Africa

For a couple of hundred dollars or less an arms dealer can illegally source a blank end user certificate with the required signatures and stamps – needed to transfer weapons across international borders – and “if no one checks its authenticity (often the case) he can ship his wares to the world’s hotspots with minimal risk, for maximum profit,” said the SAS in 2008.

The status of human rights in Zimbabwe, environmental concerns from toxic waste, future of diamond revenue and level of transparency from the flow of those funds into treasury. Additionally, he addresses the role of the Kimberley Process and suggests ways the global jewellery industry should handle the supply-chain given how Marange diamonds are entering the market.

We are seeing increasing social protests all over the world, with hundreds of thousands on the streets from Santiago to Montreal, from Moscow to Tokyo and everywhere in between. Sudan, after having recently divorced its southern neighbour is a country not know for its human rights and police leniency, so it is encouraging that even here things are moving, even if carefully.

On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June, two United Nations independent human rights experts highlighted that of the 215 million children working throughout the world, more than half are subjected to the worst forms of child labour, including sexual and labour exploitation.

Discrimination and persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in South Africa and Cameroon must be halted, Amnesty International said as activists around the world mark the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Instances of harassment, discrimination, persecution, violence and murders … (read more)…

This is the fifth such killing if a journalist this year in Somalia – as reported by Reporters Without Borders. Radio journalist Farhan James Abdulle was murdered 2nd May, in the evening, near the Galkayo capital of the north-central region of Mudug. Two unidentified individuals shot him several times in the street as he was returning to his home in the village of Garsor.

**By Leo Dobbs, Choucha Transit Centre, Tunisia (UNHCR)** – Mohammed Karem wants to become a roving art teacher for refugees around the world. “I would like to travel with UNHCR or any other organization,” he says.

A senior UN official has strongly condemned the reported acts of sexual violence committed against Malian women and girls amid renewed fighting. Allegations include “abductions, public rapes and subjecting women and girls to acts of sexual violence in front of family members”.

Geneva-The world, in particular rich industrialized countries, is apparently unwilling to save the lives of 15 million human beings affected by the drought and conflict-related crisis in the Sahel region, with about 1.5 million are children who face the prospect of severe acute malnutrition.

Geneva, 3 April – The United Nations refugee agency today voiced deep concern about the deteriorating political and security situation in Mali, where thousands of people continue to flee their homes due to fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels in the country’s north.