The North American Delegation to the 8th Pan African Congress is holding a preparatory meeting to mobilize grassroots representation to the 2nd phase (to be held in 2016) on October 30?31, 2015 in New York City at Medgar Evers College. The first phase of the 8th Pan African Congress was held in Ghana in March 2015.

Following threats to de-register 959 Kenyan NGOs, many working for good governance and human rights, CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, and the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders–Kenya (NCHRD-K), call on Kenyan authorities to immediately stop the repeated harassment of NGOs and ensure a conducive legal and political operating environment.

Three Ethiopian activists are facing trial under a draconian counter-terrorism law after trying to attend a food security workshop in Nairobi earlier this year. They are all involved in supporting local communities in ensuring food security and access to land, in a country where around one million hectares of land have already been leased to investors. If you're able to, please consider supporting their families. Click on this .

History has time and again shown that violence does not take place in a vacuum and until the ongoing issue of an illegal and brutal occupation is addressed, there is unlikely to be peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Muslims in Israel/Palestine.

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 15, 2015- The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the late Wednesday by Kenya's national assembly of a bill that would .
"This bill has no place in a democracy," said CPJ's Africa Program Coordinator Sue Valentine. "The public has a right to hear news and criticism of what is discussed in parliament and how members conduct themselves. We urge President Uhuru Kenyatta to live up to his promise to respect press freedom and the role of the media in ensuring the free flow of information."

The Kenya Correspondents' Association issued a

The aim of the Legacy Project is to provide a forum and an engagement platform for issues relating to Africa to remain alive through culture, arts, youth clubs and the dissemination of books and works of leading pan Africanists.

Academic staff at universities in South Africa call on their colleagues at universities and tertiary institutions around the world, members of civil society, and all who have been fortunate enough to enjoy the benefits of higher education, to sign this campaign and stand with South African students in their struggle for a democratised higher education sector. Sign the petition .

The program will start with a short video, “The Last Days of Ivory”, evidencing how poaching funds armed groups including al-Shabab, the Lord’s Resistance Army, Boko Haram and Darfur’s Janjaweed; they smuggle wildlife products valued at $1.3 billion each year.

On October 10, 2015, women, men and children watched with horror and disgust as various media outlets aired the degrading treatment of a woman from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) during her arrest by Uganda Police.

In #PunchBack this week: The political crisis in Burundi remains unresolved. Despite the rhetoric of “African solutions to African problems”, apparently nothing is going to address this issue at regional and continental levels. A crisis breaking out anywhere in the continent presents an opportunity to demonstrate pan-African solidarity, Ubuntu. Or does Africa still need lessons on conflict resolution? Watch the and share your thoughts.

We are in need of donations to keep Pambazuka News running as an independent platform for cutting-edge analysis of topical debates within the pan-African world and global South.

You can send you donation through M-Pesa, the Kenyan mobile money system that operates globally. See details .

Report concludes that there is considerable scope for the City to improve the management of informal trade, and that any restriction or prohibition on trade is likely to negatively affect the way that traders make a living as it undermines the benefits that traders derive from permanence.

The hugely unpopular failed coup in the land of Thomas Sankara represents a clash between retrogressive forces supporting the status quo and the popular struggles of determined citizens demanding an end to imperialist dominance of the country's public life by France and its allies. For more, watch Pambazuka's new video blog

The report, drawing on a number of case studies, faults the criminal justice process at all stages: from lack of initial police follow up, inadequate investigation by prosecutors, to judges not enforcing proper procedure or sentencing in compliance with the law.

The October 2015 issue of the International Refugee Rights Initiative’s Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter (formerly the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter) is out. Find the full newsletter .

Two months before the talks in Paris begin, people across the globe will gather to make connections, plan mobilisations and fight climate change together.

The September 2015 issue of the International Refugee Rights Initiative’s Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter (formerly the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter) is out. Find the full newsletter .

Pambazuka News Team is pleased to announce to its readers and supporters the launch of a new video blog called #PunchBack.

#PunchBack provides comment and analysis of current affairs from a pan-Africanist perspective.

We invite our readers to watch #PunchBack, share the vlog, engage with the issues raised and share your views with us.

A new post of #PunchBack will appear every two weeks in the Comments & Analysis section of your newsletter.

Welcome!

Click on this link to the first post of .

Pambazuka News Team

Civil society organisations from around the world have insisted that climate change is the biggest and most urgent threat to the Planet. A radical transformation of food systems is needed, away from an industrial model and its false solutions, and toward food sovereignty, local food systems, and integral agrarian reform in order to achieve the full realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition.

As a spokesperson for the South African Police Serivce, Colonel Naicker is expected to disseminate factually accurate information. But he he has conspicuously failed to do in his comments about the Glebelands violence. How on earth does SAPS expect anyone to take anything he says seriously given the disinformation he has disseminated about an extremely serious and tragic situation?