The principle of non-discrimination is well established all over the world. It is to be found in most international conventions as well as in many countries municipal laws. Kenya is no exception and the principle is found in Kenya’s constitution as well as in the Children Act. Kenya furthermore, has ratified several of the international conventions containing the principle. Despite this, the principle is not always adhered to in Kenya and discrimination does exist in the country. One group that is being discriminated against is children born out of wedlock. When it comes to the issue of parental responsibility, these children get less support than children born by married parents. What is important to note in this regard is that this distinction between children born out of wedlock and children born by married parents, is actually provided for in Kenya’s national laws.

According to the Children’s Act, the issue of parental responsibility, i.e. which of the parents has responsibility for the child, is determined by whether or not the parents were married at the time of the child’s birth. In cases where the parents were married, both the mother and the father shall have parental responsibility. Neither the father nor the mother shall have a superior right or claim against the other in the exercise of this responsibility. However, in cases where the parents were not married at the time of the child’s birth and have subsequently not married, the issue of responsibility towards the child is different. In these cases, the mother is the one with full parental responsibility whereas the father bears no responsibility at all. The father can acquire responsibility, however, this is optional and more importantly, it is optional to the father, it is nothing neither the mother nor the child is able to enforce on the father.

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As wars multiply around the globe, involving civilians to unprecedented degrees, UNESCO estimates that more than half of the 104 million children out of school live in countries touched by conflict. More than 27 million children in those countries do not have access to education. In Mozambique, some 45 per cent of primary schools were destroyed during the civil war; in Rwanda, over two-thirds of teachers either fled or were killed. The majority of refugee children who do receive education are enrolled at primary level, with only 6 per cent getting secondary schooling.

A member of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, has denied reports of a split within the government over the deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops and relocation to the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "I am not aware of any such split," Aden Ibbi Abdirahman, the state minister for parliamentary relations, told IRIN on Monday. He was reacting to reports in local Somali media.

Various international bodies have expressed concern about the bombing of the village of Rahad Kabolong in the western Sudanese state of North Darfur. According to African Union monitors, government aircraft bombed the village on 26 January, reportedly killing some 100 civilians, among them many women and children. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said in a press statement released on 28 January that he was "deeply disturbed" by the attack.

Hungry refugees in Zambia have resorted to looting crop fields in nearby villages in a desperate bid to gain access to food. "The situation is out of hand, with increasing reports of refugees entering surrounding villages to steal crops and livestock. More worrying is that young girls from the refugee community are being forced into prostitution. The local communities have complained to the government because they are now afraid of growing insecurity in the area," said Zambian home affairs permanent secretary, Peter Mumba.

The murder trial of three men accused of throwing a black farm worker to the lions offers an extreme example of the plight of farm workers in a country that still has a culture of violence, human rights researchers said. Prosecutors allege that Mark Scott-Crossley, a white farmer, and two of his workers attacked Nelson Chisale with machetes last January, beat him, held him at gunpoint, tied him up and then drove him 20km to a lion reserve and threw him over the fence where he was devoured.

Civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and more recently, Côte D’Ivoire have contributed to thousands of displaced people. The enormous refugee influx from neighboring countries has made Guinea host to one of the largest populations of refugees. Unfortunately, this creates a misleading view of Guinea as a peaceful haven, thus concealing significant humanitarian problems faced by displaced people. Further, there is a natural tendency for international donors to focus either on countries that have embarked on a peace process, such as Sierra Leone and Liberia, or on countries still in the midst of conflict, such as Côte D’Ivoire.

Distracted by Iraq and the Asian tsunami, the United Nations is ignoring a flare-up in Uganda's 18-year-old civil conflict, an aid group said last Thursday. "The United Nations Security Council has been appallingly negligent of the conflict in Uganda, failing to pass a single resolution," said Emma Naylor, head of Oxfam in Uganda. The British-based group said the Security Council should have used a meeting on African humanitarian issues in New York last Thursday to focus on one of Africa's longest-running wars.

Top Japanese actress Rei Kikukawa has appealed for more assistance to the children and refugees of Kenya's Dadaab camp during a recent visit to raise awareness of their plight among the Japanese public. Kikukawa, 26, visited Dadaab refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya for four days last week with a team from Nippon Television Network Corporation, one of the leading Japanese TV stations. "The timing of this visit is quite important," said Toshiro Odashima, who heads UNHCR's office in Dadaab. "It comes at a time when world attention has shifted to Asia after the recent tsunami disaster. I hope Rei's presence here will remind the Japanese and the world of continued needs in places like Dadaab."

The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday criticized a pledge by Britain's Conservative Party to pull out of a five-decade-old global asylum accord if it wins the country's upcoming election. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said Conservative leader Michael Howard's promise to withdraw Britain from the 1951 Geneva convention was "alarming," and that the consequences "would be extremely counterproductive." Under the accord, countries are meant to provide asylum for refugees.

During the past week, Uganda witnessed an influx of more 10,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The refugees entered the southwestern Kanungu District, through Ishasha village. Apparent insecurity in this village near Lake Edward pushed some 7,000 people to either return to DRC or seek shelter further inside the country. There is a clear sense among humanitarian organizations on the ground, including the UN, that should the fighting continue, large numbers of Congolese may cross the border into Uganda in the coming days.

The attackers, as they have done so often, rampaged through terrified people, shouting "kill the slaves". They cried: "We have orders to kill all the blacks". Eight more villages in Darfur were torched in a single day by armed men in a concerted operation. As arguments rage over who was to blame for the attacks five days ago, the UN is deciding whether the atrocities of the past two years amount to genocide. Human rights organisations are using the occasion of Holocaust Day today to call for international war trials to help stop the crimes still being committed against the civilians of Darfur.

Hugh McCullum, who covered part of the civil war from Mogadishu in the mid-1990s, outlines the recent history of chaos and warlordism in Somalia and weighs the slim possibility that the present attempt at legitimate government will succeed, since those same warlords have key roles in it. The article also shows the commentary and debate which arose after the article was released.

The UN independent expert on human rights, Ghanim Alnajjar, urged on Monday the international community to "remember those affected by the tsunami in the Puntland region of northeastern Somalia where more than 150 people were killed and about 50,000 people" have been affected. Noting that some emergency supplies had been distributed to hundreds of families affected by the 26 December tsunami, Alnajjar, in a statement, said: "Somali victims of the devastating tsunami may be in danger of being forgotten by the international community."

The appointment this week of Angola's first Justice Ombudsman has sparked concern among human rights activists, who fear a lack of transparency and consultation in the process will render the position ineffective. Human rights organisations and civil society groups are up in arms because they have had no part in the selection procedure. "The Angolan government has violated the rules of the game," said one human rights worker. "They are going against international guidelines - the Paris Principles - which expect a consultation with civil society over the nomination of the candidates, as well as the structure and function of the whole institution."

'Hotel Rwanda', a US film about the genocide, won three Oscar nominations on Tuesday, while Rwandan genocide movie 'Sometime in April' is set for the famous Berlin film festival in Germany.

Experiences from a UK Department for International Development funded project in Nigeria suggest that greater critical attention must be given to the impacts and effects of HIV/AIDS on communities, and the ways in which conflict can develop, emerge and be sustained, resulting in severe breakdown of social cohesion and reduction or cessation of HIV/AIDS activities. It is argued that conflict can be fuelled by the different priorities and perceptions of community members and groups vis-à-vis those of development organisations, and by the impact of funds on often desperately poor communities.

The Refugee Studies Centre, established in 1982 as part of Oxford University’s International Development Centre, pioneered research and teaching in the multidisciplinary field of forced migration studies, combined with a deep commitment to improving the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged people. The International Summer School offers an intensive, interdisciplinary and participative approach to the study of forced migration. It aims to enable people working with refugees and other forced migrants to reflect critically on the forces and institutions that dominate the world of the displaced.

Amnesty International has expressed its serious concern at the arrest of Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a leading Sudanese human rights activist and Chair of the humanitarian organisation Sudan Social Development Organisation (SUDO). Members of Sudan's National Security and Intelligence Agency arrested Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam and a friend Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman in his family home in Kondua, a village in North Kordofan on Sunday 24 January. No reasons were given for their arrest and no one has so far had access to the detainees. They were reportedly brought to the National Security Agency office in the town of Umburua, North Kordofan.

The Interim Somali government, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya, is continuing to plan its relocation to Somalia in early February despite the killing of a senior police officer in Mogadishu on Sunday, sources said. The cabinet met on Monday to discuss security and has agreed to continue with the relocation plan, the source added. It had initially resolved to start preparations for a return to Somalia during its first formal meeting on 15 January.