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Illinois has become the first state to abolish the death penalty since 2009. On Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending capital punishment after two months of deliberation. Quinn has commuted the death sentences of all 15 Illinois prisoners on death row, giving them life in prison with no chance of parole.

On March 3 and 4, a group of teenagers and pre-teens in Springfield underwent what was called a “30-hour famine”. They fasted for 30 consecutive hours, breaking only occasionally for sips of water as nourishment.
They also participated in activities that required physical effort, just as the poor in food insecure countries would, even when enduring the pangs of hunger.

In Egypt, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters have been attacked in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Small groups armed with rocks and knives were seen assaulting demonstrators ahead of an Egyptian military effort to remove the last of the protesters who have remained in Tahrir since the uprising that toppled U.S.-backed President Hosni Mubarak last month.

Amnesty International has called on the Saudi Arabian authorities to reverse the ban on peaceful protest, amid fears of a violent crackdown on mass demonstrations planned for Friday’s “Day of Rage”. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the foreign minister, said that “reform cannot be achieved through protests”, while the protest ban was backed by religious and security bodies.

Zimbabwe witnessed a fierce psychological battle at the beginning of March 2011. Inspired by their new models in the Arab world, political activists and civic society organizations tried to mobilize people for mass protests to demand change in government. But not a single demonstrator turned up on March 1 for the much-billed 1 million-man march against President Mugabe.

The United Nations warns that up to one million people are trapped in Libya and are in need of emergency aid as fighting intensifies between supporters of Col. Muammar Gaddafi and anti-government rebels. Earlier today, Gaddafi’s forces launched at least four air strikes against rebel-held areas in the oil town of Ras Lanuf.

In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), an eminent non-governmental organization, has expressed disappointment at the proposed amendments to Egypt’s Constitution and asked the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to review these so that the objectives of the “January 25 revolution” are not consigned to oblivion.

International Women’s Day – March 8, 2011 – is a special day meant to remind everyone that women continue to have particular disadvantages even today, despite general emancipation, owing to the unnecessary restrictions in our male-dominated societies. More than that, womens’ rights continue to be severely curtailed in many places.

Amidst rising concern about a seriously deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Cote d’Ivoire that a UN expert body perceives as a threat to international peace and security and an international think-tank says is dragging the strife-torn country to the verge of a civil war, a former Ghana president has faulted the international community’s behaviour.