Reviews data from Demographic and Health Surveys in 11 countries in the region. This compilation of data and analysis focuses on adolescents ages 15 to 19. The chart book examines the factors that are critical for young people's healthy transition to adulthood.

To create a forum and an enabling environment for the sharing of knowledge and expertise by private and public practitioners and researches in the criminal justice field focusing on modern criminal investigation, organized crime and human rights. The emphasis of this conference will be on global best practices, innovative investigative strategies and encouraging international co-operation and networking.

The French do corruption in style. The day before Roland Dumas was sentenced for bolstering his bank accounts with about £1m of oil company Elf's largesse, a former interior minister was placed under investigation on suspicion of arms trafficking to Angola. The elder son of the late president François Mitterrand is also awaiting trial in the same "Angolagate" affair.

A benchmark for monitoring the conduct of Senators emerged yesterday with the submission to the Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, of a draft copy of a code of conduct and ethics to guide the conduct of senators in public affairs.

This report documents human rights issues during the year 2000. It also reflects the activities undertaken during the year to promote human rights and to campaign against specific human rights abuses. In October 2000 Amnesty International launched a new campaign to mobilize people around the world in a collective effort to combat torture. As this report shows, the powers ranged against the human rights movement are formidable. However, so are the forces marshaled in support of human rights. The international human rights movement, is growing, diversifying and gaining strength. The outrage at injustice that led to the founding of Amnesty International 40 years ago continues to inspire and motivate millions of people determined to build a better world.

As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Amnesty Committee was dissolved Thursday, by proclamation of South African President Thabo Mbeki, and the final TRC report is being prepared, AllAfrica's Charles Cobb asked John Allen, former Secretary of Communications for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and long-time Press Secretary to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to reflect on the Commission's work.

The list of debtors at state-controlled Kenya Commercial Bank includes names of some of the country's top political and business elite. Among leading debtors causing the bank concern is a firm called Lima Limited, whose directors are listed as Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott and President Moi's son Gideon.

The Federal Government might have ordered stoppage of salary of the striking university lecturers who declared their trade dispute on April 2, 2001. Making this disclosure yesterday in Lagos was a member of ASUU negotiating team, Dr. Kayode Bamgbose of University of Agriculture, Abeokuta who briefed the zonal congress of the union on the development.

The Guardian's revelation that the Zimbabwean armed forces have warned South Africa's government of a potential coup against Robert Mugabe prompted questions of President Thabo Mbeki in parliament in Cape Town yesterday. Mr Mbeki skirted the direct issue raised by high-level sources in Pretoria, who told the Guardian that the Zimbabwean army had made secret approaches to Pretoria to express fears that widespread food shortages within months could prompt riots and other unrest, and a military coup.

IT was natural that the death of a second Cabinet minister in a month should attract headline attention in the media, but ZBC’s coverage of the death of Defence Minister Moven Mahachi in yet another car accident, was excessive and repetitive. On average, 50% of the items in all its news bulletins (radio and TV) on Sunday (27/5) focused on Mahachi and included many repetitions of the same condolence messages without giving much detail of the accident or Mahachi’s record.

The English words ‘poor’ and ‘poverty’ are treacherous and deceptive, writes Jeremy Seabrook. Covering a multitude of conditions, the words create a seamless continuity between ‘natural’ poverty and human-made poverty, an artificial link which the language seeks to pass off as though it were a natural phenomenon.

COSATU intends to launch the strongest possible protest at the manner in which the Eskom Conversion Bill was passed by Parliament’s Public Enterprises Portfolio Committee last night, and the highly problematic content of the Bill. This is the culmination of a history of interaction with the Department of Public Enterprises on the Bill characterise by bad faith negotiations, duplicitous conduct, and broken agreements on the part of the Department. The Bill essentially seeks to corporatise Eskom, and lays the basis for future privatisation. COSATU believes that this will have negative effects on the delivery of affordable electricity to all our people.

Grahamstown, South Africa. African journalists can enhance their understanding and reporting of environmental issues at this workshop offered by the Reuters Foundation. Past environmental journalism workshops have included practical seminars, training and field trips designed to increase journalists' awareness of environmental issues, including genetic modification, global warming and sustainable development. The workshops are designed to improve journalists' techniques for writing effective, informative stories with impact.

The World Bank recently rescheduled a meeting to occur online in order to thwart street demonstrations. What does this mean for activists, who see the Web as a tool of the people?

The owner of Karora Printers, Kalera Mhango, and the editor of Malawi's independent 'Dispatch' newspaper, Martines Namingah, have been charged with "publishing false information likely to cause public fear and alarm", an offence they both denied having committed, local media reported on Tuesday.

The corruption of governmental institutions threatens the common aspirations of all honest members of the international community. It threatens our common interests in promoting political and economic stability, upholding core democratic values, ending the reign of dictators, and creating a level playing field for lawful business activities.

Abandoned children in Morocco get a new chance at life through an education programme that is the envy of all, writes Pierre Wolf.

Zimbabwean Defense Minister and Member of Parliament Moven Mahachi was killed on Saturday, May 26 when his Land Rover struck an oncoming vehicle near Nyanga. The Minister was the respondent in a case brought against him by the losing MDC candidate for Makoni West, Mr. Elisha Makuwaza. Makuwaza alleged that Mahachi won the election due to violence and intimidation. Witnesses at the accident scene claim that an Alfasud turned into oncoming traffic in an attempt to overtake two cars. Minister Mahachi’s vehicle collided with the car and flipped three times, killing Mahachi instantly. The driver of the Alfasud and five passengers in Mahachi’s car all received minor injuries.

According to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel Trust for Philanthropy's new "Giving USA" estimates, U.S. charitable contributions in 2000 totaled $203.45 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent over the previous year.
Charitable contributions represented 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2000, a slight drop from the 28-year high of 2.1 percent achieved in 1999 and the same percentage as recorded in 1998.

Stopping forced labour is the second Global Report issued under the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) new promotional tool, the follow- up to the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The Report looks closely at the myriad forms of forced labour found in the world today and the various responses to them, with the aim of mobilizing greater support for their eradication. It closes by proposing a specific programme of action for discussion and approval by ILO constituents that strives for a holistic approach to eliminating this terrible practice.

Operation Prevail, the code name for the South African government's financial restructuring plan for the country's national parks, has now moved to the Kruger National Park, the crown jewel in South Africa's park system. Under the plan to resolve the park system's tight financial situation, some 663 positions are being made "redundant," at Kruger, Park Director David Mabunda told employees May 18. This will result in a 26 percent reduction in the park's payroll.

The latest issue of Dot Org continues the exploration of email newsletters for nonprofit organizations.

Shell has refused to publish the independent report it commissioned on its multimillion-pound community development programme in Nigeria, despite denying that the document is secret. Pressure on the oil giant was increased yesterday when Glenys Kinnock, the MEP and patron of the Ogoni Foundation, a human rights group, wrote to Shell demanding that it publish the independent report.

Society today is increasingly about information. Accurate and timely information is the new wealth, empowering decision-making and enabling action across the full range of society. In the nonprofit sector, the ability to collect, store, analyze and distribute information is a key component of building and maintaining civil society. Technology has enormous power to advance nonprofit missions. However, we believe that the majority of both nonprofit leaders and grantmakers have yet to embrace this fact and act on it. Our goals in this position paper are to help grantmakers understand that shift in attitude and to provide tools they can use to evaluate the information management portion of funding requests.

The European Union this week urged the pharmaceutical industry to adopt a pricing mechanism that would ensure poor countries could buy essential medicines at the lowest possible price. The move follows the UN Conference held in Brussels two weeks ago to adopt strategies for helping the world's poorest countries and an EU Action Programme targeted on major communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) adopted by the Council of Ministers on 14 May.

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has issued an "ultimatum" to the Kinshasa government, warning that it will resume the war unless President Joseph Kabila "stops transferring the war to the east". According to an RCD statement, received by IRIN on Wednesday, the movement's secretary-general Ruberwa Azarias issued the warning at a press conference in Goma on Tuesday.

President Sam Nujoma has ordered a total ban on the purchase of The Namibian by the Government of the Republic of Namibia. This directive by the President has been issued hot on the heels of an earlier Cabinet decision to ban Government line ministries from advertising in the newspaper on grounds that it maintained an "anti-Government stance."

There has been a wave of international optimism about the prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On his first visit to Africa, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell declared himself "cautiously optimistic" about Congo's future. After an eight-nation African tour, the 12-strong United Nations team was also in a buoyant mood. In Uganda, the last stop on their 10 day trip last week, the UN envoys heaped praise on the country's president, Yoweri Museveni, for promising to pull most of his troops out of Congo within the next few weeks.

Sub-Saharan Africa's persistent food insecurity and vulnerability to famine reflects failures of understanding as much as failures of interventions. Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa aims to contribute towards an improved understanding for more effective food security policy.

FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR CANDIDATES APPLYING FROM AFRICAN COUNTRIES. APPLICATION SHOULD BE SUBMITTED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Application form can be requested by e-mail or can be downloaded from:

A course on Epidemology available on compact disks, updated in conjunction with Congress of Epidemiology 2001 in Toronto.

The Commission for Gender Equality has put the land restitution programme at the top of its agenda for the coming gender summit to be held in August.

The recent racial out-bursts by MMD national secretary Michael Sata are beneath the spirit of one Zambia one nation, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) chairman, Simon Zukas, has observed.

Djibouti, a country where almost 100 percent of women are subjected to the illegal and harmful practice of genital mutilation, has mounted on a major program to combat the tradition. The government, several religious leaders and UN agencies are joining forces.

A critical look at the advantages and disadvantages of Open Source Software. Should non-profits/ NGOs use open-source or not? This article also contains interesting links to other papers and online forums about open source, eg a previous Slashdot discussion. Recommended: the current discussion on this topic at the TechSoup web site. Follow the link below the article.

The latest opportunities from OneWorld Volunteers www.oneworld.net/volunteers - the place on the internet for volunteering posts in sustainable development, environment and human rights. For all the latest news and information from the OneWorld network of organisations working for global justice worldwide visit www.oneworld.net.

Job Title: Bram Fischer Visiting Professorship in Human Rights; Location: Wits Law School, University of Witwatersand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Contact:Professor Skeen, Head School of Law, Tel (011) 717-8411. The Bram Fischer Visiting Professorship represents a major new endowment in the School of Law, University of Witwatersrand. Named for a leading human rights advocate, the Visiting Professorship is intended to advance a tradition of advocacy and scholarship in human rights that will ensure South Africa's vibrant constitutional democracy and influence students to regard human rights as an integral part of their practice of law.

REDRESS, the innovative and proactive human rights charity which assists torture survivors to obtain justice and reparation worldwide is now looking for experienced and committed individuals to fulfil a number of challenging posts, based in London. Closing date for all positions: 20th June 2001 Contact Details: Bill Dishington, Administration and IT Manager REDRESS, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR Tel : +44 (0)20 7278 9502; Fax : +44 (0)20 7278 9410

This week, the European Parliament published a report that finally offered official confirmation of the existence of Echelon: a shadowy worldwide electronic spying network set up by secret treaty in 1947. Echelon is a global spying network established by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and run by the US that uses supercomputers to intercept messages and store them according to key words. Originally, eavesdropping, or signals intelligence (Signit as it is known in the trade) was targeted at military and diplomatic communications, but it has now switched to industrial and commercial targets, to campaigning organisations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International, and to private individuals.

The MEP's report was prompted by claims that Echelon has been used for industrial espionage, although it has failed to find conclusive proof for such allegations. But of equal concern is the threat Echelon poses to organisations and to individual privacy. There is clear evidence for the surveillance of individual communications for key words that are then analysed sometimes out of context and stored in the US National Security Agency(NSA) computer system. While the report concludes that Echelon's surveillance system is limited because it is based on monitoring satellite communications that account for a small proportion of global communications, states involved in Echelon and others also have access to radio and cable communications and are developing eavesdropping systems to cover email and the internet. In the UK, for example, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) allows authorities to monitor traffic through black boxes placed with ISPs, and gives the police authority to seize encryption keys. Last week, the London based group Statewatch published leaked documents saying the 15 EU member states are lobbying the European Commission to require service providers to keep all phone, fax, email and internet data in case they are needed for criminal investigations. Echelon is not only the tip of the iceberg, it seems, but its outing by MEPs may be little more than sour grapes: in the dirty game of global espionage, everyone is at it.

The power of states to intercept the communications of organisations and individuals has serious implications. Privacy, as the MEP's report makes clear, is a fundamental human right. Yet, although this is a right that we expect governments to respect and protect, they in fact continually breach it. Moreover, surveillance is an activity for which states remain fundamentally unaccountable, since the nature of their activities are clandestine, leaving citizens powerless to monitor and limit those very activities that represent a breach of their privacy. Individuals and groups thus effectively have no redress if that information is inaccurate, or being used for distorted ends. There is also a worrying disparity between the rights of citizens within a territorial or state jurisdiction, and their vulnerability to the power of global surveillance. NSA, for example, is limited to holding information on US citizens for one year, but can hold information on foreigners forever. This disparity is highly convenient when such surveillance systems are avowedly international in nature.

In Africa, many states are western clients, and will have access to the information Echelon can provide on opposition parties, civil liberty groups and NGOs, while their citizens do not even have the privilege of the protection of adequate domestic privacy law. With perhaps up to 40% of Echelons activities devoted to economic& espionage, the system also provides participating countries with an enormous, unfair advantage, since most developing states cannot afford the expertise and equipment to protect the privacy and security of their own networks against such intrusions.

Above all, surveillance by the state and its partners highlights the hypocrisy of governments of those in power. Elected by, and accountable to citizens, states owe us an obligation to be transparent. In reality, citizens are routinely denied freedom of information, while putting up with large scale, arbitrary and unaccountable intrusions into their own private and collective - lives. The EU report recommends we routinely encrypt all our online communications. Perhaps. But if Duncan Campbell, the investigative journalist, is correct in arguing that the Anglo-Americans secretly plan a global electronic spy system for the 21st century capable of listening in to most of us most of the time, it may take far more than encrypting our emails to protect ourselves from such hypocrisy, let alone to root it out.

Further information:
The European Parliament Commission on Echelon:
EchelonWatch: http://www.echelonwatch.org/
Statewatch: http://www.statewatch.org/
Body of Secrets by James Bamford on NSA: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/04/25/nsa/
Duncan Campbell: http://www.gn.apc.org/duncan/
Campaign to close Menwith Hill, Yorkshire CND: http://www.gn.apc.org/cndyorks/mhs/

Compelling stories from the Communications Initiative.

The United Staff Union declares its support for the boycott of World Bank bonds, and pledges that the employee representative to the AFSCME pension board will oppose any purchase of World Bank bonds, until the World Bank respects labor rights, stops promoting privatization, cancels 100% of debts owed to it by impoverished countries, and stops destructive "structural adjustment" and similar policies,including those enumerated in this resolution.

A non governmental initiative to promote visual and eye health in Africa. One of the activities of this initiative is to disseminate optometry information to eye care staff through its newsletter in paper form. However, following
requests from eye care staff outside target region to have an access to this information we have made our newsletter online. For more information, visit our website.

Published earlier this year, this report from Oxfam "sets out the scale of the worldwide education crisis, identifies the causes, and sets out an agenda for reform." Divided into seven sections that examine data concerning education worldwide, the report discusses the critical connection between education and poverty globally, the progress made in achieving the goals set out at the 1990 UN conference -- Education for All, and the worldwide inequalities in education. The report also examines efforts at international cooperation on education, "partnerships for change," and presents a nine-page agenda for action. According to the report, the promises concerning education made at the 1990 UN conference have been "comprehensively broken," and, if current trends continue, none of the conference's quantitatively measurable goals for 2015 will be reached.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said today it will cut its staff and aid programs because donors are not providing the money they promised. High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said the organization has planned cuts to save $95 million this year. The agency said it expects to save from a long-planned winding down of operations in the Balkans and East Timor. Other programs that aid refugees once they have returned home may also be cut, the agency said.

A new batch of articles is now available on the Africultures English website. Check out the exclusive interview with Nobel Prize winner, Wole
Soyinka.

NOVIB and December 18 invite all migrant organizations and others involved with migrant issues to participate at a first round table on the preparation of this year’s International Migrant’s Day in The Netherlands. Interested groups should contact Leila Rispens-Noel of NOVIB before June 10 at [email protected] (Tel.: 070-3421869, Fax: 070-3614461). Note that the first meeting will be held before July 10. Time and place are to be confirmed. All NGOs and governments are invited to inform December 18 about scheduled activities, events and campaigns and eventual plans. December 18 is looking for groups interested to act as national contact for France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. Interested groups in other countries are also welcome to contact December 18.

Amnesty International is concerned about the abduction of 60 children and two adults by UNITA and fear for their safety; unlawful killing. It calls for the immediate release of the children and the two adults abducted by UNITA; to publicize the plight of children as victims of armed conflict in Angola.

Central African Republic (CAR) dissident leader Andre Kolingba told mutinous soldiers on Thursday to lay down their arms after Libya and Congolese rebels came to the aid of President Ange-Felix Patasse. "I have agreed to stop the hostilities from this evening," Kolingba, who is Patasse's immediate predecessor, told Radio France Internationale. "I ask the mutinous soldiers to return to their respective residences."