Public hearings on the 'secrecy' bill kicked off in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday 27 March with strenuous demands for the inclusion of a public interest defence. The absence of a public interest defence for the protection of whistle-blowers and investigative journalists has been cited as one of the most serious remaining flaws in the bill. The Open Democracy Advice Centre (Odac), the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and Print Media South Africa (PMSA) all argued before the Ad Hoc Committee on the Protection of State Information Bill that a public interest defence should be included in the bill.

Tullow Oil, the British multinational, has struck oil in northern Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, the country’s president, announced on Tuesday 27 March at an oil, gas and energy conference in Nairobi. At the conference in the Kenyan capital, some of the world’s biggest oil companies discussed their exploration plans for East Africa, which has attracted significant interest from energy multinationals as well as national and independent oil and gas companies.

This BBC Africa page examines the controversy surrounding the perceived bias of the ICC in focusing only on cases involving Africans. It has the views of two experts, one who argues that the ICC is not biased and the other who argues that it is. 'Ordinary Africans are not complaining. Many have suffered at the hands of the perpetrators of mass crimes - and know that there is little chance that they will see justice done without international tribunals like the ICC,' argues Abdul Tejan-Cole, a former prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. 'The International Criminal Court is in fact a pathetic continuation of an imperial tradition, a way for western powers to pretend they are protecting human rights in Africa, that they are teaching Africans right from wrong,' argues Zaya Yeebo, a writer and commentator on Africa.

Two French judges sought an international arrest warrant for the son of Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on money laundering charges, a judicial source said on Tuesday 27 March. The two judges, Roger Le Loire and Rene Grouman, consider there are grounds to suspect that Teodorin Obiang, who is agriculture minister in the small, oil-rich central African country, acquired real estate in France by fraudulent means.

The Times of Swaziland censored itself when it reported Wikileaks was asking people in the kingdom to leak documents to its website. The Times, the only independent daily newspaper in Swaziland, reported 26 March that Wikileaks asked people to send it documents relating to the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), a banned organisation in Swaziland where King Mwsati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. But, what it did not report was that Wikileaks had a higher priority from Swaziland than PUDEMO on its wanted-information list: ‘Expense accounts of King Mswati, the Queen Mother and the King's wives.’

This month the UN Commission on the Status of Women failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its 56th session on the basis of safeguarding 'traditional values' at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. 'Together with our partner feminist and women's rights organisations, we say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.'

Egypt’s military courts have investigated or tried at least 43 children over the past year, Human Rights Watch says, including the pending trial of 13-year-old Ahmed Hamdy Abdel Aziz in connection with the Port Said football riots. Children prosecuted in military courts have not had access to lawyers, and often to their families, until after military authorities have investigated and sentenced them. Since coming to power in February 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has referred over 12,000 civilians for prosecution by military courts before military judges, though these courts fail to meet minimum due process standards.

Jerry Cole, a senior television cameraman of the state-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), was on 12 March attacked by some supporters of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in Freetown, the capital. Cole and his colleague reporter, Unisa Deen Kargbo, had gone to record an interview with the SLPP officials at the party’s headquarters on the ongoing voter registration exercise for the 17 November general election.

The South African agriculture economy has little or no room for emerging farmers; with no strong support system, being an emerging farmer in South Africa can be a hopeless adventure, writes Davison Chikazunga on the blog Another Countryside. 'Introducing market liberalisation in 1992 has aggravated the difficulties; it was naïve for the country to introduce such measures at the dawn of democracy when the state presence needed to do much to establish new black farmers. South Africa’s agriculture economy under apartheid blossomed because of state subsidies, and similar support programs in America and Europe helped their agricultural economies to thrive.'

The government has denied reports that public hospitals are experiencing drug shortages. On Tuesday 27 March, doctors took to the streets to demonstrate against drug shortage and lack of adequate medical personnel in public hospitals. The doctors marched from the University of Nairobi to Treasury to demand that the government clearly states when it intends to post medical personnel to public health institutions.

Residents in Khayelitsha came to the defence of Somali traders when local business owners threatened to burn down the Somali-owned shops. In an attempt to enforce a 2008 agreement between Zanokhanyo Retailers Association and Somalian shopkeepers following that year’s xenophobic attacks that no new Somali-owned shops would open, local business owners in Harare threatened to burn down Somali shops to force their closure. But local residents stood in front of the nine shops under threat, preventing the local business owners from taking action.

German Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul apologised in August 2004 at a big rally in Okakarara for the genocide committed 100 years ago by the German imperial army. Almost eight years later the German parliament (Bundestag) rejected two motions by three opposition parties for a formal apology of the German parliament and so refused to acknowledge the genocide in contradiction to the assessment of historians.

Western Cape premier Helen Zille has sparked a fresh war of words with officials in the Eastern Cape, this time on the health front. Just days after referring to Eastern Cape pupils attending Western Cape schools as 'refugees', Zille said she had had to facilitate the transfer of an elderly patient from that province because of the poor treatment the woman had received from its collapsed health service. But the Eastern Cape says at least nine doctors attended to the patient, and that Zille is merely trying to score political points.

Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has suspended an April summit with his southern counterpart following renewed clashes between the two armies on the border. The government announced that it suspended Bashir's visit to Juba after the South Sudanese army attacked (the oil-rich territory of) Heglig,' state radio reported. The two leaders had been due to meet on 3 April.

The US government on Tuesday 27 March announced sanctions against an Iranian cargo airline, a trading company and military officials for allegedly shipping weapons to Syria and Africa. The Treasury Department laid down sanctions against Yas Air, Behineh Trading and three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Yas Air is accused of transporting a consignment of Kalashnikov AK-47s, machine guns, mortars and ammunition to Syria under cover of humanitarian aid or 'auto spare parts'.

Can an international convention drafted 60 years ago to protect a limited number of Europeans uprooted by World War II continue to provide protection to the millions of people around the world today forced to flee their countries for a variety of reasons? Today, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing assistance and protection to over 15 million refugees throughout the world and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees remains the cornerstone of that protection. However, millions more people have fled their countries for reasons that the drafters of the Convention could not have predicted.

Government says it will continue stopping political rallies in the country if the security situation is volatile. But when quizzed why only opposition rallies are blocked, some officials have explained that ruling party rallies are always peaceful as hooligans can hardly hijack them.

Fifteen Egypt political groups and movements including the most prominent leftist and liberal political parties the Free Egyptians, the Democratic Front and al-Tagammu announced on Monday the formation of 'Constitution for All Egyptians Front', which aims to 'defend Egyptians right to draft a national constitution that ensures them their them their basic rights to freedom, dignity and social equality and also guarantees the representation of all the spectra and forces of the society and consensus over its drafting'.

'Following the events that occurred in the night of March 21, 2012 in Bamako and in the regions, the Forum of Civil Society Organisations of Mali has held a meeting at its headquarters. After analysis and review of the situation, the Forum of Civil Society Organizations condemns, as a principle all forms of coup d'état and acts of violence for the settlement of problems within the Malian nation.'

Dr. Wenceslao Mansogo, a medical doctor, prominent human rights defender and opposition party leader, has been detained since February 9 over allegations of professional negligence and mutilation of a body. Amnesty International considers Dr. Mansogo a prisoner of conscience. Dr. Mansogo has not been ill-treated and he is allowed to receive visitors.