S. Ushakumari is a horticulturist in India who has been working with a public interest research organization, Thanal, for the past 22 years. Part of her life’s work is a movement which is sweeping the globe: zero waste. Instead of seeking to 'manage' waste, this philosophy and campaign aim to eliminate it. Zero waste considers the entire life cycle of material objects - natural resource extraction, processing, production, transportation, consumption, and disposal - which is exhausting the planet’s resources and creating increased pollution. This is part of 'Birthing Justice: Women Creating Economic and Social Alternatives'.

Biotech giant Syngenta has been criminally charged with denying knowledge that its genetically modified (GM) Bt corn kills livestock during a civil court case that ended in 2007. Syngenta’s Bt 176 corn variety expresses an insecticidal Bt toxin (Cry1Ab) derived from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and a gene conferring resistance to glufosinate herbicides. EU cultivation of Bt 176 was discontinued in 2007. Similar varieties however, including Bt 11 sweet corn are currently cultivated for human and animal consumption in the EU. The charges follow a long struggle for justice by a German farmer whose dairy cattle suffered mysterious illnesses and deaths after eating Bt 176.

There are an estimated 3.3m migrant workers from other SADC countries in South Africa, between them sending around R11.2 billion rand home each year – R7.6 bn of which is estimated to flow through informal channels such as sending cash with a bus or taxi driver. The sheer volume of cross-border remittance flows and the large proportion sent informally indicates not only an untapped market opportunity for the formal sector to capitalize on, but also a strong policy imperative to reduce access barriers to the formal financial system for migrant workers and facilitate formalization of cross-border remittances. These are the high-level findings of a recent study commissioned by FinMark Trust and conducted by DNA Economics.

As of the end of 2011, more than 26 million people were internally displaced by conflict and violence across the world. More than a third of them were in Africa. A new publication from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says that in a number of African countries, IDPs live in protracted displacement; their process of finding a durable solution has stalled, often leaving their rights unprotected and their communities marginalised.

After killing a man in self-defense, Benson turned himself in to Malawi's police. More than two years later, he was still waiting for a court hearing, while his body showed the scars from the long wait in Lilongwe's main prison. The Open Society Justice Initiative is spearheading a Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice, documenting the costs of excessive and unnecessary pretrial detention. Watch Benson's story in the video accessible through the link provided.

Despite marked improvements, numerous grievances that plunged Liberia into bloody wars from 1989 until President Charles Taylor left in August 2003 (originally for exile in Nigeria) remain evident, says this briefing from the International Crisis Group. These include a polarised society and political system; corruption, nepotism and impunity.

The latest issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the Rio Plus 20 Summit to be held in 20-22 June in Brazil. The meetings actually begin on 13 June. Twenty years after the Earth Summit the world faces even more serious crises in the environment and the economy. Will Rio+20 do better in rising to the challenge of tackling the global crises?

Formidable social and economic challenges threaten to undermine – or even halt – progress in Tunisia, despite the country’s positive transition to democracy. 'Tunisia: Confronting Social and Economic Challenges', the latest International Crisis Group report, shines a spotlight on the economic problems that largely were at the root of Tunisia’s uprising and that remain unresolved in its aftermath: rising unemployment, stark regional inequalities, smuggling and corruption.

Sudanese refugees have started dying as a camp in South Sudan ran out of water four days ago after a massive influx of people fled across the border to escape war and hunger. The refugees are fleeing Sudan’s Blue Nile state where insurgents are fighting to overthrow the Sudanese government.

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is extremely concerned about the condition and whereabouts of the Sudanese poet Abdelmoniem Rahma, who was arrested on 2 September 2011 in Blue Nile State, Sudan. He was reportedly tried in a military court in November and there have been alarming reports that he has since been sentenced to death. It is unclear, however, on what charges he has been convicted.

Local Egyptian reports mentioned on Monday 11 June the dreadful progress in the case of the Islamist parliamentarian whom police have accused of public indecency, as the girl in the case has been detained for four days under orders by the prosecutor. A report said that the prosecutor has also ordered a 'virginity test' on her to determine if she is a virgin or not. The news has caused an uproar among the rights community over the virginity tests, which brought back to mind the same tests that were forced upon female protesters in Tahrir Square in March 2011.

South African President Jacob Zuma has fired his police chief, who is implicated in suspect property deals, and replaced him with first woman head of the scandal-tarnished service. Zuma removed controversial police commissioner Bheki Cele from the post after a commission of enquiry found him 'unfit for office' over leases for police offices at far above market rates. Ms Mangwashi Phiyega was appointed the new national police commissioner with immediate effect. A technocrat with considerable management experience, she has been a trustee of Nelson Mandela's foundation and an executive at Barclays-owned banking group Absa.

This article from the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration explores the ways in which Eritrean asylum-seekers in Israel narrate their experiences of suffering. These narrators were held hostage in the borderlands of the Northern Sinai desert by human traffickers for indefinite periods of time en route to Israel. Numerous Eritrean asylum-seekers experience and bear witness to torture, kidnapping, extortion, rape, and organ removal during the journey.

In the southwest region of Cameroon, within a beautiful rainforest, several Indigenous communities are working hard to make their voices heard. Their struggle began in 2011 when the government of Cameroon granted a vast land concession to SG Sustainable Oils, a subsidiary of the New York-based Herakles Farms. What the government overlooked, was that this concession occurred on the homelands of the Oroko, Bakossi, and Upper Bayang peoples in the Ndian, Koupé-Manengouba, and Manyu divisions of Cameroon.

The long-running spat between the African Union (AU) and International Criminal Court (ICC) over perceived bias has prompted the AU to push ahead with plans to form its own Africa-wide criminal court, but analysts believe the move could complicate, rather than enhance, international justice. 'Africa wants regional ownership of its crimes and its leaders,' Alan Wallis, an international justice lawyer at the Johannesburg-based Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC), told IRIN, but pointed out: 'There is a misbelief [by the AU] that Africa is being targeted, as all cases before the ICC concern African situations, but this ignores the fact that of those six [cases], three were referred to the ICC by the countries concerned.'

Togolese security forces on Tuesday 12 June used teargas to disperse a huge demonstration staged by civil society organizations and some opposition political parties in the capital, Lomé. Tens of thousands of people led by opposition and civil society figures defied a heavy downpour to heed the call by the umbrella 'Let's Save Togo' to denounce actions by the government they claimed were intended to manipulate the electoral process.

Armed militants hostile to the Ivorian government have recruited Liberian children and carried out deadly cross-border raids on Ivorian villages in recent months, Human Rights Watch says. Liberian authorities have failed to investigate and prosecute dozens of Liberian and Ivorian nationals who crossed into Liberia after committing war crimes during Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010-2011 post-election crisis, some of whom have been implicated in the recent attacks, Human Rights Watch said.

Egyptian activists declared Wednesday, 13 June as the day to write about sexual harassment on social websites and blogs in an effort to combat the rising level of sexual violence in the country. The same event took place last year with large success that saw it spread to neighboring countries like Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco.

The Ethiopian government has passed new legislation that criminalises the use of Internet-based voice communications such as Skype and other forms of Internet phone calling. Authorities have also installed a new filtering system that monitors the use of the Internet in the tightly-controlled Horn of Africa country in a move seen as targeting dissidents.

Ethiopia and the World Bank signed late on Tuesday three loan agreements worth $400 million to finance various existing projects.