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Further Victims Identified in DRC Mass Rapes Case By Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS - The number of women raped by rebel groups during last month’s raid of more than a dozen villages centred around Walikale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has risen to over 240, U.N. officials told reporters here today. MORE >>
SOUTH AFRICA "Xenophobia Simmering Just Below Boiling Point" By Kim Cloete CAPE TOWN - "Xenophobia is part of life. We do not live easy here. We only survive," says Somali shopkeeper, Abdinasir Shaikh Aden, looking tense. MORE >>
RWANDA Genocide Ideology and Sectarianism Laws Silencing Critics? Analysis by Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS - Among its unstable and conflict-ridden neighbours, Rwanda stands out. It has been pegged as a model of development and one of Africa’s success stories: Since the 1990’s, when a civil war ravaged the country, average incomes have doubled, its people have become healthier and less hungry and it has the highest proportion of women parliamentarians worldwide. Yet, maintaining this stability is a government accused of muzzling its opponents and committing human rights abuses. MORE >>
Outrage Grows Over Failure to Protect DRC Civilians By Aprille Muscara UNITED NATIONS - As details emerged this week of the U.N.'s knowledge of rebel activity in the villages where nearly 200 women were systematically gang raped by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late last month, human rights groups are demanding an investigation into the U.N.'s failure to prevent the raid from occurring. MORE >>
Sudan's President and Criminal Court in Cat-and-Mouse Game By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS - Sudan's elusive President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and the unrelenting Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo are playing a political cat- and-mouse game. MORE >>
SOUTH AFRICA Public Health Strained by Nurses' Strike By Chris Stein JOHANNESBURG - Striking health workers have continued their work stoppage despite accusations that it endangers patients' lives. They are part of a nationwide strike by public sector workers that has some observers concerned that rising wage demands could harm South Africa's economy. MORE >>
UGANDA Unfriendly Nurses and Culture Hinder Male Involvement in HIV Prevention By Wambi Michael MBALE, Uganda - Irene Wangolo was advised to undergo an HIV test during her antenatal visit and to return to the clinic with her husband so they could be counselled on preventing HIV transmission to their unborn baby. But her husband refused to accompany her saying it was not his business and Wangolo never returned to the clinic in Bungokho in eastern Uganda. So she missed all the services, including the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). MORE >>
MALAWI Women Candidates Hard Hit by Election Postponement By Claire Ngozo LILONGWE - News that Malawi’s November local government elections are to be postponed yet again has hit female candidates hard – and mostly in their pockets. And it could mean that the country will have less female candidates to vote for when they finally go to the polls. MORE >>
HEALTH-UGANDA Problems with Anti-Counterfeit Bill Persist By Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi KAMPALA - Health rights activists still insist that, despite some improvements to Uganda’s controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Bill, it will affect the availability of generic medicine if enacted in present form. MORE >>
AGRICULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA 'There Is No Dignity' Kristin Palitza interviews labour and gender expert GRISCHELDA HARTMAN CAPE TOWN - South African farm workers – especially female labourers – continue to be exploited, despite the existence of national labour laws and regulations designed to protect them. But in the absence of information and education about their rights, workers have a hard time claiming them. MORE >>
MALAWI Campaign Against Female Vice President a Campaign Against Equality By Claire Ngozo LILONGWE - The future of women’s political representation in Malawi has come into question as the ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP) launched a smear campaign against its own member, the country’s female Vice President Joyce Banda. Many had hoped Banda would become the country’s first female president in 2014. MORE >>
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African Commission on Human Rights and Peoples' Rights
Human Rights Watch HRW stands with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime and to bring offenders to justice.
South African Human Rights Commission
IDASA - Institute for Democracy in South Africa