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Lack of research, competent negotiating team and slowdown in Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) activities, will not give the East African region states a better deal in the ongoing regional and multilateral trade negotiations, trade policy analysts have stated.

The network of organisations and activists lobbying the companies in occupied Western Sahara have started a campaign that calls on the European Union to exclude Western Sahara from Moroccan-EU partnership. Have your organisation sign before 3 December.

Megjashi Embassy reminds the public of two very important dates, 19 November -World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse and 20 November – World Children’s Day and encourages international and national organizations to join and support the NGO coalition for prevention of child abuse which requires no fee to join.

A new Amnesty International report, Civilians in the line of fire: The Georgia-Russia conflict, says that over 20,000 ethnic Georgians are still unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia, while many of those, on both sides of the conflict, who have gone back have found their homes pillaged or destroyed.

“The Government of Republic of Kenya is failing to take the necessary steps to stamp out torture in our country.” This is the central message of the reports prepared by a group of Kenyan NGOs, together with the World Organisation Against Torture, to inform the United Nations Committee Against Torture as it begins its examination of Kenya’s record on the prevention and eradication of torture, in Geneva, Switzerland.

English PEN was delighted to learn that Uighur Honorary Member Nurmuhemmet Yasin is one of the five shortlisted entries for the inaugural ArtVenture Freedom to Create Imprisoned Artist Prize.

On Sunday 9 November 2008, London witnessed the biggest one-day gathering concerning Somali language and literature in Europe. Around one thousand people, predominantly Somalis, from different parts of Britain attended a unique daylong festival promoting Somali language literature books mostly published in Djibouti and the UK.

Chungdak Koren, leader of the Norwegian Tibet Committee, has been awarded Norwegian PEN’s Ossietsky Prize for her efforts to give a voice to Tibetans in Norway. Koren was vital in the establishment of the Norwegian Tibet Committee in 1989. She has also helped set up the radio station Voice of Tibet, where she remains a board member.

Today, Aminatou Haidar, the Saharawi human rights defender, received the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for campaigning for the self-determination of Western Sahara and against government abuses and disappearances of prisoners of conscience.for her human rights work. Read here the address that she gave at the award ceremony and reception at the US Senate in Washington DC.