This paper examines the Government of Uganda's local settlement policy which requires refugees to live in formal camps, and examines its implications for refugees'livelihoods and their enjoyment of their legal rights in Uganda. Based on field research in Arua and Moyo districts, the findings explore the relative positions of refugees residing in settlements as well as those who have left or avoided the settlement system altogether.

In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees into neighbouring countries. This paper explores the effect of violent conflict on the reproductive behaviour of affected populations, particularly on the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee women and the survival of their children. To this end, the authors use a national survey covering 6420 former refugee and non-refugee households conducted between 1999 and 2001.

The next few weeks will be decisive for peace efforts in Northern Uganda, says the International Crisis Group in a new briefing paper.

Factors on the ground which are favourable for peace include greater effectiveness in the counter-insurgency efforts of the Ugandan army, reduced support for the Lord's Resistance Army by the Sudanese government and pressure created as a result of an International Criminal Court investigation into the conflict.

A unilateral ceasefire declared by the Ugandan government was due to expire on February 22 and the ICG is urging that it be extended to give further impetus to peace efforts. "If the process is to succeed, a more secure, mutually agreed ceasefire needs to be in place and negotiations started on the terms of a final settlement by April when the rainy season (the best time for LRA operations) begins."

One of the recommendations made by the ICG is that the ICC tread carefully in their investigations into war crimes committed during the conflict and not issue warrants of arrest until April, when the direction of current peace efforts might be clearer. While the ICC investigations were "important steps toward accountability and an end to impunity" there was a risk that the LRA could be driven away from the peace process if prosecutions were launched.

The Northern part of Uganda, the ICG notes, has received increased attention by President Yoweri Museveni because it offers a potential vote pool ahead of elections in 2006. The luxury of strong support bases in the south and central parts of Uganda for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) are eroding and Museveni can expect support from the region if he can secure peace.

The eighteen-year insurgency in Northern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has displaced 1.6 million people, says the ICG.

* Compiled from the report, 'Peace in Northern Uganda: Decisive Weeks Ahead'. Read the full report at http://www.icg.org//library/documents/africa/central_africa/b022_peace_…

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice testifies this week on the President's proposed budget before three congressional committees and will soon begin setting the Department's priorities. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) urges her to set a strategic new direction in refugee assistance by applying the President's forward strategy of freedom to end the "warehousing" of refugees. "The President's budget requests increased spending on Migration and Refugee Assistance, which we applaud. But while we spend millions each year on the care and maintenance of refugee camps -- $147 million in 2003, for example -- we spend very little on programs to extend freedom so that refugees can enjoy their rights," said USCRI President Lavinia Limón. "Languishing refugees need more than subsistence rations; they need to enjoy their rights."

The topic of IGAD peacekeepers for Somalia is a controversial one here in Mogadishu. Many Somalis see this initiative as an attempt by Ethiopians to dominate in the Horn of Africa and form a renegade regime in Mogadishu. Recently Somalia’s government approved the deployment of at least 7500 troops to help restore law and order in a country shattered by years of civil war.

This plan was voted on at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in the Kenyan capital early this month, but it will have to be taken to the country’s parliament for final approval. The mission, which will be the first multinational force in Somalia since the end of a failed UN-mandated intervention in 1993, is expected to help install the country’s transitional government.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has earlier early warned of the deployment of troops from frontline states, adding that the decision taken by regional organisations to send troops to Somalia risks destabilising Somalia's fragile transitional government and jeopardising the peace process.

President Yusuf, elected last October, and his government led by Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, have been based in Nairobi amid continued fears of instability in Somalia. However, early this month a delegation of parliamentarians and ministers of the Transitional Federal Government led by parliament speaker Shariif Hassan have visited Mogadishu to assess the security situation in the city.

On their return to Nairobi, Mr. Shariif told a parliament meeting that Mogadishu is where the government should settle. The decision will also depend upon a combination of political strategy and security calculations linked to the appointment of the cabinet and the possible deployment of African peace-keeping forces.

Mr. Yusuf and other officials have repeatedly said that they will one day return to Mogadishu since a number of foreign governments have flagged this as a key measure of the TFG. To disarm armed groups in Somalia will also be a hard task for the TFG to ensure, as leaders of all armed factions appear to be opposed to the recent call of Mr. Yusuf on disarmament.

The peace conference held in Kenya for Somalis has finally established a new government for the war-torn country. Somalia has been without central authority for nearly 14 years. Somalis at home and abroad are apparently tired of a ruthless 14 years of civil war, and have demonstrated their support for the new government.

Peaceful and impartial steps to campaign for national reconciliation in the entire country through broader participation from all areas of the Somali people must be a top priority of the government. It is required to do this by developing a reconciliation process to foster public support as the way forward.

Among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northern Uganda are an estimated 44,000 "night commuters" in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts. The night commuters are mostly children, adolescents and women who flee their villages or IDP centres each night for town centres seeking safety from LRA attack. These night commuters represent only a small portion of the IDP population, but their situation dramatically illustrates how inadequate protection has led to increasing violence against children and adolescents.

In September 2004, staff from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children went on a mission to northern Uganda. One focus of the mission was to look at the education situation in the north given that the region has been and is currently in a situation of violent conflict. With 1.6 million people displaced, learning systems and structures have been altered significantly, even with the Uganda government's pledge of Universal Primary Education (UPE).

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has called upon the Namibian Government to opt for a comprehensive negotiated settlement of the Caprivi conflict. "The ongoing marathon high treason trial against the more than 130 alleged Caprivi secessionists is alone unlikely to bring about a sustainable resolution of the dispute. Rather, the trial is aimed at bringing about a judicial answer to what is unmistakably a political question. Moreover, the trial is likely to result in long-term imprisonment and martyrdom, as well as deepened hatred and trauma on the part of the alleged secessionists, their families and their tribesmen for many years to come."

Eleven foreign ministers of countries in Africa's Great Lakes region met last Thursday in Kigali, Rwanda, to map out strategies of implementing a regional pact on security, stability and development signed in November 2004 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The ministers, meeting under an initiative of the UN and the African Union (AU), reviewed – among other things - efforts to improve peace and security in the region, including proliferation and circulation of small arms and light weapons, border security, disarmament of combatants and defence and security cooperation among countries in the region.

At dawn every morning, a number of women leave Mayo-Madela internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in search of odd jobs within the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Those who clean houses earn 150 Sudanese dinars a day (US $0.50). The majority of the women are Dinka IDPs from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, some living in the camp for the past 20 years.

Sitting outside her kiosk in the western Eritrean village of Dressa, Frawine Abraham, who was born a refugee in Sudan, is glad to be back in her homeland but she struggles here to make ends meet. "I was born in a refugee camp in Sudan. I wanted to come and live in my country. Here, I can move about more easily, but I don't have enough money," said the 24-year-old. Frawine was repatriated in 2001, one of an estimated 120,000 refugees who have returned since then from neighbouring Sudan, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here.

The most urgent need in Darfur is for concrete measures to end the current violence and restore security and dignity to its people, including taking the issue to the International Criminal Court (ICC), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told the Security Council on 16 February. ...

Briefing the Council on the work of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, the High Commissioner said murder, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and forced displacement continue to be committed against the people of the western Sudanese region.

"These crimes have been and, it appears, continue to be perpetrated, on a widespread and systematic basis, by Government officials and Janjaweed leaders or those under their command", she said, adding that members of rebel groups were also responsible for war crimes.

"The Commission, in my view, eloquently and powerfully argues that referral to the ICC is the best means by which to halt ongoing violations and prevent future ones", she said.

Mrs. Arbour argued that the ICC could be activated immediately. "With an already existing set of well-defined rules of procedure and evidence, the Court is the best suited institution for ensuring speedy investigations leading to arrests and demonstrably fair trials", she said.

Speaking on the Commission's conclusion that the Government of Sudan had not pursued a policy of genocide, the High Commissioner recalled that the panel had also recognized that only a competent court could determine, on a case by case basis, whether individuals, including Government officials, ordered or participated in atrocities motivated by the genocidal intent to exterminate a protected group, in which case they could be found guilty of the crime of genocide.

"It is, in my view, important to stress that nothing in the Commission's report precludes the possibility of individuals being convicted of acts of genocide in relation to the events in Darfur", she said. "Personal criminal responsibility is not determined by government policy"

The International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has urged the Congolese government to vet and prosecute former militia leaders instead of appointing them to high-ranking positions in the newly integrated national army. "If the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC] is to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace, it must not appoint individuals to the army when there is evidence that they may be responsible for serious abuses," Juan Méndez, the president of the ICTJ and UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, said.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying the evidence pointed to crimes committed by the Sudanese Government, militia and rebel forces, has urged the Security Council to act urgently to stop further death and suffering in the strife-torn Darfur region and "to do justice for those whom we are already too late to save." He addressed the Council as it received a report from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on the findings of the five-member International Commission of Inquiry on the conflict in Sudan's vast region in the west.

In the decade ahead, HIV/AIDS is expected to kill ten times more people than conflict. Although the highest HIV rates are recorded in countries without conflicts, rates are suspected to be high, and growing, such as in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and other states where surveillance systems cannot function properly.

In conflict situations, young people are most at risk. HIV/AIDS and conflict are combining to threaten the lives of young people, especially girls. Many children have also lost their parents to warfare or to AIDS, and are living without protection and assistance.

In war, HIV/AIDS spreads rapidly as a result of sexual violence, low awareness about HIV, and the breakdown of vital services in health and education. Children and young people are being denied their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children have a right to information and materials that will promote their well-being, reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and protect them from the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

The military build-up on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea could "aggravate" simmering tensions, the president of the UN Security Council said. Ambassador Joel W. Adechi of Benin said the 15-member body was considering asking UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send either an envoy or a mission to defuse pressure, UN News reported on Tuesday. The envoy or mission would help push forward the "political dialogue" between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-east region of Ituri. People are fleeing the resumption of activities of ethnic-based militia groups in the area. Neither the Congolese government nor the UN seem able to bring an end to this conflict, which has already claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

Togo's military has agreed to "return the country to constitutional order" following talks with West African envoys, a Togolese general has said. Togo's neighbours and the international community condemned the army-backed moves to install Faure Gnassingbe as president following his father's death. At least four people have been killed in protests against the "coup".

Since the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Burundians have fled their homes to escape fighting between the government and Hutu rebel groups seeking to put an end to the political dominance of the Tutsi minority. Many others, predominantly Hutus, were forcibly displaced into camps by the government in the second part of the 1990s. The UN and the Burundian government have carried out a comprehensive survey of the IDPs in camps in Burundi in 2004, which gives precious information about the location of IDPs, their vulnerabilities and their aspirations.

In a vote of confidence in Liberia's peace process, the first convoy of Liberian refugees have begun heading home to Lofa county, the hardest-hit area during the 14-year civil war with the largest-scale displacement. 140 Liberian refugees left Guinea's Kouankan camp for Voinjama, the main town in Lofa county, northern Liberia. Most families in the convoy will continue further east to Zorzor district, where the UN refugee agency has set up a transit facility and rehabilitated seven schools and a clinic.