The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Professor Philip Alston, met with victims and survivors of the Mt.Elgon conflict. The civilian population in the area had been trapped between the violence of the Sabaot Land Defence Force (or SLDF) and a military and police operation within Mount Elgon's district.

The controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act was passed by the Swaziland parliament in May 2008. Certain provisions of the Act empower the Prime Minister to declare virtually anyone or anything to be a terrorist entity. Lawyers have challenged the Act saying it violates fundamental rights of ordinary citizens protected under the constitution. Political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested.

We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law. We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.

The Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford (RSC), in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (HPG), is organising an international conference on the theme of /Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World/. This conference aims to convene a broad range of academic researchers, humanitarian practitioners, policy makers and civil society representatives to review the state of policy and practice in the broad field of humanitarian protection as
we look forward into a potentially turbulent 21st Century.

We are pleasedto announce the next intake for our Advanced Conflict Transformation course which will be taking place in South Africa starting from the 4th of May to the 29th. The training now has independent modules, each running for a period of one week. Participants can apply for whichever modules they are keen to attend.

Wow. I have never been an activist but after reading I am attempting to process the idea that an organization could be against allowing refugees to speak out in whichever manner they choose. Are they prisoners to be told what and how they should speak?

Three Kenyan activists have been arrested and beaten by the Kenyan police after peacefully standing outside parliament. The three were among a handful of Kenyans hoping to grab the attention of Minister for Agriculture William Ruto and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to plead with them to act swiftly to prevent more deaths from starvation in the looming famine that is threatening 10 million Kenyans.

The minister of agriculture is facing a censure motion in parliament today for his role in the recent maize scandal where more than 1 million bags of maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) have disappeared. MP Dr Bonny Khalwale has moved the motion, accusing the agriculture minister of failing to give satisfactory answers over the disappearance.

Xenophobic attacks in South Africa displaced 150,000 people and killed more than 60 in 2008. This year, as the country heads to the polls, researchers say local politicians may be capitalizing on the hate and fear that fuelled the attacks - this time to win votes. Immigrant lobby groups have put out a call for increased monitoring of political campaigns ahead of general elections in April.

Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed over 100 civilians in eastern Congo in reprisal attacks since the start of a joint offensive against them three weeks ago, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Friday. The attacks by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels took place after Rwanda and Congo launched joint operations aimed at removing the rebel militia, which is seen as a root cause of years of strife in central Africa.

Ninety per cent of some 25,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in two camps in northern Zambia want to return home, the United Nations refugee agency said today after a survey was conducted in advance of voluntary returns planned for May. The verification exercise was conducted late last month by the government of Zambia and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to learn the exact number of refugees, identify those with special needs, update biographical data and collect information on their desire to return to the DRC.

Peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the mainly Tutsi rebel group which last year launched a devastating offensive in the eastern region of the country are expected to restart soon, the United Nations envoy leading the negotiations announced. The talks between the Government and the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP), which began in Nairobi in December, seek to bring an end to a conflict which has uprooted an estimated 250,000 people since August, on top of the 800,000 already displaced in the region, mainly in North Kivu province.

The Government of Southern Sudan should take urgent steps to uphold human rights, including protecting civilians from armed communal violence and excessive use of force by soldiers and security forces, Human Rights Watch has said in a report.

A court in Belgium has decided not to proceed with a prosecution against two Rwandan generals. The two were accused of involvement in shooting down the plane carrying the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, which triggered the 1994 genocide. A French judge issued an arrest warrant for the pair in 2006.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has apologised at a truth and reconciliation commission over her backing for ex-rebel Charles Taylor. She said she had initially supported the rebel chief's war effort and even raised funds for him, but denied ever having been a member of his group. She said she had been fooled about the real intentions of Mr Taylor.

One confirmed case of cholera and 14 suspected cases have been reported in the Hagadera refugee camp in Dadaab, eastern Kenya – numbers that have the potential to spike as Somali refugees inundate already overstretched camps, say the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

50,000 Somali refugees are to be relocated from Dadaab Refugee Camp in eastern Kenya to Kakuma Camp this year. UNHCR is coordinating the project and plans to relocate 10,000 Somali refugees per month. Current targets are set to transport about 3,000 Somali refugees to Kakuma on a weekly basis. KANERE spoke to Somali community leaders and recently relocated Somali refugees about the operation.

Three men suspected of recruiting children for planters in Cote d'Ivoire were arrested by the police at Kadiolo, a district bordering the country and Burkina Faso, the local correspondent to the Malian Press Agency (AMAP) said. The three men are suspected to be trading with six minors, aged from 7 to 13 years and found in the district of Zegoua on board a minibus to Cote d'Ivoire on 16 January at 11pm.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday said it had not decided whether to issue an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president, Omar el-Bashir, despite media reports. In a statement issued from The Hague, the ICC stated: “No arrest warrant has been issued by the ICC against President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan. No decision has yet been taken by the judges concerning prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's application for a warrant to be issued.”

Filmmakers hope a documentary about war-ravaged Darfur featuring former Sudanese officials detailing their role in atrocities will change perceptions in the Arab world that international concern over the region's bloodshed is part of a Western-backed conspiracy against Sudan.

The Policy Development and Evaluation Service has created a "Witchcraft and Human Rights Network". It is an informal network where information about new developments, research and news related to witchcraft can be shared. The first article we would like to share with the network is an Article written in New Issues in Refugee Research by Jill Schnoebelen called "Witchcraft Allegations and Displacement".