The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights recently adopted the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa at its 32nd Ordinary Session held in Banjul, The Gambia, from October 17-23. The declaration states that freedom of expression and information, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other form of communication, including across frontiers, is a fundamental and inalienable human right and an indispensable component of democracy. It also states that everyone should have an equal opportunity to exercise the right to freedom of expression and to access information without discrimination.

It seems that the four horsemen of the apocalypse Death, War, Pestilence (disease) and Famine have come to visit Southern Africa. Millions of people are experiencing starvation or the threat of famine in Southern Africa; this follows poor harvests across the region. The causes are a combination of freak un-seasonal dry spells and drought, flooding as well as lowered levels of crop cultivation and planting.

Explosions that killed one person, damaged a mosque and ripped up railway lines in Soweto rekindled fears Wednesday that rightwing extremists were trying to destabilize South Africa. Authorities said they were investigating whether there was a link between the nine bombings and the recent arrests of white men accused of plotting a coup. "Whoever manufactured ... the bombs and placed them are experts," Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said.

The Cote d’Ivoire rebel delegation arrived first in the Togolese capital Lome, Sunday, and settled into one of the upper floors of the city’s once classiest hotel. President Laurent Gbagbo’s representatives showed up on Monday night and were checked into the same hotel, on a different floor, also on the upper levels. But that may be as close as they get, if the early - inauspicious - signs are an indicator of the distance between the two sides, even before they start talking.

Fighting between Liberian rebels and pro-government forces resumed at the weekend in northern Liberia, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. The fighting occurred when the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group, which has been fighting to topple President Charles Taylor since 1998, staged an attack in Lofa County a week after the government announced that it was fully in control of the area, the sources told IRIN from the capital, Monrovia.

Continued abuses by both the government and rebels means there has been no overall improvement in the human rights situation in Sudan, a UN report says. In his report to the UN General Assembly last week, Gerhart Baum, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, said he had "continued to receive information pointing to the perpetration by all parties to the conflict of numerous serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law [IHL]".

Top US commander General Tommy Franks has admitted sending additional forces to the Horn of Africa to help in the global fight against terrorism. Addressing a briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Franks - who is the commander of the US Central Command - said 700-800 troops had been sent to Djibouti.

A Ugandan army order to civilians in northern Uganda to move closer to government-protected camps has failed to provide protection against rebel attacks, and also violated the Geneva Conventions, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The standards of the Geneva Conventions have clearly been violated by the Ugandan government," said Jemera Rone, a researcher at HRW.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a return to peace in the fractious Central African Republic and urged insurgents there to lay down their arms. Annan also appealed to the international community "to provide urgently the logistical and other assistance" needed for deployment of a peacekeeping force agreed to earlier this month at a summit of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) in Gabon.

The Centre engages in peacemaking, skills training and research, runs conflict management capacity-building programmes in South Africa and the region; and has partnerships with many United Nations agencies and government departments in South and Southern Africa. It has forty full-time staff and an annual budget of ZAR15 million. The current Executive Director is stepping down in order to pursue his research interests as a Centre Associate. The organisation therefore seeks to appoint a dynamic and visionary executive director. He/she will ensure that the Centre fulfils its mission and goals; has a high level of expertise in relation to these goals; retains its national and international reputation for excellence; adapts to significant political and other changes in the external environment; conducts its business in a professional manner; is financially viable and sustainable; and has strict financial controls.

At least 90 companies that provide services normally performed by national military forces – but without the same degree of public oversight – have operated in 110 countries worldwide, providing everything from military training, logistics, and even engaging in armed combat, says an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, which also details how arms dealers have profited from a massive unregulated sell off of low price surplus armaments into the most fragile, conflict-ridden states and failed states.

Both the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan government forces have stepped up abuses against civilians in recent months, Human Rights Watch said this week in a briefing paper on the war in northern Uganda.

Technical teams representing the governments of Angola and Namibia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are meeting in Windhoek, to discuss the repatriation of Angolan refugees to their country.

Informal talks aimed at hammering out a power-sharing deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo opened in Pretoria, South Africa, between the DRC government and two of the country's main rebel groups.
Related Link:
Breakthrough in power-sharing talks
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30670

As the debate over non-existent or crooked election processes continues all over Africa, it is true that the issue of governance goes far beyond just how we choose our leaders. How we relate to leaders even when they are chosen in clean, transparent elections determines the quality of our politics to a great extent.

Ethnic clashes are continuing close to a refugee settlement in Ituri District, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, preventing thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the violence last week from returning to their homes.

About 17,000 Sudanese refugees remained in hiding on Monday, having fled ethnic violence last week in a refugee settlement in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"To root out Moism, we have to intensify our political work under and above ground. We have to forge the broadest possible unity to show that the problem in Kenya is not Kalenjin, or Gikuyu or Luo or Somali or Kamba. It is the dictatorship and the politics of greed which are the real enemy of us Kenyans. Moi and KANU must go, but more importantly, Moism as a neo-colonial system must be uprooted from our midst," writes Mukoma Ngugi in this commentary for www.zmag.org.

Clashes between government forces and insurgents resumed on Monday in the Central African Republic capital Bangui, where an AFP correspondent reported hearing heavy weapons fire coming from the vicinity of the presidential palace.

President Obasanjo has picked up a nomination form to become a candidate for president in next year's vote, apparently rejecting suggestions that he should "reconsider" his re-election bid "in the national interest".