'In an Open Letter to Kenneth Roth, we express our concern that the director of Human Rights Watch has used his introductory essay in the 2012 Human Rights Watch World Report to urge support for newly elected governments of the Islamic right in the Middle East and North Africa. Our letter points out that he does not need to urge engagement where there is no threat of a boycott; that he mirrors security discourses relating to Muslim contexts where the choice is between 'autocrats' or 'moderate Islamists'; and that he is dismissive of the threats to sexual rights and to religious minorities and silent on the struggles of labor, secularists and others who initiated and sustained the mobilizations and movements against oppressive regimes.'

It is time that the society at large recognised sex work as legitimate work: 'his body, his choice.'

Human Rights Watch has hailed Mali's plan to probe child labour in gold mines. 'Our research found that children in Mali start working as young as six years old. Many child laborers are denied an education or drop out of school. Some children come to the mines without their parents and suffer economic or sexual exploitation,' HRW said in a letter to the Minister of Mines, Amadou Cisse.

The bill prohibits any kind of community or political organising around sexuality in Uganda, criminalises advocacy and support for the rights of homosexual Ugandans and prohibits any public discussion of homosexuality.

In protest of the ongoing clashes between security forces and protesters, which have intensified demands for an immediate end to military rule, Egyptian activists have called for a national boycott of army-produced goods and services. The online movement called Kate3ohom (Boycott Them), which is urging a national boycott of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), gained the attention of social media users. The idea also signaled bloggers to help by compiling lists of the military institution’s products and services, which range from producing pasta and fruit jam to the construction of roads and bridges.

The Occupy Cape Town movement has distanced itself from a Cosatu event held at Rondebosch Common. 'Our principles clearly state: We do not recognise leaders or celebrity speakers. We are not party political. We are not destructive - we want to protect our shared natural and cultural heritage. The way this event is being managed contravenes these principles.'

‘As the Unemployed People's Movement we reject all provisions in this bill which will hinder the free flow of information.’

Scores of people were bundled into police vans on Friday when police forcibly prevented organisations from setting up a planned three-day summit on Jobs, Land and Housing on Rondebosch Common as a means of highlighting inequality in South African society. Organisations included Passop, Proudly Mannenberg, Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign, the South African NGO Coalition and the South African Council of Churches. Determination to reclaim the common as a public area nonetheless led to clashes with police who sprayed water cannons loaded with blue dye at the demonstrators, a move reminiscent of apartheid police spraying purple dye on protestors marching to Parliament on September 2, 1989. Rihanna Marthinus, 57, a participant from Mannenberg, said the city had been promising to improve services in Mannenberg for years but nothing was being done.

Dear Sisters,

Please join us in condemning the stripping of women in Malawi by endorsing the Strip-Me-Not Campaign.

The Strip-Me-Not Campaign is an initiative of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights [1](SOAWR) Coalition after learning that street venders in Malawi are stripping women and girls wearing trousers and short skirts. The campaign aims at standing in solidarity as African women to offer support to women and girls in Malawi by way of mobilizing many other women from across the African continent to denounce this barbaric act that violates women’s rights.

SOWAR is calling on all women and men of goodwill to endorse the Strip-Me-Not Campaign Statement.

The Statement with all signatories will be delivered to Embassies of Malawi across Africa, Office of the President of Malawi, Ministry of Gender and media houses in Malawi and Africa on 3rd February, 2012.

Your endorsements (name, organization, country and signature) should be sent to [email][email protected] before the end of day on 30th January, 2012.

Kindly circulate this call for action to your various constituencies in your country.

NOTES:

[1] The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition is a Pan-African regional network comprised of 39 national, regional and international civil society organisations based in 18 countries, working towards the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Africa. Since its inauguration in 2004 SOAWR’s main area of focus has been to compel African states to urgently ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

'This ruling is an affront to justice and underscores that these are politicized charges used by the government to intimidate journalists and chill news-gathering activities', said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita.

STOP PRESS: Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has 'stepped aside' as finance minister, as well as head of the civil service Francis Muthaura.

'On the basis of the President's statement that he would act once the charges are confirmed, and not withstanding the said individuals right to appeal and presumption of innocence until proven guilty, we the undersigned people of Kenya exercising our sovereignty as expressed below under Chapter One and Chapter Four (Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Kenya 2012 call upon the President to move with speed and honour his word and pledge to Kenyans by compelling Amb. Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and William Samoei Ruto to step down from the public offices they currently occupy.

The President should also state categorically that the said individuals are not fit to hold public office in Kenya unless and if when the very serious charges against them are dismissed. We feel that the three individuals can no longer inspire confidence from the majority of Kenyans in exercise of their official duties and that their personal activities will indeed interfere with the discharge of their duties in service of the people of Kenya.'

View the rest of the statement and sign the petition through the link provided.

On 30 January, only five days into the revolution, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions was born, the first such federation to be established since the union movement was monopolized by the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation in 1957. Since then, some 300 independent unions have been established nationwide, with a reported membership of nearly two million workers. Labour leaders met recently at a conference titled 'Workers and Revolution', to discuss how the declared objective of 'Bread, Freedom and Social Justice' has yet to be realised for much of Egypt’s working class. The conference, which was held at the Center for Socialist Studies in Giza, also focused on the campaign 'The Factories and the Square are One', with the aim of coordinating the struggles of protesters in the streets with those of labourers in their workplaces.

Osmond Ugwu and Raphael Elobuike are Nigerian labour activists and human rights defenders currently spending their second month in Enugu Federal Prison in South East Nigeria. They are being detained on charges of attempted murder of a policeman following their arrest at a workers rally on 24 October 2011 at Enugu.

The goal of this campaign is to reach 20,000 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition .

The unions have been turned into a de facto branch of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. Bribery, pursuit of personal interest, co-option, intimidation and manipulation have made the unions less effective in fighting for workers.

‘The doctor's finding is that the marks left on his body are consistent with an assault. Our next step will be to lodge a civil case against the Minister of Safety and Security.’

A community in Nairobi is fighting to reclaim a historic social hall for recreational and other activities. But government inattention, corruption and local politics have made the quest very difficult.

A number of South African social movements issued statements following the arrest of Ayanda Kota from the Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) and reports that he had been assaulted while in police custody. Kota has now been released, but statements about his arrest made by the UPM, the Democratic Left Front and the Mandela Park Backyarder's can be read from the Abahlali baseMjondolo website.

Brazil, for decades a source of migrants to the United States and Europe, is now facing its own humanitarian challenge: applying the international solidarity it trumpets to the Haitians who are arriving in the thousands, in search of a better life. Drawn by the economic boom in Brazil, now the world's sixth largest economy, and the major infrastructure works in preparation for the 2014 football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games to be hosted by Rio de Janeiro, some 5,000 Haitians have flocked to this country since the earthquake, according to the Institute of Migration and Human Rights.

Joint Statement by CSAAWU, Democratic Left Front, Mawubuye Land Rights Forum and the Trust for Community Outreach and Education.

Six major global companies have been shortlisted by a comittee of experts from Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland for the 2012 Public Eye on Davos-award