Efforts to address the plight of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are lagging behind in Ethiopia's profoundly conservative society, while they continue to bear the brunt of the epidemic. "Women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, mainly due to a lack of know-how and control over how, when and where the sex takes place, particularly in the rural areas, where culture and religion dominate the rights of women."

A United Nations investigation has been launched into allegations of sexual abuse and rape of children as young as 12 by international peacekeeping staff in southern Sudan, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. An article in the British Daily Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday reported that at least 20 children said they had been picked up in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba by UN peacekeepers and forced to have sex, often in official UN vehicles.

In the fertile hills of eastern Congo Kinshasa (DRC), the region's women tell tales of war crimes crueller than others can imagine. They are angry with brutal rebels groups, Rwandans, the national army, mineral companies and the US, which they say supplied the arms. And the greatest war crime of all, they warn, is not letting their voices be heard even today.

“Growing up as a lesbian woman in South Africa is not easy," Lindiwe Radebe says. "It is a country that is ruled by homophobia and where we are not protected. I know this because I have been assaulted because of my sexual orientation." Her story reads like a crime novel.

The United Nations (UN) has set an agenda of 'A World Fit for Children', while promoting gender equality as the focus of its third Millennium Development Goal (MDG-3). UNICEF, in its new report, believes that if this goal is achieved its benefits will be felt not just among women and children but in many other spheres, from poverty and hunger reduction to environmental sustainability and global health; and that gender equality is critical to child survival and development.

A student of the Louise Arthur Grimes School of Law, Alascal Wisner, has accused the Gender Ministry for doing little or nothing to educate youth against the growing level of indecent dressing that has permeated the society by Liberian girls.

"The sale of living female flesh for sexual gratification of men and income generation for the body seller is a trade old as society," said allgambian.net Staff Writer Lamin Sabally. Recently in urban Gambia, government cracked down on prostitutes leading to severe consequences in the law courts.

Women are among the most marginalised in our society, says this article in the New Vision. "Since they also tend to be the poorest, getting justice is always a nightmare for them. But a bill passed in December 2006 is set to change this."

The 30 per cent affirmative action policy for recruitment of women in the public service will not apply in the disciplined forces. It will, instead, be restricted to recruitment, appointments and promotions in ministries and State corporations, according to guidelines issued by Public Service head Francis Muthaura.

Child rights advocates are increasingly facing a dilemma: How to boost the number of girls getting an education while reducing sexual violence in school? Sexual violence at school is much more widespread in the region than previously thought because families and education authorities often hide or tolerate the problem, Jean-Claude Legrand, regional child protection adviser for the UN children's agency (UNICEF), told IRIN.

A significant number of displaced women in South Darfur, western Sudan, suffer from depression and experience suicidal thoughts because of largely unaddressed mental-health problems, according to a study by the International Medical Corps (IMC). Solomon Kebede, IMC country director in Darfur, told IRIN on Friday (15 December 2006) the study was conducted in the field two years ago, but the situation had since deteriorated further.

At least 1,500 children engage in sex tourism daily along the Kenyan coast. This is according to a damning new report released by the United Nations Children's Education Fund (Unicef). And contrary to prior perceptions that the sex pests involved in the vice are only foreign tourists, the report indicates that 40 per cent of those exploiting the children are crooked Kenyan men.

Outgoing United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan is saying his farewells. And, in doing so, he appears to be freeing himself from the diplomatic constraints of his former position. A recent speech hit hard at the United States for what its recent actions in Afghanistan and Iraq have done to the idea of multilateral action in collective self-defence. And China too took some barbs for its blithe stand vis a vis arms sales to the Sudan.

Safaa Elagib Adam from the Community Development Association based in Khartoum talks Pambazuka News about the vital role Sudanese women play in the struggle for peace. In the mainstream coverage of the conflict in Darfur, the voices of the people most impacted are often absent.

Calling for more action to counter pervasive discrimination against women, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today (11 December 2006) launched a report highlighting that “gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand,” and recommending a raft of measures, from greater investment in girls’ education to imposing quotas ensuring woman are better represented in politics. Gender equality is also key to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In most African states, homosexuality is illegal. Juliet Victor Mukasa writes that in Africa, transgender people are punished and ostracised for being who they are. “While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for “behaving” like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbour’s daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster.”

As a transgender person who is attracted physically and emotionally to other women, issues that African women and trangenders face are of particular concern to me. The one thing that all transgender people have in common is that we do not fit into traditional gender categories.

We’re taught that that a human being must behave, present themselves, dress and so on in only two ways…male or female. There are rules that govern genders, unfortunately. Such gender rules include:

-How a man should dress in order to appear masculine;
-What types of jobs are fitting for a woman
-That a woman must only be in a relationship with another man, not with a woman

These rules to govern our behaviour are socially constructed, meaning that they are not “natural”. They are rules made up by people, sometimes with horrible punishments for not following them.

In Africa, transgender people are seriously punished for being who they are. While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for “behaving” like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbour’s daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster. I became the laughing stock of the village and I expelled myself because of the humiliation. I could speak the whole day about the discomforts I have suffered in life more because I am a transgender person.

All trans-people that I have interacted with mention such, or even worse, moments in their lives. It can be a very deep violation of our being to be forced to perform our gender differently to who we feel it for ourselves.

Some people, like myself, are born with a sense of ourselves as male in some ways, even though we are biologically female.

As a transgender person, it is constantly demanded of me to explain and justify why I do not fit into other people’s ideas of what a woman or a man should be.

As a Human Rights defender, I am working to protect a space for people to exist freely without facing harassment, threats, or violence for not fitting into traditional gender categories.

I can give specific examples of human rights abuses and violations of transgender people in Africa:

- Raped to prove that you are really a woman
- At school and public assembly - humiliation and beatings
- Thrown out of the family home
- Thrown out of subsequent homes by landlords
- Losing jobs because of feeling violated wearing a skirt
- Psychological Effects of Abuse: Depression, Anger, Drinking, Suicide
- Holding a full bladder for 12-18 hours daily
- Being undressed and humiliated
- Being abused by government when trying to get a passport
- In church – I was once stripped naked before a multitude of people. The pastor ‘saw’ the spirit of a young man inside me and they burnt my clothes and shoes in order to kill the male spirit.
- By Police: humiliation, mocking, mistreatment

However, transgender people have also been successful in overcoming these abuses.

In Uganda there is tremendous energy and anger on the part of activists. Many LGBTs are ready to rise up. For example, some transgender men are dressing up in drag and declaring that they have had enough.

Another victory is the establishment of the first specifically Transgender organization on the continent: Gender DynamiX, located in Cape Town, South Africa.

We are now claiming language and claiming spaces. Sometimes it is even difficult for us to understand ourselves because the world has been constructed to make us completely invisible. But now we are finding words to use for urselves such as He She Che.

As an illustration of why we need your support, I would like to highlight the work of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). SMUG is an organization made up of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights Defenders. Many of us in leadership in this organization are women and several of us are transgender. We face many challenges such as inUganda, on a weekly basis, gay men are arrested and face detention if they do not pay a bribe to be released. This has become a business from which the police benefit. The basic Human Rights of LGBT people are completely disregarded in this process as the police abuse our rights.

Many of us do not receive protection from the police when we face violations of our rights by the surrounding community. One of SMUG’s primary emphases in our workplan for this year is sensitising the police and creating a better working relationship with them.

By having the support, awareness, and protection of international Human Rights bodies, we will be much more effective in this endeavour.Through our work, we aim to help people realise the ways in which we are all connected, whether straight or LGBT, the societal rules governing what a woman has to be like and what a man has to be like hurt us all.

However, we still have many needs. We are an invisible population when it comes to protection. There is almost NO research to understand transgender people’s lives in Africa.We have an undocumented history and are still invisible.

The secrecy and covert nature of our work in Africa also makes us invisible to the larger gender and human rights sector, and to each other. There is almost NO action in this area to protect people who do not fit into traditional gender categories. At the same time we are highly visible and therefore highly vulnerable to discrimination.

Transgender people have the potential to radically challenge discriminatory practices in a way that helps to free all people from sexism. People who cross gender boundaries make transformation of society more possible, and make gender transgressions more acceptable and enable societal gender transformation. We - the transgender community - have the right to tell our stories and have them heard, and to have our lives protected.

Mainstream Human Rights organizations, for the most part, are not accepting or protecting us on any level. As people from all over the world who are concerned about human rights and gender injustice, we need to work together to protect our most vulnerable Human Rights Defenders.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Research and understand the complex self-identification of transgender people in Africa.

2. More effectively monitor human rights situations abuses and violations against Transgender People (such as systematic rape, intimidation, forced undressing, and economic exclusion).

3. Educate the UN bodies and its partners about transgender concerns.

4. Provide training, support, and protection to transgender Human Rights Defenders and allies.

5. Put pressure on local governments, donors, economic powers and human rights institutions toprovide protection for those who do not fit into traditional gender categories and to recognize the way in which transgender people add to the freedom of expression and quality of life of all people.

• This paper was presented at the World International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) PANEL AT 2ND UNCHR SESSION. Juliet Victor Mukasa is the Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Mukasa is also in the ILGA Board of Representatives
• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Former ambassador Norman Mashabane is guilty of sexual harassment, the Pretoria High Court found on Friday (1 December 2006). More than three years after Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma overturned a guilty verdict against Mashabane, the court decided otherwise.

Jeanne fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after being repeatedly raped and tortured by rebels. She had been working for a non-government organisation in the east of the country and the rebels accused her of being a spy. "My life was in great danger and I was very near to death. I was detained for at least two months," she says.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has welcomed the proposed creation of a new United Nations agency dealing with women's issues. The new body will serve as a multilateral agency to support women's rights, UN's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis told Mr McKinnon during his visit to the Commonwealth Secretariat's headquarters in Marlborough House in London, UK, on 29 November 2006.

The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is on the decline in Tanzania, according to the results of a study by the country's Ministry of Health. Released on 1 December, the Tanzania Demographic Health Survey showed that FGM prevalence had declined from 18 percent in 1996 to 15 percent in 2005, when the survey was carried out.