A comparative study of the use of the Istanbul Protocol amongst civil society organizations in low-income countries.

The Istanbul Protocol (IP) is one of the great success stories of the global anti-torture movement, setting out universal guidelines for the production of rigorous, objective and reliable evidence about allegations of torture and ill-treatment. The IP is explicitly designed to outline 'minimum standards for States'. However, it is all too often left to civil society organizations to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

Positioning children and institutions of childcare in contemporary Uganda.

Currently more than half the population of Uganda is under 18 years - a demographic dispensation caused by civil war, poverty, high fertility rates, and the AIDS epidemic. Drawing upon ethnographic research in south-eastern Uganda, the study analyses the difficulties of integrating increasing numbers of adolescent orphans and other vulnerable children into Ugandan society. Aid workers and researchers generally agree that the extended family should be the first choice for assuming care of orphans and other vulnerable children, while they regard institutional care as a last resort.