We appeal to all human rights organizations and to all the defenders of freedoms and human rights and all the free honourable media inside and outside Egypt to interfere immediately and support our peaceful demonstrations from the savage attack of the security against the demonstrators using all kinds of weapons...

Sometimes the teachers make it to school but the children do not - when the fighting is too intense for them to venture outdoors. Sometimes teachers make it to school only to find it has been moved - to enable displaced children to continue learning. This is the nature of teaching in war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, considered one of the world's most dangerous cities. In the midst of the chaos and violence, teachers, students and their parents are confronted with a choice of obtaining a semblance of education or giving up altogether.

School enrolment has drastically dropped in Turkana County due to famine and insufficient learning materials, reports the Daily Nation. Most children have been forced to drop out of school and migrate with their parents in search of food and water due to the ongoing drought. 'The acute food shortage is impacting negatively on learning in the area. Some children have moved with their parents to areas far away from school in search of food,' said Turkana South district commissioner Joseph Kanyiri.

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.

Oxford University’s Master's programme in International Human Rights Law is offered jointly by the Department for Continuing Education and the Faculty of Law. It is conducted on a part-time basis over 22 months. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work or family responsibilities. The aim of the degree programme is to train and support future leaders in the field of international human rights law. A central objective of the course is to ensure that participants not only know but can also use human rights law. The curriculum places roughly equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation, and the development of human rights advocacy skills.

Pambazuka News has set up a condolence page for David Kato, the murdered Ugandan gay activist. Visit where you can leave messages of love and solidarity. Please also spread the word about this page. Please note that the comments are moderated so your message may take a little time to appear. We are currently posting all the organisational statements that we have from GALZ, GALCK, G-Kenya, Afra, ISHTAR, AMSHER, LGEP, UAF etc. Please add statements if you come across others.

A report on the management of acid mine drainage in Gauteng has been put to the cabinet but details of its recommendations will not be released until Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa approves it. The report, driven by her department but drawn up by a team of experts, apparently seeks ways to draw private sector mining companies that are still operating in Gauteng into the process of extracting the acid mine water and cleansing it. The level of the underground acid water is now 500m below the surface, 50m higher than in the middle of 2010.

A dramatic spike in physical science distinctions is expected to cause a flood of last-minute applications for the medical, engineering and commerce faculties when the country's universities open for the new academic year. Statistics released exclusively to the Sunday Times show there was an enormous increase in the number of physical science distinctions - from 999 in 2009 to 5962 last year - in what experts have described as 'very surprising'.

Zimbabwe has seen a surge in political violence and intimidation as the government prepares for national elections, an independent advocacy group said. The Southern Africa Coalition for the Survivors of Torture said in a new report on Sunday that tensions rose markedly in January. They reported mob attacks, threats, assaults, questionable arrests by police and at least one shooting in the capital of Harare and its suburbs.

The International Criminal Law Centre (ICLC) of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) proudly announces the first and only Master in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) in Africa.
Taught in Arusha, in close proximity to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the programme is flexible and intended for individuals who are unable to attend a more traditional residential course.

The international peasant's movement La Via Campesina will join the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal from February 6 to 11. More than 70 farmers’ representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will take part in this forum, a place where social movements and civil organisations are going to debate alternatives for a better world, pursuing their thinking, formulating proposals and sharing their experiences.

Do you have experience translating articles in French into English? Would you be able to volunteer to translate an article for us? Please drop us a line at if so.

Back to the front
No more heckling at the back
No more ranting in the dark
No more pontificating from a distance
No more writing behind the scenes…

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), in partnership with the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO ), is pleased to announce a two day workshop on 'African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies' that it is organising in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 27th-28th March 2011.

Oxford University’s Master's programme in International Human Rights Law is offered jointly by the Department for Continuing Education and the Faculty of Law. It is conducted on a part-time basis over 22 months. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work or family responsibilities. The aim of the degree programme is to train and support future leaders in the field of international human rights law. A central objective of the course is to ensure that participants not only know but can also use human rights law. The curriculum places roughly equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation, and the development of human rights advocacy skills.

Amnesty International has revealed disturbing new evidence of the brutal methods used by Tunisian security forces to try to quell anti-Government protests in recent weeks. An Amnesty International research team which has just returned from Tunisia found that security forces used disproportionate force to disperse protesters and in some cases fired on fleeing protesters and bystanders. Doctors' testimonies seen by the Amnesty International research team show that some protesters in Kasserine and Thala were shot from behind, indicating that they were fleeing. Others in Kasserine, Thala, Tunis and Regueb were killed by single shots to the chest or head, suggesting deliberate intent to kill.

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.

Do you have experience translating articles in Spanish into English? Would you be able to volunteer to translate an article for us? Please drop us a line at if so.

Two years into Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have used violence and repression to continue to dominate government institutions and hamper meaningful human rights progress, says the Zimbabwe section of the World Report 2011 issued by Human Rights Watch. 'The former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lacks real power to institute its political agenda and end human rights abuses. The power-sharing government has not investigated widespread abuses, including killings, torture, beatings, and other ill-treatment committed by the army, ZANU-PF supporters, and officials against real and perceived supporters of the MDC.'

Worldreader.org is testing the idea that e-readers are libraries you can fit in your pocket. The non-profit is piloting a new campaign that would deliver e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, to children in Ghanaian schools. The e-readers will function as all-purpose textbooks by providing instantaneous access to the thousands of books now digitally available.