South African organisation Health4Men has called on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to publicly denounce the violent murder of the gay rights activist David Kato. Kato, an outspoken member of Sexual Minorities Uganda who spoke out against prejudice, intimidation and violence against men who have sex with men, was beaten to death on Wednesday.

The European commission's emergency suspension last week of trading in carbon allowances to put a halt to rampant theft of credits by hackers has been extended indefinitely until countries can prove their systems are protected from further fraud. While the suspension had been expected to end last night, Brussels now says that the freeze in trades had been imposed to give the commission executive some breathing space to figure out what to do.

Millions of pregnant women still lack adequate access to insecticide-treated bednets and intermittent preventive treatment despite belligerent efforts in the past decade, a study published in the Lancet shows. The study published Wednesday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal shows that Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPTp) and Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) are not being fully utilised to protect pregnant women from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study, which reviewed national control strategies from 47 countries across Sub- Saharan Africa, showed that 23 million pregnancies in 2007 were unprotected.

Hopes for an urgent interdict against the Department of Home Affairs’ issuing of fines to refugees and asylum seekers for the late renewal of their permits, and the confiscation thereof, were dashed in the Cape High Court last Wednesday.The application for an urgent interdict was filed by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) Refugee Rights Project, which is representing eight applicants on behalf of a further 59, on 6 December last year in a bid to force Home Affairs to re-document affected refugees and asylum seekers.

The Summer Course on Refugee and Forced Migration Issues is an internationally acclaimed eight-day course for academic and field-based practitioners working in the area of forced migration. It serves as a hub for researchers, students, practitioners, service providers and policy makers to share information and ideas.?? The Summer Course is housed within the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University.

Ugandan lesbian Brenda Namigadde has been granted a temporary last-minute reprieve, and will not be deported back to Uganda from the United Kingdom. Word came down from the High Court judge as Namigadde was being escorted to the airport this evening. Visit to send an email, tweet or Facebook post in support of Namigadde,

Haiti's government has said it was ready to issue a new passport to former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which would allow him to return after almost seven years in exile in South Africa. 'The government will give assurances that as soon as it receives such a request, it will be swiftly granted,' the information ministry said in a statement. Aristide, who fled the Caribbean country in 2004, formally requested earlier that Haitian authorities issue him a diplomatic passport, and provide guarantees for his safety.

Kenya's diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court got a major boost after the African Union agreed to back its bid to defer Hague trials against six of its citizens. AU chief Jean Ping told reporters that the summit had approved Kenya's request for a suspension of the trials for one year as it seeks to overhaul its judicial system and try the suspects at home. Kenya had appealed for a suspension of the ICC process against prominent Kenyans which the court has accused of sponsoring the violence that saw 1,133 killed and close to 600,000 flee from their homes.

A new issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly (RSQ) (vol. 29, no. 4, 2011) is now available. The focus is on terrorism and refugee protection. Contents include:
- Terrorism, Torture, and Refugee Protection in the United States
- Anti-Terrorism Measures and Refugee Law Challenges in Canada
- The European Convention on Human Rights, Counter-Terrorism, and Refugee Protection
- Refugee Protection, Counter-Terrorism, and Exclusion in the European Union
- Counter-Terrorism Measures and Refugee Protection in North Africa
- Complicity and Culpability and the Exclusion of Terrorists From Convention Refugee Status Post-9/11.

A candidate for governor in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno has been shot dead, officials say. Modu Fannami Gubio and at least four other people, including a 10-year-old child, were killed by men on motorbikes after Friday prayers in Maiduguri city. Mr Gubio was the candidate for the opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in April's elections.

The only South African passenger on the Mavi Marmara, one of the Gaza-bound ships intercepted at sea by the Israelis in May last year, has laid a formal complaint with the national director of public prosecutions about her alleged suffering at the hands of the Israeli army. If the National Prosecuting Authority acts on the complaint of Gadija Davids, a Cape Town-based journalist, top Israeli politicians and soldiers could face arrest if they visit South Africa.

Even as they were officially supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, American officials were secretly helping dissidents interested in using social media to overthrow his regime, a secret dispatch from the US embassy in Cairo has revealed. The cable, dated 30 December 2008 and recently released on the Wikileaks website, also describes a plot to oust Mr. Mubarak in 2011, which it dismisses as 'unrealistic'.

Things are generally more positive on the global HIV front: the number of new infections is down, treatment figures are up and headway is being made in the fight to end discrimination against people living with HIV. However, there is still work to be done and progress in the fight against the pandemic has not been even. IRIN/PlusNews lists five countries that could determine the future of the pandemic this year: South Africa, Russia, Haiti, Uganda and India.

Most Kenyans are not aware that 2012 is not just a critical election year, but also the year that will usher in a major change in the financial landscape of the country and Eastern Africa, writes Rasnah Warah in the Daily Nation. Next year, the East African Community is set to adopt a common currency in the five member states (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda), which is expected to reduce the cost and risk of doing business in the region. While the EAC is determined to go ahead with plans to adopt a common currency, sceptics are not sure whether the currency will be viable, especially as the region’s various members experience vastly differing socio-economic conditions, which could hinder the sustainability of the monetary union.

Noncedo Pulana lacks many things, but she is certainly not short of confidence as she prepares to stand for election as Khayelitsha ward councillor. She feels her long years as an activist in the sprawling township have prepared her to do a better job. Khayelitsha is reputed to be the largest township in South Africa. Created in 1985 to accommodate an influx of black labour to Cape Town, in 20 years its population grew beyond 400,000. Seventy percent of residents still live in shacks of wood and corrugated metal; one in three must walk 200 metres or more to the nearest public water point.

Abortion remains a thorny issue in Kenya today. It was one of the divisive topics that generated emotive debates during the discourse preceding the referendum to enact the new constitution. The issue of right to life and when a pregnancy should be terminated took centre stage to the point that it was tearing this country apart. However, whether it is ethical or not; moral or not, abortion remains an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet. Many women in their 40s and 50s and teenage girls who get unwanted or unplanned pregnancies die every day as they procure unsafe abortions.

Oxford University’s Master's programme in International Human Rights Law is offered jointly by the Department for Continuing Education and the Faculty of Law. It is conducted on a part-time basis over 22 months. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work or family responsibilities. The aim of the degree programme is to train and support future leaders in the field of international human rights law. A central objective of the course is to ensure that participants not only know but can also use human rights law. The curriculum places roughly equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation, and the development of human rights advocacy skills.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday called on President Jacob Zuma to remove controversial former columnist Jon Qwelane as South Africa's ambassador to Uganda. Qwelane had in the past 'launched many verbal assaults on gay and lesbian people', stating publicly that he 'would have disowned his own children if they were gay'.

The poverty line for maintaining a family of five in economically ravaged Zimbabwe rose last year to $467 per month - but without increased earnings to cover the 8 per cent rise, Zimbabwe's state statistics agency said on Monday. The nation's 240,000 civil servants, teachers and government workers are planning to strike to protest average monthly incomes of about $200. With massive unemployment, most Zimbabweans survive on the equivalent of about $1 a day. Two million people are set to receive food aid in coming months, according to the United Nations.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) condemns the excessive use of force and violence against the protests that have started on 25 January 2011 in different governorates to denounce poverty, corruption and police brutality, which led to the death of at least seven protesters and one policeman, leaving hundreds injured and about one thousand protesters arrested.