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torture
Landmark ruling allows apartheid victims to sue multinationals
Khadija Sharife
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc T SlyIn one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of apartheid have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, writes Khadija Sharife, not only for Africa but for the world at large.
Fat Cats
Marion Grammer
2009-07-09, Issue 441
The two fat cats sat reading on the mat. A Persian rug actually, but we won't go into that. The Stock Market's up, they saw. Oh, what fun, As their sleek black coats gleamed in the afternoon sun. 'Lyric, my mate', said cat one with a purr,...
Gambia: Time to stop the abuse
Popular criticism of Jammeh government swells
Abena Ampofoa Asare
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc WikimediaState-sanctioned witch-hunts in March have triggered growing popular criticism of Gambia’s repressive Jammeh government on the ground as well as internationally, writes Abena Ampofoa Asare. Detailing the failure of regional and continental mechanisms from the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) court to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to respond effectively to human-rights abuses in a deteriorating political situation, Asare calls for the issue to be addressed at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights annual meeting on 13 May.
Who dropped the baton?
Njonjo Mue
2009-05-07, Issue 431
cc WikimediaKenya is a country of runners, writes Njonjo Mue, but for all its athletic prowess the country has yet to prove medal-worthy in the relay race of building true nationhood. With the baton passed from race leg to race leg, the Kenyan people have seen participation in the race restricted to a select, exclusivist and often brutal few, with many who have sought to champion the right of others to be involved being severely crushed. The finishing line of true nationhood remains a distant dream, with the runners even having dropped the right baton altogether, and if Kenya is not to perish entirely, the race's next leg can only be run by all Kenyans together.
Why the West won't pay us reparations
Interviewed by Riaz Tayob
Roger Wareham
2009-04-30, Issue 430
cc Flickr.comAfricans and Africa suffer from planned underdevelopment, with colonialism and slavery providing economic benefits to one group at the expense of another, the International Association Against Torture’s Roger Wareham tells Riaz K. Tayob in an audio interview [mp3] at the Durban Review Conference. But the West won’t pay Africans reparations instead of aid, because then it couldn’t benefit from its ‘charity’, he adds. Wareham, ‘a black man who grew up in a racist country’, speaks about his lifelong commitment to the liberation of African people. International public opinion is important for influencing what happens on the ground as it isn’t possible to change a system from within, when its beneficiaries are also its gatekeepers.
Appeal for solidarity by Zimbabwean women
Women in Zimbabwe
2008-07-03, Issue 385
On March 29,2008 Zimbabwe went to the polls to elect its next government until 2013. Results for the Presidential elections were announced a month later and people in Zimbabwe maintained peace. From 2 April 2008 the government organised a retribution campaign to target those who allegedly voted for the opposition and since then there has been terror in mostly rural Zimbabwe with youth militia under the command of the army and police confirmed to have gone on to unleash terror in a campaign to teach the rural people how to correctly vote in the forthcoming presidential run off supposed to take place on 23 May according to the law but whose date remains unannounced.
What next for Zimbabwe?
Janah Ncube
2008-06-25, Issue 384
SADC and other African countries need to recognise that the fate of Zimbabwe is in their hands. We are not seeking the west to rescue our country, we are calling on our brothers and sisters to help us at our most dire need. The Heads of State in the SADC region now need to stand with the people of Zimbabwe and not its political leaders, writes Janah Ncube.
Joint Operational Command's strategy for the Presidential run-off poll
Sokwanele
2008-06-25, Issue 384
On the 21st May 2008 the Solidarity Peace Trust (SPT) released a report titled "Punishing Dissent, Silencing Citizens: The Zimbabwe Elections 2008." The report made it very clear that ZANU PF had embarked on a systematic programme of retributive violence in response to its electoral defeat on March 29th 2008. The report included an evaluation of the violence up until that point based on interviews with 681 people. Sokwanele received similar information at the time that confirmed and supported the information that was published in the SPT report. Our source has recently provided us with more information, this time in relation to JOC's preparations and plans for the Presidential run-off poll.
Zimbabwe: Memo to African Leaders
African civil societies
2008-06-23, Issue 383
Although SADC must be commended for its attempts so far to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, its effort has not been repaid. The ruling party is effectively refusing to subject itself to a democratic contest, and waging a violent conflict against its citizens, aggravating a humanitarian crisis. As such it has lost legitimacy, triggering a necessary shift in Africa’s stance. Under the Constitutive Act of the African Union, member states are enjoined to “promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights” and the African Union has an obligation “to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.” There is extensive documentation in Zimbabwe today of torture and killing of named individuals by agents of the ruling party and government who have been described and/or identified. African Union engagement, particularly by the Peace and Security Council, is fully mandated by conditions on the ground and is urgently needed.
Zimbabwe: Women of the world help stop the violence!
Women In Zimbabwe
2008-05-13, Issue 370
As a result the terror campaign by the military and the youth militia, the most affected are women and children as 80% of Zimbabwean women live in the rural areas. This statement urges women in Africa and the world to take action against the Mugabe government.
Zimbabwe: Stop the violence!
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
2008-05-13, Issue 370
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights issued this statement concerning escalating cases of organised violence and torture, and the intimidation of medical personnel.
Zimbabwe: I refuse to be silent
Maxwell V Madzikanga
2008-05-04, Issue 368
In this plea, Maxwell V Madzikanga argues that Zimbabwe belongs to the many 'courageous daughters and sons of Zimbabwe who in their prime paid the ultimate price in the inaugural Chinhoyi battle, in Tanzania, Nyadzonya, Chimoio and Tembwe, and across the breadth of Zimbabwe during the war for liberation.'
Zimbabwe: Violent assault and torture continue unchecked
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights
2008-04-23, Issue 365
Further to the two statements ZADHR issued last week we report a further 81 cases of organised violence and torture which have been seen and treated by members of the Association in the three days ending Monday 21 April 2008. This is not a cumulative total – this is the number of cases seen in these 3 days alone. The total number of cases seen since 1 April 2008 is 323.
Zimbabwe - Sites of human rights violations
Zimbabwe Peace Project
2008-04-15, Issue 362
Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) as an organisation has strength in its permanent deployment of two monitors in each electoral constituency of Zimbabwe ensuring a grassroots presence. ZPP monitors work in the communities of their ordinary residence, which gives ZPP the leverage to sense potential violations and record incidents swiftly and discretely with a high degree of accuracy.
COSATU and ZCTU: Election results must be announced
Congress of South African Trade Union
2008-04-08, Issue 360
The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions held a meeting this morning, Tuesday 8 April 2008, to receive a report from the ZCTU on the current political crisis in Zimbabwe.
Urgent petition to SADC heads of state - Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Civil Society Organizations
2008-04-03, Issue 359
Inordinate delay in announcing results is of grave concern to civil society:
We the undersigned Civil Society groups whose names are listed below have found it necessary to send this urgent petition to your Excellences in order to save our country from potentially sinking into complete anarchy if election results are manipulated.
Tribute to a man of honour: Captain Diagne Mba
François-Xavier Nsanzuwera
2008-04-03, Issue 359
François-Xavier Nsanzuwera reflects about Captain Diagne Mbaye, a true exemplar of Pan-Africanism who dies in Rwanda as he fought against the 1994 genocide
Feminist reflections on gender violence, political power and women’s emancipation
From Rhodesia to present day Zimbabwe
Grace Kwinjeh
2007-12-04, Issue 331
Grace Kwinjeh looks at the contradictions of liberation and nationalist parties through the critical eye of feminism.
Africa's long road to rights
Hakima Abbas
2007-11-13, Issue 328
While setting the scene with an account of how and why Africa has developed its own system for protecting human and peoples' rights, Hakima Abbas concludes that the success of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, in spite of 'the seeming lack of political will on the part of African states and governments to hold one another accountable for violations of fundamental freedoms', lies primarily in the distinctive engagement of civil society.
Freedom of expression in Africa
Interview with special rapporteur on freedom of expression in Africa
2007-11-13, Issue 328
Commissioner Faith Pansy Tlakula, member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights with special responsibility for freedom of expression talks to Hakima Abbas about how the African rights system works and the challenges it faces.
Celebrating minor victories? Zimbabwe at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Otto Saki
2007-11-13, Issue 328
Otto Saki asserts that the case of Zimbabwe has provided an excellent example of the flaws and the achievements of Africa’s own system for defending its citizens’ human rights against attacks from their own governments.
Justice for Mau Mau War Veterans
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
2007-10-25, Issue 325
As the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) prepares to sue the British Government for personal injuries sustained by survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence whilst in British detention camps in Kenya, Mukoma Wa Ngugi unravels the Colonial myths of Christianisation and civilization and exposes the reality of torture, murder, slavery, landlessness, dehumanization and internment.