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transition
Donors won’t cough up without change
Zim future in jeopardy amidst Unity government impasse
Richard Kamidza
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc FOCOZimbabwe’s new lease of life is under threat, as signatories to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) fail to implement the deal, writes Richard Kamidza. Fresh farm invasions, the re-arrest of political prisoners and disrespect for the pluralistic processes of democracy set out in AU and SADC statutes are sending out the wrong signal to investors and damaging the Unity Government’s ability to unlock financial and technical assistance from global donors and western governments, Kamidza argues. The Harare administration needs US$8 billion to revive the country’s social and economic sectors. Zimbabwe has a monthly public sector wage bill of US$400 million and revenue of just US$30 million.
Darfur, ICC and the new humanitarian order
How the ICC’s “responsibility to protect” is being turned into an assertion of neocolonial domination
Mahmood Mamdani
2008-09-17, Issue 396
On July 14, after much advance publicity and fanfare, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, on charges that included genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Important questions of fact arise from the application as presented by the prosecutor. But even more important is the light this case sheds on the politics of the “new humanitarian order.”...
Amnesties and the International Criminal Court?
Jegede Ademola Oluborode
2008-09-10, Issue 396
(We) are unable to forgive what (we) cannot punish and (we) are unable to punish what has turned out to be unforgivable - Hannah Arendt [1] INTRODUCTION The granting of amnesty [2] is by no means new in history. Religious testaments, notably th...
Resistance from the other South Africa
Neha Nimmagudda
2008-07-17, Issue 389
“Leaders are meant to lead and to be led [by those who elected them]” - Lindela Figlan, Abahlali baseMjondolo movement Fourteen years since the transition to democracy, leadership in South Africa is in a state of flux—and South Africans know a thing or two about leaders. For every Mandela, after all, there is an Mbeki. In his seven years of presidency, Mbeki has mistaken denialism for leadership and appeasement for diplomacy. The liberation victors in the ANC have tied up the ruling party in its own historical mythologizing, determined to hold its grasp on the state. Now, for every Mbeki, there is the possibility of a Zuma.
Zimbabwe CSO's call for a transitional authority
Zimbabwe Civil Society Organizations
2008-07-17, Issue 389
We, civil society organizations acting on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe, today reassert our commitment to the struggle for a transition to democracy. In doing so, we stand firmly by the principles of democratic constitutionalism that are embodied in the People's Charter and which represent the birthright of every Zimbabwean. ...
Transitional justice in sexual and gender-based violence
Makau Mutua
2008-07-14, Issue 388
It is now fashionable in academic and activist circles to speak of transitional justice in normative, inflexible terms that suggest a utopian certainty, writes Makau Mutua. Nothing could be further from the truth. At the outset, we need to understand that transitional justice concepts are experimental – good experiments to be sure – but that they do not offer us tested panacea because they are essentially works in progress. This is not meant to diminish the utility of the concepts or to throw cold water on them as a beachhead for recovering societies with a legacy of traumatic conflict. Rather, it is to recognize their limitation so that we do not stampede to the temple only to find it empty of the goddess of truth.
The limits and possibilities of transitional justice
Lydiah Kumento Bosire
2008-07-14, Issue 388
In considering the wars in the Central African Republic (CAR), Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the use of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is widespread, this article by Lydiah Kumento Bosire seeks to accomplish two tasks. The first task is descriptive: to give an overview of the manner in which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has responded to SGBV in the three countries. The second task is a modest attempt to analyze why SGBV continues to be inadequately addressed. Here, the paper considers the practical challenges that are inherent in transitional justice as a tool, particularly in its preference of some harms and narratives over others. The paper also considers the conceptual challenges that come with understanding SGBV itself, in particular the implications of a focus on sexual violence over other forms of violence, and that of a focus on women over other feminized identities. The paper concludes with the suggestion of some useful debates for the consideration of scholars and practitioners, including the possibilities of a consideration of rape as torture, and the ramifications of focusing on criminal outcomes of political crises, to the neglect of necessary political solutions. In sum, the paper offers that transitional justice can only make a modest contribution to addressing SGBV, and that complex political crises underlying and causing violence must not be left on the wayside as we advocate around the criminal symptoms.
A brief history of the G-8
Walden Bello
2008-07-09, Issue 387
In Hokkaido, Japan, we have not only in Bush, Sarkozy, Brown, and Fukuda a group of discredited leaders with very low ratings at the polls in their own countries, writes Walden Bello. We have as well a G8 that is, more than ever, lacking in legitimacy as the typhoon unleashed by the project of globalization that it has promoted is wracking the globe in the form of the simultaneous crises of skyrocketing oil prices, rising food prices, global financial collapse, and worsening climate change. Against this backdrop, Japanese and Asian social movements are faced with the choice of taking either the Road of Genoa or the Road of Gleneagles—that is, to deepen the G8’s crisis of legitimacy or, as in Gleneagles, to salvage the G8 once again. The greatest gift that the Japanese movement can give to global civil society is by leading the struggle to make the Hokkaido Summit the final summit of the G8.
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.
Namibia and Zimbabwe - the second liberation
Henning Melber
2008-05-13, Issue 371
Henning Melber looks at the possibilities for a people-centred opposition and ultimately a true liberation in Namibia and Zimbabwe, after years of misrule by the liberation movements-turned-ruling parties.
Buying peace in Uganda
Doreen Lwanga
2008-04-15, Issue 364
As Uganda tries to find peace and justice, Doreen Lwanga grapples with the questions: Is there a price that is just too high? Can there be peace without justice?
It is horrifying that there are certain people in favor of buying peace supposedly to convert warlords into civilians, by giving them either monetary or political to lay down their...
A response to the Feminist Political Education Project
Grace Kwinjeh
2008-04-17, Issue 363
I was just sent a copy of this statement by the Feminist Political Education Project and must admit to being more than a little bewildered and shocked by what is suggested in light of recent events in Zimbabwe, by sisters whom I know very well – who are part of the Feminist Political Education Project.
Zimbabwe – who can halt the slide to inevitable violence?
Sam Kebele
2008-04-15, Issue 362
Sam Kabele looks at the fault lines along which violence in Zimbabwe is traveling and calls for solidarity the Zimbabwean people
East Africa: Dam to face delays; vulnerability to drought raises questions
2008-04-04, Issue 359
The World Bank is considering financing a hydroelectric dam between Burundi and Tanzania that would boost mining production in East Africa. But in an area prone to drought, particularly with the onset of climate change, questions remain about the pro...
Kenyans call and solidarity with Zimbabwe
Kenyans For Peace With Truth and Justice (KPTJ) and the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC)
2008-04-04, Issue 359
Kenyan's call and solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe during this difficult moment in their history.
The People of Kenya, individually and through various civil society organizations grouped under the National Civil society Congress and Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ), are deeply concerned by the
Truth commissions and prosecutions: Two sides of the same coin?
Joseph Yav Katshung
2008-03-17, Issue 354
Yav Katshung Joseph argues that as truth commissions multiply around the world it is important to look at their relationship to prosecutions and justice in an immediate and historical sense. Are TRCs designed to generate more truth, more justice, reparations, and genuine institutional reform? Or are they designed to the State’s and society’s legal, ethical and political obligations to their people?
Joaquim Chissano and the neo-liberal virus in Mozambique
Horace Campbell
2007-10-31, Issue 326
Since independence in 1975, the living conditions of the working people of Mozambique have deteriorated considerably. In 2007 the quality of life of the majority of citizens remains very poor. Mozambique ranks 168th out of 190 on UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI), the lowest in Southern Africa. At the same time, there is a new class of rich capitalists in Maputo who live in luxury, says Horace Campbell.