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Pambazuka News Editors

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/37274

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FEATURE: Irũngũ Houghton reviews emerging policies on sexual and reproductive health, the reality for women and girls and what governments need to adopt during this Health Ministers and Experts conference in Maputo, Mozambique.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: - Baffour Dokyi Amoa argues that it is not an exaggeration to say that small arms have contributed to the political disintegration of many African countries.
- Mandisi Majavu argues against the “Africa Aerospace & Defence 2006” exhibition.
- Patrick Bond argues that the assault against the international civil society has been devastating. He writes that nearly all the major multilateral institutions have been captured by hardliners over the past couple of years.
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine reminds us that this past Sunday marked the Global Day of Action for Darfur. The aim was “to show world-wide support for the Darfuri people and to put pressure on our Governments to protect the civilians.”
Pan-African Postcard: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem argues that Islamic faith replaced Communism in the pantheons of Western phobias
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news on Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe
HUMAN RIGHTS: Ugandan is the worst place in the world to be a child
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women leaders meet in Maputo
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: AU mission extended with Arab and UN support
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Number of women contesting the polls low and disappointing
DEVELOPMENT: IMF and the World Bank found guilty
CORRUPTION: State to seize 78 bank accounts with looted money
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Labour urged to demand sacking of health minister
EDUCATION: Higher education and economic growth
RACISM & XENOPHOBIA: How obsession with race stops SA from meeting its challenges
ENVIRONMENT: Africa’s environment under siege
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: The third Chimurenga
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: In Eritrea, journalists still jailed after five years
DIASPORA: Genealogical quest
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Zimbabwe internet shuts down
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

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2006-09-21

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The Second Sex

Irungu Houghton

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/37269

This week, African Health Ministers and Experts meet in Maputo, Mozambique to adopt an action plan which will deliver on the 2005 Gaborone Declaration. The Declaration committed African governments to universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Africa. Irũngũ Houghton reviews emerging policies on sexual and reproductive health, the reality for women and girls and what governments need to adopt during this Ministerial.


Since 2001, Africa’s leaders have committed the African Union (AU) and their governments to promote and protect the right to health in a series of international and continental legal protocols and declarations. These commitments provide a comprehensive package for addressing the challenges of maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, violence and disease.

The Promise of the Continental Policy Triangle

On 26 and 27 April 2001, African Heads of States and governments of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) declared that they would allocate 15% of their annual national budgets to health services in order to meet “the exceptional challenge of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases”. [1] Health issues have been a consistent item on the agenda of meetings of African leaders for the last five years. The adoption of the Continental Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Framework by 53 African Health Ministers in October 2005 was a landmark moment in the struggle to improve the lives and health of women and girls in Africa. [2] This year, the Africa Common Position on Universal Access for the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in New York saw African Governments undertake to ensure; “100% access to sexual and reproductive health services including antenatal care”.

These policy statements received legal underpinning when the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa came into force on 25th November 2005. [3] The Protocol provides a critical framework to access sexual and reproductive health services such as safe abortion, pregnancy, childbirth and HIV, among others. Its provisions state that women’s sexual and reproductive health should be both respected and promoted. [4] This policy triangle of the Abuja Declaration, Continental Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy framework and the Protocol clearly establishes the obligation on African states to address the healthcare needs of all citizens, but in particular the rights of women and girls.

“The reality of sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS must make us rage against women’s oppression. I call on African leaders sitting here to protect and promote the human rights of all people and vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls. We ask you not to fail us again.” (Ms. Nkhensani Mavasa, Deputy Chairperson, Treatment Action Campaign, UN General Assembly, May 2006)

While there has been significant improvement in women’s health globally, none of this progress has benefited mothers in sub-Saharan Africa. Notwithstanding the international and African commitments, inadequate access to quality health services, unsafe abortions and lack of reproductive health care cause the deaths of at least 250,000 women each year in Africa, one of the highest rates in the world. Women in the United Kingdom have a 1 in 5,800 lifetime risk of maternal death, in Ethiopia the equivalent risk is 1:14.

High maternal death rates have multiple causes, but one major underlying problem is the deep-rooted inequalities between men and women. Women have fewer opportunities for education, they do a disproportionate high share of manual work, have less influence on policy making and are disadvantaged in terms of nutrition and access to health care. Lack of access to health care is a major cause of maternal mortality.

Even where there are positive legislative and policy frameworks, women often battle to exercise these rights within the family and the community. Traditional gender norms and practices, along with the unequal status of women, relegate women to being primarily responsible for contraception and childcare, with little power to negotiate when, with whom and why to have sex.

Inequalities in health are exacerbated by unequal access to other public services. For example, the number of years that a girl spends in primary education has a direct and positive correlation with her chances of avoiding HIV, her children surviving, and her subsequent income thereafter. Yet on average, girls in Africa spend only three years in school. [5]

It is within this context that women and girls are more vulnerable to HIV. Women comprise 57% of all adults infected with the virus in sub Saharan Africa. Of these, younger women account for a disproportionately large number of new infections. According to the African Union, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis threaten life on a scale unparalleled, erases between 1-2% of Africa’s growth rate and reduces life expectancy by 25% for some countries. [6]

Key to the loss of women’s control over their own sexuality is the prevalence of female genital mutilation, domestic violence, and rape. More than 90 million women and girls are survivors of female genital mutilation, a practice outlawed in many national laws across Africa and under the Protocol. [7] Violence against women is a recurrent problem in many countries. In Kenya for instance, despite a relatively peaceful history, 49% of women have experienced violence, with one in four having experienced violence in the previous 12 months. [8]

Putting the money where it is needed

A key precondition for accelerating the provision of universal access to sexual and reproductive health services in Africa is the adequate funding of effective healthcare systems. However, there is a sharp disparity between the stated intention to act and the resources pledged to enable these laudable commitments to be implemented.

Five years after the Abuja Summit, only Botswana and The Gambia have met the 15% target for national expenditure. 15 countries mostly from West and Central Africa spent less than 5% with only 18 Africa states spending more than 10% on healthcare. Yet, since 2000, 85% and 77% of African countries have formed national AIDS machineries and approved relevant health policies. [9]

According the World Health Organisation, the minimum expenditure on healthcare per person per year, necessary to provide an essential package of health services is US$ 34. In 29 countries, government expenditure per person per year was less than US$ 10. This includes Angola that has one of the fastest growing economies on the continent.

The burden of this funding gap invariably falls on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the population. Inadequate investment in primary healthcare infrastructure, acute shortage of human resources, ineffective or non-existent data collection and information management systems and the lack of inexpensive medicines and basic equipment all combine to disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable. In order to close the financing gap, many countries have been encouraged to impose user fees on healthcare services.

User fees have proved to be a barrier to many poor men and women who simply cannot afford to access healthcare even with minimum fees. Throughout the 1990s, Ugandans faced high costs for fragmented health services. When in the run up to the 2001 presidential election, President Museveni ended user fees for all government health clinics, the public response was phenomenal. Most health facilities saw 50 to 100 per cent increases in patients. This access was particularly significant for poor women in rural areas who could not afford to pay for care.

Oxfam research shows that relatively small investments can yield high returns in terms of saving lives. The cost of providing basic services for mothers and infants averages US$3 per capita in Africa. This year, approximately 63,000 women will die from obstetric problems in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. An investment of US$411 million would prevent 80 percent of these deaths: – roughly US$700 for every maternal and child life saved.

African governments could reverse the situation by dropping user fees, improving the effectiveness of the health care system and raising their health expenditure to 15%. External development assistance is necessary to expand the financing available, preferably within a predictable and long-term cycle that targets front line services like primary and reproductive health care. It is estimated that an initial immediate investment of $90 billion per annum is required for healthcare personnel, hospitals and other infrastructure, medicines and so forth in Africa, as against the $25 billion promised for Africa by 2010. [10]

Back to the Basics: Engendered Health Services and Access to Essential Medicines

The year 2005 saw an important return to the concept of a developmental state in Africa. This state would enshrine the right to essential services, the fight against poverty and economic growth as core obligations. [11] Recent Oxfam research into Essential Services re-affirms the primacy of governments in the provision of effective, universally accessible and regulated health and services.

There is a crisis of health workers in Africa. At least 10 countries (Liberia, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Mali, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia and The Gambia) have only enough trained health workers to cover 10% of the population. The African Union should maintain its position that additional financing should be found not only for medical facilities and medicines, but also for the recruitment and remuneration of doctors, nurses and other health cadres.

African governments, parliaments and civil society organisations must guard against public resource diversion away from social services through lack of prioritisation, corruption, misuse of national resources and military expenditure. A number of African countries including Sudan, Angola and Ethiopia are currently experiencing rapid economic growth, yet they continue to spend a paltry 2-5% on health expenditure.

Several African organisations and parliamentarians have cited the IMF/World Bank Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks/Ceilings (three year planning tools) as too restrictive on public expenditure on health and education. African governments should consider carefully all policy advice that undermines their capacity to promote and realise the right to health. [12] The comments of Kenyan Assistant Minister Hon Enock Kibunguchy are relevant for many African countries. In March of this year he said, “The country needs 10,000 health workers to offer improved services… We have to put our foot down and employ. We can tell the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to go to hell." Kenya urgently needs 7,000 nurses, 600 doctors and 2,000 clinicians and laboratory experts. In the absence of employment, government estimates indicate that 1,000 nurses leave the country every year.

African governments must demand that IMF assistance be modelled on long-term growth rather than short-term sustainability, in order to fulfil internationally agreed commitments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, rather than the narrow goal of sustaining debt repayments from low-income countries. The Global Call to Action Against Poverty as well as specialist African debt networks such as the Jubilee movement in Africa and AFRODAD have joined the African Union call in 2005 for full debt cancellation to be extended to many more countries. To do otherwise, would be to render sustainable financing for Universal Access in Africa unachievable.

What do Africa’s leaders need to do next?

African governments must deliver on the Abuja Commitment to allocate 15% of the national budget to health services by setting annual funding targets that will finance comprehensive national public health plans that particularly target men and women living and working in poverty. Targeted provision of quality reproductive and health services to women by establishing and strengthen existing antenatal, delivery, post-natal and family planning services for all African women would go a long way in making the lives of women more safe and dignified. To do this would require the recruitment, training, and retention of an adequate healthcare workforce in line with international standards and with special attention to remuneration of female health workers in rural areas.

Further, more countries must remove user fees for primary health care and sexual and reproductive health services and essential medicine. By enacting and implementing national laws that enshrine the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa especially Articles 5 and 14, governments would demonstrate a clear commitment to end female genital mutilation in Africa and violence against women.

Despite the tremendous investment of development NGOs in the areas of HIV/AIDS, reproductive and primary health, only a small number of civil society organisations are attending the Maputo Ministerial meetings. On their return, they can do no better than to hold their leaders and industrialised countries to account for the global and continental commitments made over the last five years. One way of doing this would be to strengthen citizen representation and state oversight mechanisms in monitoring public services at national and local levels.

* This article is drawn from a policy briefing written by Irũngũ Houghton, Oxfam Pan Africa Policy Advisor which was developed and presented to the Special Session of Ministers, Maputo, Mozambique, September 18-22th . He can be contacted at irunguh@oxfam.org.uk

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

References:

[1]The OAU officially became the African Union on 9 July 2002 at the Durban Summit.
[2]The AU Special Summit in Abuja reviewed progress since the 2001 Abuja Declarations on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
[3]For an extract of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, see www.african-union.org
[4]In a few countries like South Africa, the Constitution provides women with more rights than the African Women’s Protocol. However, for others like Zamibia, it is an advance on national legislation. Under Zambian law, a panel of 3 doctors have to agree that the mother’s health is threatened. The law does not provide for termination even in cases of rape, sexual assault or incest. See Mukasa R; (2005): Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: Harnessing a Potential Force for Change, Oxfam GB Southern Africa Office.
[5]Oxfam; (2006): In the Public Interest: Health, Education, and Water and Sanitation for All.
[6]African Union; (2005): Progress Report on the Implementation of the Plans of Action of the Abuja Declaration for Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.
[7]Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition and the African Union Commission;(2006): Breathing Life into the African Women’s Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa.
[8]UNICEF; (2006): Violence against Women and Girls in the Era of HIV and AIDS in Kenya.
[9]African Union; (2005): Progress Report on the Implementation of the Plans of Action of the Abuja Declaration for Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis.
[10]Oxfam; (2004): The Cost of Childbirth: How Women are Paying for Broken Promises on Aid.
[11]Apart from African Union positions and declarations, other influential development literature such as the Commission for Africa report, 2005, the UN Human Development Report took up this theme squarely in 2005.
[12]Statement from 75 representatives of Civil Society Groups and SADC Parliamentarians to African Heads of States, Health Ministers meeting at African Union/UN meeting on Universal Access to Act Immediately to Save Africa from worsening HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Johannesburg, 3rd March 2006

The role of Small Arms in African Civil Wars

Baffour Dokyi Amoa

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/37270

It is not an over-statement to say that small arms in Africa have played the major role in every political conflict, from South, East and West Africa. Baffour Dokyi Amoa writes that “Conservative estimates indicate that there are about eight million small arms and light weapons in West Africa alone. Of the 640 million small arms circulating in the world, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa.”


In Africa the issue of small arms is important. It is a matter of life and death. It is not an exaggeration to say that small arms have contributed to the political disintegration of many African countries. The effects of the proliferation of small arms are felt by many Africans. In many African countries, there are no people to till arable lands, and generations waste their lives by engaging in pointless wars. Children are denied their childhood and are forced to become adults before puberty.

Despite all these, the resilience of the African people is demonstrated by the number of activists and other leaders who risk their lives for peaceful change.

Let me make it clear that my argument is not against the right of sovereign States to manufacture and/or acquire small arms for defence and security purposes within internationally accepted laws and frameworks. The objection raised by civil society to arms proliferation is not against the legal possession of guns when their possession and use does not indiscriminately violate the human rights of others. Our concern is the lack of an international framework to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which kill and maim unarmed and innocent civilians.

In most countries, where there is civil strife, small arms are trafficked through cross border illicit activities such as smuggling. Elsewhere, food for arms seems to be gaining currency.

To substantiate my argument against small arms, let me submit some statistics . [1] At present, there are about 640 million small arms in the world, one for every ten people on earth. The majority, 59% are in the hands of civilians. Further, 38% are owned by government armed forces, 2.8% by police and 0.2% by armed groups. The gun trade is worth US$4 billion a year, of which up to US$1 billion may be unauthorised or illicit. Eight million new guns are manufactured every year by at least 1,249 companies in 92 countries. Ten to 14 billion units of ammunition are manufactured every year, which is enough to kill every person in the world twice over.

It is interesting to note that illicit guns start out in the legal trade. Statistics reveal that 80% of the guns used in crime in Mexico were legally acquired in the US. Similarly, 72% of the guns used in crime in Rio de Janeiro were once legally owned in Brazil.

A thousand people a day die as a result of guns. Of these 1000 deaths, on average 560 are criminal homicides, 250 are direct war deaths; 140 are suicides, while 50 are accidents or cases of undetermined intent. Three people are wounded for every one killed. Small arms are responsible for 60-90% of the direct conflict deaths that occur each year. Tens of thousands of children are armed and are fighting in more than 20 conflicts around the world.

Conservative estimates indicate that there are about eight million small arms and light weapons in West Africa alone. Of the 640 million small arms circulating in the world, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa. Several regions of Africa have made and continue to make efforts to curb the proliferation of small arms, such at the West Africa Moratorium on Importation, the Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms initiated by civil society, which has now adopted as a Convention awaiting ratification by Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

To be fair, African governments are making efforts to deal with the menace caused by small arms; however, their efforts are undermined by arms brokers and governments with expansionist aspirations who push small arms into the hands of “non-state actors” for personal gain. These non-state actors usually push the same agenda from one country to another, and that is to gain control over an area with valuable mineral resource.

The international community could play a vital role in curbing the proliferation of small arms. The international community ought to challenge the small arms manufacturers and to put pressure on them to slow down with the production of small arms. The UN Review Conference on Small Arms, which was held in June 2006 in New York, did not achieve the desired results, and so much effort is still needed to secure agreement on how to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Children and armed conflict

Children are a wonderful gift of God to humanity. Why should any one be allowed by society to abuse innocent children just to achieve callous personal ambition? Why should society look away when poor and fragile youngsters are violently forced to maim and be maimed?

The UN Security Council Resolutions 1612 should be commended. It behoves policy makers and diplomats, as well as civil society movements, to demand that the protection of children from small arms be enforced. . [2]

When children are sucked into the vortex of armed violence, society suffers the consequences far beyond the current generation. For the generation that was denied the opportunity to experience childhood and education, illiteracy limits them, low economic productivity become their way of life, and breakdown of law and order defines them.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then United Nations Secretary-General, said in his agenda for Peace in 1995: “The sources of conflict and war are pervasive and deep. To reach them will require our utmost effort to enhance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote sustainable economic and social development for wider prosperity, to alleviate distress and to curtail the existence and use of massively destructive weapons.” [3] Graça Machel’s UN Report on Impact of Armed Conflict on Children [4] noted child soldiers are an affront to humanity.

Much-needed resources for development are set aside for post war maintenance activities. For instance, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had to launch a US$7 million emergency appeal for Liberia to put 750 000 children back in school. A programme had to be mounted to demobilise about 15 000 child soldiers in Liberia. As things stand, only 51% of school-going age children are actually attending school in Liberia. [5]

Even in peaceful countries, there are many thousands of children taking part in organized armed violence using small arms. Children patrol group territories openly armed in parts of Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Philippines, and other places. Small arms become seen as as symbols of power, dominance, and worth. Children in such communities grow up believing that violence, especially from using small arms and light weapons, is essential for gaining power, obtaining goods and services, and establishing respect, thus perpetuating the culture of violence. [6]


Religion, Children and Armed Conflict

When people exist in a space where human beings are slaughtered like sheep, where women and young girls are raped and maimed with impunity, where children are exploited and are forcibly turned into soldiers, many turn to religion. Religion offers these people hope and religion helps these people deal with the pain of losing loved ones.

Faith-based organisations continue to provide assistance to the victims of war and to the poor according to the tenets of the religion they subscribe to. When conflict explodes and disaster strikes, it is normally religious groups that commence with humanitarian activities before the international aid groups appear on the scene.

There are several countries where faith based organisations have proven themselves by responding with such efficiency that even the UN has shown an interest in forming partnerships with these communities. Such collaboration ought to be structured, formalised and implemented globally. It is time to build strategic partnerships to fulfil the call of Graça Machel that whatever the causes, the time has come to call a halt and affirm that “attacks on children are intolerable and unacceptable.” [7]

• Baffour Dokyi Amoa is the Chairman of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA) and the President of the Africa Forum on Small Arms (AFonSA)
• Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Merchants of death

Mandisi Majavu

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/37271

According to the Africa Aerospace & Defence newsletter, the AAD 2006 “… is Africa’s showcase event for general and commercial aviation, aerospace and military land, sea and air technology and services.” However, anti-war groups argue that the AAD 2006 will exhibit the largest and greatest in machinery designed for only one purpose - the killing of human beings. This is the harsh truth behind arms expos; they supply arms for countries to go to war.


In Africa, a continent that has been devastated by civil wars, a continent where military weapons have brought nothing but misery and destruction, the last thing one would expect is a weapons fair. Dubbed “Africa Aerospace & Defence 2006”, AAD 2006 is the largest weapons exhibition that has ever been organised in this continent.

As if referring to a flea market, the AAD 2006 websites states that: “Air Force Base Ysterplaat [Cape Town, South Africa], against the backdrop of Table Mountain, will provide the setting for the only exposition of its sort in Africa and will feature more than 400 exhibitors from at least 25 countries.”

The AAD website further informs readers that by taking part in this affair, “trade visitors and the media have the unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor, experiencing and participating in the renaissance of the African aerospace and defence industry.” We are expected to believe that the same military weapons that have perpetuated civil wars in the DRC, Uganda and Liberia are in actual fact what constitute the African renaissance. This would be funny if this were not a matter of life and death.

Commenting on the exhibition, the Ceasefire and Umzabalazo we Jubilee campaigns wrote: “These arms companies will exhibit the largest and greatest in machinery designed for only one purpose, the killing of human beings. Husband, fathers, son, daughter and infants will all die because of this machinery. This is the harsh truth behind arms expos; they supply arms for countries to go to war with other countries and against their own citizens.”

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition claims that: “Many of the arms companies ‘exhibiting’ at the weapons fair are allegedly involved in dealing weapons through third party front companies with extremely poor human rights records, like America, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Angola, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria. This method involves direct purchases by the foreign aid recipient from a government weapons manufacturer contractor, without directly government involvement in the process. Others are involved in further impoverishing poor countries like Malawi who have no need for military equipment but who are forced by the World Bank into taking out loans to buy weapons in exchange for aid.”

According to the Small Arms Survey 2006, “Applying the doctrinal distinctions outlined…to 166 countries (all countries with a population over 400 000 that have military) permits global estimation of the number of firearms controlled by the state-sponsored armed forces of the world. Combined with formally declared military inventories, this analysis concludes that the world harbours at least 200 million official military firearms. When distributed to compensate for a statistical margin of error (plus or minus 25 percent), the range of global military firearms appears to be between 150 million and 250 million. The estimating used here for People’s War militaries are conservative, which suggest that actual global totals are more likely to be closer to the upper parameter.”

Addressing specifically the issue of small arms, the Global Policy Forum (www.globalpolicy.org) states that: “Small arms and light weapons fuel civil wars and other conflicts, causing harm to millions of people, particularly in Africa. These small weapons are only part of a larger trade that includes heavier and more lethal weaponry, but light arms are often especially baneful because they are cheap, easy to transport and can be handled by ill-trained rebel soldiers and even children. Recent UN reports show how these weapons are illicitly exported, transported with connivance of government officials in many countries and smuggled into war zones.”

To fully understand what the AAD 2006 means for ordinary Africans, one has to take into consideration the role of small arms in African civil wars. As the Global Policy Forum points out, small weapons are a part of a larger trade, like the AAD 2006.

The Small Arms Survey 2006 (SAS 2006) reports that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) depended on small arms to keep the civil war going in Northern Uganda for the past 20 years. As a result, this led to high levels of armament among the civilian population in the region, levels exacerbated by government and military policies of arming sections of society against the LRA and other armed groups.

“The LRA’s primary weapons are Kalashnikov derivatives, and most commonly, the Chinese Type 56 assault rifle. However, the Ugandan military uses a number of weapons, and the same types are also used by the LRA. The most numerous after the Chinese Type 56 are Polish and Romanian AKM assault rifles and AK-47 assault rifles from the former Soviet Union. Some observers claim that NATO weapons, such as the Belgian FN FAL and the German G3, are also in service with some rebels, having formerly been in the arsenals of the Ugandan and Sudanese governments.” (SAS 2006)

Even with perfect case studies, such as Uganda, which illustrate that in the world today, military firearms serve one purpose and that is to terrorise and kill innocent civilians, AAD 2006 is unconvinced. The AAD 2006 newsletter claims that: “The conventional and terrorist threats to security together with increased demands for peace-support operations is prompting many African countries to revisit their defence requirement and to re-evaluate their investments in research and development and procurements.”

However, the Cape Town Anti-War Coalition points out that most of the companies who are exhibiting weapons are “responsible for the deaths of millions of civilians across Africa and the Middle Eats.” For example, Truvelo, one of the companies exhibiting weapons at the fair is “manufacturing a new assault rifle. This company is expert in manufacturing sniper guns.” Eurocipter, another exhibitor, makes 14 different military helicopters, including the “Tiger” which they supply to Israel, among other repressive regimes.

The sad reality is that the manufacturing of arms (instead of building homes for the homeless and feeding the hungry for instance) is not likely to change for a very long time. The projections by the Small Arms Survey 2006 show a world obsessed with military firearms. The SAS 2005 predicts that:

- The world’s militaries procure around 50 million small arms and light weapons over a 50-year period, or around 1 million units annually.
- Not all of this acquisition is of new stocks.
-Global production of military small arms and light weapons over a 50-year period range between 36 and 46 million weapons and averages 0.7 – 0.9 million annually.
- Production is not constant but cyclical and responds to the demands of the world’s wealthier states.
- The world’s poorer states often rely on surplus stocks displayed by wealthy state procurement programmes.
- This trade and transfer of surplus stocks to militaries across the globe could number up to 14 million units over a 50-year period.
- Some of the world’s largest procurers will launch major procurement programmes in the next 10 – 15 years.
- Global military production periodically peaks and id projected to do so in the coming 20 years as wealthy states modernise their small arms.
- Unless measures are taken to remove weapons from circulation, this peak is likely to displace yet more surplus stock to the world’s poorer states.


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

The World Bank during neoliberal and neoconservative fusion

Patrick Bond

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/37272

Patrick Bond argues that the assault against the international civil society has been devastating. He writes that nearly all the major multilateral institutions have been captured by hardliners over the past couple of years. Bond postulates that it is from this standpoint that “…We can understand not only the recent debacles of global governance: the inability to expand the UN Security Council in September 2005; the breakdown of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations in July 2006; and the planned shrinkage of Africa’s voting power within the IMF board of governors, from 4% to 2%.”


The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings just completed in Singapore were a disaster for the Third World, especially Africans who face a dramatic decline in voting shares on the IMF board, at the same time a few middle-income countries led by China recapitalise the institutions.

For civil society activists, the official welcome in Singapore may not have matched last week’s brutality by Robert Mugabe against Harare trade union leaders or Durban police against shackdwellers. But it more than confirmed Singapore’s reputation as an intolerant police state:

• the regime simply banned the arrival of dozens of social and environmental activists, including many with official Bank/IMF accreditation;
• others who got to the airport were immediately extradited;
• Singapore even asked neighbouring Indonesia to cancel a citizen’s conference critical of the Bank and IMF, held across the bay from the city-state.

Civil society activists replied with a boycott call. According to a petition by Jubilee South, the World Development Movement, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth International, Oil Watch International and several other groups, ‘Knowing full well the authoritarian character of the Singaporean Government, the Bank and IMF appear to have picked Singapore as the site because they wanted to avoid legitimate and peaceful street protests.’

True, but consider the broader context for the assault on institutions of international civil society. Nearly all the major multilateral institutions have been captured by hardliners over the past couple of years:

• the European Union chose Spanish neoconservative Rodrigo Rato as IMF managing director in mid-2004;
• the new head of UNICEF, chosen in January 2005, was George Bush’s agriculture minister Ann Veneman, although the US and Somalia are the only two out of 191 countries which refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• for another key UN post in February 2005, the outgoing head of the World Trade Organisation, Supachai Panitchpakdi from Thailand (who mainly served US and EU interests from 2003-05), was chosen to lead the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;
• Paul Wolfowitz was appointed by Bush to head the World Bank in March 2005;
• the European Union’s trade negotiator Pascal Lamy won the directorship of the World Trade Organisation a few weeks after that; and
• to ensure that Washington’s directives to Kofi Annan continued to be as explicit as possible, Bush appointed John Bolton as US Ambassador to the UN.

Bolton is illustrative, for he was never confirmed by the US Congress since Bush gave him the job during a mid-2005 recess. As the once-powerful, pro-apartheid former US senator Jesse Helms put it, he is ‘the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon.’

Coming from the State Department, Bolton’s main function beginning in 2001 when Bush captured the White House, was to disempower the UN. He also engineered Washington’s withdrawal from or weakening of the anti-ballistic missile treaty, a biological weapons convention protocal, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the nuclear test ban treaty, the UN conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, and the International Criminal Court.

It is in this context that we can understand not only the recent debacles of global governance: the inability to expand the UN Security Council in September 2005; the breakdown of the Doha Round of World Trade Organisation negotiations in July 2006; and the planned shrinkage of Africa’s voting power within the IMF board of governors, from 4% to 2%.

In addition, at a time of fusion between ‘neoliberalism’ (promoting US/EU corporate and especially financial interests) and ‘neoconservativism’ (promoting US petromilitary profits and religious-extremist values) as the dominant bloc in global geopolitics, we must concede the utter futility of reform proposals being advanced by some in civil society, along with some governments, like Thabo Mbeki’s.

The neolib-neocon fusion is personified by Wolfowitz, close ally of the exceptionally corrupt, brutal Indonesian dictator Suharto during the 1980s and more recently, as deputy Pentagon leader, architect of and apologist for imperial theft and US corporate patronage associated with the illegal Iraq War.

Since January this year, Wolfowitz’s Bank has a new self-declared mission: to stem project graft, whose historical costs to the 62-year old institution are conservatively estimated at $100 billion. Wolfowitz is getting plenty of press ink for his anti-corruption plan by asking its contractors and staff to declare their knowledge of backhanders. If so, an amnesty will be granted and they won’t be prosecuted.

Patricia Adams from the Toronto NGO Probe International condemns Wolfowitz’s strategy because it ‘immunises bribers from debarment, allows the Bank to cover-up its own negligence or complicity, and undermines the administration of justice in countries where it is a criminal offence to bribe a foreign official.’

Lesotho is a good example, because the Maseru government is standing up to the ‘dirty dozen’ corrupt firms and consortiums which bribed top Highlands Development Authority officials – including one now in jail, and another in charge of water for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

After a key US Senator, Richard Lugar, supported Lesotho, the Bank finally began some limited debarment in 2004. Pretoria is yet to follow suit (perhaps because some local giants like LTA and Concor were implicated, which would throw off 2010 infrastucture construction timing.)

Civil society groups are used to the runaround. In the case of the Bank’s ill-fated 1998-2001 World Commission on Dams (WCD), chairperson Kader Asmal despaired at the follow-up findings of the (2002-03) World Panel on Financing Infrastructure, led by former IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus. Asmal wrote: ‘For an esteemed panel to effectively write off the WCD, whose core recommendations have been endorsed by many of its member organisations, is quite remarkable and raises concerns about the value of the report. Failing to address this point effectively takes us back many years.’

Remarked activist Patrick McCully of International Rivers Network, ‘The World Bank’s singularly negative and non-committal response to the WCD Report means that the Bank will no longer be accepted as an honest broker in any further multi-stakeholder dialogues.’

Moreover, ubiquitous Bank/IMF Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (1999-present) also proved to be a dead end, according to dozens of cases considered carefully by civil society and academic researchers.

Likewise, the (1999-2003) Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (Sapri) failed when Bank staff walked out of the process near its conclusion. Commented Richard Peet, author of a major book on the Bretton Woods Instituitons, ‘the President of the World Bank did not listen to Sapri, because he could not. For he would hear, and he even might learn, that his finest, most splendid ideas had produced the worst, most harmful effects.’

The crucial Extractive Industries Review (EIR) was similarly constructed as a multi-stakeholder project (2002-04). But the Bank was not serious about tackling problems caused by the mineral, petroleum and timber industries. According to analysts at Friends of the Earth, Environmental Defence and International Rivers, ‘One of the Bank’s most important environmental reforms of the 1990s was its more cautious approach to high-risk infrastructure and forestry projects. This policy is now being reversed.’

Specifically, the environmentalists complained, ‘The World Bank recently announced that it would re-engage in contentious water projects such as large dams in what it refers to as a “high risk/high reward” strategy. In 2002, the Bank dismissed its “risk-averse” approach to the forest sector when it approved a new forest policy. The World Bank is also considering support for new oil, mining, and gas projects in unstable and poorly governed countries, against the recommendations of its own evaluation unit.’

The EIR recommended a phasing out of all Bank fossil fuel investments in late 2003. In February 2004, SA’s then energy minister and now deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, explicitly advised the Bank to oppose the ‘green lobbyists’, and six months later the Bank board rejected the EIR’s main proposals.

Ultimately, nearly all civil society initiatives aimed at reforming the Bank and IMF have been disasters. The Civicus World Citizens Assembly withdrew from its controversial 2003-05 initiative to rebuild relations.

The boycott of Bank activities by most forces within civil society launched last week reminds of the calls to stigmatise South Africa before 1994. And why not? After all, Thabo Mbeki has popularized the term ‘global apartheid’ – and now the question is whether to polish the chains or break them.


* (On September 26, Bond – who directs the UKZN Centre for Civil Society – will lead a morning discussion about the Bank and IMF in Durban at Diakonia; two additional presentations will occur on 27 September at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington from noon-2pm, and on 1 October at the Brecht Forum in New York City, noon-3pm.)

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

Islamic faith replaced Communism in the pantheons of Western phobias

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/37268

The ongoing controversy about the Pope’s ill-judged statement on Islam and violence may not abate easily, as different Muslim populations across the world continue to react in different ways. One hopes that the spate of violent attacks on Christian places of worship end immediately. Governments must assume responsibility for stopping these attacks. It is not the Pope that is hurting, but fellow citizens and neighbours.

All citizens, whether Christian or Muslim or the majority who are neither, deserve and should enjoy the full rights to the protection of their lives, place of worship, and freedom of their consciences along with other rights.

The Pope’s statement may do long lasting damage to inter–faith dialogue and religious tolerance, something that his predecessor, Pope John Paul 11, was closely associated with.

Both the violent reactions from a minority of Muslims and the biased reporting from the dominant Western media suggesting that ‘Muslims are violent’ are not surprising. They fit a template only too familiar.

Not too long ago there were the Danish cartoons and the reactions to them. It is a rather simple ‘audience and cue’ circus: a western person or institution says or does something that is offensive to good taste but specifically offensive to the Muslim faith or Muslims. Then there is a spate of militant and sometimes violent reaction from people in virtually the same countries. The western media then turns on the reactions, suggesting that the Muslims are immature, unable to take criticism and unable to engage in rational debate. Some proceed to conclude that the reactions prove how violent Muslims are.

It is a case of someone slapping you and also dictating that you should not cry. It is not correct that every offended group in the world should be burning places down and killing people. However, those on global platforms must also learn to say and act in ways that do not inflame emotions.

The same pattern repeated itself after the Pope’s statement. The attention soon shifted away from what the Holy Father said, to the reaction of some of those he offended. It is true that the Pope gave an unprecedented apology and is taking very public steps to atone for the misjudgment.

Hopefully with time this may cool things down, but the bad blood generated may not easily subside. It is neither the worst statement ever nor would it be the last time such a statement will be made about Islam, however, it must be pointed out that the Pope is not just any other person. He is the closest the world has to a religious head.

Neither Islam nor other religions like Confucianism or Hinduism that have more adherents to their faith than Christianity (let alone just Catholics) have a head that is as globally influential as the Pope. There are no two Popes in the world. He is also a head of state with diplomatic relations with virtually all governments of the world. With this influence surely comes huge responsibilities.

What he says in private and public will be scrutinized; therefore, he has to weigh up his statements carefully. They carry both moral and political weight well beyond his tiny papacy and faith.

It was a rather evasive reaction to say that the Pope was only quoting an obscure writer. He has made that writer known to everybody now. Would the Pope have quoted many of the more obscure writers that wrote and are writing about Christianity, Hinduism, or the Jewish faith?

Could the Western Media be that understanding if the Pope had quoted a Nazi writer famous or infamous writing about Jews or the Jewish faith? Historians who question the holocaust are taken to court and convicted because Holocaust denial is deemed beyond the limits of academic debate and freedom of expression.

There is so much violence in the name of God that no religion, especially a monotheistic one, has a monopoly over violence and violent methods. That the Pope enjoys the political visibility that he does today is not because Catholics are the majority of the world’s population or that his city–state empire is of any indispensable strategic importance, but the result of historical powers of Rome and the Church.

These powers were built by conquest and pillage. The Roman Empire and the Roman Church were involved in slavery, colonialism, wars, and other forms of non-Christian activities.

More recently in Rwanda, the Church (even if it was not convicted of genocide) bears responsibility for keeping quiet while God’s children were butchered with the connivance of some of its clergy and even Bishops. If anyone is to condemn Christianity for all these crimes such a person will be descended upon. If the Church and all Christians cannot be held responsible why are Muslims always maligned as a group?

Islam and Christianity are both monotheistic religions with shared roots, built by evangelism, through empires that utilized peaceful and non-peaceful means to establish their hegemony. Once hegemonic they declared peace of the victorious!

Even though it is Muslims that gave vent to the offence caused by the Pope’s statement, Dr Jibo Ibrahim (one of very few people, including those reacting violently, who have bothered to read the full text of the paper) the Director of the CDD, a leading researcher on religion and interfaith relations based in Abuja, Nigeria noted that the Pope’s statement should be even more offensive to non-European Christians (the majority of all Christians) because of its Euro-centrist understanding of God, the church and Christianity.

It is not about which religious group(s) are offended but rather the responsibility of a political and religious leader like the Pope in these trying times. Why did the Pope say those things? If he wanted to promote dialogue, he chose a very strange way to do it.

In a world in which Muslims and the Islamic faith replaced Communism in the pantheons of Western phobias, the Pope’s statement is at best mischievous, and at worst deliberately provocative. Whether one is a Muslim or not, both reasons should be unacceptable. I am not sure whether it was a goof or a papal declaration of intent to line up behind Bush in his modern crusade.

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

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

Global: Announcement of 16 days of activism theme

2006-09-18

http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu

2006 marks the 16th anniversary of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign. Since 1991, the 16 Days campaign has worked to increase the visibility of violence against women as a human rights violation. This year, the campaign celebrates activists who have made the campaign a success and honours women human rights defenders who have suffered intimidation and violence for their activism and/or have given their lives fighting for gender equality.

Global: All Diamonds Are Blood Diamonds

2006-09-19

http://www.apscuhuru.org/analysis/diamonds/index.xhtml

In an attempt to educate the American public about the violence and oppression they charge is intrinsic in the diamond trade, the African People's Solidarity Committee is launching a national action campaign against the diamond industry with a series of demonstrations and actions targeting diamonds retailers in U.S. cities.

DRC: An Urgent Call to Respect the Will of the Congolese People

2006-09-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/37122

On July 30, 2006, the Congolese people demonstrated their desire for a peaceful and democratic process in the Congo by exercising a basic human right denied to them for the last 40 years: they voted. The long overdue presidential election received praise from all corners of the globe. Unfortunately, when the Independent Electoral Commission announced a run-off election would be necessary, supporters of both leading candidates in Kinshasa responded with violence.
An Urgent Call to Respect the Will of the Congolese People
On July 30, 2006, the Congolese people demonstrated their desire for a peaceful and democratic process in the Congo by exercising a basic human right denied to them for the last 40 years: they voted.

The long overdue presidential election received praise from all corners of the globe. Unfortunately, when the Independent Electoral Commission announced a run-off election would be necessary, supporters of both leading candidates in Kinshasa responded with violence. Such unrest violates the spirit and aspirations of the Congolese people who yearn to rebuild their nation and live in peace and stability. The creation of sub-commissions by the UN Mission to the Congo that are tasked with investigating this violence and ensuring a peaceful run-off election is a positive step forward. However, international support is critical to preventing the outbreak of further violence as the election process continues.

We call on the international community to support the democratic process and the work of the commission by:

• Rejecting all attempts by any party to hijack the otherwise peaceful election.
• Holding both candidates accountable to their commitment to support the commissions.
• Accepting the final vote of the Congolese people in the upcoming runoff election.

The votes of the people are not votes solely for one candidate or another but rather for a transparent democratic process through which political leaders assume power through the will of the people and are held accountable to those who elected them.

Optimum bi-lateral and multilateral pressure must be brought to bear on all parties and their supporters to respect the wishes of the Congolese people and the outcome of the upcoming run-off election. The interests of the 17 million Congolese who voted must not be subordinated to the interests of armed groups.

As people of conscience and goodwill, we must join in solidarity and partnership with the Congolese people to see this very fragile but critical process through in a peaceful manner. Current and future generations of Congolese deserve the opportunity to rebuild their nation, experience peace, stability and a leadership that lives up to the dignity and courage shown by the voters on July 30, 2006.

The DRC Coalition:

Friends of Congo
Run For Congo Women
Congolese Community of Southern California
International Rescue Committee
Oxfam America
Open Society Institute
World Relief
Muadi Mukenge, Global Fund for Women
National Peace Corps Association – Friends of the Congo
Congo Peace Action Network
Council for Peace and Reconciliation, Bukavu (COPARE)
Tous Unis Pour Batir (TUBA/KiKuiT)
The Bayindo Group SA
Mama Makeka House of Hope
Dignity, Inc.
Mennonite Central Committee
Bureau pours le Volontariat au service de l’Enfance et la Sante (BVES)
Coalition des Pluralistes et des Patriotes Congolais (COPPAC)
Initiatives Femmes Enfants et Developpement, Bukavu (IFED)

To contact the DCR Coalition : drc.coalition@gmail.com

Review of African blogs - Global Day of Action for Darfur

Sokari Ekine

2006-09-19

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/37220

This past Sunday marked the Global Day of Action for Darfur. The aim was “to show world-wide support for the Darfuri people and to put pressure on our Governments to protect the civilians.” A number of African bloggers posted special pieces to mark the day.

‘Wordsbody’ - Wordsbody (http://wordsbody.blogspot.com/2006/09/endgame-in-darfur.html) a literary blog by Molara Wood, wrote a moving piece entitled “Endgame in Darfur”. Wood reminded us of the “never again” mantra echoed after the Rwandan genocide just over 10 years ago.

“Now it is Darfur. The World again is being its (or is it her?) old useless self. The World is being racist again. Not only are the people being killed in Darfur as black as night, they are Africans - a terrible thing to be if you want the World to care about you.”

Wood continues, “What is more, the Dead, Dying and Displaced of Darfur are Muslims. I don’t know what is the worse thing to be in the current World order - African or Muslim. The people of Darfur have a terrible Double Whammy of an albatross round their necks.”

She writes about the “anxiety” being expressed by various people, countries and organisations over the genocide that is taking place before our eyes. Wood wonders: “And so the new anxiety. And how inadequate a word is ‘Anxiety’. But what word should we grasp and attempt to speak, to express the unthinkable?

"And is the new ‘anxiety’ because Hollywood liberal George Clooney spent 5 days with his father in Darfur in April, and in the last few days urged the US government to do something about 'the first Genocide of the 21st century'"

'Mshairi' - Mshairi (http://www.mshairi.com/blog/2006/09/17/suffer-the-little-children) posted a poem titled “Suffer The Little Children”. Here is a short excerpt:

Who will weep for me?
I died
Famished
Belly distended
Flies clustered
Over my face
Gunfire and screams
The last sounds
I heard

'Alexcia' - Alexcia (http://alexcia.blogspot.com/2006/09/global-day-for-darfur.html) tells us the meaning of Darfur – Land of the Fur. She writes:

“Death and Funeral announcement
Here lies eighty thousands souls
Names and identities – unknown
Passions and pains – unknown
Feelings and fears – unknown
Origin and nationality – Western Sudan Darfur region
Now buried in a mass grave known as Darfur Crisis
All died at home from a janjaweed epidemic
Two million others infected of unknown origin
Inadequate attention from United Nations is believe to have
Played a part in these deaths…”

'Sudanese Thinker' - Sudanese Thinker (http://www.sudanesethinker.com/2006/09/19/jews-stay-away-next-time-p/) reports on a counter demonstration held in Khartoum in which the Global Day for Darfur was labeled a “Jewish Conspiracy”. Demonstrators predictably opposed the deployment of troops in Darfur. Drima (Sudanese Thinker) also takes issue with the lack of protests against the genocide by the Muslim world.

“By the way were there any rallies in the Muslim world to protest the ruthless killing and suffering of “blackies” in Darfur? Okay fine, fine. I’ll stop being the cynical person I am. There were small tiny efforts in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Cairo. I’m starting to see the “light”. In 5 years time we’ll protest things like Darfur besides continuing our violent protests against the Pope. Great improvement huh?!”

'Black Looks' - black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/09/global_day_for_darfur_.html) points to an article in African Action looking at some of the similarities between the response of the USA to Rwanda and their response to Darfur. In the case of Rwanda the focus was on Yugoslavia and in the case of Darfur…

“In Darfur at present, the U.S. is focused more urgently on the crisis in the Middle East, on the war in Iraq and on the so-called “War on Terrorism”, which are estimated to be more pressing policy priorities than genocide in Africa.”

'Passion of the Present' passion of the present (http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/09/global_day_for__1.html)has a roundup of the events across the globe to mark the Global day of Action for Darfur.

*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: 'There Hasn't Been Adequate Emphasis On Family Planning'

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609200001.html

The problem of limited access to contraceptives is taking centre stage at an African Union (AU) meeting currently underway in Maputo. Since Monday, health experts have been holding talks in the Mozambican capital about a plan of action that seeks to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services across the continent.

Africa: Women Leaders Meet in Maputo

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609180831.html

"Women are born to live and not to die", declared Mozambique's former first lady, Graca Machel on Saturday. Machel, who currently heads one of Mozambique's best-known NGOs, the Community Development Foundation (FDC), was speaking at the opening session in Maputo of a meeting of African Women Leaders, and she was referring to the high rates of maternal mortality in Africa.

Zambia: Lack of Maternity Ward At Siavonga Hospital

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609180974.html

SIAVONGA district health acting director Dr Joseph Kabungo has urged government to complete the construction of the maternity ward at the district hospital. In an interview, Dr Kabungo said it was not right for expectant mothers to be using the general female admission ward for delivery.

Global:Women and International Migration

2006-09-18

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/pdf/en_sowp06.pdf

"....Today, half of all international migrants-95 million-are women and girls. Yet, despite substantial contributions to both their families at home and communities abroad, the needs of migrant women continue to be overlooked and ignored."

DRC: Sexual abuse a ‘cancer’

2006-09-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55596

Widespread rape and a culture of impunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are undermining the country’s progress, Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, has told the UN Security Council. “Sexual abuse has become a cancer in Congolese society that seems to be out of control,” Egeland said as he recounted his recent trip to the DRC, where, he said, nearly all women he spoke to had been raped.

Nigeria: Domestic workers or modern day slaves

2006-09-18

http://www.agenda.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1579&Itemid=147

Human traffickers make good business taking poorly educated girls from Nigerian villages to toil as domestic workers in the sprawling urban throb of Lagos. But the girls, some as young as five years old, see little or none of their earnings. Tonia Ayo-Ola, 19, has worked for three months without a day off. Each morning she is up by 6 a.m. preparing breakfast for her "master".

Uganda: Eight new women MPs sworn in

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12777.html&d=1

Eight out of the 11 newly elected women MPs were sworn in during the plenary chaired by Speaker Edward Ssekandi. Former Lira Municipality MP Ceclia Ogwal, took the spotlight during the ceremony. Ogwal, popularly known as the 'iron lady,' had lost her seat in the last parliamentary elections to Jimmy Akena, son of former President Milton Obote.

Zimbabwe: Sexual abuse of women with disabilities

2006-09-18

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/disab/060828nascoh2.asp?sector=DISAB

Despite the phenomenal progress that the country has posted in various fields of endeavour, particularly on the social front as society pursues its relentless drive towards modernity and sophistication, Zimbabwean men remain, for the most part, deeply steeped in superstition and myths.

Uganda: Nation in Crisis Thanks to Divisive Regime

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190945.html

The government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have agreed to end two decades of hostilities in the northern part of the country. This is good news. But, only serious international pressure can ensure that the Juba talks progress into a definite peace. The regime of Youweri Museveni has invested massively in a campaign of deception and disinformation, aimed at concealing a methodical and comprehensive genocide in northern Uganda, conceived and conducted by the government.

Uganda: the worst place in the world to be a child today

2006-09-20

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-issues/assembly-documents/2-plenary-presentations/youth-overcoming-violence/olara-otunnu-presentation.html

When adults wage war, children pay the highest price. Children are the primary victims of armed conflict. They are both its targets and increasingly its instruments. Their suffering bears many faces, in the midst of armed conflict and its aftermath. Children are killed or maimed, made orphans, abducted, deprived of education and health care, and left with deep emotional scars and trauma.

Africa: War, Murder, Rape... All for Your Cell

2006-09-19

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14117

"As you crawl through the tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there's not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the cassiterite, the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we're always hungry."

Kenya: Civil society movement under threat

2006-09-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609060346.html

Part of Kenyan President Kibaki's re-election strategy is to weaken civil society, if not kill this country’s once-powerful civil society movement, reports the East African Standard. In addition to the government's publicly stated intention to reduce the powers of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) are preparing abuses of maladmistration charges against Mr Maina Kiai, the KNCHR chairman.

Rwanda: UN prosecutor says most-wanted genocide suspect in Kenya

2006-09-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55580

The most-wanted Rwandan genocide suspect, Felician Kabuga, is hiding in Kenya and efforts are under way to arrest him, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Hassan Jallow, said.

Rwanda: Country accuses UN court of hiring war criminals

2006-09-18

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060914/2006-09-14T173808Z_01_L14290297_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-RWANDA-GENOCIDE-DC.html

Rwanda has accused a U.N. court trying masterminds of the 1994 genocide of recruiting genocide suspects and said it would stop cooperating with the Tanzanian-based tribunal if it took no action. Relations between Rwanda and the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have been strained over an incident earlier this month in which Tanzanian authorities arrested a Rwandan lawyer working for ICTR.

South Africa: MPs dig in heels against same-sex unions

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12774.html&d=1

Conservative MPs are on a collision course with a Constitutional Court ruling granting same-sex unions the same rights as traditional marriages. This time they are up in arms over a homosexual couple being able to adopt a “girl child”. For the second time in as many weeks MPs have objected to the Civil Union Bill, which has now been officially introduced to Parliament.

Africa: AU mission extended with Arab League and UN support

2006-09-21

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55656

The African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Sudan will be extended until December 31, with regional and United Nations support, Burkina Faso’s President and current AU President, Blaise Comparoré, announced today after a high-level meeting with AU Peace and Security Council members. “There are a certain number of measures that were agreed upon, such as reinforcing the African troops, but also to strengthen the application of the Abuja agreement that was signed to bring all the parties involved to implement its terms.”

Global: Asylum applications in industrialised countries continue to plummet

2006-09-20

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=450fed422

The downward trend in asylum applications in most industrialised countries continues unabated, according to the latest UNHCR statistical report. Based on provisional data provided to UNHCR by governments, the report indicates that during the first six months of this year, a total of 134,900 asylum applications were submitted in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Global: Asylum-seeker killed himself so son could stay

2006-09-20

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1621759.ece

The psychological effects of Britain's policy of locking up asylum-seekers were demonstrated yesterday at an inquest into the death of an Angolan man who took his life so that his teenage son might stay in Britain. Tim Finch, director at the Refugee Council, said afterwards: "This totally heartbreaking case is not an isolated one. These cases show the level of desperation of people in these centres.

West Africa: The challenges of internal displacement in West Africa

2006-09-20

http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/articles/200609_wyndham_westafrica.htm

Internal conflicts based on ethnic tensions and rivalries, political instability, disputes over the control of natural resources, natural disasters, poverty, food insecurity and the imperatives of development have all resulted in significant displacement in West Africa.

Africa: Migration and rights

2006-09-18

http://www.africafocus.org

Chartered planes have started flying illegal African immigrants back from Spain to Senegal, resuming a repatriation program aimed at stemming the flow of immigrants to this southern European country. But judging by experience, the return is unlikely to stop thousands of others from risking their lives in small boats to reach the Canary Islands from the West African coast, or finding other perilous ways of reaching the European continent.

Namibia: Refugees commissioner faces tough challenge

2006-09-19

http://www.newera.com.na/archives.php?id=13204&date=2006-09-18

Nkrumah Mushelenga, who in June was appointed as Commissioner of Refugees at Home Affairs and Immigration, faces an uphill task to ensure he fulfills the Namibia Refugee Recognition Control Act and other conventions on refugees. Thus far, he has issued a five-point directive of what he terms core values to be strictly adhered to by refugee administrative staff under his command and to make sure their conduct either on or off-duty complies with and reflects the values of the 1951 UN Geneva Convention and the OAU Convention governing specific aspects of African refugees.

Senegal: Country moves to expel Pakistani migrants

2006-09-19

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1158613744701B252

Two groups of 56 and 48 clandestine migrants were arrested in Dakar and Thies, east of Dakar, last week by Senegalese authorities. The arrests were the first involving non-African migrants in the country, who were attempting to make it to the Canary Islands from where they hoped to be allowed to stay in mainland Europe.

Somalia: Refugee crisis festers as more flee

2006-09-19

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55614

At least 22,000 Somali refugees have arrived in Kenya since the beginning of this year to join 130,000 others others who have lived in refugee camps in the remote, arid Dadaab area in the country's Northeastern Province since 1991. Although most of the new arrivals early this year fled because of food shortages after the drought, people also sought to escape the warfare that engulfed Mogadishu from February to June as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) fought and eventually dislodged an alliance of warlords from the city.

Sudan: 350,000 may be displaced if AU leaves Darfur, UN

2006-09-19

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18862069.htm

Some 350,000 people in Sudan's war-ravaged west could be displaced if African Union forces leave Darfur when their mandate expires at the end of the month, the United Nations has said. It forecast that if the 7,000-strong AU force pulled out of Darfur, humanitarian access there would deteriorate dramatically as attacks on vehicles made road travel impossible outside urban centres.

Global: Hundreds demonstrate against Zimbabwe deportations

2006-09-18

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=15159

Hundreds today (September 16) marched through Leeds city centre in an unprecedented show of solidarity with asylum seekers facing the resumption of forced deportations to Zimbabwe. Organised by the Zimbabwe Refugee Community Organisation, with support from Leeds No Borders and the regional Refugee Council, the protest began outside Leeds Central Library at 12pm and attracted a genuine social movement coalition of exiled Zimbabweans, other migrant groups, local campaigners, trade unionists and church representatives.

Côte d'Ivoire: Gbagbo in Scathing Attack On UN, France

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609200025.html

AS THE United Nations (UN) Security Council was preparing to reassess today the situation in Côte d'Ivoire in relation to its resolution 1633, President Laurent Gbagbo launched a stinging attack on the UN and France for their perceived role in hampering the Ivorian peace process.

Zambia: Number of Women Contesting Polls 'Low And Disappointing'

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609200005.html

Zambian elections on 28 September are on course but for lack of women representation, which is down from five years ago. Just 103 women are contesting against 606 men for the 150 parliamentary seats available, according to figures from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ). This represents 15 percent women representation in the polls. Unless all women candidates are elected, which is unlikely, the proportion will be lower when the final results are announced.

Côte d’Ivoire: Stepping Up the Pressure

2006-09-18

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/ivory/2006/0907cipressure.htm

Presidential elections in the Ivory Coast will not take place by October 2006, as mandated by the UN Security Council. The International Crisis Group blames the "deliberate strategy of politicians who want no peace they cannot dominate," and warns that a failure to set a new date for elections may reinstate the country's civil war. The report calls for a six month extension of the transition period and urges the UN Security Council to implement the targeted sanctions imposed by Resolution 1572.

Nigeria: 2007 election dates set

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12784.html&d=1

Late last month, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally announced the dates on which next year’s scheduled general and presidential elections are to be held. According to INEC Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, who spoke at the National Forum on 2007 Elections in Abuja, governorship and state assembly elections are to hold throughout the country on April 14, whereas presidential and National Assembly elections are to hold a week later, on April 21.

Zambia: Field open in run-up to general election

2006-09-19

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55610

Zambia's general election, set for 28 September, is expected to be a bitter and closely contested affair. Political analysts believe the country's fourth multiparty poll since it emerged from 27 years of one-party rule in 1991 will be a hard-fought contest for the incumbent, President Levy Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), who is seeking a second and final term of office.

Zimbabwe: ZCTU protests are curtain raiser for more action

2006-09-18

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news180906/zctu180906.htm

Pro democracy groups in Zimbabwe have maintained they will continue with their protests for change and that recent attempts by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to embark on mass protests was just a curtain raiser for more action in the country. In separate interviews, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), The Zimbabwe National Student Union (ZINASU), Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) said Zimbabwe will see more spontaneous action by the individual groups working in a non violent way.

Kenya: State to seize 78 bank accounts with looted money

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12779.html&d=1

Billions of shillings from corrupt deals are about to be seized by anti-graft chiefs. The cash has been stashed in 78 bank accounts belonging to politicians from the current and previous regimes, prominent businessmen and former senior civil servants, including permanent secretaries. Court warrants allowing the accounts to be seized and the proceeds recovered by the State are already in the hands of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, its director Aaron Ringera confirmed.

Lesotho: Mercs At R3000 Scandal Rocks Lesotho

2006-09-18

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609181130.html

Imperial Fleet Services (IFS), a wholly owned subsidiary of South African corporate giant Imperial, is embroiled in a scandal concerning the Lesotho government fleet contract which has rocked the mountain kingdom. In terms of a deal the Lesotho government cut with IFS Lesotho, senior government officials, including ministers, judges and parliamentary officers, can buy three-year-old government vehicles at 1% of their original value.

Malawi: President undermines independence of Anti-Corruption Bureau

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12780.html&d=1

Barely a month after President Bingu wa Mutharika suspended Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director Gustave Kaliwo and fired Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ishmael Wadi, a report on the justice sector and rule of law in Malawi says the Executive interferes with and undermines the independence of both offices.

Zimbabwe: No shots fired at corruption minister

2006-09-18

http://admin.corisweb.org/index.php?fuseaction=news.view&id=122944&src=dcn

Police in Zimbabwe on Sunday (September 17) denied reports that shots were fired at the home of Anti-Corruption Minister Paul Mangwana. "Only stones were thrown at Mangwana's Harare home late Saturday and a policeman fired warning shots at the assailants," police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told state radio. The minister claimed he was being intimidated because of his fight against corruption.

Africa: Informal cross border food trade in southern Africa

2006-09-20

http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001023/index.php

This brief highlights the issue of trade barriers in southern Africa and its impact on informal cross boarder trade in the region. The report shows that while there may be surpluses in neighbouring countries, food deficit countries such as Zimbabwe continue to experience a high grain prices due to import/export restrictions.

Global: IMF and the World Bank found guilty

Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt

2006-09-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/37242

VERDICT & SENTENCE We, the Judges of this Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt, after a most careful consideration of the testimonies brought here by advocate witnesses find the Respondents, the IMF and the World Bank, guilty of the following charges:
Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt

One day session in Battam , Indonesia In time for the annual meeting of the IMF-WB, September 19-20, Singapore

Contact information: ipftribunal@gmail.com

VERDICT & SENTENCE We, the Judges of this Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt, after a most careful consideration of the testimonies brought here by advocate witnesses find the Respondents, the IMF and the World Bank, guilty of the following charges:

- the intensification of poverty and deprivation,
- violation of basic human rights,
- curtailment of basic political and civil liberties,
- undermining of sovereign and democratic governance, and
- subversion of the right to development attendant to and resulting from the debt problem.

Their responsibility lies in policies and actions that make them either active perpetrators and/or knowing accomplices.

This Tribunal acknowledges the verdict of the International People's Tribunal on Debt held at the World Social Forum 2002 as summarized below.

1.That all the accumulated debt of the South to the North is illegitimate and has in fact been paid back many times over; and should be immediately repudiated an cancelled;
2.In return for the wealth illegitimately transferred to the North from theSouth, the countries of the South should be provided reasonable compensation, to determine the magnitude and manner of payment of which a Global Commission on Debt should be constituted.

3.That debt dependence, created by the above accused through the means described, leads to economic and political conditions that result in social deprivation that amounts to a creeping process of economic and social genocide; and that
4.besides being reprehensible on moral and humanitarian grounds, is a violation of existing international law as embodied, inter alia, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Covenant 169 of the International Labor Organization on indigenous peoples, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the universally recognized right of peoples to self-determination.

5.International institutions which serve as agents to coordinate, oversee and guarantee debt flows, such as the IMF and the World Bank, should be decommissioned and any residual useful role served by them should be handed over to more democratically-managed international institutions.
6.Besides social mobilization to bring pressure on governments in the North and the South to implement these recommendations, the Tribunal calls on people to use supplementary legal procedures such as petitions in the International Court of Justice at The Hague to bring individual instances of violation of individual social and human rights to trial and force governments to implement these recommendations.

As part of our solemn public duty, we serve notice and also call upon governments to:

• restore and uphold rights of citizens and communities to control and access natural resources and basic services.......
r• stop corporatization and privatization of basic services, and natural resources a• Ensure that trade agreements are consistent with International Human Rights Commitments E• not enter into such trade and investment agreements that grant local and foreign investors - `RIGHTS' without matching obligations u• ensure peoples' right to information This Tribunal notes that the Petitioners --- peoples organizations, citizens groups, social movements and NGOs from various countries in Asia -- are likely to continue challenging the IMF-WB.

The APTPD recognizes as legitimate the following demands:

1. Immediate and 100 percent cancellation of multilateral debts as part of the total cancellation of debts claimed from the South, without externally imposed conditionalities.
2.Open transparent and participatory External Audit of the lending operations and related policies of the IMF and the WB.
3.Removal of all conditionalities inherent in neoliberal policies and projects.

In order that they might directly experience and understand the harsh conditions under which IFI policies have forced millions of people to live and suffer, we the Judges of this Tribunal direct the President, Managing Director and other top officials of the respondents IMF-WB to spend a minimum of six months with marginalized communities without the security of WB salaries and perquisites.

By so doing, we hope that they will be compelled to review their actions and calculate and quantify the damages wrought by their policies or people.
These amounts should be paid back as reparations.

Finally, this Tribunal thus calls on global society to stand with the Petitioners and demonstrate their commitment to the dignity and worth of the human person and the economic right of peoples. The widespread and flagrant abuse, subjugation and impoverishment of the people for whom advocate witnesses spoke out cannot be allowed to continue.

Signed:

Hon. Lalita Ramdas Hon. Rene Magtubo Hon. Thomas Deve September 17, 2006, Battam , Indonesia

Liberia: The dialogue on debt, aid management and development

2006-09-20

http://www.afrodad.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=52

Civil Society Organisations and inter-governmental agencies met in Liberia recently to discuss, among other issues, Liberia's post-conflict debt and reconstruction. After a highly successful and well-attended dialogue, they issued a statement.

Africa: UN Security Council Reforms - What Hope for Africa?

2006-09-18

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/reform/cluster1/2006/0912africa.htm

This article looks at Africa's quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Although Africa is considered the most egalitarian and consensual regional group in its methods for nominating states for non-permanent seats, sharp rivalries emerged in the campaign for the proposed new permanent seat(s).

Global: Few Graduate From U.N. Programme for the Poorest

2006-09-18

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34724

When the United Nations decided in 1971 to create the concept of "least developed countries" (LDCs) -- a new category of member states needing special social and economic assistance from the international community - they were described as the "poorest of the world's poor".

Algeria: Government 'nationalises' oil sector!

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12764.html&d=1

High international oil prices have emboldened Algeria to make a u-turn on earlier attempts at liberalising the sector. Algeria, which was a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), has slapped a windfall tax on surplus profits as well as curtailed the role of foreign investors in oil production in a set of new amendments for the sector. The new provisions require that state-owned Sonatrach, Africa’s largest company by revenue, take a mandatory minimum 51 percent stake in all exploration and production ventures.

Zimbabwe: China comes to Zim's rescue

2006-09-18

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_1998814,00.html

President Robert Mugabe has grabbed a huge financial lifeline from China to boost Zimbabwe's ailing economy but analysts wonder what the country had to offer in exchange for the loan. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono, tasked to turn around an economy in recession for the last eight years, on Wednesday announced a $200m facility from China as part of nearly half a billion dollars worth of mainly foreign loans.

South Africa: Labour urged to demand sacking of health minister

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55631

A leading AIDS activist caused a stir by demanding the South African health minister's removal in the presence of the deputy president at a conference on Tuesday. Our government has failed us. We must speak the truth. We are willing to work with you [the government] anytime; you have ignored our letters; you have not spoken to us, but we are ready to talk," Zackie Achmat, leader of the AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) told Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at a conference of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) outside Johannesburg.

Tanzania: Early marriage puts girls at risk of HIV

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55633

Data collected by the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) shows a strong correlation between HIV/AIDS, early school exit, teenage marriage and pregnancy. Tanzanian law allows girls aged as young as 15 to get married with parental consent, and between 20 percent and 40 percent do so before reaching adulthood, according to the United Nations Population Fund, which addresses reproductive health and population issues.

Africa: Zanzibar malaria campaign on target

2006-09-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55582

Health officials in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar predict a drastic drop in the number of malaria cases on the island after a successful mosquito control campaign. The manager of Zanzibar's Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP), Abdallah Suleiman, said on Friday the island had met the 90-percent coverage of the area targeted for residual spraying in the 54-day programme.

Africa: African brain drain

2006-09-19

http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/opin/060901chb.asp?sector=OPIN

Southern Africa’s public health services are in a state of emergency. Bad pay and working conditions, plus the impact of HIV/Aids, are bleeding the system of its most valuable resource: people. With the cost of training a general practice doctor estimated to be $60 000, and that of training a medical auxiliary at $12 000, the African Union estimates that low income countries subsidise high income countries to the tune of $500-million a year through the loss of their health workers.

Global: The dangers of being pregnant and poor

2006-09-18

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI=http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/17kristof.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26hp&OP=760caf1aQ2FQ2AIQ5EzQ2AvQ2FCUUvQ2AKXX)Q2AXDQ2AQ27hQ2AUQ51FRFURQ2AQ27hECFQ2FvUQ2BQ7BQ7CvQ25O

Every year some half a million women in the developing world die from complications related to pregnancy and child birth, and "it should be an international scandal" that the numbers have stayed that high over the last quarter of a century," columnist Nicholas D. Kristof writes after visiting a hospital in Yokadouma, Cameroon.

Global: Finding a better way to fight malaria

2006-09-18

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.malaria15sep15,0,7574860.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

Claire Panosian Dunavan writes there is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the flawed distribution of malaria-fighting drugs to developing countries, particularly in Africa. Citing the recent decision by the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis to destroy an effective anti-malarial drug due to short shelf life and export complications, the professor of health and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, argues that better distribution methods may be found as new health initiatives flow into Africa.

Uganda: HIV patients die as ARVs expire

2006-09-18

http://www.afrika.no/noop/page.php?p=Detailed/12763.html&d=1

Life-prolonging anti-retro-viral trimune drugs worth $700,000 have expired in Uganda's National Medical Stores while thousands of people living with HIV/Aids struggle to stay alive. Trimune is a first-line regimen drug favoured by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for use in many developing countries.

Somalia: Islamists to Train Students for Preparation of War

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190006.html

The Islamic Courts headquartered in Mogadishu have for the first time announced they would open training camps for Mogadishu's public school pupils for preparation of holy war against the foreign peacekeepers expected to arrive in Somalia early October. Fu'ad Mohammed Kalaf, the head of the Islamc Courts education section, said, "We are in process of readying the students to engage in the "jihad" war and we have opened training camps for the students in Mogadishu", said Fu,ad.

Africa: Higher education and economic growth

2006-09-20

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC22156&Resource=f1educ

For several decades, African countries and the donor institutions they work with have placed great emphasis on primary and, more recently, secondary education. But they have neglected tertiary education as an added means to improve economic growth and mitigate poverty.

Global: The virtual university - models and messages

2006-09-18

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ict/rc/ItemDetail.do?itemId=1072805

This UNESCO publication was released by the International Institute for Educational Planning and written by Susan D'Antoni. E-learning and the virtual university are examples of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a teaching and learning approach and an organizational structure. Both raise issues associated with the phenomenon of cross-border education.

Guinea: Girls' education under the microscope

2006-09-20

http://www.id21.org/zinter/id21zinter.exe?a=0&i=e2na2g1&u=4510acfa

Guinea has made steady progress in increasing primary school enrolment, especially of girls. Yet, schools are overcrowded and the quality of education is poor. Local communities must be key partners with national and international organisations if there is to be further progress in increasing girls’ participation.

Swaziland: Failure to grant scholarships points to education crisis

2006-09-18

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55518

Recent clashes between Swazi university students and riot police have brought a burgeoning education crisis into sharp relief, but went unreported by the state radio and television networks. Street battles erupted after students marched on Prime Minister Themba Dlamini's offices demanding that the government honour its university scholarship commitments.

South Africa: How obsession with race stops SA from meeting its challenges

2006-09-20

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A274755

Race remains our national obsession — even when we talk of it in code. And so issues which clearly reflect our racial divides are more likely to be seen by all of us, and to command our attention: witness last week’s dispute about company employment equity reports.

Africa: Africa's Environment Under Siege

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190881.html

Latest satellite images of the natural resources of Africa show that it is under an environmental assault of bigger proportions which could have disturbing consequences on the livelihood of people across the continent in future. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which launched a new atlas at an international water conference held in the Swedish capital of Stockholm last month, Africa's river basins, fresh water lakes, forests, coastal lagoons and wildlife sanctuaries are under siege from unsustainable exploitation.

Côte d’Ivoire: French executives arrested in toxic-waste scandal

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55632

Authorities in Cote d'Ivoire have arrested two senior French officials of a Dutch-based commodities company in connection with a toxic waste scandal that has shaken an already jittery government in the war-divided country. "They have been charged with infractions of toxic waste laws," said Justice Ministry official Ali Yeo. Authorities prevented the two executives of commodities trader Trafigura Beheer BV from leaving the country late Saturday as they were about to board a flight to Europe.

Liberia: Liberians to Lose Percentage On Forest Resources?

2006-09-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200609190835.html

Liberians are apt to lose the forty percent of the National Forestry Reform Law of 2006 exclusively reserved for them on all established commercial forestry areas. According to a release issued by Mr. Oscar Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of the Inland Logging Corporation, the House and the Senate are being coerced by the International Community through the United Nations to change the newly passed "National Forestry Reform Law of 2006".

Sudan: European Coalition on Oil in Sudan

2006-09-21

http://www.ecosonline.org/

This preliminary investigation by ECOS documents the socio-economic and environmental impact of oil exploitation in the Melut Basin in Upper Nile State, Sudan, as told by inhabitants of the area and photo­graphed from satellites.It focuses on the Melut and Maban Counties, Renk District, which fall into concession blocks 3 and 7, held by the Petrodar Operating Company Ltd. under a Production Sharing Agreement with the Sudanese Government.

Africa: Clean-up of toxic waste begins

2006-09-19

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55612

International waste removal experts in protective suits and masks have begun cleaning up toxic waste that was dumped in several areas of Abidjan in a scandal that has further raised tension in the city as the end of the president’s term approaches. Seven deaths have been attributed to the waste, although autopsies have yet to confirm the cause.

China: A New Scramble for African Resources

2006-09-18

http://www.www.ecologiapolitica.info

Africa is the only continent where the number of desperately poor people continues to grow and social indicators keep worsening. But the continent is not poor. Tens of billions of dollars worth of oil, minerals and other natural resources are being taken out of Africa every year. In a cruel phenomenon known as the 'resource curse,' the countries richest in natural resources are often where corruption, human rights violations and destruction of the environment lead to further impoverishment and sometimes armed conflict.

Nigeria: Country strains under locust invasion

2006-09-18

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=284182&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Locusts have invaded farms in Nigeria, destroying crops as farmers prepare for harvest, officials have said. Diyos Auta, state agriculture commissioner for Taraba, in the centre of the country, said the locusts had destroyed 50 000ha of crops in the past week. "These pests migrated from neighbouring Cameroon and they move like clouds and so far they have destroyed 50 000ha of crops, which were ripe for harvest," he said.

Sudan: Dam would flood thousands of Nubian archeological sites

2006-09-18

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/story.html?id=8b511c8c-f146-41eb-82fe-231b7b08725d

Thousands of Nubian archeological sites will be flooded by a dam that the Sudanese government is building at the Nile's Fourth Cataract. When the Chinese-backed hydro-electricity project is finished in mid-2008, it will create a lake 170 kilometres long and up to four kilometres wide. Much of the Nubian heartland will lie at the bottom.

Zimbabwe: No support for struggling new farmers

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55626

The government's withdrawal of free agricultural inputs for new farmers is certain to affect food production adversely, analysts are warning. Farmers who were allocated land under the fast-track land reform programme that began in 2000 have received fertilisers and seed for the past three years, for which they could pay after the harvest, but last month the agriculture ministry announced that it had stopped the "free" inputs scheme.

Kenya: Urban planning the Maasai way

2006-09-18

http://www.scidev.net/Features/index.cfm?fuseaction=readFeatures&itemid=548&language=1

Covered in ochre-dusted red cloth, four young Maasai men guide a herd of cattle across the busy road to Nairobi. Among the herd are several zebras, not ready yet to be separated from the livestock. The herders don't seem to mind their presence. From this town — Kitengela, in the Kajiado district — Nairobi's skyscrapers are clearly visible in the distance.

Zimbabwe: The third Chimurenga

2006-09-18

http://www.africafiles.org/atissueezine.asp

In this article, Hugh McCullum gives a clear and complete indication of what lies behind Zimbabwe's present chaotic state. From Cecil Rhodes, through Ian's Smith UDI, to farm invasions, political violence and slum clearance under Robert Mugabe, land has been the problem.

Sudan: Pre-Print Censorship by Security Forces Resumes in Sudan

2006-09-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/37236

Pre-print censorship has resumed in Sudan despite constitutional guarantees for the respect of freedom of expression and the media. According to the latest press release from the Sudan Organisation Against Torture, over the past week, teams of Security Officers have reportedly toured print and newsrooms in Khartoum to issue warnings and conduct pre-print inspections of newspapers in order to censor media coverage of recent events.
SOAT
Sudan Organisation Against Torture

Human Rights Alert: 12 September 2006
Pre-Print Censorship by Security Forces Resumes in Sudan

Pre-print censorship has resumed in Sudan despite constitutional guarantees for the respect of freedom of expression and the media. Over the past week, teams of Security Officers have reportedly toured print and newsrooms in Khartoum to issue warnings and conduct pre-print inspections of newspapers in order to censor media coverage of recent events.

On the evening of 6 September 2006 a group of Security Officers reportedly toured newspaper print rooms and ordered newspapers to refrain from publishing any information on police brutality, mass arrests and detentions which took during the demonstrations held in Khartoum on 30 August and 6 September 2006. Newspapers were further warned to remove references to the large scale and number of demonstrations that were held throughout the country, including in Sinnar and Al Obeid.

Over the past week, Chief Editors have also reportedly been warned to refrain from publicising or discussing the abduction and murder of Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, late publisher and editor-in-Chief of Alwifaq Arabic language daily newspaper.

At least two newspapers have been forcibly censored in the past week;

On 11 September 2006 Security Officers visited the offices of al Sahafa Arabic language daily newspaper and ordered that a number of articles and columns be removed prior to printing. Two articles removed related to a meeting convened by journalists to discuss the abduction and murder of the late Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, publisher and editor-in-Chief of Alwifaq Arabic language daily newspaper whose decapitated body was found in Kalakla district, Khartoum on 6 September 2006. A daily column written by Hayder al Mukashfi was also removed.

On the evening of 6 September 2006, a team of Security Officers from the Press and Media Department of the National Security Bureau visited the print room of Ray al Shaap (“Opinion of the People”) Arabic language daily newspaper and ordered the removal of references to demonstrations which had been held earlier on the same day in Khartoum, 6 September 2006. Ray al Shaap is a newspaper belonging to the Popular National Congress party (PNC).

Security Officers ordered the removal of the front page headline and the entirety of text on page three of the paper. The paper went to print without a front page headline or page three.

Prominent journalist Haj Warag has reportedly refrained from writing his daily column in al Sahafa in protest of the press censorship.

Background

On Wednesday 30 August 2006 and Wednesday 6 September riot police and security personnel violently broke up peaceful demonstrations in Khartoum. Police and Security Officers fired tear gas on peaceful demonstrators, beat demonstrators and arbitrarily arrested scores of individuals, many of whom were subjected to summary trials shortly after their arrest.

The “pre-print” censorship visits by a team of Security Officers took place on the night of the second set of demonstrations held in Khartoum on 6 September 2006 in an apparent attempt to downplay the scale and impact of the demonstrations and silence opposition to the official response to the protests.

SOAT calls on the Government of National Unity to:

Respect constitutional safeguards for the right to freedom of expression and media as enshrined in Article 39 of the Bill of Rights of the Interim National Constitution which provides that “every citizen shall have an unrestricted right to the freedom of expression, reception of information, publication, and access to the press without prejudice to order, safety or public morals as determined by law (39(1))” and that “the State shall guarantee the freedom of the press and other media as shall be regulated by law in a democratic society” (39 (2)).

End restrictions on freedom of the press, allow full and open reporting and comment upon the current state of affairs in Sudan.

Cease suspensions and imposition of pre-printing and post-printing censorship on newspapers, and allow full freedom of expression in accordance with international human rights standards.

The above recommendations should be sent in appeals to the following
addresses:

His Excellency Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President’s Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 783223

His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit
First Vice-President
People's Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 771025

His Excellency Ali Osman Mohamed Taha
Vice-President
People's Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 771025

Mr. Lam Akol Ajawin
Minister of Foreign Affairs
PO Box 873, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 779383

Mr. Al Zubeir Beshir Taha
Minister of Interior
PO Box 873, Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 779383

Dr. Abdelmuneim Osman Mohamed Taha
Advisory Council for Human Rights
PO Box 302
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: + 249 183 770883

Permanent Representative:
His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Elhassan Ahmed Elhaj
Ambassador
Avenue Blanc 47
1202 Geneva
Tel: 022 731 26 63
Fax: 022 731 26 56
Email: mission.sudan@bluewin.ch

SOAT is an international human rights organisation established in the UK in 1993. If you have any questions about this or any other SOAT information, please contact us:

Argo House
Kilburn Park Road
London NW6 5LF, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7625 8055
Fax: +44 (0)20 7372 2656
E-mail: info@soatsudan.org
Website: www.soatsudan.org

END.

Burundi: Reporter gets five months for criticizing government

2006-09-20

http://www.ifex.org/20fr/layout/set/print/content/view/full/77162/

Reporters Without Borders has voiced "deep concern about the future of democracy in Burundi" after Aloys Kabura, the state-owned Agence Burundaise de Presse's correspondent in the northern city of Kayanza, was sentenced on 18 September 2006 by a court in Ngozi to five months in prison for "rebellion" and "defamatory statements."

Eritrea: Journalists still jailed after five years

2006-09-20

http://www.ifex.org/20fr/layout/set/print/content/view/full/77157/

After five years, Eritrean journalists still jailed in secret prisons without due process. Five years after Eritrea's brutal crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the release of 13 journalists held incommunicado in secret jails and two other journalists forced into extended military service. Basic information about the jailed journalists - most of whom were swept up in a September 18, 2001, crackdown - has become nearly impossible to obtain from official sources in Africa's most repressive country.

Kenya: Arrested journalist gets damages

2006-09-18

http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4461

Kenya’s official human rights watchdog has awarded local journalist, Peter Makori, Shs 5 million (around $69 000) as compensation for malicious arrest and prosecution over the murder of two provincial administrators two years ago, writes Eric Nyakagwa. In its first human rights violations ruling, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)’s complaints panel ordered the government to pay him compensation for his unlawful arrest and detention.

Southern Africa: Gender and media award winner honored

2006-09-18

http://www.agenda.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1583&Itemid=147

Eight female African Journalists have scooped different awards this year at the second Gender and Media Awards (GEM) while three went to men. Four awards were taken by Zimbabweans, two by South African, and Swaziland and Seychelles each grabbed one. The competition was highly contested compared to the last summit of 2004 with 187 entries from 13 submissions. 108 female journalists and 79 male journalists entered submissions in 11 categories.

Tanzania: Using radio instruction to educate child labour

2006-09-18

http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/139331/1/1893

In low-income countries like Tanzania where half of the population lives in extreme poverty, child labor is considered as a means of survival for many families and not necessarily abuse. Children in Tanzania are compelled by economic needs to trade-off school time to work as rock crushers in local quarries, farm workers, miners, domestic servants, and prostitutes - in most cases under intolerant and exploitive conditions.

Tanzania: Journalists accused of threatening Minister’s life

2006-09-20

http://www.misa.org/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?category=2&id=1156856812

On July 5 2006,Tanzania’s Minister of Land and Settlements Development, John Magufuli, instituted criminal proceedings at Dodoma Police Station against two editors and one journalist of a privately owned media house, Habari Corporation. The accussed, Mr. John Bwire (chief editor), Mr. Muhingo Rweyemamu (editor), together with Mr. Nephilitius Kyaruzi (journalist), were summoned only on August 24, 2006, to the Kijitonyama Police Station.

Global: My genealogical quest to untangle ancestry and heritage

2006-09-20

http://www.blackcommentator.com/197/197_written_in_the_blood_rabb.html

In just over two years of DNA testing, I may have become the most genetically well-documented Black person to date. I have cajoled and convinced relatives to assist me in this quest by swabbing the inside of their cheeks in furtherance of the family good.

Burundi: FNL fighters assemble but continue to tax civilians

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55640

Residents of two Burundian provinces that are strongholds of the Forces nationales de libération (FNL) rebel group, which has agreed a ceasefire with the government, have expressed concern over continued ‘taxation’ by the rebels. The residents are also worried that the FNL is recruiting civilians to its ranks "as potential beneficiaries of demobilisation fees".

Côte d’Ivoire: Gbagbo snubs UN, New York meeting

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55594

Cote d'Ivoire’s President Laurent Gbagbo has said he believes the UN roadmap meant to bring peace to the country has “failed” and he will not attend a United Nations meeting in New York next week that was meant to yield a new way forward. "It is four years now that we are in this process and we are not reaching peace. That means the process has failed," Gbagbo told hundreds of army troops invited to a meeting at the presidential palace in the main city Abidjan on Thursday evening.

Rwanda: UN court, Kigali resolve differences

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55638

The Rwandan government and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have resolved their differences, which had prompted Rwanda to threaten to cut ties with the court, Rwandan Attorney-General Martin Ngoga said. He made the announcement at a news conference in the capital, Kigali, after a meeting on Tuesday between a delegation from the Tanzania-based tribunal and senior Rwandan prosecutors.

Africa: Situation in Darfur

2006-09-18

http://www.icc-cpi.int/library/cases/ICC-02-05-16_English.pdf

Prosecutor's Response to Cassese's Observation on Issues Concerning the Protection of Victims and the Preservation of Evidence in the Proceedings on Darfur Pending before the ICC.

Uganda: War crime indictments against Ugandan rebels serve vital purpose

2006-09-18

http://www.hrea.org

The concern shared by some locals in Uganda that International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) could jeopardize the peace process in the country's north do not outweigh the need to ensure there is no impunity for mass murder, the top United Nations humanitarian official has said.

Uganda: Truce to be reviewed

2006-09-19

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55628

Uganda would continue to respect a landmark truce with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that expires shortly, ahead of a review to be instituted right away, the government’s chief negotiator said. Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told a press conference in Kampala on Tuesday that the truce would remain in force until his team met the LRA in Juba this week.

Zimbabwe: This is what happens when you defy the government

2006-09-18

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=15157

The beating stopped as the sun began to go down. After two-and-a-half hours, the fourteen men and one woman held at Matapi police station in Mbare township, Harare, had suffered five fractured arms, seven hand fractures, two sets of ruptured eardrums, fifteen cases of severe buttock injuries, deep soft-tissue bruising all over, and open lacerations.

Zimbabwe: Internet shuts down after gov't fails to pay the bill

2006-09-20

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55630

Government failure to pay a US$700,000 bill to a satellite company has brought Zimbabwe's internet services to a virtual standstill, further isolating a country grappling with food shortages, chronic unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate. Internet users in Zimbabwe have complained of long delays in sending and receiving emails, painfully slow browsing speeds and problems connecting to many websites since Intelsat severed a satellite link that provided about three-quarters of the bandwidth used by the state-owned communications firm, TelOne.

Africa: Let's not get into EASSy debt

2006-09-18

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1160&s=news

On August 29 2006, seven Southern and Eastern African countries signed the Inter-Governmental Protocol of the Inter-Government Authority(IGA) of the East and Southern African Submarine System (EASSy). This is the governmental framework through the New Partnership for Africa's Development(Nepad) within which the cable is going to be owned, built and operated.

Africa: Teaching teachers about ICTs

2006-09-20

http://www.id21.org/zinter/id21zinter.exe?a=2&i=e4cj1g1&u=4510acfa

African teacher training institutions are doing little to train teachers how to incorporate information and communication technologies (ICTs) into their teaching practice. Teacher training institutions and schools need better resources to ensure that ICTs are properly integrated into education.

Global: Policies of UN towards the use of OSS

2006-09-18

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ict/rc/ItemDetail.do?itemId=1073183

Prepared by Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo this publication contributes in raising awareness on the potential role of open source software (OSS) for the achievement of specific objectives set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Plan of Action adopted in 2003 by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). From the summary: There is a wide consensus that the use of ICT can foster the implementation of development goals in general and those of the Millennium Development Goals in particular.

Burundi: Software freedom

2006-09-18

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1158&s=news

Software Freedom Day is a day set aside to celebrate the benefits and virtues of free and open source software. Globally free software enthusiasts arrange events, demonstrations, carnivals and conferences in celebration. For some, like those in South Africa, the events are usually well attended and popular. But for many the challenges of spreading the free software ideals are a lot more difficult. In Burundi, a small landlocked nation in the heart of Africa nestled between Rwanda, Tanzania and Lake Tanganyika, software is not an issue high on very many people's agenda.

Senegal: Trainers and businesses cooperate in Senegal

2006-09-20

http://www.id21.org/zinter/id21zinter.exe?a=0&i=e4os1g1&u=4510acfa

In Africa the digital divide has prevented electronic delivery of lifelong learning. A programme in Senegal has shown that it is possible for educators to work with employers to establish a distance professional training scheme using appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs).

South Africa: Africa needs free software

2006-09-18

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=1162&s=news

Patents and copyright laws are major stumbling blocks to breaking the market dominance of expensive, proprietary software, Meraka Institute's Bob Joliffe told Highway Africa delegates in Grahamstown. Jolliffe, who was presenting a paper at the Highway Africa conference, said countries like South Africa have developed a lot of software in different areas using open source, but have been prevented from making further improvements because of copyright laws.

Global: CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

2006-09-19

http://www.civicus.org/new/default.asp?skip2=yes

e-CIVICUS provides weekly news on civil society worldwide, news about CIVICUS and its members and provides links to useful electronic and print resources aimed at strengthening civil society worldwide.

Gobal: Sustainability Watch Network

2006-09-18

http://www.suswatch.org/

Sustainability Watch Network has released its first international report dubbed "Implementation Barriers to Sustainable Development" which shall be launched on 20th September 2006 in Singapore during the IMF/WORLD BANK meeting.

Global:Encyclopedia on asylum and refugees on DVD

2006-09-21

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home?id=3ebf8ef14&page=research

UNHCR's Refworld allows easy access to reliable and up-to-date information related to refugees and human rights. It has been referred to as a "refugee encyclopedia", as it contains documents ranging from background country reports to legal position papers, guidelines and statistics.

Global: Global Development Awards - Deadline extended

2006-09-18

http://www.gdnet.org/middle.php?oid=19

The Global Development Awards and Medals Competition is the largest international contest for research on development. Through this competition launched in 2000 with the support of the Government of Japan, we seek to unearth new talent and support innovative ideas. Over 3,000 researchers representing more than 100 countries throughout the developing world have participated to date. More than US $ 1.91 million has been distributed in prizes and travel to finalists and winners.

Global: Critical Impact Awards

2006-09-18

http://www.cof.org/Council/content.cfm?ItemNumber=6418&navItemNumber=1968

The Council on Foundations believes that extraordinary efforts deserve widespread recognition. Therefore, the Council is seeking nominations for grant-funded projects that have had a demonstrated impact on the common good. Civil society that can serve as models for others in philanthropy is encouraged to apply.

Global: Best Practices in Global Health Award

2006-09-18

http://www.globalhealth.org/conference/view_top.php3?id=608

The Best Practices in Global Health Award is given annually to celebrate and highlight the efforts of a public health practitioner or organisation dedicated to improving the health of disadvantaged and disenfranchised populations, and to recognise the programmes that effectively demonstrate the link between health, poverty and development.

Uganda: The Shadows of Peace - Life after the LRA

2006-09-18

http://www.irinnews.org/film/

In the next few days IRIN will be releasing the latest of its short documentary films and we are requesting subscribers to order online as per the link below if they wish to receive a copy.In the context of the current peace talks being held between the Ugandan Government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, IRIN's award-winning Film Unit is launching a short film examining how the country will move on from the experience of two decades of year.
In the next few days IRIN will be releasing the latest of its short documentary films and we are requesting subscribers to order online as per the link below if they wish to receive a copy.

In the context of the current peace talks being held between the Ugandan Government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, IRIN's award-winning Film Unit is launching a short film examining how the country will move on from the experience of two decades of year.

Filmed in northern Uganda in August of this year, "The Shadows of Peace: Life after the LRA" considers how various groups will experience the peace - from the displaced in the north's many camps, to the child abductees and the former LRA soldiers themselves. But after two decades of death, displacement and trauma, the obstacles on the path toward peace could be just as challenging as the war itself.

Lasting around 15 minutes, the film is available in English. As with all IRIN Films, the aim is to increase awareness and understanding of humanitarian crises and to assist fellow humanitarian actors in their advocacy efforts. As a humanitarian news agency IRIN specializes in the creation of advocacy tools but remains dependent on its partners for the dissemination of these messages.

IRIN Films are distributed free-of-charge but because of growing production and distribution costs we ask that only those agencies and NGOs actively involved in advocacy work request copies.

While we will endeavour to meet demand, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide copies to all who request them. In addition, while the vast majority of films that are dispatched reach their recipients in good time, occasionally the unreliability of postal systems may mean that copies are delayed or, rarely, lost. We thank you for your patience in such instances.

Would all interested parties please click on the link below to apply for a copy of this film:

http://www.irinnews.info/filmorders/nuganda.asp

We look forward to hearing from you and kindly request that you provide us with feedback on your usage of the film.

Uganda: Regional GBV Meeting

PATH, IGWG, East Africa Regional Mission, Raising Voices, GBV Prevention Network

Interagency Gender Working Group

2006-09-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/37264

This meeting, 8th - 10th November in Kampala will bring together organizations, experts and donors from around the region and internationally to share experiences, strategies and lessons learned in GBV programming. All are invited. Please send inquiries to info@raisingvoices.org For more information visit http://www.preventgbvafrica.org/whats_new/announcements.html

Global: African Unification and Liberation Conference

2006-09-18

http://www.asiuhuru.org/

On October 7th, 2006, a conference will convene at the African Caribbean Centre in London to build an international organisation to coordinate efforts to unify and liberate Africa and place it’s vast resources into the hands of African workers and poor peasants.

Global: 2007 Human Rights Advocates Program

2006-09-19

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/humanrights/events/whats_new.htm

The first round of applications will be due on October 3, 2006. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. Short-listed candidates will be notified in November and must submit a second application by January 5, 2007. The HRAP 2007 application form is now available. Those who have questions about the application process should contact Program staff at hradvocates@columbia.edu or by phone at +1 212 854 3014.

Global: Call For Submissions

2006-09-19

http://imaginingourselves.imow.org/pb/CallForSubmissions.aspx?lang=1

Imagining Ourselves launched with a published anthology and an online exhibit on International Women's Day, March 8, 2006. The project received great acclaim and widespread media attention around the globe, from articles in Bombay's TimeOut Magazine to television coverage in Tijuana and numerous reports in the San Francisco media.

Global: IAPSS Annual Academic Conference 2006

2006-09-18

http://iapss.org/conference/aac06/aac.html

What do violence and non-violence mean in today’s world? What are the historical, legal, political perspectives on these concepts? In connection with the universally recognised “Non-Violence Day”, yearly festival of Gandhi Jayanti (2 October 1869 - Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday), and the National Day of India, ASSP (Associazione Studenti di Scienze Politiche) and The Group of Afro-Oriental Studies of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Trieste invite you to discover the answer to these questions at the International Association of Political Science Stduents Annual Academic Conference 2006.

Nigeria: Call for papers

2006-09-18

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/37128

SUB Themes:
1.ICT, Gender and Role of Education Planner and Manager
2.I.T and Implication for language education
3.Impact of counseling to women/youth education through ICT
4.Adult education and ICT: towards development and women/youth education
Date: 14th-17th November 2006.

Arrival and Regsitration: 14th November 2006.

Conference fee: 3000naira.
Venue: CESADEP Hall, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Km, 30,Lagos Badagry Expressway, Oto/Ijankin, Lagos. Nigeria

SUB Themes:

1 .ICT, Gender and Role of Education Planner and Manager
2.I.T and Implication for language education
3.Impact of counseling to women/youth education through ICT
4.Adult education and ICT: towards development and women/youth education
5.Vocational education programme and education of youth/women: the position of ICT
6.Women in science and technology education: the role of ICT
7.Curriculum innovation and ICT: the implication of youth/women education
8.ICT, Globalisation and entrepreneurial education
9.ICT, Globalisation and library education
10.Physical and health education: the position of ICT
11.ICT, Religious and moral education
12.Special; education: the role of ICT

Chief Host. Distinguished Guest Of Honour
His Excelency Her Excellency,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Chief (Mrs.) Oluremi Tinubu
Executive Governor of First Lady of Lagos State
Keynote Speaker:
Professor Tunde Samuel,
The Honourable Special Adviser on Education
Lagos State.
Lead Paper Presenter. Special Attractions
Ayo Aderinwale * Formal Foundation Laying of WICE
Executive Director Secretariat and Conference Hall
Africa Leadership Forum *Exhibition
Ota,Ogun State.
Special Guests of Honour
Dr Leke Pitan, Hon. Ajoke_Orelope-Adefuliire
Hon. Commissioner of Education, Hon .Commissioner for Women Affairs and Lagos State Poverty Alleviation, Lagos State.
Mother of the Day Host.
Mrs Adefemi Abeke Taire, Hakeem Ajose-Adeogun
Chairperson Of the Governing Council Acting Provost
Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Adeniran Ogunsnaya COE
Oto/Ijanikin, Oto/Ijnaikin,Lagos.Nigeria.
Lagos.Nigeria.

Guidelines for Presenters

Papers to be presented should not exceed 15 pages double lines spaced. Presenters Are however required to provide not less than 25 copies of their papers. The papers should be computer processed on MS- word using 12 points font size for the text and sub headings should be in bold prints. In addition two copies must be submitted with the diskette at registration. Accepted papers will be published promptly in the Journal of Women in Colleges of Education.

Presenters are kindly requested to send ain an abstract of not more than 250 words for inclusion in the book of abstract by email to wiceaocoed@yahoo.com <mailto:wiceaocoed@yahoo.com> or cenduserve@yahoo.com <mailto:cenduserve@yahoo.com>
Or to Dr Dele Giwa,
President,
Women in Colleges of Education,
Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Chapter
School of Educatioon Building
Rm324,
Oto/Ijanikin
Or .
Tola Olujuwon
Executive Director
Central Educational Service,
374, Bornu Way ,Alagomeji,[
Sabo,Yaba,Lagos.Nigeria.
Tel: 234-8033349285
Fax:+12084602056(US)
Alternate Address:
Dept of Educational Foundations
Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education
km,30, Lagos Badagry Expressway,
Otto/Ijanikin,
Lagos.Nigeria
tola.olujuwon@aocoed.edu.ng <mailto:tola.olujuwon@aocoed.edu.ng>


Tola Olujuwon,
Executive Director
Central Educational Service,
374,Bornu Way,Alagomeji,[
Sabo,Yaba,Lagos.Nigeria.
Tel: 234-8033349285
Fax:+12084602056(US)
Alternate Address:
Dept of Educational Foundations
Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education
km,30,Lagos Badagry Expressway,
Otto/Ijanikin,
Lagos.Nigeria
tola.olujuwon@aocoed.edu.ng mailto:tola.olujuwon@aocoed.edu.ng

Africa: Director - Ford IFP Program

INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

2006-09-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/37241

Position Description Job Title: Director for Africa and the Middle East Grade: 89 Incumbent: Open Reports to: IFF Executive Director Division: 530 Department: International Fellowships Fund Purpose of Position: The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) was started in 2000 with a mission of achieving greater economic and social justice in local communities and worldwide by providing advanced educational opportunities to talented individuals from marginalized and excluded social groups who have historically lacked access to higher education.
Africa Director - Ford IFP Program

INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

Position Description Job Title: Director for Africa and the Middle East Grade: 89 Incumbent: Open Reports to: IFF Executive Director Division: 530 Department: International Fellowships Fund Purpose of Position: The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) was started in 2000 with a mission of achieving greater economic and social justice in local communities and worldwide by providing advanced educational opportunities to talented individuals from marginalized and excluded social groups who have historically lacked access to higher education.

The program has selected over 2400 Fellows from 22 countries and territories in Asia, Africa and Latin America, plus Russia, and has enrolled more than 1,800 Fellows in approximately 400 universities in nearly 40 countries. Nearly 700 alumni have completed their academic programs.

The Director for Africa and the Middle East will work closely with the IFF Director for Asia/Russia and the IFF Executive Director on activities related to the design, oversight, and implementation of the program in ten countries of Africa and the Middle East. These include:
Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria in West Africa; South Africa and Mozambique in Southern Africa; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa; and Egypt and the Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza) in the Middle East.
Specifically, the Director will work closely with IFP's international partner organizations (IPs) based in the Africa and Middle East region on outreach and recruitment, selection, post-selection educational advising and placement, and monitoring of the IFP Fellows. The Director will work closely with other IFP Secretariat staff on fellowship policies, budget planning, and program-wide activities including evaluation, communications, IFP university partnerships, and cohort and community-building among IFP Fellows and alumni.

RESPONSIBILITIES The Director for Africa and the Middle East will be responsible for the following duties:

* Oversee IFP in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East
* Work closely with IFP staff on global program activities
* Contribute to policy impact of IFP on international higher education field REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS To be considered a candidate for the position, an applicant must have:

* A PhD, preferably in international education, international development, or a related field, or equivalent experience
* At least 8-10 years of field experience in Africa or the Middle East region
* Work experience in international fellowship programs or related project design and evaluation
* Superior written and oral communications skills
* Availability for extended international travel
* Ability to work independently and be self-motivated
* Cultural sensitivity and the ability to work with diverse organizations PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
* Fluency in Arabic, French or other languages of the region
* Significant publications on topics related to African development issues
* Work experience with foundations or international development agencies Supervision Received: Reports directly to IFF Executive Director To apply contact:

Joan Dassin Executive Director Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program
809 UN Plaza New York, NY 10017 jdassin-fordifp@iie.org <mailto:jdassin-fordifp@iie.org>

Global: Fundraiser

2006-09-18

http://www.article19.org/

ARTICLE 19 is looking for a Fundraiser to support the organisation’s continued growth and help increase our impact on freedom of expression. You will be responsible for coordinating, stewarding and ensuring effective implementation of ARTICLE 19’s fundraising strategy for government, trusts, foundations and potential corporate sponsors.

Egypt: Primary Education Specialist

Agriteam Canada

2006-09-20

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC22664&Resource=f1

A full- time Primary Education Specialist is required for a period of two years with the possibility of follow-up activities over the final two years of this project to support Egypt’s Ministry of Education (MOE) in its efforts to enhance the quality and relevance of primary education.

Liberia: Gender based violence and masculinities consultant

International Rescue Committee

2006-09-20

http://www.ircjobs.org

The International Rescue Committee currently seeks a Gender Based Violence and Masculinities Consultant for its Liberia program in Montserrado, Nimba and Lofa to lay the foundation of IRC's Male Involvement: Part of the Solution project. This will include developing a long-term plan in collaboration with the Government of Liberia, training facilitators responsible for forming and leading men's groups in communities of operation within 3 counties.

Liberia: Mediation and anti-gender based violence specialists

ABA-Africa

2006-09-20

http://www.abanet.org/intlegalreform

ABA-Africa is currently seeking community based mediation and anti-gender based violence specialists to provide training for Liberian NGOs and to develop effective legal aid services for rural populations in Liberia.

Liberia: Programme Manager

Danish Refugee Council

2006-09-20

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC22621&Resource=f1

The Regional Programme Manager (RPM) for DRC in Liberia is responsible for the management, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and continued development of the DRC regional 3-year expansion strategy for Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone (Manu River Countries) and for ensuring external relations with authorities, donor representatives, international organisations and NGOs in the region.

Senegal: Technical Specialist for the Fistula Campaign

UNFPA

2006-09-20

http://www.unfpa.org/about/employment/va-fpa-092-2006.htm

The Technical Specialist based in CST Dakar will provide technical support to countries while the Coordinator of the Campaign for Africa based in New York will be responsible for the overall coordination of the campaign in Africa and report to Headquarters.

Uganda: ICRW Operations Research Manager

International Center for Research on Women

2006-09-20

http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC22669&Resource=f1

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is currently in search of an Operations Research Manager (ORM) for its CORE Project in Kampala, Uganda. The goal of the CORE Uganda Programme is to strengthen the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development’s (MGLSD) capacity to effectively provide leadership, coordinate, monitor and evaluate the national response to the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and Abstinence and Be Faithful for Youth (AB/Y) programs and to expand availability and quality of OVC services and AB/Y programming through strengthened public private sector partnerships.

Fahamu