This is a remarkable on your part regarding the much-needed advocacy for the formal commitment of states to the protection of the African woman's rights.

Sign the petition on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa at:

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has published a new report on core labour standards in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali, exposing the problems facing workers and trade unions in these countries. The report, launched to coincide with the WTO Trade Policy Review this week, highlights frequent violations of basic workers' rights such as the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining. Legal restrictions exist on the right to strike, and civil servants are exposed to serious limitations on their right to strike.

In the North of Angola, the Uíge province has the second largest city, with the same name, after Luanda. The province has an estimated population of 1.5 million inhabitants. Out of 412 industries registered before independence, the province today has just four bakeries as a result of the war, the inefficient economic system and of the deliberately neglectful administration. On May 12, 2004, the Campaign for a Democratic Angola was launched in Uíge, in the old Moreno Cinema, before an audience of more than 500. For the first time, after the resumption of the war in 1992, a delegation of the campaign, among them opposition party and civil society leaders, travelled about 400 km, over treacherous roads, for a greater understanding of the reality that exists between the provincial capitals, usually connected by air.

The www.stopepa.org website aims to facilitate a large coalition of ACP and EU civil society organisations aiming at stopping the EU’s current approach in negotiating free trade agreements with the countries of the ACP. This coalition draws its support ACP and EU wide and follows the initiative of the Africa Trade Network to start a ‘No-to-EPA-campaign’. Support this struggle by signing a statement from the website.

As horrifying reports of genocide continue to emerge from Darfur, western Sudan, Africa Action has launched a petition aimed at US Secretary of State Colin Powell, urging him to use the word "genocide" to describe the crisis and calling for immediate intervention to stop the killing. Up to one million people are now at risk in Darfur as a result of an ongoing government-sponsored campaign to destroy a portion of its population. The petition aims to collect more than 10,000 signatures by the end of June.

The global anti-foreign military bases network is inviting groups campaigning against the presence of US/NATO/foreign military bases to be part of a global website. The website aims to be a central site for information sharing and organising for the global anti-bases movement. It seeks to show both the global nature of US/NATO military bases but especially of the growing movement against them.

The widespread use of children as domestic servants is one of the most hidden forms of child labour, and one that leaves millions of children, mostly girls, at risk of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, UNICEF says. "Millions of girls are trapped in poorly paid jobs as domestic servants," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said, marking World Day Against Child Labour. "Not only are these children forced to work long, hard hours but they are at increased risk of sexual abuse and being trafficked within and across borders."

The International Labour Organisation chose June 12 as World Day Against Child Labour to focus world attention on the urgent need to eradicate child labour. Child labour is a complex problem that requires comprehensive solutions driven by moral outrage, personal commitment, community determination and national action. On the third World Day Against Child Labour, the ILO focused attention on child domestic labour.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) called for an immediate yellow fever vaccination campaign in the Burkinabe city of Bobo Dioulasso on Wednesday, saying 89 suspected cases of the mosquito-borne disease had been recorded there so far this year and six of those people had died.

Appeals Worldwide specializes in producing appeals letters based on Amnesty International cases, for you to send to the authorities in the countries concerned. Never before has it been so easy to act on behalf of human rights victims.

It is only by constantly keeping the debt issue at the top of the political agenda, that governments will be forced to take action. The World Development Movement (WDM) needs people who are able to campaign at short notice, whether it be writing a letter to your MP, attending a demo or participating in online discussions.

Billions of people in the world's poorest countries are held captive by debts that can never be repaid. Year after year their governments struggle to pay back millions of pounds - with little hope of ever clearing their debts. Some improvements in debt relief have occurred in the last few years, with small but worthwhile benefits to the poor. Although welcome, these do not go nearly far enough. Too little money is still being offered to too few countries. At best, the improved Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) offers only half of what's needed. Visit the debt campaign page of the World Development Movement to find out more.

The Global Campaign for Education (DCE), which is a coalition of teachers unions, child rights activists and development organisations around the world, united in their determination to make the right to education a success, has intensified one of the world's biggest lobby ever on education. In Sierra Leone, a similar lobby is also on track as a national coalition comprising of several organisations, together with primary and secondary schools, met members of parliament to brief them on the operation of the campaign, and highlight the importance of education in the country.

The EU sugar regime is in urgent need of reform. It rewards big companies and rich farmers while costing EU consumers and taxpayers billions, and denying farmers in the developing world a chance to work their way out of poverty. The current EU reform options allow big companies to profit from your taxes and to continue dumping sugar on poor countries. The rules must change.

A new Make Trade Fair campaign is calling for sportswear companies to respect garment workers' rights. Visit this website to find out more and click on the logo of international sportswear companies and send them a message.

The Reproductive Rights Alliance is looking for an Advocacy and Training Officer. The duties include implementing RRA's advocacy program with individuals and organisations in various sectors.

On Monday, May 5, 2004, staff of the 'Nana FM' radio station went on strike to protest the assault on their colleague, Yves Kpéto, by state security forces. Yves Kpéto, a reporter with the 'Nana FM' radio station, as well as K. Amouzouvi, of the weekly 'Le Combat du people' newspaper, were on Friday, April 30, 2004, brutalised by security forces when they went to the Université de Lomé campus to cover a demonstration by students of the university. They both sustained severe injuries. According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)-Togo sources, the staff of 'Nana FM' have since the morning of May 5, been playing only music on the station, to sympathise with their colleague.

Biowatch South Africa, a small NGO based in South Africa, will this month be engaged in 2 legal actions concerning GMOs. The first is a court case that will be heard in the High Court against the South African government, Monsanto and the seed industry, which threatens to unravel the entire fundamentally flawed regulatory system in South Africa. The second is an appeal against the approval granted by the South Africa government to Syngenta for the commercial growing of Bt11 maize. Email messages of support to [email protected]

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Botswana's ministry of health has announced it will vaccinate an estimated 200,000 children in a national polio immunisation programme to be rolled out in the next two weeks. Dr Themba Moeti, the deputy director of health services, told a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in the capital, Gaborone, on Tuesday that the first phase would run between 10 and 14 May, with a second round from 14 to 18 June.