Should globalization be resisted, embraced without question, or modified and tapped to advance the countries of the South? As it is with economies, culture and the environment, so it is with justice. Justice is no longer only local; it is going global. Globalization of justice has been spurred by the development of the concept of individual criminal responsibility for human rights crimes.

Algeria is racked by violence and scarred by poverty. But some believe its long nightmare could soon end.

The bishops of both Catholic and Episcopal churches in Sudan have issued their first ever joint appeal for an end to the country’s 18 years of civil war.

Global arms sales have grown for the third consecutive year, according to a new Congressional report. The developing world remains the primary market for conventional weapons and the United States, the chief supplier.

The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma), a rebel group based in eastern Congo, has stepped up abuse of civil society activists, Human Rights Watch charged today.

The UN Conference Against Racism, which opens on Friday, has generated bitter arguments and political disputes, with the United States still considering a boycott. Will the conference help to build a consensus on how to fight a pervasive evil, or degenerate into a finger-pointing contest?

On Thursday evening 16 August, two students were shot dead and 16 others were seriously injured at Gezira University, 115 miles south of Khartoum. The incident was sparked when non-Gezira students, militants of the Student National Congress (NC), marched in military uniform through the University campus chanting Islamic jihad slogans, and interrupted a political debate.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Observateurs des droits de l’Homme (CODHO), a member of OMCT network, that a new child has been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For details of how you can help, follow the links below.

Zanu PF supporters and war veterans in Epworth are allegedly forcing residents to attend rallies ahead of the Presidential election early next year. "A register of party members is being used to attack those who do not appear on it," said Clayton Chikoti, a tuckshop owner. "It is assumed that if you do not appear on the register, then you are an MDC member."

A new wave of violence has hit the Muzarabani and Mount Darwin districts in Mashonaland, forcing more than 24 families to flee their homes, the 'Daily News' reported on Friday.

"In our view, the United States and the broader international community should make every effort to raise the odds that Zimbabwe's crisis can be resolved peacefully through free and fair elections. At the same time, however, there is a need for realism: Mugabe is highly unlikely to concede power through a relatively free and fair electoral process, and highly likely to resort to ever-higher levels of violence. Though a concerted international campaign is warranted to turn Mugabe off this course and onto a path that bring free and fair elections, we need to admit to ourselves that there is a high probability that effort may fail."

Over the past four weeks a series of intercommunal clashes in central and northern Nigeria has left many dead or wounded and forced an estimated 65,000 people to flee their homes in Nasarawa, Benue, Bauchi and Kaduna states. Working with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, since the beginning of July the ICRC has distributed relief supplies such as blankets, buckets, soap and mats to a total of 22,500 displaced people living in improvised camps.

Government soldiers and rebels in Sierra Leone are no longer restless since a ceasefire agreement signed last November ended 10 years of civil war. “It’s been like paradise since that time,” said Sule Musa, editor of the independent newspaper, the Advisor.

As President Joaquim Chissano serves out his last term of office, a debate is simmering between two distinct factions in his ruling FRELIMO party to determine his successor, analysts have told IRIN.

The international humanitarian organisation Oxfam says the Angolan government is responding inadequately to the needs of people displaced by the civil war. Speaking at the end of a visit to Angola, Oxfam's director Barbara Stocking said an end to the war was the only way out of the humanitarian crisis in the country, and called on the international community to support a negotiated peace.

President Robert Mugabe has added three new seats to the Supreme Court by appointing three judges seen as stalwarts of his ZANU-PF ruling party, the state-controlled 'Herald' reported on Friday.

New British High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Brian Donnely, said on Thursday that his government wanted to re-establish the friendly relations the two countries enjoyed before the current controversy over the land issue, news reports said.

Seventy-nine former child combatants of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were returned to their families on Tuesday in Kailahun, after spending six weeks at an interim care centre run by Save the Children Fund (SCF)-UK.

Liberian President Charles Taylor announced a general amnesty on Thursday for all treason suspects abroad and anti-government dissidents in the northern county of Lofa, news media reported.

The governments of Sudan and Uganda are expected to restore diplomatic relations - severed in 1996, with each of the two accusing the other of supporting the other's rebel movements - through the formal exchange of diplomats next month, according to the 'EastAfrican' newspaper.