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Featured in Pambazuka News 181

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/25500

* Editorial: Why Bush’s re-election is bad for the world and bad for Africa; Q&A on US and Africa
* Comment and Analysis: Unifem’s Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda explains why any approach to peace and security in the Great Lakes region must adopt a zero tolerance approach to sexual violence
* Letters: Reader views on income inequality and unity in the fight for global justice
* Pan-African Postcard: Our weekly columnist on the US election, fear and why failure has never deterred George Walker Bush
* Conflicts and Emergencies: UN Truth and Reconciliation Commission report reveals the experiences of children in conflict
* Women and Gender: The Kigali declaration calls for the enactment and enforcement of legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls
* Elections and Governance: It would be a mistake to characterise the acquittal of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai's as a reversal of Zimbabwe’s politics of oppression, warns Brian Raftopoulos
* Corruption: Maina Kiai from the Kenya National Human Rights Commission writes that strength, clarity and leadership are required to turn rhetoric into reality in the fight against corruption in Kenya
* HIV/AIDS: AIDS will be a moral issue for as long as its politics are defined by inequalities, argues Sanjay Basu from the Yale School of Medicine
* Environment: Does isolation still protect forest communities in Cameroon?
* Media and FXI: Environmental journalism still on the fringes of mainstream media in Africa

Q&A on Africa and the US elections

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/25492

EDITORIAL COMMENT: George W. Bush’s re-election to the White House is bad for the world and bad for Africa. It’s not that the election of Democratic senator John Kerry would have resulted in a groundswell of change. But Bush took his country into a war that, as revealed by research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published this week in the Lancet, has resulted in the death of 100 000 Iraqi civilians – half of them women and children. Had the US electorate voted for Kerry, at least they would have sent a message to their leadership that bloodletting would not be tolerated in their name. Yes, Kerry might not have withdrawn from Iraq, but at least he would have been forced to think about the wisdom of an illegitimate foreign invasion if he knew that his second term in office was threatened.

As it is, Bush has a mandate from the US electorate to pursue a right wing agenda and the iron heel will now attempt to further stamp its authority on the world. For Africa, expect this agenda and the death of multilaterism to mean the securing of lucrative oil contracts even if it translates into supporting corrupt regimes, support for countries who back the ‘war on terrorism’ even while suppressing human rights domestically, the undermining of reproductive rights to the detriment of women’s rights and a fight against HIV/AIDS that has the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry at heart. Now that military intervention for 'regime change' has been legitimised as a political strategy with the collusion of Tony Blair (the chair of the 'Commission on Africa'), Africa will not be immune to the use of that strategy, only this time to the applaud of the majority of US citizens.

Q&A ON AFRICA AND THE US ELECTIONS

Last week, Pambazuka News sent a list of questions about the US elections to Ann-Louise Colgan, Director for Policy Analysis & Communications at Africa Action (http://www.africaaction.org). Answered before the results became known, the responses provide a useful insight into how Africa is seen by the US administration and what can be expected for the next four years.

PZ: Much of the news coming out of the US election race was focused on either the war in Iraq or domestic policy related to the economy. Where, if at all, did Africa feature on the radar screen and what were the main issues related to the continent that were mentioned?

ALC: This 2004 election season has had by far a greater focus than usual on foreign policy issues, but Africa has unfortunately been largely absent from the national debate. This only highlights once more the degree to which Africa is marginalized in the US policy discourse and in the public consciousness. Despite historical ties and important current interests, Africa is still largely considered to fall outside the scope of US policymakers’ concerns.

That being said, two issues related to Africa have featured on the radar screen to some extent this election season: Sudan & HIV/AIDS.

The genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, which has prompted a great deal of political activism and media attention in the US. in recent months, was featured in the first Presidential debate. This first debate took place just 4 weeks after the Bush Administration finally acknowledged that genocide was taking place in Darfur, and the moderator of the debate asked the candidates why they were not talking about sending in troops when they both agreed that this was a case of genocide. Both Presidential candidates emphasized the role and responsibility of the African Union in this regard, and neither stated that the US should take a leadership role. John Kerry did finish by saying that if it took US troops to coalesce the African Union, he would be prepared to do that in order to avoid “another Rwanda.” President Bush said he would not agree with committing troops to this area, just as, four years before, he had said in a Presidential debate that he would not send troops to the African continent to stop another Rwanda.

The issue of HIV/AIDS has also gained some attention this election season. The Bush Administration has sought to place the so-called President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) at the heart of its compassionate conservative agenda, and the Kerry campaign pledged to double this funding level for HIV/AIDS efforts in Africa and globally. Unfortunately, when a question on HIV/AIDS in the US was put to the vice-presidential candidates in the second debate, both revealed their ignorance about its disproportionate impact among African-American women in this country, which highlights their disinterest in the African-American community and their ignorance of the factors that continue to fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. They instead sought to answer the question by focusing on their plans to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, which are, of course, similarly inadequate.

But even in these two cases, where African priorities force themselves onto the agenda of candidates and policymakers, the urgent leadership required (and purported) by the US is absent. The measure of Africa’s importance is revealed by the reality of US policies, and not the rhetoric of election debates.

PZ: The problems with US policy towards Africa seem obvious - debt relief, HIV/AIDS, market access etc etc. How wide an understanding is there amongst the US electorate of these issues?

ALC: There is a deep understanding and interest in these issues among the various sectors of the US electorate that form Africa’s constituencies here in the US. These include a wide range of Africa-focused civil society groups and their supporters, academics, religious and labour communities, African-American & African neo-diaspora communities, activist student groups, and many others. Not all of these groups engage at the policy level, but they do care about US relations with Africa in a broad sense.

Across the US electorate as a whole, there is a narrow understanding of US foreign policy interests, particularly post-September 11th. Often, this translates to a lack of awareness of key global issues – such as poverty, civil conflict and HIV/AIDS – and the role of the US in responding to these challenges. While a broader understanding does exist on the issues of HIV/AIDS in Africa and genocide in Darfur, the US public is often misled to believe that the US is doing more than it is on these critical issues.

PZ: It seems as if there is a general acknowledgement that the re-election of Bush is bad for Africa. But would Kerry have offered anything substantively different?

ALC: The priorities and approach of the Bush Administration have certainly hurt Africa over the past four years. The US preoccupation with the “war on terrorism”, alleged weapons of mass destruction, and Washington’s military misadventure in Iraq, has hurt Africa directly in economic and political terms. The Bush Administration’s focus on oil and military security has also turned Africa into geo-strategic real estate, defining the continent’s value once more in a Cold War era model. More broadly, to the extent that US actions under the Bush Administration have undermined the very notion of multilateralism, they have been directly at odds with Africa’s interests. Despite rhetorical efforts to place Africa at the center of the Bush Administration’s “compassionate conservative” agenda, Africa’s priorities – the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty – have been ignored, as US approaches have instead been characterized by broken promises and harmful policies.

Should Kerry have been elected, it is unlikely there would have been a dramatic shift in US Africa policy, or in US priorities in relation to Africa. In fact, despite being married to a woman born in Mozambique, John Kerry has never even been to Africa! The “Kerry-Edwards Plan for Africa” pledged to double funding for HIV/AIDS programs globally, and to support debt cancellation and the fight against poverty, but it offered little by way of new approaches to these challenges. On the positive side, Kerry would likely have supported the elimination of the global “gag rule”, which undermines family planning programs and women’s reproductive health in developing countries. Kerry has also issued stronger statements on the crisis in Darfur and what the US role should be in addressing this crisis. But on issues such as trade, military relations and oil, a Kerry administration would likely have pursued a similar track to the Bush White House. Kerry was also unlikely to dismantle the Millennium Challenge Account or the conditionalities integral to that program, as well as to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and to debt relief programs.

PZ: There is an annual net drain of more than $12 billion dollars out of Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the highest such transfers from South to North in the world and it is mostly debt service. As Africa Action points out on their website, Africa's debt burden is an enormous obstacle to development of the continent. What progress is there likely to be on this issue over the next four years?

ALC: The past few months have seen important progress on the debt issue. During discussions among the “Group of 8” leaders at their annual summit in June, 100% multilateral debt cancellation was on the table for the first time in history. While there is still work to be done on this issue, both by campaigners and in negotiations between the G-8 governments, there are indications that an agreement can be expected in 2005 on some form of debt cancellation for some sub-set of deeply impoverished countries that need it.

Of course, since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration has been actively promoting the cancellation of Iraq’s “odious debts”. At the same time, it has practiced a double standard by ignoring the illegitimate and odious nature of African countries’ debts. Recently, the Bush Administration indicated that it now supports 100% multilateral debt cancellation for 33 of the most impoverished and indebted countries, and that the resources to realize this should come from the World Bank and IMF themselves. The Bush Administration also supports a shift from loans to grants in future assistance.

While it is clear that rich countries and international financial institutions must address the illegitimate and unsustainable debts of African countries and other countries in the Global South, only continued public activism will ensure that result. Two key dates next year where debt will be on the agenda will be the “Group of 7” Finance Ministers meeting in February, and the annual G-8 summit, which the UK will host in July 2005.

PZ: What are some of the key motivators of US policy towards Africa and how are these likely to play themselves out over the next four years in terms of the war on terrorism, access to oil, and securing access to African raw materials and markets for American companies?

ALC: Under the Bush Administration, the “war on terrorism” and US interests in oil and strategic military relations have largely motivated US policy toward Africa. These perceived interests will continue to shape the course of US Africa policy over the next several years. Washington will continue to focus on African countries’ oil resources as an alternative to the Middle East. In fact, the National Intelligence Council projects that US oil supplies from West Africa will increase to 25% by 2015, which would exceed US oil imports from the entire Persian Gulf. The US pre-occupation with “energy security” will continue, and will make increasingly important those African countries that are large producers of oil, such as Nigeria, Angola, Gabon.

In terms of strategic military relations, increased US interest in projecting military force into the Persian Gulf has led to a massive increase in the US military presence in the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere in recent years. This trend is also likely to continue in the coming years as the US seeks to secure access to military bases across Africa, including in regions where oil is to be found. At the same time, there will continue to be a US concern with the counter-terrorism efforts of African countries, to the extent that they provide security for US interests in East Africa and other sub-regions.

The trend that has become apparent since 2001, when these two agendas – oil security and counter-terrorism – came to form the backbone of US Africa policy under the Bush Administration, will likely be further reinforced in coming years.

PZ:. Say one thing and do another, seems to be the juggling act of the Bush administration as it attempts to make commitments on the HIV/AIDS issue in Africa while at the same time protecting the interests of pharmaceutical companies. Any policy predictions on this issue for the next four years?

ALC: The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and globally will remain the most urgent global threat, and will require a far more committed and effective response than has been the case until now.

Over the last four years, the Bush Administration’s ties with the pharmaceutical lobby in the US have led the US to pursue policies that protect the interests of these wealthy companies at the expense of the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries, who are dying without access to essential medicines. It is clear that activism around the issue of access to affordable medications will continue, and that both rich country governments and pharmaceutical companies will face increasing pressure to give the growing numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS in impoverished countries the right and the ability to receive care and treatment.

The pharmaceutical industry is closely allied with the Bush Administration, and is one of the largest contributors to the Republican Party. The US Global AIDS Coordinator, appointed by Bush, is himself a former pharmaceutical executive! A comprehensive and effective response to HIV/AIDS in African and globally in the next several years will require strong international support for initiatives such as the World Health Organization’s “3 by 5” plan and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria. This means challenging the power and the profits of the pharmaceutical companies and their influence over US policy on HIV/AIDS in the US and globally.
While a Kerry Administration may initially have been less beholden to the pharmaceutical companies, these companies would have done everything in their power to change this as quickly as possible.

* What do you think about the re-election of George W. Bush? What is your view on the relationship between Africa and the US? Send your comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Peace and security must embrace zero-tolerance to sexual violence

Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/25491

Africa has just emerged from a review of the progress made ten years after the Beijing Conference on women whose theme was equality, peace and development. This November, the world will commence the 16 days campaign against gender-based violence, an annual event that remains more relevant today especially with the reality of conflict, wars and political violence, which seem to accompany most elections in Africa. Violence against women and especially sexual violence remains a gross violation of rights of women irrespective of the global regional and national commitments made to address this issue. Women continue to organize and advocate for concrete and lasting solutions to eliminating gender based and sexual violence.

Around 100 women met recently in Kigali as policy makers, leaders, experts, citizens, daughters, mothers, sisters, care -givers, innovators and survivors of violence. They also met as problem-solvers, decision-makers, and real contributors of real solutions to the challenges facing the great lakes region. This was the Regional Women’s Meeting of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, organized and facilitated under the auspices of the United Nations and the Africa Union, this October 2004. Representing the core countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, women’s voices echoed over and over again the dominant concern of sexual violence against women and especially the use of rape as a weapon of war.

Against the backdrop of the search for solutions were horrific stories of rape and sexual abuse of women and girls in Darfur, Northern Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The stories of rape as part of the genocide experience took on a magnified, almost tangible presence with a journey to the Kigali Genocide Museum. “Not only are we raped, infected with HIV & AIDS and ripped of our livelihoods, we remain with limited platform for sharing such experiences,” a woman delegate from DRC lamented. The stories of the abuse of refugee women in Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia formed parts of a terrible story that needed telling over and over.

At the centre of the experience-sharing, the search for long standing solutions underlined a resolve of commitment and action to ensure that zero-tolerance for sexual violence and rape must be embraced as a key element of peace and security, and in this context that the African Union Gender Equality Declaration and Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa Declaration as well as the Security Council Resolution 1325 must be implemented with immediacy. The women called on the member states to accelerate ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Women’s Rights in Africa as a critical step towards implementation.

The direct relationship between insecurity, sexual violence and HIV & AIDS vulnerability and risk for women and girls grounded in systemic gender inequalities; and the power dynamics between men and women’s levels of control of arms and economic resources resonated with many in the region. The illegal exploitation of the region’s natural resources and the attendant insecurities it creates for the ordinary citizenry, and especially women, went to the depth of the issues at hand.

Women of the Great Lakes Region asserted their place in economic development and reconstruction of their families, communities and nations. They claimed their right to ownership and control over productive resources and especially land, property and income. This, the women argued is an issue of right, but also a long term solution towards provision of the capacities, resources and opportunities necessary for women’s empowerment.

In their Kigali Declaration (Editors note: Read the Kigali Declaration in the Women and Gender section of this edition.), the women appreciated the positive steps taken in increasing the number of women in decision making, with some of the countries almost reaching the AU threshold of gender parity, and several implementing affirmative action policies. However, women's role in the peace and security sector, as well as in the strategic institutions of economic governance, remains almost negligible. It is by having women and gender sensitive men at the negotiating table, in the demobilization commissions, the border commissions, conflict early warning institutions and others, that the issues of sexual violence and especially rape will be responded to with the seriousness it deserves - as a gross violation of human rights, a crime against humanity and a destructive force to whole societies. Women are asking for sexual violence, HIV & AIDS, and representation of women in decision making to be engrained in the Summit Declaration of Principles due to be adopted November during the Heads of State and Summit meeting in Tanzania.

The women of the Great Lakes in their wisdom, their creative energies and innovation affirmed their commitment to engage, influence, act, effectively participate, share, network and contribute towards a violent free, peaceful and secure region where the dignity and rights of men and women, girls and boys becomes the ethos of development and reconstruction. In this great struggle for justice and rights, I stand in solidarity with the spirit of the Kigali dialogue. If substantive progress is made towards achieving the rights of women within the Beijing +10 framework, there will be substantive hope in achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

* Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda is the Regional Programme Director for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Eastern Africa. Contact email: nyaradzai.gumbonzvanda@undp.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Global politics: Only 'charlatans, liars, duplicitous and cruel politicians' need apply

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/25490

The outcome of the US presidential election is a shock to many people outside of the US who have been hoping against hope that Americans will do the world a favour with their votes and get rid of George Bush. Even the much predicted repeat of the disputed outcome of the last presidential election, which Bush controversially won, not by popular vote but through electoral machinations in the state of Florida (in which his brother Jeb was and still is Governor) and the connivance of the Supreme Court did not materialize in the end. Bush this time has won with a clear popular majority.

Winning by a whiff in 2000 did not stop him from behaving as though he had won an overwhelming mandate not just inside America but also to govern the whole world. He has divided his country and polarized the world. Indeed George Bush has succeeded in making America the number one bogey nation of the world with his reckless approach to international peace and security.

If the rest of the world had a vote in the US elections there is no doubt that Bush would have been booted out. If the views of the rest of the world mattered to Americans there would not have been a cliffhanger and it would have been a thorough defeat for the Bushman.

The fact that this is not so shows a number of things. One, Americans are as bitterly divided today as they were four years ago. Two, at the end of the day they (or at least a majority of them, no matter how small) do not care about what the rest of the world thinks. The attitude is one of take it or leave it. Three, opinion polls in America despite all the much-vaunted technology are as voodooist as in any developing country. All the exit polls indicated a Kerry victory but the actual declared results tell a different story. The same happened four years ago. Same mistakes twice should discredit the trade. Either American voters are incredible mass liars or the pollsters are fraudulent or both. Four, all the fears, allegations and counter allegations about the electoral process should humble Americans and all westerners who are quick to judge other peoples that democracy, even in the allegedly most developed country, is still a work in progress.

Now that Bush has been re-elected president the implications should be clear for Americans and the rest of the world. First, he will see the result as a legitimation for his domestic and foreign relations despite all the bitterness that they have caused. If Bush could wreak such havoc with a stolen victory what would he now do with a less controversial one?

Second, If Americans do not care about the views, interests and opinions of the rest of the world, why on earth should any other people or country care about America's views? A world in which every country does as it pleases is a recipe for global chaos. America has every right to decide who and how it is governed but it must respect that right to self-determination in other countries too. For instance if Zimbabweans want Mugabe or Venezuelans want Chavez and Cubans still want their long term president, Castro, why should the US government give itself the right to proclaim or orchestrate regime changes in these and other countries whose leaders it does not like? This also means that if some countries' voters desire theocratic leaders whether of the Islamist or any other religious inclination it will be their right to do so. After all Bush fought on a Christian fundamentalist neo-conservative agenda and his last four years in office has tested the notion of America being a secular state to extreme limits. If that is democratic in America why should it be less so for other peoples?

Third, victory twice over candidates who are definitely intellectually superior to him and more nuanced about the world is yet another demonstration that the standard of both national and global political leadership is in free fall. Bush’s victory could mean only charlatans, dimwits, liars, duplicitous and cruel politicians need aspire for success. This is a publicly Christian president who will even change the American constitution to protect the foetus and unborn children yet has no qualms killing women, children and innocent men in Iraq by the thousands!

Four, the received wisdom in Western election studies is that the voters are so enlightened that they will vote for their economic interests but Bush victory has stood this on its head. His father lost when the economy was not doing badly and he has won with a wobbly economic record whose limited recovery has been jobless. All his life personal failures have never stopped him from political victory. Five, Bush re-election may help reinforce a popular prejudice among non-Americans that Americans are one of (if not the most) ignorant peoples in the whole planet. Otherwise how does one account for the appeal of Bush?

However, America's selective disinterest in global opinion did not diminish the interest of the rest of the world in America's elections. I was particularly happy that observers from around the world, including a few Africans, were there to monitor the elections.

The reaction of the Americans was predictably hostile, believing that their democracy is beyond outside scrutiny. Yet US foundations, government, academics, NGOs and other election tourists from other parts of the West are now institutionalised accessories for any elections in Africa, Latin America, and other poor parts of the world. If they could observe us why can’t we observe them too? Why is what is good for the goose not good for the gander?

Finally, Kerry's running motto for the election was to exhort Americans not to vote for their fears but vote for hope in a new beginning. It is clear that fear has won and the nightmare from it will not be limited to the shores of the USA in the next four years. But one thing is certain - the world will survive Bush.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Sign on to the Free by 5 declaration

2004-11-04

http://www.nu.ac.za/heard/free/freeby5.asp

"HIV/AIDS treatment including anti-retroviral therapy is increasingly available throughout the developing world. However, the drugs and associated laboratory tests are rarely provided for free. Most people living with HIV will die simply because they cannot afford the contribution which is sought from them. We believe that, for human rights, public health and economic reasons, there should be free access for all to a comprehensive minimum medical package, including ARVs."

Sign the petition in support of Indymedia

2004-11-04

http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk/

"Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts, images, audio, and video. On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace, at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities. Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. In response, people all over the world have been endorsing a declaration against the seizures." You can sign this declaration by visiting the website available through the URL provided.

Income inequality and political stability

Kioi wa Mbugua

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/25421

Certainly no one can ignore the relationship between income inequality and long term political stability in nations (Kenya: New report shows huge inequalities in income, welfare [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43877]). Crimes in the inner cities of the US and in Brazil and increasing crimes in both urban and rural Kenya are symptoms of income inequality.

The first study on income inequality in Kenya was carried out by ILO in 1972 and a report was published. Like other important documents this one gathers dust in the archives. This issue of economic disparity has a relationship with race and ethnicity. In the US the Republicans stand for 'merit' and the Democrats stand for 'welfare state' - maybe through their words not in action. The Scandinavian welfare state model is despised in the US.

What kind of model do we want for Kenya? Is it not time to reduce government's role in economic development so that we can embrace a private lead economic growth that does not fall prey to the politics of ethnicity, religion and regionalism? The state should provide basic infrastructure and create a suitable environment for entrepreneurs to thrive. It should not be the role of the state to channel resources to some favoured regions. This is a political decision that often incubates political upheaval.

I have not read the whole document but I hope the researchers investigated not merely regional disparities which are misleading, but the petty bourgeoisie in Kenyatta's and Moi's administration, the capture of Kenyan strategic economic sectors such as banking and finance by British investors, capital flight, fall of the coffee, tea, tobacco and cotton industries and the role of ethnic conflict in development.

Blind statistics taken by a 'non partisan' party may be a 'convenient weapon' of a 'learned' politician who wants to unfairly direct national resources to his region. No wonder the report fits well with views of some Kenyan politicians. Moi had the same conclusions and his solution was to strangle Kikuyu entrepreneurs so that the rest of Kenya could catch up with them. He introduced a quota system to limit the number of qualified Kikuyus going for higher education. This was very punitive to people who had no understanding of why their hard work has anything to do with other peoples failures. This is very political research and I hope the researchers understand the 'implied' message in their 'authentic' conclusions. One must consider history, culture, politics and accessibility to resources before deriving some convenient blueprint conclusions about development in the 'only stable' country in strife torn Africa.

No Trespassing

J.Depelchin

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/25420

From the editorial to the comments on the Darfur piece earlier to the piece on the UN vote on ending the embargo in Cuba, to the essay on the squeeze on land by Robin Palmer, thank you.

All of the essays and comment point in the same direction and lead one to ask one question: why and how do we (i.e. those who side with those without land, work, health, clean air, etc.) manage not to unite?

The bi-centenary of Haiti is passing us by (1804-2004) as if it never happened. In contrast, remember how 1492-1992 and 1789-1989 were celebrated?

President Bush, almost at the same time American and French troops were kidnapping President Aristide, in a speech meant to defend "American Freedom" concluded "there can be no compromise between Freedom and Slavery".

Is it possible to say that our problem can be described as "failure (hesitation, resistance?) of fidelity to the freedom achieved by the slaves who overthrew slavery in Haiti?"

Could that failure be explained by our inability (reluctance, hesitation?) to maintain Atlantic (and Oriental) slavery and the wiping out of Native Americans as Crimes Against Humanity against the dissolving effect, on our collective conscience, of what these crimes gave birth to: capitalism as we know it today, in which everyone is free to torture, maim, kill in order to maintain what is described as the one and only triumphant socio-economic system of all times.

Following the success of the slaves in 1804, the enslavers-capitalists motto has remained the same and can be summarized as follows: "the discovered can never ever discover anything, and if they try, the most severe punishment shall be dispensed". No one has been able to document the terror suffered by those who were kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic, no one can imagine the terror suffered by those whose land was robbed.

It is easy to see wars in various parts of the Planet as driven by the search to monopolize resources. Has it changed from the time when land and labour were the keys to opening up the Promised Land of capitalism?

Not many media referred to it, but Aristide's crucial faults (from the point of view of the US and the French governments) were not only putting an end to the Army, asking for the French to repay what the Haitian governments paid between 1825 and 1947, more than 20 billion Euros. More serious was the fact that Haiti was resorting to Cuban doctors and teachers to resolve its health and educational problems.

Cuba is seen as one of the trespassers of the above mentioned "No Trespass" sign, and has been punished ever since. (There are other many examples). I agree with Tajudeen that Africans should unite (not just the governments) with the Cubans and all those who, since and before 1804 said no to slavery in any form, degree or shape.

The crisis of landlessness is not recent. It is genetically tied to the early beginnings of capitalism which has multiple roots and not just medieval Europe.

Global Citizens: Social Movements and the Challenge of Globalization

Marjorie Mayo

2004-11-04

http://zedbooks.co.uk/

The dawn of the twenty first century has been accompanied by an upsurge of anti-capitalist campaigning , challenging the very basis of the New World Economic order. This book sets out to explore the lessons from these experiences of social mobilisation. How can non-governmental organisations, community based organisations and the labour and trade union movement develop effective campaigning alliances - without becoming institutionalised and incorporated themselves?

Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health

edited by Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer, and Oscar Gish

2004-11-04

http://www.southendpress.org/books/sickness.shtml

In this pathbreaking collection, international activists and scholars reveal how plans implemented by the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and other first world interests drastically limit access to medical care and essentially sentence millions to disease and premature death. Edited by affiliates of Health Alliance International - a nonprofit organization associated with the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine - Sickness and Wealth provides a historical context for understanding the complex interrelationship between health, politics, and capitalist globalization.

The Paternalism of Partnership: A Postcolonial Reading of Identity in Development Aid

2004-11-04

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/184277414X/ref=/026-0001389-6094031

Responding to recent criticism of the development industry, this book is a nuanced and original investigation of Northern donor agency personnel as they deliver aid in Tanzania. It explores how donor identities are manifested in the practices of development aid, and how calls for equal partnership between North and South often take a very different form in practice. It illustrates the conflicts and tensions in the development aid process, reflecting both the longstanding critique of the eurocentric nature of development, and discourse that still assumes images of the superior, initiating, efficient 'donor' as opposed to the inadequate, passive, unreliable 'partner' or recipient.

Transition from War to Peace in Sudan

Transition from War to Peace in Sudan

2004-11-04

http://www.africa.upeace.org/documents/Transition_from_War_to_Peace_in_Sudan.pdf

This study examines through direct interviews and firsthand accounts the roles of non-state and state actors in this process of transformation. Changes that took place in Sudan and the efforts of several groups - including the knowledge and business communities, nongovernmental organizations, and peace-related sectors - consolidated the collective will to attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully and make the process of transition from war to peace irreversible.

Africa: 16 Days of Activism 2004

2004-11-04

http://www.humantrafficking.org/collaboration/international/news/2004_10/16days.html

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including December 1, which is World AIDS Day.

Ethiopia: Ruling party wants more women in parliament

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43907

Ethiopia's ruling party is imposing female quotas on candidates in a bid to have more women in parliament, officials said on Friday. Women are guaranteed up to 30 percent of seats in the national elections for the incumbent Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Opposition groups have also taken up the "historic" move as political parities battle it out in the run up to the May 2005 federal and regional elections.

Great Lakes: The Kigali Declaration of the Great Lakes Regional Women's Meeting

Available in English and French

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/25457

"We, the delegates representing the core countries of the Great Lakes Region, namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and the co-opted Republic of South Africa, assembled at the First Regional Women’s Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 7 – 9 October 2004, as part of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region under the auspices of the African Union and the United Nations;

Call on the Heads of State and Government to:

- enact and enforce legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls;
- take concrete measures to end the culture of impunity and enforce punitive action against perpetrators of crimes against humanity particularly genocide, massacres, rape and other forms of gender based violence;
- put in place mechanisms and policies with a view to eliminating ethnicism and exclusion;
- put in place a regional mechanism with requisite resources to ensure women’s equitable representation and effective participation in peace, governance and development processes at national and regional levels;
- provide adequate resources for the effective implementation of all women and children’s rights, peace and security instruments;
- fulfil their roles and responsibilities towards all displaced persons within their borders and ensure the speedy enactment and adoption of national and regional policies on refugees and internally displaced persons;
- harmonize national policies for the treatment, care and provision of services to victims of conflict, those affected or infected with HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women and children;
- harmonize national and regional policies on environmental protection for sustainable development;
- implement affirmative action for women at 50% minimum quota as set out by the AU at all decision making levels;
- provide access to both formal and non-formal education, health and other social services with special support to vulnerable groups;
- mainstream gender in legislation, policies and programmes;
- ensure the inclusion of gender perspectives in macroeconomic policies;
- ensure establishment of financial institutions and initiate investments to address gender inequality;
- guarantee economic opportunities for Women to access credit and own property including land;
- negotiate as a bloc on economic issues in order to protect women’s interests from unfair trade practices and policies."

THE KIGALI DECLARATION OF THE GREAT LAKES REGIONAL WOMEN’S MEETING

We, the delegates representing the core countries of the Great Lakes Region, namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and the co-opted Republic of South Africa, assembled at the First Regional Women’s Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 7 – 9 October 2004, as part of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region under the auspices of the African Union and the United Nations;

Concerned, with the multi-dimensional conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, resulting in untold suffering of communities especially women and children and loss of human lives;

Condemning all divisive ideologies and acts of genocide, massacres, terrorism, racism, ethnicity and all other forms of violence and crimes against humanity;

Further Concerned, by the increase of sexual and gender based violence, and especially the use of rape as a weapon of war and the repeated victimization of women through the physical, social and economic violation that result from these brutal acts;

Aware, that the continued insecurity contribute to the acceleration of the spread of HIV & AIDS especially among women and children, even as they continue to serve as primary caregivers and heads of household;

Conscious, of the reality that women continue to carry the heavy burden of conflict thus increasing their vulnerability and reducing their access to basic social, educational and health services;

Further conscious, of the deepening poverty and fragmentation of families, compounded by natural disaster and insecurity;

Concerned about environmental degradation and its impact on health and development in the region;

Aware of and concerned by the displacement (refugees and Internally displaced persons IDPs) of huge populations and its attendant insecurities;

Concerned by the illegal exploitation since the colonial period todate of the region’s resources which impact negatively on the security, development and rights of the people of the Great Lakes Region;

Further concerned about the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons and anti-personnel land mines in the region, despite efforts by respective governments and the international community to effect demobilisation, disarmament, repatriation, reintegration and resettlement(DDRRR);

Concerned that women’s important role in peace, security and development issues remain outside the mainstream of governance structures despite their being the majority of the population and their significant contributions and skills;

Aware that in spite of commitments made to increase the number of women in decision making positions, women still remain marginalised;

Recognising that women still have limited access to key factors of production, they remain major agricultural producers, workers, managers, traders, knowledge providers, and innovators;

Remaining committed to our core values of respect for diversity, empowerment of communities and enjoyment of human rights by all peoples of the region;

Recalling the principles enshrined in international conventions, various UN Resolutions and Declarations in particular United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Guided by the African Union Declaration on Gender Equality and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights as well as the Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa adopted in Maputo (2003);

Cognisant of the commitments in the Arusha, Lusaka and Pretoria Protocols and their Accords and their inadequate implementation;

Committed to upholding the principles of democracy, transparency and accountable governance, gender equality and sustainable development;

Concerned about the non respect of fundamental principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty and non aggression;

Aware of the existence of manipulation and exploitation of ethnicity for political and personal ends;

WE, THE DELEGATES TO THE GREAT LAKES REGIONAL WOMEN’S MEETING:

Declare our continued commitment to meaningfully contribute to the search for peaceful resolution of conflicts, justice, durable peace and stability for the Great Lakes Region.

Affirm our resourcefulness in organizing for peace, stability, security and sustainable development.

Reaffirm our continued efforts to seeking ways and means of addressing impunity especially on gross violations of women’s rights.

Call on the Heads of State and Government to:

· enact and enforce legislation that protects and upholds the human rights and dignity of women and girls;

· take concrete measures to end the culture of impunity and enforce punitive action against perpetrators of crimes against humanity particularly genocide, massacres, rape and other forms of gender based violence;

· put in place mechanisms and policies with a view to eliminating ethnicism and exclusion;

· put in place a regional mechanism with requisite resources to ensure women’s equitable representation and effective participation in peace, governance and development processes at national and regional levels;

· provide adequate resources for the effective implementation of all women and children’s rights, peace and security instruments;

· fulfil their roles and responsibilities towards all displaced persons within their borders and ensure the speedy enactment and adoption of national and regional policies on refugees and internally displaced persons;

· harmonize national policies for the treatment, care and provision of services to victims of conflict, those affected or infected with HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women and children;

· harmonize national and regional policies on environmental protection for sustainable development;

· implement affirmative action for women at 50% minimum quota as set out by the AU at all decision making levels;

· provide access to both formal and non-formal education, health and other social services with special support to vulnerable groups;

· mainstream gender in legislation, policies and programmes;

· ensure the inclusion of gender perspectives in macroeconomic policies;

· ensure establishment of financial institutions and initiate investments to address gender inequality;

· guarantee economic opportunities for Women to access credit and own property including land;

· negotiate as a bloc on economic issues in order to protect women’s interests from unfair trade practices and policies;

Call on special Commissions in charge of DDRRR to look into specific needs of women ex-combatants, dependants of combatants and all vulnerable groups in reintegration and rehabilitation processes;

Urge our respective governments to accelerate ratification of the AU Protocol on Women’s Rights;

Ensure equal representation and participation of women at all meetings and consultations organised within the framework of the IC-GLR and other fora through:

· Affirmative Action in the composition of each country delegation in line with AU guidelines;

· Ensuring effective involvement and participation of women’s organisations and networks at these meetings.

Institutionalise the Great Lakes Regional Women’s Forum as part of the IC/GLR, in partnership with the AU and the UN.

Call upon women of the Great Lakes region to continue mobilising, networking and fostering dialogue within and between countries for peace, development and regional integration and maintain a coherent voice on gender issues.

Urge suppliers, including the Western Powers, to end the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the region and to respect and fully implement the relevant Protocols and Agreements;

Further urge for cooperation at regional and international levels in combating acts of terrorism and drug trafficking;

We reaffirm our commitment and reiterate our readiness to contribute to the success of the IC-GLR in general, peace-building, stability, economic development and regional integration, democracy and good governance, humanitarian and social issues;

We convey our appreciation to the Heads of States and Governments of the core countries, as well as the African Union and the United Nations, the Group of Friends for recognising the role of women as partners in peace, security, economic development, regional integration, democracy and good governance, humanitarian and social issues;


Done at Kigali,
9 October, 2004


Conférence Internationale sur la Région des Grands Lacs

DECLARATION DE KIGALI

SUR

LA REUNION DES FEMMES DE LA REGION DES FEMMES


Nous, déléguées représentant les pays du champ de la région des Grands Lacs, à savoir: le Burundi, la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), le Kenya, le Rwanda, la Tanzanie, l'Ouganda, la Zambie, et la République Sud Africaine, cooptée, réunies à la Première réunion régionale des femmes tenue à Kigali, Rwanda, du 7 au 9 octobre 2004, dans le cadre de la Conférence Internationale sur la Région des Grands Lacs et sous l’égide d' Union Africaine et des Nations Unies;

Préoccupées par les conflits multidimensionnels ayant cours dans la Région des Grands Lacs, avec comme conséquences des souffrances indescriptibles jamais connues par les communautés, surtout les femmes et les enfants, ainsi qu’une forte perte en vies humaines;

Condamnant toutes les idéologies divisionnistes et tous les actes de génocide, de massacres, de terrorisme, de racisme, d’ethnicisme, ainsi que toutes autres formes de violence et de crimes contre l’humanité;

En outre préoccupées par la recrudescence de la violence sexiste et sexuelle, et surtout l’usage du viol comme arme de guerre et la victimisation répétée des femmes à travers la violation physique, sociale et économique, engendrée par les actes brutaux;

Conscientes du fait que l’insécurité continuelle contribue à l’accélération de la propagation du VIH/SIDA, surtout à l'endroit des femmes et des enfants, alors qu’ils continuent à prendre charge des malades et à diriger les ménages;

Conscientes de la réalité que les femmes continuent de payer un lourd tribut des conflits, ce qui accroît leur vulnérabilité et réduit leur accès aux services sociaux de base, notamment l'éducation et la santé;

Conscientes en outre de la pauvreté sans cesse croissante et de la dislocation des familles, aggravées par les catastrophes naturelles et l’insécurité;

Préoccupées par la dégradation de l’environnement et ses impacts sur la santé et le développement de la région;

Conscientes et préoccupées par les déplacements massifs des populations (réfugiés et déplacés internes) et des cas d’insécurité y afférant;

Préoccupées par l’exploitation illicite des ressources de la région depuis les temps coloniaux jusqu'à ce jour, ce qui a un impact négatif sur la sécurité, le développement et les droits des populations de la région des Grands Lacs;

Préoccupées en outre par la prolifération des armes légères et de petit calibre et des mines anti-personnelles dans la région, malgré les efforts déployés par les gouvernements respectifs et par la communauté internationale pour mettre en œuvre la démobilisation, le désarmement, la réinsertion, la repartriement et réhabilitation (DDRRR);

Préoccupées du fait que le rôle important des femmes dans la promotion de la paix, la sécurité et le développement n’est pas intégré dans les principales structures de gouvernance malgré le fait qu’elles constituent la plus forte majorité des populations, ni leurs contributions et compétences tant significatives;

Conscientes du fait que, malgré les engagements pris en vue d’accroître le nombre de femmes occupant des postes de responsabilité et de prise de décisions, les femmes sont toujours marginalisées;

Reconnaissant que les femmes ont toujours un accès limité aux principaux facteurs de production, elles demeurent cependant les productrices agricoles, ouvrières, gestionnaires, commerçantes, pourvoyeuses de connaissances et d'innovations;

Demeurant engagées à nos valeurs fondamentales du respect de la diversité, de l’habilitation des communautés et de la jouissance des droits humains par toutes les populations de la région;

Rappelant les principes fondamentaux garantis par les conventions internationales, les diverses résolutions et déclarations des Nations Unies, en particulier la Résolution 1325 (2000) du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies, et la Convention sur l’élimination de toutes formes de discrimination contre les femmes (la CEDEF).

Guidée par la Déclaration de l’Union africaine sur l’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes, par la Charte africaine sur les droits de l'homme et des peuples, et par le Protocole sur les droits des femmes en Afrique adopté à Maputo (2003);

Reconnaissant les engagements pris dans le cadre des Protocoles d’Arusha, de Lusaka et de Pretoria, et des Accords y afférents ainsi que leur mise en œuvre inadéquate;

Engagées au maintien des principes de démocratie, de transparence et de bonne gouvernance, d’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes et de développement durable;

Préoccupées du non-respect des principes fondamentaux d’intégrité territoriale, de souveraineté et de non agression;

Conscientes de l’existence de la manipulation et de l’exploitation de l’ethnicité à des fins politiques et personnelles;

NOUS, DELEGUEES A LA REUNION DES FEMMES DE LA REGION DES GRANDS LACS:

Déclarons notre engagement indéfectible à contribuer de manière significative à la recherche de la résolution pacifique des conflits, de la justice, de la paix durable et de la stabilité dans la Région des Grands Lacs.

Affirmons notre ingéniosité à nous mobiliser pour la paix, la stabilité, la sécurité et le développement durable.

Réaffirmons nos efforts soutenus en vue d’explorer les voies et moyens de lutter contre l’impunité, surtout en cas de violations graves des droits des femmes.

Lançons un appel aux Chefs d’Etat et de Gouvernement pour qu’ils:

· veillent à l'adoption et à l’application d’une législation qui protège et fait valoir les droits et la dignité des femmes et des filles;

· prennent des mesures concrètes pour mettre fin à la culture d’impunité et pour mettre en application des actions punitives a l’endroit des auteurs des crimes contre l’humanité, particulièrement le génocide, les massacres des populations, le viol et d’autres formes de violence sexuelle;

· mettent en place des mécanismes et des politiques pour éliminer l’ethnicisme et l’exclusion;

· mettent en place un mécanisme régional doté de ressources adéquates en vue d’assurer la représentation équitable et la participation effective des femmes aux processus de paix, de gouvernance et de développement tant au niveau national que régional;

· fournissent des ressources adéquates pour la mise en œuvre efficace de tous les instruments relatif au droit, à la paix et à la sécurité des femmes et des enfants;

· s’acquittent de leurs responsabilités envers les personnes déplacées à l'intérieur de leurs pays et de s'assurer de la formulation et de la mise en oeuvre rapide de politiques nationales et régionales sur les réfugiés et les déplacés internes;

· harmonisent les politiques nationales sur le traitement, la prise en charge et la prestation de services aux victimes des conflits, aux personnes affectées et infectées par le VIH/SIDA et à d’autres groupes vulnérables et marginalisés, particulièrement les femmes et les enfants;

· harmonisent les politiques nationales et régionales sur la protection de l’environnement pour le développement durable;

· adoptent une action affirmative en faveur des femmes avec un quota de 50%, tel qu’il a été prévu par l’UA à tous les niveaux de prise de décisions;

· assurent l’accès à l’éducation formelle et informelle, au soins de santé et à d’autres services sociaux, avec un appui particulier aux groupes vulnérables;

· assurent l’intégration du genre dans les législations, politiques et programmes;

· assurent l’intégration des perspectives genre dans les politiques macroéconomiques;

· assurent la mise en place des institutions financières et initient des investissements pour éliminer les inégalités en matière de genre;

· garantissent des opportunités économiques pour permettre aux femmes d’avoir accès au crédit et à la propriété, y compris la terre;

· négocient en tant que bloc les questions économiques, afin de protéger les intérêts des femmes contre les pratiques et politiques et déloyales;

Lançons un appel aux Commissions spécialisées chargées de la DDRRR pour qu’elles accordent une attention particulière aux besoins spécifiques des ex-combattantes, des dépendants des combattants et de tous les groupes vulnérables, dans le processus de réinsertion et de réhabilitation;

Exhortons nos gouvernements respectifs à:

· accélérer la ratification du Protocole de l’UA sur les droits des femmes;

· garantir la représentation et la participation égales des femmes à toutes les réunions et consultations organisées dans le cadre de la CI/RGL et d’autres fora à travers:

Ø une action affirmative et palliative dans la composition de la délégation de chaque pays conformément aux directives de l’UA;

Ø l’implication et la participation effectives des organisations et réseaux de femmes à toutes ces réunions.

· institutionnaliser le Forum des femmes de la Région des Grands Lacs comme partie intégrante de la CI/RGL, en partenariat avec l’UA et les Nations Unies.

Lançons un appel à toutes les femmes de la région des Grands Lacs pour qu’elles continuent à se mobiliser, à travailler en réseau et à favoriser le dialogue au sein et entre les pays, pour la paix, le développement et l’intégration régionale, et pour qu’elles maintiennent une voix cohérente sur les questions du genre.

Exhortons les fournisseurs, y compris les puissances occidentales, à mettre fin la prolifération des armes légères et de petit calibre dans la région, et à mettre en œuvre intégralement les protocoles et accords y afférents.

Insistons vivement sur la coopération aux niveaux régional et international, dans la lutte contre les actes de terrorisme;

Nous réaffirmons notre engagement et réitérons notre volonté de contribuer au succès de la CI/RGL en général, et en particulier à la promotion de la paix durable et stabilité, au développement économique et à l’intégration économique, à la démocratie et à la bonne gouvernance et aux questions humanitaires et sociales.

Nous exprimons notre gratitude aux Chefs d’Etat et de Gouvernement des pays de la Région des Grands Lacs, ainsi qu’à l’Union africaine, aux Nations Unies et au Groupe des Amis, pour avoir reconnu le rôle des femmes en tant que partenaires dans la paix, la sécurité, le développement économique, l’intégration régionale, la démocratie et la bonne gouvernance ainsique les affaires humanitaires et sociales.



Fait à Kigali,
Le 9 octobre 2004

Nigeria: Woman pleads for mercy

2004-11-04

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=vn20041104020830638C757924

A 25-year-old woman appealed against a death-by-stoning sentence for adultery in an Islamic court on Wednesday. In September an Islamic shariah court in Nigeria's Bauchi state found Daso Adamu guilty of adultery.

North Africa: CEDAW: Women's undeniable right for protection

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/25504

Amnesty International has called on governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to respect and ensure respect of women's rights by lifting their reservations to the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) [http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=483], which aims to protect women from violence and discrimination. In a report entitled Weakening the protection of women from violence in the Middle East and North Africa region, Amnesty International urged these governments to bring their domestic laws in line with international standards, including CEDAW, the main treaty devoted to the rights of women.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: ACT 77/082/2004
3 November 2004

Amnesty International today called on governments in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) to respect and ensure respect of women's rights by
lifting their reservations to the Convention on Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
[http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/display.php?doc_id=483], which aims to
protect women from violence and discrimination.

In a report entitled Weakening the protection of women from violence in
the Middle East and North Africa region published today, Amnesty
International urged these governments to bring their domestic laws in line
with international standards, including CEDAW, the main treaty devoted to
the rights of women.

"These reservations deny women the rights that CEDAW is meant to guarantee
-- including their right to protection from violence and discrimination.
They also encourage violence against women to remain sustained in law and
practice. They should be lifted and lifted now," said Mervat Rishmawi,
Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty
International.

The report argues that reservations expressed by most countries in the
MENA region that ratified CEDAW have rendered the convention almost
meaningless and ineffective. Although international law permits
reservations upon ratification, they should not be contrary to the object
and purpose of the treaty. In reality, most of the reservations entered in
the region are inconsistent with what is permissible.

Lifting the reservations in practice for instance would allow a woman
subjected to violence by her husband to seek government support. Until
now, state officials in many countries refuse to intervene on the grounds
that problems between husband and wife are "family affairs" and should
thus be resolved at home. CEDAW calls on governments to change any
practice, laws or regulations that are discriminatory against women
whether committed by officials or private individuals. Any reservation to
this provision renders the protection of women completely ineffective.

Lifting the reservations would also allow a married woman living in a
foreign state to return to her home country if she is subjected to
domestic violence by her husband. National legislation in many of the
countries in the region currently stipulate that a woman can only leave
her country of residence with her husband's permission, thus denying her
the freedom of movement which ought to be guaranteed by CEDAW.

"Governments have an obligation to provide women with their undeniable
right to protection from violence and discrimination. As state parties,
they also have an obligation to bring their laws in line with CEDAW and
take steps to review national legislation," said Mervat Rishmawi.

Countries that have expressed reservations argue that the convention
conflicts with national legislation and Islamic Shari'a. Many countries in
the region have national legislation, including those that are said to be
based on religious laws, which are discriminatory against women and are
not consistent with international standards. Amnesty International is
concerned that reservations entered by the MENA countries run contrary to
the very purpose of the Convention.

Amnesty International is calling on governments in the region that have
not yet ratified CEDAW -- namely Iran, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates -- to do so without reservations. The organization is also
calling on those governments to become party to the Optional Protocol to
CEDAW which allows for complaints to be submitted by individuals and
groups.


Background

This report is launched as part of Amnesty International's Campaign to
Stop Violence Against Women. One of the key aspects of the campaign is to
lobby governments to ratify CEDAW, and remove reservations that they have
entered to it.

Reasons used for the reservations entered by countries in the Middle East
and North Africa are not unique to the region. For example, the following
have entered reservations using the explanation that it conflicts with
national legislation: Malta, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Other
countries beyond the region have also entered reservations on the basis
that it conflicts with religious laws. These include Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mauritania, and Singapore. Amnesty International is lobbying for
the lifting of these reservations.

South Africa: Issues in the feminisation of labour in South Africa

2004-11-04

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC16085

The feminisation of the labour market in South Africa has not changed the traditional overrepresentation of women in low-income, less secure employment. The study by the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Cape Town also found that while women's increased labour force participation had afforded women some increased opportunities and power, white women seem to have been the main beneficiaries. This paper examines the dramatic increase in the labour force participation of women in South Africa since the mid-1990s.

DRC: Executions, Torture by Armed Groups in Ituri

2004-11-04

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/22/congo9555.htm

People’s Armed Forces of Congo combatants under the command of General Jérôme Kakwavu tortured 24 civilians and killed six of them in October, Human Rights Watch charges. Operating in Ituri, a region in the northeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the armed group has so far remained outside the peace process that has brought other rebel forces into a transitional government.

Niger: Activists win UK award for fight against slavery

2004-11-04

http://www.antislavery.org/archive/press/latestpressrelease.htm

Timidria, an organisation that has spearheaded Niger's anti-slavery movement, is being presented with the 2004 Anti-Slavery Award from Anti-Slavery International. Slavery is an integral part of Niger society. Thousands of people are born into a slave class and are forced to work without freedom or pay throughout their lives. The true scale of slavery across the country only became clear last year, following Timidria's research -- the first national study of slavery to be carried out.

Niger: Attempts to end slavery

2004-11-04

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3972669.stm

"I was my mistress's slave - that was my identity," says Assibit, 50, who ran away from her master in June of this year. After walking 30 kilometres to the nearest village, she was taken by locals to the Timidria office in Abalak. Assibit was born into slavery - as was her mother, her husband and her five children. The government says it is trying to clamp down on slavery - and has introduced laws so that slave owners can be punished - but still there are estimated to be tens of thousands of people in Niger in bonded labour.

Sudan: Investing in human rights abuses

2004-11-04

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=504045

Harvard University in the United States has invested millions of dollars in a Chinese oil company whose financial dealings with the Sudanese government, human rights activists say, have funded that regime’s ongoing slaughter of its own people, according to a report in the Harvard college newspaper, The Crimson. Filings by the Harvard Management Company indicate the University owned 72,000 shares of that oil stock, PetroChina, as of June 30 of this year. Human rights activists and international media have said that oil revenues are helping the government pay for weapons for the janjaweed and bombers to conduct air raids on Darfurian civilians.

Zimbabwe: COSATU moves to barricade borders

2004-11-04

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2004/November/November4/6952.shtml

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), stung by last week’s humiliating deportation of its top officials, is mobilising civic groups in the region to seal entry points into Zimbabwe for four days — a move that could trigger a diplomatic rift between the two countries. The proposed blockade, being coordinated in conjunction with Amnesty International in Johannesburg, South Africa, is pencilled for December 4 to 8 2004, according to information obtained by The Financial Gazette.

Zimbabwe: Unmasking Zanu PF hypocrisy about NGOs

2004-11-04

http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,508

Zimbabwe's beleaguered ruling party has introduced a Bill banning foreign funding of, and imposing extraordinary state controls over, non-governmental organisations involved in human rights and governance activities. Resorting to Africa-centrism and its 1964 ideology of "we are our own liberators", Zanu PF claims these organisations tot up murder and torture accounts and teach the bourgeois delusions of multiparty democracy and individual liberty all for the Blair-Bush conspiracy. Zanu PF liberated Zimbabwe on its own, it says: so should its challengers. Is this belief myth or lie? Zanu PF's version of struggle history forgets scores of foreign supporters, argues this commentary on the website of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Africa/Global: Invitation for research papers

2004-11-04

http://www.gcim.org/ir_gmp.htm

The Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) invites contributions to a series of research papers titled ‘Global Migration Perspectives’, edited by Dr Jeff Crisp and Dr Colleen Thouez. The purpose of the series is to contribute to the current discourse on global migration issues, and to assist the Commission in formulating policy options and proposals for its final report, which will be submitted to the UN Secretary-General in mid-2005. Preference will be given to papers that provide creative and policy-relevant perspectives on global migration issues. A fee will be paid for all papers that are accepted for publication.

Africa: The challenge of internal displacement in Africa

2004-11-04

http://www.fmreview.org/text/FMR/21/24.htm

"African states and governments need to be sensitised about their obligations towards IDPs, and about IDPs' rights under the African Charter, their respective constitutions and national laws. Urgent attention should be directed at the root causes of displacement in Africa. The absence of a binding international legal regime on internal displacement is a grave lacuna in international law," states Bahame Tom Nyanduga, Special Rapporteur on Refugees, IDPs and Asylum Seekers in Africa for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Nyanduga was writing in the September issue of Forced Migration Review.

Liberia: Riots kill 16, delay repatriation of refugees

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43954

Aid workers have been forced to suspend plans to bring Liberian refugees back home after riots in the capital Monrovia killed at least 16 people in the worst outbreak of violence the West African country has witnessed since its civil war ended a year ago.

Sudan/Uganda: 2 000 Sudanese enter Uganda

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43917

An estimated 2,000 people, mainly women and children, have entered Uganda during the past three months after fleeing hunger in southern Sudan, local officials in northern Uganda said on Friday. "We estimate that up to 2,000 of them have crossed over to Moyo district," Akumu Mavenjina, the Resident District Commissioner in charge of Moyo told IRIN by telephone from Moyo town.

**Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai's acquittal opens new dangers

Brian Raftopoulos

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/25432

The news of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai's acquittal on the charge of treason two weeks ago has been hailed as a step forward in the quagmire that is Zimbabwean politics. It was certainly welcome relief in what is otherwise a political terrain of sustained demoralisation. The case itself was based on suspect evidence, and a rebarbative state witness who became an embarrassment even to the state itself.

Information minister Jonathan Moyo proclaimed that the judgement "confounds, exposes and shames those merchants of lies and falsehoods...always given to maligning and denigrating Zimbabwe as undemocratic and without an independent judiciary".

It would be a mistake, however, to regard this judgement as a reversal of the politics of repression that characterises Zimbabwe.

Firstly, the judgement does not detract from the immense damage that has been inflicted on the judiciary by the executive since 2000. The combination of highly politicised judicial appointments at the highest levels, executive disregard of court rulings and the continuous use of the judiciary and police to undermine the opposition and the civic movement have played a decisive role in shaping the current political terrain.

Secondly, the state has shown little additional indication that it is willing to open up political space in the country. The major pillars of repressive legislation, namely the severe controls on information dissemination and freedom of association, remain in place. Recently both the ministers of Information and Legal Affairs have reiterated the government's refusal to allow the opposition access to the public media on the basis that the MDC is not a loyal opposition.

This characterisation of the MDC is consistent with the declaration that the 2005 general election will be an "anti-Blair" election. The implications of such a discursive assault are that the MDC is not a national entity and therefore not entitled to speak on national issues. The ruling party has set the parameters of national legitimacy and in so doing has unilaterally delineated the boundaries of what is acceptable in the political arena.

A further message of such state censure is that those parties that fall outside such a selective definition of the "national" must accept to be dealt with by any means necessary. This language of selective citizenship has marked the authoritarian nationalism of the ruling party and there are indications of its infectiousness in other countries in the region.

In the light of such prevailing conditions it is necessary to read the positive judgement in the case of Tsvangirai extremely cautiously.

It is now clear that the Mugabe regime needs a "legitimate" outcome from the 2005 election, and to that purpose has instituted some minimal election reforms that it argues are in accordance with the Mauritius guidelines on minimal standards. An international acceptance of the 2005 election would serve as a launching pad for the ruling party's return to the international community.

Thus far President Robert Mugabe has retained the support of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union and there is little to assume that such support will not remain in place until next year.

Certainly there is a general position in the region that the 2005 election could serve as the means to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis, even if such a resolution takes place at the level of form rather than substantive content. South African President Thabo Mbeki appears to favour such a denouement for his policy of quiet diplomacy.

Thus Sadc will certainly be pushing the MDC to take part in next year's election, and there are indications that sections of the European Union favour such a course as well, if only to get Zimbabwe off the international agenda.

The purported election reforms, combined with the favourable court judgement of the opposition leader, will thus be used as evidence of goodwill from the ruling party, and a strong push for the opposition to enter the 2005 electoral race.

In the current political environment, in which so much damage has been done to the political process, a decision by the opposition to oblige such pressures will more than likely lead to a major defeat of the MDC.

In the event of such an outcome the Sadc minimum standards will have been used to ratify an authoritarian regime in the name of the interests of Zimbabwe and the region, and Mbeki will have walked the tightrope of maintaining African legitimacy while remaining the "pointman" of the West. The major victim of such a process will be the struggles for democratisation not only in Zimbabwe but in the region.

* Brian Raftopoulos is associate professor of development studies, IDS, University of Zimbabwe. This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent and is reprinted with permission of the author. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Botswana: Ruling party triumphs

2004-11-04

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3968699.stm

Botswana's ruling party has won general elections, giving President Festus Mogae a second term in office. The Botswana Democratic Party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1966, took 44 of the 57 parliamentary seats. The fragmented opposition divided the vote, and the opposition Botswana National Front won just 12 seats.

Burundi: Tutsis finally accept interim constitution

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43942

Concerns over a constitutional crisis in Burundi abated on Monday when six Tutsi-dominated parties dropped their long-standing opposition to the country's current interim constitution. The interim constitution has been in effect since 20 October when the country's transitional, two-chamber parliament voted for it to stay in force for six months. Officially, the transition period ended on Monday, but the interim constitution allows the country's institutions to stay in place until elections are held in 2005.

Kenya: New Constitution Remains Distant Dream

2004-11-04

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26082

Kenyans are fed up of waiting for a new constitution which seems to be dragging on indefinitely. To break the impasse, several meetings, attended by stakeholders such as legislators and civil society groups, have been held this year to put the constitutional talks back on track. The draft constitution was drawn by the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, after collecting views from Kenyans on what they wanted in the document.

Namibia: Opposition consider boycott, claim TV biased

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43927

Just weeks away from Namibia's parliamentary and presidential elections, two main opposition parties are considering boycotting the polls, accusing the public broadcaster of political bias. The Congress of Democrats (CoD) and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) last Thursday alleged that the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was awarding the ruling SWAPO party a disproportionate amount of television airtime. A third opposition party has taken court action to force the NBC to give equal coverage.

Nigeria: Union calls second strike

2004-11-04

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3969381.stm

Nigeria's main trade union has said it will hold a second general strike in protest at fuel rises, warning it would specifically target oil production. The umbrella union body Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) confirmed the action would start on 16 November. Union leaders accused the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell of being the "enemy of the Nigerian people" and called for action against the firm.

**Kenya: Walking the talk on corruption

Maina Kiai

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/25431

Without doubt, the star of the October 12-13 international conference on anti-corruption that brought together delegates from more than 90 countries to Kenya was Georgian Prime Minister Zhurab Zhvania. He was remarkable in his clarity on anti-corruption efforts, expressing his willingness to take on the high and mighty as a way to tame corruption in Georgia. He did not mince his words in a typical bureaucratic and diplomatic manner as most leaders do, winning over the vast majority of the audience. He said anti-corruption efforts must be multi-faceted, including political, social and legal censure, especially since finding the evidence to sustain a legal charge can be hard to come by.

His statement that serious circumstantial information against a minister or top civil servant was a reflection on him directly as prime minister and therefore merited political action through suspension from office until investigations were complete, brought thunderous applause from the audience perhaps reflecting on the differences between Kenya's fight against graft and Georgia's. Mr Zhvania described how on taking office he reduced the size of his staff from 600 to 90, recruiting new and highly qualified people as a way to bring in reformers to implement the changes required.

He talked of how he dismissed 20 of the 23 generals in the military and how he scrapped the entire traffic police unit which was the most obvious corruption machine in the country. The leader emphasised that one cannot have reforms without reformers, a statement that has begun to emerge strongly in Kenya and which Mr Justice Aaron Ringera also endorsed. One of the most important tools for fighting corruption, he declared, was a Freedom of Information Act that strips away the secrecy in and of government, on which grand corruption thrives.

This in Kenya would mean the discarding of the Official Secrets Act that some top officials love and throw in the faces of potential whistle blowers on corruption attempts. But critically, for us in Kenya, it would also mean ensuring that the declarations of wealth introduced last year be made public.

By the end of the conference, participants remarked that this was the approach that Kenya, and Africa needed to tackle corruption. The meeting was an outstanding success, having been organised by the Department of Governance, Transparency International-Kenya, and Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin. The fact that so many leaders in politics, civil society and anti-corruption commissions from across the world agreed to come to Kenya attests to the international recognition that Kenya has gained - even if only slightly - from the days of the Moi regime. It is unimaginable that a conference of this nature could have been held in Kenya two years ago.

The presence of so many leaders was a tribute to the international credibility that Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo brings to the anti-corruption struggle. The gathering included the Prime Minister of Norway, who reminded the audience that fighting corruption is not done for the sake of it, but to reduce poverty and realise economic and social rights.

Others were the Mexican minister for Public Administration, who together with his president is responsible for taking action against public officials who engage in corruption, the Peruvian Speaker of the National Assembly and the chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee, and the Norwegian Minister for International Development.

There were five leaders of anti-corruption agencies from Pakistan, Malawi, Zambia, Indonesia, Guatemala, and South Korea who were all relatively new in their positions, reflecting the start-stop-start nature of anti-corruption efforts across the world.

President Kibaki got the ball rolling by reaffirming his personal commitment to leading the fight against corruption. He stated that like any battle, the war must be led from the front by generals so that officers and foot soldiers can carry it on. Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi repeated his clear and unequivocal attack on corruption saying: "We must not feed corruption by hiding it away."

He also reiterated his oft-quoted view that the networks of corruption still existed and were clearly operating within the State bureaucracy. He stated that corruption must be at "the top of the development agenda, since it destroys everything including the fabric of society." And he is right, since State tolerance of corruption makes nonsense of any efforts geared to improving human rights record, security and eradicating poverty.
But was this meeting simply an attempt at public relations on anti-corruption? What lessons were learnt, if any?

Mr Zhvania spelt it out clearly that anti-corruption efforts need a strong, concerted and determined approach, without fear of making mistakes, to succeed. It needs strong will, clarity of mission and decisiveness. And it needs political and legal action. Some in the audience attributed his direct and total approach to anti-corruption crusade to the fact that he is only 41 years-old.

But the Prime minister explained the approach was a direct result of having watched the slow but sure collapse of the Shevardnadze regime in Georgia of which he had been a part of and which had come to power following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr Shevardnadze had come to power with massive popular support, promising to reform and rebuild Georgia and its overwhelming corruption problem. Some of his advisors, such as Mr Zhvania, urged him to move quickly on corruption before the window of opportunity closed.

But Mr Shevardnadze was indecisive, allowing the return of the networks of corruption and endemic corruption. It was so big a problem that it infected Mr Shevardnadze himself, and he attempted to steal the November 2003 election to remain in office. He had to be forced out in what became known as the "Rose Revolution" because thousands of protesters carried roses to symbolise their peaceful intentions.

On becoming prime minister, Mr Zhvania vowed not to make the mistakes of his mentor and moved fast before the window of opportunity closed. His radical approach has borne fruits, not just in terms of massive political support but also economically, as both domestic and international investors increased their confidence in the country. Moreover, his war on graft has reduced some of the costs that arise with irregular deals, making life a lot more affordable. The government has also recovered some stolen assets, adding to its capacity to realise economic and social rights.

Notably, many Kenyan ministers and senior civil servants were not fully engaged in the conference, despite the presence of the international VIPs. Indeed, some of the foreign guests, such as the Norwegian minister for International Development, organised important side meetings during the conference, something that our ministers, many of whom either did not attend or only made technical appearances, would have gained from.

But perhaps the enduring lesson for us is the immensity of the gap between official rhetoric and actual implementation. The rhetoric is spot on, and if Kenya were to be judged from the number of official speeches and pronouncements made against corruption, I am sure we would be at the top of Transparency International's Perception Index. Given some of President Kibaki's actions, such as restoring Mr Githongo to State House, only but a small minority in this country do not recognise his depth and personal commitment to the crusade.

The problem is the considerable public doubt on the commitment of some of the key players in his Government - both political and bureaucratic - to anti-corruption measures. This apparent lack of commitment is gauged by the immense defensiveness and discomfort exhibited when "new" corruption is discussed and by statements that attempt to whitewash scandals such as Anglo Leasing.

It is expressed in the lack of consistency in dealing with circumstantial evidence to force key people around the Anglo Leasing scandal to step aside like Mr Shem Ochuodho and Mr Maurice Dantas of Kenya Pipeline were. They were suspended, not because they engaged in corruption, but to facilitate free investigations.

The lack of commitment is shown by the refusal or time wasting tactics employed whenever questions of expenditures in ministries - especially with regard to the buying of luxurious vehicles at the tax payer's expense - are raised.

Make no mistake: The line between wasteful expenditure of taxpayer's money to buy vehicles worth Sh15 million each for Government officials and official corruption is thin. The mindset that focuses on entitlements in office and using taxpayer's money unreasonably is extremely close to the one that dispenses of the pretence of buying items and simply pocketing the money directly.

As stated by the Norwegian prime minister, Mr Zhvania and Mr Githongo, the window of opportunity to fight official corruption is very small. Mr Githongo suggests 24 months. I think that is too much and the revival of grand corruption in Kenya; through such scandals as Anglo Leasing; attests to the very real possibility that our window of opportunity has closed.

Information in the public domain suggests that the officials who signed the paperwork with a fictitious entity called Anglo Leasing should be charged, at the very least, with criminal negligence and attempt to commit fraud. But this has not been done. Yet there is a real possibility that doing so could lead to further evidence of the real people behind Anglo Leasing.

Similarly, it is not enough for Mr Murungi to continuously complain about the inherited civil servants who facilitate corruption and are an obstacle to reform. For he is a minister, and a powerful one at that, who should act to bring about change instead of just complain like a civil society activist.

That is the challenge before us today. For Kenyans to reap the benefits of all this anti-corruption talk, then the litmus test is the final dismantling of the networks of corruption inherited from the Moi regime which seem to have found a comfortable home within the ranks of the Government.

Only then can we feel confident that the more than US $1 billion stacked abroad from our taxes from the past regime's will bear solid fruit as a dividend on the war against corruption. Only then will we begin to trust the Government to close the door on irregular and illegal allocations of public land and plots.

Time is short but with strength, clarity and leadership, we can still turn this boat called Kenya around.

* Maina Kiai is the Kenya National Human Rights Commission chairman. This article first appeared in the Daily Nation and is reposted here with permission of the author. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Angola: Documentary focuses on struggle to control Angola’s oil

2004-11-04

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/ango-n03.shtml

Britain’s Channel 4 recently broadcast a programme entitled “America’s New Frontier” as part of its Unreported World series. The documentary focused on the social and political situation in Angola. Along with other Western African countries, Angola is becoming increasingly important as a source of oil for the United States. Reporter Sam Killey described Angola as “one of the most strategic frontiers in the American empire.” He explained that in the light of the unstable political situation in the Middle East, Angola and other West African countries were becoming a focus of America’s oil strategy. According to a Human Rights Watch spokesperson, $4.27 billion “went missing” between 1997 and 2002, around nine percent of GDP each year.

Cameroon: Cameroon activists accuse World Bank of double standards over pipeline project

2004-11-04

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=115711&src=dcn

Amid the forest greenery and yellow and purple flowers near Nkol-Ntara, central Cameroon, the scene is disturbed by a sign a few feet high showing an oil derrick and petrol pump . It reads: "Caution: oil pipeline." The notice gives instructions to call a number in case of emergency or before starting to dig. This in a country where the World Bank estimates 30 per cent of adults are illiterate and there is less than one telephone for every 20 people. As attention focuses on the fate of Chad's oil money, however, Cameroonian activists are critical of what they say are double standards in the World Bank - allowing the government to remain opaque and unaccountable despite Cameroon's reputation for corruption.

Tanzania: Corruption, violence and robbery

2004-11-04

http://www.socialwatch.org/en/informesNacionales/369.html

As corruption becomes the surest way for people to access certain rights and services, Tanzanians are increasingly forced to dispose of their assets in order to obtain cash to bribe officials. As a result, corruption is exposing both households and individuals to a constant erosion of income or asset-related resources. In this context, violence, robbery and insecurity are prevalent even within households, where women are now at greater risk than in public places.

Africa: Civil Society Wants More Space

2004-11-04

http://www.pacweb.org/e/images/stories/documents/voices_eng2v4.pdf

The mobilization and organization of African civil society constitutes an important asset in the progress of the continent, concludes a new report from Partnership Africa Canada. "A commitment at this level requires better political recognition than is currently the case. This recognition must be achieved, however, without hindering civil society’s independence." Africa is facing some enormous challenges, which may prompt some to wallow in a state of Afro-pessimism. However, taking this approach would mean ignoring the vast efforts of the populations concerned and the multiple causes of the crises shaking the continent.

Kenya: UN workshop looks at finding $64 billion for Africa

2004-11-04

http://www.sarpn.org.za/newsflash.php#2184

Difficulties mobilizing development resources for Africa and ways of improving the continent's financial systems are being discussed at a workshop in Kenya this week coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Experts attending the Nairobi meeting, held from 1 to 3 November, are seeking to identify how African countries can garner the $64 billion in new investment needed to generate a growth rate of 7 per cent and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) designed to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

South Africa: Reviewing 10 years of unemployment

2004-11-04

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000962/index.php

Job-creation was a leading goal of government policy during the first decade of democracy in South Africa. However, little success has been achieved in the struggle to create sufficient jobs in the economy. Using the expanded definition of unemployment (which includes people who have given up looking for work), the unemployment rate was estimated to be 28.6% at the time of the transition to democracy. The most recent estimates (March 2004) find the unemployment rate to be 41.2% using the expanded definition, translating into 8.4 million unemployed people. This is according to a report from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).

Southern Africa: EFTA negotiations due to be finalised in December

2004-11-04

http://www.tralac.org/scripts/content.php?id=3050

Negotiations between the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) are moving forward successfully, according to South Africa’s Chief Trade Negotiator, Xavier Carim. SACU countries - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland – are due to engage in the final round of negotiations with EFTA countries - Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Iceland - in December at an undetermined location. It is hoped that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will emanate from this meeting, which would in turn result in SACU countries having a "significant" increase in exports particularly in textiles, clothing, fisheries and agriculture.

**Africa: Aids - A moral issue for as long as it is defined by inequalities

Sanjay Basu

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/25433

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the first set of comprehensive data comparing the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in poor countries with the rates of antiretroviral (anti-HIV) drug access in those nations. The data are striking and disheartening, yet have received little press coverage. Indeed, at the time of their release, some American newspapers ran editorials indicating that antiretroviral access has received "too much attention".

Two problems are implicit in such a contention. The first is political. AIDS is very much a symptom - albeit the most extreme symptom - of the large diseases of inequality and poverty that result not only in HIV, but also in hunger, hemorrhagic fever and housing problems. The same credit and political obstacles that have led to gender discrimination in housing and employment have led women into prostitution and relationships based on sexual dominance [1, 2].

The same structural adjustment programs and neoliberal economic policies that have crashed farming sectors and forced thousands into migration are the same policies that have led migrants to the barracks of minefields to live with depression, alcoholism and the subsequent solicitation of prostitutes [3-5]. And so to address AIDS appropriately would be to appreciate that it does not simply receive "too much attention", but that the attention it receives should be drawn towards its base - and this includes the inequalities in healthcare access that are symbolized by antiretroviral access disputes.

The second problem with the new popular line of thought on antiretrovirals is a statistical problem. The recently-released WHO data are striking but perhaps not surprising. If "too much attention" has been focused on drug access, then why are only six-tenths of a percent of the 1.6 million infected people in Tanzania able to access antiretroviral medications? Why are only 1.5% of the 2.4 million in Mozambique and the Congo able to gain such access?

In a country like Zimbabwe, where one of every four adults is infected, only one of every fifth can access an antiretroviral medication. As one scrolls through the WHO's data, the numbers of infected persons continue to be expressed in seven digits, while the percent of those gaining access to antiretrovirals continues into smaller and smaller decimal ranges.

Some persons have stated that countries like those I have listed above lack the necessary infrastructure to deliver antiretroviral therapy [6]. The persons who make such claims do so in order to close conversations and prevent creative solutions from entering the public health community. But others who are determined to open new doors for patients have definitively responded to the "infrastructure line" - in Haiti, Paul Farmer's group has shown better treatment rates in the poorest sector of the Western Hemisphere than at Harvard's teaching hospitals [7, 8]; in the warring regions of the Congo, Doctors without Borders has seen better results than their colleagues at hospitals in France [www.msf.org].

The adherence of patients in poor settings to antiretroviral medications is often higher than that in the U.S. and other wealthy nations [9] - both because the groups that have worked in the poorest of places have incorporated community health workers into programs that are constructed with the advice of the poor (as opposed to employing a highly institutionalized and decentralized mode of care seen in the U.S., where a poor patient needs to travel to a dozen offices to complete welfare paperwork), and because generic medicine producers have combined the key antiretroviral medications into a single once-a-day pill [10].

Ah, but won't these generics undermine research and development (R&D)? That would be true, if the patent-based industry these generics compete against were to have done such R&D. But in reality, the top AIDS medicines were researched primarily through taxpayer funds distributed through the National Institutes of Health to government and university laboratories, then sold for tiny royalties to the American and European pharmaceutical industry [11, 12].

That industry has been the most profitable in the world for fourteen years - making profits as a percentage of revenue approximately three times the rate of the rest of the Fortune 500 [13, 14]. Eighty-five percent of the top therapeutic drugs on their market had their R&D conducted through taxpayer funding [14]. And the industry's own R&D is surprisingly unproductive, with over half of new drugs on the market being reformulations of old medicines, carrying little or no therapeutic value according to the Food and Drug Administration's rankings [14].

This should be unsurprising to those who view the industry's tax records, obtainable through the Securities & Exchange Commission. These records reveal that the patent-based industry spends, on average, 27% of its revenue on marketing and only 11% on R&D [12, 15, 16].

The effects of generic competition to help break this monopoly are striking in terms of improving medicine access [17], but what the WHO shows is that these generics have not reached far enough. In January of 2005, the provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement passed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) will begin to kick-in, limiting the ability of key generic providers to supply poor markets, as described extensively elsewhere [18, 19]. Recent trade agreements written by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have further restricted competition, ironically while claiming to be promoting "free trade" [20].

But what the WHO data reveal is that certain key institutions controlling antiretroviral expansion projects have been far more successful in this hostile context than others. The most transparent group - the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria - although not without its own problems, has enhanced access for the most number of people, including those in 63 countries. The group is notable for receiving public commentary and making its processes of change public and visible.

Yet in comparison, groups that have worked with little public input and much secrecy - the Clinton Foundation and the World Bank group - have garnered press coverage while accomplishing comparatively little. The Clinton group, in spite of its fanfare, has reached only 18 countries with its drug deals; the World Bank has assisted 3 in procuring antiretrovirals, mostly for technical assistance purposes (the nature of which is unclear). And U.S. government based programs, in spite of their purported funding levels, have similarly poor coverage, with the President's AIDS Initiative reaching just 14 nations, excluding many with the highest burdens of disease. At every level, then, the issue of how effectively criticism from those most affected by this disease reaches those most in power ultimately reciprocates in terms of efficacy in treating the poor.

From the perspectives of those who cannot leap to Geneva, such high-level bureaucracies may seem out of reach, and the problems therefore too out of control to effect. Yet a group of university students is assisting in changing that idea, demonstrating that multiple levels of action are necessary and can be effective in addressing this problem. On Saturday October 9th, a group of students called Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) released an "Equitable Access License" (EAL) with provisions designed for universities to reshape the manner in which they sell (often taxpayer-funded) university research to pharmaceutical companies [www.essentialmedicines.org].

The provisions are based out of an earlier movement at Yale University, which resulted in a 40% decrease in the price of the key AIDS drug stavudine in South Africa. But recognizing, once again, that AIDS medicines are symbolic of a larger, systemic problem, the students have written the EAL to apply to all devices and medicines of public health importance. This is particularly crucial in the context of the USTR's recent trade agreements, which have not only included the types of provisions that lead to the spread of infectious disease, but also are likely to continue altering the food importation patterns of nations in such a manner that the recently-observed elevations in diabetes and cardiovascular disease in poor nations are likely to escalate [21].

The EAL may appear as a technical project - and it is - but its spirit has more to do with morality than with the details of intellectual property law. The word "morality" rarely appears in discussions of AIDS, since such conversations are usually clouded by questions about whether AIDS is a "development issue" (and I would suppose it is), whether AIDS is a "legal quandary" (I suppose everything can be made into one of these), and whether AIDS is a "national security issue" (what type of people need this kind of argument to address a pandemic?).

At its core, these kinds of statements avoid the more basic, and perhaps more truthful, reality that AIDS will be a moral issue for as long as the politics of this Syndrome are defined by inequalities. In the face of such a truth, progress seems to be made by pushing at every level - from universities to global institutions - and observing what trends in the behaviour of the powerful can improve the livelihoods of the poor.

*The WHO's data can be obtained at:
http://omega.med.yale.edu/~sb493/files/IP/ARV%20coverage.xls

* Sanjay Basu is at the Yale University School of Medicine.
http://omega.med.yale.edu/~sb493 For references please click on the link below. Comments can be sent to editor@pambazuka.org
References:

1. Farmer, P.E., M. Connors, and J. Simmons, eds. Women, Poverty and AIDS: Sex,
Drugs, and Structural Violence. 1996, Common Courage Press: Monroe.
2. Bello, W., S. Cunningham, and L.K. Poh, A Siamese Tragedy: Development and
Disintegration in Modern Thailand. 1998, London: Zed Books.
3. Campbell, C., Migrancy, Masculine Identities and AIDS: The Psychosocial
Context of HIV Transmission on the South African Gold Mines. Social Science and
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4. Campbell, C., Selling sex in the time of AIDS: the psycho-social context of
condom use by sex workers on a Southern African mine. Social Science and
Medicine, 2000. 50: p. 479-94.
5. Kim, J.Y., et al., eds. Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of
the Poor. 2000, Common Courage Press: Monroe.
6. Mukherjee, S., Why cheap AIDS drugs for Africa might be dangerous, in The New
Republic. 2000.
7. Farmer, P.E. Introducing ARVs in Resource-Poor Settings: Expected and
Unexpected Challenges and Consequences. in 2002 International AIDS Conference.
2002. Barcelona.
8. Mukherjee, J.S., et al., Tackling HIV in resource poor countries. BMJ, 2003.
327(7423): p. 1104-1106.
9. McNeil, D.G., Africans Outdo Americans in Following AIDS Therapy, in The New
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combinations (FDCs) of antiretroviral drugs. 2004, MSF: Geneva.
11. Goozner, M., The $800 Million Pill: The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs.
2004, Berkeley: University of California Press.
12. Light, D. and J. Lexchin, Will Lower Drug Prices Jeopardize Drug Research?
The American Journal of Bioethics, 2004. 4(1): p. W3-W6.
13. Schondelmeyer, S.W., Competition and Pricing Issues in the Pharmaceutical
Market. 2000, PRIME Institute, University of Minnesota: Minneapolis.
14. Young, R. and M. Surrusco, Rx R&D Myths: The Case Against the Drug
Industry's R&D "Scare Card". 2001, Public Citizen: Washington D.C.
15. Mahan, D., Profiting from Pain: Where Prescription Drug Dollars Go. 2002,
Families USA: Washington D.C.
16. Pollack, R., Off the Charts: Pay, Profits and Spending by Drug Companies.
2001, Families USA: Washington D.C.
17. Smith, M., Generic competition, price and access to medicines: the case of
antiretrovirals in Uganda. 2002, Oxfam: Oxford.
18. Smith, M. and M. Bailey, TRIPS: whose interests are being served? The
Lancet, 2003. 362(9380): p. 260.
19. Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, Doha Derailed: A Progress Report on
TRIPS and Access to Medicines. 2003, Geneva: MSF.
20. Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, Access to Medicines at Risk across
the Globe: What to Watch Out For in the Free Trade Agreements with the United
States. 2004, MSF: Geneva.
21. Zimmet, P., Globalization, coca-colonization and the chronic disease
epidemic: can the Doomsday scenario be averted? Journal of Internal Medicine,
2000. 247: p. 301-10.

Africa/Global: Global Fund Might Not Award Grants in 2005 if Funding Shortfall Not Alleviated, Executive Director Says

2004-11-04

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hiv.cfm#26476

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria faces a "critical year" in 2005 because of funding shortfalls, and it might not be able to award new grants, Executive Director Richard Feachem said in an interview last Thursday while attending an international pharmaceutical industry meeting in Spain, Reuters reports. In order to carry out its work for 2005, the Global Fund needs at least $2.5 billion in funding, but it has secured only $1.6 billion from donors, according to Reuters.

Africa: Africa Needs Tenfold More Cash to Fight Malaria

2004-11-04

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6687788

Africa needs up to $2.5 billion a year to fight malaria, or 10 times the donor funds pledged for a campaign against the disease, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 1 million people a year around the world -- more than 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the WHO said in a statement issued from its regional office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

Africa: African HIV/AIDS Projects Overlook Rural Areas, Speakers at U.N. Meeting Say

2004-11-04

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=26202

Rural African communities are being "torn apart" by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, making farmers and other rural residents the "forgotten victims" of the disease, as prevention and support work is focused primarily in the continent's cities, according to health experts and political leaders speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, AFP/News24.com reports.

Africa: UN health experts convene to improve patient safety

2004-11-04

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12354&Cr=health&Cr1=

With 10 per cent of patients being infected or otherwise harmed during their hospital stay, the United Nations public health agency has launched a programme to set worldwide standards that would reduce the number of preventable new illnesses, injuries and deaths that now cost billions of dollars. The new initiative, would focus on eliminating health-care infections, especially in 2005 and 2006. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that at least half of all medical equipment is unsafe and that 77 per cent of the reported cases of counterfeit and substandard drugs have surfaced in developing countries.

Africa: US fails to sign population agreement

2004-11-04

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=26228

Eighty-five countries last month signed a statement reaffirming commitment to reproductive health- and HIV/AIDS-related population and health goals agreed to 10 years ago at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports. More than 250 world leaders - including presidents, prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners - endorsed the goals of ensuring a woman's right to education, health care and reproductive choices. Despite endorsement by the entire European Union, China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan and more than 12 African nations, the Bush administration refused to support the statement because it mentioned upholding "sexual rights" - a term that the administration says has no "agreed definition" in the international community.

Guinea-Bissau: Cholera kills three, infects 58

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43971

Health authorities in Guinea Bissau said on Monday that a cholera outbreak in the Bijagos archipelago, off the capital, Bissau, had infected 58 people, killing three. The outbreak started in a fishing community in Orangozinho Island among fishermen from neighbouring Guinea and Senegal, Julio Sa Nogueira, Secretary-General of Guinea Bissau’s Health Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

Zambia: HIV funds from USAids, condoms banned in school

2004-11-04

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=26461

The U.S. Agency for International Development plans to give Zambia $24 million to combat AIDS and malaria and improve the quality of drinking water, the U.S. embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, said last Tuesday in a statement, the Associated Press reports. The money will be used to fund health education programs - coordinated by the government and the Society for Family Health - over the next six years Zambia on Tuesday banned free condom distribution in schools just as USAID announced its funding for HIV/AIDS programs, with condom distribution a "key part of the strategy," Reuters reports.

Africa: Promoting education for girls in four African countries

2004-11-04

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC16238

This Unesco paper is a review of girls' basic education initiatives in four countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Swaziland. The case studies evaluate the country's education policy and its real impact on promoting girls' basic education. It examines developments in both formal and non-formal sectors of basic education, highlighting challenges each country has addressed to promote women and girls' education, and identifying the challenges that remain.

Kenya: Free Schooling – Good, but not Enough

2004-11-04

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26121

By any measure, the enrolment of over a million extra children in Kenya’s primary school system over the past two years is a success story. Enrolment figures in the East African country burgeoned after President Mwai Kibaki introduced free primary education in 2003, when he took over as head of state from Daniel arap Moi. One group of children has little to cheer about in this regard, however, namely child workers. Rights activists warn that government will have to couple its policy of free primary schooling with laws making education compulsory if these children are to be brought in from the cold.

Zimbabwe: The Schools Soldier On

2004-11-04

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26096

The government set October as the month by which schools – both public and private – should submit their 2005 budget proposals for approval. The amounts set will have to cover the whole of next year, as the Ministry of Education has indicated it will not entertain requests for supplementary levies. Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate is amongst the highest in the world, however – officially pegged at 252 percent. The continual escalation in prices for goods and services – everything from chalk to fuel – makes projecting financial needs a year ahead akin to gazing in a crystal ball.

South Africa: Minister says bench behind in transformation

2004-11-04

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1742632-6078-0,00.html

South Africa's judiciary is behind in the transformation process, says the country's Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Bridgette Mabandla. She was responding to a question in the National Assembly from former deputy justice minister and now Democratic Alliance shadow justice minister Sheila Camerer who noted that not a single white candidate had been considered by the Judicial Services Commission last week for posts of judges.

**Cameroon: Does isolation still protect forest communities?

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/25426

Indigenous Baka number 30-40,000 and live in the southern and southeastern areas of Cameroon. They are associated with, among other local communities the Bagando Bakwele, Knonbemebe, Vonvo, Zime and Dabjui farmers.

About 4,000 Bagyeli and Bakola live in the southwest, and are associated with Bulu, Ngoumba, Fang and Bassa. Most Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola still rely on hunting and gathering to secure their livelihoods, and the majority still rely on the forests. Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola in general retain many aspects of their forest-based culture, including non-hierarchical social structures coupled with community recognition for individuals' special skills, relatively small communities, an aversion to social conflict, proximate planning horizons and, to those from "outside", an opportunistic circumspection.

For almost all Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola, their forest is their ancestral home, their reliable grocery, the root of their existence, and their customary right, and forests throughout Cameroon's southern forest zone are dotted with their favoured hunting and gathering grounds and their hidden sacred places. Their primarily hunting and gathering lifestyle combined with subsistence trade is associated with high physical mobility, which means that they can be difficult to locate at certain times of year, and their places of work and home are rarely accurately recorded - most are literally off the map.

Cameroon's indigenous forest communities' geographical and social isolation has enabled many of them to retain their forest-based culture since pre-colonial times, while the world around the forest has undergone radical changes. The same applies to indigenous hunter-gatherer communities who have established permanent villages for cultivation outside forests, since the vast majority of them are also completely marginalised from civic and government structures in Cameroon.

This socio-political marginalisation reflects the gross discrimination that Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola face when they leave the security of their forest and communities, where they are powerful and relatively secure, for the amenities of the roadside or neighbouring local villages, where they may be mocked, cheated, and unfairly treated by government and civic authorities. This unsavoury treatment means that many Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola prefer to stay in the security of their forest community and to remain uninvolved in the "affairs of the village."

Indigenous forest peoples' isolation also means that most of them still have almost no access to modern health care, or formal education, and most are unable to speak and read French, the official language that dominates the forest zone in Cameroon. Until recent moves by the Cameroon government and NGOs to enable formal registration few of these people had their own identity cards, and almost all were absent from official census data and electoral lists. Thus they have been unable to stand up to powerful outsiders who sought to abuse their rights and the forest remains an important refuge.

Despite a long history of trickery and persecution by people entering the forests to extract resources such as rubber, wildlife, timber, minerals, and data on the flora and fauna, Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola in general are very open to outside influences. Their traditional forest coping mechanisms, however, are proving unable to protect them from the increased demands on forests in which they have lived for aeons. Since the introduction in 1994 of Cameroon's new forest law there have been significant investments by donors in Cameroon's protected areas network to support older parks and to establish new conservation "planning regions".

The fact that these communities were "off the map" when the parks were established has led to a situation where their forest rights, and hence their right to isolation are denied through the application of non-discretionary rules to protect endangered flora and fauna. Many of these new rules undermine indigenous peoples' hunting and gathering lifestyles, even though their rights to resources and to "traditional sustainable use" of them are protected by national and international legal provisions, and international agency guidelines. Current plans by Conservation and donors (see http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Cameroon/still.html) threaten to widen this pressure to cover huge "landscapes" covering much of the Congo Basin, and this will place further burdens on communities no longer able to isolate themselves.

* Source: World Rainforest Movement Bulletin 87
E-Mail: wrm@wrm.org.uy
Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy

Africa: Report says climate change will slow poverty reduction

2004-11-04

http://www.greenclippings.co.za/gc_main/article.php?story=20041026121841466

A report warning of the economic implications of climate change on the world's poor has brought together environmental and development groups, and has been endorsed by Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The report, entitled "Up in Smoke?" was written by Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation in Britain, and was launched by RK Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It calls for cuts in emissions far beyond Kyoto Protocol targets or risk failure with poverty reduction as part of the millennium development goals.

DRC: Rainforest in danger as loggers return

2004-11-04

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=iol1099130157966S524

As the DRC tries to consolidate peace after a five-year war, the government, private companies and foreign donors are all keen to find ways of tapping into the vast resources of timber in Africa's third-largest country. With nearly 222 million acres of woodland, it has the world's second largest rainforest, half of Africa's total.

Botswana: San court case against Botswana govt to resume

2004-11-04

http://www.afrol.com/articles/14631

The landmark court case against Botswana's government by evicted communities of the San people is to recommence next week. The case was adjourned in July. The San communities are fighting for their right to return to their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Gana and Gwi communities of the San people - also called "Bushmen" or "Basarwa" - are fighting for their right to maintain their extensive hunting and gathering livelihood in the desert reserve after having been evicted by the Batswana government.

South Africa: Land reform, the market and the constitution

2004-11-04

http://www.sacp.org.za/umsebenzi/online/2004/uol051.htm#redpen

Blade Nzimande, General Secretary for the South African Communist Party, writes in the latest edition of Umsebenzi Online: "A central pillar of the SACP's Red October Campaign is the mobilisation of farm-workers and the rural poor in support of our ANC-led alliance's election manifesto commitment to "speed up land reform, with 30% of agricultural land redistributed by 2014". This coming Saturday, 6 November 2004 is our National Day of Action, under the slogan: "Mawubuye Umhlaba". We are calling upon the millions of workers and the landless poor to join us on this day, as we table our demands to white commercial agriculture for accelerated land reform and a national land summit."

Zimbabwe: Calls for review of inheritance laws

2004-11-04

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/15af796a3327ecd32c12a0e02c9149dd.htm

Although 86 percent of women farm for a living on land in communal areas run by traditional chiefs, legislation is silent on the issue of land inheritance under these circumstances. According to custom, chiefs allocate land to male heads of households, but women do not automatically inherit this land upon a husband's death. Consequently, they may be evicted from the land when widowed. Although Zimbabwe's constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of gender, it allows this clause to fall away where it runs contrary to customary law. Thus, if the husband dies, "the widow does not automatically inherit his land, which was not his to give away anyway," Edith Mashawidza, chairperson of the Women and Land in Zimbabwe lobby, told IRIN.

Africa: Environmental journalism still on fringes of mainstream media

Leonissah Munjoma

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/25425

Why has environmental journalism remained on the fringes of mainstream media?

This is the question journalists, representatives from non-governmental organisations, government and the private sector in southern Africa pondered when they met in Johannesburg, South Africa in early October.

Under the theme “Taking Environmental Journalism from Margins to Mainstream”, the meeting explored ways of getting environment stories into the mainstream media in the region. Participants had the opportunity to interrogate editors who take decisions on what issues are covered in their media, be it electronic or print.

While the environment is showing increasing signs of stress and damage and the problems are acknowledged, the meeting observed that the tendency is to continue thinking the effects will only be felt in the ever-receding future. This attitude has led to little coverage of environmental issues in the mainstream media in southern Africa.

Hugh Tyrrell, the conference coordinator, put it simply when he said: “Environmental and sustainable development are priority issues in Africa today. The media has a responsibility to report on them in clear, compelling ways that create better understanding, wise decision-making and concerted action.”

It was observed that the attitude of mainstream media had resulted in alternative media as seen in the proliferation of specialised environmental publications produced by journalists concerned about ensuring coverage of environmental issues. However, these are restricted to specific audiences and usually miss those who would benefit more from such stories – the non-specialist readers.

A number of perspectives were aired on why mainstream media does not adequately cover environment issues. An interesting one is that there is fear, by the publishing houses, of losing business. If they are seen as publishing articles that blame some private companies for environmental degradation, the media houses risk losing advertisement.

George Monbiot, a leading environmental writer who gave the keynote address, said environmental journalists should not be surprised when their stories are not used because “a journalist who is concerned about the destruction of the environment will by definition find herself or himself at odds with the prevailing media culture.”

This is a culture where the owners of the mainstream media who are business tycoons either have direct financial involvement in other businesses or associate with those who do. The two, according to Monbiot, have one thing in common: they want “complete freedom to swing their fist, whether or not your nose is in the way”.

Another perspective that came up is that environment stories being submitted are shallow and usually not well-researched when written for use by the mainstream media. Some of the participants and editors, attributed this to lack of good accessible environmental information and the fact that most senior journalists have left the mainstream media.

One seldom finds journalists over 25 years of age in newsrooms today. Senior journalists who are equipped with research and investigative skills have either been attracted to the private sector or have joined the specialised publications.

When environmental information is available, it is usually not user-friendly. Journalists not familiar with the technical jargon end up writing stories that are rejected because they are not suitable for the person on the street.

There are a few sources of accessible information on southern African and Africa, including state of environment reports, but these are not well known.
A key environmental information centre in the region is SARDC’s IMusokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa ((IMERCSA) at www.sardc.net

The editors admitted that media is a business and to remain in it, they have to keep a following of readers and viewers. To do that, they have to publish or broadcast stories that are interesting to their audience. The onus is therefore on environmental journalists to make their stories interesting to win space and airtime.

Joe Thloloe, Chief Executive Officer of South Africa’s E-Television (etv) and chair of South Africa’s National Editor’s Forum, said he would not force stories “down people’s throats” if they did not like them. His organisation carried out research on what people like to watch on television and environmental documentaries ranked among the last issues.

South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, told the meeting that despite the hurdles that the journalists face, it is undisputable that today’s environmental journalist occupies one of the most important and challenging positions in the media spectrum, that of balancing the roles of watchdog, educator, researcher, activist and social commentator.

He said the region needs more environmental journalists, but these should be equipped with up-to-date skills, cutting-edge knowledge and in-depth understanding of the environmental and sustainable development issues.
The journalists also felt there is need for training of journalists in environmental reporting to equip them with skills to tackle the technical aspects of environmental issues.

The need to network was emphasised as an association for environmental journalists in southern Africa was formed at the end of the conference. A steering committee was appointed, tasked to come up with a name and to draw up a list of environmental journalists in the region as well as coordinate them with the aim of improving reporting on the environment (SARDC).

* SOURCE: Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region. SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985. This article may be reproduced with credit to the author and publisher. http://www.sardc.net

Eritrea: IFJ condemns government's 'dictatorial' approach to press freedom

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/25445

The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the Eritrean government's "dictatorial" approach to press freedom, warning that free and independent journalism "faces extinction" in the country. "The international community must intervene to stop the rot," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "Independent journalism faces extinction in Eritrea and the outside world must act now." The concern of the IFJ and other press freedom groups over the Eritrean crisis intensified at the end of last month when the last remaining foreign correspondent was expelled from the country. Jonah Fisher, who worked in Eritrea for 18 months as correspondent for the BBC and Reuters, said the authorities gave him no explanation, but his expulsion followed a period of "increasing difficulties."
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE/UPDATE - ERITREA

28 October 2004

IFJ condemns government's "dictatorial" approach to press freedom

SOURCE: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Brussels

**Updates IFEX alerts of 17 September 2004, 19 September, 20 August, 23 and
2 May and 1 April 2003, 10 and 19 September, 7 and 2 August 2002, and
others; for further information on Fisher's expulsion from the country, see
alert of 10 September 2004**

(IFJ/IFEX) - The following is an IFJ media release:

IFJ Calls for Action as Free Journalism "Faces Extinction" in Eritrea

The International Federation of Journalists today condemned the Eritrean
government's "dictatorial" approach to press freedom, warning that free and
independent journalism "faces extinction" in the country.

"The international community must intervene to stop the rot," said Aidan
White, IFJ General Secretary. "Independent journalism faces extinction in
Eritrea and the outside world must act now."

The concern of the IFJ and other press freedom groups over the Eritrean
crisis intensified at the end of last month when the last remaining foreign
correspondent was expelled from the country. Jonah Fisher, who worked in
Eritrea for 18 months as correspondent for the BBC and Reuters, said the
authorities gave him no explanation, but his expulsion followed a period of
"increasing difficulties."

The IFJ is pressing the European Union to raise concerns over human rights
and free expression and the continued imprisonment of at least 13
journalists. There are several EU projects in Eritrea financed by the
European Development Fund (EDF), worth 156 million euros for the 2002-2007
period. A core part of this agreement is that the Eritrean government must
respect human rights in order to receive this assistance.

"We welcome recent statements by EU representatives over the need to improve
human rights in Eritrea," said White. "But time is running out. We need some
action to hold the Eritrean authorities accountable for their utter failure
to respect the full terms of their acceptance of this financial support."

The IFJ's intervention is strongly backed by its Swedish affiliate, the
Swedish Journalists' Federation, who are campaigning vigorously for the
release of Dawit Isaac, a journalist and Swedish citizen, who along with 12
other independent journalists have been detained incommunicado, without
charge or trial, since September 2001 when the government shut down
independent newspapers. No charges are known to have been filed against any
of them.

"Eritrea has the worst record in Africa when it comes to attacks on press
freedom and journalists rights," said Arne Konig, Vice President of the
Swedish Journalists' Federation. "Today is the 40th birthday of our
colleague Isaac, who has been in jail for three years without trial already.
We need to mark his anniversary with new efforts to set him free."

Since its independence from Ethiopia in 1991, Eritrean President Afwerki has
purposively shelved the country's constitution, delayed presidential
elections, closed down independent media and jailed hundreds of journalists
and other members of civil society.

"Eritrea is the victim of a systematic repression and censorship of all
independent media," said White. "There is no privately-owned press, the
foreign press have been kicked out, and local journalists are harassed,
detained without trial and subject to intolerable intimidation. This
shameful situation cannot be ignored any longer."

The IFJ represents more than 500,000 journalists in over 110 countries.

To view this statement online please click here:
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=2764&Language=EN

For further information, contact the IFJ, International Press Centre,
Residence Palace, Block C, 155 Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium, tel:
+322 235 2206 or +322 235 2200, fax: +322 235 2219, e-mail:
robert.shaw@ifj.org, Internet: http://www.ifj.org/

The information contained in this press release/update is the sole
responsibility of IFJ. In citing this material for broadcast or publication,
please credit IFJ.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

Gambia: Government to reform repressive media law

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/25447

The Gambia's Council of Ministers has decided to revoke the Act passed two years ago establishing a National Media Commission that was considered repressive and unacceptable by all standards. Now, the Executive has drafted a new Bill to repeal the infamous NMC Act No.7 of 2002, which was enacted despite numerous appeals and protests from local and international press freedom organizations against its passage.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), alerts@mfwaonline.org

Gambia ALERT: Gov't to reform repressive media law

ALERT - The Gambia's Council of Ministers on Wednesday, October 20, 2004
decided to revoke the Act passed two years ago establishing a National Media
Commission that was considered repressive and unacceptable by all standards.

Now, the Executive has drafted a new Bill to repeal the infamous NMC Act No.
7 of 2002, which was enacted despite numerous appeals and protests from
local and international press freedom organizations against its passage.

According to a press release signed by the Gambian Minister for Information
and Communication, Dr. Amadou Janneh, the repeal will "soon be adopted by
parliament which is expected to meet shortly". It is not known when the
meeting will take place.

The legislation, which received presidential assent on August 5, 2002,
created the National Media Commission as a quasi-judicial body with
extensive powers to control, sanction, penalize, fine, even suspend and
close down media houses and organizations and, in some cases, sentence
journalists to terms of imprisonment. The Commission also lacked the
independence required of a body with such important powers over the media.

While amendments at the end of 2003 removed some of the Commission's
far-reaching judicial powers, independent media executives and journalists
under the banner of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) continued to kick against
several articles of the Act, including one that required journalists and
media organizations to register with the Commission for one-year renewable
licenses.

The GPU, in a civil suit supported by other organizations including the
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), instituted action in the Supreme
Court of the Gambia against the NMC, the Minister for Information and
Communication and the Attorney General, challenging the constitutionality of
the Commission. The matter is yet to be disposed of due to the inability of
the Chief Justice to empanel the requisite number of judges to hear the
case.

The Media Foundation for West Africa welcomes the move by the Gambian
Council of Ministers and urges the country's National Assembly (Parliament)
overwhelmingly made up of representatives of the ruling party, to ensure the
early repeal of the Act and an equally early enactment of a new one that
meets international press freedom standards and guarantees media freedom in
the Gambia.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director (MFWA)
Tel: +233-21-242470
Fax: +233-21-221084

Ivory Coast: Concern about attacks on newspapers seen to be 'pro-rebel'

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/25446

On 25 October 2004, youth supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo called the Young Patriots seized, tore up and prevented the sale of pro-opposition newspapers in the commercial capital of Abidjan. The Young Patriots warned newspaper vendors in different parts of Abidjan, including Yopugon, Port Bouet, Marcory and Cocody, not to sell newspapers considered "pro-rebel", namely "Le Patriote", "Le Liberal Nouveau", "Le Jour plus", "Le Nouveau Reveil", "Le Front" and "24 Heures".
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ACTION ALERT UPDATE - CÔTE D'IVOIRE

28 October 2004

MFWA deeply concerned about attacks on newspapers seen to be "pro-rebel"

SOURCE: Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Accra

**Updates IFEX alert of 27 October 2004**

(MFWA/IFEX) - On 25 October 2004, youth supporters of President Laurent
Gbagbo called the Young Patriots seized, tore up and prevented the sale of
pro-opposition newspapers in the commercial capital of Abidjan.

The Young Patriots warned newspaper vendors in different parts of Abidjan,
including Yopugon, Port Bouet, Marcory and Cocody, not to sell newspapers
considered "pro-rebel", namely "Le Patriote", "Le Liberal Nouveau", "Le Jour
plus", "Le Nouveau Reveil", "Le Front" and "24 Heures".

According to MFWA sources in Côte d'Ivoire, the National Federation of Ivory
Coast Forums and Parliaments (Fédération nationale des agoras et parlements
de Côte d'Ivoire), a movement which comprises pro-government youth groups,
made a decision to prevent the sale of the pro-opposition papers during its
general meeting held on 23 October in Cocody, a suburb of Abidjan.

In an interview with journalists after the meeting, the federation's
president, Idriss Ouattara, said "pro-rebel newspapers would not appear so
long as the disarmament hasn't begun." "We don't want to see pictures of
rebels in Abidjan anymore until the disarmament ends," he added.

In a 26 October letter sent to editors, a newspaper-selling agency,
Edipresse, announced the temporary suspension of the circulation of
newspapers in Agboville, Gagnoa and Soubre, where the pro-government youth
groups had already torn up pro-opposition papers. The agency said it was
also suspending its circulation in Abengourou, Agnibilekrou, Tanda and
Bondoukou, in eastern Abidjan.

Pro-government youth groups have been mushrooming all over Abidjan and
making frequent appearances in public places since the outbreak of the civil
crisis in Côte d'Ivoire in September 2002.

The MFWA is deeply concerned about the attacks on newspapers classified by
Gbagbo's supporters as "pro-rebel." The organisation believes that in Côte
d'Ivoire's current state of "no peace, no war," all sides of the political
divide should be given the opportunity to be heard in seeking an amicable
solution.

The MFWA appeals to President Gbagbo to stop the extra-judicial activities
of his loyalists, whose actions seem to be deepening the wounds in Côte
d'Ivoire instead of helping to seek solutions.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to authorities:
- condemning the attacks on the newspapers

APPEALS TO:

Président Laurent Gbagbo
Aux soins de Soro K Guillaume
Ministre d'Etat
Ministère de la Communication
BP V 138
Abidjan
Tel: +225 2021 1116
Fax: +255 2022 6203

Bamba Mamadou
Ministre d'Etat
Ministère des Affaires étrangères
BP V 109
Abidjan
Tel: +225 2032 0888
Fax: +255 2032 3839

Victorine Wodié
Ministre des Droits de l'Homme
01 BP 2020
Abidjan 01
Tel: +225 2032 1611
Fax: +255 2032 8101

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Jeannette Quarcoopome, Media Foundation for
West Africa, P.O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel.: +233 21 24 24 70, fax:
+231 21 22 10 84, e-mail: events@mfwaonline.org, Internet:
http://www.mfwaonline.org

The information contained in this action alert update is the sole
responsibility of MFWA. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit MFWA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

Sierra Leone: Editor appeals two-year prison sentence

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/25448

Paul Kamara, the jailed editor of the independent newspaper "For Di People", has appealed the two-year prison sentence imposed on him by the High Court. In a 12-point statement filed with the Appeal Court in the capital, Freetown, on 22 October 2004, Kamara stated that the "judgement is against the weight of evidence" brought against him, and that the trial was handled by a judge sitting alone instead of a jury.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

ALERT UPDATE - SIERRA LEONE

29 October 2004

Editor appeals two-year prison sentence

SOURCE: Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Accra

**Updates IFEX alerts of 11 and 7 October and 19 March 2004, 14 and 9
October 2003**

(MFWA/IFEX) - Paul Kamara, the jailed editor of the independent newspaper
"For Di People", has appealed the two-year prison sentence imposed on him by
the High Court.

In a 12-point statement filed with the Appeal Court in the capital,
Freetown, on 22 October 2004, Kamara stated that the "judgement is against
the weight of evidence" brought against him, and that the trial was handled
by a judge sitting alone instead of a jury.

Kamara also complained that throughout the trial, the judge exhibited bias
through his utterances in open court. He urged the Appeal Court to set aside
Justice Bankole Rashid's 5 October ruling, which places him behind bars for
two years.

Meanwhile, in observance of African Human Rights Day, human rights
organisations in Sierra Leone have appealed to President Ahmed Tejan
Kabbah's government to expunge from the statute books all laws that impede
free expression and criminalise speech.

The rights groups also appealed to President Kabbah to pardon Kamara in a
show of support for free expression in the country.

BACKGROUND:
On 5 October, Kamara was sentenced to two years in prison after being
convicted on two counts of seditious libel against President Kabbah. He was
immediately escorted by prison authorities to begin his prison term.

Kamara was arrested on 3 October 2003 on the orders of Attorney General and
Justice Minister Eke Halloway in connection with a front page article
published in the 3 October edition of "For Di People". The article
challenged Speaker of Parliament Justice Edmond Cowan's defence of President
Kabbah in Parliament.

Cowan had reacted to media stories that insinuated that President Kabbah was
found guilty in 1968 by a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Beoku
Betts. The Betts Commission was set up to probe alleged fraud at the Sierra
Leone Produce Marketing Board (SLPMB) while President Kabbah was serving as
permanent secretary at the Trade Ministry. The speaker argued that President
Kabbah was not an offender because commissions of inquiry do not have the
powers of a High Court.

Prior to Cowan's reaction, "For Di People" newspaper had serialised the
Betts Commission Report verbatim.

For further information, contact Jeannette Quarcoopome, Media Foundation for
West Africa, P.O. Box LG 730, Legon, Ghana, tel.: +233 21 24 24 70, fax:
+231 21 22 10 84, e-mail: events@mfwaonline.org, Internet:
http://www.mfwaonline.org

The information contained in this alert update is the sole responsibility of
MFWA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
MFWA.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________

Africa: A guide to child justice in Africa

2004-11-04

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC16222

This manual produced by the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa presents innovative examples of applied local practices of child justice in Africa. The topics mainly relate to programme delivery, to the expansion of services to children and to integrating human rights practice in criminal justice processes. The manual is aimed at policy makers and non-governmental organizations. It looks at the current child justice law reforms currently underway or already undertaken in a number of African countries.

Africa: Poverty in Africa Set to Worsen Significantly By 2015, Says Survey

2004-11-04

http://allafrica.com/stories/200411030207.html

Half of the world's poor will live in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2015, up from 27% in 1999, despite significant inroads made in reducing global poverty, according to a new report. The latest survey compiled by the South African Institute of Race Relations uses World Bank data to show that poverty in SubSaharan Africa will worsen significantly. More than 400-million people are expected to live on less than $1 a day in 2015, up from 315-million in 1999 while global poverty will be reduced by a third.

DRC: UN civilian accused of sexual abuse

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43975

UN authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have handed over a French UN civil servant to French authorities following allegations that the person sexually molested children. Last week, two Tunisian UN peacekeepers were sent home following a UN investigation into the sexual abuse of minors.

Zimbabwe: Assessing impact of interventions on children

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43881

Children receiving food aid are often stigmatised and maltreated by guardians, according to the findings of a pilot project in Zimbabwe to assess the impact of food interventions on children. The project was prompted by a lack of "humanitarian accountability to beneficiaries" and the fact that feedback from children had never been considered in the significant number of interventions taking place in Zimbabwe, said Chris McIvor of the UK-Based NGO, Save the Children, which conducted the study.

Black Support for Bush Doubles

2004-11-04

http://talkback.africana.com/webx?14@@.3b9b8b33

"I think that support for Bush for this group of African Americans boils down to the issues of same sex marriage and abortion. This additional support will do little to turn the tide in Bush's favor because it is anticipated that voters aged 18-25 will turn out in record numbers. This group of younger voters almost overwhelmingly support Kerry." Join the debate on www.africana.com about reports that support for George W.Bush amongst African Americans has doubled.

Call for More African Unity in America

2004-11-04

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=383f6660ea563affab22566c79145c2f

"The African Union (AU) may one day find that its most powerful ally is Blacks in the United States. But ironically, the African ambassadors in Washington have never sat down and met with the 39-member Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)."

Opportunity Africa Career Seminar

2004-11-04

http://www.afford-uk.org/services/events/viewevents/index.asp?id=832,0,3,0,0,0

The African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) has initiated Opportunity Africa, a project to provide a gateway to Africa-related careers, training & education for young people of African descent in the UK. Opportunity Africa’s purpose is to enhance the skills base and job preparedness of young Africans in London for the world of international/Africa-related work.

Police Terror Sweeps Across Haiti

2004-11-04

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=6538

"The bodies had been whisked away but the dried pool of blood covering the dirt-floor dead end of a twisting alley was a chilling sign of what happened here last week. Residents in the National Fort district, which like most of Port-au-Prince's slums is a bastion of support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, gathered around the darkening blood the following day. Some, who were afraid to give their names, said policemen wearing black masks had shot and killed 12 people, then dragged their bodies away. At least three families have identified the bodies of relatives at the mortuary; others who have loved ones missing fear the worst."

Africa: Report details conflict status for October

2004-11-04

http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3056

The 10 October election of Abdullahi Yusuf as president of Somalia proved divisive; clashes between Yusuf's Puntland territory and breakaway Somaliland killed over 100 on 30 October, with further violence likely, according to November's CrisisWatch report from the International Crisis Group. In Liberia, UN forces struggled to contain a flare-up in inter-communal fighting in Monrovia. The situations in Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria deteriorated in October.

DRC: Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration

2004-11-04

http://www.id21.org/society/s10brm1g4.html

'Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration' (DDR) refers to a temporary intervention designed to restore security and establish the preconditions for post-war recovery. In the Republic of Congo (RoC) DDR activities have focused on reducing the number of weapons in the hands of ex-combatants, their reintegration into society, reform of the armed forces and police, and repatriation of foreign ex-combatants. Evaluation of these activities suggests that DDR in the RoC is achievable, but requires more political and financial support.

Sierra Leone: TRC report reflects experiences of children with conflict

2004-11-04

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/TRCCF9SeptFINAL.pdf

"We are the children of Sierra Leone. The war was targeted against us, our families and our communities. It was a brutal conflict, which we did nothing to cause, but we suffered terribly because of it. Every child in this country has a story to tell – a heartbreaking one.

Unfortunately only a handful of these stories have been told and made known to the world. The memories continue to weigh on our minds and hearts. We, the children of Sierra Leone, witnessed the worst possible human ruthlessness and terror. Children of this country were forced to fight for a cause we could not understand. We were drugged and made to kill and destroy our brothers and sisters and our mothers and fathers.

We were beaten, amputated and used as sex slaves. This was a wretched display of inhuman and immoral actions by those who were supposed to be protecting us. Our hands, which were meant to be used freely for play and schoolwork, were used instead, by force, to burn, kill and destroy.

We do not believe this is the end of our story. Rather, it is the beginning. We, who survived the war, are determined to go forward. We will look to a new future and we ourselves will help build the road to peace."

This is an extract from the first-ever version of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ report intended specifically to be accessible by children. The report details the violations which occurred during the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone, in which children were deliberately and systematically targeted. When the violence ended and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established, the children of Sierra Leone were asked to participate. With UNICEF’s help a version of the Commission’s findings which children could understand has been produced. Children were involved in all stages of the inquiry – from creating some of the drawings in the report to framing its recommendations for peace-building. Special care was taken to protect them, as victims and as witnesses.

Sudan: A view from Africa

John Ashworth, Sudan Focal Point Monthly Briefing

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/25489

"But if there is to be any hope, it must lie with the people and not with the politicians and leaders. In both north and south the political leadership is largely discredited and holds little moral authority. A space must be created for civil society to play a greater part not only in the peace processes but also in the governance of the country. Inclusivity and transparency, as in the South African peace process, are essential. All sides must be prepared to set aside narrow factional and personal interests and negotiate in good faith for the good of the people. Peace will only come if the current situation can be transcended and transformed. A great challenge indeed."
A View of Sudan from Africa:
Sudan Focal Point Monthly Briefing
October 2004

Southern peace talks in Nairobi reportedly made some progress but fell short of reaching a final comprehensive agreement before breaking for Ramadan. In a joint statement, the two parties said they had resolved “most of the outstanding issues” in a “cordial and frank atmosphere”. These issues included the Joint/Integrated Units (JIU) in Eastern Sudan, a “collaborative approach to handling other armed groups” (although there is apparently still disagreement over the time frame for integrating these into the two forces), and “other aspects of permanent ceasefire including the role of United Nation Peace Support Mission”. However much of the progress seems to be that various committees will commence their work, rather than substantive agreement. The issue of funding of southern forces during the Interim Period was not resolved. It remains likely that an agreement will be signed in the coming weeks or months.

Meanwhile there is no fundamental change in the situation in Darfur, despite the UN Security Council resolution and the huge international interest. Human rights violations continue, and there is little doubt that the Government of Sudan (GoS) is primarily responsible for what is now generally accepted to be genocide; the militia have been neither disarmed nor controlled; displaced persons are still afraid to return to their homes due to insecurity; the humanitarian disaster has not abated; GoS continues to restrict access and Field Marshal Omar Hassan al-Bashir now describes the international humanitarian organisations as “the real enemies”; aid agencies have suffered casualties; attempts to enlarge the mandate of the African Union (AU) forces have not yet borne fruit; there are fresh allegations of GoS bombing its civilians; GoS continues to promise cooperation but fails to deliver on its promises (which comes as little surprise, as this is a tried and tested GoS tactic); peace talks in Abuja totter on the brink of collapse yet again.

The AU is increasing the size of its force in Darfur and the EU has joined Canada in promising funding. Australia and the USA have promised transport aircraft, although GoS seems reluctant to accept US aircraft. The USA has reportedly awarded contracts to private military companies PAE Group and Dyncorp; the latter has been criticised for its record in Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. Lack of logistics capacity has so far prevented the AU force from performing effectively, and there is little indication that its limited mandate will be changed to allow it to protect civilians and humanitarian operations. Two new liberation movements have reportedly sprung up in Darfur, although little is known about them and there is speculation that at least one of them might be connected with GoS.

President Putin has banned the sale of Russian weapons to non-governmental groups in Sudan. However Russian arms have repeatedly been used against civilians by GoS itself in support of its militia, not only in Darfur but also in other parts of Sudan. According to media reports in the Middle East, Russia deems Sudan a major arms client and a model in the use of Russian military platforms to quell an African insurgency. GoS has procured not only MiG-29 fighter jets and Mi-24 attack helicopters but also a range of other weapons and munitions. Churches and Amnesty International are amongst those calling for a complete embargo on arms sales to all armed factions in Sudan, including GoS itself.

It is very easy to become bogged down in the details and miss the bigger picture. To a large extent this is what is happening in Darfur, where international attention is focused on humanitarian intervention, human rights and civilian protection. While these immediate needs must obviously be addressed urgently, it should never be forgotten that there are root causes to the conflicts that create such human suffering. Ultimately the suffering will cease not because of humanitarian intervention and civilian protection measures, but because a negotiated political settlement has been reached. The former benefits the political and military leaders, the aid industry, contractors and manufacturers; the latter benefits the people on the ground.

The conflict in northern Sudan is spreading. Militia from Darfur have reportedly been seen in Southern Kordofan and the Funj Region (also known as Southern Blue Nile), although the Joint Monitoring Mission/Joint Military Commission (JMM/JMC) announced at the end of September that “no evidence has yet been found of such presence” in the Nuba Mountains. There are now reports that Darfur militia are arriving in Upper Nile, ostensibly to protect oil installations. The Verification and Monitoring Team (VMT) was reportedly asked to investigate. A new rebel group has sprung up, led by a Kordofani and using Western Kordofan as a springboard for its operations. The movement calls itself Al-Shahamah (nobility) and seeks fair development opportunities for the region, and a revision of the Naivasha agreement in regard to power- and wealth-sharing and the status of Southern Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile. Insecurity is increasing on the eastern Front, where both the Beja Congress and the “Free Lions” are active. GoS has accused Eritrea of massing forces on the border. All of this reinforces the analysis that Sudan’s problem was never a “southern problem”, followed by a “Darfur problem”. It is in fact a problem of an over-centralised government marginalising the peripheral regions in every respect (power, wealth, resources, development) whilst at the same time attempting to impose on them a particular cultural identity (“Arabisation”) which includes a particular interpretation of Islam not shared by the majority of Sudanese Muslims. It should not be forgotten that many urban northerners are also frustrated with these same issues, but they may not have the same opportunities for armed resistance as the people on the peripheries. It was only a matter of time before resistance would begin to spread throughout the north.

In October the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) met in Nairobi to coordinate the three different peace processes: Machakos/Naivasha/Nairobi; Abuja; Cairo. They expressed a preference for “a single negotiating forum” but accepted the current reality of three tracks. They stated that the overall aim should be “a comprehensive peaceful resolution that provides for the democratic transformation of the country and building of a New Sudan,” to “bring about a genuine lasting peace, and not be used for buying time or creating contradictions and collisions.” This seems to be aimed at GoS, which has a tendency to use parallel peace fora to create delays. Finally they note that “the speedy conclusion of the Naivasha process, the core of which is already in place, will propel the other tracks…”.

What do the different parties want, and what are the realistic prospects for peace? Taking the southern process first, many would argue that what the two parties want is to remain in power. The current protocols give them both a good chance of doing so. GoS has no accountability to its people at all; it is the same Islamist military dictatorship which seized power from a democratically elected government in 1989. Elections held since then have been a sham, and decentralisation into 26 federal states has also been a fiction, with power still firmly in the hands of central government. SPLM/A is also unaccountable. While many senior commanders remain close to their people and so SPLM/A cannot totally ignore the wishes of the population, nevertheless the top leadership does not have a good record on transparency and inclusivity. Tensions typical of an authoritarian military liberation movement in transition towards being a government expected to answer to democratic principles have already surfaced between the SPLM/A and southern civil society. If remaining in power really is their priority, then both parties appear to benefit from a partnership during the Interim Period. However SPLM/A may have miscalculated the extent to which GoS will actually deliver on genuine power sharing.

But what about peace? Will this partnership, based on the Machakos and Naivasha protocols, bring peace? Many would argue that there will never be peace as long as the current regime is in power in Khartoum. It will be remembered that it seized power precisely to pre-empt meaningful peace negotiations in 1989. Although the agreements signed so far by both parties represent a fairly good compromise (with the exception of the protocol on the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, which was a defeat for SPLM/A), what are the chances that they will actually be implemented? GoS has already made it clear that it opposes the break-up of the country. If the Interim Period is ever implemented, if a referendum ever takes place, if GoS has not succeeded in manipulating the electorate and rigging the ballot to guarantee victory, if the southerners vote for secession… will they get it? The answer is probably not. It would prove a major challenge for the AU. North African states, who are also members of the Arab League, will certainly support GoS in calling for the “territorial integrity” of Sudan to be maintained at any cost. Most sub-Saharan states, fearful for their own borders and conscious of Arab funding, will find ways to avoid the issue. Europe and the USA are increasingly losing credibility in the developing world and this may not be an issue on which they wish to make a stand; some have already privately acknowledged that they would urge a return to the negotiating table or an extension of the Interim Period rather than supporting secession. Southerners are very unlikely ever to see an independent southern state.

What of the territorial integrity of the south, even during a period of unity with the north? GoS has already carried out ethnic cleansing in western Upper Nile and to a lesser extent in the Collo (Shilluk) Kingdom and parts of eastern and northern Upper Nile. There are reports of northerners settling in these regions, and the recent arrival of Darfur militia is no coincidence. GoS has also maintained its southern militia in the region. Malakal and Bentiu have been developed to an extent not seen in other GoS garrison towns in the south, and Malakal in particular has seen an increase in Arabisation and Islamisation. It seems very unlikely that GoS has invested this much in the region in order to give it all up two and a half years after signing a comprehensive peace agreement, when it is due to withdraw all its forces except those in the JIU. A likely scenario is that GoS will annex these oil regions; even if the rest of the south attains independence, the old Greater Upper Nile will not. It should be noted that this area also includes the agricultural projects around Renk. Of course GoS is too diplomatic to simply refuse outright. There will be a long process of assuring the world that GoS intends to withdraw and honour the peace agreement, but that it needs more time, that there are still details to be hammered out, that borders and administrative arrangements need fine tuning, that it will happen soon… bukra insh’allah. What options would the south have in such a situation? Very few. A return to war would be difficult, for both practical and political reasons. SPLM/A will not be on a war footing by then. GoS will have used the time to strengthen its position on the ground, and used its oil revenue to strengthen its forces; in contrast, SPLM/A will find it difficult to justify spending huge sums of money on the military when there is such an obvious need for reconstruction and development in the south. And the international community will be unlikely to support a return to war.

The argument that there will never be peace while the current regime is in power may well be true. But “regime change” is also problematic. External regime change as in Iraq and Afghanistan would be totally unacceptable to most of the world (although many southern Sudanese have repeatedly called for it and would welcome it) and would probably result in chaos and bloodshed as in those two unfortunate countries. The Khartoum regime has cooperated enough with the USA in its “war on terror” that it is unlikely to be a priority for regime change, and it is doubtful whether the US currently has the appetite or the military capacity to topple too many more regimes. The Sudanese people have a proud history of overthrowing military regimes by intifada (popular uprising), but during its first few years the current regime embarked on a campaign of terror, disappearances, torture, purging of the military, police, civil service, etc, and the setting up of a security state. Northern civil society has still not fully recovered from this and is unlikely to overthrow the government. Splits from within are always a possibility.

But would a new government in Khartoum benefit the south? This regime did not begin the marginalisation of the south, and it was not in power when the current war broke out. Every northern government since independence in 1956, whether military or democratic, has been bad news for the south. Ironically the current military dictatorship has made more concessions to the south than any previous regime, and in that sense its survival may be the south’s best hope. But every government has been guilty of breaking agreements made with the south, and there is no reason to believe that this one will be any different. If a new government were to come to power, even through a democratic process, there is no guarantee that it would accept the peace protocols. A major weakness of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace process was its exclusivity; it was only between two parties, and all the other factions, movements and parties in both north and south were excluded, as well as civil society (unlike the much more inclusive peace process which this regime destroyed when it seized power in 1989). Many of these parties have already indicated that they are not happy with the agreement, particularly the possibility of secession for the south. The main problem for most northerners has never been the war in the south; rather it is living under a dictatorship which imposes its own interpretation of Islam on them. The first act of a new government might be to demand that the talks start again from the beginning. And the possibility of a “fake coup d’etat”, in which the current government is “overthrown” and a “new” one comes to power precisely in order to restart the negotiations, cannot be completely excluded. But this fear that any change of government would set back the southern peace process should not be used as an excuse by the international community to continue to support a brutal military dictatorship which is still oppressing its people in a manner that ought to be totally unacceptable to democrats throughout the world. While eschewing forcible regime change, nevertheless the democratic opposition must be supported, albeit not unconditionally; it must be encouraged to buy into the existing peace process.

Southerners are in a “Catch 22” situation. If they put their faith in a peace agreement negotiated with the current regime, they are unlikely to get what they have been promised. If they work for regime change, they are likely to find themselves back at the beginning of a new negotiation process, and at the end of it there will still be no guarantee that they will get whatever they have been promised by the new regime. The southern elite will benefit in either case, as they will still have positions and a degree of power and wealth, but it is not clear that the south as a whole will gain much. While the current cessation of hostilities is certainly welcomed by the people, many ordinary southerners feel that war is better than a bad peace; if the conditions which caused the war in the first place are not removed, then a new and more terrible war will break out eventually. Southerners in general have probably been over-optimistic about the level of political support they will get from the international community. Humanitarian aid is one thing, and there has been a degree of pressure to conclude the IGAD process and do something about Darfur; but there is neither the international will nor consensus to fully safeguard southern interests. The international community has also singularly failed to grasp that promises and signed agreements mean little in the context of Sudan. Progress can only be said to have been made when substantial and irreversible changes have actually occurred.

Some have argued that the southern peace agreement is a model for peace in Darfur. According to Dr John Garang, “It is a political framework for the whole country…. I believe the completion of Naivasha and its implementation puts in place in Khartoum a new government and creates a new political dynamic in Khartoum. The solution to Darfur is actually through Naivasha.” This may be one reason why GoS is in no hurry to sign the final agreement. If it had to offer Darfur the same sort of terms as the south, it would firstly be admitting that there is a “periphery-centre” problem rather than isolated and unconnected “southern” and “Darfur” problems, and secondly setting a precedent for other parts of the north. In Naivasha GoS refused to offer Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains the same terms as the south for precisely this reason. GoS may be delaying a conclusion to the southern peace process while it hopes for favourable developments in Darfur. In some respects the international interest in Darfur has wrong-footed GoS at a time when it was gaining international acceptance due to its engagement in the IGAD peace process and its cooperation in the “war on terror”. GoS has so far avoided any really meaningful UN resolutions, and has been supported by the AU, the Arab League and other developing and Islamic countries in resisting external intervention. The UN Security Council will meet in Nairobi in November to focus attention on the IGAD peace process as well as Darfur. This is a further embarrassment for GoS, and a reminder that the final settlements agreed for each of the conflicts in Sudan must be taken to the UN Security Council for endorsement and guarantees. But it is difficult to see what meaningful guarantees the UN could offer and what effective sanctions the divided international community could apply. An embargo on Sudanese oil would hurt GoS, but it would be difficult to enforce without Chinese and Russian cooperation, and during a period when oil prices have hit a record high and the supply of oil from Iraq is so uncertain, the industrialised countries are unlikely to remove Sudan’s oil from the international markets. Pakistan and Algeria are other Security Council members who are unlikely to support robust measures against Khartoum. Nevertheless Darfur represents a set-back in GoS’ charm offensive.

Darfur is being seen by many as a test of AU commitment to “African solutions for African problems”. This is probably unfair. While AU involvement is to be welcomed, its political and security mechanisms are still in the very early stages of development. Sudan is a problem which has so far resisted the best efforts of all major international players. It would be unfair to judge the AU if it fails to resolve the problems in Darfur, although it must at least demonstrate that it is seriously attempting to do so. The AU must move beyond solidarity amongst governments and work towards solidarity amongst peoples, especially suffering peoples. Its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, did this in the case of apartheid, where it clearly supported the people against the then ruling regime in South Africa. In Zimbabwe, Sudan and elsewhere, the AU has failed as yet to find the political will to do the same. Its supporters might argue, though, that its less confrontational approach could be more effective in the long run than the sanctions, military threats (bluffs?) and public confrontation advocated by the global north, which often seem to have more to do with domestic politics than with actually solving the problems.

China has been a staunch supporter of GoS in international fora, not least because of its oil interests in Sudan. Justice and peace activists in other African countries are beginning to notice the extent of Chinese involvement all over Africa. China, as a developing nation itself and a supporter of African liberation movements, often escapes the critical analysis directed at other industrialised countries. However China’s interests may not be Africa’s interests.

So what is the solution to the problems of Sudan? It may well be that there is no solution. As long ago as the 1970s E F Schumacher wrote about “divergent problems”, which have no solution: "...a number of highly able people set out to study a problem and come up with answers that contradict one another. They do not converge. On the contrary, the more they are clarified and logically developed, the more they diverge, until some of them appear to be the exact opposites of the others". Sudan does not have one simple single problem. Instead there are a number of complex and inter-connected issues, with links to external factors as well. Trying to solve one or two conflicts, even partially, produces a knock-on effect which affects other conflicts. It may well produce a situation where attempts to solve one problem exacerbate another, and where different parties come up with contradictory solutions. GoS excels at manipulating this complexity to its own advantage. Eventually all parties may be forced to accept a compromise which falls far short of what they thought they could live with, and far short of the protocols which have already been signed but which are unlikely to be fully implemented. As in South Africa, it will be seen that there are tensions between different aims such as justice, peace and reconciliation. While it is clear to most people inside and outside Sudan that GoS is the “more guilty party” in terms of justice, nevertheless polarisation, confrontation and polemics may not be the best way to bring peace and reconciliation. Politics is reputedly the art of the possible; what is possible in Sudan? Good will and common sense are needed on all sides, but unfortunately these are lacking in Sudan. Perhaps one of the greatest problems is the lack of trust; this will not be overcome easily, if at all.

Sudan: Government, rebels welcome new AU security proposals

2004-11-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43974

Sudanese government officials and rebel delegates have welcomed - some cautiously - proposals from African Union (AU) mediators on security in Darfur, which has long been a sticking point between the two sides at peace talks in the Nigerian capital. Under the AU draft agreement, both sides would have to give the location of their forces and Khartoum would have to make good on its pledges to the international community to disarm the Janjawid militia, accused of waging a campaign of slaugher, rape and destruction against people in Darfur.

Uganda: ICC won't prosecute child soldiers

2004-11-04

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01471706.htm

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will not prosecute child soldiers and will work with local elders striving to end northern Uganda's brutal 18-year-old war, Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said on Monday. Uganda's government has praised the ICC probe but some northern religious leaders have criticised it, fearing it will create a crisis of confidence and stall further surrenders by rebels of the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Google launches Swahili language internet search engine

2004-11-04

http://google.co.ke

Internet search engine Google has launched a Kiswahili language service to be accessed through the .ke domain name. The service was launched on October 2004, according to the Google web logs commonly referred to as blogs. Kenya Network Information Center (Kenic) systems manager Michuki Mwangi says use of Swahili and the .KE domain in such a reputable search engine will boost the Kenyan identity.

Internet learning materials now available in French and in English

2004-11-04

http://www.timetogetonline.org/content/view/19/43/

"Venez Sur Internet: Etapes Faciles Pour Réussir sur Internet", the french version of Kabissa's 150-page Internet training manual "Time To Get Online - Simple Steps to Success on the Internet", is now available. While tailored for African organizations, they are also perfectly relevant and useful for non-profits wherever they are in the world.

The Power of Tech for Human Rights

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/25440

More than 40 international human rights activists will meet near Boston in the United States on November 5-7, to discuss how to use technology - from text messaging to satellite communication, data encryption, and blogs - to prevent wrongdoings and collect evidence of abuses. Former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, an international expert and leader on the international law and practice of human rights, will deliver the keynote address.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Frank Elbers
HREA
+1 978-341-0200
felbers@hrea.org
www.hrea.org


The Power of Tech for Human Rights:

International Activists Meet to Explore Technology to Document and Prevent
Human Rights Abuses

Cambridge (USA), October 29, 2004 -- More than 40 international human
rights activists will meet near Boston on November 5-7, to discuss how to
use technology -- from text messaging to satellite communication, data
encryption, and blogs -- to prevent wrongdoings and collect evidence of
abuses. Former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand
Ramcharan, an international expert and leader on the international law and
practice of human rights, will deliver the keynote address.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international and
regional human rights organizations will discuss their technology
innovations. Activists will be trained on using software such as Martus, a
secure, easy-to-use encryption tool for human rights groups, and how to use
video as a powerful tool to document abuses. Award-wining technology
innovators such as Witness and Benetech will provide hands-on sessions.

Katitza Rodríguez, a human rights lawyer and activist from Peru, notes: "As
human rights workers we need a community of technical support, of ideas and
tools to learn from each other. Our ability to detect patterns of abuse,
for example, depends on data being shared in a network of activists. And
our data needs to be safe from government raids just as much as from
termites."

The "Effective Use of ICTs for Defending and Promoting Human Rights"
colloquium will result in a 'how-to' guide of innovative uses of tech tools
for human rights organizations and a CD of tools that will be freely
available to activists around the globe.

HREA and Aspiration are co-sponsors of the event.

About HREA: Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international
non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the
training of activists and professionals; the development of educational
materials and programming; and community-building through on-line
technologies. Learn more at www.hrea.org

- END -

Interim Developments Newsletter

2004-11-04

http://www.interimsfd.com/Interim_Developments_3.pdf

With its focus on skills development, capacity building and employment practice in Africa, this issue of Interim Developments examines training and development projects in Africa, South Africa’s international branding campaigns and highlights some of the work Interims for Development is doing to build the skills and capacity of Africa’s professional base.

News from AFRODAD

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/25427

AFRODAD is pleased to re-launch the Debt and Development in Africa newsletter in electronic format. AFRODAD requests interested individuals and institutions to supply them with their current e-mail addresses, to enable them to send a copy of the newsletter instantly. Contact afrodad@afrodad.co.zw for more information.

The Link: HIV/AIDS Communication

2004-11-04

http://www.healthlink.org.uk/about/news08.html

The first issue of the Healthlink Worldwide newsletter, 'The Link', looks at the efficacy and appropriateness of HIV/AIDS communication - which become ever more critical as the epidemic's complexity and spread continue to grow.

Globalization, Violent Conflict, and Peacebuilding

IDRC Research Competition

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/25435

The Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is inviting research proposals on the theme “Globalization, Violent Conflict, and Peacebuilding”. The purpose of the competition is to identify and support promising new research that sheds light on the various conflict-related impacts of globalization, seen as a complex and wide-ranging phenomenon with political, economic, as well as socio-cultural ramifications.
Globalization, Violent Conflict, and Peacebuilding
IDRC Research Competition

The Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is inviting research proposals on the theme “Globalization, Violent Conflict, and Peacebuilding”. The purpose of the competition is to identify and support promising new research that sheds light on the various conflict-related impacts of globalization, seen as a complex and wide-ranging phenomenon with political, economic, as well as socio-cultural ramifications. Specifically, the competition wants to encourage research around the following four themes:

· Conflict-Related Impacts of Economic Liberalization
· Methodologies for Assessing the Conflict-Related Impacts of Globalization
· Revisiting the Role of the Private Sector
· The Role of Migration in Building Peace and Preventing Conflict

The competition is aimed at researchers based in the developing world, but partnerships with researchers in developed countries are possible. Comparative, multi-country research projects are particularly welcome.

Up to two grants with a maximum value of $400,000 (four hundred thousand Canadian dollars) will be available.

For further details, please consult the Call for Proposals and the Application Kit at: http://www.idrc.ca/peace

The deadline for submitting proposals is 17 December 2004.

OAK Human Rights Fellowship 2005: Health and Human Rights

2004-11-04

http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=807

The Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights Fellowship, hosts a Human Rights Fellow to teach and conduct research while at residence in the College and organises lectures and other events centred on the fellow's area of expertise. The purpose of the fellowship is to offer an opportunity for prominent practitioners in international human rights to take a sabbatical leave from their work and spend a period of up to a semester as a scholar-in-residence at the College.

South Africa: SANPAD - Call for Research Proposals

2004-11-04

http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=802

South Africa-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) is a collaborative research programme that has been financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1997. SANPAD is calling for research proposals from South African researchers/academics for the value of R414 000 for a period of 2 or 3 years.

South Africa:Grant Funding: LP Gas for Low Income Households

2004-11-04

http://www.thusanang.org.za/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=809

Date of LPGas Conference: 8 November 2004

Venue: Elangeni Hotel, Durban

The LP Gas Safety Association of South Africa, together with the major LP Gas suppliers is initiating a project to make LPGas available to 250 000 households by March 2005, then to a further 2.75mn households by 2008. This initiative presents an opportunity for potential grant funding bodies to subsidise low income home owners with an appliance cost to enable them to switch to LPGas.

WHO Call for Expressions of Interest

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/25454

HIV/AIDS treatment preparedness - encompassing advocacy, literacy and community mobilization for people living with HIV/AIDS and other affected communities - is central to realizing the target of providing antiretroviral treatment to 3 million people in developing countries by the end of 2005 ('3by5') and optimizing the impact of longer term plans, resources and delivery systems for HIV/AIDS treatment.
Call for Expressions of Interest to Provide Monitoring and Evaluation Support to the WHO Preparing for Treatment Program and the HIV Collaborative Fund
Background
HIV/AIDS treatment preparedness - encompassing advocacy, literacy and community mobilization for people living with HIV/AIDS and other affected communities - is central to realizing the target of providing antiretroviral treatment to 3 million people in developing countries by the end of 2005 ('3by5') and optimizing the impact of longer term plans, resources and delivery systems for HIV/AIDS treatment.
In order to contribute to improved global treatment preparedness in countries and communities, WHO has established the Preparing for Treatment Program (PTP), based in the Department of HIV/AIDS at WHO headquarters in Geneva. To he extent possible, resources available through the PTP will be provided to partner organizations that have expertise and are currently engaged in or have capacity to undertake treatment preparedness activities. The initial phase of the PTP involves a WHO contribution of USD 1,000,000 (one million dollars) to the Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment Preparedness.
The Collaborative Fund is structured as a global partnership between the Tides Foundation, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, more than 15 donors and technical assistance providers. The core activity of the Collaborative Fund is grant-making to support HIV treatment literacy, advocacy and community mobilization projects in community-based organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe/Central Asia.
Funding priorities, application review and decisions about disbursements from the Collaborative Fund are made by autonomous Community Review Panels comprising people living with HIV/AIDS and community-based treatment advocates and educators in each funding region or sub-region. It is anticipated that WHO's contribution to the Fund will directly support at least 40 small grants to be made in all regions between November 2004 and December 2005.
The partnership between WHO, Tides Foundation and the Collaborative Fund creates an important opportunity for monitoring, evaluation and research into HIV treatment preparedness in order to identify what programs and practices affect treatment preparedness, and to assess best practices to guide treatment scale up activities in other settings. It also provides an important opportunity to promote and evaluate the application to a significant global program of the principles of greater involvement for people living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA). WHO has therefore undertaken to provide additional resources to assist in monitoring and evaluating of the Collaborative Fund's activities.
Expressions of Interest Expressions of interest are sought from organizations to lead the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities for the Collaborative Fund, beginning in January 2005, including consensus building among relevant stakeholders about methodologies to be used and the use of monitoring and evaluation tools at global, regional and project levels. The Evaluation Contractor will also provide and coordinate technical assistance for monitoring and evaluating the Collaborative Fund's activities, and produce a final evaluation report in April 2006.
Process for Submission
Qualified organizations with appropriate experience in community-based and community-driven monitoring and evaluation, and monitoring and evaluation of activities at global, regional and community levels, are encouraged to submit an Expression of Interest in leading this project.
Expressions of Interest should be brief, summarizing relevant experience and qualifications, and sent to Ian Grubb by email (grubbi@who.int) or fax (+41 22 791 4834) by 0800 hours Central European Time on Tuesday, November 16, 2004. The subject field of the fax or email should contain the wording "PTP Monitoring and Evaluation Expression of Interest". For additional information, contact Ian Grubb by email, or by telephone at +41 22 791 3304
A short-list of candidates will be developed, based on the Expressions of Interest received. Short-listed candidates will be sent a Request for Proposals in the third week of November, 2004 and invited to submit a detailed tender for the project. Tender proposals will be due at WHO by mid-December, 2004.
WHO reserves the right freely to choose, without justifying its choice, those individuals or organizations selected for short-listing based on Expressions of Interest received pursuant to this call. It further reserves the right, if it so decides, not to pursue further this international call for expressions of interest. No claims or appeals will be accepted from any individuals or organizations whose candidatures are not selected.

7th Regional Course on Social Mobilization for Health and Development

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/25434

The School of Public Health, University of Ghana, is pleased to announce an intensive 6-week residential certificate course in social mobilization for health and development from June 6 - July 16, 2005. The course is structured under modules, units and sessions. Each module and each unit has its specific objectives. The course takes into account the desire of several countries in the region to have such training carried out in the African socio-cultural context. It is anticipated that the course will serve the needs of Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa in behavioural change communication for health promotion and development.
7th Regional Course on Social Mobilization for Health and Development

The School of Public Health, University of Ghana, is pleased to announce an intensive 6-week residential certificate course in social mobilization for health and development from June 6 – July 16, 2005. The course is structured under modules, units and sessions. Each module and each unit has its specific objectives.
The course takes into account the desire of several countries in the region to have such training carried out in the African socio-cultural context. It is anticipated that the course will serve the needs of Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa in behavioural change communication for health promotion and development.


Target Group
This course is the first of its kind in Anglophone Regional Africa and is open to Development Workers, Officials in Public Health, International Health Students desiring to find job placement in Multi-national Development Agencies (MDAs) and other related health professionals such as:

Doctors Pharmacists
Engineers Midwives
Nurses Journalists
Economists Sociologists
Agriculturalists Administrators
Environmentalists Social Workers
Planners Teachers/Educationist
Bankers Vertinary Officers
Community Development Officers

Application
The course is residential and takes place every year in University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, between June and July. Deadline for submitting applications is 13th May, 2005. Application and sponsorship forms can obtained in writing or emailing to the course secretariat at the address provided at the end of this announcement.

Goal
The course aims at improving the capacity of national personnel in Anglophone Regional Africa, to respond to social mobilization needs of national development programmes.

Primary Objectives
At the end of the training, the participants will have acquired the theory and practical knowledge to enable them plan, organize , monitor and evaluate the “Communication/Social Mobilisation” components of Health and Development Projects and Programmes they are responsible for.

Secondary Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
· Propose a suitable strategy for solving a behaviour-related problem within a community;
· Identify the problems involved and the resources required for implementing change in a community;
· Draw up a systematic Social Mobilisation action plan;
· Determine the crucial points to monitor when implementing a process of change in a community and
· Evaluate the impact of activities aimed at implementing change in a community.

For More Information, Contact:
Julius Fobil
The Course Secretary
School of Public Health
College of Health Sciences
University of Ghana
P.O. Box LG 13
Legon, Ghana
TEL/FAX: (233) (21) 514604
E-mail: jfobil@ug.edu.gh

Call for Applications: Distance learning course on campaigning for access to information

Learn the why, what and how of access to information

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/25416

Global free expression group Article 19 and the human rights organization Fahamu invite applications for a distance learning course on Campaigning for Access to Information to be held from 15 November 2004 until 15 December 2004.

Combining the freedom of information campaigning expertise of Article 19 with the extensive distance learning experience of Fahamu, this course is meant for people and organizations from a broad spectrum of areas in Africa who have an interest in the issue of access to information. This includes but is not limited to: trade unions, residents' organisations, environmental groups, women's groups, development organisations, human rights organisations and many others.

This course looks at why access to information is important, what an access to information law should contain, and how to set about campaigning for one.

While several countries in Southern Africa have draft laws to access to information in place, South Africa is the only country in the region that has a proper access to information law. But even when a law or a draft law is in place, it is important to have the ability to critique the laws in order to make sure that they have included the best provisions possible. And then it is crucial to ensure that the law is implemented properly.

This distance course lasts for seven weeks. Six weeks are spent working through a specially designed interactive CDROM, completing exercises and discussing the issues by email with others who are doing the course. The final week is devoted to an assignment that will involve designing a campaign plan for access to information in your country. This not only entails considering campaigning strategy and tactics, but also the substantive access to information issues that you are likely to encounter in your own country. It is intended that the product of this assignment will be something that you and your organisation can use in the future to help guide your campaigning work. You will be guided throughout the course by an online course tutor.

There are 15 fully sponsored places available on this course. Every participant who successfully completes this course will be awarded a certificate from Article 19 and Fahamu.

Applicants should send a one page summary CV, with a letter of 500 words explaining why they should be selected for this course. Applications should be sent to info@fahamu.org
For further information (including course dates, fees and registration forms please contact:


Hilary Isaac in Oxford, UK on
TEL: +44-(0)845 456 2442
FAX: +44-(0)845-456-2443
EMAIL: info@fahamu.org
or call Camille Downes in Durban, South Africa on:
TEL: +27-(0)31-2071144/8360
FAX: +27-31-2078403
You can also download and complete an application from the Fahamu website at: http://www.fahamu.org/courses.php

* Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) is committed to serving the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights. Fahamu has extensive experience in distance learning for human rights organisations.

* Article 19 (www.article19.org/) works worldwide to combat censorship by promoting freedom of expression and access to official information.

Distance Learning course on the role of media in the genocide in Rwanda

Fahamu course developed for UPEACE

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/25501

Applications are invited from persons living and working in Rwanda to participate in a distance learning course on ‘The role of the media in the genocide in Rwanda’.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda provides a telling case study of two quite separate roles for media in a conflict situation. The genocide was among the most appalling catastrophes of the 20th century, and media played a significant part both internally and internationally. Prior to the genocide, radio stations and newspapers were carefully used by the conspirators to dehumanise the potential victims, Rwanda's Tutsi minority. During the genocide, radio was used by the Hutu extremist conspirators to mobilise the Hutu majority, to coordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for extermination were faithfully executed.

While a series of terrible massacres of Tutsi were carried out and as the signs of ever-increasing violence grew, Rwanda was totally ignored by the international media. When the genocide came, the erratic media coverage largely conveyed the false notion of two ‘tribes’ of African ‘savages’ mindlessly slaughtering each other as they had done from time immemorial. As a result, there was little public pressure in the West for governments to intervene.

In this distance learning course you will study these two facets of the media role in the genocide in detail. You will see how easily the concept of free speech and free press in a local situation can be perverted for foul ends. We will ask how this dilemma could be resolved. We will explore the problem of inadequate or even distorted international coverage of crises and conflicts in areas poorly understood by Western journalists. We will consider whether this unfortunate situation can be improved in the future.
Distance Learning course on the role of media in the genocide in Rwanda

Applications are invited from persons living and working in Rwanda to participate in a distance learning course on ‘The role of the media in the genocide in Rwanda’.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda provides a telling case study of two quite separate roles for media in a conflict situation. The genocide was among the most appalling catastrophes of the 20th century, and media played a significant part both internally and internationally. Prior to the genocide, radio stations and newspapers were carefully used by the conspirators to dehumanise the potential victims, Rwanda's Tutsi minority. During the genocide, radio was used by the Hutu extremist conspirators to mobilise the Hutu majority, to coordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for extermination were faithfully executed.

While a series of terrible massacres of Tutsi were carried out and as the signs of ever-increasing violence grew, Rwanda was totally ignored by the international media. When the genocide came, the erratic media coverage largely conveyed the false notion of two ‘tribes’ of African ‘savages’ mindlessly slaughtering each other as they had done from time immemorial. As a result, there was little public pressure in the West for governments to intervene.

In this distance learning course you will study these two facets of the media role in the genocide in detail. You will see how easily the concept of free speech and free press in a local situation can be perverted for foul ends. We will ask how this dilemma could be resolved. We will explore the problem of inadequate or even distorted international coverage of crises and conflicts in areas poorly understood by Western journalists. We will consider whether this unfortunate situation can be improved in the future.

The course, developed by Fahamu for UPEACE, will be taught by Gerald Caplan, a Canadian-based public policy analyst and international coordinator of the "Remembering Rwanda" Project. He is also a public affairs commentator and author of "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide," the report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities To Investigate the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, appointed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He is presently co-editing a book on the Rwandan genocide ten years later.

The course has been developed for journalists and other professionals in the field of media, students of journalism, NGO staff and policy makers, and will lead to a certificate from the University for Peace.

This course is designed to take 10 weeks using an interactive CDROM containing all materials required for the course. You will be guided in your work by a course tutor via email. You will also have an opportunity to discuss your work with fellow students via email.

The course will include a workshop in which all students, as well as the tutor come together for several days of intensive work. There will be a final short period in which students will work independently and submit a final assignment. The topic for this assignment will be determined at the workshop.

Applications are invited from suitable candidates in Rwanda to attend the first course. The distance learning course will begin on 10 January, with a workshop to be held in Butare, Rwanda, on 15-17 March.

Please note that this is a pilot run of the course and that is why it is limited to Rwandan participants. Following the first pilot, the course will be fine-tuned and will be made available at a later date for broader participation from elsewhere in Africa.

Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Have good command of written and spoken English
- Have access to a computer with a CDROM drive (PC or Mac) for at least seven hours a week
- Have an email address (access to the WWW would be an advantage)
- Be living and working in Rwanda

Application process
Applicants should submit a letter, in English, of at least 500 words explaining why this course is important in their work, and motivating why they should be selected. They should submit a summary CV of no more than one page, and provide evidence from their employer/institution that they have access to a suitable computer. Applications should be sent by email only to Fahamu to: info@fahamu.org Applications should be received by 22 November 2004.

Fees
There are 15 places available. Since it is a pilot course, fees, and costs of attending the workshop in Butare will exceptionally be met by the University for Peace.

Africa: Consultant - Advocacy for African Women's Participation in the Processes and Structures of the African Union

African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/25481

A consultant is needed with experience in:
- Gender mainstreaming;
- The AU and its Specialised mechanisms;
- Advocacy for implementation and monitoring of regional and international human rights conventions on women’s rights at African level.

African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

Advocacy for African Women's Participation in the Processes and Structures of the African Union: Production of Advocacy Packages

Terms of Reference for the Consultant

Background
The African Union (AU) came into being after two thirds of the members of the AU signed the Constitutive Act of the AU in July 2001, and it was formally launched in Durban, South Africa in July 2002, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Women were virtually absent from the structures of the OAU, holding no positions of influence within the OAU during its 39 years of existence. A notable departure from the OAU is therefore the inclusion of principles of democracy, gender equality, good governance, human rights and the rule of law in the Constitutive Act of the AU. Building on those principles, the African women’s movement has started to explore strategies for mainstreaming gender in all institutions and processes of the AU.

The Ford Foundation’s Special Initiative (SIA) supports FEMNET’s “Advocacy for African Women’s Participation in the Processes and Structures of the African Union” project. It seeks to improve the participation of women in regional integration institutions and processes, especially those of the AU

Activities and objectives
The project involves:

· Holding of regional advocacy meeting to identify entry points for and strategise on more long-term work on gender mainstreaming within the AU and its specialised mechanisms;
· Development of a gender-mainstreaming framework targeting the AU and its specialised mechanisms for use by African women's organisations and the AU;
· Holding of a regional training workshop for African women's organisations on advocacy around African women's human rights within the AU and its specialised mechanisms;
· Preparing a wide range of advocacy materials on the AU and its specialised mechanisms for use by African women's organisations and the AU.

The first activity was completed in October 2003 and the report used in the second activity. The third activity was completed in September 2004 and the report is ready. The fourth activity is scheduled for November and December 2004. The objective is to provide the African women’s movement with advocacy tools to enhance their capacity to lobby and advocate for women’s human rights within the AU and its specialised mechanisms.



A consultant is needed with experience in:

· Gender mainstreaming;
· The AU and its Specialised mechanisms;
· Advocacy for implementation and monitoring of regional and international human rights conventions on women’s rights at African level.

Terms of Reference
The terms of reference of the consultant will be:

a) From the report of the first three activities identified above, identify advocacy strategies for mainstreaming gender in the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Peer Review Mechanism (NEPAD/APRM), the Peace and Security Council (PSC), the Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), the Pan African Parliament, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) and the AU Commission (hereafter referred to as the AU and its specialised mechanisms) from a gender perspective;
b) Develop a concept on the development and use of advocacy packages in the seven areas in (a) above:
c) Produce seven advocacy packages on: the AU Commission (Commissioners Portfolios and the WGDD), the PAP, the PSC, the ECOSOCC, the NEPAD/APRM, the CSSDCA and the ACHPR in consultation with expert reviewers for each package that will be identified by FEMNET.

Those interested in applying for this consultancy are invited to submit their CVs, together with a brief (no longer than two pages) statement of interest, indicating how they would propose developing the packages to wandia@femnet.or.ke by November 8, 2004. FEMNET will pay USD1250 per advocacy package (at the rate of USD250 per day for 5 days each) as well the cost for the reviewers.

Africa: Executive Director

The Washington Office on Africa (WOA)

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/25429

WOA's primary role is to serve as a voice in Washington for its member denominations and faith communities on issues concerning Africa and U.S.-Africa policy. Thus an essential mission of the Executive Director is to brief Africa secretaries and others on critical legislation and policy issues on the Washington agenda and to reflect the views of its sponsoring members in debate. The Executive Director is responsible for overseeing the programs, services and activities of the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) and WOA/PRI and, with the Board, sets policy, research, legislative priorities and lobbying activity.
Message from Washington Office on Africa

For contact information see also http://adna.africafocus.org



Washington Office on Africa Seeks Executive Director



The Washington Office on Africa (WOA) is the only ecumenical organization in Washington focused on Africa advocacy. It was founded in 1972 to support the movement for freedom from white-minority rule in southern Africa. Today its mission is to promote a progressive US policy for all Africa and to advocate and educate with government, church and civil society around issues of justice and human rights in Africa.

Who we are:
The Washington Office of Africa is a joint ministry of over 12 sponsoring Protestant denominations and Roman Catholic mission

institutions and it embraces a broad constituency of activists, in and out of the church.

In 2004 it developed the framework for a parallel structure to strengthen the research and education work that is part of the WOA tradition. It established a 501 (c)(3) organization, fully registered and accredited, with its own Board, which is poised to begin its work as the Washington Office on Africa Policy Research Institute (WOA/PRI). The incoming Executive Director will undertake the exciting challenge and opportunity of shaping an organization to meet the needs of the new millennium.

Summary of responsibilities
WOA's primary role is to serve as a voice in Washington for its member denominations and faith communities on issues concerning Africa and U.S.-Africa policy. Thus an essential mission of the Executive Director is to brief Africa secretaries and others on critical legislation and policy issues on the Washington agenda and to reflect the views of its sponsoring members in debate. The Executive Director is responsible for overseeing the programs, services and activities of the Washington Office on Africa (WOA) and WOA/PRI and, with the Board, sets policy, research, legislative priorities and lobbying activity.

The Executive Director will:

- Monitor U.S. policy toward Africa and Congressional legislation regarding Africa; develop appropriate WOA positions on policy and legislation in collaboration with the Board and African and U.S.-based partners and advocate for that position.

- Co-ordinate and be personally involved in lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, providing advocacy opportunities for WOA constituents by coordinating special advocacy initiatives.
- Maintain and strengthen collaborative relationships with sponsoring organizations, key community organizations and WOA-related constituency groups in the United States and partner organizations and groups in Africa, also maintaining relationships with a range of official and government contacts.
- Serve as primary media spokesperson.
- Maintain the research and publication program, designed to educate constituencies and empower effective advocacy.

Operational Oversight - the Executive Director will:

- Facilitate an ongoing strategic planning process, and help the Board president and executive committee plan agendas and develop materials for Board meetings.

- Prepare an annual budget for the Board’s approval.
- Work with the Board and staff to discover and pursue sources of funding for projects in line with the priority agenda.
- Approve expenditures and monitor financial administration.
- Conduct searches, appoint, supervise and evaluate staff and interns.

Qualifications Education and Experience Required.

- A clear familiarity with recent political, social and economic developments in Africa.

- A demonstrated commitment to advocacy relating to human rights, diversity and participatory social change in the U.S., and an understanding of the participating faith communities and their theologies of mission and social justice, which form the base of WOA’s work.
- At least five years senior experience in a progressive, preferably small non-profit agency that required fundraising and management oversight.
- Maturity, a high level of energy, organizational skills, an ability to multi-task under pressure in a small office, while maintaining attention to detail.
- A demonstrated competence with budgeting, fiscal management and oversight.
- A demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with diverse staff, interns, board and constituency; sense of humor helpful.
- A demonstrated ability in public speaking, written and oral analysis and communications.
- Familiarity with Windows, MS Access, Front Page and MS Publisher helpful.

Salary: Salary range $52,000-$62,000 dependent on experience and education.

Benefits: Generous benefit packet available, and some flexibility in work schedule possible.



Application process: Qualified applicants should send a cover letter describing interest and qualifications, a resume, names and contact information for three work-related references and a brief writing sample to: woa@igc.org . Electronic application is preferred but candidates may, if necessary, forward their completed application to Applications Secretary, Washington Office on Africa, 212 East Capitol Street, N.E., Washington, DC, 20003.

Time line: The search committee will begin reviewing applications on November 30th; the position will remain open until filled.

The Washington Office on Africa is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Qualified persons are encouraged to apply regardless of their religious affiliation, race, age, sex, sexual orientation or nature of disability. WOA is a smoke-free workplace.

Africa: Staff person

Sudan Focal Point-Africa

2004-11-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/25428

The core group of Sudan Focal Point-Africa invites applications from interested candidates for the function as Sudan Focal Point-Africa staff person, with preferred commencement January 2005.
Job Announcement for Sudan Focal Point-Africa:

Given this historic moment in the history of Sudan with the IGAD facilitated peace process moving along its challenging route, the Sudan Focal Point-Africa would like to seize this opportunity in Sudan’s political transition, to intensify its advocacy work in Africa on behalf of the churches and their congregations in Sudan. The advocacy efforts will be aimed at supporting their deep desire to profoundly contribute to the political, social and spiritual reconstruction of a peaceful Sudan.

The Sudan Focal Point-Africa is a mechanism of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum, and has its counterpart in the Sudan Focal Point-Europe. The primary target of the advocacy work of Sudan Focal Point-Africa will be African institutions and governments including the African Union, governments in the region and South Africa.

Sudan Focal Point-Africa will be an important voice from Africa, supplying arguments, analysis, personal stories and witness, and suggestions to be utilized by the wider ecumenical network, Sudan Ecumenical Forum, and other relevant parts of the ecumenical international network.

The core group of Sudan Focal Point-Africa invites applications from interested candidates for the function as Sudan Focal Point-Africa staff person, with preferred commencement January 2005.

Personal qualifications:

· Experience in advocacy and successful lobby work, including an understanding of the key African institutions for lobbying and advocacy, a well-developed network of contacts, as well as an understanding of African issues
· Ability to develop and maintain relationships with the Church of Sudan on the individual and organizational level.
· Ability to travel within Sudan and to various meetings as needed in Africa.
· Knowledge of Sudan would be important, while detailed and in depth information can also be gathered through resource persons in and out of Sudan, New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) and Sudan Council of Churches (SCC).
· Knowledge and relationship with churches and the ecumenical network in Africa would be amajor asset.
· Good communication and IT skills
· Fluency in spoken and written English

· Location:Located within AACC offices in Nairobi, Kenya

Organizational linkages:

· Sudan Focal Point-Africa Core Group is a resource group of interested stakeholders, offering guidance and support for the work of Sudan Focal Point-Africa
· DanChurch Aid will be the legal employment contract holder.

Applications:
· Applications should be sent to
Stein Villumstad, stein@ncakenya.org , Regional Representative of Norwegian Church Aid and chair of SFP-A core group, or
Lisa Henry, lhenry.dca@africaonline.co.ke, Regional Representative of DanChurch Aid.
· Applications should be e-mailed to one of the above before end of working hours 28th November 2004.
· For inquiries, pls. contact the above addresses, or call Lisa on +254 733 757 829, or Stein on + 254 733 609 936

Fahamu