Michael Fleshman

"Africa needs to realise that without dealing with the issue of women, there will be no progress in turning HIV/Aids around," says the United Nations special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka. "Unless we empower women we will remain with limited success," she says.

There is wide recognition that Africa, the region least responsible for generating the polluting "greenhouse gases" that cause global warming, will need significant financial aid to cope with its effects. Whether this money will be available is an open question. Africa is already struggling to find funds to lift its people out of poverty, and it has failed to attract investment in projects that will protect the African environment.

The international campaign for equal rights for homosexuals and other sexual minorities took a step forward on November 14 last year when South Africa became the first country in Africa, and the fifth in the world, to legalise same-sex marriage. "This country cannot continue to be a prisoner of the backward, time-worn prejudices which have no basis," declared ruling African National Congress parliamentarian and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota

The world took a giant step towards eliminating impunity for human rights abuses when the International Criminal Court opened its first official hearing, in November, in a case against a Congolese militia leader. Africa’s own efforts to hold senior government officials and rebel leaders accountable also marked new milestones last year.