In the wake of the global financial and economic crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, set up a commission of experts chaired by Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, whose mandate includes putting forward “credible and feasible proposals for reforming the international monetary and financial system in the best interest of the international community”. The Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System will present its final report in early April 2009.

During a seminar entitled "Discrimination in Inheritance" held in Tunis on January 24th, Mauritanian human rights organisations and activists spoke out against slavery, which they said is still eroding Mauritanian society. "Slavery is a painful reality in Mauritania," said Bairam Ould Messaoud, head of Mauritania-based organisation SOS Slaves. "Some families still own slaves and take them around houses and farms here in Nouakchott without the government intervening."

Despite a U.S. jury finding in Chevron’s favor late last fall in a U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco, the company is now asking the plaintiffs - all who are Nigerian villagers - to pay Chevron over $485,000 in legal costs the company incurred during the five week long trial.

The International Monetary Fund is hoping for more information on the losses suffered by the Bank of Central African States and is watching the situation closely, a senior IMF official told Reuters on Wednesday. Leaders from half a dozen mostly oil-producing central African nations ordered far-reaching audits of their central bank at the weekend in connection with investments held with France's Société Générale SA.

Stephen Marks and Sanusha Naidui look at China’s response and the impact on Africa. It’s early days so far in the Obama Presidency but there continue to be worrying indications of US-China friction on trade. If co-operation did break down it would be bad news for Africa. But there are encouraging signs that a lot of the noise may be posturing. There are also good reasons to believe that China’s African commitment will not suffer, and may even be stepped up as a result of the global crisis. But the reasons for African vigilance on the ground will also continue.

Residents of the Italian island of Lampedusa are rebelling against Rome. Thousands of refugees who have arrived there by boat could soon be interned on the small island -- to prevent them from disappearing into the European Union. When drama becomes commonplace, even idealists can sound callous at times. Antonino Maggiore says that he wants to build "a better world" -- for Italians, even more so for persecuted foreigners and, in fact, for everyone. Maggiore is 25, an age at which idealistic pronouncements like that are to be expected.

The International Women’s Media Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2009-10 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, which is open to women journalists whose focus is human rights and social justice. Named for the 1998 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner and Boston Globe correspondent who was killed in Iraq in May 2003, the fellowship allows one woman journalist to spend an academic year in a tailored program with access to Boston-area universities as well as the Boston Globe and New York Times. Applications will be accepted until April 15, 2009, and the fellowship will run from September 2009 – May 2010.

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the Event Series “200 Years Later…”, commemorating the 200 year anniversary of the official Abolition of the Maafa (Transatlantic Slave Trade), Berlin, 23-30.11.2008. It was awarded UNESCO's Toussaint Louverture Medal for its “contribution to the struggle against domination, racism and intolerance”. At the centre stands the celebration of the much neglected and still widely unknown manifold strategies of resistance of African people / people of African descent against one of the greatest atrocities in the history of mankind and the cultural and artistic practices they developed on the basis of this resilience.

In the debates about China-Africa relations, the issue of cultural exchanges seems to be of less importance compared to questions about economics, trade, investment, aid, and exploitation of natural resources. Despite this, cultural exchanges have played a significant role in Sino-African relations, especially since the 1950s. As much as African countries have benefited from these exchanges, China has been a major beneficiary in two significant ways: 1) increasing investment and resources in these exchanges, and 2) through the active promotion of newly established Confucius Institutes across the continent. Yet the same cannot be said of the promotion of, African culture in China, which is largely absent.

Vanguard’s documentary , which premiered in late 2008 is a well-informed and multi-faceted commentary on China’s growing role in Africa. Given the heightened and often fever-pitch media commentary that reflects on China-Africa relations, it is refreshing to find a documentary that attempts to presents a multidimensional perspective to what has become parochial and controversial mainstream reporting. With Angola as its case study, the production team ambitiously sought to unpack the various elements of Luanda’s relations with Beijing.

In this essay Chris Colley of China’s Renmin University analyzes the UN’s new China Human Development Report. This report comes out as China celebrates 30 years of reform. Colley then discusses how the global financial crisis will affect China. He concludes by arguing that the “Beijing Consensus” model of development is unique to China and may not be able to be exported.

This year's Super Bowl Halftime show is sponsored by the Bridgestone Firestone tire company. For over 80 years, Firestone has exploited workers and the environment on its rubber plantation in Liberia. After a long campaign for justice, workers on the plantation finally signed their first contract negotiated by an independent and democratically elected union leadership in August 2008, but the company has not implemented many of the important improvements in the new contract.

The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational arm of the Open Society Institute (OSI), pursues legal reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The International Justice program supports and enhances the work of all international and hybrid tribunals. The Justice Initiative is seeking to recruit a Consultant to be based in New York, USA, or The Hague, The Netherlands, for 3-5 months, to help develop programs aimed at expanding and deepening its focus on International Criminal Court (ICC) related issues.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao will arrive in Europe on Tuesday (27 January) for a visit that Chinese foreign ministry officials have described as a 'Journey of Confidence.' His first stop will be the World Economic Forum annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, ahead of a number of scheduled meetings with European leaders in a bid to mend fences following the postponing of last month's EU-China summit.

China on Thursday said it would extend Senegal aid worth 8.9 million euros (11.5 million dollars) for sports, cultural and sanitation projects. "The Chinese government will provide the Senegalese government aid totalling 80 million yuan for cooperation projects," Chinese Ambassador Lu Shaye said. This would be used to build or refurbish 11 stadia, a museum, a national theatre in Dakar and a children's hospital, Senegalese Finance Minister Abdoulaye Diop said.

Government has moved to put in place trade laws that will ban Chinese traders from dealing in clothes. The Chinese traders were given 24 months from May last year to rearrange their businesses or face being sent back to China. The government's decision to bar non-citizens - especially the Chinese traders - from dealing in clothing comes at a time when the Chinese traders are found at every corner of the country, selling all types of clothes, mainly fake overseas clothing brands.

The government of India has made available a partnership programme to the value of about E50 billion ($5bn) over a five-year period to African governments. On the other hand, the Exim Bank of India has expressed interest in partnering with local indigenous financial institutions to provide accessible financial resources.

In an effort to hold back the domestic effects of the global downturn, China is starting to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on new highways, railroads and other infrastructure projects. The stimulus plan, one of the world’s largest, promises to carry the modernity of China’s coasts deep into the hinterlands, buying the kind of great leap forward it took the United States decades — and a world war — to build, and priming China for a new level of global competition.

The ongoing international financial crisis has landed the world economy in the most difficult situation since last century's Great Depression. In the face of the crisis, countries and the international community have taken various measures to address it. These measures have played an important role in boosting confidence, reducing the consequences of the crisis, and forestalling a meltdown of the financial system and a deep global recession.

The roulette tables at the Great Wall casino have suddenly fallen silent. A few miles away, Lusaka’s most popular Chinese restaurant is virtually empty, the only guests a handful of wealthy Africans. The ripples from the global economic meltdown have finally washed up on African shores. Nowhere is that more noticeable than in Zambia,