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Featured this week

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/34810

They say free trade is the answer to world poverty, but all too often it benefits the richest and deprives the poorest. In this, the second of four Pambazuka News special issues during 2006 discussing issues of trade and justice, a series of articles examines the point where trade meets the rights of people and communities. If free trade is the answer, these articles seem to ask, why is health care a luxury for millions in Kenya? Why does the oil trade wreak havoc in the Niger Delta? How is it that informal traders have virtually no rights? Why are local communities excluded from development projects driven by multi-national companies? Why is it that cotton farmers in West Africa suffer because of a grossly unfair subsidy racket? The last article in this edition asks how trade and business can be conducted in a more humane way. Please send comments on these articles to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

FEATURED: Soren Ambrose makes a case for holding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible for poor health care in Kenya
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- The crude oil trade in the Niger Delta remains anything but sweet for local communities, writes Nnimmo Bassey
- Winnie Mitullah asks when the rights of informal traders in African cities are going to be considered in trade policy
- We visit the Yala Swamp region of Kenya with Patrick Ochieng, who asks if Foreign Direct Investment is really the answer
- Question and Answers on genetically modified crops, access to food and land
- Cotton farmers in West Africa have yet to experience the concept of trade justice, writes Tope Akinwande
- Steve Ouma Akoth discusses corporate responsibility, arguing for a broader notion of the moral self
- Karoline Kemp looks at five examples where communities are claiming their rights in the face of unfair trade polices and practices
LETTERS: Readers respond to Tajudeen Abdul Raheem's article 'Slavery then and now', published last week
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the week's debates in the blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS:
- Rene Loewenson reviews 'The African Aids Epidemic: A History' by John iliffe
- Shailja Patel discusses plagiarism and the African arts
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News about events taking place at the June African Union meet in Banjul
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Concerns about Darfur; Violence continues in Mogadishu
HUMAN RIGHTS: Egyptian police accused of torture
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women's rights activists under siege in Zimbabwe
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Mogadishu fighting displaces Somalis to Yemen
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Obasanjo reshuffles cabinet
DEVELOPMENT: Film puts World Bank and IMF on trial
CORRUPTION: Apartheid corruption revealed in new report
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: New UNAIDS report shows slowdown, but increase in sub-Saharan Africa
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Racism fears dog world cup
ENVIRONMENT: The danger of Abacha “coal pots” in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Securing land rights in Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Media crackdown in The Gambia
PLUS: Advocacy and Campaigns, e-Newsletters and Mailing Lists, Fundraising and Useful Resources, Courses, Seminars and Workshops, Jobs

Preserving disorder: IMF policies and Kenya's health care crisis

Soren Ambrose

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/34800

Compared to 20 years ago in Kenya, people live for ten years less on average, more children die in infancy and a greater proportion of those who survive face stunting. Why? Soren Ambrose makes a case for holding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) responsible, arguing that the institution's obsession with low inflation rates - one of the foundations of trade liberalization - starves economies and hurts the poor.


On March 6, Kenya's Assistant Minister for Health, Enock Kibunguchy, told the press that Kenya urgently needs to hire 10,000 additional professionals in the public health sector, blurting out: “We have to put our foot down and employ. We can tell the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to go to hell.” [1]

These are strong words for a high-ranking government official to put on record regarding the most powerful international financial institutions (IFIs), and in particular the IMF, a body whose power extends to being able to call for the withdrawal of virtually all external assistance to a country.

Minister of Health Charity Ngilu had in fact been rumored to have made similar accusations in meetings with IMF officials and civil society representatives; since Kibunguchy's declaration she has confirmed she shares his view. Similar allegations have also been made by several civil society organizations focused on the IMF and on health rights. Indeed, in the last two years a number of organizations have identified IMF restrictions as a serious disincentive to hiring desperately-needed health professionals not only in Kenya, but in many other African and Global South countries as well.

Specific IMF policies, in particular the low ceilings it sets for inflation rates and wage expenditures in borrowing countries, are demonstrably illogical and detrimental. Together with the dubious defense the IMF mounts for maintaining such restrictions, cases like Kenya's provide a strong argument that those controlling the IMF should re-examine the restrictions it places on borrowing governments. The logic of demanding continual decreases in public wage bills is likewise suspect, as are the IMF's routine inflation targets. With increased funding from new sources, improved standards of living are within reach of even the most impoverished countries, if only the IMF would allow it.

The Health Care Crisis

Kenya's health care crisis has been 20 years in the making. Its dimensions are spelled out in the 2004 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) - a government document written in consultation with the IMF and World Bank and approved by both bodies' boards. Life expectancy declined from 57 in 1986 to 47 in 2000; infant mortality increased from 62 per thousand in 1993 to 78 per thousand in 2003; and under-five mortality rose from 96 per thousand births to 114 per thousand in the same period. The percentage of children with stunted growth increased from 29% in 1993 to 31% in 2003, and the percentage of Kenya's children who are fully-vaccinated dropped from 79% in 1993 to 52% in 2003.[2]

Why this deterioration? As in most African countries, Kenya's health care system was hit hard by the “structural adjustment” policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank as conditions on loans and as prerequisites for getting IFI approval of the country's economic policies. Those policies were introduced in the 1980s, and have left a lasting mark on Kenya's health. As usual with such programs, the emphasis was on cutting budget expenditures. As a result, local health clinics and dispensaries had fewer supplies and medicines, and user fees became more common. The public hospitals saw their standard of care deteriorate, increasing pressure on the largest public facility, Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. As a consequence, that hospital, once the leading health facility in East Africa, began, like so many other African hospitals, to ask patients' families to provide outside food, medicine, and medical supplies. Most beds at Kenyatta and the regional and local hospitals accommodated two patients. Professional staff have taken jobs - some part-time, some full-time, at private healthcare facilities, or migrated to Europe or North America in search of better pay.

An October 2005 communication from an NGO coalition to the November 2005 “High Level Forum on Health MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)” notes that “between 1991 and 2003, the [Kenyan] government reduced its work force by 30%” - cuts that hit the health sector particularly hard.[3] For the period between 2000 and 2002 alone, the government was scheduled to lay off 5,300 health staff.

Those requirements were externally imposed. A World Bank Group document from November 2003, written to justify waiving a loan condition calling for a workforce reduction, notes: “This condition required retrenching 32,000 personnel from civil service over a period of two years. In practice, 23,448 civil servants were retrenched in 2000/01 before the program was interrupted by lawsuits. […] A specific commitment in the updated [agreement] is to reduce the size of the civil service by 5,000 per year through natural attrition.” [4] The very same document supports Assistant Minister Kibunguchy's assessment of the sector's current needs - “the health sector currently experiences a staff shortage of about 10,000 health workers.” The document, however, draws no connection between the shortage and the insistence on cutting more workers.

The impact of the layoffs and budget slashing in the health sector over the last 15 years was cited recently by Member of Parliament Alfred Nderitu as the primary motivation for his motion of censure against the IMF and World Bank in the Kenyan Parliament. His initiative would insist that any future loans from the institutions get Parliamentary approval. [5]

Clinics Without Nurses

Many African countries have shortages of medical staff because of lack of training capacity; in Kenya this is not the case. Thousands are unemployed or underemployed, eager to take up full time positions.

Both the Kenyan government and the IFIs regularly announce that health spending will increase substantially. [6, 7] With all these promises of increased resources for health care, with the World Bank's acknowledgement of a staff shortage, and with all those unemployed nurses, one might expect that the government would waste no time in hiring the thousands of nurses Kenya so desperately needs. And indeed, frequent promises are made by government officials to that effect. But the promises are almost never kept.

According to the Chief Economist in the Ministry of Health, S.N. Muchiri, the reason is that while the IFIs support increased expenditures on health, they forbid spending that money to pay staff wages. This is accomplished through insisting on a ceiling on wage expenditures; in Kenya, the targets are 8.5% of GDP in 2006 and 7.2% by 2008. [8] The IMF doesn't specify that hiring in the health sector specifically must be limited, but when the entire wage bill must be suppressed, the chances of hiring the personnel needed are slim indeed.

So when IFI staffers call for more funding for clinics, as they do in their critique of the government's draft PRSP, they mean buildings, equipment, and medicine. [9] Unfortunately, personnel are required to run the clinics. It is the choice by those institutions to prioritize targets for reduced spending on public salaries and on inflation, says Muchiri, that prevents Kenya from hiring health workers. [10]

Muchiri provides valuable “inside” confirmation of charges made with increasing intensity by civil society organizations over the last two years. Advocates point out that while recent funding initiatives like the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria and PEPFAR have made stemming the most critical health crises in Africa more possible, the IMF's power over borrowers' economic policy and its narrow focus on keeping inflation and payrolls as low as possible is actively discouraging governments from putting the available funds to use.

Numbers, Not People

On one level, it seems like commonsense for an organization like the IMF to seek out ways in which governments can reduce the amount spent on salaries, especially in countries like Kenya, which have had troubles with “ghost employees” on public payrolls in the past. But the self-defeating nature of this quest quickly becomes apparent. If the government were simply expected to identify and eliminate ghost employees, that would obviously lighten the government's burden and enable it to target its resources more wisely.

But the IMF's conditions deal with bottom-line expenditures, not with going to the root of the problem. Kenya's PRSP spells out the implications: “…achieving the 8.5 percent target by 2005/06 will require that any awards to be provided to the civil servants or any additional awards […] will be matched by a proportionate downsizing of the civil service.” [11] Any hiring of nurses, for example, would require that some other public employees be eliminated - regardless of how much the nurses may be needed, or how vital the other positions may be. Indiscriminate targeting like this only demonstrates the prioritizing of abstract economic statistical standards over real-life outcomes, including those most likely to have a positive material impact on poverty and on contributing to the overall health of both Kenya's population and the economy.

So if the health budget is to rise - as both the IFIs and the government repeat often - then the PRSP must remind us that: “The fiscal strategy assumes that these health expenditures will be focused on non-wage non-transfer expenditures and will thus enable the rapid increase in basic health services.” [12] Indeed, Muchiri reports that funds are often available for facilities or supplies, but not for staff. The result is that more people may seek out health services, but the ministry will actually be less able to provide them because of lack of personnel to administer the drugs or operate the machinery.

Inflation, Inflation, Inflation

But why does the IMF, with its power to exclude a country from the global economy by declaring it “off-track,” insist on reducing government payrolls? Adding employees to the government payroll, especially if accomplished with aid money, is considered by orthodox economists like those at the IMF to increase inflationary pressures in a developing country. And an increase in inflation is anathema to the IMF.

The IMF quite openly prioritizes inflation targeting over almost any other factor in the countries where it works. Pressed on the question, as they have been in the debate over health spending, its officials will invariably respond that inflation is a “tax” that hits the poor the hardest.

But is that true? Anis Chowdhury points out that:

“The poor have very limited financial assets; they are largely net financial debtors. Thus inflation can benefit the poor by reducing the real value of their financial debt. Meanwhile, the IMF's cure for inflation - raising interest rates - can actually harm the poor because this increases the servicing costs of their current debts. […] The poor fare worse when unemployment rises and persists, especially when there is no adequate safety net or social security system. At the same time, the real value of their household debt rises with falling inflation rates. Hence the poor have more reason to be averse to unemployment and less averse to inflation than the elite in society." [13]

After this seemingly obvious point is made, it seems only too easy to point out that those who stand to lose the most from inflation are those who hold large amounts of money - financiers, investors, bankers. Yes, there are risks to the poor in high and/or persistent inflation, but increases in inflation below a certain point are far more likely to cause pain to those whose incomes depend on relatively minor fluctuations in currency values. For the impoverished, as Chowdhury explains, such increases in inflation are likely to be more beneficial than harmful.

As is so often the case, it is easiest to discern the interests of policy-makers not from their rhetoric, but from whose interests are most vigorously protected by their policies - by who “wins” as a result. The IMF's longtime prioritization of inflation over all else lends weight to those who accuse it of using its powers to protect the interests of the wealthy over those of the impoverished, regardless of their rhetoric that maintains the reverse.

IMF official Andy Berg recently admitted as much: “Higher inflation […] tax[es] people who hold cash or whose nominal incomes are fixed.” But Berg's next sentence restores IMF ideology, and at the same time exposes its flimsiness: “And this tax discourages private investment and tends to fall on those least able to adapt - in other words the poor.” [14] Berg relocates the pain from the rich to the poor, but offers no logic for that move.

Drawing a Reasonable Line on Inflation

To challenge the IMF, the question must be where to draw the line - at what point, to use Berg's phrase, is “inflation out of control,” or at risk of spinning out of control? Berg says “in poor countries the danger point is somewhere between 5 and 10 percent.” The good news is that this figure is actually less conservative than the standard used in most IMF programs. In most countries with IMF loans, the conditions call for inflation to decline and stay below five percent. [15]

Few economists outside the IMF opt for a level as low even as 10% in defining a healthy rate of inflation for a growing economy in a developing country. Terry McKinley, an economist with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), declares: “As long as current revenue covers current expenditures, governments can usefully borrow to finance [social] investment. […] Fiscal deficits should remain sustainable as ensuing growth boosts revenue collection. The resultant growth of productive capacities will keep inflation moderate - namely, within a 15 percent rate per year.” [16]

There is no room for neutrality in this debate. Adhering to IMF standards in order to avoid trouble will, according to McKinley, likely sabotage any hope of genuine development:

“Moderate inflation can, in fact, be compatible with growth. But low inflation can be as harmful as high inflation. When low-inflation policies keep the economy mired in stagnation or drive it into recession, the poor lose out, often for years thereafter, as their meager stocks of wealth are wiped out or their human capabilities seriously impaired. […] Without jobs and income, people cannot benefit from price stability.” [17]

Tactfully avoiding mentioning the IMF by name, McKinley argues: “The new 'politically correct' justification for minimizing inflation is that it hurts the poor. However, this misreads the facts: very high, destabilizing inflation (above 40 per cent) definitely hurts the poor; and very low inflation (below 5 per cent) can also harm their interests when it impedes growth and employment.” [18]

Rick Rowden points out that Latin American countries and “East Asian tigers” like South Korea grew rapidly despite inflation rates of around 20%. [19] But that was before the IMF moved into the development world in the 1980s, and re-wrote the rules - without any definitive evidence to support their claim that doing so was advantageous to the poor.

The IMF appears to be caught in a classic case of “fighting the last battle.” When the IMF started lending to developing countries in the early 1980s, they were afflicted with astronomical, runaway inflation. It still apparently believes that hyperinflation is the most dangerous threat. But hyperinflation has been eliminated almost everywhere (apart from crisis or pariah countries like Zimbabwe); indeed most developing countries now have inflation rates well below 10%, and many below 5%. [20] This is largely as a result of the IMF's hyper-vigilance over the last 25 years. The problem today is not hyperinflation, but IMF-induced stagnation.

More and more economists - outside the IMF - are taking a more complex view of growth and inflation. Rather than insisting that a country have a demonstrated “absorptive capacity” before increasing the flow of revenues, they look at the likely impact of increased flows. In the case of increased spending on health care, not only is employment created (if wage ceilings are set aside), but the population's overall economic capacity improves, and private-sector activity, rather than being discouraged by public funds, is spurred by the increasing availability of resources.

Muchiri, in Kenya's Health Ministry, concurs with McKinley's positions on inflation targeting, and with the view that public spending, especially on healthcare, will encourage growth. He acknowledges that his government has committed to a low inflation target - its “Letter of Intent” to the IMF states: “The monetary program for 2004/05 is designed to reduce underlying inflation to 3.5 percent.” [21] And thus far Kenya seems to be meeting that goal.

But, says Muchiri: “3.5 percent is too low for an economy that is supposed to grow by 5 percent. A certain level of inflation is healthy - you can't grow otherwise.” This recognition moves Muchiri to criticize officials of a nearby country who have told him they must limit expenditures on health care - even refusing funds from the GFTAM - in order to prevent any risk of inflation rising. That line of thinking is clearly reflected in the recent statements by Kibunguchy and Ngilu.

But Finance Ministers who have committed to the IMF's inflation targets, and in many cases made those targets the centerpiece of their macroeconomic policy, are deeply reluctant to do anything that might raise that rate. Not only would doing so risk IMF disapproval and blacklisting, but it would also be seen as reversing a position they have publicly, and politically, committed to. Until this logjam is broken, a higher quality of life - even life itself - will continue to elude many thousands.

Muchiri counts as a significant victory the recent concession made by the IMF, after substantial negotiations, that Kenya could hire more health professionals if it could find donors willing to provide extra funds who themselves were comfortable with the impacts - economic and otherwise - that hiring additional health staff might have. It is this concession that recently allowed Kenya to announce that it will use funds from the Clinton Foundation, PEPFAR, and the GFATM to hire upwards of two thousand new nurses and other health professionals. [22] Unlike with previous pledges, advertisements for the positions are now appearing in newspapers.

But the very existence of these policies, and the fact that he must invest so much in winning exceptions to them, cause Muchiri to reflect on his experiences of watching mothers and children die in hospitals for lack of surgeons or a lack of capacity to offer preventive care, and speculate that the IMF and World Bank could reasonably be charged with genocide. “The only difference from what happened in Rwanda is they don't use pangas [machetes]. They use policies.”

* Soren Ambrose is Coordinator, Solidarity Africa Network, Nairobi, Kenya. He is also associated with the Washington-based 50 Years Is Enough Network, which in April convened a meeting to launch an international campaign to shrink or eliminate the IMF (for more information write hope@50years.org; see related commentary, by Ambrose and Walden Bello, at http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0524-22.htm)

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References:

[1] Elizabeth Mwai, “Ignore the World Bank on health, says minister,” The Standard (Nairobi), March 7, 2006.

[2] Republic of Kenya, “Investment Programme for the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation, 2003-2007 - March 12, 2004 - Revised.” Published by International Monetary Fund as “Kenya: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper,” IMF Country Report #05/11 - January 2005, p. 9. Subsequent citations as “PRSP.”

[3] “A joint NGO statement to the High Level Forum on Health MDGs,” October 2005, p. 3.

[4] International Development Association (World Bank Group), “Kenya - Economic and Public Sector Reform Credit - Release of Second Tranche - Waiver of Two Conditions and Amendment of Development Credit Agreement,” November 20, 2003, para. 33, p. 10.

[5] “Plans to Censure WB, IMF,” Kenya Times, March 14, 2006.

[6] PRSP, p. 18

[7] PRSP, p. 21

[8] PRSP, p. 19.

[9] International Monetary Fund, “Kenya: Joint Staff Assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper,” Country Report #05/10, January 2005, para. 33, p. 10.

[10] S.N. Muchiri, Chief Economist, Ministry of Health, Republic of Kenya: Interview with author, March 21, 2006, Nairobi, Kenya. All of Muchiri's quote come from this interview.

[11] PRSP, p. 20.

[12] PRSP, p. 21.

[13] Chowdhury, Anis. “Poverty Reduction and the 'Stabilisation Trap' - The Role of Monetary Policy,” University of Western Sydney draft available from a.chowdhury@uws.edu.au Cited in Rick Rowden, “Changing Course: Alternative Approaches to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Fight HIV/AIDS,” ActionAid International USA, September 2005, p. 30. www.actionaidusa.org/pdf/Changing%20Course%20Report.pdf

[14] Berg, Andy. “An interview with Andy Berg on the macroeconomics of managing increased aid inflows,” IMF Civil Society Newsletter, February 2006.

[15] Rowden, p. 30.

[16] Terry McKinley, “MDG-Based PRSPs Need More Ambitious Economic Policies,” United Nations Development Programme - Policy Discussion Paper, p. 4.

[17] McKinley, pp. 14-15.

[18] McKinley, p. 16.

[19] Rowden, p. 31.

[20] Rowden, p. 21.

[21] Republic of Kenya, letter to Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the IMF, December 6, 2004. Published by the IMF as “Kenya-Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies and Technical Memorandum of Understanding.”

[22] See Lucas Barasa, “2,210 jobs lined up for nurses,” Daily Nation, August 9, 2005, and Francis Openda, “State to Hire 1,420 More Health Workers,” The Standard (Nairobi), October 12, 2005 - http://allafrica.com/stories/200510110915.html

Trade and human rights in the Niger Delta

Nnimmo Bassey

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34801

The Niger Delta has been described as "exploited, misused, abused, polluted, underdeveloped, and almost completely dead; like a cherry fruit sucked and discarded". [1] Nnimmo Bassey looks at the crude oil trade in the Niger Delta and finds it's anything but sweet for local communities.


The Niger Delta of Nigeria has been in the news so repeatedly that the issues merit little introduction. In one sense the issues are a mesh of politics, trade and resource exploitation. All these work to gravely undermine the rights of people in terms of the exploitation of their natural environment.

The Niger Delta is the treasure base of Nigeria, since successive governments have decided to ignore other sustainable income sources that had sustained the nation before the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the country. Today, by official count, oil contributes about 95% of the country's foreign exchange earnings from a production of 2.2 million barrels of crude per day. An additional chunk is extracted illegally into private and corporate pockets through crude oil bunkering. These all lead to the milking of the Niger Delta to the point of near death. The area suffers a dearth of social amenities, high unemployment, environmental degradation, and other social malaise.

Oil corporations such as Shell and Chevron, who are major players in the Niger Delta, have admitted to contributing to corruption and violence/civil unrest in the Niger Delta. In Shell's Peace and Security report (published in 2003) as well as Chevron's double page ads in Nigerian newspapers in May 2005, the corporations admit that by their actions they have contributed to the state of conflict, corruption and distortion in both the Niger Delta environment and by extension the Nigerian state.

According to the Shell report: "Annual casualties from fighting already place the Niger Delta in the 'high intensity conflict' category (over 1,000 fatalities a year), alongside more known cases such as Chechnya and Colombia. The criminalisation and political economy of conflicts in the region mean that the basis for escalated, protracted and entrenched violence is rapidly being established. This not only threatens SCIN's (Shell Companies in Nigeria) future ability to operate, but also Nigerian national security." [2]

Trade has remained the major precursor of destruction in the Niger Delta. We can go right back to trade practices where highly valuable goods were exchanged for bottles of whisky, beads and mirrors, or to the days during which the Niger Delta lost human resources through the slave trade. Before the advent of the crude oil trade in the Niger Delta, we have it on record that on 22 February 1895 the trading city, Brass, located here, was attacked and levelled by British naval forces at the behest of the Royal Niger Company to ensure that the company had a monopoly over the palm oil trade for which the town was famous. Over 2,000 persons, mostly women and children, lost their lives in that attack.

In modern day times, it has been said that since Shell arrived in the Niger Delta it has been a tale of desolation. Much of the activities in the Niger Delta with regard to crude oil and its exploitation are shrouded in rights abuses, as the world came to learn from the struggles of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people and the subsequent hanging of Saro-Wiwa.

There is an unending story of horrors coming out of the Niger Delta. Oil spills and pipeline fires are regular features and official estimates are that there are at least 300 incidents each year. Clean up exercises are spade and shovel events. They are often capped off by the setting of remaining crude oil on fire. This way forests and even rivers have been set ablaze. These crude oil spills poison the land, pollute water bodies and expose the people to untold hardship. Consider also the response to communities attempting to protect their rights:

- In 1990, the Umuechem community was visited by contingents of Nigerian police. Eighty community members were murdered in the unprovoked attack. Houses in the community were either burnt down or looted. The people of Umuechem were engaged in peaceful protests at the gates of the Shell's flow station located in their community. [3]

- On November 10, 1995, the Nigerian military regime of General Sani Abacha murdered Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta after a kangaroo tribunal set up by the regime convicted them for trumped up charges of murder. The world responded with outrage. This followed the commencement of peaceful protests in1993 by the Ogoni against the destruction of their natural environment and livelihoods.

- For the people of Ilaje community, Ondo State of Nigeria, May 28, 1998 is a day they cannot forget in a hurry. Ilaje youths had occupied Chevron's oil platform in order to induce Chevron to have a dialogue with them. The Nigerian military and police swooped down in helicopters on the protesting youths. Reports have it that the attackers landed shooting, Rambo style, killing two youths on the spot. [4] A lawsuit is currently being heard on this in San Francisco, USA.

- On November 20, 1999, barely six months into his first term as civilian president of Nigeria, President Obasanjo ordered soldiers into Odi, a town in the Niger Delta. By the time they left, the destruction of Odi was complete and 2,483 people had been slain. The dead included women, children and the aged and infirm. [5]

- About 50 members of Odioma community in Bayelsa State of Nigeria were reported massacred on Saturday, February 19, 2005 during a military raid by a Joint Task Force of the Nigerian Army and Navy. [6] The soldiers also destroyed the whole community with houses bombed and burnt in a manner reminiscent of the Odi Massacre of 1999. Again, those killed were mostly women, children and the elderly. Odioma Community, located in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, is one of the many oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta and had been in conflict with neighbouring Bassambri community over the ownership of a fishing settlement, where Shell has some oil wells. Shell planned to build an oil flow station at Obioku and had actually mobilized its contractors to the site since January 20, 2005. Work on the project was stopped by protesting youths from Odioma community because of the lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Apart from vigorous protests by communities, the struggle for human rights gained momentum on 14 November 2005 when a high court sitting in Benin City ruled that the practice of flaring gas associated with crude oil extraction was an infringement of the fundamental human rights of the people living in communities where such flaring existed. The judge subsequently ordered that the top guns of Shell and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should appear before him to show a clear step by step plan for stopping gas flaring a year from that date. This and other gas flare cases have been filed by communities with the collaboration of Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) as well as the Climate Justice Programme.

Gas flaring has been going on in the Niger Delta for close to 50 years and has been estimated to constitute a waste of $2.5 billion annually. Besides being an economic waste, the flares release a cocktail of toxic and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and greatly endanger the lives of people. Health problems associated with gas flares include respiratory diseases, cancer, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia and a variety of other blood-related disorders. The environmental problems, including acid rain and damage to water bodies and farms, are no less horrendous.

The government and Chevron (project executors) of the West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP), which is planned to harvest and pipe liquefied natural gas from new gas fields in Escravos in the Niger Delta of Nigeria to industrial complexes in Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana, have been presenting it as an answer to the gas flaring problem. They also present the WAGP as a clean development mechanism project in order to claim carbon credits.

The truth however is that the project has nothing to do with ending or reducing gas flaring in the Niger Delta as a huge proportion of the gas it would convey would be harvested from purely gas fields as opposed to being associated gas. Communities affected by this project have sent a petition to the Inspection Panel of the World Bank claiming that many rules of the bank have been flouted in the project and that their rights are not respected. Indeed, the local communities in the firing lines of this project have rejected the scheme and insist that decisions have been made without first conducting the needed environmental, social and other impact assessments. The WAGP is emblematic of the rape of the Niger Delta by TNCs and collaborating governments. Projects and trade decisions are made without regard to the rights of the people.

But as the oil wells begin to run dry, the competition is getting more acute. The Chinese are making bold grabs for the oil fields of the Niger Delta. The USA sees the region as being of critical strategic interest. The World Bank and the Paris Club eye the petrodollars coming into the region as theirs for the taking. All these combine to make the future of the region more precarious. With growing resistance in the region it is anyone's guess how things will play out.

While the trade booms, having rights respected will remain illusive. The realisation of this appears to form the bedrock of the local people insisting that there should be community control over community resources. They reckon that this way they would be able to decide if they want any mineral to be exploited in their environment or not. Where the people decide to have their resources exploited they would be able to insist on certain rules that would ensure that their rights are respected and that benefits from such exploitation accrues to them.

It is conceivable that the refusal of the state to accept this proposition is the trigger to the present conflagration in the Niger Delta. Another growing demand among environmentalists such as those in the Oilwatch International network is that there should be a moratorium on new oil explorations, for say ten years. The intervening time would be used to make an audit of the pollution and abuses that have accumulated over the years, commence clean up and remediation actions and decide how the vulnerable communities would fare in a post petroleum economy when they would be left with nothing but a polluted environment.

* Nnimmo Bassey is Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Africa campaign co-ordinator.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References

[1] Quoted in Terisa E. Turner and Leigh S. Brownhill, “Why women are at war with Chevron” Nigerian Subsistence Struggles Against the International Oil Industry, New York: International Oil Working Group, 2003. Accessed at http://www.uoguelph.ca/~terisatu/un.htm on 29 May 2006.

[2] Peace and Security in the Niger Delta: Conflict Expert Group Baseline Report, SPDC, December 2003

[3] See The Shell Report by Environmental Rights Action (ERA) at www.eraction.org/modules/publications/docs/shellreport.pdf

[4] ERA The Wicked Activities of Chevron in Ilaje Land, Environmental Testimonies # 3 published in Environmental Testimonies, ERA, Benin City Nigeria, 1999. See Also Environmental Testimonies #5 in same publication.

[5] See ERA: A Blanket of Silence. The publication catalogues names of victims.

[6] See Nigerian Soldiers Destroy Odioma Community, 50 local people killed. http://www.eraction.org/modules.php?name=ERA_News&file=article&sid=15

Street vendors and informal trading: Struggling for the right to trade

Winnie Mitullah

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34802

Negotiations about international trade tend to have relevance for large firms or formal enterprises. But, asks Winnie Mitullah, what about the rights of the large number of workers in African cities involved in informal trade?


When one hears the word trade what comes to mind is the large-scale formal traders, and international trade organizations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and regional organizations such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). While such traders and institutions are important, street vendors and informal trade, which provides employment and incomes to a significant percentage of people in Africa, in particular within the urban areas, hardly comes to mind.

Street and informal traders fall within the informal economy sector. The sector comprises one half to three quarters of non-agricultural employment in developing countries. Specifically, these figures amount to 48% of non agricultural employment in Africa, 51% in Latin America, 65% in Asia, and 72% in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. Employment in this sector operates without contracts, worker benefits or social protection, and most employees and individuals have no rights to organize and be represented.

The theme of the UN-HABITAT Global Campaign on good urban governance is the 'Inclusive City'. The campaign advances the position that an inclusive approach must be used for balancing, reconciling and trading off competing interests and priorities. In most cities the interests of micro and small enterprises such as street and informal traders are competing with those of medium and large-scale enterprises, with the former being disadvantaged. All types of enterprises in urban areas, whether micro, small, medium or large, should have the right not only to the Central Business District (CBD) but to all urban goods and services. The global campaign has noted that the notion of inclusion has different resonances in each region with exclusion of specific groups being most significant in some regions and exclusion of the poor majority more important in others. The campaign urges actors to discuss the question of 'who' in a particular city is excluded from 'what' and 'how'. This article demonstrates how street and informal traders are not integrated in urban planning and development.

Concepts such as participation, empowerment, and social inclusion have become buzzwords, and yet to the poor who are engaged in informal economic activities the concepts do not make much sense. In the usage of these concepts, emphasis is often placed on participatory development, and participatory political processes, rather than participatory market processes. Further, the proponents of democratic practices tend to focus on political democracy to the neglect of economic democracy, while the proponents of empowerment and voice tend to focus on individuals rather than collectivities. Street and informal traders are still to fully adopt joint action in dealing with urban authorities.

The human rights organizations responsible for the clamour for rights are still to adequately specify what they mean by economic rights or adequately strategise about how to claim or enforce worker rights. Even the micro financial institutions, whose clients work mainly within the informal economy, have focused on financial services to the neglect of other business services and of how the wider policy and regulatory environment affects their clients. Most vendors rely on money-lenders or informal sources of credit in order to buy their merchandise. As a result, they pay exorbitant interest rates, and their businesses rarely grow beyond subsistence levels.

The Bellagio International Declaration of Street Vendors of November 1995 urged governments to develop national policies for hawkers and vendors by making them a part of the broader structural policies aimed at improving their standards of living by giving them legal status, issuing licenses and providing appropriate hawking zones in urban areas. The declaration further called on governments to integrate vendors into urban development plans. Since then, a number of global, regional and local associations have been established to protect the rights of street and informal traders. The global networks include the Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) with a secretariat at the Harvard University, MA USA and StreetNet International with headquarters in Durban, South Africa. StreetNet has regional and local networks which have begun engaging urban authorities in policy dialogues, including issues relating to the right to trade in urban space.

Location of Trade

Street vending and informal trade is rampant in most developing country cities, and is a source of employment and income to a large percentage of urban households. The trade takes place at strategic points with heavy human traffic - along main roads, streets, parks, pavements, within shopping centers, and at prominent corners of streets and roads where traders are visible to pedestrians and motorists. The traders use different structures, including mats, gunny bags, tables, racks, wheel barrows, handcarts, and bicycle seats to display their goods. Some traders simply carry their commodities on their hands, heads and shoulders, while others hang their commodities on walls, trees and fences. An advanced but insignificant group of the traders construct temporary shades with stands for displaying their goods.

Challenges of Trade

The greatest challenge facing street and informal traders is with regards to site of operation and right to trading space. Most of the spaces traders occupy are considered illegal since the spaces have not been set aside for trade. In cases where they are allowed to operate, the spaces are considered temporary and eviction occurs at the will of urban authorities. There are various conflicts relating to their sites of operation. A major conflict often arises when the vendors are required to move in order to give way for planned development. This brings them into direct confrontation with urban authorities and land developers. Most of the spaces the traders occupy have no tenure, and are not allocated and sanctioned by urban authorities. At the same time, the traders are also in conflict with formal shop owners and landlords who contend that the traders infringe on their businesses and/or premises.

The spaces occupied by traders are open and expose traders to harsh environmental conditions. Most commodities of trade such as fruits, vegetables and clothes are affected by the harsh environmental conditions, consequently resulting in loss of earnings to the traders. Overall, street vendors and informal traders have been noted to be perhaps the most regulated and least protected. They trade illegally due to lack of recognition and licenses. The traders are known to identify trading sites on their own, leaving the urban authorities with few options, which include eviction, tolerating traders or charging a daily fee without providing any legal protection.

In cases of eviction, the traders are often provided with an option outside the (CBD) where there are hardly any customers. This option is based on an exclusion framework which reserves the CBD to large scale traders and businesses which urban authorities argue pay taxes as opposed to the street vendors and informal traders. This argument is false, and research has shown that when both daily fees and bribes to urban authorities are taken into consideration, the urban authorities collect more from traders than required. Research has further shown that daily fee charges are more expensive than lump sum payment for a license. However, the street and informal traders make minimal profit and are not able to make lump sum payments.

Lack of a street trading licenses exposes traders to harassment and punitive measures, including confiscation of goods. During harassment, traders lose their commodities, with some closing their businesses after losing their capital goods. Research from a number of African cities reveals that having a license does not guarantee safety and recognition by urban authorities. In most cases, vendors are not issued with any identification showing that they have a legitimate right to sell their goods in urban streets. This exposes them to harassment, including confiscation of goods, assault and demands for bribes.

Until the dawn of governance reform programmes in Africa, licenses were largely commodities of trade peddled by either urban authority officials or those who had access to the urban authorities. This outcome is attributed to planning laws, which do not take into account the existence of street vendors and informal traders. In most cases, such planning laws locate the traders on the peripheral areas of the city where there is no business, without any consultation. The experience across Africa shows that traders never stick to such areas. They drift back to the centre, resulting in punitive measures from the city authorities. Most of the policies and regulations being enforced on street and market traders owe their origin to colonial policies, which were retrogressive with regards to small scale local enterprises. Street and informal traders require laws that recognize their economic activities as an important component of the urban economy, and ensure their right to trading space.

Apart from the right to trading space, street and informal traders are also disadvantaged in the area of security, transport and municipal services. A secure working environment is a pre-requisite for any type of business. Security is a major concern for many people engaged in economic activities on streets. Municipal authorities have been the major source of insecurity for these traders. The authorities harass, beat and confiscate goods of street vendors without any warning. This does not only threaten the security of vendors but also their customers. A study of cities in South Africa has noted that an insecure environment results in loss of customers, frightens tourists, cripples business, reduces incomes, and generally interferes with trading.

The insecurity in the streets is sometimes used as an excuse for evicting street traders. In many cities in Africa, trading spaces of street and informal traders are viewed by urban authorities as dens for thugs and robbers. In 2001 Kampala Municipal Authority used an increase in city theft and insecurity as grounds for evicting vendors from streets. While it may be true that criminals mingle with traders, an assumption that street vendors and informal traders are criminals is part of a scheme by urban elites to exclude street and informal traders from the development benefits of cities. A rights perspective requires urban authorities to identify and deal with culprits as opposed to condemning a whole sector of an urban economy.

Most vendors find it difficult to transport their commodities from their homes and markets to their trading sites. This is because most transport systems do not service the areas where vendors live, and in cases where they do, the vendors can hardly afford the service. In some cases, there are restrictions on what an individual can take on the bus, mini-bus or train. This forces vendors to carry their goods on their backs or to hire handcarts or human carriers to transport their goods. This is complicated further by lack of storage facilities, which makes the traders carry back to their homes unsold commodities.

Other services such as water and sanitation are also not available to vendors and consumers. Apart from a few cities in South Africa, street and informal traders operate without access to water and sanitation. A few of them rely on services from the neighbouring formal markets, hotels and bars; while the majority of vendors rely on unsafe water sources, unsanitary methods of refuse disposal and use of open spaces as sanitary facilities. Others obtain services from their homes or nearby residential areas. Cleansing services provided by urban authorities are inadequate and do not cover trading areas of street and informal traders, nor do the urban authorities facilitate the provision of services by traders and other stakeholders. In cases where traders are organized, they clean their sites of operation or hire people to collect and dispose garbage.

The poor, in particular street and informal traders, are disadvantaged in trade at global, regional and local levels. Under pressure from rich countries, the barriers to international trade in goods and financial services and investment flows have been lowered to the advantage of capital over labour and of large firms over small and micro firms. The negative trade and policy processes largely disadvantage the wage workers and own account producers in the informal economy, and yet they are the majority poor who are the focus of current policies and development processes. The neglect of the micro and small traders has to be reversed if African countries are to change existing poverty trends.

* Dr. Winnie Mitullah is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Nairobi.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Community rights and foreign direct investment

Patrick Ochieng

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34803

An environmentally sensitive wetland, a multi-national company and a local community that feels sidelined. Sound familiar? Patrick Ochieng introduces the Yala Swamp region in Kenya and asks if Foreign Direct Investment is really the answer to Africa's development problems.


Yala Swamp is a wetland bounded to the north by Nzoia River and the south by Yala River. The swampland covers an area of about 17,500 ha in Siaya, Bondo and Busia districts that are home to nearly 1.2 million people. The area is Kenya's largest wetland, and is regarded as a very delicate ecosystem and habitat to some rare flora and fauna, including endangered fish species. The swamp has served the adjacent communities as a source of fish, water, agricultural land, pastures, wild animals, plants for constructing houses, source of wood fuel and medicinal plants.

Dominion Farms Ltd, an affiliate of the USA-based Dominion Group, based in Oklahoma, USA moved into the swamp through an arrangement with the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA). Dominion Group controls investments across the globe. The company operates luxury corporate hotels, is involved in modification of corporate aircrafts, ownership and operation of corporate aircraft, construction of houses and offices to be leased by the US government, manufacture of athletic dress and socks, correctional services and other businesses spanning several countries.

The initial proposal was that Dominion would engage in rice production, in part of the swamp covering about 2,300 ha. This land portion had been reclaimed before 1970, and previously used by LBDA for agricultural activity. Dominion embarked on large-scale agricultural activities in the swamp following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Councils of Siaya and Bondo in May 2003.

Although rice for which the lease was executed has not been planted, the firm has engaged in activities beyond agriculture, which include construction of irrigation dykes and weirs, water drilling, construction of an airstrip and road construction. Dominion has further proposed to undertake a number of new development projects within the Yala Swamp. For this purpose it is proposing that part of 9,200 ha will be reclaimed from swamp area to meet the needs of new projects. This would leave only 6,000 ha (35%) of current wetland to act as buffer zone.

The proposed project is extensive and specifically seeks to: Implement a highly mechanized irrigation and dry farming project; Construct fishponds for aquaculture; Construct a fish processing plant to process about 20 tons of fish per day, mainly for export; and Construct a rice mill, feed mill, ginnery, fuel storage, dispensing station, turbine for electricity production, barrier dyke, weir and reservoir.

The proposed projects fall under those that must undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) under Kenyan law. The EIA report submitted by Dominion consultants has concluded that:

- The project will bring into productive use a high potential resource that has been underutilized and which has cost the government and the people of Kenya huge amounts of money with little appreciable returns;
- The proposed project will create employment both directly and indirectly to thousands of people through primary and secondary activities;
- The project will make a positive impact to increased incomes and access to basis needs;
- The project will act as growth pole around which other commercial activities will gravitate;
- The local communities support the proposed project, which they perceive as a boost to the development of the region;
- The local communities are enthusiastic about the project.

But the EIA did not deal with the impact of the project on the soils, water quality, vegetation and wildlife. It did not deal conclusively with environmental, ecological, socio-economic and management issues related to the situation of the swamp. The impacts of the project on water, vegetation, habitat and human activity were also not addressed. The community feels that they have not been properly consulted, and while communities were requested to form groups so that individuals did not dominate the process, this has not happened.

The consultants who carried out the EIA were employees of LBDA and thus were compromised by issues of conflict of interest. The sticky issue of compensation for families displaced by the project has refused to go away. Existing fish processing plants and a fishmeal plant in the area are operating below their capacity, raising the question of why it is necessary to build further plants.

The EIA report has aimed to justify the project on the basis of its economic importance, components, design, choice of location, implementation strategy and mitigation measures put in place. The report has, however, recognized that the proposed projects pose a number of negative impacts at various stages of implementation. This list is long, some of them with very serious consequences. They include: Flooding and altered water flow patterns; Contamination of soil and water by oil leakages and spillage; Pollution of River Yala by solid and liquid wastes from project activities; Possibility of respiratory ailments due to inhalation of dust and fumes from construction equipment; Loss of grazing land for the local community; Incidences of water-borne and vector-borne diseases; Displacement of local communities; Displacement of fauna and loss of flora; Reduced production of subsistence crops leading to food deficits in the region; and the introduction of foreign crops and genetically modified crops that may introduce new pests into the area.

At a meeting convened on November 8, 2005, we asked members of the affected communities to identify the problems the project posed for them. Problems faced by the communities included denial of access to water and land; denial of fishing rights; blocking of direct routes between communities for purposes of trading, wage reductions and threats of flooding due to dyke construction.

The community members felt that the project should be halted so that proper consultation could take place to iron out issues that were not attended to. These would include the issuance of title deeds to people whose land had been surveyed, construction on land that was earmarked only and open discussions with the local administration, the firm, the LBDA and the community. Despite these concerns the members of parliament from the region have turned a deaf ear to the people's pleas.

There is therefore urgent need to undertake and examine, from accounts, opinions and experiences of the different stakeholders, the socio-economic dimensions of proposed activities. Such an independent study would inform the advocacy processes being carried out by Friends of Yala Swamp, a group of CSOs who have come together to oppose the Dominion project by providing the factual data that can help raise the stakes in negotiations with the company, and also to sharpen awareness and inform Kenya's future engagements with foreign direct investments. The study would actually contribute to research that will facilitate a planned court injunction to stop Dominion activities until the issues raised are addressed.

The Yala Swamp issue is about broader concerns related to government economic policy. Successive governments in Kenya have always expressed commitment to eradicate poverty in all its forms. The latest anti-poverty rhetoric is NARC's framework “economic recovery for wealth creation and employment,” whose central feature is anchored on the belief that foreign exchange and foreign direct investment is the solution to Kenya's development woes. Therefore, as a country we have set out to woo foreign investors. This, notwithstanding the fact that private operators and mega projects owe no accountability to the public and concern themselves principally with cost recovery and profit before anything else.

These export-led growth strategies subordinate human needs and human rights to corporate greed and corporate profit. Big business can never be part of a progressive and sustainable earth. Despotism and corruption has been at the core of Kenya's engagement with foreign investors. Compromised political elites who are often tempted to act as stewards of imperialist interests have continued to give away mineral exploration rights, fisheries, forests and forest products, biological resources and coastal biodiversity to multinationals. The Dominion Group ventures fall into this category and there are doubts as to the extent its activities will enhance food security, increase crop and fish production for domestic consumption and reduce poverty.

Organized resistance to these government policies is mounting as has been seen in the case of Canadian company Tiomin's bid to mine titanium in the coast of Kenya that has not proceeded for over 10 years now; the boycott of Delmonte products that saw reforms to working practices in the firm's pineapple fields in Kenya; the advocacy against flower farms in Naivasha on unethical work practices and use of dangerous chemicals by human rights organizations in Kenya and now the Dominion advocacy that so far is grossly underestimated but which in the fullness of time will prove extremely potent and fierce.

* Patrick Ochieng is the founder and Executive Director of Ujamaa Center, a Center founded in 2001 as a direct response to the continuing exploitation and exclusion of coastal peoples of Kenya that spans over 40 years. Ujamaa is a key member of the Friends of Yala Swamp, a loose coalition of social justice institutions, advocates, and members of the affected communities who have come together to resist the injustices visited on this ecosystem and its people.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Trading food rights

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34804

Genetically Modified (GM) crops are touted by some as the answer to world hunger; by others as a dangerous intervention by multi-national agri-business that will have far reaching impacts on all aspects of human life. Pambazuka News asked Mariam Mayet from the African Centre for Biodiversity for her views on the implications of GM crops for Africa.


Pambazuka News: What are the implications of GM crops for human life generally, including the human rights of populations and farmers?

Mariam Mayet: The risks posed by GM food are extremely contentious in current scientific discourse, primarily because the GM industry has failed, to date, to provide conclusive evidence that GM foods are safe. Amidst the enthusiasm for genetic engineering, there has been little space for critical reflection. Leaping into genetic engineering brings with it a wide range of biosafety issues including health and environmental risks, and broader socio-economic impacts. It requires the acceptance of intellectual property rights on living organisms, the privatisation of public research, and expensive research and development at the expense of farmer-based innovation. Amid all the complexities of the legal and scientific arguments, decisions must be made in Africa about the measures to be taken, to protect human health, agricultural biodiversity, and farming systems.

Pambazuka News: So what decisions are being taken? Have governments introduced laws to govern this area?

Mariam Mayet: Very recently, the African Centre for Biodiversity did an analysis of the draft Biosafety law of Mozambique, which is interesting to consider in answering this question. Mozambique views genetic engineering as having a role to play in agriculture, food security and human health care, but believes that the risks have to be managed by the creation of an enabling legislative environment, to this end. In other words, Mozambique will follow the route taken by South Africa and permit the entry of GM crops into its agriculture systems, after an evaluation of the risk assessment data provided by an applicant.

Currently, Mozambique's seed law prohibits the import and planting of GM seed. But Mozambique does accept genetically modified (GM) food aid, including and especially from the United States. USAID's Food for Progress (FFP) has provided 15.500 MT of PL480 (A US law relating to food aid) Title II emergency food assistance valued at $11.6 million to Mozambique through the World Food Programme. (USAID, Southern Africa-Food Insecurity, February 3 2006).

Without dwelling on the politics of hunger and food aid, it's worth pointing out that the opening or maintaining of markets is a key objective of Public Law 480 (PL 480). PL 480 clearly asserts that the purpose of US food aid programmes is to “develop and expand export markets for United States agricultural commodities”. [1] A position repeatedly pronounced by US government officials is that the opening of new markets is immensely important for the future of US agriculture. [2] Moreover, US agribusiness have been the main beneficiaries of US food aid programmes.

Therefore, in considering the Mozambique law, its worth warning that countries should not be pushed into believing that GM food aid is the only alternative to consider during emergencies and that countries should be careful when developing legislation that their laws will not be used as a conduit to push GM food aid into the rest of Africa.

Pambazuka News: So there's definitely some vested interests operating in the trade in GM crops. What role does the World Trade Organisation (WTO) play?

Mariam Mayet: The United States, the world's largest producer of GM crops, has effectively used the threat of WTO sanctions against developing countries such as Sri Lanka, Bolivia, South Korea and Thailand when these countries tried to ban or restrict imports of GM crops in adopting biosafety measures.

Countries in Africa have also been the target of US style pressure: one of the main reasons given for Egypt's initial support of the US, Argentina and Canada WTO complaint against the EU (On May 13, 2003 the US, along with Canada, Argentina and Egypt, filed a complaint in the WTO against the EU's de facto moratorium on GMOs.), was that Egypt would be rewarded with a Free Trade Agreement in 2004; an offer retracted with indecent speed when Egypt subsequently withdrew from the complaint, stating that their decision was in recognition of “the need to preserve adequate and effective consumer and environmental protection.” [3]

Similarly, in May 2003, when Sudan banned the import of GM food aid, it was forced to issue a series of temporary waivers enabling food aid shipments to the country to continue while alternatives were found. The US response was to suspend food aid shipments to Sudan and exert enormous pressure on the government to rescind the ban. The government relented, and ended up extending the waiver for six months, allowing the distribution of GM food aid to continue.

Hence, the extent to which African countries and indeed, developing countries, will be given opportunities to take biosafety measures aimed at banning or severely restricting the trade in GM crops will be greatly influenced by the outcome of the complaint submitted during May 2003, by the United States, Canada and Argentina to the WTO against the European Union's Measures Affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products (EC-Biotech) [4]. For those of us in Africa, reliant on trade and aid from the US, the WTO challenge most certainly has conveyed a lasting message that either we open our markets for GM food and seeds, or face reprisals.

Pambazuka News: You mention GM food aid. Shouldn't food aid be welcomed?

Mariam Mayet: The most frequent criticism of food aid is that it impacts on local food security. Food aid acts as a disincentive to local production by driving down domestic prices. Local farmers may withdraw from producing a surplus, forcing governments to import the growing deficit. Alternatively, it may lead a government to neglect its own agricultural sector, relying on aid or imports rather than facilitating local agricultural development. It may also introduce a taste for a particular food, which is not produced locally, therefore undermining the long-term potential for self-sufficiency. Crucially, the provision of food aid is intimately tied to the disposal of highly subsidised surplus food on the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people.

Already, controversy over the shipment of GM food aid has erupted twice in Africa. During the Southern African food crisis in 2001/2002, Zambia imposed a ban on the acceptance of GM food aid, and several other Southern African countries imposed various restrictions. Last year, Angola and Sudan introduced restrictions on GM food aid. These countries are almost always presented with a false choice between accepting GM food or facing dire consequences, whereas non-GM alternatives almost always exist at the national, regional and international level.

Pambazuka News: What has been the role of civil society in Africa - do they have a say in any parts of the decision making process about GM crops? Has civil society been active in opposing GM crops coming into Africa?

Mariam Mayet: Civil society in Africa is active - alive and kicking - quietly. The fact that Africa (except for South Africa) has not taken any decisions on biosafety grounds, to permit the commercial import and growing of GMOs, is a huge victory for us. Whereas in the rest of Africa, over the last five years, only eight other countries have conducted field trials of GM crops: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, on small plots of land.

The key target countries for USAID, the World Bank and the gene giants are the cotton markets in West Africa. However, already the farmers have rejected GM crops. Recently, in an unprecedented move, farmers in Mali voted not to grow GM crops on their land. In a "farmers' jury", cotton growers and other farmers debated the issue and came to the conclusion that their government should reject GM crops. The citizens' jury was hosted by the regional government (Assemblee Regionale de Sikasso) and was designed and facilitated by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development and RIBios, the University of Geneva's Biosafety Interdisciplinary Network, together with a wide range of local partners in Mali.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References

[1] United States Department of Agriculture, US Food Aid Programs Description: Public Law 480, Food For Progress And Section 416(B) http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/pl480/pl480brief.html

[2] Hembree Brandon, 'Veneman says more farm aid likely', Southwest Farm Press, Jun 21, 2001 http://southwestfarmpress.com/ar/farming_veneman_says_farm/

[3] Letter by the Egyptian Ambassador to the EU, Suleiman Awaad, Cited in Al Amrani.: Egypt follows EU line on GM, Middle East Times, June 6, 2003.

[4] European Communities-Measures Affecting the Approval and Marketing of Biotech Products (EC-Biotech), WT/DS291

International trade (in) justice or the survival of the fattest?

Tope Akinwande

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34805

Trade justice or injustice has been on the international agenda like never before. Academics and activists are campaigning for just trade and even rich countries are giving the impression that they're willing to address injustices in the global system. Tope Akinwande looks at what the reality is for West African cotton farmers.


“While 70% of the population of Africa work in agriculture, only a few percent do so in rich countries. Yet rich countries support their agriculture to the tune of a staggering $279 billion a year. That's over ten times current aid to Africa. That's a sum comparable to the income of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Market barriers keep out developing countries that have a natural advantage in producing agricultural goods. Average tariff between rich countries are only 3%, but can rise to over 200% in the US for fruits and nuts, or to 300% in the EU for meat..." - Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development, in “How Can we get trade justice", a speech delivered at the London School of Economics, 29 June 2005.

During the 2005 "Global Week for Action" organised to campaign against trade injustice, I saw a sculpture by Jens Galschiot, a controversial Danish Sculptor. Titled the "Survival of the Fattest", the bronze sculpture depicted a very skinny man - with protruding rib cages - carrying fat and well-fed Justitia, the western goddess of Justice, on his bent back. Justitia had a scale in her right hand and her long pole in her left hand on which it was inscribed: "I'm sitting on the back of a man - He is sinking under the burden - I would do anything to help him - Except stepping down from his back.”

Some people might genuinely wonder how there could be injustice in trade between two consenting people or sovereign countries who have goods to sell or exchange with one another. Since trade is not meant to be a "donor-recipient" relationship but one in which a country has something to sell to another to meet the needs of its populace, one could wonder why there would be injustice or why a country could not move onto another buyer if they do not get a good deal somewhere. If trade, - as it has been simply defined by the Cambridge International Dictionary - is “the activity of buying and selling, or exchanging, goods and/or services between people or countries", why should there be injustice?

One of the most contentious issues in international politics and trade in recent times has been the issue of trade (in) justice. Like never before, there have been systematic mobilisations for trade justice towards countries, particularly Africa. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), world leaders, academics and activists around the world are leading the campaign to ensure fair trade. In the UK, the Justice Movement, an umbrella campaign organisation of over 70 NGOs are campaigning and lobbying the UK government in various forms to ensure trade justice - not free trade - with compassionate rules to benefit poor people and the environment. [1]

In the face of these campaigns, richer countries have also given the impression of a willingness to redress the seeming "trade injustice" through different negotiations known as "Rounds" and named after the places where they have been initiated. Hence there have been Tokyo, Uruguay and Doha Rounds. Apart from these “Rounds”, rich countries are apparently doing everything humanly possible (international development aid, SAP turned PRSP, MDGs, AGOA…) to eradicate (the less pretentious ones use the word “alleviate”) poverty in poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.

However, the reality is something else. The reality of international trade - like any other form of activities with vested interests to protect - is that there have been some trading practices that are deemed unfair. The most prominent of these “sharp practices” is the provision of subsidies to western farmers by their governments. These subsidies encourage farmers to produce irrespective of the situation of the market and the "beauty" of it all is that they are sure of a minimal income.

There are different types of agricultural subsidies. While some are directly linked to the level of production others such as subsidies for water irrigation are indirectly linked. There are also subsidies such as export subsides which are used to promote exports of agricultural products. The surplus production is put on the world market which could force a decrease in price as there is high availability of a particular commodity. This process of flooding the market with excess production and inducing a price decrease is what has been happening for years in the international agricultural trade sector. Developed countries led by the European Union (EU) and US highly subsidise their agriculture allowing their farmers and related industries to sell their products at a lower rate than the cost of production. [3]

In 2001/02, the US, Chinese, Spanish and Greek governments subsidised their cotton producers to over $6 billion dollars. US farmers alone are said to receive almost $4 billion in subsidies. US and European subsidies to domestic producers continue to impose enormous costs on poor countries. The welfare costs of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been well over the development aid given to all sub-Saharan Africa.

In "Cultivating Poverty: The Impact of US Cotton Subsidies in Africa", Oxfam argues that the rock-bottom cotton price can be blamed directly on enormous subsidies paid to US cotton farmers as they are first among equals in the harvesting of subsidies. These subsidies are destroying livelihoods in Africa and other developing countries with rural communities being the worst-hit. [4]

Killing Burkina Faso and Mali Softly

The cost of cotton production in west and central Africa is very low compared to other cotton-producing countries. African cotton farmers could compete with their counterparts from developed countries if they were not enjoying the massive subsidies of their governments. This has been succinctly expressed by a West African minister who said that his country was “happy to compete with US farmers but not with the US Treasury". [5] Sahel countries like Burkina Faso and Mali have a comparative "advantage" [6] in the production of cotton and the rapid increase in their productivity has shown that they could make considerable developmental gains over time.

In the 1990s, the World Bank encouraged Mali to cultivate cotton since that was its comparative advantage. The West African country threw all its energy and meagre resources into cotton production, rapidly becoming the second largest cotton producer in Africa ahead of Egypt. Despite this Malian "success story", it could not sell its production at good rates as American producers with lower comparative advantage enjoyed a record harvest.

The only plausible reason for this bumper harvest of cotton by American farmers was the subsidies they received. It is said that 25,000 American cotton producers received $USD13.9 billion between 1999 and 2005 which represents a subsidy rate of 89.5%. [7] Annually, this represents about $USD 3.2 billion of subsidies for American cotton producers, plus $USD1.6 billion in export aid. [8]

These subsidies had a disastrous effect on the Malian economy as its cotton farmers could not compete with their American counterparts. Indeed Mali lost the equivalent of 1.7% of GDP and 8% of export earnings. These losses are bigger than the $USD 37.7 million Mali received from USAID in 2001. It is on record that the Malian finance minister at the time made this disturbing statement: “The money that those countries put into agricultural subsidies is five times what they give as development assistance. And we've always said to rich countries, 'you are hypocrites'. You tell us to play the rules of open market at the same time you subsidise your farmers and kill our farmers.” [9]

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. Though it has significant reserves of gold, its almost non-existing industrial base has left its mining in the hands of dubious businessmen. Cotton is the mainstay for 90% of Burkinabes.

According to a study carried out by WHO in Burkina Faso, the expansion of cotton farming painted a positive future for development in the country. However, continuous subvention of western farmers has made it impossible for Burkinabe farmers to compete in the international market. Like many countries in the Sahel, Burkina Faso cannot prepare adequately for the food crises it experiences. It is perpetually locked in a vicious cycle of international aid.

This dire situation made President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, a rather shrewd talker and “great friend of the West” to cry out recently in frustration that: “Several central and west African countries are victims of injustice by the US and EU. These countries subsidise their agricultural producers, ignoring the rules of WTO. Such practices are undermining the fragile national economies of countries that depend on cotton.” [10]

This situation is not peculiar to these two countries. It is the same for many African countries whose economies are mainly agricultural-based.

When signing the US Farm Bill in May 2002, President George Bush made a very revealing statement about his choices concerning international agricultural trade: “I told the people, I said if you give me a chance to be President, we are not going to treat our agricultural industry as a secondary citizen when it comes to opening markets. And I mean that...The farm bill is important legislation...It will promote farmer independence, and preserve the farm way of life. It helps America's farmers and therefore it helps America.” [11]

How else would one want world leaders to show where their interest lies on the issue of trade (in) justice? This agricultural bill that sharply increased subsidies and protections for US producers, was passed while the “international community” was pushing for a Doha Round of trade talks that would deal with agriculture.

Since the "international community" led by the US is aware of the predicament of African countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, why do they continue to subsidise their domestic farmers? Why can't the US stop subsidising its farmers and allow poor countries like Mali to earn decent income and stop “pan-handling” year-in-year-out for development aid? Why are the rich countries advocating free trade and open markets in developing countries while European and US subsidies to their farmers are destroying markets for vulnerable farmers in sub-Saharan Africa?

The answer easily lies in the "national interest" of western countries. Much as the notion of 'national interest' is a shifting one, it reveals the true behaviour of powerful world leaders. It also guards us against two popular misconceptions about the determination of a state's foreign policy - the motives of leaders and ideological preferences.

While political leaders will cast their policies in ideological terms (free trade, democracy, human rights, justice, etc.) they are inevitably confronted by what is desirable and what is possible. There is no room for moral or ethical concerns, prejudice, political philosophy or individual preference in the determination of foreign policy because actions are constrained by the interest of the state and its power to enforce it. The 'national interest' which ought to be the sole pursuit of political leadership, is always defined in terms of strategic and economic capability.

Conclusion

In international politics, no government worth its salt will toy with its national interest, whatever it happens to be at any given time. It is “sacrosanct” to the survival of the nation.

In light of this basic reality, The EU and US will continue to protect their farmers as long as it is politically expedient. This is not an issue of justice or injustice. It is simply the survival of their states (and the political ambitions of its leaders) that require protecting their 'national interests' of which subsidies to domestic farmers is part of. If that cannot be achieved, then these leaders could be considered incompetent or forced to leave.

The onus is for governments at the receiving ends of these “sharp” trade practices to raise their games and find a strong negotiation platform. It is not going to be easy as we have seen with Brazil and the WTO saga. It is either these countries and those who are campaigning along with them for fair trade to find a way of putting fat Justitia down for a serious negotiation or carry her on their bent backs for a long time to come. Nothing can be more certain that Justitia will not want to get off the back of the skinny man as long as it is possible. Who would except where compassion for others surpasses passion for self?

* Tope Akinwande is a Desk Officer at the West Africa Department of TEARFUND, a leading UK relief and development NGO working in partnership with Christian agencies and churches in over 70 countries to tackle the causes and effects of poverty.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org


References

1 See, http://www.tjm.org.uk

2. Hilary Benn, “How can we get trade justice/”, 29 June 2005. See http://www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files

3. Nigel Grimwade, “International Trade Policy - A Contemporary Analysis”, Routledge, London, 1996

4 OXFAM, “Cultivating Poverty: The Impact of US Cotton Subsidies in Africa”. See http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/downloads/bp30-cotton.pdf

5. See (2)

6. Comparative advantage is what a country can produce with less cost at less time and effort above other countries.

7. See http://www.lwf-humanrights.org/issues.php

8. Ibid

9. See 4

10. Ibid

11. See, http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020806-4.html-45

Africa and the Corporate Citizenship Agenda

Steve Ouma Akoth

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34806

Steve Ouma Akoth discuses the notion of corporate responsibility, introducing two notions of human dignity - individualistic and choice oriented vs. communal and substance oriented - that reflect two different world views. In discussing these views, he argues that the choice is for a thicker or broader notion of the moral self.


Corporate Responsibility or Citizenship has evolved in a time of increased economic and social globalization. As part of this evolution, the debate has moved beyond responsibilities and accountability [1] of the Corporate Citizens [2] to that of respective roles that the non-state actors can play in the governance of global and national societies. In building this understanding, attention has invariably been focused on how the concept and process has evolved from the paternalistic philanthropic [3] focus to the current talk of accountability.

It is apparent from the scholarly materials and information available in this area that most pundits more so those focusing on accountability of business enterprises, have looked at this issue from the perspective of the Western system of knowledge and its confrontation with neo-liberalism. This “singular focus” has thus missed a major thrust and leverage factor from other cultures and jurisdictions which would otherwise significantly influence the clarity of this discourse.

From the various view points [4], one must also note that there has been no significant challenge to the economic system within which the business enterprises which are being called to be more accountable operate. Milton Friedman laid down corporate law in the mid 20th Century when he said that business' only role was to make business, which has been ignored in this debate [5].

Jerry Mander & Edward Goldsmith have taken this debate further by exposing the spirit of Miltons argument by stating that:

“The essence of the capitalism system is the accumulation of capital, the making of profits in order to invest and to make still more profits. The first law of capitalism is; And the best way to accumulate capital is not to work hard but to get others to work hard for you. Private gains, not social needs, are the central rule for the capitalist system.”

As an erstwhile chairman of Castle Cooke put it: “We are in the business of making profit. We are not in business primarily to satisfy society. We are not going to satisfy society very long if we go out of business. So profits are the number one consideration.”[6]

This is why I think that any efforts to promote ethical business practices and encourage respect for and fulfillment of human rights, must question the framework of profit making. The response to this kind of mind set in my opinion can not simply be the business case or the legal frameworks which have been touted as the major contours and impetus for Corporate Accountability. In my opinion this is about what is good and what is bad. It is about ethics and morals.

Although ordinarily the debate on ethics and morals is seen as a fragile and delicate landmine, [7] this is where the Corporate Citizenship discourse can benefit from the African Context. Because at the very minimum, business has a moral obligation to ensure it does not undermine human dignity and progress. To this, African Context through both economic system and value system gives an unwavered response.

The Traditional African Economic System.

The African Economic system was widely anchored in the principles of economic democracy. The basic premise of this notion is to view economics as 'culture'. In other words, importance is given to the study of economic processes in relation to the social and cultural contexts in which they occur To strengthen this understanding Anthropologists [8] have decided to create a distinction between this economic system - which they have called the 'substantivist' economy - and the now dominant neo-liberal economic system which they refer to as the formalist [9] economy.

The 'substantivist' economic system is anchored in the principles of egalitarians. This school of thought is closely associated with Karl Polanyi who is remembered today as the originator of a 'substantivist' approach to economics, which emphasized the way economies are embedded in society and culture. This thinking appreciates the fact that economic systems have three interrelated aspects;

- Patterns of subsistence - the means by which environmental resources are converted for human use
- Systems of distribution - the means by which goods and services are made available to members of a particular group
- Patterns of consumption

Polanyi isolates four institutions as crucial to the economic and political order that had characterized most native economies : a balance of political power, the international gold standard,
a self-regulating market system, and the liberal state. The SRM (Self-Regulating Market) was "the fount and matrix of the system," the "innovation which gave rise to a specific civilization". [10]

Most African societies were organized in a system that Polanyi describes here as the SRM (Self-Regulating Market). Polanyi differentiated between economic systems in which there were markets and the "starkly utopian" SRM of the nineteenth century. Markets are places or networks in which goods are bought and sold; they are human interactions organized by price, quality, and quantity of traded goods and services. The SRM was a society-wide system of markets in which all inputs into the substantive processes of production and distribution were for sale and in which output was distributed solely in exchange for earnings from sales of inputs.

The SRM was a society-wide system of markets in which all inputs into the substantive processes of production and distribution were for sale and in which output was distributed [11] solely in exchange for earnings from sales of inputs. Society is vital to humans as social animals, and the SRM [12] was consistent with a sustainable society. This argument represents the character of most pre-colonial African economies.

There exists substantial evidence that organization of production and distribution in many societies had been accomplished through social relationships of kin or community obligations and counter obligations (reciprocity). The same system of relation with business enterprises can be found in the Agrarian and pastoralist [13] societies. This framework seems to be in great resonance to the modern concept of Corporate Citizenship. It implies that business can not survive unless it is in articulation with the societal values and operates in a conscientious manner to the expectation and aspirations of the society.

African Ethics for Business: Ubuntu

There is a very diverse set of ethical and customary frameworks throughout Africa. However, to illustrate how some of these concepts or terms may be applicable to business ethics and Corporate Citizenship, a deeper focus on the world view of most African societies would be useful.

This is very well represented in the philosophy of ubuntu which is based on the proverb “Umntu Ngumntu Ngabantu,” which can be translated as “a person is a person through other people” or “I am what I am because of you”. The following extract is from a book by Desmond Tutu called No tomorrow without forgiveness and it gives a good impression of ubuntu:

“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks to the very essence of being human. When you want to give high praise to someone we say, 'Yu, u nobuntu', he or she has ubuntu. This means that they are generous, hospitable friendly, caring and compassionate. They share what they have. It also means that my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in theirs. We belong in a bundle of life. We say, 'a person is a person through other people' (in Xhosa Ubuntu Ungamntu ngabanye abantu and in Zulu Umuntu Ngumnutu ngabanye). I am human because I belong, I participate, I share. A person with ubunti is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good; for he or she has proper self-assurance that comes with knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were no less than who they are.” [14]

The term “Ubuntu” emphasizes that we all live and work in community [15]. Hence ubuntu can apply to the inside of a company and we could see company employees and management as a community, where one looks after the interest of others. Ubuntu also applies to a company as part of the broader community, where the company looks after other members of the community so that it can thrive. It is therefore apparent that ubuntu has important implications for corporate citizenship. Linking this with the economic system postulated above, essence of Ubuntu (humanity) cuts across Africa.

It is pertinent to take account of the African world view and culture in the context of governance of companies and the moral power that they imply. This high standards of morality are based on historical precedent. These are bolstered by the close kinship observed through totem or clan names and the extended family system [16]. This notion of co-existence with other people which is highly valued can inform the way we conceptualize and design the responses to Corporate Accountability and Responsibility today.

Two notions of human dignity

The outcome of the above discussion is two very different notions of self dignity: A classical libertarian understanding which (when pushed) reduces human dignity to individual free choice, and a broader, social (egalitarian as illustrated by the African cosmological context) perception of humanity which insists that human dignity involves more than free choice. Precisely what the latter means in any particular society is determined not merely by ideological theory (whether of Kant, John Stuart Mill or Karl Marx) but by values inherent to the historical and social context (with all the political, economic, cultural and religious dimensions) that influence any particular society at a given time. Within this context theories, doctrines and traditions (the theoretical apparatus we bring to a situation) usually need to be reshaped, reconceived and rewritten. As suggested in the introduction, the exercise of thinking through and developing the Social Responsibility standard must thus involve an intellectual and theoretical renewal which responds to the conflicts within the current economic system. The two notions of human dignity - individualistic and choice oriented vs. communal and substance oriented - reflect two different world views.

It is apparent that this African cosmological context presents a major tension that challenges and haunts liberal politics. These are challenges that confront all politic. Its is the tension between how to allow the maximization of individual freedom of choice while at the same time addressing the corporate responsibilities that are part of any social union. If individual [17] liberty is the primary value, then equality may have to be sacrificed. If equality is the primary value, there will be violations of liberty [18]. The quest must thus contribute to resolving this apparent contradiction [19] which resides at the heart of democratic-liberalism. An illustration using the African context affirmations of individual freedom alone constitutes a one-sided view of a fragmented tradition [20]. As such it provides a useful basis on which to address the political issues central to the required reconstruction. The concern is to balance individual and common values, rather than to propose a compromise within which neither is adequately addressed. [21] The goal is the establishment of a social theory and morality, which 'rests on a view of ourselves as co-members of a common world'. It involves a morality within which each individual is necessarily seen as 'one of us', requiring co-existence based on mutual respect and co-operation by a community of individuals who consciously locate themselves within their social context rather than seek (in a Kantain way) to abstract themselves out of it. The quest is for a thicker or broader notion of the moral self. [22]

* The Author is the Programmes Coordinatotor and Deputy Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Member of the Advisory Board of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and a Student of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Governance at University of South Africa Contact address Valley Arcade, Gitanga Road, P.O. Box 41079, 00100 Nairobi - GPO, Kenya Tel. 254-2-3874998/9, 38776065, 0733-629034, 0722-264497, Fax: 254-2-3874997E-mail: souma@khrc.or.ke

[1] The discourse of accountability implies obligation by the law and a framework that can be used to hold the actor to responsible for their actions.

[2] These are artificial persons created by the law.

[3] The history of involvement of Corporations in societal issues has an origin in welfare and charity work at that time not much linked to the strategic operations.

[4]Here we are only referring to the view points that have been taken on Corporate Accountability and Responsibility

[5]Jerry Mander & Edward Goldsmith, eds., The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996); Ed., Kevin Danaher, 50 years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (Boston: South End Press, 1994).

[6] Chairman of Castle and Cooke of Dole Standards Fruits CO., interview in the documentary film Controlling interests, (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1978).

[7] This is mainly due to relativity of the term.

[8] Classic economic anthropology has been concerned with the logic of exchange systems, with peasant economies, and with livelihood systems. An anthropological approach to economics will enable a critical analysis of some of the cultural biases in the 'universal' principles of mainstream economics, e.g. the concepts of work and leisure, poverty and wealth, gifts and commodities, and money and markets.

[9] This formal neoclassical theory cannot be used to explain economic activities in non-western societies

[10] Polanyi, Karl. 1944, 1957. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press by arrangement with Rinehart & Company, Inc.

[11] One must however note that the strongest and most long lasting criticism of The Great Transformation has been directed at the passages where he argues that reciprocative and redistributive forms of integration have been much more common in human history than self-regulating market systems.

[12] In his further works, Polanyi's argues that the SRM could not survive -- not because of the distributional consequences that play the major role in Marx's explanation of the inevitable collapse of capitalism -- but because the starkly utopian nature of the SRM gave rise to a spontaneous counter movement, even among those enjoying increased material prosperity.

[13] In pastoralist societies for instance the concept of “cattle complex” which implies the deep intrinsic values that are inherent in pastoralism , do explain how social responsibility and sustainable models of economies and social relations inform business.

[14] See the Introduction to Corporate Citizenship, UNISA, Centre for Corporate Citizenship.

[15] This is almost some spirituality of Collectiveness and Humility. This Perpetual optimism is due to strong belief in the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent superior being in the form of the creator of mankind.

[16] As a result, there is an inherent trust and belief in fairness of all human beings. This manifests itself in the predisposition towards universal brotherhood, even shared by African-Americans.

[17] The individual here refer to both natural and legal persons.

[18] Lebacqz, Six Theories of Justice, p 65.

[19] As I have mentioned in other discussions, I doubt if the ISO system has either the capacity or the willingness to confront this challenge. See Steve Ouma Akoth; Comments on the Guidance on Social submitted on 19th April 2006.

[20] Pinkard, Democratic Liberalism, pp. 51; 101f.

[21] Pinkard views Duncan Kennedy's classification of 'individualism' and 'altruism' as two competing theories and a fragmentation of liberalism. This concern is to transcend rather than choose or reduce the two into compromise. Pp. 100f

[22] Pinkard, DemocraticLiberalism, p, 15.

Claiming rights

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/34807

Global trade policy agreements are often felt hardest far from the boardrooms where they are thrashed out. Often, they act to strip people of basic rights like water and electricity. Karoline Kemp looks at five examples where communities are claiming their rights.


South Africa: Soweto fights Eskom

Eskom, the country's electricity provider, has featured predominantly in recent South African news because of continuing power outages in various parts of the country. But these power outages have not affected many in the townships that house the majority of the nation's black population. Soweto, in Johannesburg, is the largest of these townships, and is home to several million working class people, most of whom struggle to make ends meet. Electricity is simply too expensive for many, and as a result, many make do with alternative forms of lighting, heating and cooking.

In 1996 the African National Congress (ANC), adopted neoliberal policies, turning their back on a proposed Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), and opting instead for the GEAR program. The GEAR program, on the other hand, was developed by economists and World Bank officials, and, as a neo-liberal program, emphasized growth, adding that redistribution would come only after growth. Meant to drive this growth, it set targets to reduce inflation, boost the private sector, and liberalise formerly government run agencies, including Eskom. In order to attract investors, Eskom set about increasing profits, in order to offer a return on investment, which was done through a strict system of cost recovery.

In places like Soweto this meant that electricity cut offs were made as a means of recouping debt and making sure people paid for their electricity use. According to activist Trevor Ngwane, at one point, Eskom was cutting off over 20 000 homes per month, and over 70% of Soweto's population had increasing debts to the company. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, co founded by Ngwane, was formed to unite Soweto against electricity cutoffs, and claimed as its slogan: “Electricity is a right, not a privilege.” The group lobbies government and other policy groups and, significantly, reconnects those homes that have been cut off, providing residents with the electricity they need. Their work has spread beyond Soweto, and they are active all over South Africa, campaigning now not only for electricity, but also water. Their approach is one of participatory democracy, and they call for policies that respond to the needs of the people - that is, the poor, who make up the majority of South Africa - and demand for free services, including electricity, water, housing, health care and education, for all. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee sees themselves as a part of a larger anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist movement, and calls for people around the movement to join hands to fight against imperialism and anti-poor policies.

Source:

Article based on an interview between Trevor Ngwane and Walter Turner on KPFA's Africa Today. The transcript can be found at: http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?id=11501

Ghana: The fight for water

World Water Day of 2005 saw Biwater, one of the multinational firms bidding for the privatization of Ghana's water sector, pull out, reported Ghana's Business News. Ghana's government has been fighting, with the support of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, for several years to privatize the nation's water in attempts to gain access to external assistance and loans. Ghana currently faces inadequate water provision, blamed on years of poor management, lack of investment and poor technical capacity. The government argues that the only way to improve the situation is to inject fresh income into Ghana Water, and that the only way to do this is to privatize. Critics and activist organisations, such as the National Coalition Against Privatisation of Water, have been active in opposing the initiatives, arguing that, contrary to government assurance of the schemes making water cheaper and more accessible, the plan will in fact only undermine access to safe water for all Ghanaians.

While Biwater withdrew it's application to partner with the government, numerous other multinational corporations are still seeking involvement in the project, and the government has gone ahead and secured a grant of $103 million from the World Bank, reports Irin News. According to Public Citizen, the mere prospect of the privatization of water has had the effect of doubling tariffs, in order to “condition” the water market for international competition. World Bank conditions also stipulate that no subsidies will be given to low income houses, and that water must be sold at full market rates.

Public Citizen brings to light some of the startling statistics: in a country where over half the population earns less than $1 a day, and 40% of people fall below the national poverty line, over 35% of Ghanaian's lack access to safe water, and almost 70% have no sanitation services. Water related illnesses are the cause of over 70% of diseases in Ghana. Studies in the early 2000s showed poor households spent between 18 and 25% of their income on water alone. In these conditions water vendors can charge up to 10 times more than the official water provider.

In light of these statistics, IMF and World Bank policies of “increased cost recovery” and “automatic tariff adjustment mechanisms” are considered by activists to deny basic human rights. With civil society locked out of any of the decision-making processes, many are concerned that Ghana's need for financial resources have inhibited any alternative water options, and go further to undermine access to one of the world's most basic rights.

Sources:

Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water - Statement
http://www.isodec.org.gh/campaings/water/

Water Privatisation Suffers Setback - Biwater Pulls Out
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=77784

Public Citizen: Ghana Action Alert
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/cmep_Water/reports/ghana/

Ghana: Privatisation brings new investment to water company
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45054

Like Water for Profit: An Interview with Rudolph Amenga-Etego
http://dominionpaper.ca/environment/2004/05/27/like_water.html

Africa: Stop Economic Partnership Agreements!

Beyond what is required of African countries by the World Trade Organisation, Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) have been set up between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) in order to enable European market access to goods and services in Africa. These negotiations, which began in 2002, are meant to promote sustainable development and contribute to poverty eradication in the ACP countries through the liberalisation of trade and tariffs.

But critics, including those academics and activists who form the Global Call for Action to Stop EPAs campaign, argue that these “partnerships” are in fact unequal; the EU has overwhelming economic and political power, and as such, can impose their interests, agenda and stipulations on ACP countries, which, as a whole, are fragile, both politically and economically, and are dependent, to a large extent, on external funders. This vulnerability has the potential for poverty and debt to increase, and destabilize the economies of these nations.

Critics argue that these EPAs conspire to deindustrialise Africa, simply making them suppliers of raw materials and ensuring their markets are wholly dependent on Europe, which inhibits their already limited capacity, reports Third World Network Africa.

That EPA negotiations are taking place away from any public monitoring means that the large civil society base that has assembled around this issue has had little say in the discussion. Civil society organisations argue that EPAs will have negative effects, leading to deeper inequalities, greater unemployment, the loss of livelihoods, insecurity of food and other resources and will undermine social and human rights. They call for the EU and ACP negotiators to affirm the principles of non-reciprocity, protect ACP producers, reverse trade and investment liberalization, and perhaps most importantly, allow that alternatives be found for ACP countries to pursue their own development strategies that work best for them.

Sources:

Global Call for Action to Stop EPAs - Campaign Statement
http://www.liberationafrique.org/article.php3?id_article=1213

EPAs - Endless Poverty in Africa
http://twnafrica.org/atn/campaigns/day4.htm

Previous Pambazuka News articles on EPAs

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 216: Economic Partnership Agreements: territorial conquest
by economic means?
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/216

Economic Partnership Agreements: territorial conquest by economic means?
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/28900

Economic Partnership Agreements and putting development first
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28901

Economic Partnership Agreements or Broken Partnerships? The Case of West
Africa
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28902

Growing resistance to EPAs
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28903

Learning the rules: The WTO and EPAs
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28904

Meeting Africa’s human development needs and the failure of EPAs
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category//28905

Negotiating a fair deal: Are trade agreements with the EU beneficial to
women?
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28906

Predictions for the economic partnership agreements negotiations: EU=1, ACP=0
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28907

Trade terms: A guide to EPAs
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/28908

Cameroon: Logging industry destroying environment and livelihoods

Cameroon's logging industry is well known for its lax laws, unsustainability and environmental destruction. According to a Global Forest Watch report, at the end of the 1990s there were almost 500 logging companies registered with the government, most of which were foreign owned. The same report reveals that over 76% of the country's forests have been logged, or are allocated as concessions, and as one of the few sectors that has remained profitable in Cameroon, the logging industry has emerged as one that offers short-term profits to foreign multinationals who benefit from few government controlled mechanisms to protect the environment and social needs of the population.

Logging, both legal and illegal, has led to the decrease in forest cover by over 2 million hectares, and primary forest cover is quickly diminishing, argues the Global Forest Watch report. The Cameroonian forests are some of the most species rich in the entire Congo Basin, and some trees take over a hundred years to grow. In addition to huge environmental impacts, the social effects of logging have also been significant. Cameroon boasts a large indigenous population, most of whom are dependent on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. With ancestral and spiritual ties to the land they inhabit, most know no other way of life, and logging has disrupted not only their ability to maintain healthy, safe lifestyles, but also their right to the land. According to Friends of the Earth Cameroon, those who have protested the logging companies have been violently repressed, and with their rights barely recognised, most have no recourse or protection from the multinational corporations who are exploiting their land.

Sources:

The True Value of a Tree: Interview with Benoit Ndamea, Friends of the Earth Cameroon
http://www.foei.org/publications/link/95/e95benoit.html

Global Forest Watch: An Overview of Logging in Cameroon
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/common/cameroon/english/report.pdf

Logging Industry Threatens to Destroy Rich African Forests
http://www.trfic.msu.edu/news_info/news_archive/20000818loggingafrica.htm

Cameroon: Logging industry destroying environment and livelihoods

Cameroon's logging industry is well known for its lax laws, unsustainability and environmental destruction. According to a Global Forest Watch report, at the end of the 1990s there were almost 500 logging companies registered with the government, most of which were foreign owned. The same report reveals that over 76% of the country's forests have been logged, or are allocated as concessions, and as one of the few sectors that has remained profitable in Cameroon, the logging industry has emerged as one that offers short-term profits to foreign multinationals who benefit from few government controlled mechanisms to protect the environment and social needs of the population.

Logging, both legal and illegal, has led to the decrease in forest cover by over 2 million hectares, and primary forest cover is quickly diminishing, argues the Global Forest Watch report. The Cameroonian forests are some of the most species rich in the entire Congo Basin, and some trees take over a hundred years to grow. In addition to huge environmental impacts, the social effects of logging have also been significant. Cameroon boasts a large indigenous population, most of whom are dependent on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. With ancestral and spiritual ties to the land they inhabit, most know no other way of life, and logging has disrupted not only their ability to maintain healthy, safe lifestyles, but also their right to the land. According to Friends of the Earth Cameroon, those who have protested the logging companies have been violently repressed, and with their rights barely recognised, most have no recourse or protection from the multinational corporations who are exploiting their land.

Sources:

The True Value of a Tree: Interview with Benoit Ndamea, Friends of the Earth Cameroon
http://www.foei.org/publications/link/95/e95benoit.html

Global Forest Watch: An Overview of Logging in Cameroon
http://www.globalforestwatch.org/common/cameroon/english/report.pdf

Logging Industry Threatens to Destroy Rich African Forests
http://www.trfic.msu.edu/news_info/news_archive/20000818loggingafrica.htm

Kenya: Women workers turn to flower power

Kenya's flower market falls into numerous trade agreements, including the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the African, Caribbean and Pacific - European Union (ACP-EU) Trade Agreement and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), all of which open the region up to trade and allow for preferential treatment, including duty and quota free benefits and regional free trade, according to the Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya. In addition to these trade agreements, Kenya has received financial assistance from the World Bank and USAID to get their agricultural industries off the ground, reports the International Labour Rights Fund.

The agricultural sector fits into all of these trade agreements, and accounts for almost a quarter of Kenya's GDP. Almost 75% of the population relies on agriculture, whether it be directly or indirectly, and the flower industry employs at least 50 000 Kenyans directly and another 70 000 in related industries. According to the Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya, cut flowers dominate the horticulture exports, and this crop has overtaken both coffee and tourism as a source of foreign exchange. The EU currently receives the largest portion (over a quarter) of their cut flowers from Kenya, but cut flowers from the country end up as far as Asia, Australia and the US.

While Kenya's government benefits economically from this industry, critics argue that people, and women especially, are suffering as a result of lax laws, environmental hazards, dangerous working conditions and harmful power dynamics. According to the report by the International Labour Rights Fund, over half of Kenyan flower workers are employed only as “casuals,” and as such, they do not receive benefits, cannot join unions and have no job security. Further, the Kenya Human Rights Commission reveals that workers are often forced to do unpaid overtime, working as long as 12 hours a day, with few breaks. Many employees have been exposed to dangerous toxins from the fertilisers and pesticides that are used on the crops, which often lead to skin irritations, problems with sight and many more unknown effects, according to an article entitled “Cut Flower Industry Accused of Human Rights Abuse”.

As a result of these extreme human rights violations, local groups are stepping up to let the industry know that the working conditions they are forced into are not acceptable. With the help of Women Working Worldwide, the Kenya Women Workers Organisation has highlighted the plight of flower workers. They undertake various projects, including initiatives that include non-violent campaigns for worker's rights, lobbying and advocacy, community development projects, capacity building and the encouragement of women's participation in decision-making processes. Through their work they raise awareness and offer support to women exploited in Kenya's flower industry.

Sources:

Kenya Women Workers Organisation
http://www.kewwo.org

Cut Flower Industry Accused of Human Rights Abuse
http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_882.html

Codes of Conduct in the Cut-Flower Industry
http://www.laborrights.org/projects/women/Flower_Paper_0903/flower_paper_countries.htm

Export Processing Zones Authority of Kenya
http://www.epzakenya.com/aboutkenya.php?cat=4&sub=15

Uganda: Establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission Now

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/34726

Follow the link for an open letter to The President of Uganda from the Uganda Peoples Congress in regards to extreme human rights abuses and the call for a Truth and Reconcilation Commission.
H. E. The President of Uganda

President's Office
Parliamentary Buildings
Parliamentary Avenue
KAMPALA

24/5/2006

OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

ESTABLISH A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION NOW

1. On 12th May, 2006 you took oath to lead Uganda for
another 5 years after the widely disputed electoral process and after presiding over the affairs of Uganda for the last 20 years. By 2011 you will have been at the helm of Uganda for 25 years out of its forty nine (49) years as an independent country. In terms of time held in office you would have left a legacy of leading the nation for slightly more than half of its existence.

2. Your Excellency, your recent oath requires you to:
a. Uphold, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
b. Observe the Laws of Uganda.
c. Promote the welfare of the people of Uganda.

3. It is this oath that should guide your conscience and set parameters for you if you want a befitting legacy as you embark on the next five difficult years of your chosen career.

4. As millions of Ugandans, its friends and yourself are aware, for the last 43 years, independent Uganda has failed to genuinely emerge as a peaceful and united country, in spite of some periods of relative peace and calm. The general tendency and misfortune, has been the misery of civil war, massacres, destruction of property,
torture, wanton human rights abuses and abrogation of the rule of law. For much of the four decades of independence, Ugandans have exchanged roles as victims of abuse and perpetrators of such abuse. Hate, anger, revenge, vengeance, acrimony, mistrust and suspicion have
characterized relations between individuals, communities and tribes. All this has bled dry any efforts to build a truly peaceful, prosperous and united Uganda where patriotism and love of one's fellow citizens reign.

5. The first period of this, our painful history of 24 years (1962-1986) was under a total of five Presidents (one of whom also served as Executive Prime Minister), three Presidential Commissioners and one head of a Military Commission (whom you deputized). The second
phase of this very painful history, now in its 21 st year, has seen Your Excellency as the uninterrupted ruler.

6. There were and still remain unexplained allegations of abuses and serious violations in the first phase (1962-1986). The crisis in Buganda between 1964 and 1966 and its aftermath needs clear scrutiny. Who were the perpetrators of the crisis, who were the real victims? These remain unexplained questions. The military coup of 1971 and the
resultant 8 years of carnage under a fully fledged military
dictatorship also requires that questions are asked and answered. Who masterminded and carried out the coup? Who were its beneficiaries and who were the victims of the coup and of the Amin's government? Who did what in this period? The politics, maneuvers and unexplained
massacres and murders during 1979-1980 period need further
investigation. Needless to mention, the ghosts of the Luwero Triangle still haunt us. Who started the civil war, how was recruitment done and how was the successful war prosecuted? Who killed hundreds of civil servants and local chiefs? On the part of UPC, we would like to
know how our leaders in the Luwero triangle were killed and their properties destroyed and by who? Who aided and abated this war behind the scenes?

7. The Luwero war led to and fed into the 1985 coup detats. For nearly a month after the July 1985 coup, hundreds of people in the Luwero triangle, Kampala, Mukono, Kamuli, Iganga, Jinja, Lira, Apac were massacred and their properties destroyed or looted. Who were the
real brains and hands behind the 1985 coup? Who were the victims and real perpetrators of the wanton violations and abuses? These and many other questions cry out for answers.

8. An attempt was made by the Justice Arthur Oder Human Rights Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the human rights violations allegedly committed between 1962 and 1986. However, the nature of the inquiry and the restrictive political circumstances under which it was
conducted militated against an impartial dispensation. Very many victims and witnesses kept away and very few perpetrators of abuses were willing to testify and confess their crimes and excesses in absence of a reconciliation framework. The abuses and excesses of this period need to be investigated afresh under the changed political
environment with an impartial truth and reconciliation process.

9. In the immediate aftermath of the January 1986 forceful take over of power by the NRA/NRM, hundreds of " anyanyas" were rounded up, tied kandoya and burnt to very painful death. Who were these " anyanya" and who orchestrated their massacre?

10. Other than the "anyanyas ", hundreds of other Ugandans
especially in Northern Uganda were summarily executed. Who perpetuated this genocide? What precipitated the massive exodus of Ugandans to exile in the aftermath of NRA's take over of power?

11. The murder of Dr. Andrew Lutakome Kayira, former leader of the Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM), has never been fully investigated, notwithstanding the involvement of the Scotland Yard. Was he the victim of a calculated political assassination or were his murderers mere loose criminals?

12. The origins of civil wars that have been waged in Acholi, Lango and Teso over the last 20 years, and which have resulted in genocide and gross human rights abuses have never been satisfactorily explained. What for instance, drove the generally peaceful people of Teso to take up arms against the NRA? Under what circumstances did the Uganda Peoples Democratic Movement/Army (UPDM/A), Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) Uganda Patriotic Army (UPA) and the so called FOBA start? Who, in reality, constituted FOBA and who was behind the
management of that organization if it ever existed? What was the role of NRA in the genesis of rebellion in Northern and Eastern Uganda?

13. The story of the real perpetrators of genocide and mayhem and the victims of the 20 year old carnage have never been told. Some glaring questions include:

Who authored and authorized the scotched earth policy
pursuant to which homes, food grannaries, cattle and property were destroyed or looted? What was the intended outcome?

Who was responsible for the massacres at Mukura, Atiak,
Achol Pii, Buchuro, Pajimo, Namokora, Acholibur etc?.

How did cattle rustling become orchestrated to levels of
displacing and killing thousands of people?

Other than the LRA, who else has been responsible for the
killings, abductions, brutal maiming and all manner of human rights abuses in the vicious conflict?

Has the conflict been prolonged by war profiteers and if so who are they?

What was the effect of government freely availing dangerous weapons to Karamoja warriors? How did this become government policy and to serve what purpose?

Why did the NRM government reject the well intentioned
Parliamentary resolution to declare the Northern and Eastern parts of Uganda ravaged by war, a disaster area?

14. The activities of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) are also shrouded in mystery. Are they the real villains of the Buseruka and Kichwamba massacres or some other forces were involved?

15. Over the years hundreds of Muslims called Tabliqs were arrested, tried, acquitted and re-arrested. How many got a fair trial? The allegations of gross abuse of their rights to life and liberty and claims of torture need to be put to public scrutiny.

16. In March, 2000 a mysterious massacre occurred at Kanungu where thousands of hitherto unknown people died in a fire inferno in Joseph Kibwetere's church. How did this church operate all the years it purportedly did without state agents intervening. After this carnage,
government set up a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Augustine Kania to unravel the mystery of this massacre. Your Excellency, Uganda and indeed the whole world needs to know what became of this inquiry.
Who were the victims of this apparently organized massacre? And who planned and carried out this gross crime against humanity?

17. Your Excellency, thousands of Ugandans have lost their public sector jobs during your 20 -year reign while others have been employed. There are serious allegations regarding the manner in which the thousands were removed and others recruited. Those who lost jobs and, therefore, livelihood allege sectarianism and persecution. The
truth about employment in the public sector needs to be told. Thousands of retired public workers claim they have been denied hard earned pensions along political considerations. If so, why is this so?

18. In the areas of economic management there has been countless allegations of serious abuses, graft and victimization that has left in its trail thousands, possibly millions, of victims and a few winners. The country can only reconcile if the truth is told
regarding:

How those who had wealth in 1986 lost it all & now wallow
in abject poverty and disillusionment.

How those who were in rags in 1986 have dramatically become millionaires, in dollar terms and the proud owners of prime properties in Uganda and abroad.

What became of the 30% conversion tax levied on everybody
at currency reform exercise in 1987?

Who has abused and profiteered from the privatization
process and award of contracts for the public procurements and who has been victimized?

Who have lost land, including ranches and private mailo
land, and under what circumstances and who have been the
beneficiaries of an allegedly unfair, arbitrary and sometimes brutal system of land re-allocation and accumulation?

Who have benefited in illegal tax exemptions and waivers
and who have been the victims of unfair tax collection and abuse?

19. Mr. President, the UPC, and we believe, millions of well intentioned Ugandans and their friends, are of the view that the matters we have pointed out above are at the very heart of the constitutional and political instability, as correctly pointed out in the preamble to the 1995 Constitution of this country. They need to
be thoroughly addressed as a matter of national urgency.

20. The only way of addressing these matters and in particular the very serious allegations of human rights abuse is to search for the truth and to reconcile the victims with their tormentors. No amount of suppression of bitter facts or wishful hope that time will heal the wounds will cure this country of the scars of bitterness and prevent future vengeance and conflict. It is the belief of UPC that there is need to give a framework where people can open their hearts and settle all the unanswered questions and issues and have a new start under the new dispensation of multiparty governance.

21. The UPC proposed in August 2005 that an impartial Truth and Reconciliation Commission be set up with the assistance of the Commonwealth and African Union. Our persistent renewal of these demands has not been heeded. The frequent pilgrimages to the Luwero triangle by you Mr. President, which has become an obsession, and the taking of foreign dignitaries on those pilgrimages to show case
the skulls of those who were painfully killed during the Luwero triangle war of rebellion, which you yourself started will not explain truthfully how the victims died and who infact is responsible for their death. Only a Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be able to ferret out the facts and lead to a healing process.

22. While still alive my late husband, Dr.Obote repeatedly made his views on Luwero known. He said you are responsible for the killings in Luwero and asserted his willingness and readiness to testify in the Courts of Laws with concrete evidences and supportive information that
would have proven him and UPC innocent of Luwero crimes. A former NRA Child soldier Ms China Keitetsi has also written how children were made to use hoes to hit and pound their victims to death in Luwero.

23. The NRA/UPDF Military invasions and adventures in Rwanda, Democratic of Republic of Congo and Sudan left millions of soldiers and civilians dead. The December 2005 ICJ ruling on the case of DRC vs Uganda found your government to be guilty of war crimes. Crimes against humanity and gross human rights abuses plus plunder of DRC
resources. Ugandan want to know how many of their sons and daughters perished across the borders. Who should be held accountable and responsible for the loss of lives and destruction of properties during the invasion of our neighbors?

24. Mr. President, UPC renews its demand to you to set up the Truth and Reconciliation commission to:

a. Receive evidence from victims of abuses and other witnesses,
b. Receive confessions from the perpetrators of abuses and violations.
c. Reconcile the victims and their tormentors.
d. Prosecute unrepentant violators of rights and freedoms
including those who have profiteered from decades of misery.
e. Compensate the victims where possible.

The commission should cover the period from 9/10/1962 to the date of its appointment.

25. As we pointed out earlier, your oath of office requires of you to obey the commands of the Constitution both in letter and spirit. The Constitution, according to its preamble, sought to put to an end to political and constitutional instability and the tyranny, oppression and exploitation and to usher in a new Uganda based on principals of unity, peace, equality, democracy, freedom, social justice and progress. These laudable principles continue to elude this beautiful country. The only befitting legacy you genuinely need is to have this country reconcile with itself. It is not too late for you
to start this process by appointing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Your failure to urgently act will not only exacerbate tension and conflict in Uganda but will attract very harsh judgment on you from history.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY.

Miria Kalule Obote
PARTY PRESIDENT
UGANDA PEOPLES CONGRESS
www.radiorhino.org

African value systems

Anonymous

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/34715

Yea, we need to know our African value system and what Africa is. Thank you Amy, great article.

Slavery then and now

Jacques Depelchin

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/34717

A fantastic piece indeed. Slavery was never abolished, it was modernized, with everyone helping along the way. The piece could be the basis for anyone interested in making a film or writing a play. In this day and age, it seems, only art (theatre in this case) could render not just the actual facts as described by Tajudeen, but also the thinking, the emotions going on in the heads of those who traveled on that famous plane (it would be good to actually have the flight number, departure and destination). As scholars (historians in particular), we are trained to only look for facts in archives, or on any palpable concrete evidence, but what about the archives of our collective mind, emotions which are supposed to be off limits, and yet, have survived for generations.

The screams, the crying, the protest of the person on that plane sounded to me like echoes of those who were kidnapped centuries ago, in their fields, on their way to a funeral, to a wedding, or simply resting at home after a hard day's work. Back then, mercenaries appeared out of nowhere in search of slaves. There are no archives I know of where the screams, the pain, the suffering have been registered so that we can prove that, indeed long before the Holocaust, other genocides took place and create the conditions for the unthinkable to happen to people to whom such treatment was not supposed to happen.

Why should one not be outraged, "emotional" at such barbarity? Is it not because we have not been sufficiently outraged collectively that such acts continue? Is it not because one rationalizes one's silence that things which were supposed to have been abolished long ago continue to happen under a different name?

Taj, thank you for bringing to the surface one little illustration of what took place centuries before and continues today unabated. On the image of the slave ship mentioned toward the end of your piece, I would suggest the following: why not have our billionaires who might still have a bit of conscience, get about a dozen or so (or more) slave ships built exactly as they were when the slave trade was in full swing, and have a sample moored at all the ports (of departure and destination) so that, at least visually, all those who do want to see the instruments of killing the person and making a slave can be seen. However painful such replicas might be, at least they would have the shocking value that Maidanek, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, etc. continue to carry today.

Slavery then and now (2)

Brenda Asiko

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/34718

It is indeed sad that it has come to this, and in many ways, the deplorable conditions in Africa make us slaves to the Westerners. What has touched me the most in this article, is the fact that if a ship clearly labelled "slave ship", was to appear in any port city in Africa, people would rush into it proclaiming that they were fit to be slaves! This is painful, but true. We have no pride whatsoever as Africans! I believe, not only a change in attitude is needed but good governance will go a long way in turning this situation around. For some bizzare reason, I have not lost hope (despite the fact that with every government that comes into power in my country, corruption gets worse!). I believe there's still hope for Africa.

Slavery then and now (3)

Emman Ozoemena

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/34719

Today is the African Day. How many Africans are aware of the significance of the day's event? How many governments organised any public rally to mark the day? Does it really matter to our so-called political leaders and policy makers what citizens in their countries go through each day. They are all busy with how to either maintain themselves in power or install their stooges as successors to an already depressed economy, leaving a legacy of social decay and zero level infrastructures. The story is the same across Africa from Cape to Cairo. Today, the lot of mother Africa and millions of her citizens is deferred dreams and broken promises from the leaders. Last month in Abuja Nigeria, our leaders from across the continent came and made mouth watering promises on how to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. But, what happened to the promises made five years ago on the same issue? Can the leopard change the spots on its skin? It is heat-rendering that African youth are caught in this web and now run to Europe for succor, nay second slavery, willingly. Today, lets think about mother Africa and her millions of citizens.

The African AIDS Epidemic: A History by John Iliffe

Reviewed by Rene Loewenson

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/34795

More than twenty years into the AIDS epidemic in Africa we continue to struggle with its scale and tragic consequences. In a continent where, according to UNAIDS and WHO in 2005, up to 28,9 million adults and children were living with HIV and AIDS, we continue to fail to prevent infection in young people, to leave many who need it without access to treatment and to rely heavily on poor households for care and support. In 2005 alone on the continent there were about 3 million people newly infected and 2,5 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS.

So what can we learn from the history of the epidemic that will help us change this unacceptable loss of life and wellbeing?

John Illife’s book claims ‘modesty’ in outlining the history of the AIDS epidemic in Africa based on accessible, published literature. He discusses the still contentious first origins of the epidemic and maps the spread of HIV across the major regions of the continent. He traces the epidemic through conditions such as Tuberculosis and Kaposi’s sarcoma, that marked the path of the virus. The book cautions against over-simplifying the conditions that lead to the spread of HIV infection. For example, he describes how areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, affected by war and violence, had low rates of HIV infection due to isolation and reduced mobility, preventing the linking of sexual networks. At the same time economic opportunities in more stable societies led to mobility and urbanisation that provided channels for the spread of HIV infection.

His presentation of the international, national and local response to the epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s describes both the inadequacy of the international response, the burnout and collapse of morale of families and medical professionals, and the courage and focus given to the response from centres like TASO and individuals like Elly Katabira in Uganda. The book traces the maturing of the epidemic in the late 1990s, both in the falling off of HIV prevalence in some parts of Africa, and the growing pressure for access to treatment from communities on the continent.

Illife proposes that history teaches us some lessons about the epidemic and our response to it. The first new cases in Africa were early, in the late 1950s, and the disease spread through commercial and population movements before the disease was known or recognised. By the 1980s when it was recognised, after some initial resistance internationally and within the continent, it was already rooted within the population at epidemic levels. He argues that this deprived the continent of the opportunity to intervene in the earliest stages of the epidemic, and is a fundamental reason for the depth of the epidemic on the continent. Illife describes how the response to the epidemic was confounded by economic, social and gender inequities and diverse and contradictory understandings of the epidemic, from medical and scientific analyses to those drawn from religious and traditional morality and political perceptions.

The evolution of AIDS, under the intense scrutiny of medical and social science and in a period of growth of global communication, does make this epidemic unique both for the way it is understood and for the responses to it. Many of these lessons on the epidemic and the responses to it have been learned from Africa. The book by Illife adds further useful evidence to this learning and places the epidemic in a historical perspective.

And yet, despite this growing body of evidence, African households continue to take on a significant burden of the response to AIDS. Only recently have meaningful resources for treatment begun to flow to Africa and the policies and resources to prevent HIV infection remain inadequate. How can history assist to understand a global inequity of this scale? Surely this calls for a deeper political economy analysis of the historical facts that Iliffe presents?

Let’s take one example of this political economy: The book hints at the corporate economic, social and political interests that shaped responses to the epidemic. It gives less evidence on the structural adjustment policies that spread through Africa at the same time as the epidemic. In the 1980s, when countries were competing for foreign investment under liberalisation policies, public health reason was overshadowed by economic imperative. Even as AIDS was recognised and diagnosed, economic policies cut spending on the interventions and systems to prevent and treat it, with falling access to public health services, and especially primary health care outreach in low income communities. Policies that increased the economic and social determinants for HIV, such as mass retrenchment, flexible and insecure employment, inadequate housing and unsafe community environments with privatising essential services could not be questioned. The change being produced by AIDS was subject to a much more powerful change agenda: a penetration of ‘free’ market policies, efficiency driven social policies and liberalised production that left families and communities on the margins of their own national economies, producing what they did not consume, not able to afford what they did not produce, susceptible to the risk of HIV and vulnerable to the impact of AIDS.

Public health evidence on AIDS at the time was interesting, sometimes alarming, but not decisive. If in the 1980s the full devastating reality of the evidence cited in the book of 13 million AIDS related deaths and 12 million orphans due to AIDS were really given recognition, would there not have been some rethink about the scale and pace of this market reform, its associated collapse of solidarity and exposure to poverty? Perhaps it was not simply the quiet spread of the virus through our populations in the 1970s that made the epidemic in Africa so profound. It was also in the 1980s the massive block placed by dominant neoliberal free market policies to the universal, solidarity based comprehensive social protection, health and employment policies that were needed to respond to HIV and AIDS.

Iliffe is correct at the end of the book that the long incubation period of the epidemic has provided grounds for a new form of organising: that of patients for their own treatment. The actions of social movements and some states have brought back onto the agenda issues of solidarity and universal access to health care and access to treatment at a global level. Pointing to the maturing of the epidemic, Iliffe ends on a note of optimism that ‘the virus no longer holds the initiative that explained its success’. If however it is indeed our own political, economic and social institutions and policies that we must confront to take control over HIV and AIDS, then a more pertinent lesson from history may be the one captured on the front cover of the book, in the hands of a person holding a poster saying ‘Stand up for your rights’.

* Rene Loewenson is Programme Manager for Equinet, the Regional Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Under Whose Name? Plagiarism and the African Arts, Part Two

Shailja Patel

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/34713

This is the second of a two-part article that addresses plagiarism in the context of social justice in Africa. It was sparked by the discovery that an article I wrote for this column was plagiarized by the Kenya Times. Part 1, published last week, looked at the dimensions of plagiarism, through several recent prominent cases, both on and off the African continent. Part 2, this week, will explore why it is relevant to social justice.


When I was in primary and high school in Nairobi, our English compositions were peopled by white European characters, with English names. We set them in European or American cities and schools, and inserted ourselves into those landscapes. Our plots were imitations or direct copies of what we read in Nancy Drew mystery novels or Enid Blyton boarding school tales. Or we stole freely from American TV imports – Good Times, Dallas. One of my classmates, in an essay on “The Dangers of Hitchhiking” reproduced, blow by blow, an episode of the American sitcom, “Diff’rent Strokes” which had run the previous night on Kenyan TV. She didn’t even change the names of the characters – she simply cast herself in the starring role. The English teacher commented: “You should use your own ideas in future!” – and gave her a mark of 75%.

In all those years, only one teacher ever challenged this slavish postcolonial erasure of our own lives. Ironically, he was a British expatriate. He asked my Standard Seven class why we used English and American names, locations and plots in our compositions, instead of Kenyan ones. We stared at him, confused, a classroom of 11 year olds, who had never been told that our reality had any place in literature. Finally, one girl raised her hand: “That’s what is in the books we read.”

Generations of Africans have grown up consuming media and culture from which they are absent. Believing that “real” writing, “real” music, “real” art must imitate, or even better, reproduce, what is imported. That the language spoken on the streets of Harare or Lagos has no place in newsprint. The dramas enacted daily in Nairobi matatus scrums, Cairo markets, Freetown suburbs, do not belong on our TV and movie screens. Is it any wonder then, that journalists on the continent routinely plagiarize work from multiple sources? That editors run it without question?

There is a political dimension to this trend. Authentic voices are also voices that question and challenge the status quo. Threaten those in power. Growing up, I watched several original TV dramas, piloted in Nairobi, shot down at birth by protests in Parliament that they were “immoral” and would “corrupt our youth.” Their crime was to deal honestly with the economic, social and sexual realities of a generation facing 70% unemployment in a country ruled by oligarchs. I never heard similar protests raised about the soft-porn American films that certain Nairobi cinemas specialized in. Or the imported soap operas that were the most exciting offering of the state-monopoly TV station.

So many journalists, aspiring writers and artists, never learned how to report the world through their own eyes. To trust their own perceptions and the language available to them. A perfect demonstration of the fear that authentic voices induce in the establishment was the reaction to Kwani?. Kenya’s first journal of homegrown writing broke new ground by carrying pieces in Sheng, the street language of Nairobi. A University of Nairobi literature professor actually tried to ban his students from reading Kwani?. One can only speculate on the source of his unbearable discomfort with an idiom outside his academic authority being presented as valid living literature.

The theft implicit in plagiarism impoverishes us all. It is no secret that how we receive any message is shaped by the perceived source. The voices most likely to be silenced through plagiarism in Africa are those of marginalized groups – women, youth, ethnic minorities, those outside the formal education system. Several African women writers have shared stories with me of submitting their work to national magazines and newspapers, receiving no response, then seeing it turn up a few months later under the byline of a male staff journalist. Each time this happens, it feeds the myth that women, or African Asians, or youth in the informal sector, are not a part of the public discourse, have nothing to contribute to the cultural and political life of our societies.

In “Purple Hibiscus”, the brilliant debut novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a teenage Nigerian girl refuses to take the customary English name for her Confirmation into the Catholic Church. She argues cogently that English names are no more Christian than Nigerian ones, and her spiritual coming of age is not an occasion to disown her own identity.

There is a way in which all of us who came of age on the African continent in the last three decades have been taught to disavow our creative identities. To be ashamed of our own thoughts and language. To hold them up against the BBC, the New York Times, CNN, and find them lacking. The shame is reinforced by editors who will not take risks on original writing, by repressive political regimes that allow only parroted sycophancy in the place of real writing.

In my article plagiarized by the Kenya Times, I wrote:

“What can poetry do, right now, in Kenya? […] Inspire us to trust our own intelligence and passion, our hunger for art that is real and hard and truthful; messy and complex and bloody. Above all, art that is ours. Trust that our own voices are the thick grain, the juicy greens, we have been hungry for.”

It’s time for us all to refuse to be robbed further by unchallenged plagiarism.

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, writer and theater artist. Visit her at www.shailja.com

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Africa: New Publication from the Nordic Africa Institute

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/34716

The African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) represent an unprecedented collective political effort by African governments at the beginning of the 21st century to address issues of democracy and good governance on a continental scale within an emerging framework of institutions and instruments designed to assist in this effort. The contributions to this publication trace these recent developments from a policy perspective and explore the scope and limitations of current democratisation efforts.
New Publication from the Nordic Africa Institute:

Charles Manga Fombad and Zein Kebonang

Edited by Henning Melber

AU, NEPAD and the APRM
Democratisation Efforts Explored

Current African Issues 32
Pages: 56 pp Published: April 2006
ISBN: 91-7106-569-5 ISSN: 0280-2171

Keywords :
Institutional framework, African organizations, African Union, NEPAD,
democratization, governance, Government policy, Development strategy,
Legal aspects

For more information see below or please visit our website
www.nai.uu.se/publ/publeng.html


________________________________________________


Description

The African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) represent an unprecedented collective political
effort by African governments at the beginning of the 21st century to
address issues of democracy and good governance on a continental scale
within an emerging framework of institutions and instruments designed
to assist in this effort. The visible commitments to jointly tackle
political and socioeconomic challenges in order to overcome the
structural legacies that hamper national and social development are
reflected in the adoption of a variety of programmatic blueprints and
a series of newly created or recently strengthened institutions. The
most visible of these since the integration of NEPAD into the AU is
the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a process- aimed at
addressing some of the challenges on the basis of a voluntary
assessment of African government policies.
The contributions to this publication trace these recent developments
from a policy perspective and explore the scope and limitations of
current democratisation efforts. Going beyond the rhetoric surrounding
the emergence of the new initiatives, the authors provide an interim
and realistic prognosis of the prospects for these new dynamics to
achieve the declared goals of sustainable and meaningful change.

Charles Manga Fombad studied law at the University of Yaoundé and
obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London. He is Associate
Professor in the Department of Law, University of Botswana in
Gaborone.

Zein Kebonang studied law at the University of Botswana and at
Harvard and obtained a Ph.D. from the Australian National University,
Canberra. He is Lecturer in the Department of Law, University of
Botswana in Gaborone.

Henning Melber studied political science and sociology at the Freie
Universität in Berlin and obtained a Ph.D. and a venia legendi in
development studies from Bremen University. He is Research Director of
the Nordic Africa Institute.

Available for download.

Contents

Henning Melber
AU, NEPAD, and the APRM – Towards Democratic Change?
Introductory Remarks

Charles Manga Fombad
The African Union, Democracy and Good Governance

Zein Kebonang and Charles Manga Fombad
The African Peer Review Mechanism:
Challenges and Prospects

***********************************
The Nordic Africa Institute
Publishing Department
P O Box 1703 SE-751 47 Uppsala, Sweden
email:orders@nai.uu.se
Phone +46-(0) 18 56 22 05
Fax +46-(0) 18 56 22 90

African Blogs This Week

Sokari Ekine

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/34780

South African Diaspora (http://www.southafricandiaspora.org/archives/2006/05/30/take-take-take/) raises some interesting points about Africans leaving to work abroad in the West. He goes into considerable detail about skilled and unskilled labour and the cost for Africa to educate it’s skilled workforce who then leave.

“So taking this from America’s point of view, they can basically pick and chose who they want from Africa’s talent pool, not have to pay a cent for their education and training, and have no trouble getting them to immigrate. What a great system. Africa, why are you so poor and stupid?”

He asks what would happen if all the educated Africans came home to work? For example many Indians who left to study IT in the US are now returning home. He makes one challenging suggestion of the US:

“I would like to see America paying $1 million for every immigrant that they take. Or even better, if for every skilled worker that they took, they took 20 unskilled workers. Or maybe a moratorium on permanent immigrations, only 5 years maximum allowed – go overseas, work a bit, get cash and experience, bring it home and make it better…”

African Gadget (http://www.afrigadget.com) is a new group blog created with the aim of showcasing African alternative technologies and ways of utilising every day objects to solving local problems. One of the first pieces on show is:

“Handcrafted, locally made bikes using wood and rubber for the tires. Yes, they do have brakes, which are much needed in the mountainous areas of Uganda, Zaire/Congo, and Western Kenya.”

African Gadget is looking for more people in Africa to join their team. “No matter where you are located, you’ll see (and hopefully take pictures of) some interesting gadgets or mechanical wizardry. Even if you don’t have your own blog, or have never done anything like this before, you can easily get started here."

AfriGadget will cover these categories: Gadgets (of course), How-to’s, Books, Energy, Communication, Transportation, Water, Wood and Metal projects that are different from the norm.

Sub-ZeroBlue (http://www.subzeroblue.com/archives/2006/05/homosexuality_in_the.html) discusses homosexuality in the Arab world by commenting on it’s existence and asking what should be done.

“First of all, let's start with the general fact: Homosexuality exists. It has existed for ages and ages, and will continue to exist for ages to come…The Arab and Muslim world is no exception. Homosexuality exists in our societies and is a lot more widespread than we think it is…We and our governments choose to ignore that fact, we choose not to face it, and just act as if it’s not there, even though we know we’re lying to ourselves; it’s because we simply don’t know how to handle it.”

He goes on to say that on the basis of basic human anatomy homosexuality cannot be regarded as natural but since it exists, the Arab world needs to find a way to deal with it. He asks:

“So, is the Arab world’s policy of just ignoring the existence of homosexuality, and leaving it for the Arab society to deal with, as something that is both illegal by law and forbidden by religion, the best solution we have?”

The Arabist (http://arabist.net/archives/2006/05/28/a-letter-from-sharqawi) publishes a letter from Mohamed el-Sharqawi, a protestor who was detained by the police whilst protesting in support of the pro-reform judges. Sharqawi was sexually assaulted during his detention:

“Activist Mohammed el-Sharqawi, 24, was sodomized ‘using a rolled up piece of cardboard for nearly 15 minutes,’ his lawyer Gamal Eid told The Associated Press. ‘Almost all of el-Sharkawi’s body is bruised, swollen, or cut,’ Eid said. ‘I haven’t seen such brutality and sadism since 1995,’ he added, referring to a period when the state mounted a crackdown on Islamic militants.”

In this post, Sharqawi describes his ordeal from being kidnapped, beaten and assaulted over an 8 hour period by Egyptian security forces:

“I went through many moments of fear and horror in my life, but nothing was like those I went through after I left the Press Syndicate on 25 May, 2006, around 6pm. I got into one of my colleagues’ car, to take a ride to the train station, so as to catch the train to Alexandria. I wanted to see my family, after a period by no means short - 30 days -behind bars in Tora Prison.”

Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman (http://madkenyanwoman.blogspot.com/2006/05/nambrangelina-africa-in-hock.html) comments on the Brad Pitt/Angelina Joli saga in which they have gone to have their baby in Namibia. The government is providing them with protection from paparazzi during their stay and the couple have donated $175,000. The couple have a joint worth of literally millions of dollars. The child will have Namibian citizenship. MKW comments:

“However, we Africans have now reached new depths of depravity and shame. Or perhaps that should be heights, since it is somehow rather ineffable that an entire country can be turned into a private maternity ward. An. Entire. Sovereign. Country. Namibia has granted Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt the rights of ownership (or lease?) over its borders and its airspace, so that this couple, who are accomplished enough to have arranged their genetics so as to have the requisite good looks—if one likes that sort of thing—to subsequently make unthinkable amounts of money for occasionally pretending to be someone else on film, can determine who enters or flies over Namibia. I repeat. Namibia, THE COUNTRY.”

MKW (as are many other African bloggers) is disgusted with this arrangement or rather agreement by the Namibian government. MKW concludes that it would be best to stop pretending and just bring back colonialism:

“This time, we have ourselves agreed to slavery and to colonialism. This time, we have invited and reveled in them. This time, we have no excuse. I have never been so ashamed to be an African.”

Acoustic Motorbike (http://ggernst.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=316558) reviews a new book, an Anthology on lesbian writings from South Africa – Sometimes X Sometimes Y.

“It is a beautiful, moving anthology of personal stories of South African lesbians. There is poetry, stories, letters and autobiography. The anthology deals with issues of coming out, family and peer acceptance and rejection, love and loss, abuse and death.”

Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/05/blocking_blogs_monitoring_mobiles_-_.html) comments on the new trend emerging in African countries with governments increasingly attacking internet sites, blocking blogs and arresting bloggers and journalists. The Ethiopian government continues to block Ethiopian blogs in Ethiopia. The government is still denying responsibility but who else could be doing it. Apart from the blocking of blogs in Ethiopia, arrest of bloggers in Tunisia and Egypt, the Gambian government has hacked into the site of exiled journalist, Pa Nderry Mbai, who runs the Freedom Newspaper. His own content was removed and replaced by a false statement plus the publication of the names and emails of all registered users of the site all of whom were later ordered to report to the police station to be detained.

In addition the South African and Zimbabwean government are planning to enact legislation that will require mobile phone users to produce employment records and addresses. Providers will be forced to disclose and monitor usage.

"…from a user perspective the Bill has implications for both privacy and access or use of mobile phones. As always it is the poor that will mostly be affected by this legislation. If you don’t have an address, do not work in the formal economy or are an illegal immigrant then under the Bills regulations you will no longer be able to use a mobile phone. The second hand sale of SIM cards which again is used by mostly poor and rural people will be criminalised as failure to report the sale or exchange will result in a prison sentence of up to 12 months.”

Afrikan Eye (http://afrikaneye.blogspot.com/2006/05/slavery-and-colonisation.html) has an excellent essay on Slavery & Colonisation in Africa. She beings by saying:

“This blog is by an Afrikan for Afrikans...and those who are interested in the continent. May we have the courage to engage in our healing...I mean REALLY do the work required for us to heal...and of course a critical step in that process is learning how we were wounded...so here we go...this is PART of the story.”

She discusses the slave trade, resistance amongst captured slaves, colonisation and its impact on political and cultural underdevelopment, and Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. The piece is quite detailed and includes photos and graphics.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Africa: Forum on Freedom of Expression at the African Union Summit

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/34730

Please follow the link to find information on the Forum on Freedom of Expression during the African Union Summit. The Forum will be held from the 29th to 30th June 2006. It will provide in-depth knowledge of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa and other African Union mechanisms including the African Peer Review Mechanism.
Forum on Freedom of Expression in Africa
Date: 29-30 June 2006
Venue: The Gambia

ARTICLE 19 in partnership with the Gambia Press Union, Media Foundation for West Africa, Media Institute for West Africa, the All Africa Editors Forum, Panos Institute for West Africa, Famedev, the West African Journalist Association, High Way Africa Conference, and SABMiller Chair of Media and Democracy will organise a Forum on freedom of expression during the African Union Summit.
The Forum will be held from the 29th to 30th June 2006. It will provide in-depth knowledge of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa and other African Union mechanisms including the African Peer Review
Mechanism. The Forum will focus on how these mechanisms could be utilised at the national and regional levels to strengthen freedom of expression. It will also address key freedom of expression challenges and highlight the threats in many parts of the continent. The Forum will also seek to reinforce the work of existing freedom of expression and journalists networks in Africa and encourage them to utilise the mechanisms of the African Regional Human Rights System.

The Forum will bring together experienced African journalists, freedom of expression advocates, renowned African personalities with human rights credentials, influential networks and academics. The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa is also expected to participate.

During the African Union Summit, a delegation will seek to meet a number of African Heads of States and Government and other key African Union representatives including the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to submit the recommendations of the Forum.

For more information please contact:
Fatou Jagne- Senghore
ARTICLE 19 Africa Programme Officer
Tel: 2218209513
Tel: 2215692315
Email: fatou@article19.org
jagnfatou@sentoo.sn

Background

Freedom of expression is in a state of crisis in many parts of Africa. The major challenge today is the reluctance of many African governments to respect freedom of expression and allow media practitioners and human rights advocates to operate freely. The continent has witnessed widespread violations of freedom of expression,
ranging from killings of journalists, attacks on media practitioners and equipments, arbitrary closure and banning of media outlets, enactment of antimedia laws, arbitrary arrests and detentions, abusive and selective use of legal proceedings.

Through its organs, the African Union has recognised the importance of freedom of expression and the role of the media. In 2002, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) with the support of ARTICLE 19 and other freedom of expression and human rights organisations
adopted a landmark Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa (Declaration) which was endorsed by the African Union in July the same year. This major decision was followed by the appointment in 2004 of a Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression whose mandate is, to monitor violations of the right to freedom of expression on the continent, make recommendations
to address the violations; and to assist African Union member states to review their national media laws and policies to comply with the principles set in the
Declaration.

Many African media and freedom of expression organisations have developed initiatives to reinforce freedom of expression standards on the Continent. The synergy of these important initiatives will increase the visibility of the ongoing advocacy at the national and regional levels. ARTICLE 19 as an international organisation has worked with its partners across Africa and will seek to reinforce this partnership and use all fora to raise awareness on the main freedom of expression challenges in Africa.

Africa: Strengthening Civil Society - Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/34799

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, AfriMAP, and Partnership Africa Canada, will be holding a civil society event entitled Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance, prior to the African Union Summit in Banjul, Gambia from June 26 – 28, 2006.
Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, AfriMAP, and Partnership Africa Canada, will be holding a civil society event entitled Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance, prior to the African Union Summit in Banjul, Gambia from June 26 – 28, 2006. 
 
Strengthening Civil Society will focus on civil society participation in monitoring compliance with African standards on human rights and good governance, in particular civil society participation in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).  Panelists from different countries that have undergone peer review will present their experiences, from both the official and civil society perspective.
 
The workshop will also examine reports generated by AfriMAP, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project, which has looked in-depth at the compliance of five African governments that have signed up for peer review with African and international standards in relation to the justice sector and rule of law, political participation and democracy, and effective delivery of public services.  Finally, the workshop will discuss barriers to political participation in the form of discrimination in access to citizenship and documentation, bringing in case studies identified through a recent comparative study on discrimination and citizenship carried out by the Open Society Justice Initiative. 

Banjul, Gambia 26-28 June 2006

- Day 1: Monday 26 June -
- Focus on the APRM -

8:00 - Registration: tea, coffee

8:30 - Introduction, Welcoming remarks
Program overview, objectives and purpose of the workshop.

9:00 - 10:30: Panel 1- The African Union, APRM and civil society engagement
Speakers have been invited from the AU Commission, APRM secretariat and UNECA to present an overview of the interaction of African continental institutions engagement with civil society on human rights and governance issues.

10:30 - 11:00 Pause

11:00 - 11:45: Panel 2 - From Addis Ababa to Banjul: Civil society interaction with the APRM process. This panel will give a background to and a brief summary of the workshop held in Addis Ababa in January at which the Partnership Africa Canada report on the APRM and civil society participation was presented. Civil society representatives from different countries will present experiences in following up on the workshop's recommendations and engaging with the APRM process.

11:45 - 13:15: Panel 3 - Assessing compliance with the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance. This panel will hear lessons from the APRM processes in Kenya and Ghana, with presentations expected from the national APRM governing councils or secretariats and from civil society representatives. The panel will consider the extent to which the APRM process has helped assess the compliance of the country with the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance and other African standards.

13:15 - 14:30: Lunch

14:30 - 16:00: Panel 4 - Civil society participation in the APRM process. Researchers conducting assessments of the APRM processes in Rwanda and Mauritius will present the main conclusions of their review in these two countries. They will discuss most particularly the challenges of the institutional capacity of civil society in these countries to effectively monitor and participate in the APRM process. This panel will also feature a presentation on the South African process and the role of the civil society

16:00 - 16:30: Pause

16:30 - 18:00: Final discussion - Strengthening civil society participation with the APRM at national and continental level. General discussion, lessons learned, conclusions, recommendations.



- Day 2: Tuesday 27 June -

Morning: AfriMAP: Do African Civil Society Organizations have the Skills and Capacity to Monitor Compliance with commitments made under African Union treaties?

08:30: Registration

09:00: Introductory and welcoming remarks - including objectives and purpose of session

09:15: AfriMAP - A presentation of the work of the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) and its national partners in researching and reporting on compliance with African and international standards in relation to three subject areas: justice sector and the rule of law; political participation and democracy; and effective delivery of public services. The discussion will also identify challenges related to development and application of assessment tools in relation to human rights, democracy and good governance.

10:00: Panel Discussions - Three panels will discuss emerging issues from the AfriMAP research in order to precipitate a discussion about the capacities of civil society to monitor compliance with African standards, highlight some of the major constraints to compliance and flag issues that African civil society groups need to engage with. In each case, presentations will be made by AfriMAP's national country partners based on their experience of carrying out research to complete the AfriMAP questionnaires.

Panel 1 - Availability of and access to public information

Panel 2 - Domestic law and compliance with international treaties

Panel 3 - Weak institutions and how to strengthen them

12:30: Lunch

Afternoon: OSJI Citizenship Audit: Protecting political participation through equal rights to nationality

1400 Welcome and introduction
Objectives, purpose, and overview of session

1405 Keynote speaker - The right to nationality and statelessness: A critical issue in today's Africa

1435 The Africa Discrimination and Citizenship Audit
A presentation that will outline the findings of the recently concluded Africa Discrimination and Citizenship Audit and puts forward its recommendations.

15:00 - 17:55 Panel - Classes of citizenship based on ethnicity, gender, and region
Speakers on this panel will show how classes of citizenship are created with different rights assigned to different classes depending on ethnicity, gender, and region of origin. Speakers will discuss the impact on political participation and the enjoyment of other rights. Countries which may be focused on include Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The panel will be followed by a group discussion which will identify additional countries in which citizenship classes exist and explore solutions to these violations.

1800 Closing

- Day 3: Wednesday 28 June -

Morning

0830 Opening and review
Summary of previous days' discussion

8:40 - 11:30 Panel - Denationalization and Access to Documentation
Speakers on this panel will discuss forms of denationalization and including that where denial of proof of citizenship creates communities that are so politically and economically marginalized that they might be considered stateless. Countries that may be included in this examination are Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mauritania, and Niger. The presentations will be followed by a broader discussion which will explore ways in which equal access to citizenship can be guaranteed including how impartiality and transparency can be infused into document issuance and how decisions to deny identification can be appealed.

11:30 - 12:15 Presentation: Limiting freedom of expression
This presentation will discuss how governments limit non-nationals right to freedom of expression by using opaque security clauses in immigration laws. It will discuss challenges made to these actions at the national levels, looking specifically at Botswana and Zambia. It will be followed by a discussion that examines existing moves towards limiting fundamental rights for non-nationals and explores how these can be addressed.

12:15 - 13:00 Moving forward on citizenship rights: Broad strategies and next steps
Proposals raised from the previous discussions will be summarized to draft a plan for regional norm development and to explore existing legal remedies. In addition, mentioned advocacy opportunities (national and regional) will be highlighted and links between national, sub-regional, and regional actions planned.

1300 Closing speaker


Afternoon: Press conference
The workshop will present its combined findings and recommendations to media representatives in Banjul. After the formal presentation, civil society representatives at the workshop will be encouraged to speak to national media from their countries represented in Banjul, and to make contact with continental media on the issues they are interested in.

Strengthening Civil Society

Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance

2006-06-01

http://www.justiceinitiative.org/

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative, AfriMAP, and Partnership Africa Canada, will be holding a civil society event entitled Strengthening Civil Society: Ensuring Compliance with African and International Standards on Human Rights and Good Governance, prior to the African Union Summit in Banjul, Gambia from June 26 – 28, 2006. Strengthening Civil Society will focus on civil society participation in monitoring compliance with African standards on human rights and good governance, in particular civil society participation in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Panelists from different countries that have undergone peer review will present their experiences, from both the official and civil society perspective. The workshop will also examine reports generated by AfriMAP, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project, which has looked in-depth at the compliance of five African governments that have signed up for peer review with African and international standards in relation to the justice sector and rule of law, political participation and democracy, and effective delivery of public services. Finally, the workshop will discuss barriers to political participation in the form of discrimination in access to citizenship and documentation, bringing in case studies identified through a recent comparative study on discrimination and citizenship carried out by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Sudan: Peace keepers targeted in Darfur

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5026900.stm

An African Union peacekeeper in Sudan's Darfur region has been killed in an ambush by unknown men. A peacekeeping base was later attacked with rocket-propelled grenades. One peacekeeper was badly injured; five had less serious wounds. An AU spokesman said peacekeepers were being targeted by groups opposed to a peace deal signed earlier this month.

Africa: Gender, time use, and poverty

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21871

This paper analyses the relationship between gender, time use and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The volume analyses current research and surveys on time use in Africa as well as its impact on other development indicators. In addition, this volume presents a conceptual framework linking both market and household work, and use tools and approaches drawn from analysis of consumption based poverty to develop the concept of a time poverty line and to look at the relationship between time poverty, consumption poverty, and other dimensions of development such as education and child labour.

Africa: New reports show violence against girls in Africa

2006-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/34564

The African Child Policy Forum has announced that their research shows nine out of ten girls in East Africa are abused by the people who they are supposed to trust most. The research tells the story of their mothers tying them up; friends driving them into prostitution; teachers psychologically abusing them; boyfriends forcing them to have sex; and brothers kicking them.
NEW REPORTS SHOW EXTREME AND MASSIVE VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS IN AFRICA

AFRICAN GIRLS ARE BORN TO A HIGH RISK AND ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE ABUSED
BY THOSE THEY TRUST MOST SAYS THE AFRICAN CHILD POLICY FORUM

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA May 10, 2006 – The African Child Policy Forum
announced today that their research shows nine out of ten girls in
East Africa are abused by the people who they are supposed to trust
most. The research tells the story of their mothers tying them up;
friends driving them into prostitution; teachers psychologically
abusing them; boyfriends forcing them to have sex; and brothers
kicking them.

One Ethiopian woman articulated the cost of violence committed by
those closest to her when she said: "I have been subjected to
different forms of violence. However, the sexual abuse committed
against me by my own father could not get out of my mind."

"The studies we conducted are not just an accumulation of facts and
figures, they are the very real stories of what these girls have
experienced," says Dr. Assefa Bequele, Executive Director of the
African Child Policy Forum. "We must speak out against violence
against children and confront attitudes that tolerate it. It is
inexcusable that one in every two girls in Ethiopia will marry before
their 18th birthday; that thousands of girls are abducted to serve as
soldiers, domestic servants and sexual slaves in Uganda. The Forum
believes girls in Africa are born to a high risk and that action must
be taken to address these issues."

The African Child Policy Forum conducted various types of research for
its Second International Policy Conference on the African Child:
Violence Against Girls in Africa on May 11 and 12, 2006. These
included surveys of girls who experienced violence; analysis of
existing literature and studies; and monographs that examine violence
against girls in the home, community and workplace.

The findings above reflect the retrospective survey carried out in
three countries – Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya – consisting of
one-on-one interviews in the field with more than 1500 randomly
selected young women between the ages of 18 and 24. The surveys
examine their lives before they reached 18 years old. The findings
show some astounding statistics about the prevalence and nature of the
problem in Africa.

In Ethiopia, every girl interviewed had experienced some form of
violence at one time or another and more than 90 per cent of girls
questioned in Uganda had experienced some form of sexual abuse.


In Kenya, 99 per cent of the girls surveyed had experienced physical
abuse, with Uganda close behind at 94.2 per cent. Ethiopia, although
at 84 per cent, had the highest rate of violent acts against girls
under five years old.



In Kenya and Ethiopia girls are primarily beaten by their mothers and
in Uganda they are beaten by their male teachers and both of their
parents. Many were beaten so severely they had to go to a clinic to
treat their health problems.

More than half of the girls reported they watched as someone they know
is being severely beaten (51.2% Ethiopia, 55.2% Kenya, 63.4% Uganda)
which is not surprising since 70 to 85 per cent of them have been
beaten themselves.

In addition to the three-country survey, The African Child Policy
Forum produced a pre-conference report called "Born to High Risk:
Violence Against Girls in Africa," which looks at the magnitude of
violence in Africa and highlights some disturbing information
collected by other organisations.

In Mali, 65.4 per cent of girls are married before they reach the age of 18.
Approximately 1000 girls aged between 14 and 24 are trafficked from
Mozambique to work as prostitutes in South Africa each year.
In Angola, up to 30,000 girls were abducted by armed forces during its
civil war.

In Nigeria, 85 per cent of girl domestic workers have been coerced
into sexual intercourse with their male employers.


"The purpose of this report is not to place blame," Dr. Assefa Bequele
says. "Rather it is a call for action from the girls themselves, whose
voices – usually so seldom heard - reverberate throughout the study."



The report concludes with several recommendations on the way forward
including: involving children as part of the solution; combating
traditional, often sexist attitudes that sanction violence, especially
violence against girls; calling on civil society to embark on a major
campaign of public awareness and education; and calling upon
governments to develop effective policies and laws against violence.



The objective of the conference is to contribute to the ongoing
international effort to effect attitudinal and policy changes toward
violence against girls, by providing a platform for like-minded
organisations to work together and initiate an Africa-wide movement
against all forms of violence. The conference will ensure that
African views and positions, especially regarding girls, are reflected
in actions and resolutions taken by the African Union and the United
Nations.



The conference is largely funded by Plan International and is being
organised in partnership with the AU, UNECA, UNICEF, UNFPA, and Save
the Children Group.



ABOUT THE AFRICAN CHILD POLICY FORUM

The African Child Policy Forum is an independent, pan-African advocacy
organisation working for the realisation of children's rights. Founded
in 2003, the Forum is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its
mission is to contribute towards the development and implementation of
effective policies and laws to promote and protect the rights and
welfare of African children.



The Forum carries out a wide range of activities covering research,
advocacy, and policy development and dialogue. Its programmes include
The Children's Legal Protection Centre, which provides protection and
free legal support to abused children, children in high risk
situations and those in conflict with the law.



The Forum is led by an International Board of Trustees comprising
leading international child rights organisations and pre-eminent
experts on children's rights and development issues. The Chairman of
the Board is Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, African Union Special Envoy and
Chief Mediator for the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks and Darfur and
former Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity.



The Forum's Executive Director is Assefa Bequele, Ph.D., member of the
African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
and former official at the United Nations.

For more information: www.africanchildform.org

###

Global: Beijing plus ten - an ambivalent record on gender justice

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21653

This paper gives an overview of the achievements (or lack of achievement) for the area of gender equality ten years after the Beijing Conference. The report acknowledges that there has undoubtedly been significant progress made in the social, political and economic status of women in public life in many countries. However the paper also gives several examples of slow progress, or lack of progress, made in reducing gender inequalities.

Global: Gender perspectives in peace initiatives - opportunities and challenges

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21934

This paper analyses the issue of women and conflicts. It looks at women as victims of violence, and also as active participants in wars and conflict situations. The author also points out that women's issues and rights are usually ignored in conflict situations, and in the context of post-conflict rebuilding of peace.

Global: Women’s earning power and well being

2006-05-31

http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/133661/66/83892

Women's unpaid housework may be of critical importance in the determination of household wellbeing, but unfortunately it does not get as much recognition as paid work does. In order to get such recognition, many recent studies are advocating an inclusion of the imputed value of women's unpaid work in the construction of national accounts.

Kenya: Changing tradition through dialogue

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33407

In Kajiado district in Kenya, simple conversations hold out the promise of helping to end female genital mutilation (FGM). These conversations are taking place under the auspices of "intergenerational dialogue" (IGD), an approach jointly supported by the Ministry of Health and German Development Co-operation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ). The dialogue enables young and old people to talk about the practice of FGM.

Kenya: Sexual offences bill sails through

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605301494.html

The Sexual Offences Bill in Kenya has come closer to enactment after sailing through the second reading in Parliament. The Bill, sponsored by Nominated MP Njoki Ndung'u, will now go to the committee of the whole House where members will scrutinise it clause-by-clause. In this stage, members are allowed to amend it on the floor of the House. Once members agree on the amendments, the Bill goes to the third stage, for presidential assent.

Zimbabwe: Women’s rights activists under siege

2006-05-30

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14473

Earlier this month, security agents in Zimbabwe told Jenni Williams that if she continues to organize demonstrations she is going to pay for it with her life. Williams received the threat upon being released from jail. She and 165 other WOZA activists had been arrested for demonstrating against a hike in public school fees.

Egypt: Activists accuse police of torture

2006-05-30

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060526/D8HRMOV00.html

Egyptian police allegedly tortured two protesters - sexually assaulting one of them - after a peaceful demonstration in support of pro-reform judges, a lawyer and an opposition group said Friday (26 May). Activist Mohammed el-Sharkawi, 24, was sodomized "using a rolled up piece of cardboard for nearly 15 minutes," his lawyer Gamal Eid told The Associated Press. "Almost all of el-Sharkawi's body is bruised, swollen, or cut," Eid said. "I haven't seen such brutality and sadism since 1995," he added, referring to a period when the state mounted a crackdown on Islamic militants.

Egypt: Government faces nine charges

2006-05-30

http://www.hrea.org

Today (25 May), on the first anniversary of the attacks made on referendum day, 24 Egyptian NGOs announced that the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights, of the African Union, has decided to take on the lawsuit that organizations have raised against the Egyptian government over the physical and sexual harassment of a number of female journalists and political activists.

Kenya: Envoy sent to resolve gay row

2006-05-30

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605260732.html

A special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury - the head of the Anglican Church worldwide - is expected in Kenya to try and defuse the escalating row over the visit of the Bishop of Chelmsford, a supporter of gay rights. The visit has spurred controversy over Bishop John Gladwin's support for the "full inclusion" organisation, which supports a more liberal approach to the inclusion of gay people within the church. Both the Times and Daily Telegraph newspapers have accused Kenya's Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of "abandoning" Bishop Gladwin during his trip.

Somalia: Militias could face war crimes charges for atrocities

2006-05-30

http://www.shabellenews.com/news/ne1049.htm

Members of militias fighting for control of the Somali capital could face war crimes charges for attempting to prevent the wounded and civilians from receiving assistance during the conflict, a U.N. official warned Monday (29 May). The battle between fundamentalist Islamic militias and rival secular combatants has forced about 1,500 to seek treatment at Mogadishu's two main hospitals since the beginning of this year, said Eric Laroche, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

Sudan: Are minors being executed?

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33406

Most people have never heard of Nagmeldin Abdallah. It is impossible to reach him in the eastern Sudanese prison where he waits for word on an appeal that may save his life. But Abdallah has achieved minor notoriety in activist circles. Sudan's complex death penalty statutes may never have gained international attention were it not for Abdallah, who claims he was 15 when he was sentenced to death for killing a vegetable seller in 2003.

Zimbabwe: Heavy security at camp for street children

2006-05-30

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14463

Most of the children rounded up by the police during a new onslaught on Harare’s street people have been dumped at a heavily guarded Melfort Camp near Bromley. When The Standard crew visited the camp, older street children were busy collecting firewood under police escort. There were four large tents pitched up to accommodate vagrants, rounded up during the operation, which started on 12 April.

Zimbabwe: Satellite images show community obliteration

2006-05-31

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAFR460082006

Amnesty International released the first-ever satellite images of the wholesale destruction of a large community in Zimbabwe - providing the clearest possible evidence to date of the devastating impact of the Zimbabwean government's policy of house demolitions. "These satellite images are irrefutable evidence - if further evidence is even needed - that the Zimbabwean government has obliterated entire communities - completely erased them from the map, as if they never existed," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa programme.

Africa: Spain to get migrant patrol help

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5028506.stm

Nine EU nations have pledged to provide aircraft and patrol boats to support Spain in its effort to stem the flood of illegal migrants from Africa. Spain says it needs additional five patrol boats, five helicopters and a surveillance plane to track refugees arriving to the Canary Islands. Some 7,500 migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic in 2005.

Chad: Would-be refugees going hungry in forest

2006-05-30

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53589

In four major refugee camps less than 40 kilometres north of Bekoningka, the southern Chadian border village, basic shelter and protection is provided to 48,000 CAR refugees by the UN's refugee agency UNHCR. But new arrivals have been told by the local authorities that they must wait to be registered at Bekoningka before they can move to the camps. Life for the squatters is hard, even by local standards, in a region where few can afford even the basics, and low prices for cotton, the region's main crop, has devastated incomes this year.

Somalia: Bloody events in Somalia shove more to Yemen

2006-05-30

http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=3_2006_05_30_6122

The number of Somalis who are getting out by sea to Yemen has increased in the last few days because of the current bloody warfare in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Sources said that the death toll at sea during trips from Somalia to Yemen through the Gulf of Aden was getting higher.

Sudan: An uncertain return

2006-05-30

http://www.ockenden.org.uk/temp/UncertainspReturnPDF1.pdf

Following several months of research in and around Maridi, southern Sudan, Jake Phelan and Graham Wood explore the impact of return and reintegration in Western Equatoria. At the southern tip of Sudan, Western Equatoria borders Uganda, CAR and the DRC and represents a cross roads for many of the refugees returning “home” from these countries.

Uganda: UN halts Sudanese refugees repatriation from Uganda

2006-05-31

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=15946

The United Nations refugee agency has halted the repatriation of Sudanese refugees from Moyo District in northern Uganda over safety reasons. This move follows reports that Liri, Nyepo and Limolo payams (sub-counties) in the refugees' Kajo Keji home land are riddled with explosives.

Zambia: Cholera stalls repatriation of refugees

2006-05-31

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw114899922144B251

Zambian authorities have confirmed that the repatriation of thousands of Angolan refugees had been stalled owing to a cholera outbreak in the western neighbouring country that has killed more than 1 400 people. Home affairs permanent secretary Peter Mumba said the cholera situation in Angola was "worrisome" and there was need to be cautious in the repatriation exercise.

Zimbabwe: 'Sending me back is a death sentence'

2006-05-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=273199

"If South Africa wants to send me back to Zimbabwe it would be a death sentence," former Zimbabwean opposition MP Roy Bennett has said. Bennett fled to South Africa in March after being implicated in an arms find in Mutare, eastern Zimbabwe. His asylum application was rejected by the South African Department of Home Affairs.

Chad: Deby win confirmed, but revised down to 64.67 percent

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53580

The constitutional council confirmed Idriss Deby's victory in presidential elections early this month. Deby won a third successive five-year mandate with 64.67 percent of the vote, the council said, which although a substantial majority, was below the provisional victory figure of 77.6 percent initially released by the country's national election commission.

DRC: Combatants could undermine upcoming elections

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33405

Hundreds of combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are said to be joining a nascent militia based in the north-east of the country: the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolaise, MRC). This comes just weeks before the first nation-wide elections to be held in 40 years, and is undermining prospects for a successful poll.

Guinea: Conte reshuffles government, gives trusted aide top job

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53600

President Lansana Conte has reshuffled the government of Guinea, appointing a longtime trusted aide to the top cabinet post and bringing back several onetime ministers. The reshuffle, announced on state radio and television on Monday evening, comes almost two months after the sacking of reformist prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, 5 April, and Radio France Internationale said it marked a return of the old guard in Guinea, where Conte has been in office for 22 years.

Nigeria: Top security chiefs sacked

2006-05-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5031262.stm

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has announced a major shake-up of his country's military. The chiefs of the defence staff and air-force have been dismissed, along with the national security adviser. The army chief has been promoted to chief of defence staff. No reasons have been given for the decisions.

Nigeria: Wole Soyinka tells all on Obasanjo

2006-05-31

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/politics/may06/29052006/p129052006.html

In an in depth interview, Nigeria's Nobel Laureate, Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka gives his opinion on recent Constitutional amendments, corruption within educational institutions and the role of young activists in the current political climate.

South Africa: Struggle against neo-liberalism bigger than Zuma

2006-06-01

http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1028

"The sad reality [is] that those, within the alliance, who purport to have the interests of the working class at heart, while being at the forefront of the 'Zuma for presidency' campaign have been, ironically, absent from militant working class struggles for better living conditions and affordable basic services." writes Percy Ngonyama, a social-movement activist based in Durban in discussing the furore over the succession struggle in South Africa.

Swaziland: Planting pro-democracy activism in schools

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53613

Catch them younger!" is the new mantra of the youth wing of Swaziland's banned political party, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), as it tries to gather more support for its pro-democracy campaign. "We have to nurture students from primary schools so that they can become familiar with the struggle, rather than hoping to get them when they are at university," said Alex Langwenya, president of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), PUDEMO's youth movement.

Uganda: Museveni's new look cabinet shows he is in charge

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605300425.html

Uganda's president has moved to consolidate his power by naming his young brother, Salim Saleh, and his childhood friend-turned-foe, Eriya Kategaya, to his new Cabinet announced last week. The country had been without a Cabinet since Museveni dissolved the old one a few hours before he was sworn in for another five-year term on May 12.

Zimbabwe: Final report on Budiriro Parliamentary By-Election

2006-05-30

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/elec/060521zesn.asp?sector=ELEC

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, anti senate faction's candidate Emmanuel Chisvuure beat the ZANU PF candidate, Jeremiah Bvirindi and Gabriel Chaibva of the MDC's pro senate faction in the Budiriro parliamentary by-election that was marred by a low voter turn out. Chisvuure polled 7 949 votes while Bvirindi and Chaibva polled 3 961 and 504 votes respectively.

Africa: Political will needed to defeat corruption

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5019266.stm

Africa needs to "go on the offensive" and show the political will to defeat corruption, the head of the African Development Bank has said. The bank's president, Donald Kaberuka, said such a renewed effort was vital to boost economies and to encourage more investment from overseas. He made his comments on the sidelines of a business conference in Rwanda.

Africa: Rich nations 'deeply implicated' in African corruption

2006-05-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=273228

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz on Wednesday congratulated African nations for launching a campaign against corruption but said rich countries have to cooperate to stamp out graft.

Kenya: Bribery Index 2006

2006-05-31

http://www.tikenya.org/documents/Kenya%20Bribery%20Index%202006.pdf

Transparency International Kenya (TI) released the 2006 Kenya Bribery Index amid criticism for leaking the report to one media house before the launch. The report summarizes the findings of Transparency International(TI)-Kenya’s fifth national bribery survey. The survey is part of TI Kenya’s effort to inform the fight against corruption with rigorous and objective research and analysis. The survey captures corruption as experienced by ordinary citizens in their interaction with officials of both public and private organisations.

Kenya: Minister admits that corruption is rampant

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605301498.html

Kenya's justice and constitutional affairs minister has admitted that corruption was still rampant in the country, and it permeated all sectors. "It appears that we have only scratched the surface in fighting the menace," said the minister. At the same time, she said there was a wrong perception that corruption only thrived in the public sector, adding that it was also rife in the private sector.

Nigeria: Obasanjo urges Nigeria to seek good governance

2006-05-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=273081

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday urged Nigerians never to compromise on good governance and to shun corruption, in a speech to the nation marking the return of democracy seven years earlier.

South Africa: Apartheid grand corruption under the spotlight

2006-06-01

http://www.ipocafrica.org/pubs/reports/apartheidgrandc.pdf

"In South Africa the issue of grand corruption under apartheid has been the source of comparatively little public debate," says a new report, 'Apartheid Grand Corruption: Assessing the scale of crimes of profit in South Africa from 1976 to 1994', which attempts to document and describe instances of corruption that took place during apartheid and in particular, during the period 1976–1994. "Since the advent of democratic rule scant attention has been paid to the possibility that leading apartheid-era functionaries (in government and business) may have used the cover of authoritarian rule to illegally acquire vast sums of wealth in defiance even of the legal 'norms' of that time," the report says.

Africa: Cautious Optimism Surfaces

2006-05-30

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33360

Africa has come to be associated with conflicts, political unrest, famine and disease. A new report, African Economic Outlook (AEO), says that there is reason to be optimistic about the world's second largest continent.

Africa: Film puts World Bank and IMF on trial

2006-05-30

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=13250

Africa's lone entry to the Cannes film festival aims to speak for millions with it's ambitious tale of putting the World Bank and IMF on trial for policies that are choking African nations. "Bamako" a jewel film by a Mauritian director, Abderrahmane Sissako aims to demonstrate the impact of these policies on the daily lives of Africans. Debt repayments which absorb an astonishing 40 percent of the Zambian and Kenyan budgets is a recurrent leitmotif.

Africa: Forces for Change - Informal economy organisations in Africa

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/34766

Structural adjustment policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s have significantly contributed towards a rapid growth of the informal economy in many African countries. These policies encouraged governments to liberalise trade, to privatise state-owned enterprises and to reduce the size of the public sector. This led to a sharp decrease in employment in the formal sector and forced many to survive in highly precarious and insecure conditions in the informal economy.
Forces for Change: informal economy organisations in Africa

A joint research report by War on Want, the Workers Education Association Zambia (WEAZ) and the Alliance for Zambia Informal Economy Associations (AZIEA)

Structural adjustment policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s have significantly contributed towards a rapid growth of the informal economy in many African countries. These policies encouraged governments to liberalise trade, to privatise state-owned enterprises and to reduce the size of the public sector. This led to a sharp decrease in employment in the formal sector and forced many to survive in highly precarious and insecure conditions in the informal economy.

A joint research report by War on Want, the Workers Education Association Zambia (WEAZ) and the Alliance for Zambia Informal Economy Associations (AZIEA) shows that in the past decades different organisations have been established in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, with the purpose of representing the views of street traders, market vendors and other informal economy workers. National alliances of different informal economy organisations have been formed in e.g. Ghana and Zambia. Despite these developments, this research report shows that these organisations have not been sufficiently consulted by local and central governments.

Summary of research findings:

- While the informal economy is estimated to contribute between 38 and 49 percent towards the GNP of the four countries included in this study, workers in the informal economy have only gradually been acknowledged as stakeholders in policy formulation processes.

- Although the informal economy provides employment to between 70 and 90 percent of the labour force in Africa, none of the informal economy organisations part of our research project were involved in the consultation process leading up to the formulation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP).

- Governments have not adequately addressed the needs of informal economy workers in local and central government policies.

This report recommends:

- trade union federations to include representatives from informal economy organisations in their official delegation to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Annual Conference in Geneva;

- trade union federations to promote supportive relations between trade unions and informal economy organisations;

- trade union federations and central governments to include informal economy organisations into tripartite negotiation platforms;

- central and local governments to establish legal institutions that will compel government to a dialogue with informal economy organisations;

- central governments to engage informal economy organisations into policy formulation processes such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) consultation;

- the International Labour Organisation - Bureau for Workers' Activities (ILO-ACTRAV) to invite representatives from informal economy organisations whenever organising activities on the informal economy;

- informal economy organisations to consider investing into research capacity building in order to enable organisations to analyse policy changes and to provide an analytical response to these changes.

War on Want fights poverty in developing countries in partnership and solidarity with people affected by globalisation. We campaign for workers' rights and against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice.

War on Want
Development House
56-64 Leonard Street
London EC2A 4LT
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 7549 0555
F: +44 (0)20 7549 0556
E: mailroom@waronwant.org
W: www.waronwant.org/forcesforchange

Company limited by guarantee registration number 629916
Charity number 208724

Global: Aid Harmonization - Challenges for Civil Society

2006-05-30

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/oda/index.htm#harmonizaid

This newsletter from the International NGO Training and Research Centre (INTRAC) looks at how the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness affects NGOs as providers of international aid. The declaration urges governments to transfer aid directly into the budgets of poor countries, rather than funding their own development projects. While this could prevent rich countries from using aid as a tool to achieve their own political and economic interests, INTRAC warns that Northern NGOs could lose much of their funding and political influence.

Global: Despite Debt Relief, Poor Nations Back In the Red

2006-05-30

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33336

A new report by the self-auditing arm of the World Bank has painted a grim picture of the results of a decade-long plan by the Bank and the International Monetary Fund to give the world's poorest nations debt relief.

Global: Promoting mutual accountability in aid relationships

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21917

This briefing paper argues that the quality of aid must improve if poverty reduction objectives are to be met. It identifies two main challenges: first, changing donor practices to increase aid effectiveness (e.g. aid untying, harmonisation); and second, donors recognising that aid will only be successful if it is truly 'owned' by recipient countries.

Kenya: Doctors for the "haves" lions for the "have nots"

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33355

For Nalangu Taki, a simple glass of water can come with a heavy price. This resident of Narok in south-western Kenya says women in the district have to walk long distances to obtain water, sometimes getting attacked by lions. "Women wake up at six am every day and walk for over 20 kilometres to get to water points. At the water points, they meet lions which are also searching for water," she told IPS. The scramble for resources claims lives.

Africa: African Negotiators lobby in bad faith at UN meeting on AIDS

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/34812

Statement by African Civil Society Colaition on AIDS

Three weeks after the African Union - the highest decision-making regional authority in Africa - endorsed a Common Position on HIV and AIDS, African delegates in New York are reneging on the strong commitments they made to providing access to services for HIV prevention, care and treatment to all those who need them in Africa.
Three weeks after the African Union - the highest decision-making regional authority in Africa - endorsed a Common Position on HIV and AIDS, African delegates in New York are reneging on the strong commitments they made to providing access to services for HIV prevention, care and treatment to all those who need them in Africa. At the Abuja Heads of States Summit held from May 2 - 4, African states committed to:

a. Reaching at least 80% of pregnant women with access to prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT);
b. Ensuring that 80% of orphans and vulnerable children have access to basic services by 10;
c. Ensuring that at least 80% of those in need, especially women and children, have access to HIV/AIDS treatment, including antiretroviral therapy as well as care and support;
d. Ensuring that at least 80% of target populations have access to voluntary testing and counselling services
e. Reaching at least 80% of target populations with access to condoms and the skills to use them for HIV prevention.

Although African Heads of States endorsed a strong declaration with clear targets and timeframes for fighting AIDS in Africa, bureaucrats and officials at a UN review are refusing to acknowledge these commitments.

In a surprising turn of events, and a remarkable display of bad faith, negotiators from Gabon, Egypt and South Africa have refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the African Common Position, and have aligned themselves with the United States, the EU and Japan in rejecting the inclusion of targets in the UNGASS Political Declaration.

African negotiators have resisted the inclusion of specific measures to protect and promote the human rights of vulnerable groups, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, adolescents and women. This refusal to acknowledge the people most affected by the global epidemic again flies in the face of the Common Position, which clearly specifies the need to support these and other groups in programmes designed to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS. The positions of the countries listed above are particularly puzzling in light of the
evidence regarding the impact of HIV and AIDS: 77% of young people living with HIV and AIDS are young women.

Nigeria is the only African country that has openly spoken out against the undermining of the African Common Position. Not a single other African state has followed suit, despite repeated information notes from the African Union secretariat, informing New York-based African
negotiators about the existence and importance of the Common Position.

Instead, silence and apathy have mired the African bloc, and rendered the bloc of over fifty AU member states virtually silent for the duration of the negotiations.

We call on countries such as Namibia and Kenya, which have indicated to civil society that they do not agree with the position articulated by the African negotiators to do so openly. We call on all African countries to honour the commitments made at Abuja three weeks ago and to stop the bad faith negotiations being undertaken in their name.

Issued by the African Civil Society Coalition on AIDS

For more information contact:

Omololu Falobi
Email: omololu@nigeria-aids.org
Tel: +1 646 578 6757

Sisonke Msimang
Email: sisonkem@osisa.org
Tel: +27 83 450 7382

Africa: HIV, democracy and governance

2006-06-01

http://www.justiceafrica.org/gain_issue_brief8.htm

The African Civil Society Governance and Aids Initiative briefing contains information on the Jacob Zuma rape trial verdict, the bi-annual International Microbicides Conference, and the global campaign to part-finance the Global Fund. It also includes information about research in Tanzania dealing with governance and quality in Tanzanian education and voices of AIDS news sources and how they differ in what they say in Uganda. Visit the Justice Africa website to read the full briefing.

Africa: Plea for free health care

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5028524.stm

A British-based charity has called for international donors to give specific long-term support to African nations in providing free healthcare. The charity, Save the Children, says in a new report that almost 800 children die in Africa daily because they cannot afford to pay for medical treatment. It says greater access to health services could make a huge difference. It also points out that only limited progress has been made in abolishing health charges in Africa.

Africa: Seeking answers in the failed response to HIV/AIDS

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33385

The AIDS epidemic, described by the United Nations as the "most destructive in human history" and accounting for more than 25 million deaths so far, is still a growing threat to global progress and stability. "AIDS is one of the greatest leadership challenges of our time," says U.N. Secretary-General in a new report released in advance of a U.N. special session on AIDS. "Without urgent and long-term action," he warned, "the epidemic will continue to take an unacceptable toll of death and suffering in countries and communities throughout the world."

Global: Ensuring universal access to Aids treatment

2006-06-01

http://www.equinetafrica.org/newsletter/

When the United Nations General Assembly meets in June to review progress in tackling the AIDS epidemic it will be reminded by civil society globally of the commitment made to ensure universal access to treatment for AIDS by 2010. This commitment has greatest resonance in sub-Saharan Africa where AIDS related mortality is highest, begins an editorial from the latest edition of Equinet News, the newsletter of the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa.

Global: New UNAIDS Report

2006-05-31

http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2006/20060530-PR_GR04_en.pdf

According to new data in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down globally, but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The report also shows that important progress has been made in country AIDS responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment, and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years.
Related Link:
* Campaigners demand action on G8 AIDS pledge at UN meeting
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/216723/51fc2a8ca024732f04c64a060d676eac.htm

Kenya: Ban on smoking in public takes effect

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5026536.stm

A ban on smoking in Kenya's public places has come into force, to reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths. From Monday, anyone smoking in offices, bus stations, airports and sports venue faces a fine of 50,000 Kenya shillings ($700; £375) or six months in prison. Bars and restaurants without separate smoking areas are also affected.
*Updated News:
Kenya suspends public smoking ban
Kenya's High Court has suspended a controversial ban on smoking in public places which began on Monday. It ordered the suspension for 30 days after tobacco companies challenged the health minister's authority to impose the restriction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5034108.stm

Mozambique: HIV/AIDS, hunger and vulnerability

SARPN, Concern Worldwide and Oxfam-International briefing

2006-05-31

http://www.sarpn.org/documents/d0002036/index.php

"Livelihood insecurity in Manica is growing both in terms of the number of people affected and in its impact, particularly in certain areas where erratic rainfall and ill health and deaths from AIDS have occurred. Growing numbers of people are taking up ever more risky livelihood strategies such as unsustainable livestock sales or the removal of children from school in order to release them for household duties requiring labour or to relieve costs associated with school attendance."

Somali: Diarrhea kills 14

2006-05-30

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605290040.html

At least fourteen children have reportedly died from diarrhea in southern Somalia. Doctors and other health activists in the District have started community awareness raising.

Africa: African students the most mobile in the world

2006-05-31

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=33154

Tertiary students from sub-Saharan Africa are the most mobile in the world, with one out of every 16 – or 5.6 percent - studying abroad, according to a report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). "What this report shows is that the real dynamic in tertiary education is coming from African, Arab and Chinese students. They are the driving force behind the internationalization of higher education," says Hendrik van der Pol, UIS Director.

Africa: Africans welcome new era in teaching of English

2006-05-31

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/5/emw392031.htm

From 5 – 9 June the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg plays host to a five-day workshop, ‘Time for a New Phonics Approach for Teaching English in Africa?’, and what started off as a workshop to provide an opportunity for local teachers and educators in South Africa to debate issues surrounding the teaching of English synthetic phonics has seen an unprecedented number of enquiries for places from all over the continent of Africa and beyond. Many in the world of education are welcoming THRASS as heralding the start of a new era in the teaching of English.

Ghana: Migration for children an obstacle for education?

2006-05-30

http://www.id21.org/education/e2ih1g1.html

Specialists have emphasised the importance of education for children both as a route out of poverty and for realising their potential. There is a tendency to assume that migration undermines children's education, as most children's migration is for work.

Global: Reshaping education in post-conflict countries

2006-05-30

http://www.id21.org/education/e2pb1g1.html

Conflict can devastate a country's education system. It reverses efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for universal completion of primary education and for gender equality in schools by 2015. At the same time, rebuilding education is increasingly seen as essential to reduce the risk of countries falling back into conflict.

Kenya: State releases Sh1.3b for free primary education

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605300143.html

The Government has released Sh1.3 billion for the free education programme to meet general expenditure in schools. This is the equivalent of Sh185 a pupil in all the 18,000 public primary schools in the country, acting Education minister Noah Wekesa said at the ministry headquarters.

Uganda: Can education promote peace?

2006-05-30

http://www.id21.org/education/ellh1g1.html

Conflict between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has displaced 1.6 million northern Ugandans. The LRA has abducted an estimated 28,000 children, destroyed schools and forced children to become 'night commuters' by moving every evening from their homes into towns to sleep. Peace will not be possible without greater focus on education.

Zimbabwe: Street children write about life on the streets of Harare

2006-05-31

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/chiyou/060517kub.asp?sector=CHIYOU#audio

15-year-old Brian Koshoti is one of the hundreds of street children that live and work on the streets of Harare. Brian grew up in Mutare but when his parents died he moved in with his grandparents. Tragedy struck again when his grandmother passed away. Meanwhile as young Brian mourned the death of his grandmother, his grandfather married a young woman who had 3 children.

Global: MDGs must incorporate indigenous people's interests

2006-05-30

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33387

At the close of a major United Nations meeting in New York Friday, indigenous leaders urged the world's developed countries to take into account the concerns of native communities living within their borders while implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are series of targets set by world leaders in 2000 to reduce levels of poverty, disease, illiteracy, and environmental degradation, and improve gender equality, by the year 2015.

Global: Racism fears dog World Cup build-up

2006-05-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5012182.stm

While anti-racism campaigners have warned black and Asian fans against visiting parts of Berlin and the former communist east Germany, politicians have leapt to reassure non-white visitors they will be safe. Concerns have been heightened in recent weeks by a series of apparently racist attacks. The Africa Council (Afrika-Rat), a group which represents Africans in Germany, has also said it will publish a brochure listing "no-go areas" which non-white visitors to the Berlin area should avoid.

Global: The fear haunting Europe

2006-05-31

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-europe_constitution/fear_3590.jsp

In the wake of terrorism and a rise in fear of the unknown, a tide of repressive immigration policies is passing through Europe. Discrimination is common, according to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). Skin colour is a reason to deny access to accommodation. Public authorities are too passive, or even complicit in the daily discrimination immigrants experience.

South Africa: Racism under the colour of law enforcement

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605260124.html

Every week in SA, police target black people whom they perceive to be foreigners for harassment. The practice has become so prevalent that it has become the subject of a number of studies by various human rights bodies.

DRC: World Bank acknowledges failure in EESRSP project

2006-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/34600

The vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo - the second largest on Earth after the Amazon - have been seen by the World Bank as a target area. In 2002, the Bank provided funding for the government of DRC to develop a new set of laws for the management of DRC's forests. In September 2003, the Board of the Bank also approved a pilot project to 'zone' Congo's forests into areas for industrial logging, conservation, and community use. The project entitled 'Emergency Economic and Social Reunification and Support Project' (EESRSP), included $4 million to start the process of 'zoning' DRC's forests, potentially opening up tens of millions of hectares for industrial logging, reports the Rainforest Foundation.
The vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo - the second largest on Earth after the Amazon - have been seen by the World Bank as a target area. In 2002, the Bank provided funding for the government of DRC to develop a new set of laws for the management of DRC's forests. In September 2003, the Board of the Bank also approved a pilot project to 'zone' Congo's forests into areas for industrial logging, conservation, and community use. The project entitled 'Emergency Economic and Social Reunification and Support Project' (EESRSP), included $4 million to start the process of 'zoning' DRC's forests, potentially opening up tens of millions of hectares for industrial logging.

The Autochtones Pygmies Organizations from DRC, on their own behalf and on behalf of affected local communities living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, representatives of local communities of Kisangani in the Orientale Province, of Béni and Butembo in the Nord-Kivu Province, of Kinshasa/Mbandaka and Lokolama in the
Equateur Province, of Inongo in the Bandundu Province, of Kindu in the Maniema Province, and of Bukavu in the Sud-Kivu Province, submitted a formal request to the
World Bank Inspection Panel, an official independent watchdog, on the grounds that the World Bank plans threaten to harm the country's rainforests and destroy the
livelihoods of people living there, and that the Bank staff failed to 'trigger' the Bank's operational policy on indigenous people (OD 4.20) when developing the project. As a result, the World Bank Inspection Panel, launched a preliminary investigation into the role of the World Bank in Congo's rainforests.

In March 2006, information released by the World Bank revealed that it had failed to ensure proper protection of the environment and local peoples in its programmes in
DRC. Though the WB Management reaffirmed that "the Bank made every effort to apply its policies and procedures and to pursue concretely its mission statement in the context of the projects", it recognized "that, with respect to the EESRSP, the Bank was not in full compliance with processing provisions of OP 4.01, and OD 4.20, that
should have been triggered during project preparation"(see full report at http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/files/Bank_management_response_to_complaint.pdf)

The revelations came following the preliminary findings of the World Bank Inspection Panel's report (see full report at
http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/files/EligibilityReportFinal.pdf), according to which:

* the Bank has acknowledged that it did not properly apply its own internal 'safeguard policies', which are designed to ensure that it does not harm the environment and
local peoples;

* the Bank claims it was not "aware of the existence of 'Pygmy' communities" in areas that would be affected by its projects, but that it would now develop a plan to ensure that 'Pygmy' people are not harmed by new developments funded by the Bank;

* the Bank has acknowledged that it was 'inappropriate' to set targets for the number of new logging concessions that should be allocated by the Congolese government as a result of World Bank projects.

Simon Counsell, Director of the Rainforest Foundation UK, said "The World Bank has finally acknowledged that its activities in the rainforests of the Congo have been
flawed and must be improved. This is a major victory for the Pygmy people of the Congo, whose rights and livelihoods could be seriously harmed by inappropriate
development of the country's rainforests."

Article based on information from: "World Bank admits to failures in protecting Congo's rainforests - official 'watchdog' to investigate", March 2006, The Rainforest Foundation, http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-News

East Africa: Region seeks common ground on GM crops

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605300456.html

The impact of genetically modified foods on food production and trade in East Africa, will be high on the agenda of a meeting convened by an association of African biotechnologists in Nairobi this week. Reports in support of GMOs say that several GMO maize and cotton varieties available locally have the potential of increasing productivity, and lowering the cost of pesticides, thus reducing their impact on the environment. However, concerns have also been raised about GMO's potential risks to the environment and human health.

Global: Report Says Tropical Timber is Better Protected, Not Safe

2006-05-30

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10542

Developing nations have got far better at protecting rain forests over the past two decades but are a long way short of doing enough to save the crucial global resource, a new report said on Thursday (25 May). While the area of tropical timber under sustainable management has surged to 36 million hectares from less than one million in 1988, that represents less than 5 percent of all tropical forests, the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) said.

Global: Research project to create 'Digital Earth'

2006-05-31

http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2858&language=1

An international organisation that launched on Sunday (21 May) in China will create a multi-dimensional 'Digital Earth' to aid research into global issues such as climate change. The Beijing-based International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) will combine geographical, geological and other information into a single database that will encompass all of the Earth's natural systems.

Nigeria: Information on activities on cassava production

2006-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/34603

Open Letter to Nigerian Environment Minister: Request for information on activities on cassava production in Nigeria

We are writing to you in recognition of the fact that your ministry is the National Focal Point on Biosafety in Nigeria. We are encouraged to write because the policy stance of Nigeria on biosafety issues is in consonance with the tenets of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to which Nigeria is a Party. One of the primary elements of that Protocol that is universally valuable is the Precautionary Principle. We also note that our national as well as international biosafety instruments place a premium on access to information and public participation in decision making processes on biosafety matters.
Open Letter to Nigerian Environment Minister: Request for information on activities on cassava production in Nigeria
24 May 2006

Hon Minister of Environment
Abuja, FCT
Nigeria

Dear Hon Minister,

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION on ACTIVITIES ON CASSAVA PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

We are writing to you in recognition of the fact that your ministry is the National Focal Point on Biosafety in Nigeria. We are encouraged to write because the policy stance of Nigeria on biosafety issues is in consonance with the tenets of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to which Nigeria is a Party. One of the primary elements of that Protocol that is universally valuable is the Precautionary Principle. We also note that our national as well as international biosafety instruments place a premium on access to information and public participation in decision making processes on biosafety matters.

We also note that your ministry is the primary recipient of all applications for imports, exports, domestic use, including placing on the market, intentional introduction into the environment, field trials, contained use, transit, pharmaceuticals of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or products made of or derived from such organisms.

We have noted with ken interest the massive focus on cassava in recent times as a cash crop of choice. Cassava indeed has very wide applications in food, feed, pharmaceuticals and other industrial processes. Recently the NNPC spoke of possibility of producing bio-fuel (ethanol[1]) from cassava. For this reason the Federal Government is investing huge sums of money and in her Cassava Enterprise Development Project (CEPD) is financially supported in this quest by the USAID and Shell Petroleum Development Company among others. WE also note the increasing investment in these efforts by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC).

Cassava is a major food source for not only our people but for over 600 million people living in the tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is adaptable to even harsh soil and weather conditions and is key to food security in our country and region. It is a crop whose tubers and leaves have been known and used by our peoples as very nutritious for food and livestock feeds. Every part of cassava is useful. The leaves and roots are eaten and the stems are the planting materials.

We realise that one of the major challenges to propagation of this crop has been the cassava mosaic disease (CMD) that primarily attacks the leaves of the plant. It is known that some already available varieties of the plant are resistant to the disease and indeed that there are over 40 such varieties in Nigeria today.

We are aware that for about a decade now, there have been ongoing efforts at the production of cassava genetically modified to resist CMD. And some other efforts have been made towards producing cassava with giant sized tubers. Others are concerned with the cyanogens content, the storage potential, the mosaic virus, and the increase of its yield starch. Some of such efforts have been conducted in foreign laboratories, but no country has dared so far to move GM cassava from the laboratory to commercial release into the environment.

We alarmed by reports reaching us that some organisations and agencies, including the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), have submitted applications for the introduction of GMO cassava into the Nigerian environment. We request that you kindly confirm the veracity of these reports.

It is our considered opinion that Nigeria, nay Africa, does not need GMO cassava and there are many reasons for this. The major reasons include the fact that as at now there is still inadequate knowledge about the impacts on health and the environment. Further more, once GMO cassava is introduced into our environment their spread will be impossible to control on account of our cultural practices in sharing seeds and cuttings and also because it is virtually impossible to recall living organisms once they are released into the environment. GMO cassavas will directly threaten our food sovereignty and erode our right to choose to eat foods that are non-GMO. In this case, even labelling of cassava products, sold in the open and on our roadsides, will be an impossible proposition. GMO cassava if introduced will not only threaten our right to choose, it will expose our peoples to unknown health challenges. In a world that is generally wary of GMOs, Nigeria will be shooting herself in the foot if GMO cassava is introduced.

Nigeria is undoubtedly the number one producer of cassava in the world. We attained that feat without GMO cassava and can keep improving on that record with right economic support to our farmers in a right political atmosphere.

We appreciate your patience in reading this letter, honorable minister. Our requests are few and simple:

1 Have applications been indeed submitted to your ministry or to any other relevant government agency for the testing/trials (contained or otherwise), risk assessment and/or introduction of GMO cassava?
2 Who are the persons, organisations or agencies who have made these applications?
3 Have there been any approvals?
4 Is GMO cassava being cultivated already in Nigeria?
5 Are there applications for any other kind of GMO (for example cowpeas) in Nigeria?
6 Is the public informed and engaged on any of these applications as required by our Biosafety Guidelines in the absence of a National Biosafety Law?

We, Nigeria farmers, local peoples and many more will be interested in your response to our letter, so kindly spare a moment and offer us the much needed information.

Yours sincerely

Nnimmo Bassey
Executive Director
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria

Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/ Friends of the Earth, Nigeria,
214 Uselu-Lagos Road, P.O.Box 10577, Ugbowo, Benin City, Nigeria
Tel/Fax: +234-52-602680. Cell: +234 803 727 4395 . eFax: +1 309 4161666
website: www.eraction.org
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT ...DEMOCRATISING DEVELOPMENT

Nigeria: The Devastating Flames of Abacha Coal-Pots and the People's Forests

2006-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/34602

The political instabilities in Nigeria during Abacha's regime in 1993/94, which was an aftermath of the annulment of the June 12, 1992 presidential election won by the late business mogul Chief M.K.O. Abiola created an acute scarcity of kerosene that was seriously felt in different parts of the country. The kerosene scarcity led to the invention of "Abacha Coal-Pot" - a locally made cooking stove that uses charcoal., reports this article by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Crusaders
The political instabilities in Nigeria during Abacha's regime in 1993/94, which was an aftermath of the annulment of June 12, 1992 presidential election won by the late
business mogul -Chief M.K.O. Abiola- created an acute scarcity of kerosene that was seriously felt in different parts of the country. The kerosene scarcity led to the
invention of "Abacha Coal-Pot" - a locally made cooking stove that uses charcoal.

Over the years, the cooking technology Abacha Coal-Pot, has been widely accepted, and the use spread rapidly, due to incessant increases in the prices of kerosene and
cooking gas. In Nigeria, the official price of kerosene per litre has been increased by more than 200% over the last decade and presently, it is sold at an unofficial price that is almost 100% more than the current official price of about US$0.5. This ugly trend has given a boost to the charcoal trade in different parts of the country and now, the people's forests are suffering.

The charcoal business, which is about the most thriving business in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State -an area that houses the Old Oyo National Park- has extended to
different parts of Kwara, Lagos, and Ogun States.

In Saki --an ancient town and the largest town in Oke Ogun area--, there is no street without a mega dealer who is patronized by wholesalers and retailers even from the
neighbouring States. The business is getting so organized that different stakeholders have their associations. Presently, there are strong indications that the dealers have started exporting charcoal as trailers, carrying containers, now come to Saki to convey charcoal to Lagos, which is a coastal state. There is no doubt that this would spell further disaster for the forests of the area.

Unlike the land expropriation cases of the Twa in Rwanda, the Ogiek in Kenya, the Batwa in Uganda, the Amerindians in Guyana and the Suramaka in Suriname, this is a pathetic case where the people, aided by economic hardship orchestrated by insensitive administrations, are destroying their forests at an alarming and unprecedented rate.

The impacts, which traverse economic, social and environmental spheres, are quite enormous and devastating. The old-growth forests are almost gone and now, the
attention of producers is shifting to previously less preferred species including exotics. The prices of wood-based products have increased tremendously over the
last decade due to scarcity of wood. There is felt reduced food production as people have abandoned farming for the more lucrative charcoal business. The environment
is seriously being polluted and there have been some cases of clashes due to illegal encroachment on other people's forests to cut wood for charcoal production.

To make the matter worse, the respective governments have not made and are not making concerted efforts to discourage or stop the trend. There are no serious
enlightenment campaigns to educate and sensitize people especially on the environmental consequences of the charcoal business. While there is no deterrent
legislation on the charcoal business in the affected States, Kwara State - probably because of its fragile savanna vegetation, had sometime announced a ban on the
use of charcoal, though, this has not been enforced. The people insist that government should show seriousness on their own part by reducing the prices of kerosene and cooking gas.

As a result of the rapidly spreading nature of the cooking technology and the concomitant impacts on the environment, there is an urgent need for governments (Federal, State and Local) and the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to intervene. Governments should come up with appropriate legislation to stop the use of Abacha Coal-Pots and charcoal business. For this legislation to work,
governments should make kerosene and cooking gas affordable. NGOs and governments should provide households and other users of Abacha Coal-Pots with kerosene stoves and empower them to use them. Alternative means of livelihoods should also be provided for those that depend on the charcoal business especially the forest dwellers who produce or sell their trees to producers. More importantly, the degraded forests should be restored. The time to act is now! The devastating flames of Abacha Coal-Pots must be quenched to save the people's forests.

By: Chima, Uzoma Darlington, Indigenous Peoples Rights Crusaders, email: punditzum@yahoo.ca

Tanzania: Nationwide power cut now for real

2006-05-31

http://www.dailynews-tsn.com/news.php?id=1179

Countrywide power rationing, which was shelved two months ago in the wake of stable rainfall, would resume towards the end of this month and intensify next month following failure by the rains to fill up Mtera dam, it has been learnt. This has forced the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) to shut down generation at Mtera since March, but the utility firm maximized output at the other hydro plants, which resulted in higher rate of water outflow compared to inflow.

Africa: Do Southern African land reform policies lead to poverty reduction?

2006-05-31

http://www.chronicpoverty.org/pdfs/58Chimhowu.pdf

Land redistribution is often seen as a powerful tool in the fight against poverty in areas where a majority of people are rural-based and make a living mostly, if not entirely, off the land. Although some poor people have had their lives transformed by access to more land in the short term, there is no systematic linkage between the programmes for land reform in the region and poverty reduction.

Africa: Land tenure innovations required to secure sustainable rural development

2006-05-31

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC19406

Land tenure in Africa is complex: the existence of customary, religious and statutory arrangements is a critical, defining feature of African land tenure. Land tenure reform must accommodate this complexity rather than replace it.

Africa: Securing land rights in Africa

2006-05-31

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/133022/1/

Land is one of the most important assets for millions of poor people in Africa. Equally critical are their rights to this land, which provide social and economic security and an incentive to use natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Namibia: Government grapples with slow pace of land reform

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53591

The Namibian government is considering ways to improve its land-reform programme, which has not only been slow, but has also had a negative impact on agricultural production.

South Africa: The farmers and the fire-eater

2006-05-31

http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?articleid=272895

The land and agriculture sector is waiting with bated breath to see if the new Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Lulu Xingwana, lives up to her fire-eating reputation in this sensitive portfolio. Her supporters say her passion for transformation enables her to tackle thorny issues head on.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe seizes black farms to drive his maize economy

2006-05-30

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14465

For years, Zimbabwe's white farmers have felt the wrath of Robert Mugabe, as they have been thrown off their land to make way for soldiers and ruling party cronies. Now, black farmers have also become the focus of his unwelcome attentions. Lot Dube's crops of onions, tomatoes and sweet potatoes were growing nicely when soldiers marched into Insiza district, in the south of the country, set up camp and declared that all crops other than maize would be destroyed.

Zimbabwe: Property Rights, Land Reforms, and the Hidden Architecture of Capitalism

2006-05-31

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.24196,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

Few countries have failed as spectacularly, or as tragically, as Zimbabwe has over the past half decade. Zimbabwe has transformed from one of Africa’s rare success stories into one of its worst economic and humanitarian disasters. But while culpability for Zimbabwe’s collapse is broadly attributed to the policies of President Robert Mugabe, the intricacies of the country’s unraveling remain poorly appreciated - above all, the importance of property rights in the process. That is unfortunate, because the destruction of Zimbabwe, like that of Nicaragua two decades earlier, offers important, cautionary lessons for other developing countries - as grim natural experiments in the hidden architecture of capitalism.

DRC: Editor gets jail time

2006-05-31

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17678

Patrice Booto, the editor of the tri-weekly Le Journal and its supplement Pool Malebo, has been sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 500 dollars that must be paid within a week or his prison term will be extended by three months. The sentence was passed by a lower court in Assossa after it found him guilty of insulting the president and government.

Kenya: Media will resist state interference

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605300458.html

Exclusive exposure of high level scandals by the Nation Media Group (NMG) has steered the company into the billionaire's club but its power to reveal matters of public concern is still under threat, according to group chief executive officer Wilfred Kiboro. Addressing shareholders during the company's 43rd annual general meeting, he said Kenya has come a long way in embracing press freedom and creating a well informed society, but the proposed Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Bill was an attempt by the government to interfere with media independence, curtail the right to free flow of information, and reduce investment in the media.

Malawi: Journalists in court

2006-05-31

http://www.dailytimes.bppmw.com/article.asp?ArticleID=1925

There was a heavy police presence at Lilongwe Magistrates’ Court Monday as two Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL) journalists appeared before the court to answer criminal libel charges. BNL General Manager Jika Nkolokosa and Lilongwe Bureau Chief Maxwell Ng’ambi are accused of publishing an article in Malawi News last year that allegedly defamed Health and Population Minister Hetherwick Ntaba, reports Malawi's Daily Times newspaper.

South Africa: SABC self-censorship

Freedom of Expression Institute press release

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/34760

"The FXI is deeply disturbed about recent reports regarding the SABC's decision not to flight a documentary on Thabo Mbeki scheduled for last week Wednesday. We have also just learnt that another documentary, this time on Irvin Khoza, was altered by removing the most controversial part from the film."
Media Release: SABC Self Censorship
Issued by the Freedom of Expression Institute
26 May 2006

The FXI is deeply disturbed about recent reports regarding the SABC's
decision not to flight a documentary on Thabo Mbeki scheduled for last week
Wednesday. We have also just learnt that another documentary, this time on
Irvin Khoza, was altered by removing the most controversial part from the
film.

The explanation given by the SABC for canning the Mbeki film raises more
questions than answers. It also confirms the broadcaster s growing tendency,
of late, to refuse to explain controversial editorial decisions on the basis that
these decisions are its own business. No-one expects the SABC to engage
in mass consultation before making controversial judgement calls, but there
needs to be more transparency in how these judgement calls are made.
Ultimately, the SABC itself is responsible for ensuring that commissioned
programmes jump the hoops of internal approval before being flighted and
viewers should not be made to pay for something that was within the SABC s
control. The documentary was also advertised during the course of the week
before the day that it was to be flighted. This action indicates the SABC s
growing disrespect towards the public it is supposed to be servicing. So
much for the talk of the SABC shifting from being a public broadcaster that is
inward-oriented and self-assessing to a broadcaster that is citizen-focused.
This shift is explained in the SABC s new strategic outlook document recently
unveiled by the CEO Dr Dali Mpofu.

The judgement with regard to the Thabo Mbeki documentary needed to be
made by the public. The producers of the documentary have said that senior
SABC staffers kept tabs on the production of the film, were cognisant of any
legal implications and followed all necessary procedures. Given the content
of the documentary, the decision to pull the documentary at the very last
minute has the look and the feel of self-censorship.

This impression is underscored by other recent incidents that call into
question the SABC s will to report on the central political controversies
without fear or favour. This is the second time recently that a programme
slated for broadcast has bitten the dust at the eleventh hour. The first
incident involved an `Asikhulume interview. Also, a pro-Zuma song was
pulled from the SABC s play list and the reasons given were unsatisfactory.
Then there was the inept handing of television reporting of the booing of
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, resulting in an internal
investigation. It can hardly be coincidental that the most troubling editorial
decisions the SABC has made recently relate to the controversies
surrounding the President and the former and current Deputy Presidents.
Any reasonable person would join the dots and infer that the SABC is acting
in this manner because it is pro-Thabo Mbeki and anti-Jacob Zuma. This is
not a conspiracy theory; it is a reasonable inference to draw under the
circumstances.

When viewed together, these incidents imply that self-censorship is
becoming the single biggest threat to the independence of the SABC. In fact,
the SABC s actions make external interference redundant, as controversial
material is filtered out of the system before it sees the light of day.

What is particularly disturbing is that no apology was given at the time of
broadcast regarding the rescheduling of the programme. Also, apparently the
programme producers were not warned of the rescheduling. This smacks of
contempt for the viewing public and for the programme producers. If the
SABC expects the public to buy into its new strategic outlook of 'public
service broadcasting for total citizen empowerment', then it needs to desist
from disempowering the very public it claims to serve. This it has done by
promising a programme on a particular date, not delivering, not explaining
why at the time, and then hiding behind internal processes after the fact.

For more information, call:
Virginia Setshedi - 083 557 1339
Na eem Jeenah - 084 574 2674

The Gambia: Media repression intensifies

2006-06-01

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/34796

Three journalists, Pa Modou Faal of the national television GRTS, Musa Sheriff of Gambia News & Report Magazine and Malick Mboob, Communication Officer of Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital were arrested last Friday by the Gambia security forces. Lamin Cham, the BBC stringer in the Gambia was equally arrested today by security forces.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALISTS - Press Release

(Communiqué en Français - ci dessous)

Grave repression of the media in The Gambia: Four journalists imprisoned, two escape, online newspaper hacked

31 May 2006

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is worried about the alarming attacks on the media in The Gambia.

Three journalists Pa Modou Faal of the national television GRTS, Musa Sheriff of Gambia News & Report Magazine and Malick Mboob, Communication Officer of Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital were arrested last Friday by the Gambia security forces. Lamin Cham, the BBC stringer in the Gambia was equally arrested today by security forces.

The journalists were arrested along with a dozen of people whose names are reproduced on a list of alleged "informants” of the online newspaper very critical to the government, Freedom Newspaper, based in the United States. A press release from the Gambia Police Force, announced last week they were in possession of the full list of persons who continually supplied Freedom Newspaper with information which is used to castigate and vilify the government of Alhaji Yahya Jammeh.

According to reports journalists arrested in April this year were tortured and threatened to keep quiet after their release.

“Because of these threats and the arrests of their colleagues two journalists have fled
the country” sources told IFJ. Their whereabouts are not yet known.
In the night from the 22 to May 23, 2006, the website of the Freedom Newspaper was attacked by a hacker who replaced all the initial data by a declaration credited to the director of the online newspaper Pa Nderry Mbai. According to this message Mr Mbai has pledged an allegiance to join the party of President Jammeh and announced the closing of his newspaper. The email box of the director of Freedom Newspaper was also hacked and the names and contacts of the subscribers of his website were published in this false allegiance presenting them like his “informants”.

"The repression of the media and journalists in The Gambia has reached inadmissible proportions and we protest vigorously against these very alarming acts" declared Gabriel Baglo, the Director of Africa Office of the IFJ.

"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of these four journalists and Lamin Fatty who is held and tortured since 10 April. While the next summit of the African Union will be held in The Gambia next July, we call on the President of this organization, Denis Sassou Guesso and the President of the AU Commission Alpha Oumar Konaré, to obtain the release of these arbitrarily detained journalists and citizens”.

For further information contact the IFJ: +221 842 01 43
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries

Tunisia: Freedom of expression still under siege six months after WSIS

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/34759

According to a report prepared by members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), violations of freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association and other basic human rights are still rampant following the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Tunisia in November 2005.
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community

PRESS RELEASE - TUNISIA

25 May 2006

Freedom of expression still under siege six months after WSIS

SOURCE: IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG)

(IFEX-TMG) - The following is an IFEX-TMG press release:

Freedom of Expression in Tunisia Remains under Siege, says IFEX Tunisia
Monitoring Group upon release of report

According to a report prepared by members of the International Freedom of
Expression Exchange (IFEX) Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), violations of
freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association and
other basic human rights are still rampant following the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), held in Tunisia in November 2005.



The report, entitled "Deception and Lies: Freedom of Expression in Tunisia
Remains under Siege Six Months After the WSIS", is based on findings of the
fifth IFEX-TMG mission to Tunisia undertaken from 18 to 22 April 2006.



The mission was composed of one representative each from the Arabic Network
for Human Rights Information (HRinfo), the World Press Freedom Committee
(WPFC), and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).



The principle findings of the mission were:

- The continuation of the imprisonment of individuals related to expression
of their opinions or media activities.

- Blocking of websites, including news and information websites.

- Restrictions on the freedom of association, including the right of
organisations to be legally established, and to hold meetings.

- Restrictions on the freedom of movement of human rights defenders and
political dissidents together with political police surveillance,
harassment, and intimidation.

- Press self-censorship and lack of diversity of content in the media,
especially in the state-owned papers, radio and TV stations.

- Attempts to smear the reputations of activists, which are unlawful actions
that are not being investigated.

- Official harassment of attorneys and judges who press for independence of
the judiciary.

- Censorship of books through the legal submission procedure.



In light of recent escalating attacks against Tunisian activists and
independent voices, members of the IFEX-TMG are concerned that the situation
of freedom of expression and other related rights remain far below
international norms and conventions to which Tunisia is a signatory.



Members of the IFEX-TMG thus urge Tunisian authorities to immediately
release all prisoners of opinion, in particular Mohammed Abbou, and to
terminate all forms of harassment perpetrated against activists and former
prisoners of opinion. Members of the IFEX-TMG also recommend the Tunisian
government to stop censoring books and blocking websites and Internet
communications.



Members of the IFEX-TMG call upon the international community to work on
revealing violations taking place in Tunisia and to pressure the Tunisian
government to abide by its international obligations.



To download the full report, visit:

http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg (English),

http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg/fr_index.html (French) and

http://hrinfo.net/ifex/wsis (Arabic).



Members of the TMG are:

Arabic Human Rights Information Network (HRinfo), Egypt

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 Francesco Diasio, AMARC, Italy, tel: +39 06
8632 8312, e-mail: fdiasio@amisnet.org, Mark Bench, United States of
America, e-mail: embench@wpfc.org or Sally Sami, Programme Coordinator,
Arabic Human Rights Information Network (HRinfo), Egypt; tel/fax: +202 524
9544, e-mail: info@hrinfo.net



The information contained in this press release 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

555 Richmond St. West, # 1101, PO Box 407

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3B1

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/

_________________________________________________________________

America: Plan to Lure Nurses May Hurt Poor Nations

2006-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/lf7qh

As the United States runs short of nurses, senators are looking abroad, reports the NY Times. A little-noticed provision in their immigration bill would throw open the gate to nurses and, some fear, drain them from the world's developing countries. The legislation is expected to pass this week, and the Senate provision, which removes the limit on the number of nurses who can immigrate, has been largely overlooked in the emotional debate over illegal immigration.

Global: Arab Film Festival in the Netherlands

2006-05-31

http://www.arabfilmfestival.nl/en/default.htm

The 6th edition of the Arab Film Festival is being held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands from May 30 to June 4th. In addition to the screenings of films from the Arab world or from Arab filmmakers, there will be discussions, debates and the opportunity to meet filmmakers, actors, artists, journalists etc.

Global: Globalisation and the Role of the African Diaspora in reshaping Africa

June 13 2006, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2006-05-31

http://www.afrikabeleid.nl/index.php?page=6_2_5

Anthropologist and author Mr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt will look at the reality of the diaspora today and its role in African development (remittances, brain drain/gain etc). Mr. Elvis Ndubuisi Iruh (publisher/editor in chief of The Voice), together with the audience, will discuss examples of ways migrant Africans can be more creatively engaged (socially, politically aswell as economically), supported by constructive government policies. Ginger da Silva of Radio Netherlands will moderate the discussion.

Burundi: Government and rebel group begin peace talks

2006-05-30

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53586

Peace talks between the government of Burundi and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), the country's remaining rebel group, have began in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Burundi is emerging from over a decade of civil war, which erupted in 1993 following the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, who was from the ethnic Hutu majority. Paratroopers of the then-minority, Tutsi-dominated army allegedly killed Ndadaye.

Chad: Back towards war?

2006-06-01

http://www.crisisgroup.org

The internal situation in Chad is deteriorating rapidly, and spill-over from the Darfur crisis is only part of the reason, says the International Crisis Group. "Sudan’s deliberate use of Chadian warlords in its counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur and as a tool in its attempts to topple President Idriss Déby is just one aspect of Chad’s woes. The ever deeper convergence of the two crises underlines the difficulty of settling one independently of the other," says the group.

Darfur: Grim and Grimmer

2006-06-01

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=10339

Despite a recent peace accord, a new UN Security Council resolution, and agreement by Sudan to permit a UN assessment team to travel to Darfur to determine how to strengthen peacekeeping forces there, the situation in the region, as well as in eastern Chad, has continued to deteriorate, according to sources here. Attacks on villages and refugee camps by Khartoum-backed Arab militias, or Janjaweed, have been reported throughout Darfur in the past week, while fighting between various rebel factions has reportedly intensified.

Global: These Guns for Hire

2006-05-30

http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/military/0522guns.htm

As this New York Times op-ed points out, private military contractors offer an "attractive" solution to numerous government and corporate security concerns. Whether contributing to the "endless campaign against global terrorism," helping to deflect public disapproval of the war in Iraq, or protecting transnational corporations in "remote and hostile" settings, private forces offer a more "efficient" and politically tractable alternative to standing government armies.

Somali: Armed fighters take over Mogadishu hospital

2006-05-30

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53597

Armed Somali fighters have occupied a major hospital that offers surgical services to civilians who have been wounded in recent clashes in northern Mogadishu, according to reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS). The occupation of the Keysaney Hospital has reduced medical services in the capital city and prompted relatives to move patients away hastily.

Somali: New clashes in Mogadishu kill 13

2006-05-30

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5023438.stm

Clashes between militias in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have left 13 people dead, days after some of the heaviest fighting seen in the city for years. The latest violence has been centred in the Daynile and Galgalato districts. Some 200 people have died in clashes this year between militias loyal to Mogadishu's Islamic courts and an alliance of warlords. The fighting is the worst the city has seen for more than a decade.

Sudan: Disagreements over implementation of peace accord

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53607

The leaders of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) have failed to resolve their disagreements on the implementation of the January 2005 peace agreement which ended the country's 21-year civil war. Despite the difficulties, President Umar al-Bashir and the First Vice-President Salva Kiir Mayardit affirmed their determination to fully implement the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed in Nairobi, Kenya.

Angola: Online library launched

2006-05-31

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html#useful

The Canadian NGO Development Workshop (DW-Angola) has launched an online library, reports Balancing Act. The library will have three databases available for research, with emphasis on media information that give access to articles of Angolan newspapers published since January 2003.

East Africa: Region leads the way in internet connectivity

2006-05-31

http://allafrica.com/stories/200605300415.html

East African countries are leading the African continent in the growth of Internet connections, with Tanzania recording a 150 per cent rise in users in the past year, a new report says. In Kenya, this figure is 200 per cent with the number of Internet users having now hit the 1.5 million mark, up from 500,000 users just a year ago. Uganda's are well over 200,000. Tanzania's Internet connections now stand at 300,000. Across Africa, Internet penetration has now reached 4 per cent, up from just 2.6 per cent in 2005.

Nigeria: Nigeria to host African VoIP forum

2006-05-31

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/technology/tec331052006-2.html

The world is again recognising the importance of the Nigerian telecoms market in the development of the African digital age as it shifts attention to Lagos, Nigeria between July 31 and August 3, 2006 for the third annual African VoIP Forum.

Sudan: Open access digital library launched

2006-05-31

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53619

The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) have launched the Sudan Open Archive, an open-access digital library for Sudan, containing documents that until now were largely unavailable in digital form. The first phase of the archive involved the digitisation of around 500 documents drawn from the records of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), the international relief effort that started in 1989.

Global: Dropping Knowledge

2006-05-30

http://www.droppingknowledge.org

Dropping Knowledge is a global initiative to turn apathy into activity. “By hosting an open conversation on the most pressing issues of our times, we will foster a worldwide exchange of viewpoints, ideas and people-powered solutions. However knowledge is defined, by dropping it freely to others, we all gain wisdom.”

Africa: Ruth First Fellowship

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/34785

Ruth First was a journalist, activist and intellectual killed by the apartheid government while in exile. To commemorate her contribution to critical, independent, socially-engaged writing, the Wits University Journalism Programme, in conjunction with the Ruth First Trust and supported by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, has established a 3-6 month fellowship.
Ruth First Fellowship


Ruth First was a journalist, activist and intellectual killed by the
apartheid government while in exile. To commemorate her contribution to
critical, independent, socially-engaged writing, the Wits University
Journalism Programme, in conjunction with the Ruth First Trust and
supported by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, has established a 3-6 month
fellowship.


The fellowship is intended to allow a journalist/writer/researcher the
space to pursue an in-depth project to be published in any medium. It
should be ground-breaking and in keeping with the tradition of Ruth
First. For 2006, the Fellowship will focus on the issue of gender-based
violence.


Fellows will receive a monthly stipend and research costs. They will be
expected to present their work at a public event within six months of
acceptance of the proposal and to submit it for publication/broadcast
through an appropriate outlet. The fellow will be based at the
Investigative Journalism Workshop at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.


Applicants should submit their CV and a project proposal (of no more
than two pages) by June 9 to the Ruth First Committee, preferably by
email at a ...@harber.co.za, alternatively at fax 011-7174081 or
delivered to Journalism Programme, PBag 3, Wits 2050.
Further details can be found on our Website at www.journalism.co.za

Africa: SAfAIDS launches blog

2006-05-31

http://www.safaids.blogspot.com

From the 31st of May to the 4th of June, Heads of State and Civil Society will be attending the UNGASS Review Conference in New York. In order to maximize media coverage, SAfAIDS has created a Weblog to post relevant information about the event as well as to enable civil society to participate and comment on the progress and outcomes of the conference. The blog will offer up-to-date and current analysis of the UNGASS meeting and comments from relevant stakeholders from Southern Africa. It will also enable those who are attending the review meeting to post their updates, comments and opinions on the conference events and outcomes. Interestingly, the blog is an open platform for everyone to comment or post opinions on UNGASS. SAfAIDS will post latest articles and issues around UNGASS and open them for discussion. Among the issues to be discussed are civil society participation, involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs), leadership, accountability and transparency, trade, debt and access to treatment, gender and special or vulnerable population, prevention and testing, health systems and brain drain.

Global: Funding sources for gender-equality and women-focused projects

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21821

This resource has been put together to meet the need of women's group to access information on funding opportunities. It is divided into five sections: Women's Funds (those dedicated to gender-equality and women- focused rights projects), Foundations, International Development Agencies, Prizes, On-line Directories. The Women's Fund section provides website links, contact information for the funder along with information on what types of projects are funded, size of grants and applicant criteria. For the other sections, website links are given as well as a brief description of the type of issues that the funder is interested in.

Global: NGOs and Global Governance Survey

2006-05-30

http://www.nslg.net/ngosurvey

The survey focuses on the benefits that NGOs bring to inter-governmental decision-making process. The survey takes 5 - 10 minutes to complete. It also asks participants to assess proposed reforms designed to make inter-governmental institutions and processes more democratic through the increased participation of civil society. The survey is for research purposes and participants will not be cited or quoted without permission.

Global: Simavi funding agency

2006-05-30

http://www.simavi.org

Simavi is a relatively small Dutch funding agency that exists already for 80 years and gets it funding mainly from small private donors (families) and businesses. Simavi supports local non-governmental organisations that implement community based primary health care and water and sanitation projects in rural areas. Simavi supports local NGO's in 11 countries.

Global: The Civil Society Partnerships Programme (CSPP)

2006-05-31

http://www.odi.org.uk/cspp/News/Index.html

A new resources section on the Civil Society Partnerships Programme website gives useful information on funding opportunities, lessons and approaches from other programmes and details of other organisations that work directly or indirectly in the same field.

Global: Women's empowerment - an annotated bibliography

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21835

This bibliography gathers together a range of materials which discuss women's empowerment from varied perspectives in order to provide an accessible introduction to key concepts, approaches and debates.

South Africa: The funding site

2006-05-31

http://www.thefundingsite.co.za/

This is South Africa's premier site dedicated to serving Non Profit Organisations in the broadest possible way. If you are in any way connected to/involved in the development sector in South Africa - this site can assist you.

Global: LLM in Human Rights Law at the Transitional Justice Institute

2006-05-30

http://www.transitionaljustice.ulster.ac.uk

The Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) in conjunction with the School of Law at the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) is now accepting applications for enrolment in its LLM in Human Rights Law (2006/07). There are a small number of scholarships available for exceptional candidates and international students are strongly encouraged to apply. The programme is available on a full-time or part-time basis at the university's Jordanstown (Belfast) and Magee (Derry/Londonderry) campuses.

Global: Poverty Reduction in Conflict and Fragile States

2006-05-31

http://www.hicn.org/events_fragilestates.html

There is a call for papers from the Households in Conflict Network for an international conference to be held in Washington D.C., United States, on 8-9 November 2006. The closing date is 12 June 2006.

Morocco: Rethinking educational change

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21829

This conference will be held on July 2-5, 2006 Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco. It will focus on the question: how do our educational institutions need to change in order for learning to become genuinely transformational?

South Africa: First African Leadership Seminar on People and Conservation

2006-05-30

http://www.fs.fed.us/global/

This seminar is founded on a shared desire for innovative and collaborative exploration of current and anticipated people and conservation issues in an integrated, transdisciplinary approach within an African context.

Zimbabwe: Regional Master's in Women's Law

2006-05-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/34729

Applications are invited for the Regional Master’s in Women’s Law which will be offered by the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL), University of Zimbabwe, in January 2007. The Master’s will consist of three semesters over a period of 18 months.
UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE - FACULTY OF LAW
SEARCWL - MASTER’S IN WOMEN’S LAW
2007-8

Applications are invited for the Regional Master’s in Women’s Law which will be offered by the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL), University of Zimbabwe, in January 2007. The Master’s will consist of three semesters over a period of 18 months and will run as follows;

First Semester January 16 to April 27 - 2007
Second Semester June 11 to September 14 - 2007
Third Semester October 1– 2007 to March 28 – 2008

The first Semester covers theories and perspectives in Women’s Law, research methodologies and a practical paper. In the second Semester candidates will choose two courses from a range of optional courses. In the third semester, candidates will carry out field research in their own home country for their dissertation and receive field supervision. The write up of the dissertation will take place at the SEARCWL, University of Zimbabwe from February 4 – March 28, 2008.

Qualifications

A candidate must normally have a first degree in law in the second division or above. However, candidates with a lower academic ranking who have proven work and research experience in the field of women’s law and related issues, may be considered. Candidates with first degrees in other disciplines may also be considered if they have achieved the appropriate academic standards and have relevant post-graduate experience in areas related to women and the law.
All applications are required to submit a 500 word outline of how they believe the Master’s in Women’s Laws will assist them in their work or national outreach activities.
Successful candidates are expected to make their own leave arrangements. Basic scholarship may be provided to successful applicants. The closing date for the receipt of applications is 2 June 2006.

For Application Forms and More Information Contact
Mrs Rudo Makunike-Bonzo
Administrative Assistant
SEARCWL-UZ
30 Mount Pleasant Drive
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel: 263-4-745365/6
Fax: 263-4-745348
Cell: 263-91-243936 or 263-91-243940
Or visit the SEARCWL Website:http://www.uz.ac.zw/law/women/
Email: rudo@law.uz.ac.zw or tsomondo@law.uz.ac.zw

Canada: Executive Director

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

2006-05-30

http://www.cjfe.org

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is seeking an Executive Director to lead its organization in promoting free expression in Canada and around the world.

Chad: Gender Based Violence Program Manager

The International Rescue Committee

2006-05-30

http://www.IRCjobs.org

IRC currently seeks a Gender Based Violence Program Manager.

Chad: Resident Journalism Advisor on Gender Issues

Internews Network

2006-05-30

http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21756

Internews Network, an international media development NGO, is seeking an expert on violence against women/post conflict trauma to work with residents of the Darfur refugee camps. The advisor will first conduct a needs assessment and then develop radio programming to address the specific needs of women.

London: Administrator

Progressio

2006-05-30

http://www.progressio.org.uk

The postholder will assist with the smooth running of administration within Progressio by providing support to the Administrative Manager, the PA to the Executive Director and to the International Programmes Team via the Programmes Support Officer. A part of the job will cover reception duties, acting as a first contact for visitors and telephone enquiries.

South Africa: International HIV/AIDS Programme Coordinator

ActionAid

2006-05-30

http://www.actionaid.org/index.asp?page_id=1015

ActionAid is looking to appoint an International HIV/AIDS Programme Coordinator to join its international team.

UK: Project Officer

AVDAD/Fahamu

2006-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/34609

ADVAD and FAHAMU are seeking a project officer to assist in implementing an African Diaspora development programme to strengthen the organisational, management and advocacy capacity of African Diaspora organisations in the UK. This is a fixed term part-time position for 17 hours per week, for a period of 18 months. For job description and application details, contact Info@fahamu.org (This post is supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation).

Zimbabwe: Country Programme Manager

Oxfam Great Britain

2006-05-30

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/jobs

We are seeking an exceptional manager who will help shape our strategy, deliver a high quality programme and demonstrate leadership in a complex and demanding external environment. You must demonstrate excellent judgement, programme development experience, have strong financial and people management skills, a clear commitment to promoting gender equality and be able to represent Oxfam GB at the highest levels.

Zimbabwe: IT Advisor

Progressio

2006-05-30

http://www.progressio.org.uk

The development worker will work as an IT Advisor alongside SAfAIDS, assisting with the conceptualisation and implementation of its regional programme incorporating Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and HIV and AIDS, as well as building the capacity of staff in Information Technology (IT) and ICTs.

Fahamu