10 week course in Leeds is targeted at experienced managers and field staff from developing countries who are requiring a short course to improve their capacity to plan, implement and manage communication/health promotion components of projects.

Brings together the voices of several hundred children in Zimbabwe collected through essays and interviews.

Bulletin d'Analyse sur les Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication. Lettre d'information électronique mensuelle publiée par OSIRIS l'Observatoire sur les Systèmes d'Information, les Réseaux et les Inforoutes au Sénégal.

The West African IT Training and Education Forum will run concurrently with the 6th AITEC West African Computing and Telecommunication Conference and Exhibition. The Forum will among other objectives brainstorm on a wide range of issues pertaining to the enhancement of IT training and education at all levels in both formal and informal educational system of West African states.

This is an opportunity to apply for a PhD/DrPH studentship to undertake a research project in any area of clinical, field, social science or associated laboratory work that is relevant to the control of malaria.

CIVICUS is an international civil society movement with members in over one hundred countries. Positions available: Chief Operating Officer, Director of Programmes, Director of Communications, Manager for Finance and Administration, Human Resources and Logistics Manager

Established by the World Bank, Development Marketplace (DM) an internet site to create a place of ideas, talent and resources that address development challenges. Every year DM is open for proposals to develop innovative approaches addressing a range of issues in poverty. The 2001 winning projects will share USD 3 million in start-up funds.

Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, and before that of various other places, is one of the best-known voices in the world of electronic freedoms. Lessig's new book, The Future of Ideas, is the latest work of many in his efforts to illuminate and create a freer world online. Lessig has agreed to answer your questions; please be courteous by limiting your questions to one per post.
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This article on Wired tells about a free, downloadable update that can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. The point? It makes your email much safer. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, the download is recommended. It also berates MS for not marketing their security updates (patches).

The Soweto Youth Drama Society seeks to employ a young and energetic outgoing person to assist the coordinator to work in primary schools in SOWETO and other surrounding townships.

The purpose of the workshop in Cape Town is multifaceted. Primarily, it aims to train participants on how to use the "Youth to Youth" manual effectively, and thus to empower them to initiate youth activities around HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in their own communities. It is also hoped that the workshop will equip participants with the necessary skills to ensure that they, as future community leaders, will advocate the care of people living with HIV/AIDS in an ethical, judicious and most appropriate manner.

The current position of internet use and provision in Zambia is nowhere near its potential, Microlink Technologies Limited managing director Jimmy Pittchar has said. Microlink is the latest internet service provider (ISP) to enter the Zambian market with a total investment of USD 1 million.

Zimbabwe's long-awaited presidential election is due in March, although the exact dates have not been set, President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday.

Former Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda was among five other genocide convicts transferred to Mali on Sunday to begin serving sentences of between 15 years to life imprisonment, imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, news organisations reported.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) appealed to the international community on Monday for US $5 million to support the inter-Congolese dialogue, due to be held in South Africa in early 2002.

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a UK-based think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues, has urged the international community to seize upon current initiatives to improve aid to internally displaced people (IDPs).

Sudan's National Assembly on Sunday unanimously approved the extension of the country's state of emergency "until the end of the reasons that had led to its declaration," according to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

The border commission charged with reaching mutual agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea on the demarcation of their common border began hearing the cases of the two countries in the Hague on Monday.

Zambia's deepening food shortages, along with mismanagement and corruption, are the key issues dominating the country's general election campaign, opposition leader Dipak Patel told IRIN on Tuesday.

Angola's easternmost province, Moxico, is intensely green at this time of year. Nevertheless, people there are close to starvation.

More than 1,000 Angolan refugees have crossed over into Zambia's Western province in the last ten days, a spokesman for the UN's refugee agency told IRIN on Monday

Aid workers and internally displaced people (IDPs) were forced to flee Bopolu camp on Friday after fresh fighting erupted in northwestern Liberia, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. Diplomats in the capital Monrovia as well told IRIN that the situation in the north and northwest of the country had "worsened" since Friday.

Civilians have become the main targets in the conflict between government forces and armed opposition fighters in Liberia's northern Lofa county, the global human rights body, Amnesty International (AI), said in a statement on Tuesday.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the rate of HIV infection in women is rising faster than any other group. UNAIDS estimates that women in sub-Saharan African made up about 55 percent of people living with HIV/Aids at the end of 1999.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is drafting plans to help thousands of impoverished Malawians survive this year's maize shortages.

Zimbabwe's ruling party empire appeared to be crumbling Monday following its third consecutive electoral defeat at the hands of the main opposition party.

Wildlife smugglers are profiting from the ongoing political turmoil in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's ruling party empire appeared to be crumbling Monday following its third consecutive electoral defeat at the hands of the main opposition party.

Congratulations on your great newsletter. Our organisation, Community Conservation and Development Initiatives CCDI is planning to mark World Wetlands Day on Feb 2 2002 with a photo exhibition and activities for children. We would like to know if any organisations have material that we can use such as maps, posters, information sheets etc. We are based in Nigeria, and help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. – Kofo Adeleke, Programme Officer, CCDI, Nigeria

Keynote address by Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Today 10 December, marks the date in 1948 when the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration, which set out ideals and targets calling for recognition and respect for all human rights - civil, political,economic,social and cultural, for all human beings in the world, can claim to be the most influential text ever adopted by the United Nations.

It is true that most of Africa was not represented in the United Nations at that time. But I recall Nelson Mandela's account during his trial of first hearing of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration in 1948. It filled him with hope at a dark time for his people when the Nationalist government of South Africa was consolidating Apartheid. When African peoples achieved self -determination and joined the United Nations they embraced the Universal Declaration. They went on to reflect its principles in their own African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. They also ratified the main international human rights instruments. African countries have helped shape many of those instruments.

Indeed, it is not very well known history that it is to newly independent Africa, and more broadly the developing world, that we owe a number of the major innovations in the international legal protection of human rights of the 20thcentury.

It was the determination of the new African and Asian nations of the United Nations in the 1960's to end Apartheid in South Africa that shaped the long UN campaign against racism. When you view the struggle for equality as underscoring the entire human rights movement - as I do - this critical role assumes yet more importance. It led to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, of 1965, one of the cornerstones of all international human rights treaties. The struggle against Apartheid at the international level also laid the foundations for the current capacity of the UN machinery to intervene and intercede over many other human rights violations across the world. This is a debt the world owes to Africa but which is not often recognised.

We also owe our thinking on the relationship between development and human rights largely to countries of the South and their determination to make the ideals of human rights relevant to their situation. When the newly independent countries of the 1960s and 1970s joined the United Nations, they took the promise of universal human rights principles and insisted that they were applied to the conditions of their peoples. Despite serious problems of governance, and often of corruption, the belief was there. In 1981, Africa recognized the right to development as a basic human right in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. From their efforts came the UN Declaration of the Right to Development of 1986. From that deeply influential statement - adopted in Cold War conditions - has come the current thinking of a rights-based approach to development that seeks to bring about the promise of universal human rights and dignity.

But turning to the contemporary world I had a sober message for Human Rights Day. This has been a difficult year for human rights. After so many high hopes that the turn of the Millennium would herald a new era of respect for fundamental freedoms, we are faced with the sobering realisation that there is as much, if not more, work to do now to make human rights a reality for all.

The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban concluded three days before 11 September. The World Conference was the latest event in a long campaign by the world community to rid itself of the scourge of racism and discrimination. The terrorist attacks of 11 September shock the world. All people who cherish life and abhor violence motivated by hatred condemn those attacks unreservedly. I understand that in 1999 the OAU adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism. Let us hope that the Convention will be ratified soon and implemented.

It has been suggested in some quarters that human rights considerations must take a back-seat in the struggle against terrorism. I can not share in that line of thinking. Human rights must be observed, especially in times of crises. We can, and must, fight terrorism while observing human rights. However, the long-term antidote to terrorism is a world where the ideals of the Universal Declaration of equal human dignity for all without any discrimination have been achieved.

The first global website dedicated to both reporting on and discussing the role of science and technology in meeting the needs of developing countries will be launched in London on Monday, 3 December.

Independent journalists in Zimbabwe have vowed to fight the government's plans to control the media. Under proposed legislation, a new regime of licensing journalists would disqualify foreign reporters from working in the country.

Large libel damages being made against Kenya newspapers could prevent the media from working effectively, say owners and journalists.

Bombing radio and TV stations is a war crime. But the United States seems to keep doing it, reports Laura Flanders.

The World Bank announced yesterday that it will consider granting $500 million in no-interest loans to help developing countries in Africa fight HIV/AIDS. The possible new funding was announced as the World Bank appointed Debrework Zewdie as its first global HIV/AIDS adviser.

The World Bank has announced the appointment of the bank's first global HIV/AIDS adviser, charged with galvanizing bank efforts in the fight against the spread of the disease, particularly in developing countries. Medical scientist Debrework Zewdie of Ethiopia has been appointed as the bank's HIV/AIDS adviser "to make a difference in developing coun-
tries which are struggling with the social and economic ravages of HIV/AIDS, and to raise global awareness and resources to combat and prevent the disease," said bank Vice President for Human Development Jozef Ritzen.

Robert L. Paarlberg
Why haven't more developing countries begun planting GM crops? In poor countries many farmers are far from being fully productive and many citizens must worry more about food availability or food cost than about unconfirmed food safety dangers. In poor countries the development imperative ordinarily trumps issues of environmental precaution. So why has a pattern of policy resistance to GM crops emerged instead? In this original study Robert Paarlberg examines local policy responses to GM crop technologies in four important developing countries: Brazil, India, Kenya, and China. He shows that in the first three of these countries regulatory authorities have not yet given farmers official permission to plant any GM crops. And in China, where farmers have been permitted to plant GM cotton, regulators are still holding back on the release of most GM food and feed crops, even though China's own national agricultural research system has invested a considerable effort in developing such crops. 2001, ISBN 0-8018-6823-8.

At the end of 2001, an estimated 40 million people globally were living with HIV. In many parts of the developing world, the majority of new infections occur in young adults, with young women especially vulnerable. About one-third of those currently living with HIV/AIDS are aged 15–24. Most of them do not know they carry the virus. Many millions more know nothing or too little about HIV to protect themselves against it.

At Maseno University in Vihiga district, about 400 km from Nairobi in the south-west of Kenya, a third-year male student boasts about his exploits in humiliating female students. He specialises in embracing and groping women with or without their consent. Disregarding the opinion of a female student interviewed with him, who has been trying to make the point that someone touching your body without your consent amounts to harassment, he says, "Ah, Mimi ninaleseni ya kudara wanawake na kila dame anajua" ("I am licensed to embrace women and every lady knows that").

On behalf of the International Federation of Journalists, the world's
largest journalists' group, I wish to protest most strongly over the accusation by a
spokesman of the Government of Zimbabwe, reported in The Herald on November 23rd, that a number of named journalists are supporting "terrorists" and that the government "would make no distinction between those that it considered to be terrorists and anyone who supported them."

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation welcomes the prison sentences imposed on the four members of the North East Rand Dog Unit for the brutal canine torture of 3 Mozambicans. But while the four policemen have been sentenced to imprisonment what is very clear is that not all of those who were complicit in this act of savagery have yet been held accountable.

A 7-man Advisory Committee of the Anti Corruption Commission last Friday paid an introductory visit to the Commission's headquarters 3 Gloucester Street in Freetown.

the White House has issued a press release on President Bush's signing of the Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary appropriations bill in which the Craig Amendment was added: "Section 630 prohibits the use of appropriated funds for cooperation with, or assistance or other support to, the International Criminal Court (ICC) or its Preparatory Commission."

The Japanese government plans to join a 1998 treaty that eyes establishment of an
International Criminal Court to try under international law individuals who
have committed war crimes and mass murder, government sources have said.

On 28 November 2001, the government of Sudan lifted the previously enforced censorship from 12 of the country’s daily newspapers. Four newspapers; Alwan, AlRai Al Akher, Al-Watan and the Khartoum Monitor continue to be under heavy censorship.

President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa sought to distance himself from the worsening situation in Zimbabwe yesterday when his spokesmen suggested that he had toughened his attitude towards President Robert Mugabe.

Amendments to the Electoral Act - intended to disenfranchise as many potential opposition supporters as possible - will give a legal basis for rigging of the ballot.