The recent announcement by the Namibian government that it will begin to expropriate agricultural land held under freehold title for redistribution has grabbed the headlines. For many landowners and investors, this statement conjured up images of Zimbabwe-style land occupations. Reactions in Namibia have varied from expressions of shock by the Namibia Agriculture Union to praise from trade unions and the Council of Churches. The predominantly white Republican Party, formerly part of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, has described the intention to expropriate freehold agricultural land as “responsible, fair and reassuring”. To call the government’s announcement a “land grab” is an overreaction, argues this commentary published in South Africa's This Day newspaper.

This is a lucid analysis of neoliberal economics as formulated by the World Bank and IMF and imposed on Africa and South Africa in particular. It shows the economic and human damage wrought by these policies, and how they have displaced the originally radical and pro-people orientation of the ruling African National Congress. The leadership's change of heart has cost the South African people a million jobs, stymied their hopes of sustainable access to housing, water, electricity, health and education, dramatically worsened income inequality, and opened up a dangerous gulf of disillusion between voters and government.

Refurbishing an old computer can often be a better option than throwing it away, argues Tony Roberts of the charity Computer Aid. Recycling of electrical goods has become headline news in recent months as the UK consultation on the forthcoming EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive hots up. Research carried out previously by UN researcher Eric Williams proves empirically that re-use is better for the environment than recycling.

Of 680 million primary school age children, 115 million do not attend school, while half of those who start primary school finish it, except in sub-Saharan Africa where two out of three do not. This is according to a report from the Basic Education Coalition that portrays the state of basic education in the world and presents data to show the multifaceted benefits that basic education brings to a nation.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has considered the periodic reports of Libya on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Presenting the reports was a representative from the United Nations Department in the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaisons and International Cooperation in Libya, who said that Libya had been a pioneer in the fight against all forms of discrimination. In the course of the discussion, which was held over two meetings, the issues of the Berber population in Libya, migrant workers and Libya’s assertion that no racial discrimination existed in the country were addressed, among other subjects.

The dimensions of peace operations in the post-Cold War era have tended to reflect comprehensive attempts at settling conflicts rather than simply policing ceasefires. As a result, international humanitarian NGOs and multinational military forces are increasingly working together in the same theatre of operations than ever before due to a strong demand for coherence of approach. This article examines the various factors impeding effective NGO-military cooperation, and offers suggestions for improvement of the relationship. It argues that given the complex nature of contemporary conflict management and resolution, involving military and non-military activities, only a well-planned and coordinated combination of civilian and military measures can create the conditions for durability of peace in divided societies.

Rich countries - working through international institutions like the World Bank - rarely help poor countries modernize and strengthen public services. But they often push them to privatize and commercialize public services, a move that they themselves would never make. Leading the tide of globalization, international financial institutions are aggressively and undemocratically promoting an ideological agenda of privatization and commercialization. “The IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation care about dismantling the state,” says Nancy Alexander, director of the Citizens’ Network on Essential Services (CNES), a research and advocacy group. International financial institutions claim that such reforms help reduce poverty, but they often simply are promoting the interests of multinational corporations in water, energy, telecommunications and other industries, says this article in the publication In These Times.

More than sixteen months after the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. announced that it would reduce the price of its first-line AIDS drug Stocrin (efavirenz, EFV) to less than $1 per day in developing countries, the offer has failed to materialize, according to the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). EFV is among the antiretrovirals recommended by the World Health Organisation for first-line treatment, and is a critical component of antiretroviral combination therapy, particularly for patients co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis (TB).

Girls have been part of government militia or opposition fighting forces in more than 50 countries over recent years, a Canadian human rights organisation has said in a new report. The organisation, Rights and Democracy, said many of the girls had taken part in armed conflict, were abducted or had to join to survive. The report, called Where are the Girls, focuses on northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique.

A small kingdom in Uganda says it is suing the United Kingdom for alleged atrocities committed by British soldiers during the colonial period, the BBC said in a report on its website this week. Ernest Kizza, a spokesman for the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom, told the BBC they are seeking $5.5 trillion.

Ecotourism is taking its toll on wildlife and may be endangering the survival of the very animals people are flocking to see, according to researchers. Biologists and conservationists are worried because polar bears, dolphins, penguins and other creatures are getting stressed and losing weight and some are dying.

While Brazil maintains the strongest economy in Latin America, access to education for many young people in Brazil is still an obstacle. Brazil's 76 million negros and pardos (blacks and browns) constitute the world's second largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa. Although they are between 45% - 55% of Brazil's population, they comprise merely 2% of the nation's university students. Limited access to education and racial discrimination within Brazil's education system has a significantly negative impact on the lives of Afro-Brazilians.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination held over two days a thematic discussion on the issue of non-citizens and racial discrimination during which Committee Experts exchanged views with representatives of States parties, NGOs and UN agencies. Doudou Diène, the Special Rapporteur on racism of the Commission on Human Rights, stated that discrimination against non-citizens was a new type of discrimination and was connected to discrimination against refugees and immigrants. Non-citizens were extremely vulnerable in terms of exercising their rights and receiving social protection, including the right to health.

Save the Children Denmark is undertaking a review of literature into child rights based monitoring and evaluation, and is calling for information from colleagues who have worked, or thought about working, in these areas, particularly in: i. Activities in child rights based monitoring and evaluation; ii. The conceptual underpinning or framework of this work; iii. Monitoring and evaluation procedures that involve children in active and participatory ways; iv. The development of appropriate and useful indicators for children's rights; v. Tools and methods used, successes and challenges; vi. Ethical and technical challenges faced.

Around the world, in rural and urban areas alike, indigenous children frequently constitute one of the most disadvantaged groups, and their rights - including those to survival and development, to the highest standards of health, to education that respects their cultural identity, and to protection from abuse, violence and exploitation - are often compromised. At the same time, however, indigenous children possess very special resources: they are the custodians of a multitude of cultures, languages, beliefs and knowledge systems, each of which is a precious element of our collective heritage.

This study covers a variety of political and economic aspects of Africa's and South Africa's relationships to the world. The author considers the context of global apartheid, in terms of international stagnation, uneven development and African marginalisation, and evaluates the South African setting as a telling site of worsening inequality. Where then does the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) stand on the largest economic and political problems? South Africa's other proposed global reforms are also discussed. Finally, the author records an emerging ideology based not on commodification via globalisation but on decommodification and deglobalisation, and the strategies, tactics and alliances required for African and international progress.

This guide aims to provide practical information for indigenous peoples and organisations to support their use of rights-based arguments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The guide covers general information on the CEDAW and its monitoring body, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and information on other UN human rights bodies and procedures that might be invoked to highlight the concerns of indigenous women within the UN system.

A global treaty that bans certain long-term pollutants that have been linked to a range of human health problems is to come into force. The countdown towards implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was triggered on 17 February, when France became the 50th country to ratify the treaty. The first phase of the agreement will ban the use of 12 types of pollutant of limited economic importance. Environmentalists hope to expand the range of pollutants covered by the agreement, but chemical manufacturers are likely to fight constraints on more financially valuable compounds.

An official review has echoed many external criticisms of the World Bank's knowledge roles, but has buried some of the most important feedback from officials and researchers in the South. A recent study by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department (OED) found significant problems with the Bank's self-appointed role as guardian and disseminator of the world's development knowledge, but produced only extremely bureaucratic conclusions which do not match the degree or nature of the concerns expressed by outside critics, says Bank monitor the Bretton Woods Project.

The initiative to write off debt owed by the world's poorest countries to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank has been held up by a dispute among rich nations on how much relief to grant. The arguments centre around the effect of lower global interest rates on the debt relief calculations used by the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) programme. They mean that the value of future debt payments in present value terms, discounted back to the present day using interest rates, are larger. Officials familiar with the situation say that some countries on the IMF and World Bank boards, including the UK, France and Canada, have argued that the amount of debt relief on offer by the bank and fund should take account of this. Others, who they say include the US, Japan and Germany, have disagreed. The US Treasury said it was concerned that countries would use increased debt relief as an excuse to borrow more from the bank. "We are concerned about the bank being in a position where it is in a continual cycle of lending and forgiving," said a US Treasury official.