A group of civil society organisations has stated that it must be recognised that the Protection of State Information Bill would undermine whatever gains have been made by South Africa. 'The Bill’s extraordinarily harsh and broadly drafted penalties – which prohibit accessing, sharing, or publishing any information classified within its expansive provisions – would create a society of secrets in which vital democratic spaces are closed off, and those who expose injustices may be targeted. The absence of any kind of adequate protection for whistleblowers is as much a concern today as it was when the Bill was introduced to Parliament.'

Glencore, the commodity and mining firm worth £27bn, stands accused in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of dumping raw acid and profiting from children working 150ft underground. The revelations come as the notoriously secretive Swiss-based company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange last year, seeks to merge with mining firm Xstrata in a £50bn-plus deal.

The partners leading the efforts to control measles have announced a new global strategy aimed at reducing measles deaths and congenital rubella syndrome to zero. According to a joint statement made available to PANA, the announcement comes with the publication of new data using a state-of-the-art methodology showing that accelerated efforts to reduce measles deaths have resulted in a 74 per cent reduction in global measles mortality, from an estimated 535,300 deaths in 2000 to 139,300 in 2010.

Four senior judges in Kenya have been declared unfit for office in a landmark ruling by a new committee investigating the impartiality of the judiciary. The vetting panel was set up as part of the deal to end post-election violence in 2008 when it was agreed to reform political and judicial institutions. Five other judges were cleared. The four told they are unfit to continue have seven days to appeal.

Sonke Gender Justice has launched a new publication, 'Mapping the Legal Framework to Prevent Sexual Violence & HIV in South Africa’s Correctional Facilities.' Sexual violence and HIV and AIDS are key areas of concern for Sonke, as inmates experience both at heightened proportions. HIV and sexual violence are inherently linked, particularly in South Africa’s prisons where external estimates for HIV range between 40-60 per cent.

Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), Citizens’ Manifesto Coordination Office, Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP) and Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), said the debate to restore term limits should not be partisan because it affects the whole country. 'It is unfortunate that the NRM party organs are making an attempt to trivialise an issue of national importance to a partisan conversation. All Ugandans who have suffered at the hands of political instability and uncertainty know that the issue of presidential term limits is colourless.'

In two days of consecutive protest, Egyptian youth continued to demand the release of human rights lawyer, Al Gizawi, who is detained in Saudi Arabia for allegedly defaming its monarchy. The human rights lawyer is particularly contentious due to a lawsuit he filed in Egypt against King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz over alleged arbitrary detention of hundreds of Egyptians.

Two of the world's biggest mining companies endured a barrage of protests as a broad coalition of unions, individuals, social and environmental groups from as far afield as South Africa and Mongolia travelled to London for Rio Tinto and Anglo American's annual meetings. At Anglo American's AGM, the miner came under fire amid allegations its South African subsidiary is responsible for cases of silicosis and tuberculosis in the country contracted between the 1960s and 1990s. About 1,200 former gold miners suffering the lung diseases are bringing a case against it in the High Court in London next month.

This issue brief from the International Peace Institute provides a brief overview of the legal, political, and operational frameworks protecting children from the effects of armed conflict, notably from violations by nonstate armed groups. It explores some of the limitations of these frameworks and their mechanisms, and then discusses ways to maximize the comparative advantages of different actors when engaging nonstate armed groups to improve the protection of children’s rights.

King Mswati III of Swaziland has received a luxury jet as a gift from 'anonymous sponsors', a government spokesperson has confirmed to the BBC. The DC-9 twin-engine aircraft is for the use of the king and his 13 wives, Percy Simelane said. Swazi's banned opposition party says taxpayer money must have been used to buy it, but Mr Simelane denies this.

Despite the escalating aerial bombardment deep into her territories, South Sudan has called for resumption of talks with Sudan to resolve the outstanding issues that include demarcation of the fragile borders, status of Abyei and security. Meanwhile, in Beijing, South Sudan’s leader accused Sudan of declaring war as Khartoum’s warplanes bombed border regions in defiance of international calls for restraint.

Thousands of people took to Cairo's Tahrir Square 20 April to protest against the handling of the nation's transition period by the ruling military council following the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak. The demonstrators called for a quick exit of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and that officials from the ousted president's government be barred from May's upcoming presidential election.

Egyptian freedom of expression advocates are in an uproar over the banning of a play over its alleged use of 'foul language'. Rights movements issued a joint statement condemning al-Sawy Cultural Center in Cairo for banning the play 'Mono-drama Auto bus' from showing at the center’s 7th Mono-drama theater festival taking place this month. The Egyptian Women Union, the New Woman Foundation, the Egyptian Coalition and the Egyptian Democratic Institution are among the organization who have signed on in condemnation.

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) called on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to take urgent action to protect and promote human rights in Swaziland during its submission to the organisation's 51st session in Banjul. In a statement, OSISA urged the Commission to work with states to scrap outdated, colonial era offences that serve to criminalise poverty and homelessness, and allow for arbitrary arrest and detention by the police.

As part of Algeria's effort to encourage citizens to participate in the 10 May legislative election, the human rights commission suggested that people be forced to vote. Farouk Ksentini, chairman of the National Consultative Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (CNCPPDH), on 7 April proposed that there should be a punishment for those who fail to vote.

The African Platform on Access to Information (APAI), an intercontinental initiative to promote Access to Information on the Continent, took the campaign a step further in its address to the 51st session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The APAI working group, composed of MISA, AFIC, Article 19, IFJ, TAEF, MRA, MFWA, ODAC, and Highway Africa, called on the Commission to recognize 28 September as International Right to Know day, as well as for an expansion of article IV of the Declaration of Principles of Expression in Africa to incorporate the principles of the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration.

This policy brief from the International Organisation of Migration looks at the situation of migrants who have returned home to several West African countries as a result of the conflict in Libya. It aims to provide an understanding of the factors that led to migration to Libya, in the first place; the migrants’ journey to Libya and their efforts to make a new life; the hasty return home; and the current needs of returnees and context to which they are returning.

Safety nets - programs that invest in poor people and help them enhance their livelihoods and productivity by transferring resources to poor households - have been on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa. These programs either transfer money directly to vulnerable households, or offer labor-intensive public works jobs such as building rural roads to adults who need temporary employment during the agricultural lean season. World Bank analysis shows that over the past 10 years, 120 cash transfer programs have been rolled out in Africa.

Thousands of residents in Diepsloot, a large township north of Johannesburg, South Africa, are queuing for hours to access clean, safe water a week after their supply was contaminated by sewage. The contamination occurred when a contractor working on a nearby sewer line broke the water pipe that supplies Diepsloot. Though the damage was repaired, it is believed that E. coli in sewage contaminated the water supply.

The World Bank is helping corporations and international investors snap up cheap land in Africa and developing countries worldwide at the expense of local communities, environment and farm groups said in a statement released to coincide with the bank's annual land and poverty conference in Washington DC. According to the groups, which include NGO Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) and international peasants' group La Via Campesina, decades of World Bank policies have pushed African and other governments to privatise land and focus on industrial farming. In addition, they say, the bank is playing a 'key role' in the global rush for farmland by providing capital and guarantees to big multinational investors.