N’djamena is a rarity in the region - the trees lining the Chad capital are not scarred by plastic bags. When Marie Thérèse Mbailemdana became mayor of N’djamena in January 2010, she was determined to apply a 1992 law prohibiting the importation of plastic bags (known by the Arabic word ‘léda’); until then the law had not been strictly enforced. 'This plastic polluted the city – you saw plastic hanging on walls, on trees. And it destroys our environment. Plastic remains in the ground for centuries. No trees or plants will grow where plastic is in the ground,' she told IRIN.

Commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women’s Rights in Africa, L. Amede Obiora and Crystal Whalen stress that ‘the noteworthy lesson is that there is a need to balance campaigning for ratification with a corresponding focus on impactful strategies for domestication and implementation’.

Fahamu’s Refugee Programme is pleased to announce the December issue of the [1.1 MB pdf], a monthly publication that aims to provide a forum for providers of refugee legal aid. With a focus on the global South, it aims to serve the needs of legal aid providers as well as raise awareness of refugee concerns among the wider readership of Pambazuka News.

Y a-t-il un espoir pour les femmes du Burkina Faso de voir leurs droits respecter dans un pays plus sensible aux problèmes auxquels elles sont confrontées?

The Aga Khan’s bid to build lodges for tourists in Uganda’s national parks has left government unsure of how to deal with a 30-year monopoly agreement it signed with the Madhvani Group while at the same time allow in more investors into this lucrative business. While addressing guests at the opening of Chobe Safari Lodge, President Museveni appeared torn between sticking to the terms of the deal his government signed with the Madhvani Group and opening space for competition in the accommodation business.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) participated in the 48th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which took place from 10 - 24 November 2010 in Banjul, The Gambia. During that session, OMCT, along with partner organisations, delivered several oral statements denouncing, among other serious violations of human rights, the occurrence of torture and ill-treatment in Africa, the use of the death penalty across the continent, and the lack of adequate cooperation between the African Commission and the NGOs in connection with the Commission’s country missions.

A return to civil war in Sudan would cost the country, the region and the international community more than $100bn over 10 years, says a new report. The report, published on Thursday by a coalition of European and African economic and political think-tanks, comes amid fears that an upcoming referendum on southern independence could trigger an escalation of violence.

There will be little surprise in the results of Egypt's elections today, says the latest edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, as the ruling party has taken all the repressive steps necessary to ensure that it will have no problem in winning. But, says Egyptian human rights analyst Bahey Eldin Hassan, there will be four significant battles to watch: the legitimacy battle, the battle to monitor, the media battle, and the extent of violence. Opposition to the regime is widespread and growing, although its expression at the polls will be limited. Judges, bloggers, Facebook groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, and supporters of opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Commission all represent stirrings in Egyptian society that will likely be significant for the future, despite their exclusion from political power.

'The crazy old man' - this apparently is how South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoane Mashabane, branded Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, according to a US embassy cable from Pretoria to Washington. It is part of the first batch of 250,000 US embassy cables leaked by Wikileaks and which were published by major newspapers around the world, including The Guardian in Britain and the New York Times.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday ordered for the arrest of gay couples. The PM asserted that the recent census showed there were more women than men and there was no need for same sex relationships.

Sixteen Days of Activism campaign is the period 25 November and 10 December when activists raise heightened awareness around gender violence. The campaign began in 1991 and since then has brought various stakeholders including gender activists, civil society, governments, private sector, Faith Based Organisations, communities and development partners to find lasting strategies to end gender violence. Visit the Gender Links '16 Days of Activism 2010' page for information on this year's campaign focus, resources, events and articles.

Rights groups contested on Monday an official turnout of 25 per cent in an Egyptian parliamentary election that was marred by opposition charges of ballot stuffing, bullying and trickery. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) always deals heavy defeats to its opponents but the two-round elections are being watched for the space given to the government's critics and clues to the NDP's strategy in a 2011 presidential vote.

Alternatives Cameroon, in collaboration with the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), would like to congratulate the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights for passing a resolution establishing a committee on People Living with HIV/AIDS and Those most at Risk to address the violations of the rights of vulnerable groups, with a specific emphasis on women, children, sex workers, migrants, men who have sex with men and prisoners.

Lydia Alpízar Durán, on behalf of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, writes to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights regarding the denial of the application from the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) for observer status at the commission, news ‘received with great disappointment’.

INTERIGHTS urges the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to reconsider its refusal of observer status for the Coalition for African Lesbians (CAL).

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) calls on the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights to confirm that it does not reject the rights of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people.

The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) has been refused observer status by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In the face of increased homophobia, the message sent out is that members of sexual minorities are ‘free game’, says the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria.

The decision by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to reject an application for observer status from the Coalition of African Lesbians has serious political implications, writes Jane Bennett.

The Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) outlines the stigmatisation of people based on sexual orientation in the context of the African Commission rejecting an application for observer status from the Coalition of African Lesbians.

This paper discusses the relevance of the issue of sexual orientation to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, while recognising the controversial nature of the subject, and suggests ways in which the commission can proceed.

By denying the rights of LGBTI people, ACPHR is ‘facilitating the continual criminalisation of LGBTI individuals and is ‘absolutely complicit in the verbal, physical and sexual abuse of LGBTI people which goes unchallenged in country after country,’ write Sokari Ekine and Mia Nikasimo.

‘If the body that is supposed to protect our human rights denies us that space … everyone is going to take advantage of that denial to harass us,’ says activist Kasha Jacqueline, following the ACHPR’s refusal to grant observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians.

Given that there is ‘no legitimate basis to deny the application of CAL and to do so contravenes the provision of the African Charter and existing international human rights instruments’, Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition is calling on the ACHPR to reconsider its decision.

On 16 November 2010, Morocco and Mali, on behalf of African and Islamic (OIC) states, introduced an amendment to the General Assembly resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings deleting specific reference to killings due to sexual orientation.  This is a retrogressive step following the inclusion of this reference in the 2008 resolution.  While continuing to specify killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and of refugees, indigenous people and other groups, the amendment to the 2010 resolution has replaced mention of sexual orientation with 'discriminatory reasons on any basis'.  The amendment passed 79-70 and is expected to be formally adopted by the General Assembly next month.

Western governments are rigging the market against poor cotton growers in Africa by pouring billions of pounds of taxpayers' money into farms in the United States and Europe, according to a new report. The US and EU have handed cotton farms subsidies of $32bn (£20bn) in the past decade, disadvantaging otherwise cheaper West African imports, according to the report by the Fairtrade Foundation.

The last court hearing of the trial of Dr. Isatou Touray, the Executive Director and Amie Bojang- Sissoho, Programme Coordinator for the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) that took place on last Wednesday, 3 November 2010, before Magistrate Emmanuel Nkea of the Banjul Magistrates’ Court has begun to raise eyebrows, says a press release from a coalition of NGOs.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 'We are the World', United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) and Trust Africa sponsored, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Africa Humanitarian Action, co-hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a Symposium entitled 'Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa' was held at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21-23 September 2010. The stimulating discourse of the symposium, which included thinkers, practitioners and activists on the continent and beyond, was the driving motivation for AfricaSpeaks4Africa.org.

Israel is building a 60km-long barrier on its southern border with Egypt aimed at physically keeping out African asylum-seekers amid a rising tide of intolerance towards people widely referred to as 'illegal workers'. The barrier will be built at two locations which witness the most crossings - near the Gaza strip and near Eilat. The estimated US$1.35 billion project is due to be completed at the end of 2013.

The US adult film industry was brought to a virtual standstill recently after an actor tested HIV-positive and all his sexual partners were tested for the virus. There are no such precautions in Kenya's porn industry, where actors usually perform without a condom or routine HIV testing. 'I don't know my HIV status and I can't say I know that of the men we act with,' said Angela*, who recently made the switch from eight years of street-based sex work to acting in local porn films.

A top official with the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) has confirmed that Zimbabwean prisons are a harsh environment for female prisoners, adding that new prisons need to be built as the old ones are dilapidated. ZPS Commissioner, Retired General Paradzayi Zimondi, told journalists during a tour of Khami Prison in Bulawayo that there is need to build new prisons. 'We need special prisons for juveniles and females with children. Our prisons are old and they do not have facilities to cater for such prisoners,' he explained.

Bangalore-based Indian company, Karuturi Global, the world’s largest flower producer, couldn’t get enough land in India to compete with rivals. So the company went to Ethiopia early this year and leased 1,200 square miles of land - larger than the State of Rhode Island - to grow flowers. After a few years, the land will become useless due to heavy use of fertilisers. Millions of Ethiopians are facing food shortage and yet the World Bank-financed dictatorship leases huge tracts of land to foreign agribusiness to grow and export flower, reports the Ethiopian Review.

A clearer example of hate speech would be hard to find, writes Chandre Gould, a senior researcher, at the crime and justice programme of the Institute for Security Studies. 'The authors of the report hide behind the worn, thin mantle of tradition and culture to justify their hatred of difference. They claim that homosexuality is "unAfrican" and goes against African tradition. This claim is nonsensical not only because homosexuality is the subject of just as much vitriol and hatred in the Western world as it is in Africa; but also because sexual orientation is not culturally determined.'

South Africans are fearful that Johannesburg may soon be at the mercy of acid water, with whisperings of the CBD crumbling as basements flood and buildings corrode. The government is said to be too slow, gutless and corrupt to enforce necessary action, the mining companies too heartless and unwilling to pay, the community and environmental activists too alarmist and the solutions too expensive or ineffective. South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper is featuring a series on acid mine drainage, or AMD, in South Africa, with each week focusing on a different area.

As the deadline to deport undocumented Zimbabwean migrants on or after 1 January 2011 looms, human rights activists warn South Africa could face a potential human rights disaster, though a senior South African official says the government is not aiming for a 'massive deportation operation'. Rights NGOs working with Zimbabwean migrants said they were bracing for hundreds of thousands to be deported.

China will launch a $1 billion fund aimed at boosting trade and economic ties between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday at a forum in Macau. He did not elaborate. Wen, who delivered a keynote speech at a economic forum for China and Portuguese-speaking Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, and Timor-Leste, announced multiple initiatives to boost trade and investment between China and the seven nations.

The ruling ANC will appoint two independent researchers to investigate the nationalisation of mines, its secretary general said on Monday. 'The NEC (national executive committee) has resolved to appoint two senior researchers and a project manager to investigate successful models that could be considered on the role of the state in mining,' Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.

'We have just heard that three vehicles were burnt during a protest in TR Section, Khayelitsha, today. One of them contained stationery for the matric exams. We want to make it absolutely clear that this protest was organised by the ANC Youth League and not by Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape. We only head about it for the first time when we started to get calls from the media.'

About 800 South African commercial farmers have already signed land deals to expand production in Mozambique, ahead of a conference next week to discuss other possible opportunities in the Gaza province. South African farmers have received new land offers to grow crops in over 20 countries.