Saudi Arabia is one of three countries that fields men, but never women, in the Olympic Games. In the run up to 2012 London Olympic Games, Human Rights Watch has published a compelling and insightful report into the discriminatory practices of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education in denying girls physical education in state schools. Furthermore, this approach permeates and is imbued into the present selection criterium of the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia which has no programmes for female athletes and has yet to field female Saudi representatives at the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games transcends questions of race, religion and gender – it is a spectacle that is beautiful and awe-inspiring because of its staggering heterogeneity. Previously, the Olympic Games has delivered strong messages regarding the practice of apartheid in South Africa, and the need for more social inclusion and wider participation in society. It must fundamentally continue to strive towards and live up to its diverse and eclectic billing today, and ensure that particpiation is open for all.

Please find below HRW’s in depth report of this pressing issue, published in light of the run up to London 2012 this summer.

Human Rights Watch report: Denial of Women’s and Girl’s Rights to Sport in Saudi Arabia

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Marking a decade since the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991 – 2002), Christian Aid has returned to the West African state to report on the profile of women in post-conflict society. A revealing podcast notes the steady rise of female voices in Sierra Leone. Five years on since the first elections conducted without the presence of UN observers in 2007, Christian Aid returns to the once war-torn state to find women’s participation in society in rude health. Taking a more active and assertive role in determining and constructing more cohesive, sustainable and secure futures for their communities, Sierra Leonean women have made strident gains over the course of the last decade in redressing the formerly clear absence of female participation in decision making within society.

Check out their progress here!

Sierra Leone’s Growing Female Voice

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What a difference 10 years makes! On top of its economic bubble seemingly popping, now Spain’s migration would appear to have burst too. The outset of 2012 marks the departure of 62,611 nationals, and 445,130 non-nationals from Spain’s shores. An eye opening report published by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística reveals that more than a staggering half a million people have left the Iberian peninsula over the course of the last 12 months and returned or relocated to amongst others, Morocco, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom and China.

To take a closer look at those eye-watering stats, and to make more sense of why exactly Spain has gone from a hosting nation, to one on the brink of a mass exodus, do check out the report below:

Population slumps in crisis stricken Spain

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The brain-drain is an all too familiar phenomenon on the African continent; successive generations have witnessed Africa’s brightest and most skilled young professionals seeking greater working and educational opportunities in the developed nations of Europe and North America.

Professor Jagdish N. Bhagwati of Columbia University argues that now more than ever it is time to arrest this momentum. Providing enticements for migrants to return and not settle abroad, and implementing foreign aid training schemes for Africans lay at the heat of this matter.

For greater detail, and for more innovative solutions to plugging and arresting Africa’s great brain-drain, please check out Professor Bhagwati’s key policy innovations here in his Al Jazeera op-ed piece:

The brain-drain panic returns

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