US law requires the Trafficking Office of the Department of State to publish an annual report on the status of anti trafficking work by governments worldwide. The State Department Trafficking Office is presently collecting information for the 2002 report. Governments will be submitting their views and the U.S. embassies worldwide will send reports to the Trafficking Office. NGOs can also submit information to the Trafficking Office for consideration. As this US report is the only report prepared by any entity on the state-of-the-state response to trafficking, it is important for NGOs to contribute their views. The International Human Rights Law Group encourages you to submit reports on the situation in your country and also your views on the Report itself. Last year, many NGOs complained about the Report generally, the inappropriate placement of some countries in the 3 categories and the Report's failure to reflect the actual situation in their own countries. The deadline for the submissions is March 8.

This short guide is designed to act as an ethical framework for transformation work and outlines the necessary principles for reaching constructive resolution to conflict. Major topics discussed in this guide include human rights in the context of conflict transformation work, impartiality, and establishing peaceful partnerships. This guide is appropriate for use in the grassroots, academic, research, religious or military sectors.

This guide outlines the components of graduate curriculum course which addresses applying psychology to alleviate the social and psychological problems in communities devastated by ethnopolitical warfare. The curriculum may be incorporated into an existing program for post-graduate or post-doctorate training course.

Alliances for Africa will hold a five day training event, which aims to enable and strengthen the capacity of women's organisations working in Gambia to effectively contribute to peace building processes within the West African sub-region.

In the late 1980s Rwanda, the country of "a thousand hills", was considered by many Africans, visitors, and development workers to be the "jewel of East Africa" and "Africa's best kept secret". Curiously out of the camera's field of view, however, was the real situation that confronted more than 95 per cent of the country's population of 7.5 million people.

More than eight months after he was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegally accepting foreign funds, sullying Egypt's image abroad, and embezzlement, Egyptian human-rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim walked free—pending a retrial—on Feb. 7.

Britain's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo accused government soldiers and police officers on Saturday of serious human rights abuses in the capital of the war-ravaged country.

Addressing about 15 000 supporters at Murombedzi growth point in Zvimba, a few kilometres from his rural home of Kutama, Mugabe said he intended to de-register the ZCTU because it had abandoned its role of working for the welfare of Zimbabwean workers and was now openly supporting the MDC.

A U.S.-based human rights watchdog group warned Thursday that bills before the Ugandan parliament to fight terrorism and regulate associations threatened human rights in the east African country.

President Robert Mugabe might not concede defeat to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if he loses next month’s election and has already expressed such feelings to leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), it emerged this week.

since December South Africa has borrowed more than R25 billion in foreign loans (Command performance required of Manuel, February 15). This financial spin-doctoring is undoubtedly the major factor in the recovery of the rand from R13.88 on December 20, but confirms that the Treasury and SA Reserve Bank have learnt nothing from the forward book and Asian contagion debacle of 1998. In addition to his Budget speech on Wednesday, the Minister's deadline expires on Thursday to file affidavits detailing the basis on which he intends to oppose ECAAR-SA's application to the Cape High Court for cancellation of the arms deal. We contend that the arms deal is strategically, economically and financially irrational, and thus constitutionally unlawful. In addition, the Minister failed to comply with the provisions of the Exchequer Audit Act or Public Finance Management Act that govern the management of his portfolio. Captain (now Admiral) Cubby Howell gushed before the Joint Standing Committee on Defence that "submarines are the ultimate stealth weapon to protect fish." The JSCD was told on another occasion that "submarines make small navies important, and that South Africa needs the capacity to give the Americans a bloody nose." Our government was gullible and naive in swallowing the pretensions of the "toys for boys" lobby. At issue now is whether the Cabinet and Minister of Finance will have the courage to concede that the human security needs of people take priority over fish, and to cancel the arms deal at no cost to South African taxpayers.

Liberian journalists on Monday called on President Charles Taylor to lift the state of emergency he imposed on 8 February, saying there was growing suspicion that the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the country was being stage-managed.

The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church said on Friday that the bloody war with Eritrea which cost thousands of lives could easily have been avoided.

Eritrea has strongly criticised a resolution adopted by the European Parliament which accuses Asmara of human rights violations and says President Isayas Afewerki is ruling the country "with an iron grip".

The ongoing police campaign against foreigners illegally present in Kenya continues, with 46 arrests effected in the capital, Nairobi, over the weekend, a spokesman for the police, Peter Kimanthi, told IRIN on Monday.

Libya’s Minister for African Unity, Ali Abd al-Salam Turayki, said on Sunday that his country wants to revive the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative to end the Sudanese conflict.
He told reporters that he had discussed "reactivating the Egyptian-Libyan initiative to achieve unity in Sudan" with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, AFP reported.

The Ugandan government has defended itself against criticisms by Amnesty International to the effect that the Ugandan police and army are linked to a flourishing illegal arms trade in the country.

Representatives from Burundi's government and those of the rebel Conseil national pour la défense de la democratie-Forces pour la défense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) are in the South African capital, Pretoria, to start discussions aimed at bringing a cease-fire to Burundi's civil war that has been raging for eight years.

The case against those accused of involvement in the failed coup attempt of 28 May 2001 in the Central African Republic began on Friday in the capital, Bangui, before the criminal session of the Court of Appeals, news agencies reported.

At least 40 people were killed and another 50 wounded in renewed fighting in Bardhere, about 400 km west of Mogadishu, local sources told IRIN on Tuesday.