This toolkit from the Global Alliance on Traffic Against Women provides guidance to NGOs engaging in the CEDAW review process. It hopes to enable NGO reporting to provide more thorough information on the situation of trafficking in women and the exploitation of women migrant workers.

Uganda’s Parliament has re-introduced a proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill which Amnesty International considers a 'grave assault on human rights' that must be rejected. Under the bill, gay and lesbian people in Uganda could face the death penalty for so-called 'aggravated homosexuality' – a definition which includes consensual sexual conduct.

On 2 December 2011, the Malian parliament passed a Family Code, which threatens to set back women’s rights in Mali quite considerably. Women’s organisations like WILDAF Mali, Women in Law and Development in Africa, have been pulling women, and men, together into various formations to inform and to organise. On 31 December, they pulled together representatives from over 20 organizations to think through the intricacies of the new bill and of the new moment, to strategize and to begin to implement counter-strategies.

The President of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills, has stated that as a responsible leader he will ensure that gay marriages are never legalised in the country and on the African continent as a whole. President Mills’ comments come after the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressing the Heads of States at the African Union Summit at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia called on African leaders to respect gay rights in their respective countries.

'The 39 members of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition based in 18 African countries vehemently condemn the stripping of women wearing trousers and short skirts by male vendors in three major cities in Malawi, namely Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Blantyre.'

The winner, who fled Jamaica a year ago following homophobic death threats, vows to continue with the struggle for LGBT rights in honour of the the fallen Ugandan activist.

Four men were jailed for 18 years on Wednesday for stabbing and stoning 19-year-old lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana to death in 2006. Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase, Luyanda Londzi and Mbulelo Damba were sentenced by the Khayelitsha Regional Court to 18 years, four of which were suspended for five years. A crowd outside the court cheered, sang, raised their fists and danced when news came that the men had been sentenced. The National Prosecuting Authority had asked for the men to be sentenced to 15 years each.

The major weakness of a new film is that it removes the agency, courage and brilliance of black women.

To thousands of Egyptian revolutionaries, Khadiga Hennawi is mother, says this article on Hennawi, who started out bringing food to protestors camped in the historic square, earned the moniker 'the Mother of Tahrir' by taking care of younger activists, often offering refuge at her home from attacks by security forces. The fifty-nine-year-old divorcee has become a figurehead of the struggle for freedom and democracy.

President Sirleaf won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and should know that the oppression and exclusion of any group is anathema to Alfred Nobel’s vision of an equal society.

Malawi's president says he has ordered police to arrest anyone who attacks women for wearing trousers in public. President Bingu wa Mutharika spoke out on national radio after several women were beaten and stripped on the street for wearing non-traditional dress.

Women and Security Governance in Africa argues that human security cannot be achieved in Africa without putting women at the centre of public policy.

The South African Human Rights Commission said on Monday that it would be writing to King Goodwill Zwelithini following reports that he made homophobic comments at a function attended by President Jacob Zuma. Zwelithini reportedly told guests at the 133rd commemoration of the January 22 1879 Battle of Isandlwana at Nquthu, KwaZulu-Natal, on Sunday that 'traditionally, there were no people who engaged in same sex-relationships'. 'There was nothing like that and if you do it, you must know that you are rotten. I don't care how you feel about it. If you do it, you must know that it is wrong and you are rotten. Same sex is not acceptable,' he was quoted as saying.

Thanks to generator breakdowns and the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years, blackouts and frequent power cuts have become common in Kenya. As a result, costs are soaring. Among the groups most affected are women who own small businesses. After putting in years of hard work to build their businesses and become financially independent, some say power cuts are threatening everything they’ve worked for.

Helen Zille’s suggestion that men who have unprotected sex with younger girls should be charged with culpable homicide was rightfully condemned as nonsensical, populist and just bad public health, says this article from Sonke Gender Justice. 'Her remarks at the responsibility awards were deeply problematic: they stigmatized girls and women who have had children during their school going years, ignored the social factors shaping the reproductive health choices and intentions of many young women, and they completely neglected to mention the roles and responsibilities of the girls’ male sexual partners.'

A coalition of Sierra Leone women groups plan to stage a march to push for better security in the country. The women singled out the government for failing in its responsibilities to maintain peace during political rallies. 'Our political leaders are a disgrace,' Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, one of Sierra Leone's leading women activists, said.

In this study, researchers found that the annual costs of FGM-related obstetric complications in six African countries studied ranged from 0.1 to 1 per cent of government spending on health for women aged 15–45 years. In the current population of 2.8 million 15-year-old women in the six African countries, a loss of 130,000 life years is expected owing to FGM’s association with obstetric haemorrhage.

Aid agencies and donors are failing to take into account the relief and security needs of women displaced by disasters and conflicts, according to Elisabeth Rasmusson, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). For example, in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, cultural practices mean Pashtun women cannot be seen by men who are not family members. So when the worst floods in the country's history devastated their homes in July, they faced serious problems. Unless the aid agencies on the ground had female assessment teams and other staff in place, these women were 'invisible' and could not even visit the toilets during the day, Rasmusson told AlertNet in an interview.

A group of vendors in Malawi's capital Lilongwe on Tuesday 17 January went berserk and started stripping naked women wearing trousers and miniskirts claiming they had President Bingu wa Mutharika’s consent to do so. It is said that President Bingu wa Mutharika on 15 January raised concerns on the way women were dressing singling those wearing miniskirts and trousers.

What did the removal of the fuel subsidy mean for the LGBT community in Nigeria amongst other Nigerian citizens? The strike and protests had one positive effect for the LGBT community in that they brought mainstream civil society activists closer to LGBT activists, something that would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago when the anti-gay bill was brought to the Nigerian parliament and no voices from the wider civil society spoke out against it. Some local LGBT activists told Behind the Mask that they regard the current situation as an opportunity to buy time and make allies in their advocacy against the anti-gay bill.