The United Nations Security Council should make sure that its existing commitments to protect civilians during armed conflict are actually carried out, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to council member states. On June 26, 2009, the Security Council will hold a debate to discuss its work on civilian protection, in which all UN members can participate.

The Angolan government should immediately end the unlawful detention and torture of people suspected of rebel activities in the oil-rich enclave province of Cabinda, Human Rights Watch said. In the 27-page report, "‘They Put Me in the Hole': Military Detention, Torture, and Lack of Due Process in Cabinda," Human Rights Watch shows a disturbing pattern of human rights violations by the Angolan armed forces and state intelligence officials.

Togo's parliament has voted unanimously to abolish the death penalty. The vote was witnessed by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. He has been campaigning for a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its total abolition.

Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has unveiled details of a 60-day amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta. Ministers of Nigeria's Council of State have approved the proposal - an effort to end years of attacks on the region's beleaguered oil industry. A presidential pardon, rehabilitation programme, education and training are being offered to militants taking part.

Five Kenyan independence fighters who are now in their 70s and 80s have launched a compensation claim for alleged human rights abuses under British colonial rule. The suit was filed at the high court in London on Tuesday and follows the British government's rejection of a demand for compensation and a formal apology made in 2006.

A few weeks ago, a new piece of legislation was introduced in the US Congress, calling for development and justice in northern Uganda. While the bill boasts many excellent provisions, it also includes a statement of policy that would allow AFRICOM to pursue the Lord's Resistance Army in DR Congo. This asks members of Congress to be more attentive to the need for peace in this troubled region

Congolese (DRC) nationals living at the Osire refugee camp in Namibia have constituted themselves into the Association of the Voiceless (AV), a refugee rights group formed to voice concerns over dissatisfactory conditions at the ORC. The ORC is situated some 220 kilometers northeast of Windhoek.Owing to their membership in the AV, these refugees and asylum seekers have allegedly received both open and veiled threats, including imminent death, from Namibian Police officers at the camp.

"My worry is that my children are going to be slaves because they won't have anything. These foreign people come to South Africa with nothing, but tomorrow he has cash, third day he owns a shop and fourth day he has a car. Where do these foreign people get this money?" Small business owners are venting their frustrations on 'foreign nationals' - among them many Somalis - who own shops in the country's townships, causing experts to warn that xenophobic violence could increase.

Eighteen people drowned and another 29 are missing and presumed dead after a smuggling boat capsized in the Gulf of Aden due to strong winds and rough seas this week off the coast of Yemen. The boat, which departed June 11 from the Somali village of Marera, east of the northern port of Bossaso, sailed for four days across the Gulf of Aden prior to reaching the shore of Yemen's Hadramout region Monday morning.

Gaza, South Africa and Thailand are among the world's worst places to be a refugee, according to the latest annual World Refugee Survey released here Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). The survey, which was issued in advance of World Refugee Day Jun. 20, found that the number of refugees had dropped modestly worldwide in the past year – from 14 million to 13.6 million, according to USCRI.

The Tanzanian and Ugandan governments should ensure that refugees living in camps due to close on June 30 and July 31, 2009 are not forcibly returned to their home countries and are immediately given full information about their options, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch also urged both governments to avoid repeating Rwanda's unlawful forced return of up to 504 refugees to Burundi at gunpoint on June 2, after it closed its last refugee camp for Burundians.

Members of armed paramilitary groups are a serious threat to civilians who fled violence and insecurity and are now returning to their villages, Human Rights Watch has said in a report. People who have returned to their home regions have been killed, forcibly recruited into paramilitary groups, and threatened with death by armed men who in many cases have seized their land.

A UN base in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been fired on by army soldiers in a dispute over pay. It is the latest in a string of mutinies in North Kivu by soldiers who have not been paid for six months. A senior UN peacekeeper told the BBC that army commanders are not handing over soldiers' wages.

Militants in Nigeria's oil-producing region say they have blown up a major pipeline belonging to Italian energy firm Agip. Agip has not yet commented on the claims. A military spokesman denied that a pipeline had been hit but said there had been a "skirmish". He also denied the militants' claims to have disarmed seven soldiers.

Five more people have died of their injuries after a suicide attack on the Somali security minister, bringing the total number of dead to 35. Omar Hashi Aden was buried hours after the blast at a hotel in Beledweyne, north of the capital, Mogadishu. The funerals for some of the other victims, who included Somali diplomats, are being held on Friday.

The report of the government-constituted Technical Committee on the Niger Delta, submitted to Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on 1 December 2008, offers an opportunity to reduce violent conflict significantly and begin longer-term regional development in the oil-rich region. The government needs to respond urgently and positively, in particular by accepting a third-party mediator to facilitate discussions of amnesty and demobilisation of militants, in order to dispel growing misgivings in the Delta, save the region from further violence and organised criminality, and ensure Nigeria’s continued reliability as a leading source of energy for the world.

Zimbabwe is still suffering "persistent and serious" human rights violations, Amnesty International says. The organisation's secretary general, Irene Khan, made the comments at the end of a six-day visit to the country. "Although the level of political violence is significantly less compared to last year, the human rights situation is precarious," she said.

The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor will continue on 13 July at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has announced."The lawyers for the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, will begin their defence against charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on 13 July," the court said in a statement.

Two hours later, there was no sign of what had taken place. The park in the Shapira neighborhood of southern Tel Aviv was again teeming with life. Foreign workers gradually arrived, filling the place up, children came to play and only a green garbage bin located at the foot of a tree in a corner of the park remained as evidence that a short while earlier, at 3:30 P.M., someone's life had come to an end. Abrehale Misghina, a 28-year-old refugee from Eritrea, dragged the bin to the tree, climbed on top of it, placed a noose around his neck, threw the other end of the rope over one of the branches, and committed suicide.

On 15 June 2009, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court confirmed some of the charges brought by the Prosecutor against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo for crimes committed on the territory of the Central African Republic from on or about 26 October 2002 to 15 March 2003.