This web site will provide you with information about the campaign Earthlife Africa is waging to halt the installation of Pebble Bed Molecular Reactors (nuclear reactor plants) in South Africa. Take a look.

The transitional government of Burundi, installed November 1, inherited an eight-year-old civil war and an expanding and abusive "self-defense" program purportedly meant to protect civilians against rebel attack. The program includes the rural-based paramilitary "Guardians of the Peace" which have committed many killings, rapes, and other crimes over the last four years. HRW's report, "To Protect the People: The Government sponsored 'self-defense' program in Burundi," documents cases of forced conscription, the use of child soldiers, and atrocities committed by the "Guardians of the Peace." The report calls on the government of Burundi, to disband the paramilitary force. Prior to the release of the report, authors Alison DesForges and Tony Tate presented advance copies to the Burundian Minister of Defense, and officials at the Belgian and US embassies, the US AID administrator in Burundi and the local UN representative. Alison also discussed the reports findings and recommendations with diplomats and officials in Brussels, New York, and Washington, and conducted radio interviews with the BBC, RFI, and VOA and with the two major private radio stations in Bujumbura which were broadcast repeatedly. The report was also covered by the New York Times. President Buyoya's remark that Human Rights Watch had a right to its opinion but would not dictate policy to his government was reported both locally and in the European press.

Nairobi is set to see public advertisements on billboards and in newspapers condemning the Catholic Church's ban on the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/Aids.

In Kenya and Uganda, UNIFEM supported the Coalition for Violence against Women of Kenya and Raising Voice of Uganda to publish a book based on a collection of newspaper coverage on the subject from 1998 to date. This book will be used as an advocacy and lobby tool for action on violence against women in two selected districts. A tribunal has also been organized to hear women victims of violence. For more information, contact Mary Mbeo.

The Living for Tomorrow Bibliography of background information, projects and
analyses, articles, books, resource packs useful to the project. This can be accessed selectively (via key words, such as gender, women, men
and masculinity, heterosexuality, youth, education methods, post-soviet, HIV/AIDS, safer sex).

The largest ever polio vaccination programme in Ethiopia designed to bring about full eradication of the disease suffered a setback on Thursday after five suspected cases of the disease were discovered.

"Advocacy is one of the most important activities for non governmental organizations (NGOs) of all kinds. For the primary mission of all NGOs is to represent people's needs and to make people's voices heard". These are words of Barbro Lennéer-Axelson, editor of the new issue of "Choices", the yearly magazine published by the IPPF European Network, on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues in Europe. Hard copies of the publication can be ordered from the website and an
on-line version will be available soon.

On 14th December 2001, Justice Chris Botha of the Pretoria High Court found in
favour of the Treatment Action Campaign, the Children's Rights Centre and
paediatricians represented by Dr. Haroon Saloojee of Chris Hani Baragwanath and
against the Minister of Health and government on the issue of mother-to-child
HIV transmission. Judge Botha said: "About one thing there must be no
misunderstanding: a countrywide MTCT prevention programme is an ineluctable
obligation of the State."

A report to the European Union Electoral Unit on the participation of disabled people in the electoral process of Zambia.

As more and more NGOs work with online services, email has become an effective tool to provide support for developmental questions that ask for an immediate response. Quest-Consult operates with a network of European and African experts working online to support NGOs in the field.

The Amnesty International, Dodoma Chapter in central Tanzania has launched awareness campaigns aimed at fighting against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country.

As governments meet in Bonn, Germany, this week to discuss means for conserving and managing the world's freshwater resources, nonprofit groups are warning that failure to come up with detailed plans for action will lead to "a global freshwater catastrophe."

Umhlaba Development Services is a private company that services the NGO sector in effecting delivery of development programmes and policy. Umhlaba offers a comprehensive Financial Management Service to address all aspects of financial management of an NGO.

Encryption is a software tool that uses scrambling to make data unreadable to anyone other than the intended recipient. It is useful to ensure the privacy of data that you store on your computer, or that you want to email to someone else. Do you need it?

As traditional media becomes increasingly repressive in Zimbabwe, the launch of a local web site, www.kubatana.net is a breath of fresh air. The NGO Network Alliance Project, the energy behind the development of Kubatana, has brought Zimbabwean NGOs, CSOs and development organisations together under one online umbrella. Kubatana is a Shona word which means "working together" - an apt name when a strengthened civic response to the current social and political unrest in Zimbabwe needs to be encouraged.

Sign an online petition to support the Mother to Child Transmission court case being brought by the Treatment Action Campaign against the
Government.

The Participation Group, (PG), at the Institute of Development Studies, (IDS), University of Sussex, is inviting applications for our first Learning Fellowship Programme. The LF will focus on the experiences of human rights activists and advocacy groups who have, in their advocacy, sought to involve those normally seen as "beneficiaries" in their work. The LF will closely examine the rationale, methods, and results of the participatory approach in human rights advocacy. Examples of human rights work include: law and constitutional reform, human rights education, women's rights, rights of minorities, and socio-economic rights advocacy. The LF seeks to highlight the challenges and successes of citizen-centred advocacy in different contexts, using different methods.