For the past three years, EISA has held an annual symposium, each of which focused upon a selected democracy and governance issue. The Fourth Symposium will be held this year with the theme Preventing and Managing Violent Election Related Conflicts in Africa: Exploring Good Practices. It will focus upon the problem of persistent, violent election related conflicts in Africa with a view to understanding their causes, magnitude and consequences for democratic governance. The conference will explore ways in which these conflicts can be prevented, managed and resolved and, in the process, share best practices from across the continent.

As Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) moves to address the country's troubled past, Lansana Gberie is entirely confused by the commission's direction and intent. With some US$8 million plus spent on the TRC over a two-year period, considerably more would have been expected from the commission's report than mere woolly, dull assertions. The report's dismissal of the views informing its findings undermines its relevance, Gberie argues, and is only saved from complete insignificance by the sheer outrageousness of its recommendations.

As commercial sex workers in South Africa are fighting for the legalization of sex working, a report by Open Society Institute has revealed harrowing human rights violations inflicted to this minority group by society. Compiled by Open Society Institute’s Sexual Health and Rights Project together with Open Society’s Initiative for Southern Africa this report states that trans women sex workers faced not only physical and sexual violence from police but also public taunting and humiliation for their sexual orientation, gender identity and the kind of work they do.