French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has suggested the EU should do more to help UN peacekeepers in Congo, but there is not enough political will among member states to send an EU battlegroup to the conflict-struck African region. "It's very difficult to say what we can do outside of diplomatic efforts, efforts at persuasion, and efforts so that peace can be achieved by leaning on the two countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda," Mr Kouchner said on Wednesday (29 October).

Bowoto v Chevron is likely to test how the American legal system can be applied to human rights in other countries. The civil suit is being brought under the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, one of America’s oldest laws (it was signed by George Washington). The act allows foreigners to bring civil cases before American courts arising from violations of law or treaty anywhere in the world. It was invoked just twice before 1980, when it was used by a victim of state repression in Paraguay.

An Anglican bishop from Zimbabwe was Tuesday named winner of a Swedish human rights prize for 'having given voice to the fight against oppression.' Bishop Sebastian Bakare was also cited for his work to promote 'freedom of speech and of opinion in a difficult political situation.' He was due to accept the 2008 Per Anger prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on November 10, Johan Perwe of the government agency Living History Forum told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network is seeking contributors for its series of reviews of domestic refugee law in countries of the 'global south'. More detail and a list of Southern states with domestic refugee legislation can be found in the attached terms of reference. If you are interested in being a volunteer contributor, please e-mail your CV to [email][email protected]

"The trustworthiness and reputation of the world's entire diamond industry should not depend on the willingness of NGOs to act as its watchdog." That is the key message in this year's Diamonds and Human Security Annual Review from Partnership Africa Canada. PAC, an NGO leader in the campaign against conflict diamonds, has turned its attention to evidence of a large and growing trade in illicit rough diamonds, running in parallel with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme that is supposed to eliminate the practice.

Some 40 Somalis staying illegally in Nepal for the past three years have demonstrated outside District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu Wednesday seeking attention from the government to provide them the status of refugees. The UN refugee agency in Kathmandu has already registered them as refugees and has been extending financial assistance. However, government has not accepted them as refugees.

Heavy fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has driven at least 1 700 people from a refugee camp, the United Nations said on Tuesday, and an aid group said a team of its medical workers has been trapped in a nearby hospital. The fighting resumed late on Monday night in the eastern villages of Tongo and Nyanzale, said Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesperson for the UN mission in the DRC.

Attackers murdered an albino girl in Tanzania, where albinos have been targeted by witchdoctors who use their body parts for lucky charms, an official said on Tuesday. Local councillor Joseph Manyara of the western Tanzanian village where the young girl -- a grade three primary school pupil -- was murdered at the weekend said police were hunting the attackers.

A surge in violence in north Darfur last month has displaced thousands of people, many of whom could be short of food and water, a UN official says. Gregory Alex, head of the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) in northern Darfur, said on Saturday around 24,000 people had fled their homes after clashes between government and rebel forces near the areas of Birmaza and Disa.

The Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process in southern Sudan has been complex and challenging. It has been the cornerstone of the post-conflict rebuilding process – as a part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which formulated the end of the southern ‘rebellion’ in 2005. However, as this paper is keen to point out DDR is as political as any aspect of a peace process; it is not an apparatus that will simply function once all of the mechanics of programming are put in place.

Almost 14,000 people in northern Kenya have been displaced by flash floods that occurred last week, and are in need of urgent supplies such as food, shelter and clean water, the United Nations humanitarian wing has reported. Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva that at least three people were killed and 6,000 uprooted from their homes in the district of Mandera in north-east Kenya, when the River Daua burst its banks on 14 October.

A group of 40 Burundian students started university classes this week in the capital, Bujumbura, after becoming the first returnees to be granted scholarships by the United Nations refugee agency. The new students at Université Lumière in Bujumbura were selected to receive scholarships by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which helps to administer the German-funded DAFI scholarship programme.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed its earlier decision to suspend the trial of a Congolese rebel leader accused of recruiting child soldiers to serve in his militia, but ordered that he remain in detention pending another hearing. In a ruling issued in The Hague, the ICC’s five-member appeals chamber unanimously dismissed an appeal by prosecutors against the trial chamber’s decision in June to stay the proceedings against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

More than 150 delegates from 71 countries are convening today at a United Nations conference in Nairobi to explore the roles of national bodies set up to protect or promote human rights in relation to the judiciary, law enforcement and monitoring of detention centres. During the three-day meeting, national human rights institutions will also report on activities undertaken as part of the Dignity and Justice for Detainees Initiative.

Ugandan rebel forces operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) killed six civilians in a deadly attack in the north-eastern village of Bangadi, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the DRC has reported. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – a notorious militia believed responsible for killing over 200 people, including 159 children, in the DRC since mid-September – looted homes and communal facilities in Bangadi before setting them ablaze on Sunday morning, according to the mission (known as MONUC).

Hundreds of people on death row in Nigeria did not have a fair trial and may therefore be innocent, according to a new Amnesty International report. Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman, says that those sentenced to death are poor and that more than half of the convictions are based on a confession – in many cases, extracted under torture.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up in 2002 to investigate the causes of Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, a brutal conflict during which all factions were accused of committing gross human rights violations. The TRC specifically recognised the effects of violence on women and the family structure.

Sudan’s recent legal actions against a militia commander and others accused of war crimes in Darfur hold little promise of bringing justice to victims of serious abuses, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch accused the Sudanese government of trying to undermine investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Djibouti's president has said his country will have to go to war with Eritrea unless the UN acts to resolve growing tension over a border dispute. Djibouti has accused Eritrea of invading its territory and its ambassador to the UN told the BBC that Eritrea had been avoiding mediation.

The latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the deteriorating situation in this strategic region between North and South, where both members of the Government of National Unity, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP), have been dangerously engaged in ethnic polarisation in advance of national elections scheduled for 2009. The kidnapping of nine Chinese oil workers in Southern Kordofan last week illustrates the volatility of the state.