Asylum seekers who launch appeals against being deported will no longer be allowed to remain in the UK while their cases are heard, Appeal Court judges have ruled. Lord Justice Brooke said that currently asylum seekers are usually allowed to stay in the UK when an appeal is launched regardless of its merits.
He said that this should no longer be the case due to the numerous challenges against deportation being made in the Court of Appeal by illegal immigrants.

This publication analyses legislation to determine whether minimum age legislation protects children’s right to education, as established in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Through an updated analysis of the most recent reports presented by States Parties to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the paper considers whether legislation on minimum ages for entry into work and marriage, and at which a child can be considered criminally responsible, are compatible with states’ legislation on children’s access to compulsory education.

In this illuminating book, Frantz Fanon reveals the various ways in which the people of Algeria, during the revolution, changed their centuries-old patterns of culture, or, conversely, embraced certain ancient forms of culture, or , conversely, embraced certain forms of culture long derided by their colonist oppressors as "primitive" in order to destroy their oppressors.

The phenomenon of under-age and youthful soldiers in violent conflicts receives much international attention, and the participation of young people in Sierra Leone’s ten-year conflict was no exception. Here and elsewhere, agencies working with children in demobilisation and reintegration programmes tend to view these young people mainly as victims of forced conscription by exploitive and unscrupulous warlords. This view might be correct for many of the very young child combatants. The older child and youth combatants, who together make up a large part of the total number of combatants in armed factions, do not entirely fit in this picture.

A total of Sh234 billion has already been traced by a firm contracted by the Government to track down loot stashed abroad by key figures in the previous Government. Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi shocked MPs when he said that of the amount, Sh78 billion belonged to just three individuals.

The South African government is failing to disburse grant money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to organisations combating the disease "on the ground," Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem said this week, adding that the fund may withdraw the country's money as a result, Reuters reports. Speaking to the South African media, Feachem said, "It's intolerable that the money gets stuck in Pretoria and if Pretoria can't move it for any reason, we will simply withdraw it and establish direct relationships with the people actually doing the work."

This paper summarises from Save the Children UK's experience in facilitating children and young people’s participation in PRSP processes, highlighting in particular the experiences of Vietnam and Honduras, and drawing on insights from Lesotho, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the work of a Guyanese NGO. It discusses the effectiveness of a range of approaches, highlights challenges, outlines learning points and raises questions about the impact and cost-benefit trade-off of children and young people’s participation in PRSPs.

Assessing whether or not aid agencies are making a difference in developing countries and whether or not they are well organised in order to achieve this is difficult to answer because of the special nature of development business, organisational and functional differences within the aid community, and lack of terminological consistency. In response, DFID has developed a multilateral effectiveness framework (MEFF), which aims to be evidence-based, objective and to draw primarily on multilaterals’ own information sources. It will take into account differences in the mandates and organisational set-up of each organisation.

Economic analysts have hailed the launching of the JSE's Socially Responsible Investment Index, saying it will bring about an exciting era of corporate responsibility. The index will rate companies on how their operations will affect the country socio-economically and environmentally. Sean de Cleene, a director of the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship, says the index will demand that companies adopt a more holistic and integrated approach to sustainable development.

Intelligent Management Strategies (IMS) extends an invitation to attend an International Conference on Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility to be held at the Inter-Continental Sandton Sun and Towers, Sandton, Johannesburg.

The event is entitled "Transform our Communities."

Topics for discussion include:

- Economic development and upliftment;
- Structuring investment;
- Making Corporate Social Investment (CSI) an invested interest; and
- Legal and empowerment issues around CSI.

The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) will on 19 and 20 May, 2004 host a workshop for its affiliates and stakeholders to discuss the contents of their latest publication, Reality of Aid, Africa Edition 2003/4, which will be launched at the same event in Pretoria, South Africa. The theme for the workshop will be: "Governance & Promotion of Rights in International Cooperation and Aid" and will provide a space for the 18 participants to review the findings contained in the Africa Edition of the Reality of Aid publication, as well as come up with recommendations for the way forward.

Despite warnings of a third successive year of famine, a government spokesman in Zimbabwe said that the country’s food stocks were sufficient and it would not require relief aid from international agencies. State radio quoted Paul Mangwana, the Minister of Social Welfare, as saying that the Government had “ruled out food imports or receiving aid ...because the country has produced enough food for its requirements.”

Incoming International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said this week that during his five-year mandate as head of the institution, he will work toward fulfilling the interests of its 184 member countries while giving special attention to poor nations. "The position of managing director of this institution requires me to work in the interest of all 184 member countries, with particular attention to those who have the greatest difficulties and lower income levels," Rato said in his first news conference in Washington after being chosen as the IMF chief last week. He is scheduled to officially assume the new position early next month.

This report, published by the World Health Organisation, outlines progress made by the Stop TB Partnership in meeting the objectives of the Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis (GPSTB). Achievements highlighted include the implementation of DOTs in 180 countries and the establishment of pilot projects for joint HIV/TB control and for treatment of patients with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). Recommendations include more streamlined evaluation of new drugs and diagnostic tools, and targeted distribution of approved vaccines to areas where the TB burden is greatest. In conclusion, the report calls for urgent large-scale investment of both financial and human resources to accelerate progress and ensure the 2005 TB reduction targets are met.

The Mozambican parliament started on Tuesday to debate a report on its corruption law, with all discussions focusing particularly on article six, concerning applications and petitions to any institution. This law had been passed by the parliament and submitted to the President for promulgation, but the President sent it back to the Assembly, after finding that it contained some aspects that were not constitutional.

The European Union has offered to stop subsidising farm exports in a move aimed at reigniting world trade talks. European trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has written to members of the World Trade Organisation outlining the plan. An agreement will depend on other WTO countries such as the US, Canada and Australia being willing to follow suit.

Access to quality education in rural areas has been consistently neglected. Many governments either lack the political will or the capacity to meet the educational needs of the huge numbers of rural people who remain outside the mainstream education system. Today in many parts of the world, growing up in a rural region often means growing up without a decent education. School attendance is generally low and drop-out high, with girls, mountain populations and ethnic minorities losing out most. This is not surprising, considering the distance many children have to walk daily, only to find a school in poor condition, without furniture, learning materials, drinking water or toilets, and sometimes even without a teacher.

Children from four continents opened the first dialogue at the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona, Spain, by talking from first-hand experience about child labour, conflict, disability, migration and HIV/AIDS - some of the most visible signs of child poverty. As leaders in their own communities in China, Colombia, Guinea Conakry, Tajikistan, Kosovo and Morocco, the children will talk with Dean Hirsch, President of World Vision International and chair of the Global Movement for Children, and will ask the world to take action on children in poverty.

This report, published by Save the Children, focuses on girls who become mothers while still children themselves, highlighting the particular health risks and challenges which they, and their children, face. It includes the first ever Early Motherhood Risk Ranking which analyses data on child motherhood from fifty countries. Key findings show that early motherhood carries a very high risk of mortality for both mother and baby, with mothers aged 10 to 14 five times more at risk than mothers in their twenties; and that girls in sub-Saharan Africa tend to have the highest rates of early marriage and motherhood as well as the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality.

In 2005 the General Assembly will be reviewing the situation of youth and achievements made in the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY). The year 2005 has been chosen because it is ten years after the adoption of WPAY. This Toolkit is meant for national youth organisations and/or representatives working with youth. It can be used as a tool to: assess your country’s progress in reaching the WPAY goals; prioritize your organisation’s work, based on your findings; and, initiate actions at the national level.