of the tactics used by the more powerful governments and corporates within the UNFCCC process that have led to its apparent inability to do meet its stated objectives and solve Climate Chaos.

The UN refugee agency has condemned the victimization of Somali civilians in Mogadishu after a weekend spike in the fighting in the capital sent thousands more people fleeing the city. This latest exodus pushed the number of displaced from the capital past the 100,000-mark to 117,000 since street battles erupted on May 8.

Amnesty International’s 2009 Report on the state of the world’s human rights has revealed a staggering evidence of human rights violations purported against LGBTI communities in African states. Nigeria, Uganda and Senegal, according to the report are countries that record the most and worst abuses of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. It further states that in Nigeria, “human rights abuses against individuals suspected of same-sex sexual conduct continued throughout 2008.”

Civilians in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) villages are continuing to flee repeat reprisal attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The attacks have been provoked by ongoing anti-LRA operations by the DRC army in the region, according to locals. "The LRA continues to attack the villages, which they burn and loot, and kidnap civilians," Leandres Bwilu, the administrator of the worst-affected territory of Dungu, in Orientale Province, told IRIN.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, has proposed a minimum a set of principles and measures based on human rights in the elaboration of large-scale transnational land acquisitions and leases, more commonly referred to as "land grabbing". His call comes at a time when Governments are preparing to negotiate on responsible investment in agriculture at the forthcoming G8 Summit.

African health and human rights activists have called on leaders attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on Africa to “not use the same pie and split it between more people”, but to make the pie bigger. Representing a coalition of African HIV and tuberculosis activists, Paula Akugizibwe of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa spelt out their list of demands which includes a challenge to the region’s leaders to guarantee the right to health, ensure that it is financed as a priority, and mobilise the additional resources needed to secure universal access to TB/HIV prevention, treatment and care.

Over 2008 large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have increased. This report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them and the way these are negotiated. It also analyses the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

This policy brief, published by the International Institute for Economic Development (IIED) outlines how and why information and communication technology (ICT) projects do, or do not, work for development. Rapid growth of ICTs in rural Africa and emerging economies such as Brazil and China is closing the gap in ICTs between North and South. Governments pushing ICT infrastructure projects such as mobile mast networks have successfully reduced access costs for many in the developing world.

The financial crisis could force more girls into work as financially squeezed families withdraw their daughters from school to seek jobs, warns the International Labour Organization in a report released on 12 June, World Day Against Child Labour. “The root cause of child labour is poverty”, report author, Patrick Quinn told IRIN. "There is a strong likelihood that girls will be sent into work as families cannot afford school fees and need their children to help support them.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has dismissed a bid by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ex-militia chief Germain Katanga for his war crimes trial to be thrown out. Judge Bruno Cotte dismissed an argument by Katanga that the case was inadmissible on the basis that legal proceedings had been brought against him before courts in his home country.