The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has welcomed the historic move of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to adopt a landmark resolution on the safety of journalists and media practitioners in Africa. The resolution, which expressed concern over 'declining safety and security situation of journalists and media practitioners in some African countries', noted that 'killings, attacks and kidnapping of journalists, which are contrary to international humanitarian and human rights law, are often committed in an environment of impunity'. To ensure the protection of journalists’ safety, the African Commission appealed to member States of the African Union 'to fulfil their obligation of preventing, and investigating crimes against journalists, as well as bringing the perpetrators to justice'.

The future of the regional human rights court remains uncertain, amid reports that justice ministers from across Southern Africa have agreed that the court’s decisions are null and void. The court was effectively suspended over Zimbabwe’s refusal to honour its 2008 ruling that Robert Mugabe’s land grab campaign was unlawful. The court ordered the then ZANU PF government to protect farmers from further attack, but Robert Mugabe and his party have repeatedly snubbed the court.

Elections for the presidency of the Seychelles will be held from 19 -21 May 2011. A Commonwealth Expert Team has been sent to observe the poll. The opposition leader, Wavel Ramkalawan, told Think Africa Press that the Seychellois people are 'ready for democracy' – a strange phrase to use in a country that has officially been a multi-party democracy since 1993. The current government has been in power since a military coup in the mid-70s overthrew then president, Sir James Mancham.

Bangladesh has leased tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of a government drive to improve food security in the poverty-stricken South Asian nation, an official said. Two Bangladeshi companies have leased 40,000 hectares of land in Uganda and Tanzania and another firm will sign a deal for a further 10,000 hectares in Tanzania this week, foreign ministry director Farhadul Islam said.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at the media for their coverage of recent opposition protests over the cost of living. In a letter published in the state-owned New Vision paper, he called them 'the enemies of Uganda's recovery'. He named Al-Jazeera, the BBC, regional NTV and Uganda's privately owned Daily Monitor as cheering on those behind the month-long 'walk-to-work' campaign.

Farming with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is becoming more widespread in Kenya due to the promotion of biotechnology through clever schemes, exacerbated by the lack of a legal framework for the commercialisation of these controversial products. The Syngenta Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation attached to the Syngenta Company that researches and produces GM seeds. The foundation is involved in the 'Safe Biotechnology Management' (SABIMA) project aimed at promoting GM technology among small-scale farmers in Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

Facilities in refugee camps in northeastern Kenya have been stretched to the limit, aid workers say, as more and more Somali refugees flee the conflict at home. 'Dadaab refugee camps continue to receive a significant number of new arrivals who are often very tired and exhausted, having travelled very far, sometimes from as far as [the Somali capital] Mogadishu, in some cases on foot [over 1,000km],' said Emmanuel Nyabera, spokesman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), in Kenya. As of 15 May, Nyabera said, Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee complex, was home to at least 348,605 people.

In the new Global Report on Equality at Work 2011, the International Labour Office (ILO) notes that in spite of continuous positive advances in anti-discrimination legislation, the global economic and social crisis has led to a higher risk of discrimination against certain groups such as migrant labour. 'Economically adverse times are a breeding ground for discrimination at work and in society more broadly. We see this with the rise of populist solutions,' said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, adding that 'this threatens painstaking achievements of several decades'.

Sudanese armed forces have carried out another round of air strikes against a village in Darfur, this time striking a settlement in the north of the war-torn region, the joint United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported on 18 May. Government aircraft struck the village of Sukamir, about 100 kilometres northeast of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

Tunisia lifted an overnight curfew in the capital on Wednesday (18 May) saying security had improved since authorities arrested 1,400 people linked to the latest anti-government protests. Protesters at recent demonstrations in Tunis have said they fear democratic change is not coming quickly enough and many complain about unfair working conditions in a country where unemployment runs at around 14 per cent.

The government says it is investigating the Ocampo Six, reports Kenya's The Daily Nation. It has dismissed claims by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and post-election violence victims that police and judicial reforms in the country could hinder it from trying the six locally. While defending its admissibility case at the ICC, the government said the elements necessary for success of its complementarity challenge to the court’s admissibility are in place, providing it with the right to investigate and prosecute.

The rot in public hospitals in the country has been exposed in new reports by the anti-graft agency. Two studies conducted by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) between 16 October and 20 December 2009, found that provincial general and district hospitals are on the sick bed, plagued by staff shortages, corruption and poor facilities. Cartels, in collaboration with management, have taken over the supply chain as overworked and demoralised staff merely watch, according to the reports. The majority of Kenyans, unable to afford health services, mainly go to these health institutions.

The request by chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo that arrest warrants for war crimes be issued against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and the head of Libya’s intelligence service, Abdullah al-Senussi, only confirms the role of the International Criminal Court as a tool of the imperialist powers, says this article on the World Socialist Web Site. 'The warrants are, in effect, being issued on behalf of the United States, Britain and France—the chief architects of the ongoing bombardment of Libya. Moreno-Ocampo has gathered his evidence against the three accused with the aim of preventing any possibility of a negotiated end to the war, and to further isolate Gaddafi and pave the way for regime-change.'

There was a slight increase in the number of women running for elections in this year’s local government elections. More than 19,700 women stood as candidates, compared to 15,718 in the 2006 local elections. This means that 37 per cent of the candidates were women, a two per cent increase from 2006. Women remained the majority on the Independent Electoral Committee voters' roll, which has more than 24.5 million South Africans registered.

E.S.Newmann

Luiza Bairros

Marílio Wane

The indigenous forest dwellers of the Republic of Congo are in danger of extinction, warns David Lawson, UNFPA Representative in that country. His work with national and provincial leaders to promote and protect their rights will be the subject of a discussion at a side event of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Advocacy on behalf of the Congo’s indigenous peoples culminated last February with passage of a bill protecting their rights in the Republic of Congo. It marked the first such legislation in Africa and has been called a ‘best practice’ by the Secretary-General Special Representative for Indigenous People, Mr. James Anaya.

Ten years ago, Khayelitsha, in Cape Town, was the first place to make antiretroviral drugs available to the public sector, marking a milestone in the beginning of the end of AIDS denialism and the fight for treatment in South Africa. With more than half its population unemployed, Khayelitsha is one of South Africa's largest and fastest-growing townships, and home to one of the highest burdens of HIV and TB infection nationally and globally. In 2009, antenatal HIV prevalence was 30 per cent. Alarming as the figures may be, Khayelitsha is a beacon of hope for the AIDS epidemic in South Africa, where the provision of ARVs had been fraught, marked by a bitter stand-off between AIDS activists and government over the slow pace of the rollout.

Tunisia threatened to report Libya to the UN Security Council if it fired into Tunisian territory again, after Libya's three-month-old conflict spilled beyond its borders. Tunisia's state-run TAP news agency said the government would threaten Libya with diplomatic action over the 'continuing firing of rockets by Libyan forces towards Tunisian territory'. 'The Tunisian government views those acts as belligerent behaviour from the Libyan side who had pledged more than once to prevent its forces from firing in the direction of Tunisia and has failed to respect its undertakings,' TAP quoted a foreign ministry source as saying. On Tuesday at least four Russian-made Grad rockets fired from Libya landed inside Tunisia, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

Mozambique's government will again attempt to curtail subsidy expenditures for essential foods and services, but this time its approach will be more nuanced so as to avoid a repeat of the cost-of-living protests in 2010. Antonio Cruz, director of policy analysis in the planning ministry, recently told local media that subsidies on fuel, bread and rice, estimated to cost the donor-dependent government millions of dollars each month, would be phased out by the end of June 2011. Planning and development minister Aiuba Cuereneia told the state-run newspaper, Noticias, that savings accrued from discontinuing the generalized subsidies would enable the introduction of a new food basket and transport benefits for families earning less than two dollars a day.

The Arusha-based United Nation's court for Rwanda handed a 30-year prison sentence Tuesday (17 May) to former army chief Augustin Bizimungu for his role in the country's 1994 genocide. The court also convicted Augustin Ndindiliyimana, the former head of the paramilitary police, of genocide crimes but ordered his release as he had already spent 11 years behind bars since his arrest. Two other senior generals were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.