The Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council to the OECD has declined to support an official communique on principles for internet policy-making, saying that it could undermine 'online freedom of expression, freedom of information, the right to privacy, access to knowledge, and innovation across the world.' Their concerns include the communiqué’s over-emphasis on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights at the expense of fundamental freedoms.

A ship packed with refugees bound for Saudi Arabia has caught fire and capsized off the northeastern coast of Sudan, killing 197 people, the Sudanese Media Centre, a state-linked news agency, has said. The ship had launched from the Red Sea State, one of Sudan's 26 states, and sailed for four hours in Sudanese territorial waters before the blaze broke out, according to the news agency.

Judge Modather Al-Rasheed of the Khartoum press court has sentenced Fatima Ghazali, a journalist with the daily Al-Jarida, to a fine of 2,000 Sudanese pounds (516 euros) or one month in prison in case of refusal to pay. As Ghazali refused to pay the fine, she was immediately taken to Omdurman prison to begin serving her sentence. The judge also sentenced Al-Jarida editor Saadeldin Ibrahim to a fine of 5,000 Sudanese pounds (1,290 euros) in connection with the same articles about human rights violations by the security forces.

In light of the increasing homophobia perpetuated against marginalised gay asylum-seekers and immigrants, a Cape Town based community organisation, PASSOP (People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty) has launched a Gay Refugee Programme, aimed at supporting and building a network for this group. In a statement, David von Burgsdorff, Programme Coordinator for PASSOP said, 'recognizing the vulnerability, the programme will provide support and advocacy for this social group and will include a solidarity network to unite Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) refugees, asylum-seekers and immigrants by providing them with outlets for emotional support and counseling.'

As the country’s inflation rate hits a staggering 14.5 per cent – compared to 4.5 per cent in December 2010 - Kenyans are struggling to afford basic commodities like maize, amid a shortage of the staple food. But with a recent budget allocation of almost 112 million dollars for agriculture, maize shortages may soon become less frequent in years to come. At nine per cent, the budget allocation is only one percentage shy of meeting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) policy framework. CAADP requires that countries signatory to the agreement allocate at least 10 per cent of the national budget to agriculture.

The recent political upheaval in Burkina Faso demonstrates the fragility of peace, writes Paul Kéré, with the country facing numerous challenges around ensuring affordable staple foods, public health, its economy and the handover of power.

Neera Kapur-Dromson pays tribute to Cynthia Salvadori, who wrote extensively about the peoples and culture of Kenya. 'Cynthia never got the full recognition that she deserved, yet she left us an invaluable legacy with treasures of well researched and documented works. We in Kenya remain indebted to her generosity,' she writes.

While the Niger Delta amnesty could be seen as a ‘modest success’, writes Uche Igwe, it is now time to direct resources towards the pursuit of ‘verifiable physical development in the region’.

I hear you talking of genocide and gorillas. But there is more than that to Rwandan history. In telling you of Rwanda, come with me into the 17th century...

‘After so many years of work on Sudan, I thought myself fully braced for the worst the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime might do. As so often before, I was wrong. The litany of egregious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law over the past five weeks is simply overwhelming---in South Kordofan, in Abyei, but in other areas along the North/South border as well.’ Eric Reeves provides an overview of the situation.

Agostinho Chicaia – an Angolan human rights activist arbitrarily detained without charge in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than two weeks – must be released immediately, Amnesty International has said.

When Zimbabwe’s political temperature rises, women and children are the most vulnerable, writes Grace Kwinjeh.

The TASENE programme is a unique collaboration between COSTECH (Tanzania), Sida (Sweden) and NWO-WOTRO (The Netherlands). TASENE invites applications from recent PhD graduates in any discipline to conduct full time research over two years, jointly with colleagues from the other countries. The researchers will work in Tanzania and in either Sweden or The Netherlands. Research should be relevant to the research and university system in Tanzania.

What does the future look like?

This special issue of African Journal of Conflict Resolution (AJCR) on Southern Africa - 50 years after Hammarskjöld underlines the current relevance of Hammarskjöld’s legacy and the continued relevance of his mindset and convictions for our efforts today to enhance peace and reduce violence and discrimination. This covers not only dimensions seeking to protect individual people. It also includes efforts to ensure more equal relations among states within the international system, often misleadingly called ‘order’ but more often tantamount to a structurally embedded disorder. By doing so, the following contributions also articulate parameters for better conduct by and among states and their leaders, respecting the interest of ‘We, the Peoples’ as the Preamble of the United Nations Charter declares (in contrast to what follows in the actual clauses, which focus on the governments of states). the special issue.

Plans are in place to clear the diverse rainforest ecosystem in Southwest Cameroon to make room for oil palm plantations. The forest and the agricultural societies situated around it are the foundation for the livelihoods and food supply of the people in the region, which comprises 38 villages and around 45,000 inhabitants. The organisation Rainforest Rescue is asking people to participate in their protest by writing to the minister of environment of Cameroon.

An Angolan human rights activist arbitrarily detained without charge in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than two weeks must be released immediately, Amnesty International has said. Agostinho Chicaia, an environmentalist and former president of the banned Angolan human rights organisation Mpalabanda, was arrested in Kinshasa on 20 June, apparently in connection with an attack on the Togolese football team last year.

Mouctar Diallo is a graduate student in Political Science and Anthropology/Sociology at the American University in Cairo and a Guinean National. He was arrested on April 30, 2011, three days after arriving in the Gambia to continue anthropological research he had begun in the Gambia the previous semester and had continued in his home country of Guinea. He spent over a week being questioned in jail and then was effectively under house arrest until June 28th, when the Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA) called him in again for questioning and told him they were making a case to prosecute him as a terrorist. They accused him of spreading Egyptian revolutionary ideas to Gambia. Since then, no one has been able to reach him.

Shell South Africa has been ordered to withdraw 'unsubstantiated' and 'misleading' claims it made in full-page advertisements in newspapers about its use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas exploration in the Karoo. The ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was welcomed by Jonathan Deal, chairman of the Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG), who laid the complaint. 'It is critical that with an issue so important to South Africa as fracking that the public is not misled, as Shell clearly intended in its advertising.'

With just weeks to go before a 27-month moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa expires, the authorities are scrambling to complete a documentation process that will still leave hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans lacking the necessary permits to avoid arrest. The number of Zimbabweans who have fled the political and economic crisis in their country and moved to South Africa is unknown but estimates from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) range from one to 1.5 million. Before the government introduced the moratorium in April 2009, the authorities were deporting Zimbabweans who had entered the country illegally at a rate of about 200,000 a year.

The Cameroon Government has tabled a Bill in the National Assembly that could grant the vote to the diaspora. The Bill is almost sure to be passed as it is supported by both the ruling CPDM party, which has a two-third majority in the Assembly as well as the leading opposition party SDF. Cameroonians in the diaspora have been clamouring for the vote over the years, to no avail.

Four Numsa members were injured when police shot them with rubber bullets during an engineering sector strike in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, the metalworkers' union claimed on Thursday, 7 July. The union's spokesman Castro Ngobese said the four men were in hospital and a case had been opened at a local police station. He condemned the alleged shooting, during protests for higher wages. On Wednesday Numsa claimed police intimidated, harassed, shot at and arrested strikers in Bellville, Cape Town and Germiston, Johannesburg.

Every year the Zambia government allocates billions of Kwacha for poverty reduction, but much of the money has been stolen or misappropriated. The latest report from the Office of the Auditor General, and a study published by the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) in June 2011 shows that a number of multi-billion Kwacha projects funded by government failed to take off in 2009 and 2010 because of the misappropriation of funds.

In response to a recent report by the Oakland Institute on land grabs in Africa, this blog article notes that, 'The free market attributes the demand of Westerners for transport fuel as more pressing than the demand of poor locals for basic food crops, because they are able to pay more, not because they have a greater need. Domestic governments need to intervene here to ensure that local economies produce enough food to feed themselves. Malnutrition has far reaching effects through every aspect of the economy, reducing productivity, increasing poor health, and damaging long term development of children both physically and mentally.'

The African Studies Association is pleased to announce three pre-conference workshops to be offered on Wednesday, 16 November 2011. Participants will have the opportunity to explore governance and development at American University in depth or go behind the scenes to learn about the resources employed by The Library of Congress and the Museum of African Art.

Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80 per cent of the medicines used by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission is now shutting off the tap of affordable medicines by attacking the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. Visit this page of you're interested in helping Médecins Sans Frontières send a message to the European Commission to keep their hands of our medicine.

Commercial sex workers in Nigeria are demanding more respect and more rights. Nongovernmental organisations have been promoting various rehabilitation and education initiatives. But prohibative costs for these programs lead some advocates to believe that the best option is to decriminalise commercial sex work. The Nigerian Criminal Code penalises prostitution with imprisonment, but some say the law shouldn’t govern morality. The government has mentioned no plans to decriminalise sex work and instead promotes education and alternative employment.

The United Nations' newest agency - UN Women - takes an ambitious and sometimes startling look at gender equality and women's rights around the world with its first-ever report. The 2011 'Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice' report is 'a global survey of women's access to justice -looking both at legislation passed by governments and the steps taken (or not taken) to implement those laws,' according to the Guardian. 'The report highlights the practical barriers that women - particularly the poorest and most excluded - face,' says former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in the report’s introduction. It states that 127 countries do not explicitly criminalise rape within marriage, while 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime.

CODESRIA and SEPHIS are pleased to announce the first edition of the African-Arab Advanced Institute. This annual advanced institute on African-Arab relations will be held alternatively in North Africa and in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Institute is conceived as a high-level knowledge-building, agenda-setting and networking forum for scholars in the prime of their careers desirous of experimenting with new fields of knowledge and exploring new conceptual terrains.

South Sudan becomes the world's newest nation on 9 July, the final step in the six-year Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a deal that ended the 1983-2005 North-South war. The government is upbeat, but after the euphoria of celebrations and the pomp of speeches, the new nation faces a mammoth task. Exactly how North and South Sudan divorce is critical to the future for both states. Key negotiations still remain - most importantly over oil. Border conflict has already forced thousands to flee, including some 110,000 people following the northern occupation of the contested Abyei region in May.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has described the situation in drought-hit Somalia as the 'worst humanitarian disaster' in the world, after meeting with those affected at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. The camp, located in the northeast and the world's largest in the world, is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and within Kenya. Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), visited the camp on Sunday, appealing for 'massive support' from the international community for the more than 380,000 people estimated to be living in Dadaab.

More than half of Tunisians do not know who they will vote for in October's elections, according to a poll partly sponsored by Al Jazeera. The faultline between those who would like to see an Islamist form of governance and those who wish to see the secularism established under President Habib Bourguiba maintained is fast becoming a defining divide in the nascent democracy. With 54 per cent of Tunisians yet to decide who they will cast their vote for, according to Al Jazeera's poll, it is clear that the campaign period will be crucial. Most of the newly formed political parties remain completely unknown to the public.

Early in June in Singapore, the International Centre for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors announced that they will allow more gTLD (generic Top Level Domains). Currently, there are only 22 registered gTLDs like .com and .org. The expanded gTLD space means that Africa can too have its own gTLD like .africa. An organisation going by the name DotConnectAfrica (DAC) (http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/) has been spearheading this venture for a while now. DAC has even been on social media, communicating their agenda and advocating for the .africa gTLD long before the ICANN announcement.

More countries have gender equality legislation on their books than ever before but many laws are inadequate and rarely if ever enforced, the first major report by the new UN women’s agency showed on Wednesday. While equality between women and men is guaranteed in the constitutions of 139 countries and territories, the report titled 'Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice' paints a picture of a world in which statutes have little impact on women’s lives. 'In rich and poor countries alike, the infrastructure of justice – the police, the courts and the judiciary – is failing women, which manifests itself in poor services and hostile attitudes from the very people whose duty it is to meet women’s rights,' the report said.

A married couple in the US pleaded guilty in federal court to exploiting an African woman and forcing her to work for them, authorities said. The woman, from Swaziland, was invited to travel to the United States and work as a caterer for a wedding. The wedding never existed. Instead, the woman was harboured in a home, concealed from law enforcement detection and kept working as a housekeeper until early 2007. 'This case reminds us that modern day slavery is occurring in our communities,' United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. Last month, a Nigerian citizen in Atlanta was convicted for trafficking women from Nigeria to work as nannies.

When the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations began ten years ago, there was a common understanding that the new trade regime would be targeted at deepening of Africa’s regional and continental integration, the enhancement of the competitiveness of the economy, and improvement of production capacities with a view to achieving sustainable development. However, says this posting on the Third World Network-Africa website, in the process of the negotiations these laudable objectives are not being pursued whilst WTO-plus elements have been introduced into the negotiations as reflected in numerous contentious issues.

While ‘data exclusivity’ clauses will not feature in the India-European Union free trade agreement, the threat posed by the impending deal to the world’s supply of cheap generic drugs is far from over. India’s commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma assured Michel Sidibe, chief of the United Nations joint programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) at a meeting this week that India would reject attempts by pharmaceutical giants to include data exclusivity clauses in the FTA. 'The government of India reaffirms its full commitment to ensure that quality generic medicines, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, are seamlessly available, and to make them available to all countries,' Sharma said.

Four communities that Shell Petroleum Development Company operates in recently issued a 14 day ultimatum to the company, demanding implementation of an agreement reached with the communities in 1999. The communities include: Oruma, Otuasega, Elebele and Imiringi. Following the ultimatum to Shell, leaders of the community had appeared before the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] at the expiration of the time with a view to settle the matter amicably. Unfortunately, Shell could not convince the aggrieved communities that are demanding that the company honour the agreement it reached with them in 1999, and they decided to stage a peaceful protest at the heavily guarded Shell facility, the Kolo Creek Logistic Base.

Swaziland opposition forces say the South African government has agreed on a R1.2 billion loan to bail out its cash-strapped government. The Swazi opposition believes that King Mswati III asked President Jacob Zuma for R10bn. Lucky Lukhele, spokesman for Swaziland Solidarity Network based in Joburg, said: 'It is shocking that a government that banned the Dalai Lama from visiting the country in 2009 has degraded itself to being a "sugar daddy state" to a bona fide "feudal overlord",' he said.