Researchers in South Africa were astonished as rural youngsters quickly taught themselves how to operate their first computer without any formal instruction. Run by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and supported by the Department of Science and Technology, the project was designed to find out whether rural South African children had the cognitive skills to understand computers without any formal training.

The first issue of the 2003 volume of Human Rights & Human Welfare is now online. It currently features three robust essays by Richard McIntyre, Paul J. Magnarella, and Todd Landman, covering some recently-acclaimed titles by Michael Ignatieff, Richard Falk, Patrick Hayden, and George F. DeMartino, among others.

101.7 Mama FM, 'The Voice to Listen To' is the first radio station run by and for women in Africa, and one of three in the world. Mama FM is a community radio station aiming to address the plight of the underprivileged through developmental interactive communication and broadcasting gender sensitive educational programmes. Covering a radius of 400 km and 13 million people in Uganda, the station broadcasts in English, Kiswahili and local languages.

This paper explores the uses of satellite technology and its potential contribution to education, based on the premise that lack of technical infrastructure is severely hampering the potential use of ICTs for basic education in sub-saharan Africa. A total of 18 examples of satellites in education are explored and a list of providers in Africa is given.

Confronted with Western criticism (which, after all, reflects the public's desires and thus the success of these films in Europe), films by directors of African descent intrinsically have to prove their ‘Africanism’. Only then can they receive the holy unction, the recognition of their "authenticity", begins this article in the online version of CHIMURENGA, an arts, politics and culture magazine.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has expressed “deep concern” about increased questioning of the prohibition of the use of torture in countries that had previously vigorously upheld the absolute nature of this prohibition. This was now enabling the nations allied in the so-called "war against terror" to actively engage in the use of torture, either through their security services or those of states known to have poor human rights records.

The promotion of human welfare is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of economic development. To achieve this, many developing countries adopted trade liberalisation in the late 1980s. Analysis of Uganda, a typical Sub- Saharan Africa country largely recognized as a front-runner in trade liberalisation, finds that trade liberalisation is no panacea to developing country problems, says this paper from the United Nations University.