South Africa is getting two-thirds fewer applications for asylum than a few years ago, but researchers say officials make such bad decisions that the whole system is now meaningless. Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials are so biased and administratively unfair that asylum-seekers are systematically rejected, resulting in an asylum system which 'functions solely as an instrument of immigration control', according to a report by researcher Dr Roni Amit, of the African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits University.

Rwanda on Monday officially closed the 'gacaca' community courts, the controversial tribunals both credited with easing tensions and criticised for possible miscarriages of justice. 'Today's event is not simply to mark the closure of the courts, but also to recognise the enduring value of the process,' President Paul Kagame said at the closing ceremony in Kigali.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has halved food rations to refugees living in camps in at least four African countries citing a funding shortfall. The cuts have already affected 16,000 refugees in Malawi’s Dzaleka camp who have been on half rations since March, while a further 120,000 refugees in Uganda began receiving half rations of cereals in May.

Indigenous peoples’ organisations and activists are calling on governments to fully implement their commitments to uphold human rights, including rights to lands and resources as an essential cornerstone for achieving socially just and ecologically sustainable development.

This issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the Rio Plus 20 Summit to be held in 20-22 June in Brazil. Twenty years after the Earth Summit the world faces even more serious crises in the environment and the economy. Will Rio+20 do better in rising to the challenge of tackling the global crises? This issue of the Bulletin analyses the key issues to be decided at Rio, including reaffirming the Rio commitments, the Green Economy, sustainable development goals, finance and technology.

Uganda said on Wednesday 20 June it was banning 38 non-governmental organisations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children. Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters the organisations being targeted were receiving support from abroad for Uganda's homosexuals and accused gays and lesbians of 'recruiting' young children in the country into homosexuality.

Plan International says it is deeply concerned at new proposals by the Egyptian parliament to reduce the legal age for girls to marry to 14 - just four years after a successful campaign increased the age limit to 18. 'Early marriage can have a devastating impact on girls’ lives – they are more likely to be forced out of school, live in poverty, have early pregnancies and endure health complications or die during childbirth.'

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi has claimed victory in the country’s first post-uprising presidential election. Morsi’s victory will see Egypt have its first civilian president in more than 60 years, since a 1952 military coup ousted the King. Official results are to be announced later this week.

Abubakar Mohamed Mahamud has worked with Somali refugees in northeastern Kenya since the war in Somalia began more than 20 years ago. Originally a nurse specializing in nutrition, he is now Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s deputy field coordinator. 'MSF has continued to work in the camps with Kenyan and refugee staff, providing both primary and secondary health care to the new refugees. However, should there be an emergency situation like the 2011 malnutrition crisis, it will be very difficult to cope. The international community needs to find a solution for this desperate situation. They need to understand the complexity of the situation and the desperation in which people are living.'

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Thousands of Ivorians are are fleeing into neighbouring Liberia following claims of a failed coup attempt announced by the Ivorian authorities. The Ivorian government said it had foiled a plot to overthrow President Alassane Ouattara by a group of exiled army officers loyal to his ousted predecessor Laurent Gbagbo. In an interview on public television station RTI, Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko accused pro-Gbagbo officers and former members of his administration of plotting to install a transitional military council.

The Ethiopian government is forcibly displacing tens of thousands from their land to make way for state-run sugar plantations, a campaign group has said. The displacements are happening in the country's Omo Valley, according to a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). The valley, a World Heritage site, is also the site of a controversial dam.

Anger and rejection in Egypt followed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) new constitutional declaration. The declaration grants back power to head of SCAF Hussein Tantawi, who is also the Minister of Defense. Egyptian activists are calling the moves a 'military coup' and the deceleration 'another step in cementing a lingering presence [of the military] and a hold over public life by the military'.

Key stakeholders meeting on 14 June to discuss the future of Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya acknowledge that there are tough choices ahead, but no agreed way forward. The panel discussion, entitled 'Dadaab 20 years on: what next?', was organized by NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Nairobi, and included government officials, UN agencies, NGOs and representatives from Dadaab's refugee community. Dadaab, originally built to house 90,000 refugees, currently hosts close to 500,000.

Libya's government has sent troops to put an end to six days of clashes between rival armed groups in the west of the country. The fighting, which left least 16 people killed and scores of others injured, is the latest episode of instability eight months since the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime after a months-long conflict. As it seeks to impose its authority on a fractious country, Libya's new leadership on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in the fighting south of the capital Tripoli.

The public debt crisis that has crippled the abilities of the Eurozone states is evolving into a banking crisis with negative ramifications worldwide, states this article from 'In such a case, the political turmoil that would ensue - along with the proliferation of conflicts, ethnic animosities and revolts - would potentially bring about the most radical transformation of the established political order that the world has seen since the 1940s. In the case of such a critical circumstances, policy makers would seek out desperate solutions, sacrificing less valuable parts of the system for the survival of the rest, implementing massive debt relief programs and considerable changes in political management practices in the Eurozone as well as globally.'

Mauritanian salafists cannot agree on whether to follow their Maghreb neighbours into the political arena or reject democracy as an invention of infidels. The issue has led to cracks in the movement, with extreme adherents of the salafist current vowing to mobilise against the proposal from their more moderate peers.

The Worldwatch Institute has announced the launch of the much anticipated 2012 REN21 Renewables Global Status Report (GSR). GSR 2012 details worldwide developments in the renewable energy sector through 2011. The report highlights a number of key developments, including market and industry trends, investment flows, the shifting policy landscape, advancements in rural renewable energy deployment, and the evolving synergy between renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Israel launched a high-profile deportation drive against African migrants on Sunday 17 June with an airlift of South Sudanese whose government said they would be welcomed back as economic assets. The planned weekly repatriation flights from Tel Aviv to Juba have been played up by the Israeli government amid uncertainty as to how it might deal with much greater migrant influxes from Sudan, a hostile country, and war-ravaged Eritrea.

The global financial crisis of 2008/09 has not sent migrant workers streaming back home, despite worsening employment prospects and anti-immigration rhetoric in some destination countries, says a new book on migration and remittances, published by the World Bank. In fact, migrants may have mitigated some of the pain of the crisis as they tend to work for lower wages, receive fewer benefits and rely relatively little on the state, says the ‘Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond’ book.