This handbook aims to assist States in their efforts to develop new policy approaches, solutions, and practical measures for better management of labour migration in countries of origin and of destination.

This paper reviews the literature on decentralization in multi-ethnic states with the objective of exploring key issues in the literature, identifying research gaps and suggesting policy recommendations for Norwegian development policy. Overall, the review demonstrates that many of the promises of decentralization have not been met or documented, or the results have been mixed.

This paper examines the role of ex-combatants in Mozambican society. It explores the realities the of ex-combatants' lives in terms of how they are coping in a post-war society and what roles they would like to perform. As after 13 years of war Mozambique has successfully avoided a relapse, it provides an interesting case study.

The Eldis Conflict and Security resource guide editors have launched a new blog dedicated to following the latest news and information on conflict and development issues. The blog will be updated on a regular basis and we hope to encourage comments and debates. Guest bloggers will also be invited to add contributions and commentary on current security issues which relate to all aspects of international development.

"Everyone in this country now has a right to choose, and I choose 'Whites Only'." South Africa's well-known nudist Beau Brummell is at it again. This time he plans to start a nudist resort on water at the Vaal Dam. "If you are black, coloured, Indian or anything like that, you can't come". "This has absolutely nothing to do with racism. It is business."

Race is still a key factor in access to wealth in South Africa, says a government report on macro-social trends. The 109-page document released in Pretoria, 'A nation in the making: A discussion document on macro-social trends in South Africa', revealed a society still grappling with transition. Race is still a big factor, in economic access, identity and social relations, says the document.

The scandal over an African FIFA official who was caught reselling World Cup tickets at three times their price is a sign of racism against black football administrators, a FIFA vice- president has been quoted as saying.

Cape Town is home to 35,000 refugees, and Muizenberg has become home to the city's largest concentration of Congolese: several thousand, it is believed. Listening to their stories of xenophobia and administrative bungling, it becomes clear that South Africa - a country that sees itself as Africa's leader in the human rights field – does very little for refugees.

A session on gay sexuality proved one of the draw cards of the second Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Nairobi, with participants scrambling for space in the small room allocated to the proceedings. Many countries in Africa still outlaw homosexuality, including Kenya where it is punishable with jail terms of up to 14 years, reports the Mail and Gaurdian.

Are you people only out to 'get' governments (The tragedy of Mustafa Mahmoud Park, Summary of report from Force Migration Review
)? The main culprit in all of this was UNHCR. It is, in my view, disastrous for refugee/government relations that only the Egyptian government gets the bad publicity when they had remained patient for threelong months. It is very well-known, certainly to UNHCR, who called for the demonstrator to be removed, that the security in Egypt is not trained for a peaceful break-up of demonstrations. Had UNHCR simply allowed other refugees to attend their offices from another direction and kept 'in business', the refugees would not have believed their sit-in to have been so successful.

Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) has condemned the removal and redeployment of the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr. Bukhari Bello. A statement by CLO President, Mr. Titus Mann, said: "The removal of Mr. Bello is coming on the heels of the statements purportedly made by him criticising government on issues of human rights abuses, attack on press freedom, the most recent being the arrest and detention of Mr. Gbenga Aruleba of the African Independent Television (AIT) and on the issue of the defeated third term bid of the Obasanjo government."

Laurie Nathan, formerly the head of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, was a member of the African Union (AU) mediation team based in Abuja that facilitated negotiations for the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA). In this interview he offers some perspectives on the negotiations and the Agreement.

Pambazuka News: Many analysts and observers have warned that the ceasefire promised by the DPA is unlikely to be attained. What are the main problems in this regard?

Laurie Nathan: The most obvious problem is that the Agreement has not been signed by all the armed groups in Darfur. Two of the rebel movements that participated in the AU mediation – the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) that is headed by Abdul Wahid Mohammed al-Nur – refused to sign. The Agreement concluded on 5 May was endorsed only by the Sudanese government and the SLM/A faction headed by Minni Minawi. Abdul Wahid is the rebel leader with the most popular support in Darfur. Without his endorsement of the Agreement, there is little prospect of a lasting peace. [Note from Pambazuka News editors: Subsequent to this interview, reports indicate that some groups have now committed to the terms of the agreement. See for further details.]

In addition, there are numerous armed groups in Darfur that were not present at the Abuja negotiations. Most significantly, these groups include the Janjaweed, the rampaging militia that have been responsible for so much of the death and destruction in the region and that are used by the government to crush the rebels and their communities.

It should also be recalled that the government, JEM and the SLM/A have signed several humanitarian ceasefire agreements over the past two years and then violated these agreements repeatedly and egregiously. This constitutes fair warning of the possibility of further violations, especially if the signatories are not genuinely committed to the new agreement.

Another huge problem is that the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur is hopelessly ill-equipped to oversee the ceasefire and protect civilians from attacks by government, militia, rebels and bandits. The AU has roughly 7,000 troops when it needs, according to the AU Force Commander, as many as 60,000 troops to cover inhospitable badlands the size of France.

Pambazuka News: Do you think the signatories are genuinely committed to the new agreement?

One of the most remarkable things about the Abuja peace process was that, for months on end, the negotiating parties were unable or unwilling to engage in serious negotiations. They made no effort to accommodate each other’s positions and showed no interest in trying to forge common ground. None of them was willing to make concessions to its opponents. There was no bargaining, let alone collaborative problem-solving.

Instead, the parties spent their time reiterating their demands ad nauseum, rejecting the positions of their opponents, trading accusations and recriminations, grandstanding for the benefit of the international observers and attempting to win support for their positions from the mediators. In the midst of this immensely frustrating experience, the head of the AU mediation team, Sam Ibok, was quoted as saying that “our experience over the past sixteen months had led us to conclude that there is neither good faith nor commitment on the part of any of the Parties”.

In light of all this, one of the most important points about the DPA is that it is not by any stretch of the imagination a negotiated settlement. It is a document which was drawn up by the mediators and which the Sudanese government and Minni Minawi signed under pressure from sections of the international community. The final draft of the text prepared by the mediators was presented to the parties on a take-it-or-leave-it basis five days before the final deadline of 30 April set by the AU Peace and Security Council.

The government and Minawi evidently believed that their interests would not be served by refusing to sign the document and being portrayed as spoilers. In the absence of real negotiations and hard-won concessions, however, none of the Sudanese parties has any sense of ownership of the Agreement and it is therefore unlikely that they are committed to it.

Several commentators have pointed out that the DPA contains more compromises on the part of the rebels than on the part of the government, particularly in relation to power sharing. (A summary and critique of the DPA appeared in the Sudan Tribune on 3 May; see www.crisisgroup.org and www.hrw.org The Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre has an excellent website (www.darfurcentre.ch). I would also strongly recommend “Darfur: A Short History of a Long War” by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Sudan Organisation Against Torture reports that on 12 June 2006 at 12:30pm, five men allegedly working for the security forces detained Omar Altaj Al-Nageeb, (25 yrs), a recent medical graduate from Omdurman Islamic University, Omdurman. Mr. Al-Nageeb was detained whilst distributing flyers in support of students suspended from the University for Non Payment of tuition fees.

Agenda intends to publish a journal in December 2006 focussing on the topic of human trafficking. While we, as a feminist media project, will mainly focus on the trafficking of women and girl-children, the content of the journal should portray that also men and boys are affected by this crime.

The board of directors of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) suspended the Gambia's eligibility for MCC assistance June 16, citing a pattern of actions inconsistent with MCC's selection criteria. The board based its decision on documented evidence of human rights abuses in the country and increased restrictions on political rights, civil liberties and press freedom by the government, as well as worsening economic policies and diminishing anti-corruption efforts, an MCC statement said.

With the transfer of Charles Taylor to The Hague for trial, the UN-backed war crimes court for Sierra Leone and its donors must ensure that the former Liberian president’s trial remains accessible to the people of West Africa, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper this week.

As Sudan's feared Janjaweed militia step up their cross-border attacks into Chad, there is worrying new evidence that some Chadians have joined forces with the Janjaweed to attack their own countrymen. Victims of attacks say that some Chadians are acting as "guides" to the Janjaweed, directing them to certain villages and suggesting which cattle to steal. Many victims also say that some Chadians are taking part in the actual killings.

The Sudanese government and rebels of the Eastern Front (EF) have signed a ceasefire and agreed on a framework for substantive peace talks to end a simmering civil conflict in east Sudan. An eastern peace deal is urgently needed, various observers in the region have warned, as the pull-out of SPLM/A forces might leave a power vacuum that could trigger renewed hostilities between the remaining armed groups and government forces and disrupt the region’s relative stability.

With more than 300,000 IDPs in Kitgum district alone, living conditions in the camps are crowded and degrading. Huts are spaced only a few meters apart, and there are inevitably five or more people living in each small shelter. Women wait in line for hours at boreholes and often end up with less water than is required by minimum sanitation standards. But the situation is improving.

Many refugee girls and young women miss out on education for practical reasons such as a lack of separate toilets, but making simple improvements to camp schools can encourage more to attend, the UN deputy high commissioner for refugees has said. "It's a bit of a myth that the obstacles to girls' education are cultural or religious. It's often as much a simple thing that can be easily removed, like privacy in toilets.”