Since the terrible events of September 11, 2001, the human rights cause has faced new challenges and threats. The threat of terrorism hangs over millions of people. Meanwhile, around the world, governments have passed regressive anti-terrorism laws that threaten basic rights. The international human rights system, built over decades by governments themselves, has come under unprecedented strain and Human Rights Day on December 10 should be a time of reflection, rededication and renewal, says Human Rights Watch.

A human rights association, The Ligue Centrafricaine des Droits de l’Homme [LCDH], has asked the transitional government of Francois Bozize to repatriate armed Chadian forces, whom it described as mercenaries, over their alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the capital, Bangui. The group claim that the Chadian "mercenaries", who supported Bozize in his six-month rebellion against former President Ange-Felix Patasse, were responsible for human right abuses and insecurity prevailing in the country.

The UN head of Emergency Relief Coordination, Jan Egeland, has expressed concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, and urged the warring sides to desist from deliberately attacking civilians. In a statement issued by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Egeland said insecurity in Darfur had now reached "unprecedented levels", due to fighting between forces loyal to the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

Algeria's commission on "disappearances" needs greater investigative powers and a broader mandate if it is to be credible and effective, Human Rights Watch says in a new report. The 32-page report, "Truth and Justice on Hold: The New State Commission on 'Disappearances,'" examines the "disappearances" commission announced in September by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. After years of stonewalling on the issue, the Algerian government established the commission to clarify the fate of the more than 7,000 persons who "disappeared"-mostly at the hands of security forces-during the civil conflict of the 1990s.

"They are probably hoping that we die with the weapons they provided", says Somali refugee Warsan Fowzi in a new book published today, called "Listen to the Refugee's Story: How UK Investment Creates Refugees and Aslyum Seekers". The vast majority of refugees today flee conflict, or social or economic oppression. In many cases, British companies, taxpayers and the government directly and indirectly support the human rights abuses that accompany British investment and policies abroad. Many of these abuses ultimately force people to flee their homes and then their countries.

Nearly 10,000 more Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad to escape an escalation of conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, bringing total numbers to more than 75,000. Meanwhile, safety concerns have led the UN refugee agency to start developing a site further inland in Chad to relocate the refugees who have been living in sites along the volatile border.

Amnesty International's delegation attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) welcomed the general commitments given to human rights objectives on democracy and development, particularly the commitment to promote "machinery to protect human rights" and greater partnership within the Commonwealth to achieve the objectives. The Aso Rock Declaration adopted by the heads of government urges the Commonwealth Ministers and the Secretary-General to work on implementation and requested a progress report to the next CHOGM in Malta in 2005.

The Zanzibar government has threatened to take legal action against the editorial board of the banned weekly "Dira" if it attempts to publish the newspaper on the Internet. At a news conference on 3 December 2003, Zanzibar Information Services Director Enzi Talib said that to continue publishing "Dira" in any form would be contrary to the government's order, which banned the newspaper throughout the United Republic of Tanzania.

The integration of former rebels into a new unified army in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began on Monday at a ceremony in the eastern town of Kisangani. Some 150 soldiers paraded for the occasion in a common uniform. They included 40 men from the former government army, 40 from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and 40 from the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo - the two former principal rebel movements.

The government army and rebel forces occupying the north of Cote d'Ivoire each withdrew from frontline positions close to the French-patrolled buffer zone between them on Friday ahead of talks on disarmament next week. Hardline youth groups supporting President Laurent Gbagbo meanwhile ended four days of protest demonstrations outside the French military base near Abidjan airport, where they had been demanding the departure of French peacekeepers from the frontline so that government forces could attack the north.

The Ugandan army has denied reports from local leaders in the country’s troubled northern Lira district that up to 70 bodies from Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks have been recovered in the last week. “This figure is simply false," Lira-based army spokesman Lt Chris Magezi told IRIN. "We know the rebels killed four over this last weekend in a place near Okude, but our investigations in this area revealed nothing further.

Africa is facing an enormous water crisis afflicting 300 million Africans and claiming 6,000 lives a year, a major summit heard on Monday. Water scarcity is also rapidly increasing the dangers of “social and political conflict” among booming city populations, senior United Nations officials warned.

Is it time that education in emergencies occupied a more prominent place in humanitarian thinking? How can education help protect the physical and psychological wellbeing of children in war-affected or displaced communities? How can such children act to help protect themselves? What are the risks for kids and for agencies running education programmes in war-affected environments?

Humanitarian agencies working in conflict zones are recognising that however much they attempt to be impartial deliverers of emergency assistance, they are also important political and economic actors. Could a political economy perspective help them to better anticipate and monitor vulnerable people's assistance and protection needs and to improve programme responses?

Just as Europeans excused the pillage of the empire with the claim that they were civilising 'savage races', tribal peoples face destruction at the hands of Commonwealth governments that see them as 'backward' and 'primitive', says Survival International. The Gana and Gwi Bushmen of Botswana were evicted in 2002 from their ancestral land and forced to live in government resettlement camps, supposedly for their own good. Botswana's foreign minister has said, 'We can't allow them to be primitive or backward.... [the government has a] responsibility to improve their cultural background.' One Canadian Indian leader has appealed to Botswana 'to learn from Canada's mistakes, and end the misguided policy of trying to forcibly integrate the Bushmen into your cultural mainstream.'

Older people comprise the fastest growing population in the world. However, their rights are increasingly being abused by family members and society in general due to the weakening of traditions that accorded them respect and ensured their welfare was attended to. The pervading attitude among many people is that older persons have done their time and must be relegated to the periphery to vegetate and die and therefore have no rights to lay claim to.

On 20th November 2003, Universal Child Rights Day, the inaugural Regional East African Juvenile Justice Network (EAJJN) was officially launched in Nairobi, Kenya. The initiative came during the CRADLE's (the Child Rights Advisory, Documentation and Legal Center) first regional conference on "Promoting juvenile justice within East Africa", which featured prominent lawyers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as ministers and other representatives from the Kenyan government and the Swedish Embassy.

So far, 6,000 fighters from the main former rebel movement, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democarite (CNDD-FDD), are assembled at Kibongo Commune in the southern province of Makamba and are ready for cantonment, the movement’s spokesman, Maj Gelase Ndabirabe, told IRIN on Thursday.

The schoolgirl at the centre of last month's alleged racist attack at Edgemead High School in Cape Town on Wednesday formally applied for an Equality Court hearing into the incident. Equality Courts are tasked under South African human rights legislation to deal with unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment.

At the end of its 34th Ordinary Session in Banjul, The Gambia, held from 6-20 November 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights appointed Commissioner Jainaba Johm as focal point on Human Rights Defenders in Africa. The establishment of a focal point on Human Rights Defenders is an important first step to begin the full realization of the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders) in Africa through the African Commission.