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Featured this week

2006-03-09

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/32613

FEATURES: Ayesha M Imam begins a series of articles on women's rights and Islam by considering women’s reproductive and sexual rights within Muslim Nigeria
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Marywam Uwais argues that Islam and women’s rights are compatible
- Dr. Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan states that a significant relationship exists between the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and Sharia
- Islam and women’s rights are not mutually exclusive, writes Karoline Kemp
- Nyaradzai Mugaragumbo-Gumbonzvanda pays tribute to the heroines of the African continent
LETTERS: China in Africa, Corruption in Kenya, elections in South Africa
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Everyday should be women’s day, says Tajudeen Abdul Raheem
OBITUARY: Remembering John la Rose
BLOGGING AFRICA: African bloggers honour women
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Behind the numbers in the DRC
HUMAN RIGHTS: Truth, reconciliation and an end to impunity in Liberia
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Searching for opportunities at home and abroad in Ghana
WOMEN AND GENDER: Lowly news status of women continues, study shows
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Besigye acquitted in Uganda, vows to fight on
DEVELOPMENT: A critique of the MDGs from the South
CORRUPTION: The cancer of corruption in Africa
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Ignore the World Bank, government minister says
EDUCATION: West African cities jammed with jobless graduates
ENVIRONMENT: Africa can’t afford more bad hydro
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Activists condemn North African curbs on the internet
PLUS…News from the Diaspora, Advocacy and Campaigns, Internet and Technology, e-Newsletters and Mailing lists, Fundraising, Courses and Books and Arts.

* Can trade in the era of globalisation be 'just'? Read our issue on the subject and send your feedback to editor@pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/240

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TSOTSI SCREENING IN OXFORD

Come to an exclusive preview of this year’s most critically-acclaimed film, Tsotsi, in the Magdalen College Auditorium (Longwall St entrance) in Oxford at 8.00pm on Friday 10 March, a week before the film goes on general release across the UK on 17 March.

ABOUT THE FILM
Set amidst the sprawling, crime-ridden streets of Johannesburg - where survival is the primary objective - this award-winning film traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader, who ends up caring for a baby he accidentally kidnaps during a car-jacking. With the baby’s welfare at stake, he is compelled to confront his own brutal nature and face the consequences of his actions, if he ever wishes to find redemption in his life.

Nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two BAFTA Awards, Tsotsi is an epic and uplifting drama about the ultimate triumph of love over rage.

Tsotsi is in cinemas nationwide from 17 March (certificate 15). For more information, go to www.tsotsimovie.com

In addition to its Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe nominations, Tsotsi has already won numerous awards including: Audience Award, LA Art Film Festival; People’s Choice Award, Toronto International Film Festival; Audience Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival; Audience Award, Denver International Film Festival; Greek Parliament Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.

Screening takes place on Friday 10th March at 8pm
At Magdalen College Auditorium (Longwall St entrance), Oxford
Entry £5 (£3 concessions)
Proceeds to Fahamu’s programme in South Africa

The winners of tickets to the screening of Tsotsi are:

Isaria Mwende
Philip Jusu
Musukoroh Kandeh
Mohamed Berray

Women’s reproductive and sexual rights and the offence of Zina in Muslim laws in Nigeria

2006-03-09

Ayesha M Imam

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/32609

To mark International Women's Day, we publish today a number of articles on Islam and human rights. In this compelling article by Ayesha Imam, women’s reproductive and sexual rights within Muslim Nigeria are considered. With the recent “Sharianization” of parts of the country, new offences have been created, mostly surrounding sexuality, which has had a negative effect on women’s rights. Imam argues that while Sharia (Muslim laws) are neither uniform nor God given, the opposition between conservative and liberal jurisprudence has prevented progressive scholars and activists from establishing Muslim laws that ensure and protects the rights of women. She highlights what can be done to oppose these forces, and argues that one of the most important aspects of this task involves a “demystification” of Sharia for the Muslim communities of Nigeria (and elsewhere).


Amina Lawal was convicted of adultery in March 2002 and sentenced to stoning to death. In the wake of a new Sharia Penal Code in Katsina State, religious right vigilantes instigated a case against her for having a child after divorce without remarrying. The alleged father swore that he had not had sexual relations with her and was released. These events occurred during a heated controversy in Nigeria about the nature and desirability of Sharia (Muslim laws), rights in Muslim laws, constitutional rights, international human rights and their relationship(s) to each other. Ms. Lawal’s case was immediately adopted by a coalition of Nigerian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided her with lawyers, safe houses, medical care, and emotional support over the eighteen-month ordeal. She also became the object of world attention, media and protest campaigns, many of which excoriated “Islamic law” as brutal and called on Nigeria’s president to pardon her and repeal the Sharia Acts. In September 2003, Amina Lawal won her appeal in the state Sharia Court of Appeal and was acquitted (Lawal Kurami v. the State).

This case is perhaps one of the best known concerning the introduction of Sharia Penal Codes in several Nigerian states in 2000. Zina, or unlawful sexual intercourse, includes adultery, punished by stoning to death, and fornication, penalized by whipping. In some of the states, men may be imprisoned in addition. These cases have been integral to the opening up of issues relevant to ensuring and developing women’s reproductive and sexual rights, and to understanding them in ways that recognises and respects both local cultures and contexts, as well as international rights agreements. The tensions between conservative religious politics and crude antiterrorism policies which are often blatantly Islamphobic must be considered in this discussion, which also involves local cultures containing a complicated mixture of ideologies and social practices, structured by power relations.

International human rights treaties and agreements, like local cultures, must thus require a “claim and critique” strategy – being aware of both local cultures and international human rights discourse, while at the same time not privileging either as superior, and thus being able to critique both. This is important so that human rights principles actually guarantee people their rights in their day to day lives; this requires that they are claimed and respected by local cultures, and are not merely written texts, so that they are seen as social and historical products, affected by the power politics and of the cultural traditions of the dominant groups in their own contexts.

Understanding that human rights constructions are themselves subject to power structures makes it possible to recognise the Western European influences on the construction of rights today. But it is also possible to accept the universality of the notion of rights, which are not static and are constantly reconstructed by those whose lives are impacted by them.

Approaches to human rights must also be constantly reconstructed. It is important that local cultural-religious norms and traditions, as well as formal national and international rights regimes must be simultaneously drawn from and negotiated with. Women’s rights groups have been integral to this process. Even though many of these groups are often regarded as in opposition to family, religious or ethnic community, they are in fact challenging not the communities themselves, but the current definitions of culture and norms of that community, and the powers of the cultural gatekeepers to maintain those definitions. It is with this background in mind that this article looks at the politics and activities surrounding zina cases under the Sharia Penal Codes in Nigeria.

Nigeria has seen a growth in religious essentialism and conservatism. However, the introduction of Sharia in Nigeria has had more to do with emotional political appeal, especially due to economic and educational issues, rather than religious sentiment.

Reactions to Sharianization were many. Christian and non-Muslims feared the imposition of Muslim religious laws on them. Human rights and other NGOs activists (including Muslims) were concerned about the religious rights of non-Muslims and the violation of constitutional provisions of secularity. Both Muslim and non-Muslim women’s rights activists were concerned that Sharia would be used as a rationale to discriminate against women and restrict their rights.

Muslim communities reactions to Sharianization were also varied – Ibrahim el-Zakzaky of the Muslim Brothers, who had previously called for the Islamization of Nigeria, opposed Sharianization on the grounds that passing and implementing harsh punishments without first ensuring just socioeconomic relations was not Islamic. Others were afraid of political abuse by those with power; as Muslims they did not want to oppose Sharia, but they did not feel they had the skills to criticize potential corruption without the ability to read Arabic or years of study of Islamic jurisprudence. Thus, there was an “uneasy public silence.” However, upon the passing of the laws there was much celebration, as many associated Sharia with morality. Morality was seen not only as sexuality, but also in terms of safety and anti-corruption, which the poor suffer most from.

The Sharia Penal Codes have created some new offences in Nigerian law, mostly around sexuality. They also recognise stoning, retributive punishments and blood fines. In theory, these laws apply to Muslims only, but it remains an open question whether Muslims have the right to choose to be governed by general Nigerian law, without having to renounce their religious identity.

Also still unresolved and ambiguous is that of the contradictions and gaps between the new Sharia Penal Codes and the Criminal Procedure Codes that determine procedures and evidence: What counts as evidence? What are the procedures? How are offenses actually defined? Further, whether the Sharia acts themselves or the nature of the punishments are subject to international human rights law has been debated. Nigeria is in fact a state party to several international human rights covenants. However, although such agreements may give rise to obligations under international law, unless they have been specifically incorporated into domestic law, they give no basis for claims in national courts. The interplay between domestic Nigerian multiple and parallel legal systems of secular, Muslim and customary laws is also problematic as they give differential rights on different issues, and jurisdiction can be contentious. Whose version of Sharia is to be upheld is another area that requires further definition.

Sharia is neither directly God given, nor uniform through Muslim history or different communities. In principle, Muslim laws are to be developed by reliance on the Qu’ran. The second source is the sunnah – traditions of the Prophet. Next is ijma, consensus about what that law is, by qiyas (analogy) and ijtihad (interpretive reasoning). At each stage there are disagreements that have led to diversities – thus, Muslim laws are and always have been subject to discussion or controversy.

Further, there are four main schools of Islamic jurisprudence among Sunni Muslims (who constitute about 80% of all Muslims). There are many similarities, as well as wide divergences. However, the scholars behind these schools did not see themselves as setting down a God-given legal code to be obeyed by all Muslims for all time. On the contrary, they were quite categorical that Muslims were not obliged to follow them if they did not believe that their reasoning from the Qu’ran and the sunnah were right. They had no intention of making their views final and binding on all Muslims. The stereotype of a single, uniform or divinely revealed Islamic law is false. However, this myth has been useful for Muslim conservatives and this can indeed by seen in Nigeria regarding reproductive and sexual rights.

In terms of zina, there are three main possibilities: zina can be seen as a sin that Allah will punish directly, except where there are voluntary or repeated confessions; the law can be seen as a deterrent but which requires high standards of proof and evidence which result in few prosecutions and rare convictions; and the politically motivated aggressive enforcing of morality through restrictive legislation and enthusiastic prosecutions. This latter case is what has been happening in Nigeria. In terms of reproductive rights for women, Sharia is equally diverse. Most Muslim jurists agree that fertility management is permissible, and that pleasure in sexual intercourse is a right for both men and women. Most also agree that Islam does not sanction female genital mutilation. Despite this, the religious right in Nigeria have described fertility management as promoting immorality and zina, and have thus attempted to prevent it.

This opposition between conservative and liberal constructions of Muslim laws, and the myth of a single uniform (conservative) Sharia, has enabled the Muslim religious rightwing to prevent progressive Muslim scholars and rights activists from establishing the legitimacy of their positions in fiqh (jurisprudence), Sharia, or non-religious laws. Ironically, many progressives and leftists in the West do the same, dismissing critical voices from within the Muslim world as “Westernized” and inauthentic. It is important to recognize dissenters as equally authentic members of the community.

Many groups are actively organising in Nigeria to establish protection for women’s rights under this new Sharianization. The primary strategy of these organisations is defending those convicted by focusing on appeals in the Sharia courts, thus buying much needed time as well as getting closer to the higher courts, which have been historically more fair to women. Appealing, with the use of arguments in fiqh, deficiencies in the acts and the bias against women in their implementation could be recognised. Alternative Muslim juristic views can also be cited. Gaining an acquittal also serves to indicate that no conviction should have been made, and is thus a vindication of the person wrongly convicted. Pursuing appeals also serves to demonstrate that people have the right to appeal and challenge injustice, including those perpetuated in the name of religion. The success of those appeals shows that it does make a difference – far fewer women and men have been charged with zina or sentenced to stoning since Amina’s case, and the two that were, have successfully appealed and were discharged within three months.

These same women’s and rights groups have also sought to demystify Sharia to the general public, through seminars, workshops, training, public discussion, lectures, articles, pamphlets, books and radio and television talk shows. This includes groups like the Constitutional Rights Project, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, the Women’s Action Collective with Women’s Action Research and Documentation, and the Nigerian office of the International Human Rights Law Group.

Demystifying Sharianization in Nigeria also involves critiques of the current class- and gender-bias in content and implementation. The poor have been the most subjected to harsh punishments. There have been fewer convictions of men than of women for adultery or fornication. Moreover, men convicted of violent sexual offences, like rape and sexual assault, have received less severe punishments (usually fines, imprisonment, or acceptance of pleas of illness and insanity), despite the stronger punishments available in the Sharia Penal Codes that are routinely meted out for consensual sex outside marriage. Women have clearly been discriminated against. Judges have ignored or dismissed women’s allegations of rape and coercion in zina cases. Before Amina Lawal’s acquittal, convictions of adultery/fornication brought against women used different and discriminatory standards of evidence than those used for men – that of pregnancy outside marriage.

The task at hand is therefore much larger than simply working to make Sharia work for women – it includes reeducation and awareness raising to change age old attitudes, while at the same time valuing local traditions and culture.

International media coverage of these cases, and of the Amina Lawal case in particular, has been staggering, relatively speaking. News reporting and petitions that have appealed to human rights have had conflicting results. While a growing awareness of rights abuses has been gained, a certain amount of hypocritical action is identified: the response of many Nigerians has frequently been to ask why people in the West are apparently so concerned about the life of one Muslim woman in Nigeria, when they have been killing large numbers of Muslim men, women, and children and are responsible for the horrors of war and its aftermath in Iraq.

While international solidarity is important to local rights struggles, and campaigns and petitions have the potential to be successful, it must be done in a way that does not portray stereotypes, nor hinder the actual protection and defense of women’s and human rights. Further, the international media and protests have largely ignored the existence of dissent among Muslims, and have downplayed the existence of protests and campaigns enacted within Nigeria. The tendency to treat the Muslim world as uniform only helps to legitimize the religious right’s monopolistic claim to speak for all Muslims and to de-legitimize the assertions of progressive scholars and rights activists. Downplaying local organizing has the clear implication that it is the pressure and power of external foreign interests that is important and not the strengthening of local cultures of rights.

In order to move forward, using local structures and mechanisms (judicial appeals, informal dispute resolution, mock tribunals organized by local NGOs, networks of sympathizers and campaigns) to resist retrogressive laws or interpretations of laws and the forces behind them is the priority. Doing so strengthens local counter-discourses and often carries greater legitimacy than outside pressure. Further, using local structures and discourses can really address the local political power struggles that are behind the political use of religions and ethnicities.

Reforming laws is of utmost importance, and will require expanding public education on Muslim laws, juristic opinions and debate on the contents of laws. This task also necessitates building solidarity among a variety of stakeholders to develop shared understanding and common strategies and platforms for women’s and human rights. Local groups must find ways to interact with and influence mass international media, to make it more accurate and nuanced. These groups must also negotiate with and influence the policies of international agencies to create informed and respectful solidarity. Campaigning for governments and media to support international policies that sustain economic justice and rights would give hope worldwide so that poverty and uncertainty do not continue to be conditions in which religious right sentiments and actors find support for discourses and laws that violate rights.

* This up-dated paper contains both summary and extracts from a longer paper, which is an edited version of a paper published in “Where Human Rights Begin—Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium,” edited by Wendy Chavkin and Ellen Chesler, Rutgers University Press, November 2005.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The Protocol on The Rights of Women in Africa and its compatibility with Islamic legal principles

2006-03-09

Maryam Uwais

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/32612

In this article, Marywam Uwais, barrister and human rights advocate, argues that Islam and women’s rights are compatible. Using a framework of Islamic law, as well as the newly ratified Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, Uwais takes an in depth look at a number of factors affecting African Muslim women. With her background in law, Uwais has provided an extremely important tool for women’s rights advocates in Muslim Africa, linking issues facing women to concrete support for their rights within both the Quran and Islamic law.


Introduction

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted in July 2003 during the 2nd Ordinary Session of the African Heads of States in Maputo, Mozambique. It was considered by women all over the world, as a decisive step towards securing a legal framework for the protection and advancement of women’s rights in Africa. Its swift ratification enabled it to come into force in November, 2005 and underscored the importance and the concern Member States attach to the injustices suffered daily by African women. These injustices take the form of physical and mental violence, social, economic and cultural rights abuses, exploitation of vulnerabilities, and the discrimination and disadvantages arising as a consequence thereof.

This paper attempts to draw comparisons between the contents of the Protocol and the rights of women within the Islamic legal framework, with a view to highlighting areas of common concern, and especially those Islamic concepts and legal principles that lend credence to the provisions adopted by the African Union, for the protection of Muslim African women, in particular.

One of the major concerns is the harsh, dogmatic and rigid interpretations of the Qur’an and the Hadith, adopted and conveyed by many scholars and in territories where the Shari’ah prevails (Shari’ah jurisdictions). These interpretations provide cover for many injustices, which cannot be justified under a religion that professes universal and substantive justice for all, and especially the vulnerable within the society. Close study demonstrates, however, that many of these interpretations/beliefs arise from ignorance of the true precepts of the faith, deriving from patriarchal cultures and traditions, rather than benevolent interpretations of the primary sources of the Shari’ah, in line with the spirit of the Qur’an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

This article will thus consider several of the issues important to Muslim women in Africa, including access to justice, polygamy, economic rights and the right to political participation. An attempt will be made to connect these issues to the Muslim context, international rights treaties and potential solutions to each topic.

Access to Justice

Islam, being a faith that commands the doing of substantive justice to all, also stresses equality of all before the law, irrespective of social standing, gender, religious inclination and other similar considerations. One of the chief mandates for human rights within the Muslim context comes from the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, pronounced by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). Thus, Article 19 of the OIC Declaration provides that:

(a) All Individuals are equal before the law, without distinction between ruler and the ruled; and
(b) The right to resort to justice is guaranteed to everyone.

Moreover, Article 8 of same states;

Every human being has the right to enjoy his legal capacity in terms of both obligation and commitment, should this capacity be lost or impaired, he shall be represented by a guardian.

Much, however, needs to be done by Member States to overcome barriers to securing the protections afforded to women under the law, as many of such structures and mechanisms are not in place, and the overwhelming circumstances of poverty and ignorance serve as formidable obstacles to the realization of women’s rights. While comprehensive codification is advocated for in many areas (especially in the vast and interrelated field of family law) care should be taken to ensure that the laws under contemplation, though seemingly positive, do not have an adverse effect on women in practical terms. For instance, experience has shown that in some cases, efforts at enforcing strict regulation have merely had the effect of rendering such negative practices ‘invisible’. Regulation should, therefore, not be so strict as to further aggravate the circumstances unfortunate women find themselves in, nor remove all avenues for the ability to exercise just and compassionate discretion.

In addition, law reform and regulation must be accompanied by wider efforts at social change, such as the empowerment of men and women with the essential knowledge of the rights available to women under the Shari’ah, (including the necessary financial wherewithal), as many of the positive, beneficial decisions taken (even under the common law) can hardly be enforced due to the fact that too many violations go unnoticed and undocumented (and are thus considered the norm) and that the circumstances of poverty, ignorance and illiteracy are all-pervasive, especially in the rural areas.

Polygamy

Muslim scholars argue that polygamy is permitted as a remedy for certain social diseases, under certain strict conditions. Without delving into the arguments on the justification for polygamy in today’s context (especially since the practice is deeply entrenched and accepted as the norm, even by women, in many African jurisdictions), it would only suffice to point out that the ability to treat co-wives justly is a strict precondition to the practice, following the verses in the Qur’an;

‘…marry women of your choice, two, three or four; but if you feel you may not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one . . .That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice.’

' . . . you will never be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it is your ardent desire . . .'

Obviously, these verses do not convey an unrestrained license to men, for the multiplication of wives and monogamy seems to be the preferred option. Unfortunately, polygamy has attained the status of an abiding culture in our own jurisdictions, without regard to the underlying necessity for fairness and justice between wives, being the normative values embedded intrinsically therein.

Since Muslims accept that cohesion of the family unit is the objective of the Shari’ah, surely where blatant abuse of a permission granted in good faith has become the norm (to the extent that disarray has become the consequence of a practice that typifies the letter, but not the essence of the Shari’ah) time has come for the Courts, and the Shari’ah jurisdictions to intervene for the purposes of protecting the vulnerable. The Shari’ah jurisdictions are under a duty to protect all, including women, so it would be appropriate for a regulatory law to be passed that reinforces controls and checks the abuse of the Qur’anic verses.

Thus, Courts should be empowered to enquire into the circumstances of all men who wish to marry subsequent wives, in respect of issues such as capacity and the discharge of their basic obligations as they exist or are stipulated in the marriage contract, as is happening in several Shari’ah jurisdictions across the world. Justification and proof should be demanded from, and given by, men for contemplated subsequent wives, on issues such as whether they can afford to maintain them, accommodate them with some measure of privacy (privacy being a major right under the Shari’ah), whether the existing wife consents to such addition (in emulation of the conduct of the Prophet when Ali, his daughter’s husband, sought for advice for a subsequent marriage), otherwise the woman would be compensated on agreeable terms. The State must step in, as the Authority responsible for protecting the weak in their respective spheres of authority.

Moreover, it is clear that Islam permitted polygamy as a social remedy under certain strict conditions (without which the plurality of wives is prohibited). Some Muslim countries have accordingly advocated for an outright prohibition, or introduced legislation that empowers the judiciary to refuse permission for the taking of a subsequent wife, because the man is found not to be in a position to sustain both wives, satisfactorily (in terms of maintenance, etc). While this approach has been criticized as restrictive (in that it takes away the man’s discretion and certain perceived rights), it could serve as the procedural means of ensuring that the ability to do justice is not subjective, and authorizes the intervention of an impartial third party, thereby ensuring justice in the true spirit of the Qur’an. This is especially because the condition of doing justice between co-wives is seldom given any consideration by men where polygamy is practiced.

Economic Rights

In Islamic law, women are entitled to hold property of their own, in their name and within and after marriage, as the case may be. This includes the right to earn, acquire, access and dispose of her property. Although the law provides that she may not be forcefully dispossessed of the same, these rights appear to exist more in theory. Muslim women in Africa remain largely economically dependent on their male counterparts, especially since the control of her property, if any, is invariably in the hands of male relations.

Access to credit, bank loans, mortgages and the like is still heavily skewed in favour of men and many socio-cultural and economic barriers militate against women enjoying financial independence. Indeed, although there are no categorical religious injunctions against women owning property, even the policies of Member States fail to acknowledge the current statistics that disclose that women are increasingly becoming the breadwinners of their households. Age-long prejudices, attitudes and behaviour need also to alter, to effectively take into account the peculiar problems women face in trying to assert their rights.

The Right to Political Participation

With respect to political leadership, Shari’ah places utmost emphasis on good governance, founded on justice, equity and responsibility. The Qur’an states clearly that sovereignty of the heavens and the earth belong to God, it also provides that God has made human beings His agents and representatives, without distinction as to gender. Arising from these verses and the traditions of the Prophet in support thereof, there is a consensus that every Muslim has the right and opportunity to participate directly or indirectly in the country’s public affairs and electoral processes, and the prerequisites of leadership are regarded as the capacity to exercise righteousness and to uphold justice for all.

Nowhere in the Qur’an or the Hadith is there any prohibition of participation of a woman in her country’s affairs. The Hadith that is often utilized as authority to deny such participation (where the Prophet was reported to have said that a Nation that leaves its affairs in the hands of a woman would not prosper) is said to be of doubtful authenticity by several Scholars. The historical context of that tradition is said to have been the event when the Prophet received news that Khusro’s daughter, who was widely perceived as authoritarian, had succeeded the throne. The comment was considered to be in specific relation to her person. Indeed, in contrast to this position, verses 32-34 of the Chapter on Ants (Naml) in the Qur’an extol Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, as a ruler enjoying great wealth, dignity and the full confidence of her subjects. If it were an aberration to have a female ruler, Sheba would not have been worthy of such honour, as to be mentioned so commendably by God. Moreover, women as a group are known to have participated in the initial pledge of allegiance (bay’a) extended to the Prophet, by Muslims, which is a significant pointer to the fact that even in those days, women were considered an integral part of the Muslim community, participating in the political activities of their society. It is also reported that Aisha, the widow of the Prophet, led and commanded the Battle of the Camel, with many of the companions of the Prophet in her army, and none of them disclaimed her authority to lead.

Conclusion

Today’s realities make it imperative that mechanisms and in-built structures within Islamic Law (such as doctrines for the development of the Shari’ah) must be activated by our own Scholars and Jurists. This is for the benefit of the female gender, if only to enable constructive, contextual interpretations of the primary sources of the Shari’ah, as was done many centuries ago by Islamic jurists and scholars of repute in their own times within the Islamic world. As has been shown, there is ample room within Islamic law for Muslim States to remedy the problems and seeming contradictions between the position of women in Shari’ah and the provisions of the Protocol, utilising an open mind that views the issues as complementary, rather than incongruous. Good faith, backed by political and humanitarian will, are capable of ensuring the flexibility required to resolve the apparent ‘conflicts’ between Islamic Law and the contents of the African Protocol, thereby creating the understanding that would lead to the harmonisation and realisation of common standards of universalism, irrespective of gender and other similar considerations, in Africa and the world, at large. A positive attitude for managing variations through the synergising of rights norms (as replete in the Protocol) with Islamic legal principles is necessary and imperative, for formidable and comprehensive protections to be afforded women in developing countries, of which African Muslim women form a significant portion.

* This article is comprised of extracts from a longer paper by Maryam Uwais, who is Principal Barrister at Wali-Uwais & Co. in Nigeria. She is also involved in the National Human Rights Commission.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Islamic perspective on gender equality and justice

2006-03-09

Dr. Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/32611

Providing Pambazuka News readers with a clear linkage between women’s rights and Islamic law, Dr. Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan argues that a significant relationship exists between what the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and Sharia have to offer to Muslim communities in Africa. Detailing the basis for women’s equality as provided for within the Quran and Islamic law, this article argues that Islam recognises that while men and women are not the same, they are certainly not unequal. The article concludes with a number of important recommendations for advocates working in African Muslim countries to ensure the rights of women.


This paper argues that the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa provides a strategic platform for advocates seeking to bring women’s human rights to the attention of citizens, organizations, governments and policymakers throughout Africa. It further argues that there is a significant relationship between the Protocol and the Sharia in terms of the objective, nature and scope of women’s rights.

Hence this paper seeks to realize the following objectives:

1. To provide an overview of the Protocol with special emphasis on the key survival, development, protection and participation rights of women in Africa;
2. To establish a significant relationship between the Protocol’s core provisions and the Islamic perspective on gender equality.
3. To conclude with some viable options for effective strategies in promoting and protecting women’s rights in Africa.

The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

This part of the paper seeks to highlight the significance and potential of, and the rationale behind the Protocol and to examine the key provisions of the protocol relating to women’s rights in Africa.

Significance and Potential of the Protocol

The African Union adopted on July 11, 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, a landmark treaty known as the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (the protocol) to supplement the regional human rights charter, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (the African Charter). The protocol, which entered into force on 25 November 2005 after securing 15 ratifications by African governments, provides broad protection for women’s human rights, including gender equality and justice.

The significance and potential of the protocol go well beyond Africa. The treaty contains a number of global firsts. For example, it represents the first time that an international human rights instrument has explicitly articulated a women’s right to abortion when pregnancy results from sexual assault, rape, or incest; when continuation of the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the pregnant woman; and in cases of grave fetal defects that are incompatible with life. Another first is the protocol’s call for the prohibition of harmful practices such as female circumcision/female genital mutilation (FC/FGM), which have ravaged the lives of countless young women in Africa.

The protocol can help advocates pressure governments to address the underlying social, economic, political, and health-care issues that contribute to the dismal states of women’s conditions throughout Africa, and through the reliance on the Quranically dictated values on gender equality, links to the protocol can be established in order to strengthen the rights of Muslim women throughout the continent.

Gender Equality and Justice under the Sharia

The Sharia, technically referred to as a ‘believer’s law’ in Islam, has two components. The divine component is founded on the provisions of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam. The human component of the Sharia is largely rooted in the exercise of ijtihad, technically referred to as the human initiatives to embark on research, provide judicial interpretations of the provisions of the divine component of the Sharia, resort to legal opinions or fatwa, juristic analysis, discourse or interpretations, as well as analogical deductions of rule by qualified mujtahids or scholars from the letter and spirit of the Holy Quran. Hence while the divine component is immutable, the human aspect of the Sharia is liable to err.

It is generally thought that the Sharia treats women unfairly and gender equality and justice are not possible within the Islamic legal system. This assertion is partly true and partly untrue.

Partly true as far as the resort to the process of ijtihad, the outcome and application of this process is not reflective of the changing needs and circumstances of the Muslim Ummah and not consistent with the values that the Quran repeatedly asserts in four words: ‘adl (Justice), ihsan (Benevolence), rahmah (Compassion) and hikmah (Wisdom). These Quranic values are very close to, and in fact, are the essence of human rights. One cannot think of human rights of any individual or group in the modern world without these values. Justice is as fundamental to human rights as benevolence, compassion and wisdom are. One cannot have a humane society without it being a just society.

The notion is partly untrue as far as the concept and respect for human rights are quite integral to the teachings of the Quran and the practice of the Prophet. Both the Quran and the Sunnah have remained for Muslims the framework within which to promote and protect these individual/group human rights. And the Quran has recognized and supported women’s rights in particular to: independent ownership of property, education, inheritance, free consent in marriage, divorce, child custody, voting rights, and to full legal capacity. However, there is the need to improve on women’s access to justice and to practically enhance gender equality in Muslim societies.

Quranic Perspectives on Gender Equality

The expression “Quranic perspective on Gender Equality” was judged to be the most suitable title for it orients us towards discovering those core principles in the Quran itself which form the understanding framework for our societies throughout the Muslim world. It is a society based on Quranic principles which is the goal of all Muslims, even though we may unknowingly deviate from time to time from those principles. It is the conference to a Quran-based society for which we must all work if the Muslim peoples are to enjoy a felicitous future. It is not an Indonesian, Pakistani, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Sudanese or Nigerian version of that society that we should regard as the indisputable norm, but one firmly based on the teachings of the Holy Quran. Only therein can we find a proper definition of women’s role in society. Since it is these teachings which are the subject of this sub-heading, the above seemed the most proper title.

By this choice of title one needs to emphasize that Muslims should regard the Holy Quran as our guide in all aspects of our lives. It is not only the prime source of knowledge about religious beliefs, obligations, and practices, it is also the guide, whether specific or implied, for every aspect of Islamic civilization.

As a step in this direction, let us consider what the Quran has to teach us about gender equality in the society towards which we should be striving, and ponder its effect on the position of women. What are the basic characteristics of a Quranic society which particularly affect women?

Five characteristics, which seem basic, crucial and incontrovertible of Quranic society are to be considered. Although they are presented in a series, each one rests upon the others and affects them. The interdependence of these five characteristics makes it difficult to speak of any one of them without mention of the others, and of course they do not and cannot exist in isolation from one another.

The characteristics include the following:

The Quran acknowledges the equal status and worth of the sexes, and the first of these Quranic confirmations of male-female equality are contained in statements pertaining to such religious matters as the origins of humanity, or to religious obligations and rewards.

Secondly, Muslims abide by a dual sex society rather than a unisex society. While maintaining the validity of the equal worth of men and women, the Quran does not judge this equality to mean equivalence or identity of the sexes. The society based on the Quran is, in contrast, a dual-sex society in which both sexes are assigned their special responsibilities. This assures the healthy functioning of the society for the benefit of all its members.

Third, of utmost importance is the interdependence of all members of society. Contrary to the contemporary trend to emphasize the rights of the individual at the expense of society, we find the Quran repeatedly emphasizing the interdependence of the male and female, as well as of all members of society.

Fourth, the value of the extended family is synonymous with Islam, as it serves to improve male-female relations. Thus, family connections reaching far beyond the nuclear unit are evident in strong psychological, social, economic and even political ties.

The fifth basic characteristic of a Quranic society is that of patriarchy. In order to acquire stability and cohesiveness, within Islam, patriarchy dominates, with men assuming responsibility for maintaining society.

The above analysis thus demonstrates that while women and men may be different, they are still equal, and as such, deserve equal treatment. The Quran thus provides the basis from which women are to be seen within Muslim communities, while the protocol offers the legal protection for all African women, including those living within an Islamic context.

Conclusions and Recommendations

It is evident from the above analysis that, both the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and Islamic law recognize the crucial role of women in the preservation of family and societal values and seek to promote and protect women’s rights as human beings, then as citizens of their respective states, and finally as members of a vulnerable group that are largely abused, disadvantaged, marginalized and discriminated against in every human society.

Further, how men and women (especially political and public office holders, religious and community leaders, gender insensitive scholars, policy formulators and implementers) perceive women’s rights and to what extent their decisions and behaviour reflect a concern over such rights, are questions that require: continuing human rights education; aggressive public enlightenment campaigns; multidisciplinary research and a cross-cultural approach to the understanding, articulation and promotion of women’s rights as human rights in the civil, political, social, economic, cultural, environmental and development contexts.

At the same time, because legal and policy reforms and ideas about human rights can only provide a receptive context for changes in behaviour and do not by themselves produce these changes, it is important also to devote our attention to the practical realities that would support or hinder these reforms. These range from the economic and health infrastructure, to patterns of family formation and dissolution, and the diffusion of ideas through education and exchange. In other words, to all those conditions that are prerequisite to the effective protection of women’s human rights and the promotion of gender equality and gender justice.

Viable Options for Advocates

First, advocates in countries that have not yet ratified the protocol should press their governments to ratify.

Second, there is the need to uphold the protocol’s objectives. Any state that ratifies the treaty immediately assumes an obligation to uphold its stated objectives: to ensure the promotion and protection of women’s human rights; to ensure the implementation of the protocol at national level; and to submit periodic reports to the African Human Rights Commission, as well as provide appropriate legal remedies to any woman whose rights are violated. The adoption and repeal of legislations, implementation of policies and programmes, and enforcement by national-level courts and other mechanisms of existing legal standards can fulfill the obligations outlined in the protocol.

Third, advocates can lobby governments to reform national laws and policies that hinder women’s human rights under the protocol. Fourth, advocates need to push national and local policymakers to enact policies and programmes that seek to fulfill women’s human rights: - e.g., violence against women; sexual discrimination against women; a woman’s right to sustainable development and to participate in governance, decision-making process at all levels and in politics. Fifth, advocates can bring cases before national courts to help address violations of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, rights to a healthy and sustainable environment etc. Sixth, treaties help advocates articulate the nature and content of women’s human rights. The language of the protocol, therefore, may be used to educate women and men, policymakers, and advocates on the meaning and significance of legal standards, entitlements, and obligations as they apply to women’ rights in Africa. Seventh, conduct trainings for those who protect, promote and advance women’s rights in Africa on the African Human Rights System and the role of the protocol.

Finally, advocates need to lobby member states of the African Union to ensure that the African Human Rights Enforcement mechanisms are effective.

*This article is comprised of extracts as well as summary from a longer paper presented at a symposium co-convened by the Babiker Badri Scientific Association of Women, Afhad University for Women, which was organised by the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition during the 6th African Union Summit in January of 2006 in Sudan.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

The rights accorded to women within Islam

2006-03-09

Karoline Kemp

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/32610

This article, meant to be a basic introduction to the topic of Islamic women’s rights in Africa, argues that the two are not mutually exclusive and that women’s rights are in fact provided for within the main frameworks of Islam. While this has been largely little or misunderstood, there is a growing awareness of the fact that neither Islam nor women’s lives are static, and the movement to increase the rights of women is growing within a framework that does not harm the positive and strengthening aspects of Muslim culture.


Issues of human rights for women in African Muslim regions are usually highly contested, though more often they are little understood. Too frequently the discourse surrounding Muslim women’s rights in Africa centers on their lack of empowerment, which can be seen as ironic, considering that Islam is in fact a highly egalitarian religion at its core. Devastated by colonialism, war and poverty, many Muslim African countries are challenged with the task of rebuilding societies based on religious beliefs and cultural identities. At the same time, the recognition of the legitimate and Quranically provided for rights of women must be taken into account, taking also into account the international treaties and global pressures of democracy and rights.

Islam and women’s rights are not mutually exclusive, in spite of the fact that Islamic laws are often disconnected between how they are enacted in practice and what they officially state in writing. The allowance of custom into the legal system and the right to freedom of conscience (interpretation) are two of the ways in which the laws or Shariah of Islam have been narrowed, among numerous others. Further, it is difficult to interpret or critically assess Islamic law without Islamic education, which has been denied to many Muslims across the globe (due to colonialism and political control, among other reasons). Thus, there is widespread misunderstanding as to what the Qur’an actually says.

At the core of Islam is its creation story, which affirms that male and female were created equally, thus leaving no hierarchy in gender creation. Furthermore, Muslim women are independent legal entities, able to retain their own names, financial independence and property at all times. Women are also to be provided for in the instance of divorce. They are to be given a share of relative’s inheritance on the passing of a husband or father. Muslim women, in the Qur’an, are also given the opportunity to work, and to provide an income for themselves. At the same time, while housework and the raising of children is in many instances still prescribed along gender lines, children are to be brought up by both parents, with each consulting one another on important matters. These are just some of the examples of the rights accorded to women within Islam – according to the Qur’an, the hadiths and Sharia (Islamic law). This is obviously a cursory overview of a complicated and deeply historical issue, but it hopes to show simply that there is a side of Islam not often represented in mainstream media or discourse. Further, while many of these rules and ideas are recorded and guaranteed in writing, they are not always practiced. In reality, many Muslim women do not have access to any of these rights.

There are many issues important specifically to Muslim women in Africa, and these are in fact integral to a global perspective in terms of guaranteeing basic human rights. Women comprise over half of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa, including those countries where Islam is practiced. These nations include Mauritania (100% Islamic), the Francophone countries of Burkina Faso (50%), Chad (50%), Cameroon, Mali (90%), Niger (80%) and Senegal (92%) and the Anglophone countries of Ghana and Nigeria (which has a 50% Muslim population). In these places, Islam has a strong influence on women’s roles, access to information and rights. These issues are embedded, for African Muslim women, not only within their religious beliefs but also larger local culture, tradition, and customs.

In some places, the respect accorded to women within Islam is upheld; in other places, women struggle to gain access to these rights. This is the case because within Islam (and many other religions, for that matter), women symbolise a large part of tradition and cultural identity. Changing anything in regards to women’s rights is thus regarded as changing Islam. Those involved in the women’s movements of these countries struggle against this idea. Their protests are sometimes banned, or greeted with backlash – rarely welcomed by those in power. But their movement is growing – they are participating in debates, conferences, television and radio talk shows. Many of those involved are educated women – lawyers, social workers, and academics. This struggle against religious conservatives means that the criticism they receive is invoked through religious and theological means, whether valid or not. This, for many of these activists, means that the work they must do for women must be centered on civil rights, rather than religious ones, as efforts to reform Islam from within, keep failing. Women’s Islamic discourse cannot be discounted, however, as it is starting to provide counterpoints. This is limited at the highest level, however, by the fact that women lawyers are banned from representing women in the Sharia (Islamic law) courts.

A brief overview of some of the most pressing issues facing Muslim women in African nations shows that there is a lack of legal reform in areas traditionally governed by customary and religious laws. Women suffer discrimination in the areas of marriage and divorce laws, property and inheritance laws that favor men, societal norms that condone violence against women, lack of access to proper reproductive and sexual health and rights and lack of access to education. In some of these nations, women are still forced to undergo female genital mutilation. Further, on an everyday basis, women’s roles are confined to those traditionally performed along gender lines – transgressing these boundaries is not a choice for most, should they desire to live beyond these prescribed roles. Freedom of movement and lack of a public life or voice are also a reality for many.

The solutions to these complex and ingrained problems will not come easily. Women’s behavior and roles, in many ways, uphold the core of what Islam is. Changing the way women are valued and treated thus requires not only legal, political and cultural change, but also a shift in attitude. Accomplishing this task without harming the positive essence of Islamic culture and tradition will be difficult, but integral towards realizing women’s rights.

However, there are numerous groups in Africa working towards realizing the rights of Muslim women. Their political and community level participation is in fact an important part of Islam, and is a duty owed to their society. In many African nations there exist small groups of dedicated women working for little pay, in conditions which are sometimes dangerous, to promote the rights of Muslim women. They work to strengthen laws that protect women within customary, statutory and religious laws, lobbying at local, regional and national levels. These groups provide knowledge and awareness to rural and urban women regarding how to exercise and develop their rights and advocate on their behalf in social and legislative realms.

* Researched and written by Karoline Kemp, a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional with Fahamu.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Sources:
http://hrw.org/women/overview-mena.html
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/genislam.htm
http://www.osiwa.org/en/programs/special/women
http://www.karamah.org/docs/JLRal-HibriFin.doc
http://www.baobabwomen.org

Further Reading for International Women’s Day:

Exercising Power for Change - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, on the occasion of International Women’s Day
http://www.unifemcis.org/index.html?id=114
International Women’s Day – Women in Decision Making: Meeting Challenges, Creating Change Tool Kit
http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2006/
Global: Millions of girls still out of school on International Women's Day
http://www.campaignforeducation.org
Inspiring Potential – Background and Tool Kit
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Groups blast U.N. on gender parity
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32398
National efforts to achieve 1995 targets at Commission on the Status of Women not met
http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/128671/66/67713
Sex worker rights group participating in national bus trip to stop violence against women and children
http://www.sweat.org.za
Red card to forced prostitution
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/iwd.php
IWD - Aspiring decision makers do battle with tradition
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32423
UNHR's top women leaders reflect on gender equity issues on IWD
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=440eadbb4

Women in decision-making: Meeting challenges, creating change

A tribute to African heroines in communities

2006-03-09

Nyaradzai Mugaragumbo-Gumbonzvanda

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/32588

Nyaradzai Mugaragumbo-Gumbonzvanda, Regional Programme Director for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Eastern Africa, pays tribute to the everyday heroines of the African continent. It’s not only the women in parliament that need recognition, but also those in local authorities, in health boards, water boards, education committees, budget committees and in the home, she writes.


Rosemary called me five times this week encouraging me to write something for International Women’s Day, 2006. I was not sure what to write, say or dream about! Women in decision-making, public office, the numbers, the politics, the influence they have or do not have! I was not sure. I woke up inspired. Yes, I can indeed share my thoughts, dreams and give a eulogy to African heroines, and especially African women who continue to meet the challenges everyday, who are creating change and whose voices, views, energies and creativity is never recognized, counted or valued.

First a tribute is to my own mother, Rozaria, who gave birth to more than a dozen children, a 3rd grade graduate who sent us all to school, and lived as a widow for more than 27 years. She was never a parliamentarian or a councilor, but she was on 24-hour call in her community, supporting, contributing and advising. She sat in the local school board and was a leader in her local church. She met many, many, many challenges in life, but she also created change. She influenced the family, the community and the school. She died a leader and a queen of many hearts.

Through her work we continue to struggle for justice, for equality, for rights, for dignity and for a life free from want and fear.

Many women in Africa are like my own mother. They assert themselves within the space they have. They know what is good for their children, community and country and strive for the same. They are heroines whose names are inscribed in our hearts but whose leadership, wisdom and contribution is not counted nor recognized. We continue to wallow in the pain of the low numbers in parliament and in public office. If women are not in these public offices, they are in their houses and communities meeting the challenges and trying to make a difference. They are also trying to access public office! Just like every woman is a worker, every woman is a decision maker.

The question is how do we translate women’s skills, passion and commitment to public expression and presence in public office? Why do we have a fixation with the apex, instead of diffusing the power from the apex to the other and more important levels of governance?

Transformational leadership with women must equally be about changing the value base. It must be about the totality of women’s space and eulogizing every space in which women are making decisions. In public office, we must continue to struggle for gender parity, but not at the expense of celebrating where women are already trying to influence change and meeting many struggles.

On this international women’s day, I call on the recognition of women in decision-making beyond the numbers of women in parliament. I call on the world and Africa to measure where it matters most for women: women in local authorities, in health boards, water boards, education committees, budget committees. Since most women are the ministers of finance (some say “cashiers”) at home, why not in government, why not chair finance committees in parliament and in the local boards?

I give a tribute to every woman today, as you continue to make decisions about your family, your life and posterity. This happens in the face of discrimination, poverty, wars, HIV & AIDS and even exclusion. Women are carrying even more than half the sky, today; especially in the part of the world we call Africa.

* The writer is the Regional Programme Director for United Nations Development Fund for Women in Eastern Africa.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Everyday should be a Woman's Day

2006-03-09

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/32589

Nearly 100 years after the first International Women’s Day, the lot of women has improved, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem in his weekly column. But there’s still much to be done before equality between the sexes becomes a reality. In the meantime, the world cannot be a better place if women's conditions are not better in it.


International Women's Day on March 8 has been marked for almost a century, the first being March 8, 1911. The day is meant to honour women, celebrate their achievements and focus attention on the continuing challenges facing the realisation of the fullest potential of women as equal citizens with equal rights to men. It is a day to recommit everyone to the motto: women's rights are human rights.

It is not just a 'women's day,' even if that is how it is popularly celebrated. It is about gender awareness and democratic struggle to make the world a better place for all its inhabitants, both men and women.

There is no denying the fact that women have made tremendous advances globally and in Africa in the past few years. There are many visible pointers to the growing numbers of women in top political positions. Last year, Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, of Liberia, finally broke through the ceiling by becoming the first popularly elected female head of state in Africa. That victory means that women no longer have to rely on the good will of men in order to hold or aspire to political offices.

The truth is that most of the women who have been vice presidents in Africa have largely been 'appointed' by the 'kind' male president. An unwritten convention in such patronage is to go for women 'who will not cause trouble' and who will be 'forever grateful' to the 'appointing authority'. Mama Ellen has now put an end to that. No longer will an African woman's political ambition be limited to the second position, as a kind of political accessory for Presidents and political parties seeking political correctness and looking for votes.

It is not just in politics that African women are making giant strides. Just look around at other fields, such as the economy, community, civil society groups and NGOs, education, academia, and the professions. These achievements are not due to magnanimity on the part of the men, who are still very much in charge of the largely patriarchal power structures in society. They are the outcome of wider struggles, sometimes provoking incremental reforms and sometimes the result of prolonged conflicts. Women as women and as part of the democratic struggle, together with men, have won and continue to struggle for more victories in new frontiers. No doubt a changing consciousness and awareness is improving men's attitudes and creating men who may not be as hostile to the advancement of women as their fathers or grandfathers. But the fact that we can still point to women in top places means that it is not yet commonplace.

There are many challenges ahead. One, in some countries where women have made giant strides in formal political institutions, like Uganda or Rwanda for instance, there is a tendency to see the progress as a 'gift' of the president, thereby inculcating a kind of political gratitude that promotes political cronyism to the detriment of the wider interests of women's struggles. In Uganda, Museveni and his party talk as if they own Ugandan women and the peasantry. Even in countries like South Africa, where the gender gains are part of a wider progressive movement, there is a tendency to make women feel perpetually grateful to the party.

Two, as with all oppressed peoples, women may be oppressed not because they are women, but because they are of a different class, colour or creed. Thus, they suffer the oppression differently. Some women may become economically and politically liberated and acquire more choices at the expense of fellow women. For instance, some middle class women are able to make the choices that they make because other women subsidise their existence.

Three, a high number of women in public offices may be important symbolically and certainly necessary, but this may not translate into gender-aware policies and politics. For instance, Mrs Ngonzi Iweala is Nigeria's Minister for Finance. Mrs Sirleaf-Johnson has appointed another woman as her finance minister, but they are both committed to the neo-liberal policies of their IMF/World Bank bosses. Therefore their policies will not benefit most women, who make up the majority of the poor.

Four, while principles like 'positive discrimination' in favour of disadvantaged peoples, including women and other groups of marginalised peoples, must be defended, there must also be vigilance in order to ensure that this does not lead to a permanent quota ghetto for a few, while the power structures remain the same. The limited quota approach is mainly incorporating women into the exploitative and oppressive system - not tearing the system down.

The relative progress in many areas should not close our eyes to the enormous tasks ahead to change the iniquities of the world. We must ask ourselves how just and how fair it is that only 1% of all titles to land in the world are owned by women. And it is not only in land ownership that women are so unfairly treated. The Independent of London, in its special edition for Women's Day displayed other shameful statistics about the condition of women, not just in Africa but around the whole world. These figures should make everyone wake up and stop being complacent about the fate of more than 50% of the population of the world.

Just imagine: 70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty are women and children; 85 million girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared to 45 million boys; 67% of all illiterate adults are women; out of 191 heads of state/government who are members of the UN, only 12 are women.

While we quote these figures and raise questions about them on the occasion of International Women’s Day we should spend the rest of the 364 days of every year taking action locally while thinking globally on how to right these wrongs. It is impossible to create a better world without bettering the lot of women. The opposite is also true: the world cannot be a better place if women's conditions are not better in it. Everyday should be a Woman's Day.

* 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

China in Africa

2006-03-07

Riaz Tayob

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/32520

There is much I agree with in the paper on China. However, what is lacking is a balanced view of who created the conditions that make Africa ripe for exploitation, not just by the Chinese, but by any other country with money, skills and entrepeneurship to stake a claim.

The erosion of productive capacity in Africa, the devastating impact of subsidies on African agriculture, the opportunistic use of conditionalities by IMF, WB and Western governments all have contributed to the systemic decay in Africa.

Without undermining the necessity for Africans and African Civil Society to insist on equity, justice and the right to benefit from national wealth and opportunities, the analysis of China must also take into account their ability and willingness to take risks in the continent and harness some of the latent productive capacity.

Conditions that are exploited by China such as lax labour, environmental and developmental laws have been actively created by the Northern countries who insisted on these conditionalities and proceeded to not invest, not to provide meaningful aid, etc. It was the North that insisted that South Africa reduce its textiles tariffs (well before the expiration of the MFA), yet Chinese imports get the blame. What role does a country like South Africa play in this? If you live in a National Game Park and are forced by external forces to remove the fence around your house, do you then blame the lion for attacking your family?

Corruption - A convenient smokescreen?

2006-03-07

Alex Weir

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/32521

John Githongo's recent revelations about corruption in Kenya are timely and welcome. What most people do not realize is that in most 3rd world countries corruption is top-down-bottom-up i.e. it originates from the president, and over 95% of acts of corruption (by value) result in a large (typically 80%) share of the proceeds going back up the ladder directly to the president. The 20% share stays with the perpetrator of the corruption; and the 80% guarantees that the perpetrator enjoys protection at the highest level. The illegal income of the average 3rd world president is usually composed of many many such scams, some very large and others comparatively small. I state the above based on personal experience while working on World Bank and EU Projects in Uganda and Tunisia in 2005.

As Githongo estimates, 7% of the GNP of Kenya disappears in corruption; this is probably a typical value throughout the 3rd world. The result of this is that the functions of government, ministries, police, armed forces etc are totally diverted from their stated purpose into the business of ensuring the required cash flow for the top man. No wonder that most 3rd world governments are ineffective in building their economies, but are remarkably effective in appearing to destroy these self-same economies; no wonder that so many important government functions end up being implemented by aid donors and NGOs. Indeed, because of a multiplier effect, 7% of GNP disappearing in corruption is probably equivalent to a 21 - 28% of GNP loss to the economy.

While we in the West are congratulating ourselves, we should consider the role of our oil companies (especially Shell), our mining companies, and of course the international diamond monopoly, de Beers. These people instigate and collaborate with corruption in order to make 3rd world presidents rich and their people poor; their top management of course benefit, and in some cases their shareholders.

The solution to these problems? First of all, an exposure of this reality and an end to denial and cover-ups by western politicians, western leaders and western media. The populations and voters of western democracies must not turn their backs on their less fortunate fellow humans just because they themselves have money in their pockets. The truth will eventually set free the victims of this anything-but-victimless crime.

SA elections no indication of maturing democracy

2006-03-08

Percy Ngonyama

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/32561

The recently held local government elections - held on March 01, 2006 - were neither an expression of the 'will' of the people nor a sign that 'our democracy is maturing' as Thabo Mbeki in collusion with the Independent Electoral commission [IEC] wants us to believe.

Instead, the elections should be viewed in the correct context: an unequivocal message to the ruling African National Congress [ANC] that the poor masses are 'gatvol'.

Unwittingly or wittingly, a substantial number of the electorate has rejected the top down neo-liberal policies that have exacerbated the country's poverty.

The government's apartheid era-style repressive response to civil society's organised 'election boycott' campaigns needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Just two days prior to the elections, the Durban City Council brutally attempted to prevent a legal march by the ever-growing movement of the shack dwellers 'Abahlali Base Mjondolo'.

Mainstream institutions and 'experts', who are always quick to remind us of how wonderful our 'democracy' is, are yet to condemn this horrific action and police repression in Khutsong, which, for many, undoubtedly, brought back memories of the 1980's, and the notorious 'State of Emergency'.

Despite the IEC's ambitious and extravagant 'Power of X' media campaign, less than 48% of the registered 22 million voters cast their vote. Of these, less than 11 million voted ANC. A large number did not even bother to register.

It is therefore puzzling that the ANC is "humbled" and "grateful" of this embarrassing situation.

What the ANC and government should be asking is why is the South African electorate so disillusioned with the electoral process, only twelve years since the first democratic election in 1994.

In the days leading up to the election, the public was bombarded with numerous clearly well calculated news items of how effectively government was 'delivering' on services. The evening news increasingly broadcast reports on government ministers and officials officially opening schools or clinics in indigent parts of the country.

'Kingpins' of this propaganda project should be made aware that there is absolutely nothing special with Manto Tshabalala Msimang opening a new clinic in KwaZulu-Natal or Naledi Pandoor opening a school in some rural area. It is simply their job for which they are handsomely remunerated.

And access to adequate education and health care are constitutionally guaranteed basic rights which, even after twelve years of so-called democracy, remain elusive for the majority.

The elections were also a further indictment to opposition parties, who had, in the midst of electioneering, portrayed themselves as an 'alternative' to the ANC, and pledged to fight corruption and poverty. Their failure to acknowledge that it is the top down capitalist policies of the ruling party that breed corruption and poverty grossly undermined their claims.

Whilst most progressive formations might be discouraged by the ANC's 66% victory, there is certainly an indication that the level of dissatisfaction with the current 'developmental' agenda is growing.

There is an urgent need to educate the poors on alternatives to neo-liberalism. The masses need to be made aware that there are alternatives to the current 'criminal' systerm that forces many to steal, lie, cheat, and even sell their bodies to survive.

Indeed, a systerm that seeks to commodify every aspects of our lives, with dire consequences for the poorest of the poor, must be condemned and fought with the same amount of vigour and rage that characterised the struggle against apartheid.

John La Rose (1927-2006)

2006-03-08

Jenny Bourne

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/32574

1 March 2006 - A stalwart of Black struggle in Britain, John La Rose, has died. As a writer, publisher and political organiser, his contribution to the development of Black cultural expression in the UK cannot be rivalled. It is with great sadness that the staff of the Institute of Race Relations heard the news of John's death on 28 February from a heart attack. As a member of IRR's Council, and its Chairman in the early 1970s, he helped to guide the organisation during a particularly turbulent time in its history; its transformation from an establishment body into a radical think-tank.

John was born in Trinidad in 1927 and, after leaving school, became involved in the work of radical political, trade union and cultural organisations. Having joined a Marxist study group, he became an active member of the Federated Workers Trade Union and held meetings throughout the oil belt of southern Trinidad. In 1952 the FWTU, joined by other radicals, formed the West Indian Independence Party and John was appointed its General Secretary- contesting a seat in Arima, his home town, in the 1956 elections. In 1958 he left Trinidad for Venezuela, where he worked as a teacher and in 1961 left for Britain.

In 1966 John founded New Beacon Books, a bookshop, publishing house and international book service, (which, despite the demise of so many alternative bookshops in the UK, uniquely, remains to this day). The same year he also helped to found the Caribbean Artists Movement, which was to launch the careers of many of the greatest of West Indian artists, writers and film-makers.

During the 1960s, John became concerned about the poor education Black children were receiving in school and ran from his home the George Padmore supplementary school which went on, in 1975, to expand into a Black Parents' Movement.

There was hardly an important Black issue that John was not involved in, agitating over or bringing to public notice. His achievements read like a potted history of Black struggle itself. For example, in 1973 he made a short film on the Mangrove trial, in 1981 he joined the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, in 1990 he co-founded the European Action for Racial Equality and Justice. But John's greatest contribution was probably the unique Black book fairs from 1982 to 1995.

The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, of which New Beacon was a central co-organiser, would rock London's cultural world for three or four days each year, attracting audiences from Europe and farther afield. For these events, run in inner-London town halls with volunteer staff from bookshops and black organisations, did exactly what their description said. Contributors to the fairs' many public events of discussion, talks, films shows, plays, poetry, dance, were not just Black, but also Asian, not just First World, but also Third.

And the politics was never narrowly nationalist, but invariably incorporated a socialist perspective. In 1991, realising how important it was to record and chart the Black history that he and others had made in Britain, John, with Sarah White (his partner of over thirty-five years), founded the George Padmore Institute to act as an archive and education centre. And it is, no doubt, through its activities that the dynamism and commitment enshrined in his life's work will live on.

John gave of himself unstintingly. He was one of the most incorruptible of men. With his intellect, range of contacts, skills as an orator and gentle, easy-going style, he could have carved out a niche for himself anywhere - in the media, in academia, as 'a spokesman' or a cultural critic. But he was interested not in status or position, but service. And that's his legacy to us all.

* This article first appeared on the website of the Institute for Race Relations. Visit their website at http://www.irr.org.uk/

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Kenya: Oscars and Blinkers

2006-03-08

Shailja Patel

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/32572

Is it fair to talk about a film I haven’t seen?

That depends. Is the film The Constant Gardener? Then one might argue that it fails, as every Western film set in Africa has failed, to treat the continent as anything other than backdrop to the main story. The main story, it goes without saying, is the drama of the white people.

A few years ago, I borrowed a set of rules from brilliant American cartoonist, Alison Bechdel. In one of her Dykes To Watch Out For cartoon strips, she has a character say:

"I don't go to a movie unless:

1) It has at least two women in it, who
2) Talk to each other, about
3) Something other than the man in the movie."

I tweaked that for my Africa-films filter. Any film set in, and ostensibly about, Africa has to:

1) Have at least 2 African characters in it.
That's characters. Servants, waiters, extras, are not characters.
2) The two African characters have to talk to each other, about
3) Something other than the white protagonist(s) in the film

I avoided seeing The Constant Gardener because none of my friends who saw it could vouch that it met my 3 rules. Each snippet I came across about it fed my conviction that it would only irritate me beyond belief. Like hearing how the Western actors had been “shocked beyond belief” by the poverty of Nairobi slums. Like actress Rachel Weisz, describing the beauty of “Lake Magadi covered with flamingos.” There are no flamingos at Lake Magadi, Rachel. That’s Lake Nakuru.

Last Sunday night, Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Constant Gardener. In her speech, she paid tribute to the brilliance of her director, the John Le Carre novel the film was based on, and reeled off the customary list of personal thanks. She did not mention Africa, Kenya, or Kenyans. She did not even hint at the supposed central theme of the film – giant pharmaceuticals testing drugs on impoverished Africans.

It would appear, then, that it’s perfectly possible – in fact, the norm – to make a film that claims to be about Africa, shoot it in Africa, market it with relentless repetition of the word “Africa”, without actually seeing Africa. Or Africans. I see no reason not to accord such a film the same invisibility when I write of it.

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan Indian poet and spoken word artist. Visit www.shailja.com

* Send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

South Africa: Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2006-03-08

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/32562

Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements, and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post-Apartheid South Africa is a collection of essays by leading social movement activists and scholars that analyzes the emergence of new political struggles in post apartheid South Africa. The volume reflects on the mushrooming of new movements that represent what Frantz Fanon called 'the untidy affirmation of an original idea propounded as an absolute' - a quest for a new humanism which is manifested in the movements' most simple and basic of demands for land, housing, and medicine.
Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Paperback)
by Nigel C. Gibson (Editor)
Paperback: 298 pages
Publisher: Africa World Press, Inc. (November 15, 2005)
ISBN: 1592213901

Challenging Hegemony: Social Movements, and the Quest for a New Humanism in Post-Apartheid South Africa is a collection of essays by leading social movement activists and scholars that analyzes the emergence of new political struggles in post apartheid South Africa.

The volume reflects on the mushrooming of new movements that represent what Frantz Fanon called 'the untidy affirmation of an original idea propounded as an absolute' - a quest for a new humanism which is manifested in the movements' most simple and basic of demands for land, housing, and medicine.

A central problem addressed in the volume is how the challenge to hegemony can possibly be connected to the quest for a new humanism (or a 'true humanity' in Steve Biko's words). The essays investigate how new movements (including organized social forums as well as local movements) are not only challenging neo-liberal capitalist globalization, but also attempting to articulate alternatives and raise the question of what it means to be human. Whether reconnecting electricity, or struggling for housing or for HIV/AIDS anti-virals, the movements are a challenge, in the most human of ways, to the mantra that 'there is no alternative' to capitalist globalization.

"This collection of essays edited by Nigel Gibson brings together some of the most outstanding intellectuals writing on the rise of social movements in South Africa. The writers whose work is collected in this volume include the cutting edge of intellectuals who have shown tremendous courage in their quest to be not only commentators but activists in this emerging anti neo-liberal movement. There is something valuable in every page of this collection and those interested in thoughtful and provocative analyses of the South Africa transition will be well served. Out of the dystopia of apartheid followed by neo-liberal South Africa emerges the story told in these pages of an incredible resurgence of resistance.
- Ashwin Desai, author, author of We are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa

More...

Africa: Using cinema to say no to exploitative forces

2006-03-09

http://www.artmatters.info/petna.htm

Petna Ndaliko Katondolo is arguably one of Eastern Africa’s leading experimental filmmakers though he detests his style being referred to as ‘experimental’. He talks to Ogova Ondego in Kampala about his role as an artist and activist.

Kenya: New dance language on stage

2006-03-09

http://www.artmatters.info/bettycaplan.htm

Writer Betty Caplan reports on a unique dance style that blends classical ballet, Spanish and Oriental flavours and traditional African dances to honour, celebrate, imitate and poke fun at the gloriously beautiful but vain flamingos of Kenya’s Lake Nakuru. What makes dance funny? I found myself musing on this question as I watched Kenya Performing Arts Group’s performance of ‘Flamingo Flamenco’ during the weekend of February 3-4, 2006 at the Village Market auditorium (not a place to enhance any kind of art at all – a soulless construction without even the basic facilities for artists.) The work, choreographed by Israeli Miriam Rother, takes a look at a flamboyant, gloriously beautiful but vain African bird, the flamingo. In a series of dances, the performers honour, imitate and poke fun at the Flamingo of Lake Nakuru. En masse, by the side of Kenya’s famous soda lake, it is a unique sight.

Bloggers honour African Women

2006-03-08

Sokari Ekine

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/32573

Pilgrimage to Self (http://pilgrimagetoself.blogspot.com/2006/03/honouring-african-women.html) honours the “Unheard Voices” of women who “keep the wheels of society and their community and indeed Africa well oiled and turning but who never get any sort of recognition for it.”

“This is for the woman who watches as her country is ravaged by war…This is for the woman who has been sold into marriage for sake of family, faith or tradition...This is for the woman who suffers abuse because of her colour, lifestyle, faith, opinion, background, ethnic group…This is for the woman looked down on because she has chosen to stay at home and look after her kids…This is for all of us who in one way or another are forgotten and maligned because of who we are – Women.”

Mshairi (http://www.mshairi.com/blog/2006/03/08/celebrating-women-international-womens-day) chooses to honour Africa’s women musicians - Angelique Kidjo from Benin, Sibongile Khumalo from South Africa, queen of Taraab’ Zuhura Swaleh from Kenya, Cesaria Evora from Cape Verde and Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba from South Africa.

“These musicians have seen me through sad times and brought calmness, joy and contentment in my soul when these were lacking. Their powerful songs can bring tears to the eyes or a smile to my face, depending on the occasion.”

Weichegud! ET Politics - (http://weichegud.blogspot.com/2006/03/honoring-african-women.html) honours the mothers of Ethiopians whose children have been slaughtered.

“In the late 70s, during the bloody White Terror followed by even more bloodletting in the Red Terror, Ethiopian mothers buried their sons and daughters who were slaughtered in the name of a wanton revolution. They were forced to pay the government for the bullets that killed their children. And later, they dug up skulls and skeletons from mass graves and held belated funerals.”

Black Looks (http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2006/03/honouring_afric.html) chooses to honour the women of the Niger Delta, especially Mrs Odua of the Egi Women’s Council.

“Mrs Odua was an activist and human rights defender who fought determinedly and without respite against unrestricted corporate power, state sponsored terror and the institutionalised tools of gender repression. She paid a high price for her activism and beliefs. Ostracised from her community, abandoned by her husband, disinherited by her in-laws. We should not underestimate the honesty and courage of women like Mrs Odua who resist the everyday oppressions in their own local communities.”

Zimbabwean Pundit (http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/2006/03/international-womens-day-honoring.html) honours the women of Zimbabwe and Africa through the story of Grandmother Ambuya vaSekai, who is taking care of 5 young children, the eldest of whom is 6 years old. What happened to the parents of the children?

“Mzukuru (grandson), ambuya intoned, her voice breaking up as the emotion welled up inside of her, upenyu hwakaoma (life is hard). Vaurikuona ava ndivo vatova vana vangu (the infants you're looking at now my children). Vangu vekuzvara vasopera kare, amai vaChipo kadikidiki aka karimumaoko angu takavaviga pasina kana negore rese (All my offspring have long since died, you see Chipo over here, we buried her mom less than a year ago).”

Sisiogeblogs (http://sisioge.blogspot.com/2006/03/international-womens-day.html) chooses to honour those women why either by choice or enforced by biology, do not have children of their own. A mother herself, she writes:

“However, I also admire and remain in awe of the many brave women who make the decision not to dance to nature’s tune or tow the populist view by choosing not to give birth. The amazing thing about these women is that they often make great aunties, social mothers and surrogate mother’s alike.”

Adefunke on Adefunke (http://adefunke.blogspot.com/2006/03/celebrating-african-woman_08.html) chooses to honour the many women that have touched her life and in particular her mother, Princess.

“Widowed twice, she has managed to do a good job of raising two children, me and my 20 year old sister who has cerebral palsy. I learned the meaning of forgiveness as I watched her struggle with the hand fate dealt her. I learned the meaning of beauty as I watched her touch people with her kindness. I learned the meaning of perseverance as I watched her lovingly not give up on my sister.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

Africa: Bringing gender to bureaucracies - experiences from ministries of health

2006-03-07

http://www.id21.org/society/h1st3g1.html

The integration of a gender focus into sector-wide approaches for development (SWAps) presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Case studies of health SWAps in four sub-Saharan African countries suggest that the approach has raised the profile of gender in ministries, but has not yet received the support or capacity to fully integrate gender equity into policy.

Africa: Regional networking as transnational feminism

2006-03-07

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21049

This article argues that the most important transnational dialogues influencing domestic movements and national policy within Africa are regional discussions and regional diffusions of ideas, norms, practices and strategies. The document explores key mechanisms through which regional influences spread and are diffused. The author focuses on an arena in which these regional linkages and influences have been most visible: in encouraging women to claim political leadership positions. The article demonstrates how important continental and sub-regional influences are for domestic politics, serving as a critical conduit for changing international norms.

Africa: Women and Africa’s debt crisis

2006-03-10

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/32639

Last year was a major focus of lobbying around the cancellation of Africa’s debt, but despite some token moves on behalf of the world’s creditors, not much has changed with regards the huge burden of debt faced by Africa. In this article, Mary George tackles the debt crisis and its impact on the lives of African women, concluding that there is little literature on the subject and urging women and women’s organisations to join the campaign for the outright cancellation of Africa’s debt.
Africa’s poverty and stagnation was last year described by Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa report as the greatest tragedy of our time. This is not unconnected with the egregious suffering and scale of underdevelopment, which is much pronounced on the continent in the midst of inexhaustible abundance (Africa is perhaps the richest continent of the world in term of natural resources).

Of course, many factors have contributed to this tragedy, right from the advent of Europeans arriving on the shore of the continent, but in the current epoch of neo-colonialism the excruciating debt crisis of Africa boldly stands out. In other words, the socio-economic crises of Africa is largely an outgrowth of the suffocating debt burden that has become a definitive feature of the continent. However, what this actually means is much more tragic for politically and socio-economically disadvantaged social groups like women.

It is not the size of Africa’s debt - put at over $300 billion - that actually implies crisis. Rather, it is the fact of the debt being an obstacle to socio-economic development on the continent. This is due to the use of the debt burden by creditors (imperialist governments and international finance institutions) as a whip to force the bitter pill of harsh economic policies called Structural Adjustment Programmes, or put more simply, neo-liberal economic reform, down the throat of the continent.

How does this affect women? Poor women bear the heaviest of the burden. The very means through which their status could be roundly improved - education, health and employment - are neglected by governments struggling to meet crippling debt repayments to their creditors and religiously implementing neo-liberal policies resulting in cuts in public/social spending. One of the major culprits of the continent’s inability to provide for the needs of its populace, the IMF, found it difficult to ignore the scary reality of things as it admitted that sub-Saharan Africa spends so much on debt payment that they have little left over for health or education (See www.data.org)

Owing to the under-funding of health care, largely arising from the debt burden, Africa has the highest ratio of maternal mortality. In 2002 the maternal mortality ratio of the world was estimated at 400 per 100,000 live births while that of Africa was 1 000 per 100,000 live births. A woman in Africa faces a 1-in-13 chance of dying in childbirth, compared with 1-in-4100 in industrialized countries. The countries with the highest maternal mortality ratio are in Africa. Among them is Democratic Republic of Congo, a country ruled and ruined by a staunch ally of the West, the late Mobutu Sese Seko. In 2002, the country’s debt service per capital expenditure was $18 while health per capita expenditure was $4.

In 2003, African countries paid over $25 billion in debt service, even as 2.3 million Africans lost their lives to AIDS. In that very year, the World Health Organisation reported that 4.1 million Africans living with AIDS were in immediate need of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), but only 50,000 could receive them. HIV/AIDS is a disease for which gender is inextricably associated, particularly in Africa. Inadequate access to health care and education as well as economic and social inequalities leaves African women less able to protect themselves from HIV infection. It is therefore not accidental that HIV infections in the continent are disproportionately concentrated among African poor and illiterate adolescent women.

Another area where debt is seriously implicated is food insecurity. It has been estimated that Africa will only be able to feed less than half its population by 2015. The painful SAPs implemented by Africa’s countries as conditionality for so-called debt relief are largely responsible for the endemic hunger crisis in the continent. Governments have not only abandoned interventions in food production, they have also encouraged production of cash crops at the expense of food crops in order to raise foreign exchange to service debts. It is instructive to state however that due to unfair international trade the prices of these commodities have continued to plummet on the world market.

As experiences have shown, it is women and children that are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. Craig Timberg of The Washington Post painted a typical gloomy picture in relation to the Niger hunger crisis. Niger is one of the highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) recently granted cancellation of multilateral debts after years of unbroken submission to SAPs. Timberg described how streams of women with breasts shriveled from malnourishment and skeletal babies strapped to their backs searched endlessly for food without success. However, it was not that there was no foods in the markets; there was plenty. But these poor women could not afford them.

Halving levels of poverty and hunger, reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS are among the targets the September 2000 Summit of the United Nations set to achieve by 2015 through what is called the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Others include achieving universal primary education and gender equality, and reducing under-5 mortality by two-thirds. The African Development Bank has said that Africa is the region least likely to meet the MDGs. The United Nations is more categorical, stating that if the current social development indicators continue, Africa will not reach the MDGs for another 150 years! Also, a UNDP and UNICEF joint report has stated that at the current rate, closing the gender gap in literacy in Africa will not be achieved before 2035. This very report then identifies the heavy debt burden as a major constraint militating against Africa achieving the MDGs.

The foregoing indicates that women, being socio-economically and politically weak, are more at the receiving end of the debt burden than what the average statistics of the parlous situation would suggest. Therefore, Africa’s debt crisis is a major issue that should attract the interest and intervention of women’s organisations. But it appears there is little literature on the effects of the debt burden on African women. Women and women’s organisations have to join and participate actively in the international campaign for the outright cancellation of Africa’s debt, along with the struggle to improve the lot of women in society.

* Mary George is an Assistant Programme Officer with Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARD C) Lagos Nigeria. She has an unpublished work entitled "Origin and Nature of Debt Crisis in Africa"

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org

More...

Global: Meeting the specific needs of women in war

2006-03-07

http://www.hrea.org

Aiding victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, providing mother-and-child care in remote areas of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, giving courses to female detainees in Yemen to help them find their way in society after release - these are examples of the commitment shown by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to carefully assessing and meeting the specific needs of women in all aspects of its work. In the run-up to International Women's Day, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger expressed his satisfaction that the organization's strategies and field operations increasingly reflected an awareness of the special problems, the particular vulnerabilities of women. Further progress was needed, he cautioned. "Assessing and meeting these special needs should become a spontaneous, automatic and lasting part of all our work."

Global: Testing the impacts of microfinance on women

2006-03-07

http://www.id21.org/society/s4anh1g1.html

Many believe providing women with microfinance leads to economic, social and political empowerment that transforms gender relations. Others claim microfinance does not change decision-making patterns within households, so may actually reinforce existing gender imbalances.

Global: Women in the lead

2006-03-07

http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/128471/66/66328

Does the rise of women leaders in Jamaica, Liberia, Chile, and Germany prove the new rule, or the exception? The latest issue of OneWorld's online magazine takes an in-depth look at women's changing status worldwide.

Global: Women's Lowly News Status Is a Global Insult

2006-03-05

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2646

The latest global study of women in journalism finds that women continue to be the far-second sex in breaking and making news. Monitors for the third Global Media Monitoring Project studied a full day of radio, television and newspaper content in 76 countries on a single day, Feb. 16, 2005. The study found that women continue to be underrepresented, and sometimes outright ignored, as subjects of and sources for news, regardless of the medium. There is not a single major news topic in which women outnumber men as newsmakers. "Even in stories that affect women profoundly, such as gender-based violence, it is the male voice (64 percent of news subjects) that prevails," the report released last week in London found.

Malawi: The plight of child brides

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/n9rdx

Ennat Edson didn't think it would end this way. Last year, she was making wedding plans. Now, at just 15, she is back at her mother's cramped, dingy house, nursing a fussing baby her former fiancé refuses to acknowledge is his. Here, and in isolated villages and crumbling cities across the most destitute continent, girls younger than 14 are finding boyfriends and getting married in a bid to escape the empty bellies, numbing work and overwhelming tedium of poverty. Encouraged by their parents, many marry much older men who they hope can give them a better life. Often, they are disappointed. "Poverty is the cancer in our society," says Joyce Banda, Malawi's Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services. "More girls are marrying young - not out of choice, but because they have no choice," according to the Mail and Guardian.

South Africa: Response to Zuma's rape trial reflect attitudes towards rape

2006-03-09

http://www.agenda.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1187&Itemid=147

Despite South Africa’s progressive Constitution women’s occupation of public and private spaces remains limited and constantly under siege, writes Carrie Shelver from People Opposing Women Abuse. "As we stood outside the court on the first day of the rape trial it was clear how even those of us gathered to support the complainant in the case were under siege, our space limited to a small cordoned off area. By contrast, the supporters of Zuma roamed and merged with bystanders all of whom were only occasionally pushed back by police."

Sudan: Helping reduce women's vulnerability

2006-03-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51993

During a meeting on violence against women in Kabkabiya town, North Darfur, participants cannot agree whether a person who falls pregnant after being raped should be charged with adultery. The discussion takes place during a training programme organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Participants include Sudanese policemen, local administrators, civil society representatives and members of the African Union police. The consensus is that, if immediately reported, the crime should not lead to any charges, but some feel she should be arrested for adultery if she fails to report the rape before giving birth.

Zimbabwe: Huge response to appeal to help restore women’s dignity

2006-03-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51882

A staggering response by ordinary South Africans to an appeal for sanitary pads for Zimbabwean women, hit by shortages and rocketing prices, has floored activists. "The appeal was made by South African 5FM radio at the beginning of the year. “When we went to collect the pads this week - we found every empty corner and space in their studio was crammed with sanitary pad packets with little notes from families, mothers and even school girls," said an emotional Lucia Matabenga, the first vice-president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). "We found notes which said this was an attempt to 'restore the dignity of Zimbabwean women - we are with you'. We are grateful; we are really grateful," she added.

Algeria: New amnesty law will ensure atrocities go unpunished

2006-03-08

http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=3088

A presidential decree in Algeria will consecrate impunity for crimes under international law and other human rights abuses, and even muzzle open debate by criminalizing public discussion about the nation’s decade-long conflict, four human rights groups cautioned. The organizations are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the International Federation for Human Rights.

Ethiopia: International collaboration for the release of teacher unionist

2006-03-07

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/urgentactionappeal/show.php?id=1&country=ethiopia

Education International (EI) is working with partner Global Union Federations, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), as well as partner NGOs, Action Aid and Amnesty International for the release of Kassahun Kebede, chairperson of the Addis Ababa branch of EI affiliate, the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA). Kassahun Kebede is among the 131 opposition leaders, human rights defenders and journalists facing trial in Addis Ababa on charges that include treason, conspiracy and genocide. According to the press release dated 22 Feb 2006, Kassahun Kebede has been officially adopted as prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Ethiopia: Trial of opposition activists adjourned

2006-03-07

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51997

The trial of Ethiopian opposition supporters, journalists and human rights activists has been adjourned after the federal high court rejected an application by three of the 129 defendants to have a separate trial. Judge Adil Ahmed ruled that the three defendants - two employees of the British nongovernmental organisation ActionAid and a teacher - would not be tried separately because doing so would delay the entire proceeding, in which the accused face wide-ranging charges including conspiracy, treason and genocide. "We have examined your request for a separate trial based on the country's penal code which stipulates how charges should be pressed against a defendant and when a separate trial is appropriate. We have found that the charges are in line with the penal code," Adil said on Wednesday (March 1).

Kenya: Where inmates wait in pain as Judiciary drags its feet

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603061255.html

For as long as a decade, some suspects at Meru Prison have waited for justice. With their cases far from being finalised, they are not sure whether their tribulations will ever end and fear they may not leave the prison alive. Prisoners live in appalling conditions due to congestion. This is as a result of a lethargic court system, inefficiency by the police and a slow pace of prison reforms.

Liberia: Key recommendations for truth, reconciliation and end of impunity

2006-03-08

http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=3101

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation, Liberia Watch for Human Rights (LWHR) welcome the launching of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on January 20, 2006, in accordance with Article XIII of the Liberian Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Liberian TRC is notably mandated to conduct investigations and publish a report documenting gross human rights violations, violations of international humanitarian law as well as abuses that occurred, including massacres, sexual violations, murder, extra-judicial killings and economic crimes, such as the exploitation of natural or public resources to perpetuate armed conflicts in Liberia between January 1979 and October 14, 2003.

Morocco: Morocco lifts some reservations to international rights conventions

2006-03-09

http://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=11&id=13344

The Moroccan Ministerial Commission, chaired by Premier Driss Jettou, approved the lifting of some reservations to international conventions Morocco ratified to uphold the principles of a modern and democratic society, human rights and gender equality, said a Justice Ministry communiqué. The lifting of the reservations comes as part of the country's move to revise the citizenship code to allow women to hand down their nationality to children born to foreign fathers.

South Africa: Apartheid tactics used by eThekwini Municipality

Freedom of Expression Institute press statement

2006-03-09

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/32594

The Freedom of Expression Institute is disgusted by the high- handed, illegal and brutal attitude of the eThekwini Municipality against shack dwellers today (February 27). Early this morning, police invaded both the Foreman Road and Kennedy Road shack settlements in Durban and prevented residents from leaving the settlements. A number of shack dwellers were arrested. We have just received reports that some of the detainees have been beaten up by police at the Sydenham police station. The military-style operation of police is an attempt to prevent a shack dwellers march from taking place today. The Shack Dwellers Movement, Abahlali Base Mjondolo, had planned to march today in protest against the lack of housing. They were due to hand over a memorandum to the MEC for Housing in the Kwazulu-Natal Province.
The Freedom of Expression Institute is disgusted by the high- handed, illegal and brutal attitude of the eThekwini Municipality against shack dwellers today (February 27).

Early this morning, police invaded both the Foreman Road and Kennedy Road shack settlements in Durban and prevented residents from leaving the settlements. A number of shack dwellers were arrested. We have just received reports that some of the detainees have been beaten up by police at the Sydenham police station.

The military-style operation of police is an attempt to prevent a shack dwellers march from taking place today. The Shack Dwellers Movement, Abahlali Base Mjondolo, had planned to march today in protest against the lack of housing. They were due to hand over a memorandum to the MEC for Housing in the Kwazulu-Natal Province.

Abahlali fulfilled all the requirements necessary under the Regulation of Gatherings Act, which governs demonstrations, marches, protests, etc. In terms of the Gatherings Act, organisers of an event are required to notify local authorities of their intention to hold the gathering seven days before the proposed date of the event. On the 3rd February 2006, Abahlali had notified the municipality of their intention to hold a march on the 20th February that was 17 days in advance of the event. On the 16th February, four days before the event and after a letter from the FXI to City Manager Mike Sutcliffe pointed out that Abahlali had fulfilled its requirements in terms of the Act and was awaiting a response from the municipality, the organisers were told that some information was missing from their notification. In fact, this was information they had submitted on the 3rd February but which had been returned to them by the police. Abahlali then submitted all the additional information on the 17th February and informed the authorities that three days was not sufficient for them to organise a march and they therefore would hold the march on the 27th February today. To date, the organisation has received no notification prohibiting the march. Thus, in terms of the Gatherings Act, the Abahlali march today is a legal one if it took place. The march has now been aborted by the actions of the police.

The violation of basic constitutional rights in this instance is appalling and is a serious threat to our democracy and to the elections due to take place in two days time.

The police, by telling shack dwellers that they have harassed this morning that the march is banned, are lying to citizens and acting completely contrary to the South African constitution and the Gatherings Act. We have received reports that police have informed shack dwellers that the instruction that the march was banned came from the City Manager, Dr Mike Sutcliffe. If this is true, then it is of great concern to us that a person in such a senior position, 1) does not understand the contents of a law (the Gatherings Act) that is basic to his role and 2) that a person in such a position acts with such impunity in subverting South African legislation and the South African Constitution.

Further, the shack dwellers that have been arrested have done absolutely nothing illegal and there is no reason for them to be arrested. Even if the march was illegal (it isnt), the detainees were arrested without their having been part of any gathering. Such Hollywood-style preemptive arrests of people who have committed no crime set an extremely dangerous precedent for our legal system. Will the police now believe that they are empowered to arrest a person who might be thinking of committing a crime? Such high-handed police action is completely out of tune with a democratic society and is, rather, reminiscent of the days of Apartheid.

We want to remind the eThekwini Metro Police that their ongoing actions in various Durban shack settlements are illegal and unconstitutional.

More...

South Africa: Culture of fear undermines constitutional protections

2006-03-07

http://www.hrea.org

The vicious murder of Zoliswa Nkonyana, a lesbian killed by a mob in a Cape Flats township, points to the brutal reality that despite constitutional protections, lesbians in South Africa continue to experience egregious assaults on their human rights, Human Rights Watch said today (March 3). Human Rights Watch called on the South African government to ensure that their ongoing investigation of the murder is thorough, effective, and capable of leading to the successful identification, prosecution, and punishment of all those responsible. According to local media reports, six young men have been arrested and charged with murder. Human Rights Watch also called on the authorities to provide police protection to Nkonyana's friends and to other lesbians who are at risk of violence in the wake of the attack.

Africa: Deserted in Western Sahara

2006-03-09

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-africa_democracy/deserted_3327.jsp

Three decades on, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is still a non-country in most senses. The guerrilla war against Morocco may have ended in ceasefire in 1991, but the diplomatic effort to settle its status is stalled. It has an elected president, prime minister and local representatives, but their legitimacy extends only as far as the Security Council allows it. On the ground, it is still little more than a collection of refugee camps, reliant on UN food aid and at the mercy of the harsh Saharan climate.

DRC: Some 40,000 flee ongoing fighting every month

2006-03-09

http://tinyurl.com/phlmj

Since the mid-1990s, millions of Congolese have fled their homes to escape fighting between rebel groups and the national government in a complex conflict which has, at times, involved as many as nine neighbouring states. Close to four million people are estimated to have died as a result of the conflict which has been accompanied by widespread human rights violations. Displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) peaked in 2003, with an estimated 3.4 million people forced from their homes, most of them in the east.

Ghana: Searching for opportunities at home and abroad

2006-03-07

http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=381

The pages of Ghana's international migration story are filled with contrasts. According to the country's 2000 census, the population of 19 million is composed of a mosaic of ethnic groups, virtually all of whom claim to have migrated to Ghana from other regions of Africa. The Castle of St. George d'Elmina and other infamous abodes of the "doors of no return" mark the paths of slaves destined for the Americas. The current Ghanaian government has swung these "doors" back open, hoping to persuade American and Caribbean descendents of the slave trade to live in Ghana. Meanwhile, Ghanaian citizens continue to emigrate to North America, Europe, and other parts of Africa. The economic, political, and social woes of the past three decades have created a new diaspora of Ghanaians searching for opportunities elsewhere. As a result, Ghana is often highlighted as a nation struggling with the effects of brain drain.

Nigeria: Refugees give conditions for return

2006-03-07

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/11563.html&d=1

Thousands of people displaced in the sectarian crisis in Anambra State are still in camps in Onitsha and Asaba vowing not to return unless their security is assured. In separate interviews with Daily Trust, leaders of the Hausa and Yoruba communities said their homes were destroyed during the crisis. The Sarkin Hausawa of Onitsha, Alhaji Iliyasu Yushau, said though his house in Onitsha was not destroyed, his properties were looted and the house vandalized. "They could not burn my house because it will affect the houses of some senior Igbo citizens whose houses are bordering mine. They have however removed every important thing from the house and my adjoining office. The documents that will not be important to them were set ablaze. I and my family escaped with just the dresses we were putting on," he said.

Sudan: Friendly spaces for displaced children

2006-03-09

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/91a9c2268f95a3015dad19c241efe288.htm

The first time Micha De Winter walked into a child-friendly space in a camp for displaced people in Darfur in March 2005, he found 150 children crowded into 25 square metres, supervised by one animator holding a stick in one hand and a whip in the other. "What I found was quite awful. Animators received very little training. There were no materials, and the numbers of children were so huge that hardly anything meaningful could be done in terms of psycho-social support," De Winter, a child psychologist, said.

Sudan: Sudanese refugees in Uganda to return home

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070619.html

Some 17,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda have registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for repatriation, and the first batch could be home as early as next month. But humanitarian agencies say most refugees are reluctant to return home because they feel security has not been fully restored in Southern Sudan and that social infrastructure like schools and hospitals is lacking. This is the reason more than 150,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda are yet to sign up to return home.

Benin: Country holds Presidential elections

2006-03-07

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/11566.html&d=1

Some four million registered voters in Benin began queuing Sunday (March 5) at polling stations throughout the West African country to choose a successor to President Mathieu Kerekou who has been in power since 1972, except for a five-year break when Nicephore Soglo ruled. Twenty-six candidates are in the race for president. But political analysts believe candidates Adrien Houngbedji, Bruno Amoussou and Yayi Boni are front runners. Kerekou and Soglo are not running this time because the constitution bars people in their age category, 70, from contesting the presidency.

Ethiopia: CUD electees reviving Party's stalled legalization process

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060309.html

A group of electees representing the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) in both the Addis Ababa City Council and the federal parliament this week started attempts at reviving the stalled process of legalization of their party. CUD, which used to constitute four parties, decided on September 24,2005 to merge into one unitary party. But the merger was put on hold when one of its constituting party, EDUP-Medhin, leadership declined to give full support and put preconditions to go ahead with a complete merger.

Ghana: 49 years of independence

2006-03-08

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/11573.html&d=1

“Since March 6, 1957, we as a people declared ourselves to be a people with one nation, commonly sharing diverse characteristics like religion, language, history, territory, institutions, culture, statehood or aspiration to statehood. The majority of the present generation was not involved in the fight for freedom from the ‘oppressor’s rule.’ Indeed, at all times in the struggle of a people, it takes a courageous few to be in the frontline - of course with a lot more unsung heroes in the shadows. But a question that has received varied responses, as many times as has been asked is, what we have done with our independence?"

Uganda: "The 40-Year NRM struggle is now paying off"

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070333.html

This is an opinion piece by Uganda's President elect, Yoweri Museveni. It begins as follows, "I salute the people of Uganda for, again, giving a strong mandate to the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Although there were organisational problems, such as, poor civic education, which led to 4% of "spoilt" votes, the clear margin of the NRM's win is unmistakable for those who are serious. The recent victory of the NRM in the just concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections is the latest in the 40 years' struggle against sectarianism, subservience to foreign interests, criminality and backwardness."

Uganda: Besigye acquitted of rape charge

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070007.html

Not guilty is the verdict. One down, three to go. Dr Kizza Besigye was the loser on the February 23rd elections in Uganda, but he emerged victor in the High Court, after Justice John Bosco Katutsi acquitted him of the charge of rape. The High Court decided there was no merit in Joan Kyakuwa's case, and consequently dismissed it. It provides some respite for Kizza Besigye, who still has three cases pending; of treason, concealment of treason and another of illegal possession of firearms.
Related Link:
* Besigye accuses Museveni of dividing Ugandans
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070539.html
* Besigye defies army court
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603061181.html

Uganda: Low turnout for municipal polls

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603061165.html

Despite making Monday a public holiday to allow Ugandans to turn up in big numbers to elect their mayors and directly elected councillors in 12 municipalities countrywide, the election suffered a low turnout.
Related Link:
* Uganda: A shrinking voters role
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070524.html

Zambia: Three parties form new party

2006-03-07

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/11535.html&d=1

Three opposition parties with representation in Parliament have come together to form the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) with a view to float one Presidential candidate in this year's elections. The United Party for National Development (UPND), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and UNIP formed the alliance and would soon meet to elect a leader of the alliance through a vote before elections. But Heritage Party (HP) president Godfrey Miyanda has said his party would not force itself on the proposed opposition alliances if not invited while the MMD welcomed the formation of UDA as it signified the strength of the ruling party.

Africa: The cancer of corruption

2006-03-07

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=184&cat=2

"Historically, slavery and colonialism played a major role in ingraining corruption in the minds and behavioral patterns of colonized people," says this article from www.zimbabwejournalists.com "It is common knowledge that some colonial administrators and soldiers were themselves corrupt and used corruption as a tool for maintaining a hegemonic position within colonized societies. People previously united were divided, conquered and brainwashed. Artificial divisions were also created between house slaves and field slaves."

Cameroon: Water minister detained over graft allegations

2006-03-07

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=120168&src=dcn

Cameroon's former water minister Alphonse Siyam Siwe was charged with corruption and remanded in jail on Saturday, a day after being sacked by President Paul Biya over the accusations, a prison source said. Siyam Siwe, 53, had been held in Cameroon's main prison of Kodengui in the capital overnight Friday, said the source who requested anonymity.

Kenya: Heavy cost of joyriders in 'Club' trip for Commonwealth games

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060695.html

Half of Kenya's Sh55million Commonwealth games budget will be spent on allowances for officials, The Standard has revealed. The country is sending one of the largest delegations to the 'Club' Games in Melbourne, Australia, with officials making up a third of the 160-strong team. The full list of the travelling party to the Games obtained by The Standard on Sunday paints a picture of extravagance and contradictions. All but two of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) officials are travelling.

Kenya: Central Bank boss could face corruption charges

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070857.html

The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has completed investigations on Central Bank governor Andrew Mullei over corruption allegations and asked the Attorney-General to take action against him. It means Dr Mullei could face court charges arising from allegations concerning his management, which had caused a major split between the Treasury and the Central Bank Board.

Kenya: French firm turns away KACC team

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060738.html

A fresh attempt by Kenyan investigators to question managers of a French firm mentioned in the KSh 2.7 billion passports scandal hit a brick wall when the executives flatly refused to meet them in Paris. Two senior Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission investigators, who had travelled to France after securing an appointment to interview Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire (FCOF) managers, got a rude shock when they were turned away.

Nigeria: Anti-graft agency probes 37 cases of graft against governors

2006-03-07

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=120235&src=dcn

The Nigerian anti-graft agency said Thursday that it was investigating 37 cases of corruption against several elected state governors. "The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is investigating 37 cases of corruption against some state governors," the agency's spokesman, Mike Sowe, told AFP on behalf of his boss, Olayinka Ayoola.

Global: A MDG critique from the South

2006-03-09

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0306amin.htm

Most of the Millennium Development Goals may seem at first sight unobjectionable, says this introduction to an article by Samir Amin on the website of Monthly Review. "Nevertheless, they were not the result of an initiative from the South itself, but were pushed primarily by the triad (the United States, Europe, and Japan), and were co-sponsored by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. All of this has raised the question of whether they are mainly ideological cover (or worse) for neoliberal initiatives." Click on the link to read the full analysis.

Global: Culture in development and cooperation

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/elt8w

This booklet about the role of culture in development and cooperation efforts was published by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It contains background information, programme guidelines, and lessons learned, as well as project examples from Mali, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Romania, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The authors argue that culture is an essential element of life and plays a major role in development. The 44-page publication builds on the efforts of other organizations over the past several decades, and the entire text is available online at Development Gateway.

Global: Foreign Direct Investment in developing countries

2006-03-07

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/charts/fdidevcountr.htm

Foreign Direct Investment inflows and outflows of poor countries are unequally concentrated in a few geographical areas. With Africa hardly participating in FDI flows and Latin America recovering from its economic crises, Asia receives and provides the biggest stake of FDI flows among poor countries.

Global: Get rid of slums by making a plan, says UN

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/ocrva

The making of a plan and sticking to it is the key to eradicating slums worldwide, the United Nations said Wednesday. "We must incorporate the culture of planning in our towns and cities," said Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN-HABITAT, during a keynote speech at a one-day seminar on the Urbanization Crisis in Tanzania in Moshi, a town near Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Many urban centers have taken passive attitudes when it comes to planning but Tibaijuka insists slum-free urbanization can be a reality but only if the master plans are managed well, reports United Press International.

Global: The uneven distribution of benefits and costs from economic growth

2006-03-09

http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_publicationdetail.aspx?pid=219

'Growth isn’t working: the uneven distribution of benefits and costs from economic growth', shows that globalisation is failing the world’s poorest as their share of the benefits of growth plummet, and accelerating climate change hurts the poorest most.   The report, the first in the New Economic Foundation's series of 'Re-thinking poverty' reports, reveals that the share of benefits from global economic growth reaching the world’s poorest people is actually shrinking, while they continue to bear an unfair share of the costs.

Kenya: New housing plan unveiled

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060759.html

The National Housing Corporation will spend Sh33.6 billion to build 20,000 houses in 90 towns, according to it's chairman. The "90 towns housing programme" was allocated Sh1.2 billion in the current financial year. The programme is scheduled to end in 2009.

Tanzania: Dar 'still committed to SAPP power interconnection'

2006-03-07

http://www.andnetwork.com

The Minister for Energy and Minerals, has said that Tanzania was committed to the implementation of the Zambia-Tanzania interconnector, which would enable the country to be connected to Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) Grid and benefit from its arrangement. In a speech read on his behalf by his Deputy, at the official opening of the SAPP meeting in Dar es Salaam, he said the current power shortage in the country has been due to the depletion of water in the main reservoirs of Mtera and Nyumba ya Mungu, adding that if Tanzania was an operating member country, it would have imported 120 MW through SAPP grid to fill in the power shortage.

Guinea: AIDS patients want less talk and more action

2006-03-09

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52089

Donors and the government have launched another HIV/AIDS programme in the forest region of south-eastern Guinea, the region with the highest infection rate in the country, but HIV-positive residents are still struggling to access anti-AIDS medication. Nzerekore, the main town in the forest region, has an HIV prevalence rate of about seven percent compared to the national average of 2.8 percent, according to local government officials, yet the town has some of the poorest HIV-health facilities in the country.

Kenya: Ignore the World Bank on health, says minister

2006-03-08

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/32566

Kenya should ignore donor restrictions and employ health workers needed urgently countrywide, an assistant minister has said. The country needs 10,000 health workers to offer improved services, Health assistant minister Enock Kibunguchy said. "We have to put our foot down and employ. We can tell the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to go to hell," Kibunguchy said.

Kenya: Measles adds to misery of Eastern Africa drought

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070471.html

An outbreak of measles at a remote locality where people and animals are dying of thirst and famine has worsened the suffering of residents. At least two people have died of the disease in the past two weeks in El Wak on the Kenya-Somalia border, a Catholic sister told CISA. Sr Robbireo of the Contemplative Missionaries of Fr De Foucauld said the situation could get out of hand because of high levels of famine-induced malnutrition among children.

Mauritius: Mosquito born disease spreads

2006-03-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32352

A few months ago, the average Mauritian might have looked blank if asked what "chikungunya" was. Now, they're probably all too familiar with the term. Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease that has swept through islands in the south-western Indian Ocean over recent months. The infection rate in Mauritius is climbing by the day - with health ministry officials putting the number of confirmed cases at 1,322, Thursday.

South Africa: Widening gulf between Khayelitsha and Cape Town

2006-03-07

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031372

In Khayelitsha, diarrhoea and gastro-enteritis have overtaken HIV/Aids as the biggest killer of children under five years with the deaths doubling over the last four years. By mid- 2004, 60 Khayelitsha toddlers had died of diarrhoeal disease, a preventable and treatable illness. “Lack of access to basic services does impact on the health of a community, especially children,” said Dr Ivan Toms, head of Cape Town’s health services.

Uganda: Associated Press Examines PEPFAR Funding

2006-03-07

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=35708

The Associated Press has examined US HIV/AIDS funding in Uganda and the view of some advocates and officials that the country's emphasis on prevention has shifted from condom use to fidelity and abstinence. While US officials acknowledge condoms "are a key weapon" to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic, they believe "prevention information is more effective when targeted at the appropriate audience," the Associated Press reports.

Uganda: Hospital to offer free home-based HIV testing, counselling to Aids patients

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070849.html

Kisubi Hospital, with support from the International Aids Vaccine Initiative has embarked on providing free home based HIV/Aids testing and counselling services. International Aids Vaccine Initiative is an international organisation whose mission is to fight Aids by speeding the development of a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine to prevent the disease. Speaking at the official launch of the Home Based HIV Counselling and Testing Project at the hospital on March 3, the project coordinator, Dr Bruce Kirenga, said counselling and testing was voluntary and would take a period of six months.

Africa: Building the next generation of teachers

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/qx67y

UNESCO has launched a high-priority Initiative on Teacher Training in sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) for 2006-2015. This Initiative will assist the continent's 46 sub-Saharan countries in restructuring national teacher policies and teacher education. It aims to increase the number of teachers and improve the quality of teaching. Seventeen countries are participating in the first phase of the initiative.

Africa: Girl's education as a right

2006-03-07

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21073

This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper reviews the most significant initiatives - those that are 'gender-neutral' and those that have a specific focus on gender equality - that have enabled African countries to overcome these obstacles. The paper argues that the education system needs to be accessible to both boys and girls, it needs interventions that specifically targets girls, and to reduce costs of education.

Global: Southern Africa to boost collaboration with Japan

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/l48at

Southern African nations are to increase their scientific collaboration with Japan through an organisation called the Southern Africa Science and Technology Community (SASTeC), which launched last month (31 January). The group is made up of staff at the embassies in Japan of member nations of the Southern Africa Development Community, reports SciDev.

Kenya: Teachers to go on strike over salaries

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060785.html

Teachers will go on strike to press for the speedy implementation of their salary increment. Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Francis Ng'ang'a asked the Government to conclude the payment this year or brace for a countrywide strike. While marking the start of elections of officials to serve for another five-year-term, Mr Ng'ang'a told Education minister Noah Wekesa to begin talks with the union on how the payment could be speeded up.

Madagascar: 'Education for All' not yet all-embracing

2006-03-08

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/11568.html&d=1

"Our biggest problem is that we have no school; none of the children can study," says Edmond Tadahy, as his five-year-old daughter clambers across his lap. "None of the villages around here have schools or teachers, except Anjinjako - they have a small school, but the parents have to pay for it." On this vast Indian Ocean island, stories like Tadahy's are common. According to the Institute for Statistics of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), just under a third of adults and youths are illiterate (these figures are an average for data collected from 2000 to 2004.

Togo: No respect, say university students

2006-03-09

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52084

When James Kouma completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Lome University 15 years ago, he tried and tried but failed to find “a proper job”, he says. Now 38 and a father of two, he earns a perilous living driving a motor-bike taxi or “Zemidjan”, along with thousands of other young people. While West Africa’s big cities are jammed pack with jobless graduates who would agree with him, student life is far tougher nowadays across the region than it ever was.

Zimbabwe: Police arrest university student leaders to thwart protests

2006-03-09

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13951

Zimbabwe police Wednesday arrested several student leaders in the city of Bulawayo to thwart plans by students at a state university and three other institutions in the city to stage street protests against the government's decision to hike fees at state tertiary colleges. ZimOnline was unable to confirm the exact number of students that were being held by the police by late last night but other sources indicated as many as 25 students could have been arrested as they attempted to march through the city.

Global: Racism on rise around the world, UN expert warns

2006-03-08

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17718&Cr=racis&Cr1=

Racism and racial discrimination are on the upswing and becoming widespread throughout the world, with the current global situation confirming the worst expectations that man's worst tendencies are created in the womb, a United Nations expert on racism warned today (March 7). While racial discrimination used to be the province of extremist far right political parties, it is now becoming a regular part of democratic systems, being blended in for example with the fight against terrorism, Doudou Diène, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance told the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

Africa: Continent can’t afford more bad hydro

2006-03-08

http://www.earthlife-ct.org.za/ct/article.php?story=2004022015253058

At the African Ministerial Conference on Hydro power and Sustainable Development (held in Johannesburg the week of March 6) the African Rivers Network (ARN) issued a cautionary to African governments that poorly planned hydro power will cost Africa more than it's worth. They further cautioned that when calculating the cost of building dams and hydro power plants the social, environmental and economic costs must be considered. Frank Muramuzi, coordinator of ARN said that hydro power is not necessarily the solution to Africa's water and energy needs. "There exists a range of options for Africa, other than hydro power that should be considered. Africa should develop its own approach – what works in the rest of the world may not necessarily work in Africa."

Africa: Countries to protect river Nile

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070835.html

African countries sharing the River Nile have launched a joint awareness campaign to protect the Nile waters. The Nile Basin water supports about 300 million people from 10 African countries: Uganda, Burundi, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative, Mr Patrick Kahangire, said increasing public awareness on the Nile water resources will help harness the river's endowments and improve lives of the 300 million people who depend on it.

Africa: Forecast shows river crisis

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/ogvbm

Africa's rivers face dramatic disruption that will leave a quarter of the continent severely short of water by the end of the century, according to a global warming study published on Friday (March 3). In the first detailed assessment of climate change on the continent's waterways researchers found that watercourses on the continent are highly sensitive to shifts in rainfall patterns. Even modest decreases in rain in western Africa will see rivers lose as much as 80% of their water, triggering a surge of what the scientists call "water refugees," according to the Mail and Guardian.

Cape Verde: Tourism or turtles?

2006-03-07

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9984

Slowly dragging its shell onto the beach, a turtle emerges from the ocean. It is midnight and the moon is casting its shadow over the remote, white-sandy coastline of Boa Vista - one of the ten islands that make up the West African island-nation of Cape Verde. The strong sea breeze does not seem to bother the turtle as it slowly, but determinedly, finds its way among the dunes in search of a safe spot to lay its eggs. Once found, a two-hour ritual then begins as the prehistoric sea creature meticulously digs a 30cm hole with its rear flippers. This exhausting exercise will provide a nest for more than 40 whitish, golfball-sized eggs.

Congo: Pygmies ill-prepared to fight for their forests

2006-03-07

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9975

Pygmy chief Mbomba Bokenu says he may soon let loggers cut his people's forests, and all he expects in return are soap and a few bags of salt. "The Pygmies are suffering, we accept what we are given," said Bokenu, draped in brown civet-cat skins and holding a slender carved-wooden shield. "Our children live in dirt, they suffer from disease. Soap and salt is a lot to our people." The Pygmies, though, should expect - and demand - much more under proposed rules meant to ensure forest communities benefit from the wealth all around them.

Global: Looking to life after Kyoto

2006-03-07

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32284

Even before the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol's first period can begin, a dialogue has been launched on limiting climate change after the current agreement ends in six years. And it is not too early. Questions enough have been raised about the Kyoto deal to question its continuation in its present form after the first implementation period 2008-2012. The Protocol, signed in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, is an agreement by industrialised countries to reduce emissions of so-called greenhouse gases by at least 5.2 percent from 1990 levels over the first implementation period.

Global: Women and environmental conservation

2006-03-07

http://www.id21.org/society/s4aUNEP1g1.html

International treaties and conferences now recognise the central role of women as caretakers of the natural world. Most societies and governments, however, have been slow to act when it comes to improving women's conditions. They have also neglected the link between women and the environment.

Lesotho: Crack in dam wall sparks safety concerns

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/qztyu

A crack in the wall of Mohale dam in Lesotho, one of the world's highest rockfill dams, has sparked concern among neighbouring communities, according to a local NGO. Heavy rain in the mountain kingdom led to a sudden filling of the Mohale dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), creating a crack in one of the panels of the 145 m high wall. "An expert in dam construction from Europe is arriving in Lesotho next Monday to assess the damage ... at the moment it is hard to make any assessments ... because the dam is still filled to capacity. We are, however, hoping that the water level will go down in time to see how far the crack has gone," said Liphapang Potloane, chief executive of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), reports Alertnet.

Seychelles: Ban on cutting sharks' fins

2006-03-07

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9958

The Seychelles has banned the cutting off of sharks' fins by foreign fishermen to curb a flourishing global trade that is threatening the survival of the sea predator and marine ecosystems. The United Nations estimates that 100 million sharks are killed every year world-wide, mostly for their fins which are a delicacy in East Asia where a bowl of shark fin soup can command high prices. Dozens of countries have banned the practice of slicing off of sharks' fins in the last few years. The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) ban took effect this week and covers all foreign vessels fishing in the territorial waters of the Indian Ocean archipelago. The ban does not include domestic vessels, which the government says are few and controlled, or shark fishing where the whole shark is caught.

Egypt: Activists condemn curbs on internet

2006-03-09

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52046

Rights groups have condemned several Arab governments for blocking websites devoted to freedom of speech on political and social issues, calling the move an attempt to limit the free exchange of information. “Most Arab governments largely oppress freedoms of the press and expression,” said Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information's (HRinfo) Programme Coordinator Sally Sami. The criticisms came after a number of Egypt-based websites were recently blocked, as well as several sites in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

Egypt: Former housing minister withdraws defamation complaints

2006-03-07

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15489

Reporters Without Borders has noted the decision of the former housing minister, Mohamed Soliman to withdraw 37 defamation complaints that he had lodged against journalists. This gesture is the result of mediation, undertaken by the information minister and the press council between the housing minister and President of the Egyptian Journalists' Union, Galal Aref, representing the journalists named in the cases.

Global: Whatever the weather - media attitudes to reporting climate change

2006-03-07

http://www.panos.org.uk/global/reportdetails.asp?id=1000&reportid=1078

This month's meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil will look at - among other things - how the effects of climate change are being addressed. The media can play an important role in stimulating discussion about the impacts and response to climate change in developing countries. But this survey of journalists and media practitioners in Honduras, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and Zambia shows that often the media have a poor understanding of the climate change debate and express little interest in it.

Kenya: Thousands take to street to support press freedom

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070761.html

Thousands of Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi and four major towns Wednesday in an emotive defence of Press freedom following the shocking raid of Standard Group's premises by hooded police commandos. Led by Orange Democratic Movement leaders, they spilled into the streets of Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru, to demand the resignation of Security minister John Michuki and his Information and Communications counterpart, Mutahi Kagwe.
* Related Link
'Standard' takes complaint to human rights commission
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603061278.html

Tunisia: Release Mohammed Abbou, say freedom of expression groups

2006-03-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/32514

Freedom of expression groups have urged Tunisia to release Mohammed Abbou and all other remaining prisoners of opinion. On the first anniversary of the jailing of Tunisian internet writer, lawyer and human rights activist Mohammed Abbou, international freedom of expression groups welcomed the recent release of many Tunisian prisoners of opinion including journalist Hamadi Jebali, imprisoned for more than 15 years, and the youth of Zarzis, whose release was the focus of an international campaign, but expressed dismay at the continued incarceration of Abbou and the escalation of other free speech violations.
FEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_______________________________________________________________

JOINT ACTION - TUNISIA

2 March 2006

Freedom of expression groups urge authorities to release Mohammed Abbou and all other prisoners of opinion

SOURCE: IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG)

**Updates IFEX alerts on the Abbou case of 28 February 2006, 21 September, 27 July, 13 June and 4 May 2005; for further information on the Jelabi case, see alerts of 28 February 2006, 4 November, 31, 6 and 3 October, 3 September, 4 May, 21 and 15 April 2005 and others; for information on the jailed Zarzis internet users, see alerts of 15 December, 9 July and 14 April 2004**

(IFEX-TMG) - The following is a 1 March 2006 joint declaration by members of the IFEX-TMG:

Freedom of expression groups urge Tunisia to release Mohammed Abbou and all other remaining prisoners of opinion

On the first anniversary of the jailing of Tunisian internet writer, lawyer and human rights activist Mohammed Abbou, international freedom of expression groups welcomed the recent release of many Tunisian prisoners of opinion including journalist Hamadi Jebali, imprisoned for more than 15 years, and the youth of Zarzis, whose release was the focus of an international campaign, but expressed dismay at the continued incarceration of Abbou and the escalation of other free speech violations.

Abbou was jailed on 1 March 2005 and subsequently prosecuted at an unfair trial, on a highly questionable charge of "assault", for publishing information that "would disturb public order" and for "insulting the judiciary". His is just one of a series of cases of free speech rights abuse documented by International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) member groups, including 14 members of the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group.

Freedom of assembly is severely restricted. Political parties, human rights groups and civil society activists have been physically prevented by police from holding peaceful gatherings on private premises. Meetings of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD) and the Democratic Forum for Labour and Freedom (FDLT), National Council Freedoms in Tunisia (CNLT) and meetings of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) have all been banned.

Controls on phones, faxes and the internet are still in place, three months on from the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005. The security services summoned several human rights defenders in February, including members of the editorial board of the banned newspaper Kalima, searched them and confiscated copies of the newspaper in their possession.

Tunisian authorities have blocked publication of the weeklies al Maoukif, published by the opposition Democratic Progressive party, and Akhbar al Joumhouria. Foreign papers have faced bans on distribution including the French Paris daily Le Monde and the magazine al Maraa al Youm published in Dubai.

Despite the repeal of the dépôt legal system, which required copies of Tunisian periodicals to be sent to officials, the system still applies to the foreign press. It allows the authorities to silence media that criticise the government or raise taboo subjects.

We urge the Tunisian government:

- To free Mohammed Abbou and all remaining prisoners of opinion.
- To stop the censorship of publications in Tunisia, and the use of the dépôt legal system to stop the distribution of foreign media.
- To lift the legal requirement that new periodicals must be officially registered prior to publication.
- To allow independent broadcasters to function.
- To allow freedom of assembly for all independent NGOs and parties.
- To end the harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders.

Note to editors:

The Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) is a coalition of 14 organisations set up in 2004 to monitor freedom of expression in Tunisia in the run up to and following the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The 14 organisations are all members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of 72 national, regional and international organizations committed to defending the right to freedom of expression.

Members of the TMG are:

ARTICLE 19, UK
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), Canada
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), Egypt
Index on Censorship, UK
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Belgium
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), The Netherlands
International Publishers' Association (IPA), Switzerland
Journaliste en danger (JED), Democratic Republic of Congo
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia
Norwegian PEN, Norway
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Canada
World Association of Newspapers (WAN), France
World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), USA
Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN (WiPC), UK

For further information, contact Steve Buckley, AMARC, tel: +44 114 2201426, e-mail: sbuckley@gn.apc.org; or Alexis Krikorian, IPA, tel: +41 79
214 55 30, e-mail: krikorian@ipa-uie.org, Internet:
http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg

The information contained in this joint action is the sole responsibility of IFEX-TMG. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit IFEX-TMG.
_________________________________________________________________
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/
_________________________________________________________________

More...

Zimbabwe: Journalists ask for 800 percent pay hike

2006-03-07

http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3724

Journalists from Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) have taken the state broadcaster to court over low salaries, writes Gugu Ziyaphapha on the website www.journalism.co.za The journalists and other ZBH workers decided to seek the intervention of the courts after their employer refused to award them the increase they want. The management is offering 30% yet the reporters are asking for an 800% increment. According to court papers filed at the labour court, a junior reporter gets Z$1.6 million (R45) and senior journalists get Z$7 million (R200).

Global: Keep water in public hands

2006-03-07

http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/action/worldWaterDayEvents.pdf

On or around Wednesday March 22, people in nearly 50 communities across the country will join together in public forums, "water walks," film showings and other events with a key message--keep water in public hands. KAIROS, Development and Peace, the Council of Canadians and CUPE all believe that equitable access to water is best accomplished when water and water services remain public, despite an increasing global trend towards commodification and privatization.

Global: Traceability and accountability system for GMOs

2006-03-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/32472

"It has come to our attention that there may be a lack of funding for the full participation of developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety at the 3rd Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties of the CPB as well as the 8th Conference of the Parties of the CBD, which will take place in Curitiba, Brazil, from 13-17 March and 20-31 March 2006 respectively."

Follow the link to find a copy of the full letter petition.
Open Letter

To: Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity
To: President of the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Malaysia)
To: Host Country of the COP and COP/MOP (Brazil)
To: Donor Countries

2 March 2006

RE: URGENT - DEVELOPING COUNTRY PARTICIPATION IN CURITIBA, BRAZIL

It has come to our attention that there may be a lack of funding for the full participation of developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety at the 3rd Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties of the CPB as well as the 8th Conference of the Parties of the CBD, which will take place in Curitiba, Brazil, from 13-17 March and 20-31 March 2006 respectively.

It is our understanding that this situation may mean that only delegates from least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) will receive funding to attend these meetings in Brazil as indicated by the Executive Secretary in a letter dated 3 February 2006 (SCBD/RMCS/MR-H/50957).

We are gravely concerned with this situation, as to our knowledge, this is the first time this has happened in the history of the CBD.

The success and effectiveness of the meetings in Brazil will depend critically on the full and balanced participation of all the Parties, and decisions made by the COP and the COP/MOP need to be taken by all the Parties.

We urge you to urgently take all possible measures to remedy this situation, as the meetings begin very shortly.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Sincerely,

Email to: secretariat@biodiv.org
Fax to: 1-514-288 6588

More...

America: Democrats want independent Katrina probe

2006-03-07

http://www.colorofchange.org/bush/video.html

Lawmakers from both parties said Thursday (March 2) a newly disclosed videotape of a pre-Katrina briefing for President Bush and top administration officials raises new questions about government response to the storm that flooded New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the video "makes it perfectly clear once again that this disaster was not out of the blue or unforeseeable. It was not only predictable, it was actually predicted. That's what made the failures in response - at the local, state and federal level - all the more outrageous." The video, obtained by The Associated Press, "confirms what we have suspected all along," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, charging that Bush administration officials have "systematically misled the American people."

Africa: Girls formerly associated with fighting forces and their children

2006-03-07

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21054

This paper outlines the considerable challenges facing girl mothers leaving fighting forces who seek to reintegrate into their communities in southern and western Africa. Often stigmatised and rejected by their communities, these girls struggle to find ways to earn a living to support themselves and their children in the face of economic and sexual exploitation. The authors call for improved support from their communities so that mothers can better care for their children and earn their own living. They speak of a need for a healing period prior to reintegration, as well as access to public medical services, education and skills training.

DRC: Behind the numbers

2006-03-09

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=9832

The British medical journal Lancet recently took greater notice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than all western media outlets combined, says this article from www.zmag.org "Some people have suggested the reason that there isn’t greater awareness and equitable intervention in the Congo is because 'we simply don’t know what to do' to remedy the situation.  However, it is fairly clear what needs to be done, the West is just unwilling to do it because of powerful economic and geopolitical reasons."

East and Horn of Africa: WFP warns of catastrophe if donations delay

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060122.html

Millions of vulnerable people in Kenya and Somalia could face a catastrophe if sufficient food donations are not delivered to them in the coming months, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned. Addressing a news conference at the end of an 11-day visit to eastern Africa, WFP Executive Director James Morris described the situation in the two countries as "serious - very, very serious".
Related Link:
* Millions face hunger, in urgent need of aid
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070003.html

Global: New UN fund to speed global disaster response

2006-03-07

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02413483.htm

The United Nations next week (March 6) launches a new global emergency fund to provide swifter relief to victims of natural disasters, but with far less money on hand than the $500 million it had hoped to raise. The Central Emergency Response Fund will have just $188 million when it opens for business, which is nonetheless a significant improvement over an existing UN standby loan facility of $50 million. Donations to the new fund, which will be able to make grants as well as loan money, have come from 19 of the 191 U.N. member-states.

Senegal: Ten-year-old killed by landmine

2006-03-08

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52036

Years of secessionist trouble in Senegal’s southern Casamance region claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy last week, killed by an anti-tank landmine over a year after the signing of a hard-won peace deal. The child, Cherif Sane, died while out collecting cassava with two friends from farms in the forested region around his village Dijbelor Baraf, some 5 km south of Casamance’s main city, Ziguinchor.

Sudan: A hungry peace is the aftermath of war

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070621.html

Women screamed and gunshots rent the air when a 14-seater aircraft carrying the governor of Jonglei state and other dignitaries overshot the Padak Airstrip by about 100 metres. More shots were fired when the pilot managed to stop the plane at the edge of a dam. Soldiers manning the airstrip used rifle butts to control the crowd that surged forward to surround the plane. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt during the mishap. This is the situation on the ground in Southern Sudan; weapons are everywhere. In fact, it is easier to get a Kalashnikov than a loaf of bread.

Sudan: Can the northern elite allow peace to flourish?

2006-03-08

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/659/659p23.htm

January 9 marked the first anniversary of the historic "comprehensive peace agreement" (CPA), which ended the devastating 21-year war in the south between the central government in Khartoum and the impoverished people of southern Sudan. Despite the enthusiasm of the anniversary celebrations in the ramshackle southern capital of Juba, there are growing concerns that Sudan's powerful northern elite is not committed to peace and may again plunge the south into war. The CPA came about after years of negotiations, which dragged on inconclusively for more than a decade until the administration of US President George Bush came to office in 2001. After 9/11, Bush dangled the carrot of lifting sanctions imposed by the previous US administration in return for Khartoum's cooperation with Washington's phoney "war on terror" and a negotiated settlement to the unwinnable southern war.

Sudan: Living in open prisons

2006-03-08

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070630.html

On the plains of Kabkabiya town in North Darfur, numerous abandoned villages dot the empty landscape. Their burned remains bear witness to the escalation of the Darfur conflict in 2003. "When the conflict began here," said a community leader who requested anonymity," the janjaweed [militias] attacked the villages around Kabkabiya, especially to the east and south. They killed many people, took their animals and destroyed their belongings."

Tanzania: Government struggles to cope with food, power deficit

2006-03-07

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/

The East African drought has caused food and power shortages in Tanzania and forced the government to implement measures to offset potentially serious humanitarian consequences. In an address to the nation on 28 February, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said his administration was well prepared to cope with food and power shortages in the East African country. Still, Tanzanians are hoping that the seasonal long rains that have just begun will provide much needed relief.

Zimbabwe: Arms cache discovered, opposition members arrested

2006-03-09

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52093

Zimbabwean authorities have warned that more arrests will follow as it unravels an alleged plot by opposition members to overthrow the government following the discovery of an arms cache in the east of the country. Minister of Security Didymus Mutasa confirmed on Tuesday that security forces had arrested Peter Hitschmann, a former member of the pre-independence Rhodesian army, after police found weapons and communication equipment at his home last week in Mutare, 260 km east of the capital, Harare.

Africa: Building fair entry to cyberspace

2006-03-09

http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=4513981

Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. The region currently only has one major international fibre cable (SAT3) that connects countries in West and Southern Africa but East Africa has no fibre connection. All this will change if the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable is built as it will connect countries on the eastern side of the continent and if this new capacity is offered in a way that maximises use and lowers price. To help make this possible, APC is launching a new website “Fibre-for-Africa” and on March 10 will hold a consultation with more than 80 key stakeholders from all over Eastern and Southern Africa to ensure that access to EASSy -which will serve eight coastal and eleven land-locked countries- is ‘easy’, affordable and open.

Global: Annan to establish international forum on internet governance

2006-03-08

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17681&Cr=internet&Cr1=

Following up on an agreement reached on the contentious topic of internet governance at the November World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to start creating a forum for a more inclusive dialogue on internet policy. According to his spokesman, Mr. Annan will establish a small Secretariat in Geneva to assist in the convening of an Internet Governance Forum, following consultations held in February by Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the WSIS that produced a consensus on the need for a strong development orientation.

Global: Tech museum calls for nominations

2006-03-08

http://www.techawards.org/pressroom/detail.php?id=125

The Tech Museum of Innovation is issuing a global call for nominations for the 2006 Tech Museum Awards. This is a unique program that honors innovators from around the world who use technology to benefit humanity.

Kenya: On a ring and a prayer

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603061345.html

Sudan is Africa's largest country but more than 70% of its population live in its small towns and scattered across rural areas. The country sits strategically between Arabic-speaking North Africa and the Gulf and several sub-Saharan African countries: it is bordered by no less than 12 countries. Its oil revenues have created a building boom in the capital and attracted telecoms investment from the UAE (Canartel) and Kuwait (Celtel).

Sudan: Oil fuels rapid growth in Telecoms and Internet sectors

2006-03-07

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603060945.html

Sudan is Africa's largest country but more than 70% of its population live in its small towns and scattered across rural areas. The country sits strategically between Arabic-speaking North Africa and the Gulf and several sub-Saharan African countries: it is bordered by no less than 12 countries. The civil war in the south of country raged for over 20 years but now seems to be at and but troubles persist in the west of the country. Its oil revenues have created a building boom in the capital and attracted telecoms investment from the UAE (Canartel) and Kuwait (Celtel).

Uganda: Structured discussion on AIDS competence

2006-03-08

http://www.healthdev.org/eforums/partnersuganda

Organised by the Uganda Network for AIDS Service Organisations (UNASO) and Health and Development Networks (HDN), in collaboration with the Constellation for AIDS Competence, the discussion “AIDS Competence – sharing, using and strengthening experience with local responses in Uganda” will take place on the Partners Uganda electronic discussion forum (eForum) between March – July 2006.

Africa: Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women

2006-03-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/32522

As part of its new knowledge building and mentoring programme, the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King's College London is pleased to announce the establishment of Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women. The Fellowships are funded by the Sigrid Rausing Trust and will bring together African women at the early stages of their career to undertake a carefully designed training programme in conflict, security and development at the King's College London. This training will then be followed by an attachment to an African regional organisation or a centre of excellence to acquire practical experience. Ultimately, the project will train young African women to develop a better understanding of African peace and security issues in order to increase their participation in conflict management processes and other areas of security concerns for African women.
Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women


The Fellowship

As part of its new knowledge building and mentoring programme, the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King’s College London is pleased to announce the establishment of Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women. The Fellowships are funded by the Sigrid Rausing Trust and will bring together African women at the early stages of their career to undertake a carefully designed training programme in conflict, security and development at the King’s College London. This training will then be followed by an attachment to an African regional organisation or a centre of excellence to acquire practical experience. Ultimately, the project will train young African women to develop a better understanding of African peace and security issues in order to increase their participation in conflict management processes and other areas of security concerns for African women.

The purpose of the Fellowship
The African Women’s Fellowship on Peace and Security is designed to expose young professional African women to the complexities of conflict, security and development and equip them for careers in this field. The fellowship is conceived against a number of background factors. First is the comparatively low level of women involved in peace and security issues especially as compared with those involved in human rights and development issues. Second is the need to assist African women to meet the demands of the Beijing process and more recently the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that calls for the inclusion of women at all decision making levels in “all national regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts”. This fellowship is aimed at challenging the existing tendency that seems to reinforce the male dominant discourse on conflict and security related matters. It will also develop the network of African women scholars working in the field whilst linking them with the peace and security mechanisms of the regional institutions.
Programme Content

The Fellowship will be over the duration of 1 year with 2 six month phases. The first phase will be based at King’s College London where the fellows will attend specifically designed courses on conflict, security and development. They will also study various UK institutions working in the field of conflict management. This phase will end with a simulation seminar during which a mock conflict management situation will be practiced. The second phase will be an attachment of Fellows to an African regional organisation or centre of excellence to undertake practical work in the field of peace and security including peace and conflict management processes.

Eligibility
Applicants should:
• Be female citizens of African countries between the ages of 25 and 40 years old with a valid passport.
• Have a background in women’s rights and gender issues.
• Must be able to demonstrate a commitment to contribute to work on peace and security in Africa
• Have a strong organisational base and should therefore be recommended by an organisation with which they have been involved for at least two years.
• Hold a Master’s degree, or Bachelors degree with an equivalent level of professional experience. Applications from women with non academic backgrounds are encouraged.
• Must be fluent in spoken and written English.

Application
To be considered for the Fellowship please e-mail or post the following to Eka Ikpe at ekaette.ikpe@kcl.ac.uk or Eka Ikpe, Conflict, Security and Development Group, King’s College, London, The Strandbridge House, 138-142 Strand, London WC2 3LS UK by 31 March 2006:
• A letter of application detailing your relevant experience.
• A supporting statement detailing why you would like to be considered for this fellowship and future plans for engagement with peace and security issues no longer than 2,000 words.
• A letter of recommendation
• Recent curriculum vitae
• A sample of your written work.
Please note: Three fellows will be selected for the 2006 programme. You will be contacted only if you have been short listed for the final stage of the application process.

More...

Africa: Strategies of Hope

2006-03-07

http://www.stratshope.org

The Strategies for Hope website has been updated in recent weeks. You can now download the first two titles in the 'Called to Care' toolkit - 'Positive Voices' and 'Making it Happen'. Strategies for Hope materials are used for information, training, planning and advocacy purposes by a wide range of organisations and individuals, including health institutions, NGOs, community groups, international agencies, faith-based organisations, employers' associations, trade unions, women's organisations, youth associations and organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Africa: The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism

2006-03-07

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/32524

The International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP) is pleased to announce the publication of "The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism". Drawing on the experiences and insights of activists in a range of countries, "The Banyan Tree Paradox" seeks to untangle some of the complexities and controversies that surround culture and human rights issues, in the hope of making the work a bit simpler and the way forward a bit clearer.
The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism

The International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP) is pleased to announce the publication of "The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism".

Drawing on the experiences and insights of activists in a range of countries, "The Banyan Tree Paradox" seeks to untangle some of the complexities and controversies that surround culture and human rights issues, in the hope of making the work a bit simpler and the way forward a bit clearer.

The enormous impact of various facets of globalization on cultures around the world challenges us, as human rights activists, to work more effectively with communities concerned about protecting their cultures--and thus leads to the question: How can we together better protect the right to culture?

At the same time, we are aware of the serious harm that can result from a range of cultural beliefs, institutions and practices. This gives rise to a very different question: How can we do a better job of protecting people from harms caused by cultural practices?

Protecting cultures and protecting people from culture-related harm are both difficult endeavors—and both are necessary.

IHRIP’s goal in developing "The Banyan Tree Paradox" was to better equip us as activists to do both.

The 140-page book contains the following chapters:

* What is culture?
* Culture and power
* Culture and gender
* Culture and human rights
* Culture and human rights activism
* Fact-finding and documentation on culture and human rights issues
* Developing strategies around culture and human rights issues

The book makes regular reference to and gives examples from the work of human rights NGOs and others on many of the topics addressed.

Appendices include:
* six case studies that raise important culture and human rights questions. These case studies were discussed at a workshop held in Siem Reap, Cambodia in August 2005;
* some international and regional human rights standards related to culture;
* some definitions of culture; and
* a short bibliography.

In the next several months IHRIP will be publishing Spanish, Arabic and French translations of the book.

The cost of the currently-available English version of "The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism" is US$30 plus postage and handling.

A limited number of copies will be made available free-of-charge to human rights NGOs that will use the book in their work.

To order a copy of "The Banyan Tree Paradox", contact IHRIP at:

e-mail: ihripescr@iie.org
tel: (1 202) 326-7725
fax: (1 202) 326-7763

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Global: Call for EERC proposals

2006-03-07

http://www.eerc.ru/default.aspx?id=51&news=146

The Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) is now accepting applications for the Spring 2006 round of the economics research grant competition. Grants will be awarded for policy-relevant economics research projects in five priority areas.

Global: DOTank - towards a covenant society

2006-03-07

http://www.dotank.nl

DOTank is a Dutch network for improving public sector performance. It recently started a project to work with regional governments on models for a covenant society with the aim to go beyond governance towards learning to name the highest aspirations without trying to solve every issue through traditional instruments such as regulations and the markets. DOTank is in particular focusing on the issue of integration of minorities and the drop out rate of young people. A network of people and communities, DOTank provides an opportunity to share experiences in the field of systems innovation and organisational learning.

Global: EU to open projects to developing country scientists

2006-03-07

http://tinyurl.com/gnbuo

The European Commission (EC) is providing 20 million euros (US$24 million) to allow scientists in developing countries to join existing European projects. The EC announced the 'top-up' funds last month (15 February). It is intended to address poor participation by 'third countries' in projects funded by the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Eligible nations include those in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean and island states in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Global: iLoveLanguages

2006-03-07

http://www.ilovelanguages.com

iLoveLanguages presents an impressive array of language resources, from the obscure to the commonplace. iLoveLanguages purpose is to list, categorize, and promote Internet resources related to language learning, education, and use. Aside from the obvious online dictionaries, grammar references, and culture sites, iLoveLanguages contains links to language schools, translations services, and software as well.

Global: John Humphrey Freedom Award

2006-03-08

http://www.dd-rd.ca/site/home/index.php?lang=en

Rights & Democracy is currently accepting nominations for the John Humphrey Freedom Award, presented every year to an organization or individual for outstanding contributions to the promotion of human rights and democratic development. The deadline is April 15, 2006.

Africa: The Pan African University

2006-03-07

http://www.panafricanu.org

The Pan African University is a global university whose faculty, staff, students and external partners employ intellectual and financial resources to enrich the lives of those they serve. The university educates students to assist in the enlightening and disciplining of their minds and their preparation for active, professional leadership.

Global: Reflections on Genocide

2006-03-08

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/32569

Reflections on Genocide features a historic public multimedia exhibition of the Rwandan genocide rape survivor's stories, most of them HIV-positive today. The oral history gallery exhibit, Speaking the Unspeakable, is part of a new grassroots oral history documentary project, The Tubeho ("To Live Again") Project, launched recently by the UK-based and Rwandan Survivor's Fund (SURF) and the US and Rwanda-based Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx), both focused on empowering women with HIV.
“Reflections on Genocide”
March 23 – 26, 2006
Theatre Artaud in San Francisco

Upcoming dance performance and traveling oral history gallery exhibit, Reflections on Genocide, which features a historic public multimedia exhibition of Rwandan genocide rape survivor's stories, most of them HIV-positive today. The oral history gallery exhibit, Speaking the Unspeakable, is part of a new grassroots oral history documentary project, The Tubeho ("To Live Again") Project, launched recently by the UK-based and Rwandan Survivor's Fund (SURF) and the US and Rwanda-based Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx), both focused on empowering women with HIV. The project will present the portraits, voices and testimonies of members of the Rwanda survivors network, AVEGA, among others.

Local Bay Area visual artists and AIDS groups are participating in the San Francisco event, which includes a staged performance of survivors stories, followed by a world premiere of Unsing the Song, by Anne Bluthenthal and Dancers (ABD) production company. An opening reception will be held Wednesday, March 23, 2006. All events take place at Theatre Artaud in San Francisco. Related events include a panel discussion on HIV and gender-based violence with local AIDS groups on Saturday, March 25, at 3 pm, and a Sunday interfaith commemorative service on Sunday, March 26, after the final matinee performance.

This important exhibition and related events will provide a public platform for Rwandan women's voices, and help educate the global public about the link of HIV and gender-based violence. The Tubeho Project will help support Rwandan women survivors of sexual violence now fighting AIDS, and their families.

Tickets are now available for the evening show. Note that group rates are available, including for classrooms. For reservations or tickets, contact the ODC Box Office: 415 863 9834. The gallery exhibition of survivor testimonies is free and open Tues 3/21-Sun 3/26 from 12 n - 6 pm.

A press release will be issued shortly. Do help us spread the word.
For more information or to request a poster, write to: acd66@hotmail.com

Anne-christine d'Adesky, Executive co-Director WE-ACTx,
Co-Curator, Speaking the Unspeakable

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Priority Africa Network (PAN)
P O Box 2528
Berkeley CA 94702
Tel: (510) 527 3917
PriorityAfrica@yahoo.com
http://www.priorityafricanetwork.org/page.aspx

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Global: World forum on human rights

2006-03-07

http://www.forum-humanrights.org/index_e_2006.php

The second World Forum on Human Rights will be held in the Nantes Métropole International Convention Centre from July 10th to 13th, 2006 (2006 will be marked by the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations). As in 2004, topical issues relating to Human Rights will be debated by policy makers (representatives of States, towns and local governments, members of parliaments) from all over the world, members of international organisations, of academia and representatives of civil society.

Great Lakes: Policy Advocacy Co-ordinator

ActionAid

2006-03-07

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/index.asp?page_id=100321

This is a senior leadership role to support the Great Lakes countries in providing leadership at the strategic level to the sub-region, assuming responsibility for sub-regional policy as well as policy influencing and campaign work.

Senegal: Program Coordinator

TrustAfrica

2006-03-08

http://www.trustafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=73&lang=en

TrustAfrica is looking for an exceptional individual to serve as its Program Coordinator. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in philanthropy in Africa and a deep understanding of the challenges TrustAfrica seeks to address. The position is based at TrustAfrica headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. Qualifications, Skills, and Characteristics required include: a good graduate degree; at least five years of successful grant-making experience at the international level and experience in at least two subregions of Africa; management experience in a nongovernmental organization in Africa is a plus; good understanding of African affairs. The successful candidate will also have knowledge of the main issues relating to TrustAfrica’s program areas (peace and security, regional integration, and citizenship and identity) and a good network of contacts from across Africa.

Sudan: National Project Officer, Gender

UNFPA

2006-03-07

http://www.unfpa.org/about/employment/documents/p-11.doc

Under the direct supervision of Head of South Sudan Office or Team Leader of the Project, the project officer supports the planning and management of project by providing and managing data inputs, providing support to coordination, monitoring and implementation and following up on recommendations.

Sudan: Social Development & Gender Advisor

SNV Kenya

2006-03-07

http://www.siyanda.org

The advisor will work within the overall practice areas on the Portfolio, focusing on Social Development and Gender. Within the context of transition from war to peace, the advisor will pay specific attention to gender and conflict sensitivity mainstreaming and other social issues. The advisor will further lead on the issues of gender, social protection, conflicts and others in influencing the preparation of organizational and institutional enhancement.

Fahamu