About half those living with HIV are women, but women are now becoming infected at a faster rate than men. Many women experience sexual and economic subordination in their personal relationships and at work, and so cannot negotiate safe sex or refuse unsafe sex. This briefing from the International Labour Organization (ILO) claims that governments, employers, and trade unions have vital leadership roles to play in changing attitudes and practice in the world of work and the community at large.

Ninety two representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from thirty five countries of the Commonwealth, met in Nadi Fiji from 28 to 30 May, 2004. The meeting was facilitated by the Commonwealth Foundation. The purpose of the meeting was to reach consensus on civil society comments to the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015 (PoA) and to provide a forum for civil organisations from across the Commonwealth to share good practices and strategies for the implementation of the PoA.

The considerable progress Burundi has made over the past year in consolidating its three-year transition risks ending in a dangerous political vacuum if strong commitments are not made immediately to the electoral process outlined in the 2000 Arusha agreement. Such a vacuum can only result in the discrediting and even failure of the entire peace process and the withdrawal of the former CNDD-FDD rebel movement from the government, which it only joined in December 2003. This is according to a new report from the International Crisis Group.

The Bambuti Pygmies in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were targeted for extermination by forces controlled by one of the Congo's current Vice Presidents, reveal the findings of the first research mission to take detailed testimony from Pygmy villages in the forests of Ituri and Kivu. Attacks against the Pygmies included mass killings, acts of cannibalism, systematic rape and the looting and destruction of villages. Minority Rights Group International (MRG) has submitted a dossier of evidence to the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The dossier includes shocking video testimony from the victims of crimes carried out since 1st July 2002, the date at which the ICC's jurisdiction over crimes committed in DRC began, and continuing up to the present.

"Jubilee South Africa and the Khulumani Support Group are currently holding an international consultation in a climate of fresh optimism in light of the United States Supreme Court ruling last week on the Sosa vs Alvares case. The ruling has opened the door for victims of human rights violations around the world seeking redress under the Alien Tort Claims Act. It has provided a climate of hope for the survivors of gross human rights violations during the Apartheid era. It has strengthened the chances of success of the Khulumani litigation in the New York Southern District Court, in which Khulumani and 87 survivors of Apartheid violence are seeking reparations from 22 international banks and corporations that supported the Apartheid government in violation of international conventions."

The African Union should make protecting civilians and fighting impunity for human rights abuses central to its initiatives against conflicts in the region, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released ahead of the AU summit on July 6-8. "The African Union should take strong proactive measures to prevent and intervene in conflicts across the continent," said Peter Takirambudde, director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "By taking constructive steps to ensure protection for civilians and human rights, the AU can play a key role in stemming conflicts in the region."

African leaders under pressure to intervene in Darfur urged Khartoum on Wednesday urgently to "neutralise" the Janjaweed militia but said the bloodshed was not a genocide, a term used by some rights groups. The African Union's ruling was immediately proclaimed as a victory by the Sudanese government, which has long denied that the Arab militia's attacks on black African civilians are part of a government-backed extermination campaign.

In Focus is an online bulletin of the UNDP International Poverty Center (IPC). Its purpose is to present the results of recent research on poverty and inequality in the developing world.

Children who "live rough" on the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and other cities, face a multitude of problems – including AIDS. Research by a Harare-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) – Futures International – in May 2004, indicated that at least 12,000 children eke out a living on the country’s highways and byways. Although no official statistics on HIV prevalence amongst street children exist, an NGO in Harare – Streets Ahead – says it helps treat as many as 150 of the children every month for sexually-transmitted diseases.

UNICEF reports that a significant number of children displaced in Darfur have either been direct victims of violence or have witnessed violent acts. In interviews conducted in camps for displaced civilians inside Sudan, as well as refugee camps in Chad, UN and NGO workers say that with disquieting regularity, children report fleeing for their lives after witnessing the murder and rape of parents, siblings, and neighbours.

In an address at the inaugural session of the national assembly, President Bingu wa Mutharika promised to tackle corruption in Malawi. Declaring that he 'will deal with corruption and its perpetrators decisively' he announced his intention to resume the economic programme with the IMF. Under Muluzi's government, the IMF, EU, the World Bank and the UK and Danish Governments had suspended budgetary support over concerns of corruption and over-expenditure.

The Liberal Democratic Party has poured scorn on President Kibaki's broad-based government and accused him of replacing the multi-party system with a no-party movement similar to Uganda's. Sixty one MPs, who included the party's four Cabinet Ministers, had earlier held a Parliamentary Group meeting where they bitterly complained about the reshuffle, in which the party's ministers were demoted.

Do political institutions affect citizens' satisfaction with democracy? Using cross-sectional Afrobarometer survey data on attitudes toward democracy for 10 sub-Saharan Africa countries together with country-level data on political institutions, this article - part of the Afrobarometer Working Papers series - demonstrates that political institutions do indeed influence citizens' attitudes toward the democratic system. Political institutions mediate the relationship between citizens' political status - i.e., as winners, non-partisans, or losers - and their satisfaction with the way democracy works in the country.

PRSPs have largely failed to achieve the goal of effective country ownership, according to a new World Vision report released in April for the Spring Meetings, entitled 'One step forward, two steps back'. The report demonstrates how conditionalities, accompanied by the very real threat of closing the funding pipeline, have been used as a substitute for genuine ownership of reforms. It argues that conditionality is inherently contradictory to ownership, and is not an effective substitute for genuine commitment from governments to carry out reforms that have wide support.

Developing countries are being shackled by regulations formulated and enforced by international organisations. Policies to nurture domestic industry, which were used in Europe, north America and more recently the successful East Asian 'tiger' economies, are becoming illegal. The three major agreements which emerged from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Uruguay Round of international trade talks - on investment measures (TRIMS), trade in services (GATS) and intellectual property rights (TRIPS) - are narrowing the powers of states. Governments now find it difficult to combine profit-oriented actions of companies within their borders with complementing national development strategies.

Two years after Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels launched massive attacks on Lira district, the schools are reeling from the huge impact of the war. With more than a half of the 200,000-strong UPE pupils and secondary schools in the district displaced from their rural bases to urban areas, more children are increasingly dropping out of school.

The land rights movement among indigenous peoples is strengthened by a growing sense of awareness and power among widely scattered peoples. A few international conferences have provided a forum for sharing ideas and strategies. Full autonomy from national governance is a distant dream. But enhanced opportunities for self-determination, and a renewed commitment to their land-based legacy, seem within reach for most indigenous peoples. This is according to an article on the website of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network.

Formal education rarely reaches pastoral communities. Schools usually promote the values and practices of dominant cultures and do not prioritise the needs of marginalised populations. In African states with significant numbers of pastoral and other nomadic groups, there are calls for education to cater for this sector - on political, environmental, economic and health-related grounds. There is considerable pressure for pastoral education to be institutionalised but could there be a non-formal and community-based alternative?

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced this week that Djibouti could increase its food production by up to 50% over 5 years if the farmers planted faster growing crops more adaptable to short rains. At present the country has to import about 80% of its food requirements, including all its rice, wheat, flour and sugar.

According to a senior official at the UN Centre of Human Settlement, Malawi is now the fastest urbanising country in the world, with a projected 44% of the population due to be living in urban areas by 2015. This influx is attributed directly to the 'increasingly harsh condition many families are experiencing in the outlying areas of the country.' The small size of farms and the lack of access to improved agricultural technology means that it is no longer profitable for families to continue with agricultural work, officials noted, and they called for 'drastic measures to be implemented to improve rural livelihoods'.

The South African Government's Programme of Action is now available on its website (www.gov.za), enabling the public to keep track and comment on its progress. The Government has described this initiative as part of its efforts to 'realise transparent governance in actual practice' and that it 'contitutes an element of the people's contract for a better life.'

Nowhere is the impact of global apartheid more clear than on the continent of Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the poorest region in the world, and yet in the past two decades it has spent more servicing illegitimate debts to rich countries than it has received in new loans or foreign assistance. With only 10% of the world’s population, Africa claims more than 70% of people living with HIV/AIDS, not to mention the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortality rates in the world. There is no place in the world more affected by the legacy of racism, colonialism and cold war interference. The point here is simple: If the system we challenge has its deadliest consequences in Africa, any movement in the U.S. that seeks to be credible must prioritize solidarity with African struggles, says this Foreign Policy in Focus commentary, 'After a Decade of Democracy in South Africa - A New Generation of Struggle'.

It was late at night when the woman farmer came out of her house in the village of Joru in Sierra Leone to go to the lavatory. She saw a large white truck that had stopped about 50 metres from her home. It was an unusual sight, so she hid and watched what was going on. Inside were two white men and a black woman, who was yelling, 'leave me alone'. 'The door was open and one of them was on top of her', recalled the farmer,'K', who is in her fifties. 'The lady was really struggling. I saw that one was holding her down while the other was raping her …I saw both of them have their turn on her. After they had finished, I saw one of them drag her out of the cabin and put her in the back of the big truck. They then drove off' (Stuart, 2003).

Currently, there are over 55,000 military personnel and police from 97 countries serving in 16 Peace Support Operations (PSOs) around the world. These personnel have to confront a range of complex challenges involving mass movements of people, war crimes including torture, rape and ethnic cleansing, as well as confronting child soldiers - frequently within hostile environments. Overall these men (and considerably less women) contribute a great deal to the peace, stability and reconstruction of post-conflict states and their traumatized and displaced populations.

While it is clear that many peacekeepers carry out vital work in tough conditions to improve the security of host populations, in recent years, a significant number of male peacekeepers have been implicated in the sexual abuse of local women and children. These exploitative activities have included the manufacture of a pornographic video by an Irish peacekeeper involving a local woman in Eritrea, the exchange of sex for goods and services in refugee camps in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and the routine use of prostitutes (including girls under the age of 18) in many PSOs (Enloe, 2000; Fisher, 2003; Higate, 2004; Naik, 2002; Rehn and Sirleaf, 2002).

Anecdotally at least, activities of this kind appear to be widespread and almost always involve peacekeepers abusing their positions of trust, power and privilege to acquire sexual services from local women, and young girls and boys. These actions can have negative short and long-term impacts on the victims of such abuse and the wider host population.

First, it could be thought that the presence of peacekeepers might signal a break with the past for local women. Given that many of these vulnerable women have already endured unimaginable experiences of gender-based violence during the conflict, the close proximity of aggressively heterosexual military men might serve as an unwelcome reminder of their trauma. Second, many local women are made pregnant by peacekeepers who then leave the PSO and in so doing renege on their responsibility for paternity. Third, the stigma attached by the wider community and families to the involvement of local women and girls in prostitution may further marginalize individuals who are desperate for income. Fourth, local men may struggle to form relationships with local women as some of their potential female partners are drawn to the power and privilege of peacekeepers with large disposable incomes. In these instances, peacekeepers activities with local women can undermine their broader relations with the local community, in this example causing friction between local men and peacekeepers. Fifth, military men remain a key vector in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Finally, militarised commercial sex industries can become institutionalised and, after the peacekeepers have gone, become a magnet for sex-tourists disposed to the abuse of young boys and girls. This has been the case for a number of the regions used for 'rest and recreation' by US troops deployed in South East Asia over the last 40 years.

Clearly then, the idea that 'boys-will-be-boys' - signalled by male peacekeepers' fraternization with members of the host population - may not be the benign activity that it is often argued to be. The post-conflict setting is especially sensitive and requires a host of skills including cultural awareness and self-discipline. These challenges need to be balanced with peacekeepers' very real human needs for affection and intimacy. In the remaining discussions of this article I present findings from exploratory fieldwork in the UN PSO in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (MONUC) and Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). Here, I attempt to provide some insight into how male peacekeepers perceive their activities with local women and girls. My aim is to illuminate the ways in which the male peacekeepers in the study both enact and perceive their masculine gender identities.

In the spring of 2003, with the support of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, I spent time in the DRC and Sierra Leone interviewing male and female peacekeepers, civilian UN personnel and representatives of NGOs. I also accompanied peacekeepers on patrol, spent time chatting informally with them and observed their leisure-time activities in local bars and hotels. Throughout this period of fieldwork research, my aim was to learn more about peacekeeper's perceptions of gender in its widest sense, their experiences of gender awareness training and, as the work developed organically, the nature of their relation with local women and girls. I wanted to understand how these experiences helped to shape the peacekeeper's masculinities (Higate,2004).

The operating conditions of the PSO in the DRC are particularly challenging (Ginifer, 2002). Average annual income per capita in the DRC is US$100; life expectancy for men is 47 years and for women 51 years. Sierra Leone has a history of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women. The violent war in the country has involved rape, gang rape and sexual slavery, and is argued to have affected between 215,000 and 257,000 women and girls (Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs, Sierra Leone, 1996). The documenting of sexual exploitation in refugee camps is likely to represent one aspect of a much wider instance of gender-based violence. Both PSOs have, in common with post-conflict societies more generally, a severe dislocation of the civilian population. This first extract come from a fieldwork diary kept throughout the course of the work:

“I am waiting to brief the Sector Commander as to the details of my research in his geographical area of responsibility; this is an anxious moment for me, given the sensitivities of my developing interests in peacekeepers and prostitution. Three North African peacekeepers (in support roles to the Sector Commander) ask me about the details of the work. I explain that it involves 'gender issues' and 'gender relations', linked to the gender-awareness lecture attended by military observers in Kinshasa. There is an awkward silence, broken by some nervous laughter and quizzical looks. They ask me what I 'mean' by 'gender'. I stall momentarily, and my colleague rescues me by providing an appropriate definition. I find myself surprised that such a question might be posed as I hadn't considered the terms' potential to be interpreted differently from the ways in which I unthinkingly used it” (Extract from fieldwork diary, 20 April).

Participants struggled to recall the gender-awareness strategies in both PSOs. Some remembered the involvement of a woman in the proceedings, with others speaking at length about responsibilities and tasks that chimed more centrally with their roles as soldiers. It was clear that concerns around personal and team safety, patrolling conventions, radio-communication protocols, vehicle maintenance, care of and familiarisation with equipment such as electricity generators and medical problems had been successfully assimilated. Pride is institutionalised through discipline and the structures of units to which individual soldiers can feel loyal; pride in the military context is also masculinised, circulating within discourses of the peacekeeper as 'saviours of the war-torn citizenry' - who inevitably are women who require 'protection' (Stiehm, 2000).

When these sentiments were combined with what might be described as the neo-colonial orientations towards the host population evident in the two battalions from the Indian sub-continent deployed to Sierra Leone, it was possible to make sense of peacekeepers' interventions into local culture. For example, one officer explained with great pride how local women in the villages no longer 'showed their breasts'. He explained how he had held discussions with Paramount Chiefs who had been asked that the women in the villages 'cover up'. Several women had replied that they did not have sufficient clothing to meet the demands of the peacekeeping hierarchy. Members of the battalion then set about distributing clothing so that the women could ensure their breasts were no longer exposed to peacekeepers on patrol.

In another incident, early one night, we were driven around the town by a local NGO worker who expressed concern at the level of prostitution and the apparent impunity of peacekeepers in these activities. The town was alive with activity, and adjacent to one peacekeeper barracks were a fleet of velo-taxis waiting to take peacekeepers to local bars, hotels and a bushy area in which sex was alleged to take place. We were told that members of the contingent had to scale their barrack fence in order to make these liaisons, as they were formally subject to a curfew. Local women and girls were seen dotted around the vicinity of the barracks, as was one young man; their demeanour and location indicated that they were touting for business with peacekeepers.

A UN civilian worker had stated that in one class at the local secondary school 'at least two-thirds of the girls are paying their fees with money made from sleeping with peacekeepers', even though some of these girls were said to have regular local boyfriends as well.

Battalion personnel from a northern region of Africa, deployed in one of the eastern sectors of the DRC, were routinely observed with local members of the female community in bars, hotels and clubs. An NGO participant suggested that they 'weren't strictly allowed to have anything to do with 'sex-workers' although 'a blind eye was turned' to their activities. However, some concern had been expressed in the local town at the outcomes of several of these sexual liaisons that had culminated in pregnancy, leading to controversial paternity issues and further damaging the reputation of the UN.

Commanders did, however, make some concessions to local opinion by declaring certain bars as 'out of bounds' to peacekeeping personnel. To this, several peacekeepers responded by parking their UN vehicles away from the bars and clubs in question, and spending only enough time on the premises to link up with a local woman. Thus, activities of this nature were known to be ongoing, but definitive action tended not to be in force. Peacekeepers in both PSOs also employed other strategies to make their liaisons less visible. These included providing women with mobile phones so that they could be contacted more discretely, and indicating that the women they accompanied in hotels and other public spaces were 'translators'.

By contrast, in Sierra Leone the legacy of the UNHCR/SCFUK report detailing the abuses of refugees appeared to have influenced the extent to which peacekeepers were open about their use of sex-workers. For example, at various bars and clubs renowned as 'pick-up' sites with sex-workers visited during my brief period of fieldwork, peacekeeping personnel did not wear uniform (unlike in the DRC fieldwork site) and tended to be low-key in their activities. The sensitive political climate around the nexus linking peacekeepers, prostitution, sexual abuse and the UN Code of Conduct prohibiting sexual abuse of women under the age of 18 shaped masculine performances in Sierra Leone in ways that differed from those observed in the DRC.

During an interview in Kinshasa, a peacekeeper openly discussed the issue of prostitution:

Peacekeeper: 'These guys want to see what it is like'
Interviewer: 'What it is like?'
Peacekeeper: 'Sex with young girls…to see if it is different.'
Interviewer: 'Erm…right'
Peacekeeper: 'Some of them have daughters who are the same age, 14 or 15, and they want to know…they can have more than one at a time, it's an adventure. The guys might turn them down…but the girls are persistent and then it becomes a challenge for them [the girls] to get [sleep with] him.'

A female civilian UN worker in the DRC spoke of peacekeepers and civilian UN personnel keeping a mental tally of how many women or girls they had had sex with and competing with colleagues. She mentioned how she had seen older men, 'fat and balding' with 'plenty of young girls around them'. She added that in fact she preferred to work with a man who had a sexual outlet of this kind, as he was more likely to be 'controlled' in the office. She considered that 'the girls must have had a smell or something about them' that peacekeepers from overseas found attractive.

Once again, there was no recognition of the women's lack of alternative opportunities to generate income: they were being blamed for their predicament and their response to it. A central theme emerging in accounts from across the sample was that of the local women being 'enthusiastic' in attracting peacekeepers. A female UN civilian reinforced this point by referring to the ways that local women who were 'after peacekeepers' would lift up their skirts to passing UN vehicles to 'show them what they had'. The following excerpt from a military police officer captures this reversal of feminine and masculine roles, exchanging women's passivity for their part in the traditional role of the male in initiating sex:

“We were in a bar one night in [the local town]. It was full of girls, dancing and drinking…all over us. [The name of the peacekeeper] paid one of the women to keep the others away from him, they were hassling so much.”

Other accounts presented as 'vocabularies of motive' - again from both male and female civilian and military participants - drew on this discourse in which peacekeepers' masculinity was (re)presented as vulnerable to the advances of local women intent on 'getting to know them better'. The following account, relayed by a male participant working for an NGO in Sierra Leone, frames the women as 'doing all the running':

“Just as soon as the [nationality of peacekeepers] are rotated, the women are straight up to Lunghi [the international airport in Freetown] to meet the new ones [replacement troops]. You see, they're having relationships, and all in love, and crying and waving them off [the returning troops]…next thing, they're picking out the ones they like, just after they've landed!”

The participant went on to speak of the 'relationships' between the peacekeepers (who originated from a neighbouring African country) and some local women. He injected a degree of glamour into his account, painting the peacekeepers as 'playboys' who were real 'ladies' men', able to provide well for 'their women'. In these terms, any notions of prostitution and the profound inequalities in power and privilege were absent from his understanding, which spoke more of affluence and carefree sexual and romantic liaisons.

In this article I have argued that while many peacekeepers do a good job whilst deployed, a significant number of others abuse their positions of power and trust through their sexual abuse of local women and children. These peacekeepers live out a masculine identity that has negative consequences on a number of local women and children and that may further undermine already vulnerable groups.

Though women in these contexts should not be seen as bereft of human agency, nevertheless, the opportunities and possibilities available to them are extremely constrained. The UN, whilst having in place a range of policies intended to combat the sexually abusive activities of its peacekeepers appears largely ineffective in its response to perpetrators. Many of them go unpunished and act with impunity. Reasons for this are complex and involve delicate political and cultural dynamics at a number of bureaucratic and international levels. However, a significant component of gendered exploitation is argued here to relate to the dominance of masculine world-views and masculine culture that continue to struggle to take seriously the plight of many women and children in the post-conflict context. If we decide - as we should - that there is nothing essential or fixed about masculinities (suggested in the 'boys-will-be-boys' rhetoric), then we should make greater efforts to help change what is considered to be acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for male peacekeepers.

* I would like to acknowledge the help of Nadine Puechguirbal, Vanessa Kent (at the ISS), Dr Marsha Henry and the continued support of Katinka and Mo in this and ongoing work.

* Paul Higate is a Lecturer in Social Policy in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. His research interests are gendered relations in peacekeeping operations and he has recently started a project to further explore the topic in Liberia, East Timor and Cyprus.

* Please send comments to

* See link below for references

An influx of arms and idle gunmen from Liberia threatens to inflame ethnic quarrels in the Forest Region of southeastern Guinea, leading to further violence and instability in this remote region, government officials, aid workers and human rights activists in the area said. Tensions between the local Guerze ethnic group and incomers from the Konianke sub-group of the Mandingo people have simmered away for years.

The new African Union (AU) chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, warned on Wednesday that "unfulfilled commitments" by rich nations pose one of the greatest threats to Africa’s development. Speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Obasanjo said that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) was being undermined by inaction on the part of those nations.

Gauteng Housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane has appealed for calm in Diepsloot, a sprawling settlement north of Johannesburg hit by riots, as residents furious at allegations that government planned to relocate them to Brits in the North West, went on the rampage. Although there is now relative calm in the area since police have dispersed much of the protestors, the situation is still tense and the authorities have closed down the R511 road passing through Diepsloot to Sandton.

The 79-member grouping of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries known as the ACP bloc wrapped up its latest summit in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, this week, with delegates expressing a willingness to kick start stalled global trade talks. However, the ACP warned that the thorny issue of agricultural subsidies would have to be at the top of the talks agenda.

Shell's failed relationships with communities, the potential for aggravating civil conflict and lack of transparency have combined to produce a crisis in the company's Nigerian operations, says a newly-published briefing by Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Platform and the Stakeholder Democracy Network. The report details shared concerns for Shell's investors and oil and gas producing-communities in Nigeria. The report analyses leaked documents commissioned by Shell, arguing that unless the oil company significantly changes direction in Nigeria - onshore operations may not be possible beyond 2008. This may end in a chaotic withdrawal that would be damaging and costly for all. Nigeria represents about 10% of Shell's overall business.

The Contact Trust is committed to increasing the level of civil society involvement in the activities of the South African government and parliament. Through the Internship programme Contact provides communities and Non Governmental Organisations from around the country with the information and support they need to become involved in policy and legislation development.

The Review, a publication of the North-South Institute, is now available online Visit NSI’s website to download the most recent issue of the Institute’s biannual newsletter. It includes several feature articles.
Among these are:
* Cancun - A view from outside the negotiating rooms
* The African Union - Delivering on the “responsibility to protect”

These ten short stories, of varying length, intensity and focus, are the first by Ojaide, published in the genre. The title story concerns the spiritual and sexual illusions, confusions and realities to which a young Nigerian girl, the daughter of a pastor, and the people in her milieu, are subjected. Tanure Ojaide is one of Nigeria's most acclaimed contemporary writers.

Banning music strangles the very soul of a culture. Shoot the Singer! surveys contemporary cases of music censorship worldwide for the first time. It also examines the causes, methods and logic behind contemporary attempts to prevent people from hearing certain kinds of music by governments, commercial corporations and religious authorities.

What roles can NGOs and civil society organisations play in reclaiming development? To what extent can they be seen as the agents for social justice, human realisation and social transformation, principles that have inspired so many to commit themselves to the work of NGOs?

Male circumcision as a method to reduce the risk of HIV infection is being hotly debated this week after a prominent politician announced that his four sons had been circumcised, contrary to Swazi tradition. "All male children should be circumcised. To show my seriousness, I have taken all my sons for circumcision," MP and former House Speaker, Marwick Khumalo, told his constituents at Lobamba, 20 km east of the capital, Mbabane. Khumalo said he wondered why circumcision, despite the evidence of its effectiveness, was not being stressed as a way to reduce HIV infection.

Two villagers were shot dead and several others injured by soldiers searching for weapons in Nigeria’s volatile Plateau State, witnesses said last Thursday. The soldiers were in the village of Mabudi, in Langtang South district, investigating reports of villagers hoarding illegal weapons, according to one local resident, Justin Kampak.

Rights group Amnesty International (AI) has written an open letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki, urging him to intensify efforts to end alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe. The letter, which Amnesty said had been delivered to Mbeki, is to be published in the South African Mail and Guardian newspaper on Friday.

Humanitarian agencies have attributed the rise in the infection rate of young women to a lack of educational and vocational opportunities. In an effort to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among them and improve their life skills, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the authorities have teamed up to assist young people. "The UN agencies are supporting two youth projects to encourage the participation of girls in social activities through clubs. The projects also empower young girls by providing vocational training where they learn carpentry, tailoring and motor vehicle mechanics," UNFPA programme assistant Daniel Msonda explained.

Twelve members of an arbitration committee to resolve any disputes that might arise during the nomination of the 275 members of Somalia's proposed Transitional Federal Parliament were on Tuesday sworn into office in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The committee members who were named at the end of a meeting of IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development) regional foreign ministers, were nominated by delegates to the ongoing Somali National Reconciliation Conference (SNRC). Five clans each nominated three members to the committee, but one clan, the Dir, failed to present its nominees to the IGAD ministerial team because of a dispute over who was to represent the clan.

Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Wednesday accused the country's judiciary of "deliberately sidelining" electoral disputes. In a recent report the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) noted that 14 of the 39 electoral challenges filed by the party since the 2000 parliamentary poll had not been heard by the High Court.

The article was well written (Pambazuka News 161: World Refugee Day: A Time to Celebrate?). It was incisive and thought-provoking. Surely, we must not tire in the search for durable solutions. Refugees too need a better life, full of opportunities.

We urge member states of the African Union to sign, ratify and incorporate the protocol into their national laws and ensure women's rights are protected at the national level (Pambazuka News 162).
Lithur Nana Oye, Ghana

Sign the petition on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at:

The conflict in western Sudan's Darfur region could scuttle hopes to cement a peace deal to end 21 years of fighting between the Sudanese government and southern rebels, a senior southern rebel commander told BBC Online. Abdel Aziz Adim of the Sudan People's Liberation Army said he would not join a coalition government with Khartoum given the Darfur situation. "We will not be party to a government that will crush the people of Darfur," he said. "They have a just cause and I personally will not be ready to work with such a government."

A new book by The International Development Research Center (IDRC) titled 'Information and Communication Technologies for Development in Africa' in three volumes can be purchased or downloaded for free at the weblink: http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-32997-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Teachers in the Comoros on Monday threatened to continue strike action unless they received more than five months' back payment. In response to a strike called by their union, more than 300 educators across the Indian Ocean archipelago failed to turn up for classes on Sunday, protesting against accumulated salary arrears.

Since Côte d'Ivoire's faltering peace process all but collapsed with the violent suppression of an opposition demonstration in Abidjan in March 2004, when government security forces and allied militia killed at least 120 civilians, the deteriorating security situation has further endangered thousands of already vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) throughout the country.

Given current market prices around the world for genetically modified cotton and the average cost of pesticides for cotton farmers in West Africa, there is no way that this cotton could provide an economic advantage to the average West African cotton farmer, argues a report from Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). "There is no justification for the current efforts to push Bt cotton into West Africa. The potential advantages of Bt cotton are very limited and far outweighed by the negative consequences that it could bring to farmers in the region," the report states.

Pulp and paper production in Kenya is presently dominated by one firm, Pan African Paper Mills (Panpaper), which is a joint venture between the Kenyan Government, the World Bank's private investment arm International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Orient Paper Mills, part of the Birhla group from India. The pulp mill was established in 1974 and is based in Webuye town, with a population of some 60,000 people, on the banks of the Nzoia River which drains into Lake Victoria. From the start, despite the potential environmental impacts concerning plantation establishment, liquid effluents, air emissions, sludge and solid waste disposal, the project did not benefit from a full environmental assessment.

African countries require less of an Asian-style 'green revolution' than a 'cultural revolution' involving ideas, attitudes and institutions. This must include, but not be limited to, a belief in science-based innovation. If United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan had expected a simple answer when he asked scientists two years ago what they could do about the food crisis in Africa, he will have been disappointed when he received their reply last week. The implication behind the way that Annan's question was phrased - how can a 'green revolution' be achieved in Africa? - is that the solution might be found in a set of relatively straightforward scientific and technical innovations in plant breeding. But, as the scientists' response, which was presented to Annan at a ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York last Friday, makes clear, Africa is a different case.