Human Rights Law in Africa covers the activities of the United Nations, the African Union and its predecessor the Organization of African Unity, as well as sub-regional and other inter-governmental organizations and NGOs in the field of human rights in Africa. It also covers the national legal systems of all African countries.

This online document discusses the benefits of open source software for civil society and non-profit organisations. It provides an introduction to the topic, tackling questions like 'what is open source?' and 'how will it benefit my organisation?'

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the Mozambican authorities to protect Jeremias Langa, news director of the privately-owned television station Soico TV (STV). On 27 January 2005, the journalist was kidnapped at gunpoint in Maputo. He was held briefly and threatened with "the same fate as journalist Carlos Cardoso if [he] continued to talk too much." Cardoso was killed in 2000. Langa was previously attacked and threatened by armed men in October 2004.

Journalist Jose Wakadila, of the Kinshasa-based daily "La Référence Plus", was arrested by judicial police on 31 January 2005 as he was boarding a Kinshasa-bound bus and taken to the Matadi Central Prison in Bas-Congo province, western Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the prison's director, there has been a warrant for the journalist's arrest since he was convicted in absentia by a Kinshasa court, on 13 September 2004, for making "damaging allegations" and sentenced to an 11-month prison term with no parole.

On 29 January 2005, "Daily Times" reporter Collins Mtika was beaten up by supporters of the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), a party that is a member of the ruling coalition. Mtika told MISA-Malawi that he was attacked when he went to cover a press conference at AFORD leader Chakufwa Chihana's house, in the northern city of Mzuzu. At the press conference, Chihana challenged a decision by certain executive members to dismiss him from the party on allegations of poor governance and fraud.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has urged authorities on the autonomous island of Anjouan to allow the island's main radio station, Radio Dzialandzé Mutsamudu (RDM), to resume its daily news programme, after it was suspended "until further notice" on 13 January 2005, under the orders of the Interior and Information Ministry.

A joint monitoring visit to Tunisia undertaken by members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) has found serious cause for continuing concern about the current state of freedom of expression and of civil liberties in Tunisia, including gross restrictions on freedom of the press, media, publishing and the Internet. The visit, which took place from 14 to 19 January 2005, was the first of the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group and was organised in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations intergovernmental conference to be held in Tunis in November 2005. The purpose of the visit was to evaluate the state of freedom of expression in Tunisia and to assess the conditions for participation in the Summit.

The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) has launched a useful online resource that provides crucial data about the current state of the world's biodiversity. This new biodiversity 'facts and figures' section includes recent estimates of extinction threats, detailed assessments on the economic and ecological value of biodiversity and provides the latest information on conservation efforts. Go to www.scidev.net/biofacts to find out more.

Last Thursday the World Bank announced it would release $73 million in cash to Haiti's government of Gerard Latortue that was installed by foreign powers after elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced from office. For Haiti to get the World Bank cash it had to pay $52 million in outstanding arrears. Canada helped out by giving the regime a $12.7 million grant.

What's going on?

The Canadian government, like the US and the European Union, stopped providing aid to the Haitian government after accusations that the May 2000 elections were unfair. The basis for this claim was that in 10 multi-candidate contests where Lavalas gained a plurality rather than a majority of votes, according to the constitution they should have faced a second round election. Instead Lavalas' "plurality winners" simply took their seats.

Objections were raised even though the same method was used in previous elections and it was public knowledge prior to the vote that this would happen again. So, while more than 3500 other positions were judged to have been filled fairly in the same election, the Organization of American States and the US claimed electoral fraud. The opposition used this claim to justify their boycott of presidential elections later that year and to say Aristide's victory was tainted, even though no one claimed the opposition had any chance of beating the popular former priest. The "tainted" election became the excuse to divert aid money from the government to opposition "civil society" groups.

>>>>>To read the full article, please click on the link below.

media.toolbox is South Africa's longest running media and ICT eNewsletter. Now entering its seventh year of publication, media.toolbox publishes news on South African media and marketing industries, as well as on the latest technology and telecoms issues. media.toolbox - Targeted. Credible. Essential. To subscribe please email [email protected]

MSCISA is pleased to announce the 2005 schedule for our sexual and reproductive health training series. Each course is led by Master Trainers and features presentations by seasoned experts from the field. Curricula are designed to combine theory and practical application of the fundamentals.

A new South African company, Open Voice, has launched into the local market with a range of low-cost telephony products, including voice over IP solutions. The reason for the low cost? Because they have turfed out the proprietary software they were developing and adopted the freely available open source Asterisk software. Asterisk is an open source telecommunications platform, designed to allow different types of IP telephony hardware, middleware and software to interface with each other consistently, while maintaining quality of service. Asterisk has become the de facto standard for voice switching and PBX functions within the open source environment.

The governments of Iran and Kenya were accused last week of arresting and brutalizing reporters for criticizing officials and covering allegations of corruption. In Kenya, nine Western embassies last week denounced the government for targeting employees of the East African Standard, which recently published an article alleging corruption by state officials.

Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its appeal to the Democratic Republic of Congo's transitional government to amend its press legislation after Déo Mulima Kampuku of the independent daily La Référence Plus was sentenced in absentia to four months in prison and a fine for alleged libel in an article about corruption in an oil company. Kampuku has been in hiding since the end of December after learning that he was going to be prosecuted. (Available in English and French)

In a 21 January 2005 letter to President Paul Biya, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed deep concern over the recent jailing of Jules Koum Koum, publication director of the private bimonthly "Le Jeune Observateur", on criminal defamation charges. Two journalists are now imprisoned in Cameroon for their work.

e-CIVICUS is now published on a weekly rather than fortnightly basis to allow coverage of more timely civil society news items and issues. Please contact Eric Muragana at [email protected] for subscriptions.

Over the past four years Tectonic.co.za has established itself as the premier site for open source news from Africa. During this time Tectonic has led the drive for greater open source usage as well as documenting the critical shifts and developments in what is fast becoming the most important phenomenon in the IT sector since the invention of the Internet. Now Tectonic.co.za is expanding with the launch of a print magazine.

Banikoara Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) in Benin has provided many essential services to the large but isolated local community in this cotton-growing region since 2002, but until recently, it was hampered by poor Internet connectivity. Since UNESCO provided VSAT in September 2004, use of the CMC's telecentre has shot up. "Even though nine computers are available for email and Internet from 8a.m. until 11 p.m., queues often form and we frequently have to stay open until midnight", explained CMC director Mohamed Alidou.

The Seed Initiative (Supporting Entrepreneurs in Environment and Development) aims to inspire, support and build the capacity of locally-driven entrepreneurial partnerships to contribute to the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. You can subscribe to their newsletter by visiting their website.

Approximately 1,000 people from the private sector, civil society, media, government and international institutions will meet in Ghana, next month to discuss an “Action Plan on Africa and the Knowledge Economy” (APAKE), for expanding access to - and use of - information and communications technologies in Africa. The theme of the African Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), is “Access - Africa’s key to an inclusive Information Society.”  The meeting is scheduled for February 2-4 in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.