The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Liberian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists who have been repeatedly threatened for exposing the practice of female genital mutilation in the country. Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily FrontPage Africa and the news website New Narratives, told CPJ she had gone into hiding after receiving several threats for an article she published about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three ...read more

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development (SEPHIS) and the Institut des études africaines (IEA) of Université Mohammed V-Souissi, Rabat (Morocco) are pleased to announce the launching of the Advanced Institute on Afro-Arab Relations. The inaugural session will be held on 12-23 March 2012 and will be directed by Professor Shamil Jeppie of the University of Capetown (South Africa).

Starting 2010, FEMNET has been partnering with South African-based African Democracy Institute (Idasa) and Zimbabwean-based Public Affairs and Parliamentary Support Trust (PAPST) in the Fredskorpset (FK) Exchange programme. The Exchange programme facilitates the exchange of personnel (ages 22 – 35 years) within participating organizations with an aim to transfer expertise/skills and promote networking for a period of nine months. The programme is supported by FK a government body under the Mi...read more

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the rights of a group of Somali and Eritrean nationals who were intercepted by Italian Customs boats and returned to Libya in 2009 were violated, under several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although this historic decision of the court was for a case under Italy's agreement with the Qaddafi regime, it has clear ongoing relevance, as refugees and other migrants continue to face real threats in their countries of origin, ...read more

Kenyans on the micro-blogging sites Twitter and Facebook on Sunday heavily criticised global television network CNN for depicting grenade blasts in Nairobi as an eruption of 'violence' in the country. The news channel was forced to pull down a video seen as misrepresenting events by depicting Saturday’s grenade attacks that killed six and injured 63 as being widespread.

Some 1,000 Chadian migrants - most of them children separated from their families - are waiting for aid in the village of N’Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad having fled Boko Haram-related violence in Nigeria, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). With more arriving each day - some 100 have arrived in the last 48 hours according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - the food situation is getting desperate, say aid workers.

Public universities in Kenya have become ethnic bastions, reveals a report by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission presented to Parliament on Tuesday. The Big Five ethnic groups in Kenya dominate the work forces of the centres of higher education, the report shows. Although the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo and Kamba, make up 66 per cent of the country’s population, they take up 93 per cent of the jobs at Masinde Muliro University, 89.8 per cent at Moi University, 87.3 per cent at ...read more

The development of the new constitution must follow a participatory approach: the government must provide and implement clear mechanisms for the participation of the Tunisian people in this historical process, which go beyond simple monitoring of and via the media. This was one of the recommendations made by participants of the seminar 'guarantying freedom of expression in the Constitution' organised by ARTICLE 19, Alpha Steppa, the development league of Kasserine, and Moulahedh at Sbeitla fr...read more

The United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be reformed, according to an ANC discussion document on international relations. 'The current global governance regimes remain untransformed and ill-prepared to respond to the systemic challenges that are arising,' the ANC said in new policy papers.

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Donor nations and regional partners gathered in London last week for a British-sponsored conference. The results are unlikely to solve the Somalian quagmire.

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