Gay Kenya has welcomed the passing of a United Nation Human Rights Council resolution that protects and defends the human rights of LGBT persons. 'The UN Human Rights Council resolution sought equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, marking progress for gay rights despite strong Arab and African opposition,' said a statement.

Naome Ruzindana is a feminist and founding member of the Coalition of African Lesbians. She presented her paper 'The Great Lakes of Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and their Position Towards LGBTI Rights' at the ILGA panel 'The Growing Consensus: Towards the End of Criminalisation and Human Rights Violations based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity' at the 17th session of the Human Rights Council 7 June 2011 at Palais des Nations, Geneva. You can read the full presentation from the Behind the Mask website.

Commercial sex work, dominated by a focus on women, could be redefined as new research launched in Nairobi, Kenya, sheds light on the complicated HIV prevention needs of what may be Africa’s most deeply underground group at high risk of HIV - male sex workers. The report co-authored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and South Africa's Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) seeks to better understand the social contexts, sexual practices and risks, including that of HIV, among these men. The professional debut of many of the 70 male sex workers surveyed in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe was often prompted by the family rejecting the men’s sexual orientation; for others, it was a way to survive in a foreign country.

As a result of the migration process, many immigrant and refugee women suffer serious mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, suicide, and psychosis. The purpose of this Canadian study was to increase understanding of the mental health care experiences of immigrant and refugee women by acquiring information regarding factors that either support or inhibit coping.

Igniting a firestorm of global debate, the results of a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll identifying the five most dangerous countries for women are generating controversy in the blogosphere and on news organisations’ websites around the world. Conducted by the Foundation’s TrustLaw legal news service and released on 15 June, the perception poll of more than 200 experts on women’s rights and issues on five continents found that, overall, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia posed the greatest danger to women, in that order. On Salon.com, blogger Natasha Lennard said, the TrustLaw survey 'at best offers a snapshot of genuinely concerning situations across the world, but lacks any real or valuable analysis; at worst it betrays [concerning] cultural and racial biases.”

Delegates from across the continent on Friday (17 June) opened the fifth pan-African gender conference in Dakar, Senegal. The two-day conference, bringing together over 500 participants will, among other things, seek to promote parity in all African countries. The Dakar-based international NGO, Femmes Africa Solidarité, is co-organising the event with the Government of Senegal.

Soon after independence in 1960, the government set the legal age of consent to marriage at 20 for men, 18 for women and 21 for couples without parental consent. But the law is widely ignored in a society where many say that marrying young is the cultural norm. When female teens become eligible for early marriage, their school enrollment drops off sharply. While 66 per cent of girls enroll in primary school, just 19 per cent go on to secondary school, according to UNICEF.

With homophobia on the rise, large numbers of South African lesbians are being subjected to discrimination and violent assaults. There has also been an increase in 'corrective rape' by men trying to 'cure' them of their sexual orientation. More than 30 lesbians have been killed since 2006. But most of these crimes go unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own. 'I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth,' said Maryan Qasim. 'The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant,' Qasim said. 'When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all...There are no hospitals, no healthcare, no nothing.'

After a newspaper that Prudence* (16) used as sanitary wear fell from her while she played with friends at school, she left and never returned. The impoverished A-student could not handle the teasing or embarrassment. The prevalence of this problem has the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) considering approaching government. According to SNAT gender officer Bongiwe Khumalo, many teachers have identified this problem at their schools. Very few have been able to assist the young girls because of lack of resources. However, the organisation has no statistics available on how many girls are leaving school.

While the social and political movements gaining momentum in the Middle East and North Africa appear to be opening the door for democracy, initially progressive revolutions do not often result in sustained improvements for women’s rights, notes this article. 'While Arab women have been crucial in the revolutions that have shattered the status quo, their role in the future development of their own countries remains unclear. In Tunisia, for example, the fear is that women will be sucked into an ideological and religious tug-of-war over their rights, reducing the complexities of democratisation into a binary secular/non-secular battle.'

The importance of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa lies in its potential to change negative power relations and address the impoverishment of women in Africa, writes Itodo Samuel Anthony, a finalist in the SOAWR essay competition.

A gay woman was stabbed four times by men who accused her of stealing their girlfriends in Crossroads in the Western Cape, the Times reported. Noxolo Nkosana (23) was getting out of a car, returning home after work when two men, both Crossroads residents, approached her.

A Ugandan woman who was branded with a hot iron in her home country as a punishment for her sexuality, is facing forced removal from the UK. Betty Tibikawa, 22, who is detained in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedford, is awaiting removal directions after her asylum claim was refused. Human rights organisations have consistently documented abuses against gay men and lesbians in Uganda and say that it's one of the most dangerous countries in the world for gay people.

'The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) joins the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in calling on this weekend’s Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community focusing on Zimbabwe can lead to a peaceful, free, fair and legitimate democratic transition in that country. We fully endorse and support the Coalition’s call on the summit to put on public record minimum pre-conditions that Zimbabwe must meet in order to create an environment conducive to holding free and fair elections where violence and intimidation play no part and to inspire confidence in the people of Zimbabwe, in SADC and the wider international community.'

Dr Willy Mutunga, the man set to become Kenya’s next chief justice had to publicly declare he was not gay this week in front of a committee that was vetting him for office. Opponents of Dr Mutunga's nomination for the post who included leading members of the clergy had implied that because he wears a stud and has in the past been supportive of LGBTI causes, Dr Mutunga was gay or might support an LGBTI agenda and as such was unfit for office.

A new sex workers initiative in Botswana has included an LGBTI component in its programme. African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is a Pan African movement and alliance for the rights of sex workers which was established in 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa, with a number of 105 sex workers from different countries in Africa. Sisonke Botswana, a sex work group currently housed by Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA), joined ASWA and dedicated a week to the mapping of sex workers rights in Botswana with the aim to forming a coalition which will advance the human health rights of most key population (sex workers, transgender, MSM and drug users).

For the first time, the role of the internet on the right to freedom of opinion and expression is being reported at the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council. This signals a clear recognition that the increasing prevalence of the internet in all aspect of our lives is becoming impossible to ignore, and that it is becoming pivotal in the realisation of our fundamental rights and freedoms. At the same session, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women is also presenting her report on violence against women, its causes and consequences. The synchronicity of both reports, especially given the fact that human rights are universal, interdependent and indivisible, calls for a close reading to identify the points of connection that can be built in the effort to recognise, analyse and address violations that affect the recognition, protection and fulfilment of women's human rights.

According to Eco-Watch Africa, sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in the aftermath of natural disasters, like recent floods in Mozambique, is an enormous challenge. This means women will suffer both the effects of natural disasters and also the gender-based violence common in refugee camps or post-disaster situations. Yet despite women being the most vulnerable, they are grossly underrepresented in debates, discussions and other decision-making structures around issues of climate change.

An African gay activist, Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas, has had his first appeal for UK asylum turned down by a judge in a hearing 26 May at Harmondsworth detention centre, where he is being held. Judge S. Chana accepted the UK Border Agency (UKBA)'s argument that Cosmas's story was not 'credible' and that he has no reason to fear persecution in Tanzania even if he was gay, which he isn't. A lawyer for Cosmas, who had only been instructed for the case the previous night, asked for the case to be removed from the 'fast track process' so a psychological and physical assessment (to establish whether he had been tortured) could take place. This was refused.