Kenya may be headed for its most significant confrontation with Western allies since the early 1990s if the government persists in its defiant reaction to the International Criminal Court’s requests for cooperation. 'There can be no doubt that the international community shares the desire by the broad majority of Kenyans for justice to be done to end the culture of impunity,' says Kenya National Commission on Human Rights commissioner Hassan Omar. 'If the government continues to block these efforts, it is natural that there will be consequences.'

Soldiers supporting Côte d’Ivoire's internationally recognised president-elect Alassane Ouattara seized the western city of Bloléquin on Monday. A spokesman of the New Forces former rebel group Mara Laciné said Bloléquin is under their control after 'fierce fighting' on Sunday night. The New Forces, who mainly support Mr Ouattara, control the north but have advanced on western towns neighbouring Liberia.

The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) is presently soliciting contributions for the second Conflict Trends Issue of 2011 (CT 2011, Issue 2). This will be a Special Issue on 'Climate Change, Environment and Conflict' and we welcome submissions on any topic related to this larger theme. Although not a requirement we would prefer articles with an Africa context/focus (specific case/country focus, or through the use of relevant examples or case comparisons). Articles must be 2,500-3,000 words in length. The deadline for submission of fully completed articles is 18 April 2011. Should you wish to submit an article for publication consideration in this Issue please refer to the Guidelines for Contributors (available on the ACCORD website Articles must be submitted to The Managing Editor, Venashri Pillay, at [email][email protected] Articles selected will be awarded honorariums upon publication.

South African police are becoming more brutal by the day, with civil cases against them pushing the contingent liability budget to a whopping R7.5 billion in the last financial year. The Sunday Tribune has revealed that the sharp spike in brutal action by the police has prompted the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) to investigate three times more severe assault cases last year than in 2001.

A pensioner has been convicted of trafficking and exploiting an African woman she used as a slave. While it was the first prosecution of its kind, could there be many more cases behind the UK's front doors? Caroline Haughey, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court the Tanzanian woman, from her arrival in England, had been 'made to sleep, work and live in conditions that fall by any understanding into that of slavery.'

The ‘basic concern of the United States and NATO is not Libya, but the revolutionary wave being unleashed in the Arab world, something they would like to prevent at any cost,’ writes Fidel Castro.

Rumours of Bertrand Aristide’s return to Haiti, government destruction of oil refineries in the Niger Delta and the realities of life in Somaliland are among the topics featured in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, compiled by Sokari Ekine.

Responding to pressure from citizens, Morocco is taking steps to reform its human rights institutions. The Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) will become the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), but it is more than just a change of name. The March 3rd royal decree boosts the independence of the council and creates regional authorities for protecting human rights.

Thousands of failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers face deportation back to their home country despite reports of human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime. The move comes after asylum judges ruled there was no evidence that those being returned would generally be at risk of harm, reports the London Independent.

Italy has prevented a ferry carrying 1,800 people, mainly Moroccans fleeing the fighting in Libya, from docking in Sicily. The ship had sailed from Tripoli and asked for permission to refuel on the island after being refused entry to Malta, Italian media said. Meanwhile, 41 people are feared drowned after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Tunisia, UN officials say.

The International Criminal Court judge who declined to issue summonses to six Kenyans suspected of being behind the post-election violence says the cases should be dealt with locally. In his dissenting opinion published on Tuesday (15 March) night, Judge Hans-Peter Kaul said that Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had not convinced him that the crimes committed in Kenya meet the threshold of crimes against humanity.

This report from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa examines the impact of attempts to formalise street trading in the City of Durban since 2000 on the livelihood of traders, particularly female and migrant traders. 'Durban has been at the forefront of developing policies to manage and control informal economy activities; however, as the report notes, the effect of the push for formalisation is exclusionary and mimics the influx control regimes of the apartheid administration, which prevented black communities from pursuing business opportunities in central business districts,' says the abstract of the report.

When it comes to Zimbabwe, tough questions lie ahead, not just for South African foreign policymakers, but for the general South African public, says this article from Free African Media. Langton Miriyoga, a Zimbabwean national working for People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty, a community-based non-profit organisation, said: 'South Africans and Zimbabweans living in South Africa can and should do more to put pressure on the South African government to intervene more decisively and proactively to stop Mugabe’s human rights abuses.' He added that people in Zimbabwe are either too scared to do anything, fearing retribution, or have completely bought into the propaganda that there can be no Zimbabwe without the Zanu-PF.

Eight South Africans and 10 Mozambicans, aged between 18 to 25, gathered in Maputo in mid-December to give feedback on a pilot exchange programme of volunteers between the two countries. The Southern Africa Trust and AFS Interculture South Africa established SayXchange in response to the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa in an attempt to build regional integration and nurture future leaders. The volunteers, who worked with several NGOs during their stay, lived with host families for five months.

Libyan security forces have launched a wave of 'arbitary arrests and forced disappearances' in the capital to stamp out protests against Muammar Gaddafi's rule, Human Rights Watch has said. The New York-based group said it compiled evidence from Tripoli residents of scores of people being detained if they helped organise or took part in anti-government protests, or if they were suspected of speaking to foreign media.

This paper from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights analyses Israel's response to a recent influx of African asylum seekers. Since early 2006 Israel has become a destination country for thousands of Africans who are willing to take a long and risky journey to Israel. As with other industrialised countries, Israel has responded with a range of exclusionary and at times contradictory policies which aim to control and limit entrance to its territory. Unlike other such countries, however, until very recently Israel did not have an asylum system, and its ongoing institutional evolution is partly a response to the recent influx.

The spectre of 'bantu education' has risen to haunt the University of Cape Town (UCT) again.
Controversy is erupting as UCT's administration moves in on the university's renowned Centre for African Studies (CAS). What these moves should be called is itself contested - the 'closure' of CAS, as some outraged students and staff see it; its 'disestablishment' and 'merging', as the administration prefers.

South Africa is waiting for another 1976 uprising to happen, Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday. Vavi said the level of violent protests over service delivery showed people’s frustrations with a lack of implementation in solving rampant unemployment, poverty and lacking infrastructure. 'Somebody used the term that Johannesburg is living between a ring of fire with people barricading their streets everywhere to say we’ve had enough.'

The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has rapped Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel over the knuckles for his open letter criticising government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi for his remarks on coloureds.Manuel wrote an open letter to Manyi following comments the government spokesperson made in a TV interview a year ago that coloureds were 'over-concentrated' in the Western Cape.

The US government approved $40-billion in worldwide private arms sales in 2009, including more than $7-billion to Mideast and North African nations that are struggling with political upheaval, according to newly released government figures. From 2008 to 2009, the US authorised increasing sales of military shipments to the now-toppled Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak and the embattled kingdom of Bahrain.