MA in international labour and trade union studies
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The International Criminal Law Review invites submissions for its 2010 special issue entitled “Women and International Criminal Law,” to be guest-edited by Diane Marie Amann, University of California, Davis, School of Law; Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Temple University Beasley School of Law; and Beth Van Schaack, University of Santa Clara School of Law.

On the 29th of December 2009 a lesbian woman and human rights activist, Thuli Rudd, also known as Thulani, was arrested on her way back home in Swaziland at the border from South Africa. She was charged with the murder of her partner, the late Pitseng Vilakati whose body had been found on Tuesday the 22nd of December 2009.

The candidate of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI) for the next presidential election, Henri Konan Bédié, has outlined his manifesto for the election saying he has identified '10 major challenges' likely to lead the country to prosperity.

Nigerians in the diaspora have written a letter to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on the continued absence of President Yar’Adua from the country, demanding true information on the state of his health.

China says it will give a $7m (£4.4m) grant to help fund infrastructure development projects in Kenya. The announcement came at the start of the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's latest Africa tour.

Samir Amin

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana

A Constitutional Select Committee, meant to drive the process towards a new constitution, announced on Wednesday that it will resume its work on the 4th January next year. Morgan Tsvangirai, Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, the three political party principals in the coalition government, are expected to officially launch the process on the 7th January.

Three experts from The Hague are in Kenya to hear the views of victims of post-election violence on how they would like those responsible for the chaos punished. Their arrival signals that the court is firmly focused on Kenya although the judges took a break for the annual Judicial Winter recess last Friday. The recess ends on January 4. Right, post-election violence in Naivasha.

The European Commission has reiterated its commitment to fund development projects in the African and Caribbean countries following consultations by member states this week.

Nearly one-third of all water-related disasters occur in Africa. The second issue of Joto Afrika considers the relationship between climate change, the greater incidence of extreme weather events, such as drought and flooding, and the increasing scarcity of water on the African continent.

Early this year, about six writers from Uganda Women Writers’ Association (FEMRITE) armed themselves with notebooks, tape recorders and cameras to record women’s voices in Kapchorwa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced. Two Ethiopian women stories were also recorded in the collection. The product of women experiences is a book; Beyond the Dance, which captures the details and engages readers in the personal stories, personalizes FGM and imparts that this practice must end now.

Just a few hundred kilometres north of the glittering skyscrapers of Nairobi and game parks that attract tourists from across the world, a common greeting when strangers meet is, “Habari ya Kenya?” – What news from Kenya? For although districts such as Moyale, Marsabit, Samburu and Wajir are in the same republic as Nairobi, their residents are resigned to living in what amounts to another country.

Pastoralists in parts of the semi-arid eastern region of Isiolo are abandoning their nomadic lifestyles in favour of farming to improve their food security and livelihoods. Successive droughts in arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya have led to livestock deaths, affected pastoralist nutrition and, in places, led to pastoralist drop-outs.

The Security Council has extended for another year the United Nations political mission in Burundi, calling for full support for next year’s elections in the war-scarred African country while voicing concern at continuing human rights violations, sexual and gender-based violence, restrictions on civil liberties and political violence.

Egypt has obtained $5 billion from international and regional financers to fund and complete its 2007-2012 five year plan to boost energy output, the state news agency MENA quoted the electricity minister as saying on Friday.

A trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection in Botswana is highly unlikely to show whether giving antiretroviral drugs to block infection is effective, due to a lower-than-expected rate of new infections and low retention rates, the US Centers for Disease Control announced on December 17th.

When 18-year-old Tsitsi Makwiyena looks down at her son Desmond in her arms, she sees not just a one-week-old perfect baby boy, but also the high price she paid to escape her home country of Zimbabwe and start a new life in urban South Africa

The number of successful applications for gay asylum seekers in France is about 15% above average of successful applications in the general population but, an organisation in the country that helps persecuted people with asylum, says it processes about 30 application per year without absolute certitude.

Just in time for Christmas, a new low-cost, low-power netbook is hitting the scenes that actually retails for only $99. Cherrypal, the company behind it, has dubbed it “Africa”, as they’re focusing the little computer on developing countries.