The planned resettlement of a group of Ugandan returnees from Tanzania, currently camped in Kikagati, Mbarara District, in the southwest, has been delayed following resistance from local residents in the proposed resettlement area.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) claimed on Wednesday that Sudanese government forces had attacked its positions in the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, violating for the second time a cease-fire agreement both parties had signed on 19 January.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that its emergency operation for refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the Central African Republic has been extended to 15 April 2002.

Three weeks after Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was inundated by lava flows from Mt Nyiragongo, the future of this town of some 400,000 people remains precarious.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the UN that has the final word in disputes among states, will on Thursday, 14 February deliver its judgment in the case concerning an international arrest warrant issued on 11 April, 2000 by a Belgian judge against Abdulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) foreign minister, for "serious violations of international humanitarian law".

The South African government is investigating the alleged mercenary activities of it's citizens in strife-torn Sudan. It has also banned a state-owned petroleum company from seeking oil concessions in the east African country, IRIN has learnt.

At least 5,000 Sierra Leoneans and Liberians arrived at the border town of Jendema, after fleeing fighting between Liberian government troops and dissidents, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Monday.

The Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia has freed 11 foreign nationals who were arrested in December for suspected links with terrorist groups.

Drastic changes to rules for asylum seekers, making it much more difficult for people fleeing persecution to seek refuge in Denmark, are causing alarm among members of the international human rights community. A series of reforms proposed by Denmark's new Liberal-Conservative coalition government as a means of reducing the number of foreigners, will severely curtail the rights of asylum seekers in the country, say refugee groups.

The resolutions of the recently concluded National Assembly session seriously undermine the rule of law and the protection of human rights in Eritrea, Amnesty said today in reaction to the legislature's failure to adequately address the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

Thousands of 'red hands' will be planted in the grounds of the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva on 12 February to mark the entry into force of a new UN treaty prohibiting the use of children under 18 in hostilities.

There were fewer viruses in January, but there's worse to come, say software security companies. Read this article for more information - and keep on updating your anti-virus software.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s trip to West Africa this week presents a major opportunity for the British government
to affirm its commitment to human rights and to bring international attention to some of the most pressing issues on the continent, Human
Rights Watch said today.

Over the last few months there has been increasing evidence of the youth militia involved in organized violence of having received formal training in torture techniques. However, a new and very disturbing form of torture has emerged in the last few weeks, with even more long-term ramifications for the victims than the physical and psychological trauma sustained with physical torture. Forced rape by men, witnessed both by the perpetrators of the violence and others, is being imposed on the victims, with the victims being forced to have sexual intercourse with other victims, either heterosexual or homosexual, with the perpetrators “supervising” the act.

Despite claims to the contary, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the United States (US) intends to use Kenya, and particularly the Kenyan coast as its base as it launches an attack against the neighbouring Somalia. Some 3,000 US military personnel from the Marine Corps and the US Navy have been strategically deployed across the Somalia border, in the remote Kenyan islands of Pate and Manda, increasing fears that the first phase of the US war against terrorism in Africa, is in the offing.

Zimbabwe’s fallout has proved beyond doubt that local civil society, epitomized by ubiquitous human rights Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), lacks the requisite political clout to challenge President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly totalitarian rule. Civil society’s capacity to build popular support for democratic change people-centred change has been blown out of proportion by outside donors, who continue to religiously pour funds into the rather politically innocuous sector.

About 50 suspected war veterans and 15 Zanu PF youths last Thursday raided the MDC offices in Buhera North, vandalised the premises and stole property worth more than $500 000.

The Spanish Presidency of the EU, speaking on behalf of the Union, has welcomed the cease-fire agreement in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. The EU's readiness to resume cooperation with Sudan. has been widely criticised by activists working in the Sudan. Press reports this week quote John Prendergast, a Sudan expert at the International Crisis Group, who advised former President Bill Clinton, stating ''This (European) announcement was very badly timed. It certainly reduces the political leverage the international community has in supporting the peace process.''

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has warned that refugees may face increased discrimination in the era of heightened international security after the 11 September terror attacks on the United States.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a three-day regional seminar last week in Abidjan on the statute of the International Criminal Court(ICC). The aim of the conference, attended mainly by senior officials of ECOWAS member states and law specialists, was to inform the regional experts on the role and purpose of the Court, its powers and its methods of operation, ICRC's regional office in Abidjan said in a statement. Participants were also briefed on the measures countries need to take to implement the statute of the Court.