More than a quarter of countries represented at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth have failed to allow basic industrial rights for workers, the ACTU said. ACTU President Ged Kearney said a survey by the Commonwealth Trade Union Group showed workers’ rights were being ignored across the Commonwealth, with the worst abuses currently occurring in Fiji and Swaziland. The CTUG, representing over 30 million workers in 50 countries, is calling on the CHOGM to suspend Swaziland for wholesale violations of democratic rights.

Three years after her husband’s disappearance, Phyllis Chamnai Kipkeyo from Mount Elgon, Kenya cannot stop thinking about him. She does not know if he is dead or alive. All she knows is that he was one of the over 300 people said to have disappeared during an insurgency in the region between 2006 and 2008. The insecurity in the area began in 2005 after the militia group, Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), was formed to seek redress for alleged injustices that occurred during a land distribution exercise in the Chebyuk settlement area. But by 2008 the SLDF had been accused of killing several hundred people, and committing offences such as torture, rape and theft.

This month’s newsletter contains news of how, for the first time, an Israeli court has ordered the Government of Israel to grant asylum. Also in the issue are articles on resettlement in exchange for local asylum; UNHCR's incentive salary policy; human rights in Rwanda; child custody rights and UNHCR resettlement; resettlement, divorce and visitation rights and a profile of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project. The edition also includes opportunities, publications, announcements, news of petitions and resources.

Tunisian women activists accused Ennahda party of giving false promises during its election campaign and reneging on them after winning a majority in the National Constituent Council in the first election the country witnessed after the ouster of President Zine Elabidine ben Ali’s regime. Those activists were particularly concerned about recent statements by Ennahda leader Rashid Ghannouchi on making some changes to the personal status law, particularly concerning the legalization of adoption and the ban on polygamy.

The tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho is to harness the power of wind and water in a $15-billion green energy project, the biggest of its kind in Africa. The Lesotho highlands power project (LHPP) will generate 6,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power and 4,000MW of hydropower, equivalent to about 5 per cent of South Africa's electricity needs.

Trade unions in Swaziland said on Monday 31 October they had been forced to call off mass demonstrations planned for the week after the government obtained a court order blocking them. Unions had called the strike to draw attention to a three-month paralysis of the country's courts, which lawyers have been boycotting in protest at the dismissal of a top judge accused of insulting King Mswati III.

The Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation is a comprehensive and cumulative website resource that provides continually updated cutting-edge knowledge, experience and lessons learned for those working in the field of transforming violent ethnopolitical conflict.

Libya is plunging into a cycle of tribal violence and retribution which, if left unchecked, could undermine the authority of its new leaders, spur new forms of insurgency and throw the country back into chaos, says this Reuters article. More than a week after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, anger is on the boil again with what many Libyans see as the inability of the interim government to rein in its brigades and stop a wave of revenge attacks. The cycle of retribution appears already to have started. The town of al Jemel, a scattering of sandy homes in the palm-studded desert southwest of Tripoli, is one example. Residents said brigades from faraway Misrata had appeared at their doorstep a week ago, breaking into people's homes and looking for Gaddafi loyalists.

Preparations for the Rio+20 meeting that could decide whether humans survive or not are hotting up. 1 November 2011 is the deadline for official contributions to its Zero Draft document but over the next seven months decision-makers and campaigners will need all the facts they can lay their hands on. 'Earth Grab - Geopiracy, the New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes' - essential, cutting-edge climate science in everyday language - is published this week (27 October 2011). The authors reveal information that the large corporations who profit from climate change do not want the public to know.

LDPI is launching a Small Grants Competition Part 2: 2011-12. Grants of up to US$3000 per study are available to successful applicants who wish to undertake original field research, carry out follow up fieldwork on an ongoing related initiative, or write up a paper based on research that is being/has been undertaken on any of the following themes (or combinations).

'Farmers represent 1/3 of the world’s population, 1/2 of its poor, and over 800 million of the hungry. As the planet’s primary ecosystem managers, farmers are best placed to ensure sustainable development and contribute to a green economy. However, there is a concern that today’s agricultural policy and governance fall short of contributing to sustained food security, eradicating poverty and catalyzing sustainable rural development. Yet African countries are primarily agricultural economies with 70% of the population engaged in agriculture.'

Land-related conflicts are increasing in Tanzania where more than 12,600 such cases are recorded every year, if the last twelve months' figures are anything to write home about. Mr Godfrey Eliseus Massay, an official with the Land Rights, Research and Resources Institute (HAKI-ARDHI), has revealed that such land cases that were reported between mid- last year and June 2011 had reached 12,643.

Reporters Without Borders says it fails to understand a decision by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to urge countries that have given asylum to Rwandan refugees to withdraw their refugee status by the middle of next year on the grounds that political life in Rwanda is back to normal. 'What normalization is UNCHR talking about?' Reporters Without Borders asked. 'President Paul Kagame was reelected with 93 per cent of the vote in 2010 in an election in which his main opponents could not take part. One is in prison and another is in exile and escaped an assassination attempt. The Rwandan authorities do not tolerate criticism. The independent press is harassed.'

This article from Media Lens looks at the mainstream media coverage of Gaddafi's killing. 'We suspect that most journalists are not actually unfeeling brutes. They are conformists wary of the high price they can be made to pay for even the suspicion that they might be "apologists" for an official enemy,' says the article in response to many of the crass headlines that have been seen in some newspapers.

Since 1998, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has produced The World's Abortion Laws map to visually compare the legal status of abortion in different countries - and to advocate for greater progress in ensuring access to safe and legal abortion services for all women worldwide. Visit the website for more information.

Gmedia Center is a Geneva based initiative whose overall objective is to empower media to further civil society goals on human rights and democracy. Gmedia Center will facilitate the necessary interaction between international actors and the media to enhance journalists’ capabilities in human rights reporting and maintain these connections through a global web community dedicated to furthering civil society goals.

Through photography and video, Her Story Wins will document the personal stories of US & Kenyan women political candidates as they run for office in the 2012 elections. Her Story Wins will highlight the social and physical obstacles that girls and women face in translating leadership skills to political aspirations, and more importantly celebrate the valuable impact women have on their communities when they run for and get elected to office. Visit the website to find out more.

This video shows how African women have, for a long time, been taking a back seat in many aspects of life, but also that the trend is changing and now women are taking on men, even in such areas as the crowded entertainment industry in Niger.

The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). The latest issue covers the deportation of southern Africa civil society leaders, Angola’s hosting of the SADC Summit, rumours about whether President dos Santos will stand down before elections in 2012, objections to the proposed changes to electoral law, discussions with the DRC over oil, the sale of properties at Cidade do Kilamba, recent protests and the authorities response, the halting of evictions in Lubango, the conviction of a newspaper editor for libel and the recent floods in southern Angola.

Tuberculosis is the main killer of people with HIV infection; drug-resistant strains continue to spread; and paediatric tuberculosis remains an area of neglect. In the past decade, the number of new cases of tuberculosis worldwide has barely declined, and the number of deaths remains catastrophic: more than 4,500 per day for this largely treatable disease. As a Lancet editorial has pointed out, 'A status quo in tuberculosis control is unacceptable.'