The World Health Organization will miss its 3 by 5 Initiative target of treating three million HIV-positive people in developing countries with antiretroviral drugs by the end of this year because of a lack of cooperation and coordination internationally and a lack of national leadership, according to a report released on Monday by a coalition of HIV/AIDS treatment advocates, the New York Times reports. The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, a group of 600 treatment advocates from more than 100 countries, produced the report, titled "Missing the Target -- A Report on HIV/AIDS Treatment Access from the Frontlines," which aims to identify challenges to treatment access and provide solutions to overcome them.

Faith based organizations from the United States and Africa are to announce 10 to 15 names to be part of an Eminent Persons Ecumenical Programme for Africa, who will employ their moral authority to stem the widespread conflict in the continent, reports Africa Files. In the pool of 25 for selection are names like the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, former South African president Nelson Mandela, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Kenyan environmental and ecological campaigner Professor Wangari Maathai.

A challenging job and a unique opportunity to make a real impact on poverty and suffering and channel your passion to influencing policy makers to protect and advance the human rights of poor communities. These are some of the things you can look forward to when you join us at Oxfam as the Regional Policy & Advocacy Coordinator (RPAC).

Global free expression group Article 19 and the human rights organization Fahamu invite applications for a distance learning course on Campaigning for Access to Information to be held from 3 January 2006 to February 2006. Combining the freedom of information campaigning expertise of Article 19 with the extensive distance learning experience of Fahamu, this course is meant for people and organizations from a broad spectrum of areas in Africa who have an interest in the issue of access to information. This includes but is not limited to: trade unions, residents' organisations, environmental groups, women's groups, development organisations, human rights organisations and many others. This course looks at why access to information is important, what an access to information law should contain, and how to set about campaigning for one.

South Africa's powerful labour movement vowed to add its muscle to the fight against Aids on Wednesday, heaping pressure on the government amid an epidemic killing some 900 South Africans each day. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which claims a million members and has organized huge protests in the past, announced it was joining activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to push for a new approach to AIDS in the country worst hit by the worldwide pandemic.

Global free expression group Article 19 and the human rights organization Fahamu invite applications for a distance learning course on Campaigning for Access to Information to be held from 3 January 2006 to February 2006.

Combining the freedom of information campaigning expertise of Article 19 with the extensive distance learning experience of Fahamu, this course is meant for people and organizations from a broad spectrum of areas in Africa who have an interest in the issue of access to information. This includes but is not limited to: trade unions, residents' organisations, environmental groups, women's groups, development organisations, human rights organisations and many others.

This course looks at why access to information is important, what an access to information law should contain, and how to set about campaigning for one.

“Being a woman in Zimbabwe is like going to war with a gun minus bullets. Lack of sanitary products are now threatening the Zimbabwean women's livelihoods. In Zimbabwe women are unable to afford the small quality and quantity of sanitary products that are available currently in the market.” Thabitha Khumalo

Please follow the link for further information regarding supporting this campaign.

SANGONeT would like to appoint a Manager for its ICT services and advocacy activities. This position is a challenging opportunity for someone passionate about the potential role and contribution of ICTs in support of the Southern African development process, with a keen interest in advocacy, policy and related application issues shaping the role of ICTs in the region.

Amnesty International is working with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions to coordinate a campaign initiative across Africa on the situation in Zimbabwe. A similar action involving 200 NGOs in June was very successful. We hope you will be willing to work with us [again] on this initiative. We are asking NGOs for help. Click on the link to find out what you can do.

Namibian president Hifikepunye Pohamba's anti-corruption campaign scored a significant victory this week with the resignation from parliament of a scandal-tainted former minister, analysts said. Paulus Kapia was forced to resign from his position as deputy minister of works, transport and communication in late August, after a high court liquidation inquiry into a US $5.7 million investment in his company, Avid Investment Corporation, went missing.

A limited measles immunisation campaign has been launched in Nairobi following an outbreak of the disease in a suburb of the capital city, health authorities said on Friday. The campaign targets children under the age of five and is confined within Eastleigh, a downmarket suburb east of the city centre with a considerable number of refugees from Somalia, said an official in the disease management unit of the ministry of health who asked not to be named.

Ethiopian children are being sold for as little as US $1.20 to work as domestic workers or prostitutes, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on October 20. Up to 20,000 children, some 10 years old, are sold each year by their parents and trafficked by unscrupulous brokers to work in cities across Ethiopia, the IOM added. The figures were announced as the Ethiopian government, the UN and the IOM launched a campaign to highlight the suffering endured by vulnerable children in this Horn of Africa nation. Dubbed "Ethiopia's Campaign for Vulnerable Children", the campaign encourages candidates running in local elections scheduled for early 2006 to push the issue onto the agenda.

"We Ugandans and friends of Uganda, in tandem with Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI: http://www.acholipeace.org), Human Rights Watch (http://hrw.org/campaigns/uganda/), Amnesty International (http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/uga-summary-eng), local Human Rights groups, the civil society and all peace loving members of the international community, are extremely concerned about the continuing genocide (http://www.acholitoday.worldbreak.com) that is ravaging the Acoli, Lango and Teso sub-regions of Uganda. Please join us in signing the petition."

This distance learning course provides human rights activists with a range of proven human rights advocacy methods and critical concepts as a means for them to reflect on and deepen their own work. The course will look at the theoretical foundations and critical issues of human rights advocacy, elements of advocacy planning, and strategies for action.

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UNCONFIRMED REPORTS REACHED US AT PAMBAZUKA NEWS AS WE GO TO PRESS THAT TOGO HAS BECOME THE 15TH AFRICAN COUNTRY TO RATIFY THE PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

This means that the Protocol will enter into force thirty (30) days after the date of deposit by Togo. Congratulations are due to all the many organisations that have been involved in the campaign. This is a major victory for the women's movement in Africa. Is this the fastest ratification of such an instrument? Standby for further updates.

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EDITORIAL: Patrick Bond on the great robbery of Africa’s wealth
COMMENT&ANALYSIS: Economist Sanjay Reddy asks whose interests the World Development Report actually serves
- Human rights lawyer Yav Katshung Joseph joins the discussion about the DRC with an exploration of security and resource issues that block peace in the region
- An official response from UNHCR to last week’s editorial – “Sudanese Refugees In Cairo: We'll Wait Here, We’ll Die Here”
- The Protocol on the Rights of Women and legal strategies for implementation
LETTERS: Policing Africa and an appeal for IDPs
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Agrarian revolution - a serious proposition or a vote-catching gimmick?
BLOGGING AFRICA: No holes barred and the Musings of a Naija Man
BOOKS&ARTS: Pambazuka News reviews ‘A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe’
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: Farewell Chinwuba, Justice and John - "Blow in the winds, glow in the darkest room and in all our hearts" - Tributes to the campaigners who lost their lives in the recent plane crash in Nigeria.
CONFLICTS&EMERGENCIES: Darfur: Continual Targeting and Attacks on Villages and IDPs
HUMAN RIGHTS: The MDGs and human rights
REFUGEES: Spain/Morocco: The authorities must be held accountable for the violation of migrants' rights
ELECTIONS: Tanzania awaits elections; Liberia heads for run-off, Zim’s MDC in turmoil
WOMEN&GENDER: Benin becomes 14th country to ratify Protocol – one more to go…
DEVELOPMENT: Does anyone remember Make Poverty History?
CORRUPTION: International donor agencies and corruption
HEALTH&HIV/AIDS: Stephen Lewis slates Live 8/rich country aid
EDUCATION: Education of nomadic peoples of East Africa
MEDIA&FREEDOM OF EXPRESION: Tunisia: Government urged to heed demands of “18 October Movement” hunger strikers
INTERNET&TECHNOLOGY: Will Blogs change development thinking?
JOBS: Pambazuka News: Correspondant régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest/ West Africa Correspondent

Remember Saro-Wiwa is a coalition of organisations and individuals initiated and co-ordinated by PLATFORM, including: African Writers Abroad, Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Diversity Art Forum, English PEN, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, Mayor of London, Minorities of Europe, Anita and Gordon Roddick, South Bank Centre, Spinwatch. For a programme of upcoming events and information about the campaign please click on the link below.

The 14th Bulletin of the international campaign against refugee warehousing newsletter is now available.

EDITORIAL: “We will wait here, we will die here. We have no other place to go.” Sudanese refugees are into the third week of a protest in Cairo, Egypt
COMMENT & ANALYSIS: Patrick Bond analyses the $500 million loan that caused all the trouble and the role of the IMF in Zimbabwe
- Chenjerai Hove on the Zimbawean Senate elections and the crisis in the MDC
- Ligali, the African British Equality Authority, on how Live 8 showed that the solutions to Africa’s problems lie with Africans
- Good cop, bad cop: Questions and Answers on policing in Africa
LETTERS: News about the good professor and thanks to Pambazuka News
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Issa Shivji examines new forms of land dispossession
BLOGGING AFRICA: Find out about Africa Unchained, Sleepless in Sudan and What an African Women Thinks
GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AGAINST POVERTY: Part two of a Pambazuka Profile on the road to Hong Kong; GCAP meeting to consolidate the future
CONFLICTS & EMERGENCIES: DRC: 'As many as 1,000 people a day still die from war-related causes'
HUMAN RIGHTS: Civil society member attacked in Ethiopia
ELECTIONS: Liberia elections go to the second round; MDC split over Senate vote
WOMEN & GENDER: Part two of a Pambazuka profile on The Protocol on the Rights of Women and refugees
DEVELOPMENT: Millions go hungry on world food day; Social forum declares another Zimbabwe is possible
HIV/AIDS: HIV/AIDS, democracy and governance
EDUCATION: Is private education good for the poor?
MEDIA: On eve of Tunis information summit, UN rights expert calls for prisoner release
AND…Advocacy, Internet, Jobs, e-newsletters, Courses and Books & Art

Already crippled by the burden of poverty and underdevelopment, the African continent carries the added weight of trade union repression. Whilst Africa's workers struggle to scrape a living wage from jobs that generally offer no social protection, the powers that be remain brutal in their oppression of trade union rights, responding to attempts to improve conditions with violent intimidation, arrests and dismissals. Collective bargaining continues to be very limited on the continent and the export processing zones developing in the wake of globalisation are simply inflating the scale of exploitation.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is set to visit all of the country's ten provinces in a bid to bolster support for a boycott of next month's senate elections, his spokesperson said on Monday. The move by the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) comes amid a deepening crisis in the party, with the majority of members in the party's national council in favour of participating in the polls for an upper chamber of Parliament.