Back Issues

AU Summit Journalists

2007-12-04

http://www.aumonitor.org/comments/542/

Fahamu’s AU Monitor initiative is seeking young African journalism professionals and students for a three week internship to report from the African Union Summit being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2008. The internships will be for the period between January 16 to February 6th, 2008. The journalists will be provided training on the African Union and its organs and will be expected to produce daily reports from the summit meetings (including pre-summit civil society meetings).

Behind the mask of remittances

Firoze Manji

2007-12-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/44839

Firoze Manji looks behind the mask of remittances and suggests that there are grounds for questioning the overall value of remittances as a vehicle for development or social progress.


How often do we hear the phrase “remittances to Africa are a key source of development funding”? The volume of funds being remitted to Africa are certainly impressive. In 2005, we are told, “they totalled $188 billion—twice the amount of official assistance developing countries received. Moreover, there is evidence that such flows are underreported. Indeed, remittances through informal channels could add at least 50 percent to global recorded flows. Most of the reported flows go to regions other than sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), but SSA has still been part of the overall rising global trend. Between 2000 and 2005, remittances to the region increased by more than 55 percent, to nearly $7 billion, whereas they increased for developing countries as a group by 81 percent.” (Gupta et al 2007).

Can such remittances be equated with ‘development funding’? What is the evidence that this contributes significantly to the elimination of poverty? And if remittances of funds from workers in the North to their families in the South be considered as part of the infrastructure of ‘development’, then should not remittances of funds from the South to the North be also be considered as part of the equation?

The overwhelming majority of studies demonstrate that remittances are primarily used by households and families to help them survive the inadequate incomes that they already have. In times of crises, such supplementary income is used to “smooth household consumption and welfare”. For the most part, these funds are used for consumption and payments for education, healthcare needs and food for subsistence. In other words, remittances are primarily used to supplement income because wages or income from agricultural production, petty-commodity production or ‘jua kali’ trade, or whatever activity people are engaged in to ‘make a living’ is inadequate. Remittances are not primarily used to create employment or develop new initiatives.

The reality is that the majority of rural families in Africa have long been dependent on the ability of members of their families who have jobs in urban centres to be able to remit a portion of their wages to help their families cope with impoverishment. This lies at the very heart of the system of underdevelopment that is characteristic of neo-colonial / post-apartheid economies as it was in the colonial and apartheid economies.

There is a close association between remittances and the maintenance of prevalence of low wages in Africa. One of the crucial determinants of low wages is the social cost of the reproduction of labour: from the employers point of view, the less it costs to enable the wage earner to survive and reproduce, the lower the wage needs to be. And the more people there are that are unemployed – the larger the ‘reserve army of labour’ – the harder it is for the worker to demand better wages, especially if they are unable to organise to put pressure on employers. If the families of workers are eking out an existence on marginalised land, a few pennies in the form of remittances from the employed worker makes all the difference.

When migrant workers (either transiently away from home or with more permanent residency in countries where wages are better) are able to supplement the cost of maintaining their families through remittances, then what they are doing is not only helping their families survive: they are also ensuring the maintenance of their families at no additional cost to their employer or the state. For the recipient, of course, these remittances are a lifeline since they have no other means of surviving – especially in the lean times.

But is this development? Surely not. Surely it is subsistence, barely enabling people keeping their head above the water. It is ‘development’ only if we were to consider that development is not about social progress but about providing charitable support to the poor. Remittances are essentially an individualised social support mechanism without which there would be even greater misery.

Now supposing the same funds were used, instead, to support people to organise for better living wages, for better social services, for better housing and healthcare. Such a use of remittances would certainly contribute to social progress, to real development. So long as remittances play only the role of providing charitable support, they perform the role of shoring up an existing unjust system that keeps people poor. Worse still, there is a potential for disabling Africa's people from becoming organised actors who can determine their own future.

As Paulo Freire (1970) put it: “… charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the ‘rejects of life’, to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so these hands – whether of individuals or entire people – need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world." Do remittances really help human hands transform the world?

But even if we were to accept that remittances may be legitimately considered as ‘development funding’ or as part of the infrastructure of development, then surely movements of funds in the opposite direction – from South to the North – should also be taken into account. It is surprising this aspect is systematically ignored by those obsessed with promoting the apparent benefits of remittances. When Africans send funds from the North to the South, this is called remittances. When multinationals remit profits to the North, or when countries in the South are made to remit a part of their gross domestic product to the banks in the North, somehow this is not considered as (negative) remittances. If movements of funds in one direction are to be taken into account in the process of development, then surely movements in the opposite direction also need to be taken into account.

Surely, what is sauce for the goose is good for the gander?

Third World repayments of $340 billion each year flow northwards to service a $2.2 trillion debt, more than five times the G8's development aid budget (Dembele 2006). At more than $10 billion/year since the early 1970s, collectively, the citizens of Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, the DRC, Angola and Zambia have been especially vulnerable to the overseas drain of their national wealth. As Brussels-based debt campaigner Eric Toussaint concludes, 'Since 1980, over 50 Marshall Plans worth over $4.6 trillion have been sent by the peoples of the Periphery to their creditors in the Centre' (quoted by Patrick Bond 2005).

Research by the Tax Justice Network estimates that a staggering $11.5 trillion has been siphoned 'offshore' by wealthy individuals, held in tax havens where they are shielded from contributing to government revenues. “Around 30% of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP is moved offshore”, writes John Christensen (2006) of TJN, “As several studies have suggested, this rate of capital flight means that Africa - a continent we are continually told is irrevocably indebted - may actually be a net creditor to the rest of the world.”

In comparison, then, to the the wealth that is sucked out of Africa - which far exceeds the total amount of aid that comes from the North into Africa - the net value of 'remittances' (movements in both direction) is negative.

There are grounds, therefore, for questioning the overall value of remittances in development. That is not to say that sending money home doesn't help our families survive. Remittances remain essential for enabling the impoverished to cope with an unjust world that keeps them poor. But as a vehicle for social development and progress? I have my doubts.

* Firoze Manji is co-editor of Pambazuka News and executive director of Fahamu.

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

References

Patrick Bond (2005): Dispossessing Africa's Wealth. Pambazuka News http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/30074
John Christensen (2006). Tax Justice for Africa: A new development struggle. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/31903
Demba Moussa Dembele (2005), Aid dependence and the MDGs, Pambazuka News http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/29376
Paulo Freire (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Sanjeev Gupta, Catherine Pattillo, and Smita Wagh (2007): Making Remittances Work for Africa. Finance and Development 44 (2) 2007. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2007/06/gupta.htm

EU Africa summit: What’s up in Lisbon?

Henning Melber

2007-12-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/44840

Henning Melber tackles the critical issues surrounding the EU-African summit.

Gone are the days of perpetuating historically entrenched interests and relations between “old Europe” and its in the meantime sovereign African colonies as unchallenged integral part of a global economic and political system in favour of the imperialist powers. The former hunting grounds for slaves fuelled European early capitalist development and pushed the continent ever since into structural dependency from a world market, which benefited others. Africa remained on the receiving end since then. But with increased competition for its natural resources, African economies emerge as a new attraction for a multiple range of potential partners, allowing the governments more choices than ever before.

The preparations for the EU-African Summit in Lisbon during December happen in the midst of what could be termed a new scramble for Africa’s resources. At a time when the US-American administration under the outgoing president Clinton enacted the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to secure mainly its own interests through a new preferential trade scheme, the trade department at the EC headquarters in Brussels initiated negotiations for a re-arrangement of its relations with the ACP countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific through so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The declared aim was to enter an agreement meeting the demands for compatibility with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The EPA negotiations have since then entered critical stages and should have been finalised by the end of this year. They provoke reluctance if not fierce resistance of many among the ACP countries, who feel that Brussels seeks to impose a one-sided trade regime in its own interests.

Meanwhile China as a new kid on the block expands aggressively into African markets and seeks access to the fossil energy resources and other minerals and metals it urgently needs to fuel its own further rapid industrialisation process. In a matter of time, India, Brazil and Russia (as well as a number of other actors such as Malaysia and Mexico) are likely to add further pressure to the scramble for limited markets and resources. It appears at times, that the criticism often raised these days in the West against China and other potentially emerging competitors is more so an indicator of an increasing fear for losing out on own interests than being motivated by a genuine concern for the African people.

The interests guiding decision-making in this new constellation are illustrated prominently by the discussion over Zimbabwe’s participation in the summit. The overwhelming majority of EU member states seem to be prepared to accept the presence of President Robert Mugabe in violation of the own sanctions decided earlier on. The main argument is the concern that his exclusion would result in a boycott of most African countries, weaken Europe’s status among African governments and thereby strengthen the Chinese influence further. More pragmatically, it is also maintained that using Mugabe’s presence for a discussion over the situation in Zimbabwe would allow the further pursuance of a negotiated solution. This could strengthen SADC’s mandate to Thabo Mbeki for seeking an acceptable exit option for the aging despot and a political solution to the ongoing crisis.

The new rivalry between external players strengthens at the same time the political bargaining role of African governments. In the presence of alternatives to the historically established exchange relations, their heads of state can easier agree on signs of solidarity among themselves, threatening to turn a back on Europe if it is not complying with their demands – such as the one to include the Zimbabwean despot in the list of invited guests.

The long lasting dependency syndrome, which characterised the North-South relations, is replaced by a feeling of having alternative choices at hand. While this expands the action radius of African governments, it has not necessarily a positive impact on improved governance. Quite the opposite: it might create new exit options for kleptocratic regimes to once again being able to literally get away with murder.

* Henning Melber is the Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala.

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

Feminist reflections on gender violence, political power and women’s emancipation

From Rhodesia to present day Zimbabwe

Grace Kwinjeh

2007-12-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/44842

“Freedom, my friends, does not come from the clouds, like a meteor; it does not bloom in one night; it does not come without great efforts and great sacrifices; all who love liberty, have to labour for it.” Feminist Ernestine Rose, 1860.

Former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith has just died, but his patriarchal legacy, of dictatorship, violence and sexist oppression lives on.

The use of violence in contemporary Zimbabwean politics, is part of the machismo political culture inherited from settler colonialists, which successive political systems are failing to dismantle.

I therefore, wish here to link, gender based violence within the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to the question of political power and women’s emancipation, based on our experience as a women’s political leadership. My position being that patriarchy as a system of oppression is not going to willingly dismantle itself, it has to be fought.

Historically, Zimbabwe’s violence politics, has been grounded in the quest for political power and positioning, with women often being at the receiving end of it. Thus today, MDC women are still subjected to all forms, of violence, by both the party and the State, as both systems grapple for political power.

Just as during the liberation struggle when women combatants, were told national liberation first, their emancipation later, today, women who have gone into front-line politics are being sold this ‘two stage’ approach model. This approach implies that the struggle is gender neutral, and that we suffer the impact of State repression the same way, and that when freedom is attained we(men and women) will have the same political will, to reverse gender disparities or to dismantle patriarchy.

Events on the ground in the MDC, however, speak differently.

Days before the annual, International 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign celebrations, MDC women, were once again subjected to another public humiliating bout of violence, this time, by their male counterparts.

Women protestors, against the unfair sacking and treatment of the Women’s Assembly chair-person, Lucia Matibenga, were beaten up in front of the party’s head-quarters Harvest House, on Sunday the 18th of November. The known assailants used fists, kicked, threw stones, to subdue and stop the female demonstrators, from proceeding with the protest in which they were demanding audience with their MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, over the unresolved women’s chair matter.

Strangely, though it seems that it was beyond Tsvangira’s political comprehension that the women were practising their democratic right to demonstrate and seek audience with him, as their leader, instead he shunned them. The message they got was violence. This is not accidental, but a political message.

The irony that played itself out in this scene, is that the MDC male leadership is forcing a new chair-person for women on the women, as part of their “empowerment” or “building efficiency” within the Women’s Assembly, yet the beneficiaries of this male largess are denied the right to freely express themselves, as part and parcel of that political commitment to their liberation cause.

Apart from the violence and total exclusion, we have witnessed in this matter, the men will also not allow a democratic mechanism by which a proper process is carried out, of finding out who the most popular women’s leader is, and conferring the women’s chair on that person. Again, not accidental, thus the basis of my thesis, on political and gender relations within the MDC being rooted in patriarchal tendencies and practices.

The violence both physical and psychological meted out, against Matibenga herself and her supporters, is characteristic of the misogynistic nature of Zimbabwean society, inherited from Smith, which Mugabe has used against opponents real or false, replicated by men in the opposition. Sexist oppression has thus been validated as normal political practice in opposition politics.

And so it seems, each time male power in the MDC seems to be under threat, violence erupts in all its forms - physical and psychological, we have seen this in the party, prior to the October 12 split, when senior female leaders were targets of this violence.

The assault on MDC MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, twice at party events, in one attack she was with feminist Janah Ncube. The psychological or emotional abuse, of Sekai Holland when the men, callously removed her as secretary for International Affairs. Like Matibenga she was told, it was because she had been “inefficient” as secretary. I will not try to delve into an analysis of efficiency and male leadership, otherwise Zimbabwe would have been a better society.

Or the emotional trauma and stress I suffered when without warning funding was cut to me as MDC Representative to Europe. In fact I was slowly marginalised and excluded from all party activities, until I made my own way home. I was an emotional wreck, as I failed to survive, to date this gross treatment has never been explained to me, by either of the male leadership in the two MDC factions.

Last year, MDC MP Trudy Stevenson, suffered, severe physical attacks in an MDC constituency, which left her bruised with a broken arm and deeply traumatised. These are examples of women who have come out, I respect those who remain silent, there are more cases, of physical and emotional abuse. Including instances of sexual harassment of female staff members that have been suppressed.

All the abuse we have suffered has been condemned internationally, as being retrogressive to the women’s emancipation agenda.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, (CEDAW) or the International Women’s Bill of Rights, defines discrimination as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."

Matibenga’s abuse has also led me to revisit the notion of sacrifice within the framework of gender power relations, in the party where others are “sacrificers” or “sacrificed” and others hold positions of power and privilege that insulate them from those “sacrifices.” It is an open secret that in her tenure of office Matibenga never had a vehicle allocated to her, in spite of all the dangers she was exposed to, such her brutal torture in September, 2006.

For a long time we have suffered silent persecution, like the horror stories of the rape of female comrades during the liberation struggle, by their fellow male comrades, that have never been really openly talked about or the perpetrators brought to book. The negative reaction to the screening of the “controversial” movie Flame, which sought to highlight these crimes against women during the liberation struggle was met with such a strong backlash by those in the Zanu PF leadership.

We seem to be ingrained with this, culture of silence around the forms of violence or abuse, we suffer as women in politics. We have been socialised into a political culture of only talking about State sponsored violence.

Matibenga’s battle helps us to further interrogate and demystify these primitive notions, of our silent persecution vis-à-vis our role and placing as women in politics and the respect we deserve from our male comrades.

Two weeks ago, Matibenga was locked out of Harvest House by rowdy youths and told to go away and form her own party. She was seeking an audience with the party leadership which was about to hold a National Executive meeting. There was no condemnation of this treatment of the widow Matibenga, in fact in typical Zanu PF fashion, all rights are suspended when one is seen to be at variance with the powers that be. Yet another example of the terrible abuse, she is enduring.

A social liberation party that articulates so well, violence against itself in the quest for political power, but fails to understand the same kind of violence against its own leaders and members, presents us with bigger questions about the Zimbabwe we are fighting for, as women.

This is because, the women’s emancipation project has been subordinated to the political whims of those in power, who are not willing to let go of patriarchal privilege, thus the different political systems in Zimbabwe have failed in the endeavour of women’s liberation.. Each historical juncture, has seen women lose earlier gains, as they are forced to renegotiate with patriarchy for their survival, be it in the home or in politics. Male bigotry, in both the ruling party and the opposition, has resulted in the further narrowing down of spaces women had carved out for themselves as a movement.

When I first wrote on Matibenga’s unjust sacking I was attacked by men in both the ruling party and the opposition, and so my thesis is based on my personal experience and of other women in politics, and the backlash we suffer when we raise our heads. Most women in politics, are subjects of political violence, both emotional and physical, but are socialised not to talk about it. The way violence in the domestic sphere has been treated as a “private affair” and men getting away with increased cases of femicide, rape and other forms of violence.

Looked at within a historical context, what women at the front-line of Zimbabwe’s struggle for social liberation and democracy are going through is no different to what their sisters in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle were up and against. It is always a double struggle internal and external.

Writes feminist Patricia Chogugudza on women liberation fighters, “Zimbabwean women, like their counterparts in Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau, joined the armed struggle. Their hope was that with the revolution, gender equality would be certain. Women who could not conform to tradition saw the revolution as an opportunity to escape difficult situations. Yet feminist critics argue that at the end of the struggle, women’s status actually fell as nationalist leaders and nationalist-oriented societies, in the quest of preserving tradition, expected women to be guardians of culture and respectability, or mistresses of the emerging ruling elites, or wives and mothers, recruiters for political parties, and labourers for the new market economy, while men were engaged in competition for political power in the state and the accumulation of wealth.”

Thus today women who have delved out of the socially constructed roles of wife, mother or mistress into the public arena of politics have had to deal with much back-lash.

Feminist critique has shown us that power and democracy are historically exclusionary notions, as they remain class based and androcentric. The MDC example is important in this analysis, as the dust settles on the utopian vision and idealism many of us viewed the party with, as a fulfiller, of liberation goals, and ultimately our emancipation, that the nationalists failed to deliver on. It is in this context that I will further locate the analysis on the cycle of violence in Zimbabwean politics, from the State, to the opposition, and how it impacts on women’s participation, in politics.

In this vein it is also important to take the analysis further to the rise and consolidation of power by Tsvangirai’s “kitchen-cabinet”, and the brutal expression of sexist oppression, that has accompanied it.

The rise of this elite core group of male and female financiers is important to the feminist discourse within the MDC because our political engagement has changed totally, from the values upon which the party was founded to a new finance driven, elitist political culture, that lacks popular support and legitimacy.

It is now power politics, in total and not a pro poor, people centred social liberation struggle, that is just, recognises history and honours sacrifice including women’s role in that struggle. Thus the suspension of these values, explains the crude injustice against us as we are further marginalised and excluded from political processes. Violence in the party becomes self perpetuating as this group seeks legitimacy, outside the organisations formal or official structures and boundaries.

Feminist Patricia Macfadden, writes “And even when such systems aspired to be inclusive and socially expansive, they remained essentially exclusionary and patronizing of those who had been constructed as Other in relation to power as the most critical resource in that society. Across our world we struggled for what appeared to be collective visions of freedom and justice, and while it is critical to acknowledge the opportunities that nationalist liberation struggles and anti-colonial resistance provided to those groups in our societies which had been up till then excluded from the public, for example women, we must also critically evaluate the implications of nationalism as an ideology which is fundamentally sexist and exclusionary of women, particularly during the neo-colonial period.”

To further my thesis on how power relations between Zimbabwean women and men have not evolved with time, from nationalist notions and understanding of our roles in society with the use of violence being a common denominator between the systems, I will now look at Zanu PF’s system of violence.

Mugabe responded to the formation of the MDC and the threat to his continued hold on power through violence. On the character of the post-colonial state and the way it has responded to demands for reform, by the broader pro-democracy movement, in Zimbabwe academic Brian Raftopoulos, writes, “Confronted with a strong former liberation movement, led by a leader with enormous prestige on the continent, civic and opposition forces have had to face the combined obstacles of an authoritarian nationalist state constructed through the legitimacy of the liberation struggle, in a rapidly shrinking economy that has comprehensively undermined the structural basis for the reproduction of broad social forces in the country. Moreover, in the short term, this scenario has not engendered a spirit of reform in the ruling party. Instead observers have witnessed the intensification of repressive rule and the continued marginalisation of opposition forces, with the military taking on an increasingly prominent role in all spheres of the state.”

I celebrate sheroes of the struggle, like young Talent Mabika who lost her life to the regime, others have been raped, tortured, arrested and have suffered different forms of victimisation in the hands of the ruling Zanu PF party.

The Women of Zimbabwe Arise, (WOZA), has just released a report on the violence suffered by its members, in the hands of state agents, reads part of the report, “WOZA has conducted over 100 protests on various issues of civil rights and social justice in its five-year existence and up to 3,000 women have spent time in police custody. Many have been detained more than once, most for 48 hours or more and 112 members once spent five days in police cells. These women, front-line human rights defenders, are willing to suffer beatings and unbearable conditions in custody to exercise their constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms. They continue to suffer torture and other forms of cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment.”

Given the above analysis and the way it now mirrors the unhealthy situation pertaining in the opposition, of increased authoritarianism, lack of accountability and violence, I will further link this situation to yet another process and the danger it poses for Zimbabwe’s future political dispensation, in relation to popular participation, democracy and our emancipation as women.

As part of the deal under South-Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, SADC sponsored mediation, the two MDC formations agreed to endorse Constitutional Amendment number 18, against public opinion on the political recklessness of such a move. I will not go into the details of the amendment and how in many respects it contradicts the very struggle the pro-democracy movement has been waging, over the past years, and how the manner in which it was adopted short changes our quest for participatory democracy.

However, it is important to use this example to further illustrate, and magnify my point on the connection between ‘elite-deal’ making and politics of exclusion to increased violence and marginalisation of women, in the MDC. Civil society organisations, and the women’s movement got a rude awakening last September, at the voting for CA 18, when the Secretary General of the Arthur Mutambara led faction, Professor Welshman Ncube, literary told them that, their work was to lobby and advocate, they must leave power to politicians.

Defending their voting for CA 18, in Parliament Ncube said,“At that time I was the spokesperson of the NCA and President Tsvangirai was the chairperson. The NCA agreed that we needed a new constitution for Zimbabwe which would be crafted or written in an open, transparent and participatory manner. In that regard, we as members of the NCA were there to oppose two things. One: the piecemeal amendments to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, Two: the unilateral manner of setting such piecemeal amendments. Mr. Speaker, it is important to understand those two principles. Let me say that these two principles were conceptualised, conceived and adopted, not to be verses in a bible. They were strategic and tactical principles which were intended to forge the making of a people-driven constitution. I despair today when I read and hear the attempt to transform these principles into some fundamentalist decrees which, we are told, are to be regarded as completely sacrosanct. As far as we understood them, they were supposed to be means to an end.” And the end political.

Consequently, again by going this route the MDC has agreed to play junior partner to Zanu PF and so now they are on a reactive rather than proactive agenda, on many electoral issues, such as constituency boundaries, access to media, political violence and so on.

Zanu PF however feels re-legitimated as it sees a mirror image of itself in an MDC, that does not respect women, public opinion and is violent.

The men will broker a power sharing deal that will not transform our society, by reconstructing the gender, class and power relations, as they exist, today, but rather endorses the status quo.

And so the notion of liberation through this avenue, has to be viewed within a perspective, of it really being a reconfiguration and consolidation of patriarchy, in our politics, just as we witnessed at the Lancaster House Conference, without any popular participation or support.

Meaning that our experience as women, in politics should really be an eye opener to the struggle ahead beyond Zanu PF’s demise. This abandoning of values we have believed to be sacrosanct, by the men, should be an eye opener to the longevity of our struggle for emancipation.

Activist and journalist Charlene Smith writes, “Governments are by their nature hypocrites. The structure of modern political systems encourages this. Globally politicians are more concerned about getting the right sound-byte on television than in going into communities to hear what people have to say. Politics and perhaps even the way you and I live our lives, have become divorced from values. Values drive societies, they are the essence that sustains humanity. Without them societies decay.”

Given this sad scenario, as a political activist who has put in her all in the fight for a just and democratic society, I can only urge other sisters in the struggle to find new spaces, to continue with our struggle for emancipation, and for those who remain in the patriarchal systems, I can only give them my support.

In conclusion I say Smiths ghost will haunt Zimbabwean politics for some time to come.

*Grace Kwinjeh is a visiting scholar with the Centre for Civil Society and writes in her personal capacity

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

The Rights of the Forcibly Displaced and the Stateless

The work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights

Déirdre Clancy

2007-12-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/44841

Déirdre Clancy analyses refugee human rights, statelessness and the African commission.


Despite diverse stories of exile and exclusion, refugees, internally displaced persons and the stateless all have one core experience in common: they have been removed from their communities as a result of a severe breakdown in the relationship with the State authorities charged with protecting their rights. In Africa, the severing of state protection and the exclusion of individuals and groups is widespread.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2.4 million refugees in Africa are compelled to seek protection outside their country of nationality or residence. An even greater number are also displaced from their homes but unable to cross an international border—over 11 million Africans are classified as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Quantifying those who are stateless in Africa—whether through denationalisation, expulsion, or the imposition of barriers to proving membership of the community—is a more difficult task. It is estimated that worldwide the number of stateless persons is 11 million, but many believe that this is a gross underestimation.

The Open Society Justice Initiative’s multi-year research on citizenship and discrimination in Africa found that statelessness was a complex spectrum of experience, from de jure statelessness at one end, to those who are de facto stateless, or whose citizenship is under threat, at the other. Some victims are high profile politicians or activists who have been declared individually de-nationalised, such as Zambia’s founding President Kenneth Kaunda. In other cases, entire populations have been excluded from full and equal citizenship, such as 1.5 million Zimbabweans whose parents were born elsewhere. Using this approach, at the very least, 10 million persons can be qualified as stateless in Africa.

While international law recognizes that national governments have the primary responsibility for protecting the rights of those within their borders, individuals who are unable to create a strong link with the state are often left in a vacuum. Stripped of the protection of their own governments, these groups—refugees, IDPs and the stateless—constitute a millions strong population of disenfranchised persons who are increasingly looking to regional mechanisms to address their urgent needs. As the premier human rights institution on the continent, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (the Commission) has been at the forefront of the effort to carve out a new layer of protection for these African citizens.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Since it first started operating in 1987 the Commission has been the principle mechanism charged with promoting and protecting the human rights of all those on the continent of Africa. In its stewardship of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (the African Charter), the Commission has both a human rights monitoring role (which includes the examination of periodic State reports) and direct protection functions.

As a promoter of human rights, the Commission has identified the situation of refugees and displaced on the continent as a priority. In 2003 the Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNHCR dedicated to strengthening collaboration between the institutions [1] and in June 2004 the Commission confirmed the appointment of a new Special Rapporteur on Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (Special Rapporteur) [2].

It is perhaps, however, through the Commission’s direct protection functions that it has contributed most to the strengthening of the rights of the excluded on the continent. The Commission has the power both to launch investigations in special circumstances and, most importantly, to consider specific complaints, or ‘communications’, alleging rights violations, brought to its attention by individuals or organisations. Through a developing jurisprudence, the Commission’s consideration of the situation of the excluded has allowed for the elaboration of standards relating to their rights, a particularly vital function in a context where it is rare that that refugees or the stateless can seek protection at national level, due to practical and legal obstacles.

The role of the Commission as adjudicator: carving out a basic set of protections [3]

The Commission confirmed early on in its decision-making history that the rights protections granted by the African Charter were not limited to nationals should be secured to “all persons” within the jurisdiction of State parties to the treaty. The case of Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO) v. Zambia concerned the detention, ill treatment and eventual mass expulsion of 517 West Africans from Zambia. Since then the non-discrimination and equality protections in Article 2 and 3 of the Charter have been used by the Commission as the foundation stones for its construction of a folder of protection for the excluded. In Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture and Others v Rwanda the Commission later explicitly confirmed that refugees were among the categories of persons protected from discrimination on grounds of their status.

Unlike many international human rights treaties, the African Charter specifically guarantees the right of the individual “when persecuted, to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in accordance with the legislation of the state and international conventions [..]”. In Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT) and Others the Commission ruled that the expulsion of Burundian Hutu refugees from Rwanda constituted a violation of the right to seek and enjoy asylum, but also of the protections in the Charter against the expulsion of legally admitted persons and mass expulsion. In the same case the Commission also demonstrated how the due process provisions of the Charter could provide additional protection to the excluded, declaring that the manner of the expulsion of the refugees had violated Article 7 (1) – the right of every individual “to have his cause heard”. The Commission has yet to give guidance, however, on whether the right to have a “cause heard” could be interpreted to encompass the right of access by an asylum seeker to a fair refugee determination status procedure—in the OMCT case the persons concerned were already recognised as refugees.

The situation of the stateless has been tackled by the Commission in a number of cases, using a variety of provisions, particularly centred around extrapolating a right to protection against arbitrary denationalisation. Although the Charter does not specifically protect the right to nationality, the communitarian aspects of the rights regime established by the Charter affirm the principle of the “right to belong,” through protection of the rights of “peoples” to self-determination, development, a satisfactory environment and “existence” (Article 20).

In the Mauritania cases the Government of Mauritania was accused of harassing, detaining, and eventually forcefully expelling thousands of ‘Black’ Mauritanians, its own citizens. The Commission ruled that the expelled Mauritanians had been stripped of their citizenship in a discriminatory—and therefore illegal—way and that the government should take appropriate steps to facilitate their return. In the case of John K. Modise v. Botswana it was both the act of denationalisation and the treatment of Mr Modise that resulted which attracted the censure of the Commission. Mr Modise had been rendered stateless by the Government of Botswana and deported to South Africa. Further to his ultimate removal back to Botswana Mr Modise was confined by the authorities to a strip of no man’s land between Botswana and South Africa and rendered homeless. The Commission found that the treatment of Mr Modise taken as a whole violated his basic dignity—and Article 5 of the Charter. It will be interesting to see to what extent in the future the Commission will continue to interpret the types of conditions suffered by those forced into statelessness as amounting to a violation of Article 5.

The Charter and the findings of the Commission have also provided a context within which solutions to the breakdown of State protection can be sought. The Commission has tackled, for example, the root causes of exclusion, examining the human rights violations suffered by those who have lost the protection of their State. In the leading case of John D. Ouko v. Kenya the Commission showed itself as a forum where state responsibility for the creation of the refugee phenomenon could be analysed – an issue often neglected by refugee advocates where the focus is on the urgent need for States to provide refuge. The Ouko communication concerned a Kenyan citizen who had been recognised as a refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo further to fleeing persecution and detention by Kenyan authorities. The Commission found that the persecution and forced flight of Mr Ouko had violated a number of articles in the Charter, including Article 12 which protected Mr Ouko’s right to leave, and return (voluntarily) to, Kenya.

The responsibility of the state which provides asylum has also come under scrutiny at the Commission. In the case of African Institute for Human Rights and Development v Guinea the communication centred on a spate of abuses, including rape, detention, and killing which were suffered by Sierra Leonean refugees, in the wake of a speech by the President of Guinea urging all foreigners “searched and arrested”. The Commission ruled that the President’s speech, as an incitement and de facto authorization for the resultant attacks and expulsions, violated article 12(5) of the Charter. The Commission also found that there had been violations of the right to life, property and dignity of the refugees in addition to noting that the targeting of Sierra Leonean refugees violated Article 4 of the OAU Refugee Convention on the Specific Problems of Refugees in Africa.

In the Mauritania cases the Commission not only focussed on the arbitrary denationalisation of the complainants’ but also on the deplorable conditions in which the deportees had been held, finding a violation of Article 16 – the right of every individual “to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health”. It is hoped that this approach will be followed in future cases relating to the standards of treatment in refugee or IDP camps, especially where freedom of movement is restricted by the authorities and people are confined to the settlements in contravention of international law.

The role of NGOs

All of the key cases considered to date by the Commission which touch on extrapolating the rights of the forcibly displaced and the stateless have been brought to the attention of the Commission by human rights and civil society organizations on the continent. It is not just in the realm of moving forward the Commission’s jurisprudence, however, that NGOs have been active. At the bi-annual meetings of the Commission it is usual for one of the statements to the Commission by NGOs to be dedicated to a review of the situation of refugees and IDPs on the continent, contributing to the overall monitoring function of the Commission.

It is acknowledged also that the work of NGOs dedicated to advocacy on refugee and IDP rights was critical to encouraging the Commission to create the position of Special Rapporteur. Since his appointment, first as focal point, and then as Special Rapporteur, Commissioner Nyanduga has been very active, conducting a series of missions which have done much to highlight the plight of the displaced (see article in this issue). The work of the Special Rapporteur, however, does need to be better supported to increase its effectiveness—resources at the Commission are highly stretched. NGOs can assist through seeking observer status before the Commission to play a more active advocacy role, and helping to mobilise funds for the functioning of the Rapporteur system.

Challenges

As an independent rights arbitrar the Commission suffers from a number of defects, the greatest perhaps being the non-binding nature of its rulings. It is also fair to say that as a deliberative body of State appointed experts, the Commission can find itself subject to political pressure. Despite this, the Commission can point to a history of courageous position-taking which has belied many of the predictions of politicisation. In recent years, however, it has been suggested that, the progressive stance which marked the evolution of the Commission is suffering a backlash. Some point, for example, to the fluctuating approach of the Commission’s jurisprudence to “exhaustion of domestic remedies”—a threshold consideration for admissibility of communications. In the past the Commission demonstrated a rather liberal attitude to interpreting this concept, particularly where asylum seekers, refugees and the stateless were involved, but it is now building a more elaborate set of hurdles.

Others note the difficulties encountered by the Commission in conducting its broader monitoring functions, particularly in reaching consensus on response to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Darfur. The official report of the Commission of its mission to Darfur, presented at the third extra-ordinary session of the Commission in Pretoria in September 2004, has still not been published. This report was the first comprehensive African Union assessment of the human rights situation in Darfur, including focussing on the plight of IDPs. Although adopted officially by the AU, publication remains hostage to political manoeuvring, as the text awaits the comments of the Government of Sudan. [4]

What next for the Commission and for the excluded?

The foundation of the African Union in 2002 expressed a regional commitment to creating a more effective, integrated political and economic union with human rights situated at the heart of its principles and objectives. There are a number of areas where the Commission can be encouraged to use its position in the new African Union human rights firmament to promote the rights of the excluded. The new AU institutions, from the African Court to the AU Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOC) all present opportunities for the Commission to contribute to the setting of human rights benchmarks. The Commission has already been explicitly assigned functions, for example, with respect to the peer review mechanism under NEPAD and the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA). A

The Commission, however, is the human rights touchstone, not just for the new AU frame but for other continental processes which address human rights concerns—the International Conference on the Great Lakes is just one process comprising a series of new laws relating to the rights of the excluded. The Commission can ensure complementary efforts and exchange of jurisprudence with such mechanisms. It will be essential, also, for the Commission to act as a a guide to regional courts as they are increasingly called upon to adjudicate on the rights of the excluded who may also claim rights from a sub-regional organisation—the East African Community is currently, for example, adopting a Bill of Rigths where freedom of movement and protection of the regions “citizens” will be paramount. Attention also needs to the paid to the promotion of the Charter and its jurisprudence at national level where the potential for the case law of the Commission to be cited in domestic proceedings is ripe but rarely exploited. National human rights commissions might be mobilised by the Commission in this regard.

Finally, the Commission can be a forum for the promotion of the new norms and standards which will certainly be required to respond to the changing nature of displacement and exclusion on the continent. Among the areas requiring particular elaboration include access to citizenship and the reduction of statelessness, the right of freedom of movement for IDPs and refugees, due process guarantees in asylum proceedings, rights of access to domestic courts (often restricted for refugees), the social and economic rights of the displaced and their hosts, and the implications for State responsibility of delegating protection of the excluded to international organisations. NGOs of course must play a role in identifying the strategic opportunities for litigation that will facilitate this work. They may also need to explore, alongside the Commission, where normative developments—new protocols to the Charter (such as perhaps on the right to a nationality)—may be required.


*Déirdre Clancy is Co-Director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative. She was formerly the Director of the International Refugee Program at Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights).

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

* For notes, please click here
1) See Resolution on the Adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding between the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 33rd Ordinary Session, Niamey, Niger, 15- 29 May 2003.

2) The mandate of the Special Rapporteur includes: Seeking and receiving information about refugees; undertaking studies, research and other related activities; conducting fact-finding missions; Assisting AU member states to develop progressive policies; Raising awareness and promoting implementation of the 1951 and 1969 Refugee Conventions.

3) For a detailed exploration of the Commission’s jurisprudence with respect to the forcibly displaced see A Guide to the Use of the African Human Rights System in the Protection of Refugees, by Chaloka Beyani, available from the International Refugee Rights Initiative.

4) In addition to Commissioner Nyanduga, the ACHPR delegation to Sudan included the Chairperson of the ACHPR, Salamata Sawadogo, the Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa, Angela Mero and Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Babana, Commissioner in charge of promotional activities in the Republic of Sudan.

With democracy like this, who needs despots!

Mukoma wa Ngugi

2007-12-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/44844

Mukoma reflects on the recent extra-judicial killing of close to five hundred suspected Mungiki sect members in Kenya

As the story unfolds alleging that between the months of June and October 2007 close to five hundred young men in Kenya were summarily executed by the police, I find myself wondering whether African governments have put up the façade of democracy only to cover up the old heavy handed way of doing things.

I find myself asking whether democracy has taken the form of rhetorical voting – a gesture that does not deliver the content of justice promised by the fall of the Berlin wall and thawing of the cold war.

This questioning of the true nature of democracy is all the more urgent because the news of the mass killings comes a few weeks before Kenya's presidential elections on December 27th, and five years into Kenya's experimentation with democracy.

According to a preliminary report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) released on November 5th, the young men killed are mostly from the poverty stricken slums famously portrayed in the 2005 movie, The Constant Gardener. They were, the KNHCR report goes on, in all probability rounded up by the Police on the suspicion of belonging to Mungiki, a sect that claims to draw inspiration from the Gikuyu traditional way of life, and then summarily executed.

The Mungiki sect has not won any love from Kenyans because the group has been engaged in criminal enterprises such as violent exhortations to the extent of actually beheading victims. And also because it came into being and flourished with the blessing and support of former authoritarian president Daniel Arap Moi. In a country where the capital city is now referred to as 'Nairobbery', Kenyans are fatigued with violent crime.

So when in late May the police became heavy-handed with massive raids, mass arrests and occasional shooting of suspects in the slums, apart from human rights activists and those affected, everyone else shrugged it off. It was as if most of the country quietly approved off the de-facto shoot to kill orders. With the young men of Mathare criminalized, and looked down upon by the middle and upper classes, the Kenyan police had the unspoken permission to round them up and essentially cull the herd.

This is a classic case of further victimizing the victim. The residents of slums like Mathare are the poorest of the poorest. Even the definition of abject poverty (living on less than a dollar a day) does not capture the extent of deprivation. Neither do terms like under-class, 'labor reserves,' or the marginalized. These are the children of the forgotten.

The KNCHR has rightly called for a United Nations investigation. Kenyans can only hope that the whole truth will be out before the December elections. It is only right that Kenyans begin the next phase of democracy with the truth of what happened to these young men.

When under the watch of a democratic government close to 500 people are summarily executed this can only be called a perversion of democracy. For truly this kind of justice is blind killing the innocent and those whose guilt has not been weighed in a court of law.

There is a lesson for all us here. A democratic country must have principles that, no matter the circumstances, remain inviolable: It cannot condone or engage in torture, it must not imprison indefinitely or detain without trial, or threaten and intimidate its critics into silence, and it must not, it simply cannot, condone extra-judicial killings. Besides, who is to say that the killings will stop with suspected criminals and not lead to the assassination of political opponents?

Democracy must come with the content of social and economic freedom. It must commit itself to doing justice by its poorest, or it will have failed its mission of freedom.


* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is Co-Editor of Pambazuka News. He is also the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine

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

African and European writers attack “cowardice” of their leaders

Wole Soyinka, Mia Couto, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gillian Slovo, Ben Okri, Nadine Gordimer, John M Coetzee, Vaclav Havel, Günter Grass, Roddy Doyle, Tom Stoppard, Jose Gil, Colm Toibin

2007-12-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/44843

In a few days Heads of State from Africa and Europe will meet in Portugal to discuss issues common to two continents whose histories, for good and bad, have intertwined for centuries. This is a historic opportunity to inaugurate a new era founded on shared values and a genuine friendship where we can support each other and learn from each other.

But that will not be possible while the summit meeting shies away from discussing two of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, those in Zimbabwe and Darfur. Despite Europe’s and Africa’s shared responsibility to address such crises, neither one is on the agenda. No time has been set aside for formal or informal discussion

What can one say of this political cowardice? We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage. When they fail to do so they leave all of us morally impoverished. Where they funk the difficult issues they make themselves irrelevant. Why should we listen to the mighty when the mighty are deaf to the cries of the afflicted? Millions of Africans and Europeans would expect Zimbabwe and Darfur to be at the very top of the agenda. It is not too late.

Africa: Kamusi Project needs your help

2007-12-05

http://www.kamusiproject.org/en/CodeAfrica

The Kamusi Project, the web’s leading Swahili language resource, needs coding help in a hurry. We have a lot of old code that works pretty well for what we’ve been doing (running a collaborative online Swahili dictionary), but we need to modify and modernize our back end in order to get where we’re going: a free and open source interlinked dictionary and learning center for dozens of African languages. If you can volunteer, please contact CodeAfrica@kamusiproject.org

International Migration data base

Dora Shehu

2007-12-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/44888

Just a note of caution before getting our names on a register of doubtful contribution to African development. We need to be sure what the real implications and rationale are behind this move to compile such a database. Remember that the World Bank is looking to get its long fingers into the contributions and remittances from the diaspora.

The time for blind compliance surely must be over so let's look before we start to leap.

'Don't Africa me'

‘Their’ geo-branding war, ‘Our’ trade, tourism wounds, and winning like China

2007-12-06

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/13710

Though Nigeria is tainted by advance fee fraud and China by lead-laden toys, a Nigerian in America is still called an African (by his continental identity) while a Chinese is called a Chinese (by his national identity). Many 'African' immigrants still threaten to send their disobedient kids 'back to Africa' portraying Africa as a torture chamber.

Review of African Blogs

Dibussi Tande

2007-12-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/44866

Mirror of Justices writes about the improvement of the food situation in Malawi after the government ignored advice from the World Bank and USAID and subsidized fertilizer and seed to farmers:

“Clearly leaving things to market forces didn't work. Equally clearly, the subsidized fertilizer is having a dramatic positive effect - not only can do people now have enough food to feed themselves, but they have food to sell to other countries. Are government subsidies perfect? Probably not, and doubtless there is some displacement of commercial fertilizer sales. But government programs aimed at helping people become self-sufficient are a different matter than those that simply hand someone a bowl of food.”


Malawian blogger Victor Kaonga commemorates World Aids day by discussing the challenges of Aids sensitization, primary among these, the stigma and silence that still surrounds the disease:

“Admittedly, it is not easy to disclose one's status because there are so many fears and consequences. Though this years' theme is on leadership, I have some worry over the performance of most of our leaders in Malawi…

AIDS is an area where silence still reigns. I just pray and hope that as leaders, they (and some people claim I am also a leader in my own right!) need to be more aggressive. May be this year's theme will remind them (us) about our roles when it comes to AIDS.

I think the theme is ideal as most leaders are men in our region and yet very few of them ever disclose their sero-status. My observation is that it is mostly women who easily disclose their sero-status. No wonder that often when it comes to programming, most of the interview voices on air have been those of women who are free to say they are living with the virus.”


Which Way Nigeria comments on the recent declaration by the Nigerian Senate that the handing over of the disputed Bakassi peninsular to Cameroon by the Obasanjo administration was unconstitutional:
“One wonders, if this ceding off of Bakassi is the only unconstitutional act of Obasanjo? The Senate should spend their time on legislating and carrying out their oversight functions to see that all the depilated infrastructures are functional. The mobile telephone service providers are ripping off Nigerians with diverted calls, dropped calls and poor reception. A handful of schools in Nigeria are paying either in pounds or dollars, yet Nigeria is a Sovereign state. While sympathizing with the displaced Nigerians of Bakassi extraction, one is tempted to say that these displaced people are better off being Cameroonians than Nigerians.
The degradation in the Niger Delta – the goose that lays the golden egg – is a pointer that most oil producing areas are better off in their own Republic. This unwarranted declaration of war by the Nigerian Senate, is most unfortunate as Nigeria parades herself as giant of Africa and parrots that Africa is the at the heart of Nigerian Foreign Policy.”

Sierra Leonan blogger Sierraeye reproduces an article from Worldpress which reviews the downward spiral of the Sierra Leonan civil service in the past decade:

“At the dawn of independence, Sierra Leone's civil service was one of the best in Africa. The work of the civil service was widely accepted and respected, as it worked to serve the people of Sierra Leone. That reputation of the civil service has quickly been eroded since the late 60's. The civil service became entirely corrupt and grossly inefficient. And it did not get better even when after the war ended in 2002, and the international community rallied behind Sierra Leone as never before, supporting efforts to build capacity and helping to address the problems of the civil service.
[…]
Sierra Leoneans have paid a heavy price for being too susceptible to the deviant and corrupt practices of civil servants nullifying the competence of the civil service once enjoyed in colonial times and the years immediately after independence—a civil service that was rooted in a preference for being honorable over exhibiting selfishness, for being progressive over showing lack of will to make a difference. At a moment in history when the country's most pressing problems require unprecedented civil service performance, [former President] Kabbah's lenient administration only contributed to the ruin of the nation.”


The ANC Women’s League endorsement of Jacob Zuma for the ANC party presidency has been hotly debated in the African blogosphere. South African blogger Pitso Tsibolane is among those bewildered by the choice of the Women’s League:

“But why? Why did the women choose the “Kanga-Man”, one who exposed his attitudes about women and sex when he slept with an HIV+ woman (Kwezi the faceless one, now exiled lesbian and a family friend) without protection? The same man who is polygamous and yet divorced? Do they condone his actions?

Allow me to think aloud;

- Could it be that most women of the ANC believe that JZ’s troubles are all a conspiracy by Mbeki?
- Could it be that most women of the ANC actually believe that Zuma is a good man, and actually do not share the “more bourgeoisie sentiment” that he is a ticking time bomb, bad for the country’s image?
- Could it be that most women in the ANC really believe that there is nothing wrong for their future president to be sleeping with friends of the family and begging for money in brown envelopes from convicted fraudsters?
- Could it be, that most women in the actually choose to see the good in Zuma, the humble man, the people’s person, a real MK man, a soldier, a survivor, rags-to-riches genius, the victim of the aloof jealous leader president!

Allow me to surmise, Zuma sure knows how to rise to the occasion when he has to, he outsmarted the “intelligent native” with his charm. However, he has not swayed me to his side; I actually do not believe he is what South Africa needs now. I do hope he chooses his deputy and cabinet well for South Africa’s sake (but first he must win at Limpopo!)”


The case of the English teacher who was jailed in Sudan for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed” is still generating lots of discussion on the blogosphere. Chippla’s Weblog looks at the broader implications of the actions of the Sudanese government:

“What the Sudanese authorities ought to have done was to educate Ms. Gibbons on the religious and cultural values of the Islamic parts of Sudan (Khartoum, where Ms. Gibbons taught, is in the Islamic part of Sudan). Instead, they ended up doing something reminiscent of the backward Middle Ages—sentencing her to jail. An event like this sometimes makes rational people laugh at the chocking effect of blind adherence to religious faith. And few things could be more potent than when the state exalts religious dogma and has religious laws against ‘blasphemy’!”


This view is similar to the one expressed by Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafah which is quoted by Meskel Square:

"If this issue had been raised to the Prophet he would have sided with the innocent children who gave their beloved toy his name. He would have considered this as an example of love and truth... Commoners, let alone elites and educated people, can easily distinguish between what really angers God and his Prophet, and who is striving to take advantage of some issues for other reasons...

Whoever creates a battle where there is no place for one in the name of religion thus insults Islam and its Prophet, and creates a wrongful impression of the religion making it to be hated by people, is committing a great offence incurring the wrath of God and his Prophet."

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, www.dibussi.com

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

The Bush Bloggers - WildlifeDirect

Dipesh Pabari

2007-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/44859

When Bob Dylan was singing about the times changing, I doubt he had in mind a Maasai Moran or a Turkana pastoralist in full traditional regalia negotiating the price of cattle on the international market with a mobile phone in some distant arid landscape.


While mobile phones are undoubtedly the greatest technological revolution in Africa, the next wave of communication technology is grounding itself well beyond urban centers. Like mobile phones which have empowered marginalized communities across Africa, the internet is quickly beginning to bridge that huge gap between those that have access to information and those that don’t. Ironically, the further we get away from traditional social necessities, the more we strive to recreate them in a virtual world. Simple human needs like shopping, dating, chatting and now “blogging”. . Blogs, or interactive online diaries, may certainly be new but the practice is as old as keeping a journal. They are actually one and the same thing – the only difference is that it’s public!

Today, there are over 72 million blog sites, making the practice of sharing your daily life and thoughts with the rest of the world one of the fasted growing areas on the internet. Interestingly, the impact of blogs on our world stretches beyond our immediate needs to be heard and is being used more and more to effect change. For example, the first blog-driven political controversy led to the eventual downfall of a U.S. Senate Leader exposed for his white supremacist sympathies.

And it’s not just humans that stand to benefit from access to virtual communication. Dr. Richard Leakey, a household name to anyone with an interest in conservation, has focused his efforts on the power of the medium to address one of the biggest problems in wildlife conservation: “After spending many years struggling to improve wildlife conservation in Kenya, I decided to start WildlifeDirect to solve a very real problem in Africa, the lack of adequate funds to protect our wildlife heritage. Persuading individual donors to give support was not easy because most people are unaware of what is going on in conservation until there is a crisis. I needed to find another way to raise awareness and funds on a continuous basis.” Hence, WildlifeDirect was born. The first of its kind, the organization was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world. It brought two worlds together: a global community of sympathisers with good African conservationists.

Take the case of Atama-to Madrandele, a park warden who, in 2005, started working at the Ishango, sub-station of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He carried out his work in almost complete physical and financial isolation. In February 2007, Atamato began to blog on WildlifeDirect about his work. Through this blog he was able to raise some funds to help pay for patrol rations and equipment, as well as salary supplements for his five underpaid rangers (the official pay for a Congolese ranger is about three US dollars per month). From August this year, Ishango has become a fully functional park station, thanks to the donations received through his blog. His men are now fed and have enough fuel to be able to carry out regular patrols.

The previous issue of Swara featured the gorilla crisis in Congo. This was one of several stories written about this critically endangered species in the international television, print and radio media. The daily blogging on WildlifeDirect from rangers working on the ground stimulated a global drive to cover the story. Global awareness about the gorillas in the Virungas has never been so strong. The blog also provided an immediate avenue for desperately needed funding for the rangers who have virtually no support from the national authorities. After the slaughter of the Rugendo gorilla family, the donations reached reached $66,000/ in in the month of August -. The gorilla blog currently earns $18,000/- monthly in direct donations. WildlifeDirect has also managed to bridge the pitfalls of bureaucracy and crippling bank procedures to allow people to donate no matter how small the sum is and to allow the recipient to receive almost instantly. Moreover, for those who work in conservation and development, we all know how hard it is to raise funds for day to day items, salaries and other overheads. The bottom line is people need to eat and we tend to forget this. WildlifeDirect provides a platform for conservationists to raise funds for whatever they need, be it a pair of boots or medical supplies for rangers.

The early success of www.wildlifedirect.org whose operations began in the fall last year, has led to a 10 fold increase in blogs over the last few months with over 40 conservationists from all over Africa and beyond using the blogs to communicate their work and needs. Everyone around the world can play an interactive role in conserving the planet’s endangered wildlife. As Dr. Leakey states, “Not only have we enabled a number of interesting and courageous conservationists to write blogs from the frontline, but I am encouraged that the world is reading, listening, and taking action.”

Africa: Europe squeezed by China's scramble for Africa

2007-12-07

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=326981

As Portugal prepares to host a bonding summit of African and European leaders, the frenetic construction in its ex-colony Angola bears testimony to China's growing influence on the resource-rich continent. In all weather and on every day of the week, an army of Chinese construction workers is rapidly transforming the skyline of the Angolan capital Luanda in an alliance which has put the squeeze on traditional European partners.

Mugabe says only ‘friendly’ observers welcome at next years polls

2007-12-06

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news051207/marchelections051207.htm

Robert Mugabe on Tuesday courted controversy by announcing that only friendly nations would be invited to observe the polls. The presence of foreign observers at the elections is one of the conditions the MDC is insisting on at the talks. Mugabe’s statement Tuesday revealed that he has not given in on this issue.

SA billboard activists are fighting for a free election

2007-12-06

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news051207/billboards051207.htm

The Zimbabwean group behind a series of billboards sprouting up in South Africa has finally opened up to the media and spoken about their campaign. Although still concealing his real identity, Reverend Nkululeko from Zimbabwe Democracy Now, spoke to our Behind the Headlines programme this week and says they are motivated by a desire to see democratic elections in Zimbabwe. He said elections should meet the SADC guidelines, which are there specifically to promote an environment for free and fair polls.

Liberia: UN helps launch nationwide anti-rape campaign

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24899

The United Nations has teamed up with the Government of Liberia to launch a nationwide campaign to prevent and punish the crime of rape, one of the most serious challenges the West African nation is grappling with as it emerges from years of conflict. “Rape is the most frequently committed serious crime in Liberia so we must find more effective ways to stop these crimes before more women and girls are hurt and abused,” said Alan Doss, outgoing Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

South Africa: Judgment reserved in chieftaincy bid

2007-12-05

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=641579

The Constitutional Court has reserved judgment in the case of a woman hoping to be the first female chief of a tribe in Limpopo. ANC MP Tinyiko Shilubana launched the Constitutional Court bid to wrest the chieftaincy of the Valoyi tribe from her cousin Sidwell Nwamitwa after unsuccessful appeals to the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal .

Nigeria: Expanding access to the female condom

2007-12-06

http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=1072

Abiodun Titi, several months pregnant, flashes her best stage smile as she explains how to use a female condom here in the headquarters of Living Hope Care, a non-governmental organization that works with HIV-positive people in southern Nigeria. Abiodun is HIV-positive but her husband is HIV-negative. The child they are having together—their second—was made possible without exposing her husband to infection. How? It is thanks to the female condoms she received here and whose use she is now demonstrating.

North Africa: Women's rights activists stress need to separate religion from state

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/2ccw5m

Human rights activists from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania attending a Tunisian seminar last week stressed the need to separate religion from state as "an essential approach to realizing gender equality." The "Maghreb Women's March towards Realizing Equality" seminar on November 24th and 25th addressed the marginalisation of the Maghreb woman and the gender gap in each country.

Kenya: US$13 million grant boosts women in agriculture

2007-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/3xjrjh

A US$13 million pan-African initiative to increase the role of women scientists in agriculture was launched this week (5 December) in Kenya. The Nairobi-based African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) intends to increase the number of women scientists on the continent. It also seeks to provide role models and address the institutional biases that have limited women in agricultural research.

South Africa: Gender takes back seat in succession battle

2007-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75729

In little more than a week South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), will elect new leaders - a choice likely to decide who becomes the country's next president. After provincial nominations earlier this week, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma - acquitted in a controversial rape trial last year - is well ahead of his rival, President Thabo Mbeki. Zuma also won the support of the ANC Women's League (ANCWL) - a decision that has staggered most gender activists.

Angola: Group says soldiers rape and beat Congolese migrants

2007-12-06

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL06594708.html

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said Angolan soldiers have raped, beaten and tortured illegal Congolese migrant workers before deporting them across the border. The French humanitarian group said the rights abuses were occurring in the diamond-rich northern Angolan province Luanda Norte, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo. It described the rapes as "pervasive and systematic".

EU-Africa: Summit should take concrete steps to tackle rights abuses

2007-12-05

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/12/04/africa17466.htm

European and African leaders should go beyond promises and act to end atrocities, hold abusers to account and combat corruption, Human Rights Watch has said. The first European Union-Africa summit for seven years will be held in Lisbon on December 8-9, 2007.

Rwanda: Witness who falsely testified at genocide trial jailed by UN tribunal

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24886

The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide has sentenced a former witness to nine months in prison for giving false testimony during the trial of the country’s former higher education minister. The witness, identified only by the code name GAA, pleaded guilty to one count of contempt of court at a hearing this morning of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sits in Arusha, Tanzania.

Botswana: One year after court victory, Bushmen still far from home

2007-12-06

http://www.survival-international.org/news/2699

13 December marks the first anniversary of the Kalahari Bushmen’s landmark victory in Botswana’s High Court. But the Botswana government has failed to uphold the court’s ruling, and most of the Bushmen remain stranded in resettlement camps. The court ruled that the Botswana government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and hunt and gather there.

Lesotho: Human trafficking in Lesotho - UNESCO policy paper

2007-12-07

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001528/152824E.pdf

The basis of this policy-paper is a combination of qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in 2004-2005 completed with a critical review and analysis of available literature on human trafficking, especially of women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising to fight human trafficking in Lesotho, with concrete recommendations to be implemented by a wide range of actors working to fight human trafficking in Lesotho (including the government, international and local organizations).

South Africa: Human trafficking in South Africa - UNESCO policy paper

2007-12-07

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001528/152823E.pdf

The basis of this policy-paper is a combination of qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in 2004-2005 completed with a critical review and analysis of available literature on human trafficking, especially of women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising to fight human trafficking in South Africa, with concrete recommendations to be implemented by a wide range of actors working to fight human trafficking in South Africa (including the government, international and local organizations).

Mozambique: Human trafficking in Mozambique- UNESCO policy paper

2007-12-07

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001478/147846E.pdf

The basis of this policy-paper is a combination of qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in 2004-2005 completed with a critical review and analysis of available literature on human trafficking, especially of women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising to fight human trafficking in Mozambique, with concrete recommendations to be implemented by a wide range of actors working to fight human trafficking in Mozambique (including the government, international and local organizations).

DRC: All sides in conflict urged to spare civilians

2007-12-06

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL06330357.html

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday called on the army and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo to spare civilian lives in their latest bout of fighting in the country's conflict-ravaged east. The neutral humanitarian agency voiced special concern at the fate of women in North Kivu province, who it said were especially vulnerable to rape in the midst of "mass exodus" linked to the flare-up in violence.

Uganda: What about us?

The exclusion of urban IDPs from IDP related policies and interventions

2007-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/44853

Violent conflict between the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) has plagued northern Uganda for the past 20 years. At its peak, the conflict displaced at least two million people, many of whom fled to or were forced into notoriously unsafe and inhumane camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) known as “protected villages”.
REFUGEE LAW PROJECT
FACULTY OF LAW, MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION

Violent conflict between the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) has plagued northern Uganda for the past 20 years. At its peak, the conflict displaced at least two million people, many of whom fled to or were forced into notoriously unsafe and inhumane camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) known as “protected villages”.

While such figures earned northern Uganda the dubious accolade of being one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world,[1] they do not describe the full extent of conflict-related displacement. Over the years, unknown numbers of people also fled to urban centres across northern Uganda, as well as to more distant places like Masindi, Kampala, and Jinja, rather than to the squalid IDP camps in their home areas.

With the exception of profiling studies conducted in Masindi, Adjumani, Lango, and
Teso,[2] these “urban”[3] IDPs have never been registered. The numbers of urban-based IDPs are therefore unknown, but estimates range between 300 000 and 600 000 persons affected by conflict in various parts of the country. [4] Large numbers stay in slum areas and require protection and assistance. Such deficiencies constitute a significant challenge to existing policy frameworks, notably the National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons. Moreover, these deficiencies raise questions about whether policies intended to resolve this long-standing IDP crisis, such as the recently launched Peace, Recovery and
Development Plan (PRDP), will do so in a sufficiently comprehensive manner.

Furthermore, if peace is established and the majority of rural IDPs return home, then the ongoing exclusion and marginalisation of urban-based IDPs from these return processes will be problematic for subsequent transitional justice and reintegration processes as envisaged under the Accountability and Reconciliation Agreement signed by the
Government of Uganda (GoU) and the LRA.[5] Underpinning all of these concerns is Uganda’s 1995 constitution. It guarantees a wide range of rights to all Ugandan citizens, including the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence.

DEFINING INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT

In 2004, Uganda became one of the first countries in the world to establish a national policy for IDPs. In the two years following the establishment of this policy, little was done to implement the provisions of the policy and the humanitarian situation in northern
Uganda appeared to be deteriorating further. In response to the threat of UN Security
Council action,[6] GoU established a Joint Country Coordination and Monitoring Committee, subsequently renamed the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC). This JMC was to assist in the effective implementation of the Government’s proposed Peace
Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for northern Uganda, which was eventually launched in October 2007.[7]

Both the National Policy for IDPs and the PRDP—in deference to the Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement—define IDPs as; “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human induced disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.”[8]

From this definition it is clear that the key identifying criteria for determining who an
IDP is are the person’s reasons for flight, and whether he or she remains within the borders of their own country. In principle, the choice of destination within that country should not determine whether or not the person is an IDP. Indeed, section 3.2 of the
National Policy states that IDPs should “freely choose their place of residence”, and “move freely in and out of camps, other settlements or any other part of the country”
Moreover, both the national IDP policy and the PRDP guarantee a number of rights and protections to IDPs throughout all phases of displacement. These entitlements include the right to freedom of movement—which is also protected by the Bill of Rights in Uganda’s
1995 Constitution,[9] the right to voluntary return or resettlement, the right to property restitution and compensation, and the right to receive resettlement assistance.[10]

In short, both policies appear to be in line with the Guiding Principles on International
Displacement which enjoin governments to “establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily in safety and with dignity to their homes or places of habitual residence or to settle voluntarily in another part of the country.”[11] The PRDP specifically obliges the government to carry out a number of “pre-departure activities [that] aim at building confidence and understanding of the IDPs about the necessary peace and security conditions and processes for return and resettlement.” [12]

Notwithstanding these entitlements, both the national IDP policy and the PRDP are primarily focused on rural IDPs, to the exclusion of their urban counterparts. Several clauses in the national IDP policy make it clear that the drafters really had rurally encamped IDPs in mind. For instance, section 2.4 provides for institutional arrangements relating to IDPs and reflects the assumption that only those individuals confined to rural camps are IDPs: “The District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) of every district will be the lead agency for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons” and goes on to say that “One male and one female IDP physically resident in one of the IDP camps in the district shall represent all IDPs of the district in the
DDMC” (2004: 11) The PRDP similarly fails to address the question of IDPs living in urban areas, and thus perpetuates the omissions of the 2004 policy. It clearly states that the objective of its return and resettlement program is “to facilitate the voluntary return of IDPs from camps to their places of origin and/or any other location of their preference as peace returns” (emphasis added).[13]

This de facto focus on rural populations undermines the principles behind IDP protection and assistance embodied in Uganda’s National Policy and other international legal instruments signed, ratified or assented to by GoU. Just as IDPs should be able to choose a residence in any part of the country, their choice of residence while internally displaced should not affect their right to assistance when it comes to return. Since mid-2006 when the Juba peace talks commenced, northern Uganda has seen a period of relative stability characterised by assorted patterns of population movement, including return to places of former abode and movement into transition sites. Although an estimated one million persons have begun the return process, mainly in the Lango and Teso regions, at least another one million people remain in the rural IDP camps, while unknown numbers remain in their urban location, and quite possibly are unable to return if no assistance is
forthcoming.[14]

The exclusion of urban IDPs from key policy frameworks is thus of particular concern when it comes to ensuring a comprehensive return and resettlement process. Should they continue to be ignored, this may also affect subsequent transitional justice processes.

IDENTIFYING URBAN IDPS

In part, the exclusion of urban IDPs from assistance stems from their low visibility and varied settlement strategies. Problems with identifying IDP populations in urban settings also make it difficult for GoU and humanitarian actors to address the needs of urban
IDPs.[15] A fundamental obstacle to assisting IDPs who do not live in or around camps or official settlements is that the official process through which they may be identified and registered is not always used by the responsible officials.[16] Whereas rural IDPs have at times had ration cards indicating residence in an IDP camp—itself an unsatisfactory form of documentation insofar as it was given to the apparent head of household—urban IDPs have no corresponding form of documentation with which to signify their displacement.[17] Therefore, they often disappear into the larger population of rural-urban migrants, despite the fact that their reasons for moving are different.
In Uganda, IDPs’ choice of an urban destination is influenced by a number of factors.
They include; access to employment opportunities rooted in a reluctance to be dependant on food rations; frustration with lack of livelihood options in the camps; reunification with family members, and the lack of adequate protection provided in rural camps.[18]
Underlying all of this is the lack of security which forced them to leave their homes in the first place and which distinguishes them from “voluntary” rural-urban migrants. A number of people also fled directly to urban areas at a time when official IDP camps had not yet been established. [19]

‘THE END OF DISPLACEMENT’

As there is no official IDP status that can be revoked, decisions on when displacement ends have tended to be ad hoc and varied. Walter Kälin (the UN Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons), together with the
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, and the Institute for the Study of
International Migration at Georgetown University, have argued that internal displacement can be said to end when an IDP no longer has displacement-specific needs and has either returned to his or her place of origin, is locally integrated in the area in which he or she initially took refuge, or has settled in another part of the country.[20] The key criterion for all three solutions is whether IDPs still have displacement related needs, and this can be difficult to determine.[21] Using these criteria, agency officials may judge urban IDPs as integrated into their “new” local communities and therefore no longer in need of assistance. This may be because urban IDPs settle mostly in slum areas and therefore their assistance needs are “similar” to those of the surrounding population. However, living in such slum conditions can not be accepted as a durable solution. Given that many IDPs were rurally based prior to displacement and therefore not necessarily well equipped to cope in urbanised settings makes them vulnerable both to the psychosocial impact of displacement and to the demands of living in an urban area. Moreover, some urban IDPs the RLP spoke with have displacement-specific needs for assistance in return or resettlement, especially payment of transportation costs and other reintegration needs. [22][23]

CONCLUSION

Despite the fact that international guidelines and national policies surrounding internal displacement do not in principle discriminate against IDPs based on location, urban IDPs in Uganda are effectively excluded from assistance programs because Government, international agencies and NGOs have all neglected to recognise them as internally displaced. Urban IDPs are entitled to the same rights and privileges as other IDPs and should not be denied assistance simply because they live in urban areas. The challenges that arise in distinguishing urban IDPs from other migrants in urban settings appear to have resulted in their exclusion from formalized support. In practice, IDPs have been defined as those people who were displaced into rural IDP camps, a definition that undermines the protection and assistance needs of those who were displaced to other parts of the country.

As one of the first countries in which UNHCR is formally extending its mandate from refugees to IDPs, it is unfortunate that this important UN body has not evaded the pitfall of assuming that the only IDPs of concern are those in rural areas. The Government’s
PRDP for rehabilitating the north reflects the same gap as it excludes urban IDPs from stipulations of assistance. To ensure that such neglect does not continue, key actors need to return to the legal and policy frameworks surrounding internal displacement and must endeavour to fulfil their obligations to protect and assist all IDPs, especially in the implementation of the PRDP. If they are to determine what constitutes a durable solution for this marginalized population, this will require the GoU and international agencies to increase their efforts to assess the vulnerability and specific needs of urban IDPs.

RECOMMENDATIONS

TO THE GOVERNMENT:
- Make explicit the inclusion of urban IDPs in Uganda’s IDP related policies and interventions
- Address the gap between policy and practice regarding urban IDPs
- Involve urban IDP community groups in developing assistance and return or resettlement programmes

TO THE HUMANITARIAN AGENCIES:

- Conduct IDP profiling in urban areas such as Kampala, Jinja, and Entebbe in addition to urban centres in northern Uganda to assess numbers, living conditions, and aspirations
- Introduce the issue of urban IDPs to all clusters
- Create assistance programmes that are sensitive to the relationship between “hosts” and IDPs in urban areas
- Develop guidelines on when displacement is considered to end, with the urban context in mind
- Ensure the inclusion of urban IDPs in assistance and reinsertion programs and their involvement in the development of such plans


1 Jan Egeland, UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator called the conflict in Northern Uganda the “biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today”, Nairobi 11 November 2003.

2 IOM (2006): Assessment of IDP population in Masindi district, Uganda OPM & IOM (2006): IDP profiling in Lango and Teso sub-regions, Uganda Okello, Moses Chrispus & Ng, Joel (2006): RLP Working Paper 19: Invisibly Displaced Persons in Adjumani

3 ‘Urban’ IDPs will in this paper be used to refer to IDPs who have moved to urban areas. Although the paper focuses on IDPs from the conflict in Northern Uganda, urban IDPs from Karamoja are also of concern.

4 Even the lower of these two figures represents a sizeable number. (see Jeremy Grace (2005): Internally Displaced Persons in the 2006 National Elections, Action Plan, IOM Project on Political Rights and Enfranchisement System Strengthening (PRESS). Final Report, May 2005, p8). Slums in Kampala include Banda (Nicknamed ‘Acholi Quarters’), Naguru Go-Down, Wabigalo, Namuwongo, Kibuli, and Kamwyoka (Source: Letter dated 14 October 2007 from Acholi Local Community Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) temporarily living in Kampala). In Jinja slums hosting urban IDPs include Mpumude, Makenge, Masese, Walukuba and Kakira/Wandago (Source: Letter from The Displaced Community Acholi, Lango and Teso Jinja District received at Refugee Law Project 16 September 07 (on file)

5 In late 2006, Government of Uganda and the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) started peace negotiations in the Southern Sudanese City of Juba. In July 2007, the negotiation team reached an agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation, which prescribes numerous transitional justice mechanisms for dealing with justice issues generated in the course of the conflict.

6 At this point two Security Council Resolutions had already been passed (1653 and 1663), and a third resolution was on the horizon. This prompted the Charge d’Affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations to address a letter to the President of the Security Council, Gen. S/2005/785 (13 December 2005)

7 Paradoxically, this same JMC also developed its own Emergency Action Plan for Humanitarian Action, pending the finalisation of the PRDP 8 The National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons (2004), ss X.

9 The National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons (2004): Principle 3.2 and strategies 2 and 3. The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995): Article 2a

10 The National Policy for Internally Displaced Persons (2004), Article 3.4: “The Government commits itself to promote the right of IDPs to return voluntarily, in safety and dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country.”, Article 3.6: “Local Governments shall endeavour to assist IDPs to return, resettle and reintegrate, by acquiring or recovering their land in accordance with the provisions of the Land Act of 1998. Where the recovery of land is not possible, Local Governments shall endeavour to acquire and allocate land to the displaced families.”, Article 3.14: “The [Office of the Prime Minister/Department for Disaster Preparedness], Local Governments and humanitarian and development partners shall provide resettlement inputs and tools to returned and resettled families, as well as tool kits to support construction and self-employment. Displaced persons shall be consulted on the most appropriate inputs to meet their food security needs under prevailing conditions.”

11 UNOCHA (1998): Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Guiding Principle 28.1

12 PRDP (2006), Article 4.2.2

13 PRDP (2006), Article 4.2.2, emphasis added. However, when talking about return to place of origin or resettlement to other locations in the same article, one can find contrasting statements as: “The assistance given to the IDPs is the same irrespective of location where they decide to stay.”

14 IASC Working Group: Update on IDPs movement September 2007
15 Okello, Moses Chrispus & Ng, Joel (2006): RLP Working Paper 19: Invisibly Displaced Persons in Adjumani Woodburn, Ursula (2007): Mon dong gu dugu calo coo - “Women have become like men”- IDPs in Gulu municipality, Gender and Livelihoods – University of Antwerp

16 Section 2.4.i stipulates that ‘The CAO of the District and the District Probation and Welfare Officer (DPWO) shall at the District level, be responsible for the day to day protection and ensuring the welfare of Internally Displaced Persons, managing and creating conditions conducive to their return, and managing their resettlement and reintegration’

17 Despite of the existence of Principle 2.4 in the National Policy which states that the District Probation and Welfare Officer is at the district level responsible for drafting and filing reports relating to the conditions of the displaced persons and maintaining a database on IDPs.

18 Refstie, Hilde (forthcoming): IDPs in Kampala - Location and access to durable solutions, Norwegian University of Technology and Science, Research Associate at Refugee Law Project

19 Rowley, Elisabeth (2006): Acholi Internally Displaced Persons in Kampala, Uganda: Migration Trends and Living Conditions, Presentation for the APHA 134th Annual Meeting and Exposition: Public Health and Human Rights, 6th Nov 2006, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Refugee and Disaster Response Sohne, I. Sandra (2006): Coping with Displacement – The case of Internally Displaced Persons in Jinja, Uganda, The Fletcher school, Tufts University

20 Statement by Mr. Walter Kälin, Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights of internally displaced persons to the 62nd Session of the General Assembly, Third Committee 29. October 2007

21 Brookings Institution (June 2007): When displacement ends – A framework for durable solutions, University of Bern, Project on internal displacement and the Institute for the study of International migration at Georgetown University.

22 This is of particular concern when it comes to paying for transportation, since most urban IDPs are living in areas far from their original homes and do not earn enough to pay for the long journey north. Indeed, many urban IDPs earn less than 2,000 Ugandan shillings per day. After paying for food and rent, IDPs with such a meagre income can barely afford the trip back home, let alone the cost of rebuilding their lives from scratch once they return.

23 Refstie, Hilde (forthcoming): “IDPs in Kampala- Location and access to durable solutions”, Norwegian University of Technology and Science, associate at Refugee Law Project Refugee Law Project: Field visit Jinja, Mpumude, 21.10.07, Rowley, Elisabeth (2006): Acholi Internally Displaced Persons in Kampala, Uganda: Migration Trends
and Living Conditions, Presentation for the APHA 134th Annual Meeting and Exposition: Public Health and Human Rights, 6th Nov 2006, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Centre for Refugee and Disaster Response. See also RLP Working Paper 19 (2006): Invisibly Displaced People in Adjumani, which describes the situation of IDPs living with host families outside the formally recognized IDP camps.

Chad: UN appeals for safe, unhindered humanitarian access

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24932

The ongoing fighting in eastern Chad is preventing humanitarian workers from reaching more than 400,000 refugees and displaced persons, setting the stage for a situation that could worsen rapidly and lead to significant loss of life, the United Nations has warned. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), armed conflict is hampering the ability of aid workers to move freely and safely in most parts of eastern Chad, cutting off vulnerable groups from vital humanitarian assistance.

Sudan: UNHCR suspends returns to Jonglei state

2007-12-06

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4755688615.html

The UN refugee agency has temporarily suspended its repatriation programme to South Sudan's Jonglei state after tribal rows sparked by cattle thefts turned deadly. The clashes between Murle and Dinka tribesmen have degenerated into widespread revenge attacks in the past fortnight that have left at least 34 people dead and close to 100 injured.

CAR: Parliament approves refugee law

2007-12-06

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/475670f52.html

Legislators in the Central African Republic (CAR) have unanimously approved a new law guaranteeing refugees protection and many other fundamental rights. The National Assembly adopted the Law on the Status of Refugees last Thursday, some six months after the draft was given a green light by the government's Council of Ministers.

Kenya: President falls behind in opinion poll

2007-12-07

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=327176

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki fell further behind his main challenger, Raila Odinga, in opinion polls on Friday, just three weeks before elections that are expected to be the East African country's closest. The latest Steadman poll gave opposition leader Odinga 46% to Kibaki's 42%. Its last poll two weeks ago had the 76-year-old incumbent running neck-and-neck with Odinga, with both on 43,3%.

Kenya: Women in the polls

Gichinga Ndirangu

2007-12-06

http://www.mediafocusondevelopment.com/

For a year that began with great promise for diva power, the diminishing presence of women in the run-up to this year’s elections is a disturbing reminder of the uphill task women face in making their presence felt on Kenya's political scene. Earlier in the year, women candidates coalesced around Charity Ngilu and other bigwigs to root for their increased representation at the civic and parliamentary levels.

Kenya: Political observers’ forum to monitor more than election day

2007-12-06

http://awcfs.org/content/view/309/1/

The Kenya Domestic Observers Forum was recently launched at an event at KICC in Nairobi. The co-chairs for the organization say they hope to have monitors at all of Kenya’s 35,000 polling stations on election day. The forum will also monitor the political process running up to the elections. “Our strategy is to undertake election day and thematic observations,” says Oliver Kisaka, one of three co-chairs of the forum. “Kenya remains in transition. Each election year we could check whether the country is moving forward in its democratic culture.”

Zimbabwe: Commission carves out constituencies ahead of election

2007-12-07

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2427

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Thursday said it had commenced demarcating voting constituencies for next year’s House of Assembly election, with Harare, Bulawayo and the two Matabeleland provinces that back the opposition set to get 67 constituencies.

South Africa: Zuma's aides prepared to oust Mbeki early

2007-12-07

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=327105

Aides of Jacob Zuma have drawn up contingency plans to try to force his rival President Thabo Mbeki out of office early, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Friday. If Zuma was elected party leader at the African National Congress's five-yearly conference in a fortnight, he would insist on being privy to big government decisions, according to a close adviser, the influential daily said.

Global: Global Corruption Barometer 2007

2007-12-07

http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2007/gcb_2007

Corruption is a constant presence in the lives of people around the world. And poor families are hit hardest by demands for bribes. These are the unsettling results of the Global Corruption Barometer 2007, published by Transparency International (TI) on 6 December, ahead of International Anti-corruption Day. After five years of surveying the general public's views and experiences of corruption, the report shows that bribery is still prevalent in many countries, but that citizens are increasingly demanding accountability from their governments.

Africa: Nigeria Blacklists Siemens

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/32xoss

Nigeria has revoked its last contract with Siemens and suspended dealings with the industrial group pending a probe into allegations it gave 10 million euros ($14.6 million) in bribes, the government said. A German court fined Siemens 201 million euros on 4 October for bribes paid to Nigerian, Russian and Libyan officials by a former manager of one of the group's telecoms equipment units.

Africa: Biofuel revolution 'threatens food security for the poor'

2007-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/3yv9fq

Countries are shifting to biofuels in response to climate change and rising oil prices. But biofuel production poses new food security risks and challenges for poor people. Higher food prices, subsidies for biofuels, and environmental degradation will all be felt disproportionately by the developing world. So while developing and using biofuels is high on the global political agenda, policymakers, researchers and others must carefully assess the consequences for the poorest of the poor.

Cote d' Ivoire: $31M for post-crisis recovery

2007-12-06

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/13724

Cote d' Ivoire will receive a grant of 20 million Units of Account (UA*), about US$ 31.43 million, approved on Wednesday in Tunis by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, to finance a Post-Crisis Multisector Institutional Support Project in the country.

West Africa: Liberia clears arrears to World Bank

2007-12-06

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/13722

Liberia has cleared all overdue debt service payments to the World Bank, marking the beginning of a new era for the country as it normalizes its relations with the international community. Clearance of arrears to the Bank and other multilateral agencies will make Liberia eligible for full debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs, thereby contributing to the country’s ability to achieve growth and recovery in the coming years.

South Africa: Government excludes maize from biofuels policy

2007-12-06

http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN632279.html

South Africa will not include maize in the initial stages of the country's biofuels policy in order to keep a lid on high food prices, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Thursday. The decision followed the South African cabinet's approval of a long-awaited biofuels plan, which officials hope will revive the ailing agriculture industry. Maize farmers, who have in the past struggled to stay profitable as bumper harvests pushed maize prices to multi-year lows, have also pinned their hopes on biofuels. But critics fear using maize as a source of alternative energy could drive up prices of the staple food.

Africa: Focus should be on domestic needs, not exports

2007-12-06

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=40326

African states should address the needs of local markets and of their regions before looking at what can be exported globally, and not the other way round as is currently the case. This proposal was made by a participant at a meeting of the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy which was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from November 27-29.

West Africa: Senegal opposes EPA

2007-12-07

http://www.afrol.com/articles/27433

Senegal has joined Africa's economic tigers [South Africa and Nigeria] to openly declare its refusal to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the European Union. Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, said his government would not endorse the agreements simply because they did not "defend Africa's interests."

Africa: Grassroots call for accountability on World AIDS Day

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/2anmxs

In commemoration of World AIDS Day 2007, Home-Based Caregivers and grassroots women united within the networks of GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission re-affirm our statement from our most recent Grassroots Women's International Academy which took place prior to the YWCA's International Women's Summit on HIV and AIDS, July 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya

Africa: ‘Walk the talk’ on women’s rights and HIV and Aids

New report urges donors and governments to act to protect women and girls from Aids

2007-12-05

http://www.rwanda.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=411&Itemid=1

This year ActionAid launches a new campaign focusing on women's rights and HIV & AIDS, starting with a new report that shows that persistent and systematic violations of women’s rights are leaving women and girls disproportionately vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. The report calls on donors and national governments to fund programmes that reduce women and girl’s vulnerability to Aids as a matter of urgency.Globally the percentage of women and girls living with HIV and AIDS has risen from 41% in 1997, to almost 50% today, while in sub-Saharan Africa, 75% of 15 to 24-year-olds living with HIV and AIDS are female.

Africa: 'Tail' regimen for PMTCT the way to go

2007-12-06

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031850

Single dose nevirapine given to the mother and infant are an essential part of HIV prevention in many poorer countries, including South Africa, but research has shown that a high percentage of women develop HIV resistance to the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor class of drugs, a component of first-line antiretroviral regimens throughout the world.

South Africa: Poor antenatal HIV care 'inexcusable'

2007-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/2u9dq5

Inadequacies in HIV testing and treatment of pregnant women in South Africa means mother-to-child transmission is largely going unchecked in local clinics and hospitals, new research has found. The study was published in Aids Research and Therapy last month (November). Prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes (PMTCT) are a standard protocol in South Africa. HIV-positive women take a dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine before delivery and the baby is given a dose within 72 hours of birth.

Angola: To tell or not to tell, that is the tricky question

2007-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75737

Maria Antónia* began to wonder about her husband's frequent trips to neighbouring South Africa, especially when he was away for 15 days without contacting her on one occasion. She decided to investigate whether he was going to South Africa to see another woman, but discovered that he was going to get antiretroviral (ARV) medication because he was HIV positive.

Africa: African nations sign up for UN-backed education scheme

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24924

Nearly one dozen African nations have joined forces to participate in a United Nations-backed programme to bolster education and training in rural areas. At the Rome headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), representatives from 11 countries – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania – last week agreed to identify areas of cooperation.

Uganda: Pan-Africa ILGA condems police at CHOGM

2007-12-06

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=allafrica&id=1774

Pan Africa ILGA, which is the International Lesbian and Gay Association’s (ILGA) African branch, reprimanded police for brutality during Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Uganda. According to a letter written to Commonwealth secretariat by Pan Africa ILGA representatives, Danilo da Silva and Linda Bauman, the Ugandan and Kenyan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) speakers were curbed from talking on behalf of the LGBTI people last month.

Nigeria: Witnesses stall trial of 'suspected homosexuals'

2007-12-06

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=nigeria&id=1769

The absence of principal witnesses has again stalled the trial of 18 suspected homosexuals in Bauchi. The suspects had earlier appeared before a Bauchi Shari'ah Court for sodomy and attempted gay marriage on July 26. They were later charged with belonging to an illegal society, indecent act, criminal conspiracy and idleness. They were initially refused bail, but subsequently granted bail after the charges of sodomy and attempted gay marriage were replaced with the fresh charges.

South Africa: Open manifesto to the ANC's 52nd National Conference

2007-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/44938

We as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sexed people (LGBTI), activists in the human and legal rights sector, feminists, trade unions, activists in the women and HIV/AIDS sectors as well as individuals from diverse backgrounds, constituting the South African civil society;
OPEN MANIFESTO TO THE ANC’S 52nd NATIONAL CONFERENCE FROM LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDERED AND INTER-SEXED
PEOPLE: WE DEMAND LEADERSHIP AND COMMITMENT TO FULL EQUALITY FOR ALL



1. PREAMBLE

1.1 We as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sexed people (LGBTI), activists in the human and legal rights sector, feminists, trade unions, activists in the women and HIV/AIDS sectors as well as individuals from diverse backgrounds, constituting the South African civil society;

1.2 Gathered on this day, the 5th of December 2007, here at Constitution Hill – the home of the founding document that articulates our liberation; And

1.3 Reflected on the promise of ‘freedom, justice and equality for all’ as enshrined in the Constitution that the African National Congress (ANC) has been given the historic responsibility to implement as a democratically elected government;

1.4 In our collective and plural reflection, we concluded that in our daily lives, the promise of the Constitution is not a reality and that if this remains unchallenged, then that its aspirations will remain a pipe dream.

1.5 Therefore, we resolved to claim our rights as full and equal citizens of a democratic South Africa by submitting this open manifesto of LGBTI demands to the ANC’s 52nd National Conference taking place in Polokwane from 16 to 21 December 2007.

2. WE CALL ON THE ANC TO MAKE EQUALITY A REALITY

2.1 We call on the ANC’s 52nd National Conference to advance the rights, interests, needs and demands of the LGBTI inSouth Africa.

2.2 Consequently we call on the ANC Conference to:

2.2.1 Fully and publicly affirm the rights of LGBTI people as full and equal citizens;

2.2.2 Make the recognition of the full rights of LGBTI people as full and equal citizens a living reality;

2.2.3 Fully and publicly affirm LGBTI issues as part of gender issues instead of the current silence in gender debates on LGBTI issues as well as address the hetero-sexist bias against LGBTI issues;

2.2.4 Commit to defend and protect human rights defender in the country;

2.2.5 Address the exclusion of the reality, concerns, interests and needs of LGBTI people in the programmes and policies on HIV/AIDS;

2.2.6 Address the exclusion of the reality, concerns, interests and needs of LGBTI people in the delivery of all services and opportunities in our society specifically calling for:

i) appropriate access to medical rights for the distinct needs of LGBTI people; ii) commit state resources to LGBTI needs;

iii) make access to land to all unmarried women, lesbian and gay people, in communal lands; iv) include the rights and needs of LGBTI children in the Children’s Act; v) Integrate sexual orientation education in gender and sexuality education in all schools;

2.2.7 Take effective and consistent action to end hate crimes against LGBTI people, in particular black lesbians and to commit to the education, conscientisation and mobilisation of all of society against hate crimes;

2.2.8 Take effective and consistent action to eliminate hate speech against LBGTI people;

2.2.9 Issue a public declaration from the Conference floor against hate crimes and speech against LGBTI people;

2.2.10 Take decisive disciplinary action and other sanctions against homophobes and others who violate the Constitution who are ANC members and leaders;

2.2.11 Create a climate of openness and non-discrimination within the ANC in order to make it possible for LGBTI members to come out and claim their space;

2.2.12 Create an open forum/caucus of LGBTI members within the ANC; and

2.2.13 Establish a special commission to investigate how to implement these demands.

3 WE STAND FOR NON-RACIALISM, NON-SEXISM, GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC JUSTICE

3.1 As LGBTI people, we are also democrats who are committed to non-racialism, non-sexism, gender equality, and socio-economic justice. We oppose racism. We are concerned and affected by the gendered and racialised socio-economic inequalities we see in our homes and communities which despite the promise of constitutional equality reproduce inequality and under-development. We are angry at the extremely high and misogynist levels of violence against the women and children of our country.

3.2 Consequently, we call on the ANC’s 52nd National Conference to:

3.2.1 Ensure that the all legislation on rape, gender-based violence and sexual violence is strengthened and improved in order to provide effective protection for the victims of sexual attacks and violence against women;

3.2.2 We demand a pro-poor president and political leaders who stand for full equality. We call on the ANC’s 52nd National Conference to give South Africa a president and political leaders who:

I) Actively demonstrate and promote a commitment to the equality and liberation of women, and who regard women as equal;
II) Are genuinely pro-poor and focus on the eradication of poverty and social inequality;
III) Support the redistribution of wealth to the least advantaged
IV) Oppose populist and reactionary rhetoric to opportunistically garner support
V) Take effective action to ensure the provision of high quality and free basic services (water, sanitation, health, housing, education, and public transport) to all as a basic right and condition for meaningful equality;
VI) Actively act against stigma and discrimination of all kinds in particular homophobia, xenophobia, sexism and racism;
VII) Who demonstrate a sound approach to the challenges of HIV/AIDS, who are not AIDS denialists and who can mobilise and lead society in the struggle against the pandemic;
VIII) Committed to democracy and encourages debate, both within the ANC and in the country as a whole;
IX) Recognise, respect and promote the separation of powers through an accountable legislature, the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and the judiciary as independent.

4 OUR COMMITMENT

4.1 As LGBTI people, we recommit ourselves to political engagement with the ANC and all political parties who espouse vibrant and self-sustaining popular democracy. We also commit ourselves to continue struggle for a democracy that brings about full social liberation, justice, equality, and a South Africa free from all forms of social oppression, discrimination and exclusion. We will take these demands and our commitments to every branch of the ANC and all political parties.

For further comments and / or information please contact Phumi Mtetwa (Lesbian and Gay Equality Project) 011 487 3811 / 072 795 9194 Vanessa Ludwig (Triangle Project) 021 448 3812 / 082 370 5923

Africa: "Women's Rights" still resists africanization

Wandia Njoya

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/2md5gr

The focus of African women activists on gender violence and on women’s rights remains disconcerting. But before I get into the details of why this is so, I would like to highlight the historical figure named Mary Nyanjiru. Nyanjiru entered the local Kenyan legends in the 1920’s after she challenged the men in the crowds outside a colonial prison to exchange their trousers for skirts if they were afraid to protest the arrest of Harry Thuku.

Kenya: Increased political violence against women aspirants

2007-12-06

http://awcfs.org/content/view/333/1/

This year’s 16 days of Activism Against gender based violence will go down in the Kenyan history as the year where women aspirants have suffered violence without any concrete action being taken either by the law enforcement officers or the various political party’s in Kenya. Narrating her ordeal, Alice Wahome, an aspirant said, "I was attacked by ten men in broad daylight, my attackers kicked and railed blows on me and it is an experience I have never been through before. They even pulled my breasts and I could feel them pinching my buttocks."

Zimbabwe: Zanu PF businessman severely assaults MDC activist

2007-12-06

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news051207/assault051207.htm

A Zanu PF businessman severely assaulted an MDC activist in Marondera last week after an MDC rally. Regina Silas had attended a rally by the opposition party at Dhirihori Shopping Center near Marondera town, when Isiah Mpazviriho beat her up, accusing her of bringing agents of “western imperialists” near his business. Mpazviriho is understood to own a general store at the shopping centre and is an influential family member of the clan that heads the village.

Southern Africa: Justice for survivors of marital rape, how far has SADC come ?

Pamela Mhlanga

2007-12-07

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article.php?a_id=883

SADC is making progress, albeit fraught with uncertainties, towards a legally binding Gender and Development Protocol scheduled for adoption in 2008. Yet, it is surprising that the current draft of the Gender and Development Protocol excludes marital rape from the ambit of gender based violence, making it diametrically opposed to the 1998 commitment by SADC governments, and indeed, the progress already made in six countries in the region. Are we taking a step back or moving forward?

West Africa: Rape and beatings of women 'normal' in Niger

2007-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75720

The news that 70 percent of women in parts of Niger find it normal that their husbands, fathers and brothers regularly beat, rape and humiliate them came as no surprise to human rights experts in Niger. "Women here have been indoctrinated by their families, by religious officials, by society that this is a normal phenomenon," said Lisette Quesnel, a gender-based violence advisor with Oxfam in Niger, which produced the statistic from a survey of women in the remote Zinder region of eastern Niger in 2006.

West Africa: Groups call on governments to tackle violence against schoolgirls

2007-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75695

To improve girls’ education, West African governments must adopt national policies addressing all aspects of violence against schoolgirls - who face rape by teachers, verbal abuse by male students and forced early marriage by parents - a grouping of policy makers, teachers’ unions and civil society organisations has said.

Global: Government tolerance and inaction the greatest cause of violence against women

Hellen Connell

2007-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/2clnah

Politics must become a safe place for women, says Helen Connell. Violence is an abuse of power and disempowers women of all ages. It affects all societies and is institutionalised in formal and informal political processes and governance structures. It makes it hard, and sometimes impossible, for women to take political decision-making positions.

Global: Why women's rights…what about men's rights?

Anber Raz

2007-12-07

http://tinyurl.com/2u9eo6

Many of us who work in the field of women's rights, when asked what we do for a living will often say we work in human rights. Firstly because women's rights are human rights, and secondly to avoid the inevitable quip which we get in certain settings of 'but what about men's rights?' What about men's rights? My reaction to this question is often inwardly visceral and along the following lines.

Angola: Activists denounce political apathy towards migrant rape victims

2007-12-07

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75746

Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have accused their government and that of Angola of turning a blind eye to reports of widespread rape and other abuses of DRC migrant workers in neighbouring Angola. “The situation seems to be getting worse but the Angolan and Congolese authorities we have repeatedly approached show no political will to end the situation,” said Floribert Chebeya, who heads Voice of the Voiceless, a DRC NGO.

Sudan: UN alarmed by widespread rape in Mogadishu

2007-12-07

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=327179

he United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) representative for Somalia on Friday voiced his concern at the increasing number of rape cases in the country's war-torn capital, Mogadishu. "Sexual violence and rape are part of the game now," Christian Balslev-Olesen said at a press briefing on the deteriorating access to health in Mogadishu.

Global: The true cost of agrofuels: food, forests and climate

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/2t9z6l

The purpose of this report by the Global forest Coalition is to examine the impact of agrofuels development, with particular emphasis on forests and forest dependent peoples. This emphasis on forests is critical for several reasons including that of regulating climate

Southern Africa: Theindispensable role of mud flats, marshes and swamps

2007-12-06

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=40355

The need for greater urgency in addressing loss of wetlands in the Zambezi River Basin has been highlighted at a recent meeting in northern Zimbabwe. "Wetlands are crucial to all forms of life in the Zambezi Basin, yet they are not appreciated the way they should be," said Tabeth Chiuta, the water programme co-ordinator of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Global: Alter-Eco: news from the UN Climate Conference

2007-12-07

http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=17652

Alter-Eco is published by a group of non-governmental organizations, indigenous people's organizations and social movements at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change COP-13. The groups came together to make a unified call in support of real solutions to climate change and against the false market-based solutions to climate change that are being implemented under the Kyoto Protocol.

Global: Blame climate change on China?

2007-12-07

http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/blameitonchina05122007.html

When the UK’s carbon emissions include imports from China, the average UK citizen’s carbon footprint increases by 10% according to new research released by the World Development Movement. A World Development Movement report, released in Bali, rejects the ‘blame China for climate change’ culture and reveals a new and more accurate picture of the UK’s responsibility for climate change by accounting for the carbon emissions caused by our massive consumption of products from overseas.

South Africa: Policy options for land reform : New institutional mechanisms?

2007-12-07

http://www.plaas.org.za/publications/policybriefs/PB26

Since the 2005 Land Summit, new approaches to land reform have been on the agenda, yet there remains little clarity on the way forward. The main focus has been on means of accelerating the redistribution of land through new modes of acquiring land. In this policy brief, Lionel Cliffe cautions that acquisition is an important matter, but if treated in isolation risks mis-specifying the core problems evident in land reform in South Africa.

Somaliland: Call to protect fleeing journalists

2007-12-06

http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5572&Language=EN

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged Somaliland authorities to withdraw their decision to expel 24 Somali journalists who fled the violence in Mogadishu over allegations that they are endangering the "security and stability” of the region.

Kenya: Guidebook on election coverage for media correspondents

2007-12-06

http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/kenya-elections-guide-pr.pdf

ARTICLE 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression, with the Kenya Section of the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Kenya Correspondents
Association (KCA) has launched a Guidebook on Election Coverage for Media
Correspondents in Kenya.

Egypt: Assault on freedom of expression

2007-12-06

http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/egypt-assault-on-foe.pdf

ARTICLE 19 and Index on Censorship are alarmed by the continuing assault on press
freedom in Egypt. Next week, no less than three cases will come to trial. All three represent a serious infringement of the right to free expression. It is the culmination of a year-long campaign of intimidation against journalists and bloggers.

Tunisia: IFJ condemns vindictive jail sentence on journalist

2007-12-06

http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5568&Language=EN

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned as “intolerable and vindictive” the sentence handed down to Tunisian journalist Slim Boukhdir on charges stemming from a search by police on the group taxi he was riding in. It is the latest targeted attack on Boukhdir who has been frequently harassed by Tunisian authorities says the IFJ.

Algeria: Review of journalism bill begins

2007-12-06

http://tinyurl.com/336voz

A draft bill to regulate Algeria's journalism industry is being finalised and has been opened up to a closed-door debate. During a November 21st meeting on the 2008 budget, Communications Minister Rachid Boukerzaza said the bill had been submitted to over one hundred media professionals for review.

Uganda: 'An Ebola bomb could explode'

2007-12-07

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=327140

Uganda now has more than 100 suspected cases of the lethal Ebola virus and 350 more people are being closely monitored because they were in contact with those infected, the Health Ministry said on Friday. There were no new deaths from the virulent haemorrhagic fever, which usually causes victims to die of bleeding through various orifices, Health Ministry spokesperson Paul Kabwa said.

Sudan: Government has failed to cooperate with ICC, prosecutor says

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24933

The Sudanese Government is not cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC), its Chief Prosecutor has said, calling on the Security Council to send “a strong and unanimous message” to Khartoum to arrest and surrender two men accused of committing war crimes during the conflict in Darfur. Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a Council meeting that although “Sudan has known the nature of the case against Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb for 10 months, they have done nothing. They have taken no steps to prosecute them domestically, or to arrest and transfer them to The Hague [where the ICC is based].”

Sudan: UN, African Union envoys meet with regional partners to peace process

2007-12-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24931

The United Nations and African Union Special Envoys for Darfur have met with the regional partners to the peace process in the war-torn Sudanese region to assess the progress so far and try to forge agreement on the way forward. Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim held talks in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh with the foreign ministers of Chad, Egypt and Libya and senior representatives of the Eritrean President, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters.

Nigeria: Ending unrest in the Niger Delta

2007-12-07

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5186&l=1

This latest International Crisis Group report examines steps needed to address the conflict’s root causes and stop the region from slipping back into chaos. The May inauguration of new federal and state governments and the truce declared shortly after by armed groups created an opportunity, but attacks on oil installations by militants and kidnappings by criminals are again on the rise.

DRC: North Kivu: How to end a war

2007-12-07

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5199&l=1

The disarmament deal signed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on 9 November 2007 is a landmark step in the peace process between both countries. But to finally cool tensions in Africa's turbulent Great Lakes region, all parties are going to have to now tackle the collapsing eastern Congolese province of North Kivu, writes David Mugnier.

Africa: Rural connectivity project for Africa

2007-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/44926

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO)is to embark on a project for African rural inclusion known as 'Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative'(COMARCI). The chief executive of the CTO, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said the project has been structured to promote faster telephone and internet connectivity for rural communities in the 18 Commonwealth African countries.
Highway Africa News Agency

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO)is to embark on a project for African rural inclusion known as 'Commonwealth African Rural Connectivity Initiative' (COMARCI).

The chief executive of the CTO, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said the project has been structured to promote faster telephone and internet connectivity for rural communities in the 18 Commonwealth African countries.

Spio-Garbrah said, COMARCI that was launched as a sideline event at the recent Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, would cost about £1.2 million (about N295,966,12 million) with a £50,000 seed funding from the government of Malta through the Commonwealth Connects programme.

This, Spio-Gabrah stressed involves collaboration with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

'There is no longer debate about the role information and communication technology (ICT) plays in the development process, and especially how mobile phones and the Internet are helping to transform Africa's economies,' he said.

Dr. Spio-Garbrah added that if Africa is to achieve the majority of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 'it must address quickly and creatively the special challenges by poor, illiterate, marginalized, disadvantaged rural populations.'

According to him, the COMARCI project would eliminate the digital marginalisation of rural societies.

'It will enhance education, employment and empowerment in Commonwealth Africa. It will enable the people in Africa to become stronger participants in development by providing access to improved literacy, innovation, entrepreneurship and e-commerce, as well as e-governance,' he pointed out.

COMARCI, experts at CTO said would involve research, consultations and workshops to mobilise investment, funding and technology partnerships to assemble a body of knowledge to develop a connectivity roadmap for Commonwealth Africa, which would benefit the ICT sector, the business community and citizens.

Underscoring the importance, Uganda's ICT Minister, Dr. Ham-Mukasa Mulira noted that in national development and global integration, the true wealth of nations lies in people's ability to create, to communicate and to innovate.

'As such, ICTs have been key enablers of globalization, facilitating worldwide flows of information, capital, ideas, people and products. It is sad to note that about one-half of the world's population have not realised the benefits enabled by ICTs,' Mulira said.

The minister also emphasised that every government has a role to play in order to transform the digital divide into digital opportunity for national development and enhancement of regional and international integration such as the Commonwealth family of nations.

Kenya: e-Waste study and network launched

2007-12-07

http://africa.rights.apc.org/?apc=he_1&x=5354139

A baseline study into e-waste in Kenya has been launched at a meeting held in Nairobi recently. The meeting, on November 21 at the Jacaranda Hotel, was organised by the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANeT), and attended by over 30 representatives of business, government, the non-profit sector and the media. The study will be conducted over the next three months, and is being supported by a partnership between Hewlett Packard (HP), the Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) and the Swiss Institute for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA).

Africa: Merger of pan-African ISP - A good sign for internet prices?

2007-12-07

http://africa.oneworld.net/article/view/155877/1/

Customers subscribing to iWay Internet brand are set to benefit from efficient high, quality and reliable service after the merger of Afsat Communications and MWEB Africa. Afsat and MWEB have been operating in several of the same countries, but their services were complementary and together they would have more buying muscle for renting transmission capacity from companies that operate the satellites.

Africa: Schools get ICT boost

2007-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/44925

Secondary school students incan now make use of computers and wireless connectivity for all types of class work, courtesy of the latest ICT development initiative that is expected to see to it that all schools have access to e-learning facilities. The programme has been launched by INTEL, a company that offers ICT solutions in Africa and Europe and puts Kenya in the list of two other African countries that would receive e-learning facilities in Secondary schools.
Highway Africa News Agency

Secondary school students can now make use of computers and wireless connectivity for all types of class work, courtesy of the latest ICT development initiative that is expected to see to it that all schools have access to e-learning facilities.

The programme has been launched by INTEL, a company that offers ICT solutions in Africa and Europe and puts Kenya in the list of two other African countries that would receive e-learning facilities in Secondary schools.

The other two are South Africa and Nigeria.

During the launch in Kamiti Secondary School located in the outskirts of Nairobi, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of education, Karega Mutahi was all praises, saying that the project comes at a time when Kenyan Secondary schools had been craving for an internet-based style of learning.

INTEL has already donated laptop computers to students, known as 'classmates'. With a teacher having his own laptop, students can then access his material from their own low cost-classmate laptops.

The new project makes the use of blackboard irrelevant as they will now be replaced by a touch screen that enables the students to send their work to the teacher through wireless connectivity.

"This project puts Kenya at the forefront in e-learning solutions for our secondary school students," said Karega adding that it was in line with the government's commitment to empowering Kenyans with ICT capabilities.

The ministry of education, with the support of the government has assured students of quality education through the use of ICT solutions that not only make their work easier but also faster.

INTEL, a development partner in ICT, supports schools in Africa to help the latter achieve quality and competitive education through the use of wireless-enabled computers. In Kenya however, the sector is still far from being achieved as many rural schools still grapple with the lack of electricity and the high cost of ICT equipment in Africa in general is still a major problem.

Students and teachers at Kamiti Secondary school were all smiles and promised to harness the usefulness of the project to the fullest. The initiative would be used as a model for future projects in the country.

Plans are also underway to set up digital villages in every constituency in the country in order to boost the number of internet users from the current 2.7 million up to 6 million.

Kenya: Project to connect schools

2007-12-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/44927

Kenya Data Networks (KDN)- a leading ICT infrastructure provider in the country has embarked on an ambitious program to provide all Kenya's schools from distant mountain villages to those in the swelling urban slum areas, with Internet connectivity.
Highway Africa News Agency

Kenya Data Networks (KDN)- a leading ICT infrastructure provider in the country has embarked on an ambitious program to provide all Kenya's schools from distant mountain villages to those in the swelling urban slum areas, with Internet connectivity.

The objective of the project is to enable e-learning in schools and to further look for ways of making it a self-sustaining business for the institutions. KDN's managing director, Kai Wulff announced that the company has already connected various schools in slum areas, among them Altaawon in Korogocho, Orphans Sans Frontieres in Kangemi and Mukuru in Mukuru Kwa Njega, all siuated in Nairobi's slums, and several others in different parts of the country.

"We want to assist schools to leapfrog the digital divide through the provision of affordable and reliable Internet connections. In the next few years, we want every school in Kenya to be hooked up to the Internet and not just through a crummy dial up service but at high speed broadband carried by fibre optic cables", Wulff stated.

Wulff said KDN wants to contribute to the development of a successful digital knowledge transfer system using an educated pool of talent that would see the benefits trickle down to neighbouring communities.

He added that schools were fertile grounds to foster the development of a new generation of innovative citizens who have the skills to play their rightful role in the knowledge-based society.

"We want to replicate the success registered in the schools that we have so far connected elsewhere in the country. The idea is that by connecting these institutions, we have a business case where they shall act as e-learning resource centers to the surrounding communities and if well run, the project will be sustainable", he added.

KDN dominates the field of data carriers that install infrastructure network to allow connection between end users and service providers.

Meanwhile, Kenya's Kamiti Secondary School has become the first institution in the country to benefit from Intel's 'World Ahead Programme' (WAP). WAP's aim is to develop low cost PCs for first time computer users and extend WiMAX technologies and to train 10 million teachers on the effectiveness of technologies in education.

Africa/Global: Start/Pacom call for proposals 2008 Environmental Change in Africa

2007-12-07

http://www.start.org/Program/download/Africa%202008%20Call%20for%20Proposals%20.pdf

A call for research proposals related to environmental change tendered to the african global change research community. The objectives of this call are: 1) to contribute directly to global change science in Africa 2) to enhance the understanding of the impacts and consequences of global changes in Africa, 3) to create long-term, collaborative research partnerships between African scientists and those in developed countries, 4) to foster the integration of African researchers into the international global change research programmes and 5) to contribute to regionally integrated efforts on GEC projects. Priority will be assigned to proposals that focus on the following three themes: Climate Variability & Climate Change; Impacts/Adaptations/Vulnerability to Climate Change; Land Use Change/ Ecosystems/Biogeochemical Change/Biodiversity.

Kenya: Lola Kenya Screen 2008 Call for film submission

2007-12-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/44856

The film submission period for Lola Kenya Screen—eastern Africa’s first and only audiovisual media festival, production workshop and market exclusively designed for children and youth—opened on December 1, 2007. Lola Kenya Screen, therefore, is calling for film entries in all genres, lengths, and formats from all over the world for the 3rd Lola Kenya Screen that runs August 4-9, 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Lola Kenya Screen 2008 Call for Film Submission

The film submission period for Lola Kenya Screen—eastern Africa’s first and only audiovisual media festival, production workshop and market exclusively designed for children and youth—opens on December 1, 2007.

Lola Kenya Screen, therefore, is calling for film entries in all genres, lengths, and formats from all over the world for the 3rd Lola Kenya Screen that runs August 4-9, 2008 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Eligible films are those made by children and youth, made with children and youth, and those made for children and youth. In other words, Lola Kenya Screen accepts films made by professionals and amateurs that focus on children and youth. Lola Kenya Screen also accepts family films. Lola Kenya Screen caters to children (6-13 years), youth (14-25 years), and family.

Lola Kenya Screen receives films by students, films by children and youth, films with children and youth, experimental films, television series, internet games and even creatively packaged music videos. Lola Kenya Screen serves films of all lengths, formats and in all conceivable genres.

The DEADLINE for film entries is April 15, 2008.

Please check submission details and entry form at http://www.lolakenyascreen.or.ke/admin/filmentryform.rtf Kids for Kids Africa Call for Film Entries Kids for Kids Africa festival is calling for new films made by children in any part of Africa for the 2nd Kids for Kids Africa festival in Nairobi, Kenya (August 4-9, 2008).

The 2nd Kids for Kids Africa festival is organised by Lola Kenya Screen, CIFEJ and Children's Broadcasting Foundation for Africa to promote cinema art by children for children.
Eligible films are those made by children resident in any part of Africa.
All kinds of moving images—animation, experimental, documentary, fiction—will be considered.
Any film in a language other than English must be sub-titled in English.
All entries will be received, processed, assessed and awarded by a film selection committee and jury comprising children.
Winning entries will represent Africa at Kids for Kids international festival later in 2008.
The DEADLINE for receiving entries is April 15, 2008.
Films are submitted to:
Lola Kenya Screen Philadelphia (Old East) Hse, 4th Fl Tom Mboya St/ Hakati Rd junction Tel 254 20 315258, 254 20 2213318, 254 733 703374 P O Box 20775-00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya (EA)
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3rd Lola Kenya Screen:: Keeping Films for Children and Youth in Focus: August 4-9, 2008

Africa: The African Integration Review

2007-12-06

http://www.africa-union.org/root/UA/Newsletter/EA/RAI1eng.htm

The African Integration Review is an international multidisciplinary journal for the discussion of a wide range of integration issues in Africa. It is open to all theoretical and applied research orientations on the regions and countries of Africa.The African Integration Review is particularly interested in the theory of integration and to its application to problems.

Africa/Global: African Climate Change Fellowships

2007-12-07

http://pass-africa.org/climate.html

A new program of African Climate Change Fellowships is being launched to offer experiential learning, education, research and training opportunities to African professionals, researchers and graduate students that will build their capabilities for advancing and applying knowledge for climate change adaptation in Africa. Participating Fellows will receive small grants to undertake Policy Fellowships, Doctoral Research Fellowships, Post-Doctoral Fellowships and Teaching Fellowships.

Africa: International conference on African culture and development

2007-12-05

http://www.icacd.ccoghana.org/

From 21st to 26th April 2008, an important event would be held on the African continent - the organization of the 1st International Conference on African Culture and Development (ICACD 2008) in Kumasi, Ghana. This conference is designed to draw attention to the missing link in the futile attempts to develop the African continent - culture. This is clearly illustrated in the 1995 report of the World Commission on Culture and Development: "Development divorced from its human or
cultural context is growth without a soul. Economic development in its full Flowering is a part of a people's culture".

Fahamu