A cabinet committee on Tuesday dropped its opposition to allowing the International Criminal Court access to sensitive government documents in its investigations, according to Daily Nation sources. The decision was reached during a three-hour meeting of the committee, which was formed to deal with the ICC. The world court is investigating the killings and other crimes committed during the lawlessness following the last election.

Food analyst Raj Patel, on his blog, featured the Mozambican Farmers Union's (UNAC) statement on the Maputo protests, in which the social movement stated 'there's something rotten in the kingdom of globalization'. UNAC focuses on the need to concentrate on internal food production and marketing, in what it refers to as “food sovereignty” approach. For a comprehensive round-up of what bloggers and other commentators said in the aftermath of the Mozambique food riots, read the Global Voices article available through the link provided.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the third Guy Mhone International Conference, under the auspices of its Economic Research Programme. The theme of this year’s conference is The Renaissance of African Economies.

On 7 - 17 October 2010, ZIMCODD will join social movements across the globe in commemorating the Global week of Action against Debt and International Financial Institutions, commonly known as the Debt Week. ZIMCODD is calling on individuals, groupings and organisations to support the commemoration of the Global Week on Debt and IFIs in Zimbabwe by signing your organisation on to our petition to Parliament, the Ministry of Finance and Zimbabwe’s creditors. ZIMCODD will be commemorating the inaugural Debt Week in Zimbabwe through activities lined up in Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo with the theme, 'Responsible Lending and Borrowing to Guarantee Social and Economic Rights.' You may visit to sign on or send an email with the subject ‘support for ZIMCODD Debt week Petition’ to [email][email protected], We hope to conclude the process of collecting signatures by 4 October 2010. Your solidarity on this matter is vital.

Communities in Swaziland are coming together as never before to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has so deeply affected them. 'We will defeat AIDS, we the women of this village!' chant a group of older Swazi women wearing voluminous black skirts and bright red wraps in Ka-Vikizuula, near the Mozambique border in the east of the country.

The discussion on World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatibility in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and ACP countries has so far been very narrowly defined, and largely from the perspective of the European Union. This analytical note from the South Centre presents a matrix providing a comparison of the EPA commitments the EU is asking ACP countries for, and treatment of these issues in the WTO, including where appropriate, the type of flexibilities available for the different developing country groupings at the WTO.

ARTICLE 19 and four other international freedom of expression organisations are calling on the government of Uganda to respect its international and constitutional obligations to safeguard freedom of expression. The International Freedom of Expression Partnership four - day mission was undertaken in September 2010 to assess the deteriorating freedom of expression situation in the country, in the wake of the killing of two journalists and in the light of forthcoming elections in 2011.

The United Nations and the African Union have launched a joint task force on peace and security as the two organisations continue to step up their cooperation in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding across the continent. The Joint Task Force, launched at UN Headquarters in New York by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping, will meet twice a year at the senior level to review immediate and long-term strategic issues.

The ongoing rainy season has delayed efforts to decontaminate the six villages widely affected by lead poisoning resulting from illegal gold mining activities in Nigeria's northern Zamfara state, the state government said. Over 200 children have died from the lead poisoning in the state, forcing the federal government to ban illegal mining activities there.

As public involvement in creating a new constitution for Zimbabwe draws to a close, a rights group reports the process has sparked increased human - rights violations. The Zimbabwe Peace Project says ZANU-PF supporters were the main perpetrators of intimidation at the outreach program. The Zimbabwe Peace Project said it has monitors around the country and they have witnessed many acts of physical intimidation at public meetings.

Margot Wallstrom, the United Nation's special representative on sexual violence and conflict, and Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, an organisation that aids women in conflict zones, were recently interviewed on violence against women in conflict zones. 'It's very extensive, unfortunately. It has happened historically. It is taking one of the worst shapes in Congo. About a thousand women is getting raped every month in the last 12 years, according to the state department.' This post includes video and audio.

The University of East London's School of Law is seeking to appoint an international scholar with an outstanding research record to lead our research in the area of international and comparative human rights and to become Director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict

Ugandan authorities should either release a Kenyan human rights activist who is being held on terrorism charges or provide details of the charges, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint letter to the Ugandan government. Al-Amin Kimathi was arrested, along with Kenyan lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, on September 15 after the two travelled from Kenya to Uganda to observe a hearing of six Kenyans charged with terrorism in connection with the July bomb attacks in Kampala, which killed over 76 people who were watching the World Cup final.

The protection of civilians in conflict situations is a key challenge for blue berets across the world, but what would it take for peacekeepers deployed in Africa to do better? This question has gained added urgency from the mass rape by armed rebels over four days in late July and early August 2010 of more than 300 civilians in villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that lie close to a UN peacekeepers’ base. According to Paul Williams, associate professor at George Washington University, 'For many, civilian protection is the very essence of peacekeeping. But protecting civilians in Africa’s war zones raises huge challenges.'

The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Cameroon's North and Far North provinces stands at 420, according to public health minister André Mama Fouda. The outbreak of the waterborne disease throws an unwelcome spotlight on inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, particularly in the country’s rural north.

Proposals to place climate funds at an institution like the World Bank, over which developing countries have limited ownership, have undermined the process of negotiations through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, G77 countries have stood against the World Bank and have firmly supported placing climate finance under the UN, despite a diversity of positions. This briefing note from the Bretton Woods Project examines concerns that a significant role for the World Bank in disbursal or management of funds could limit developing country calls for direct access, recreate damaging donor-recipient aid dynamics, and hinder effectiveness.

Top officials from three African nations have called for the continent to have a permanent representative on the Security Council, saying it was a travesty that the region that comprises so much of the body’s work does not have a permanent place.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 Nigerian women and girls have been trafficked to Mali, with many of them populating brothels in the West African nation, according to the executive secretary of Nigeria’s Agency for the Prohibition and Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), Simon Chuzi Egede. The number does not include the thousands that have also been trafficked to other African nations, including Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Libya and Morocco, Egele told a press conference in Abuja Wednesday.

As the 2010 peace talks involving leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the United States–began, Egyptian bloggers were already expressing skepticism about their outcome. The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram saw things differently using Photoshop to place Mubarak front and center in the lineup of heads of state. As a result of Al Ahram's creative reporting, bloggers, both in Egypt and abroad, have taken the opportunity to demonstrate their artistic skills, using Photoshop to further doctor the image.

From May 31 to June 11, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) attended the first-ever review conference of the Rome Statue, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. At the conference, IWPR journalists had the opportunity to hear the concerns of the victims who suffered at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, Uganda’s notorious rebel group. These concerns prompted IWPR-Netherlands to produce a series of special reports to coincide with the conference. The articles in 'ICC Review Conference: Taking Stock on the Ground' give a voice to the victims of the LRA and look at the different aspects of international justice that were discussed during the review conference through the eyes of the people that the court was set up to serve.