About 1.3 million South African public sector workers have penned down August 10 to stage a nationwide strike. The government raised its pay offer to civil servants on Thursday to try to avert the strike, but it was quickly rejected by the unions. "More than 1.3 million public servants will on Tuesday take part in marches and demonstrations right through the country leading to a total shutdown of the public service," the largest umbrella labour group, COSATU, said in a statement.

In a landmark decision delivered on August 1 2010, the Court of Appeal of Kenya declared the mandatory death penalty for murder to be unconstitutional. This decision will benefit all prisoners presently under sentence of death. The ruling follows the recent decisions from Uganda and Malawi restricting the use of the death penalty in accordance with contemporary human rights standards.

South Africa’s campaign to test 15 million people for HIV in one year risks being implemented in a way that undermines people’s human rights, the activist Mark Heywood told the Eighteenth International AIDS Conference in Vienna last Thursday. Incidents of coercive testing have been recorded but the lack of effective monitoring procedures means that it’s impossible to know whether those incidents are widespread or not.

South Africa cannot afford pay demands from thousands of public service workers and hopes a deal can be reached next week before a strike widens to nearly a million workers, a minister said on Friday. Thousands of workers from the Public Servants Association union walked off the job on Thursday, causing little impact so far to Africa's biggest economy. But that could change if the country's biggest labour group makes good on its threat to join the strike next week, which could cripple commerce.

The country representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in The Gambia, Dr. Thomas Sukwa, said the vaccination campaign for the Swine Flu, A(H1N1), though not yet reported in the country, targets only 10 per cent of the nation's population.The week-long, nation-wide vaccination campaign, spearheaded by the Ministry of Heath and Social Welfare, in collaboration with the WHO office in Banjul, started Wednesday.

With less than one week to go before Kenya’s constitutional referendum, Muthoni Wanyeki has the sense that the country is going to give the proposed constitution the go-ahead. Despite an initial dip, over the past month support for the document has risen to ‘well over the 50 per cent plus one mark required for it to pass,’ Wanyeki writes.

From 17 to 19 July 2010 in Uganda, more than 120 delegates from across the continent, joined by President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and other participants, attended the African Youth Forum (AYF) in the city of Entebbe, near Kampala, the capital. The Forum is the first-ever official gathering of young people in conjunction with the 15th African Union Summit, taking place 25–27 July in the capital.

The International Criminal Court must probe alleged crimes against humanity after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia launched a campaign of rape during 2008 elections, a campaign group says. Witness statements by rape victims, vetted by a team of international lawyers, suggest the ruling ZANU-PF unleashed “sexual terror” against women who supported the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), it said.

The African Humanities Program at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, announces competitions for:
• Early career postdoctoral fellowships in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania,
Uganda, and South Africa
• Dissertation completion fellowships in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda (there are no dissertation fellowships in South Africa)
Both fellowships provide one year of support for research and writing to scholars based on the continent and affiliated with institutions of higher learning in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa. Scholars working in any humanistic discipline normally supported by the ACLS are encouraged to apply.

1 am 1 of a million South Africans who Says YES to: humanity, peace and unity Says NO to: racism, ignorance and violence I promise to confront ignorance with knowledge; prejudice with tolerance; and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. I will * celebrate the common humanity of people and our shared heritage as Africans * recognise and protect the human rights of all people living in South Africa, no matter their language or country of origin * attempt to prevent any acts of xenophobia -- intolerance, intimidation or violence; and to report to the police if any person violates the rights or safety of another. Sign the petition

The African Union (AU) has named Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading sports personalities and musicians to lead a campaign for a conflict-free Africa, which is expected to climax on 21 September. Former South African President Fredrick de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Sou th Africa and wife of South African former President Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, are among 12 key personalities selected to an advisory board to lead the campaign.

ABANTU for Development in collaboration with UN Millennium Campaign-Africa, the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Akina Mama wa Afrika (AmWA), Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR), White Ribbon Alliance and other partners launched an East African Caravan on Maternal Health on 3rd July, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Caravan then travelled to Arusha and Mwanza in Tanzania, Kigali in Rwanda, and Kabale, Mbarara and Masaka in Uganda.

South African unions dropped a threat to strike at power utility Eskom this week after receiving a higher wage offer, ending concerns about electricity supplies during the soccer World Cup. Widespread power cuts could also have dented manufacturing and mining companies' output in Africa's biggest economy, the world's top platinum and fourth-largest gold producer.

Durban - Situated not that far from the FIFA World Cup competition, the Durban informal settlement has seen more than its share of strife and hard times. A press release from the Abahlali baseMjondo, an organization made up of residents of informal settlements in South Africa, stated July 4th that 3 people had died in a fire Monday that swept through the Kennedy Road settlement; destroying some 800 homes. About 3,000 people are now homeless.

Taking advantage of the G8 and G20 Summits in Toronto, the Food Sovereignty Coalition is warning the leaders of these countries about the global food disorder and is calling upon them to learn a lesson from it. Consequently, the Coalition is launching a mobilization campaign, the objective being to convince the G20 leaders that governments of the world should do everything possible to regain control of their national and the world's food systems, where failures are already afflicting a third of humanity.

The Land Centre for Human Rights has received dozens of complaints of some temporary workers in the governmental sector and the private sector, which were affected by the violation of their rights to decent work and the lack of safeguards to protect them from displacement, segregation. To make it worse, the government agencies use such employment without editing work contracts to them, or to give them health and social insurance, in a violation to the law and conventions of international labor organization.

As the SADC Heads of State will be meeting in Windhoek, Namibia in August 2010, the ordinary peoples of Southern Africa will also converge at the Catholic Cathedral Hall in Windhoek on the 15th – 16th of August 2010 under the auspices of the Southern Africa Peoples’ Solidarity Network (SAPSN).

Campaign Manager – Demand Dignity
Amnesty International
£38,975 + excellent benefits
Closing date: 25 July 2010

Focusing on some of the key areas that keep people poor, Amnesty International’s flagship Demand Dignity campaign will help us achieve our overall goal: an end to human rights violations. By developing and implementing the strategies that underpin all Demand Dignity’s campaigning and activism work, you will help change people’s lives.

About the role
Whether it’s one of the billion people living in slums worldwide or one of the mothers who needlessly die in pregnancy and childbirth, you can help give them a voice. Exercising strategic leadership and sound judgment, you’ll lead the development and implementation of Demand Dignity’s global strategies and operational plans, making sure everything from methodologies to publications meet our high standards. As Campaign Manager you will be motivating a team as you oversee the creation and delivery of key projects, and integrate campaigning with other direct assistance and policy development work. At the same time, you’ll work closely with partner organisations, keep an eye on budgets and report on progress – all while representing Amnesty International externally.

About you
You’ll have already shown you can lead and develop campaigning at a national and international level and adopt innovative approaches. What’s more, thanks to first-hand experience of contemporary campaigning techniques for victims of human rights violations, you’ll be thoroughly familiar with the issues that surround this work, with a strong grasp of the ethical standards and principles that underpin professional work for these individuals. We’ll also be looking for the proven ability to write for a diverse range of target reader groups and to communicate organisational positions and views to external stakeholders or the media. Add a talent for co-ordinating, inspiring and developing a diverse team, and you could soon be making a difference on a grander scale, demanding dignity for all.

About us
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people standing up for human rights. Our network extends to more than two million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries around the world. Each one of us is outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world – and together we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity.

For more information and to apply, please visit

Closing date: TBC

South African unions representing thousands of workers at power utility Eskom said on Friday they were not planning an imminent strike over wages, allaying fears a labour action could hit the Soccer World Cup. State-owned Eskom and unions failed to resolve a wage dispute after late-night bargaining on Thursday, union officials said. The two sides were not far apart on the size of a wage increase but hit snags mainly on housing allowances, they said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set up a high-level Millennium Development Group (MDG) Advocacy Group, comprising 17 current and former political leaders, business people and thinkers from around the world to galvanise support for achieving the goals. Ban named Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as co-chairs of the group.