cc Surveying the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) campaign around the Protocol on Women’s Rights to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Karoline Kemp discusses the role of ICTs (information and communication technologies) in engaging civil society and facilitating the campaign. Highlighting SOAWR's ability to nurture productive relationships with African Union (AU) departments in promoting the protocol, Kemp stresses that despite the success of communication tools like Pambazuka News, the real challenge will be to promote the protocol at the grassroots level through more traditional media.

This article, meant to be a basic introduction to the topic of Islamic women’s rights in Africa, argues that the two are not mutually exclusive and that women’s rights are in fact provided for within the main frameworks of Islam. While this has been largely little or misunderstood, there is a growing awareness of the fact that neither Islam nor women’s lives are static, and the movement to increase the rights of women is growing within a framework that does not harm the positive and strengthening aspects of Muslim culture.

Issues of human rights for women in African Muslim regions are usually highly contested, though more often they are little understood. Too frequently the discourse surrounding Muslim women’s rights in Africa centers on their lack of empowerment, which can be seen as ironic, considering that Islam is in fact a highly egalitarian religion at its core. Devastated by colonialism, war and poverty, many Muslim African countries are challenged with the task of rebuilding societies based on religious beliefs and cultural identities. At the same time, the recognition of the legitimate and Quranically provided for rights of women must be taken into account, taking also into account the international treaties and global pressures of democracy and rights.

Islam and women’s rights are not mutually exclusive, in spite of the fact that Islamic laws are often disconnected between how they are enacted in practice and what they officially state in writing. The allowance of custom into the legal system and the right to freedom of conscience (interpretation) are two of the ways in which the laws or Shariah of Islam have been narrowed, among numerous others. Further, it is difficult to interpret or critically assess Islamic law without Islamic education, which has been denied to many Muslims across the globe (due to colonialism and political control, among other reasons). Thus, there is widespread misunderstanding as to what the Qur’an actually says.

At the core of Islam is its creation story, which affirms that male and female were created equally, thus leaving no hierarchy in gender creation. Furthermore, Muslim women are independent legal entities, able to retain their own names, financial independence and property at all times. Women are also to be provided for in the instance of divorce. They are to be given a share of relative’s inheritance on the passing of a husband or father. Muslim women, in the Qur’an, are also given the opportunity to work, and to provide an income for themselves. At the same time, while housework and the raising of children is in many instances still prescribed along gender lines, children are to be brought up by both parents, with each consulting one another on important matters. These are just some of the examples of the rights accorded to women within Islam – according to the Qur’an, the hadiths and Sharia (Islamic law). This is obviously a cursory overview of a complicated and deeply historical issue, but it hopes to show simply that there is a side of Islam not often represented in mainstream media or discourse. Further, while many of these rules and ideas are recorded and guaranteed in writing, they are not always practiced. In reality, many Muslim women do not have access to any of these rights.

There are many issues important specifically to Muslim women in Africa, and these are in fact integral to a global perspective in terms of guaranteeing basic human rights. Women comprise over half of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa, including those countries where Islam is practiced. These nations include Mauritania (100% Islamic), the Francophone countries of Burkina Faso (50%), Chad (50%), Cameroon, Mali (90%), Niger (80%) and Senegal (92%) and the Anglophone countries of Ghana and Nigeria (which has a 50% Muslim population). In these places, Islam has a strong influence on women’s roles, access to information and rights. These issues are embedded, for African Muslim women, not only within their religious beliefs but also larger local culture, tradition, and customs.

In some places, the respect accorded to women within Islam is upheld; in other places, women struggle to gain access to these rights. This is the case because within Islam (and many other religions, for that matter), women symbolise a large part of tradition and cultural identity. Changing anything in regards to women’s rights is thus regarded as changing Islam. Those involved in the women’s movements of these countries struggle against this idea. Their protests are sometimes banned, or greeted with backlash – rarely welcomed by those in power. But their movement is growing – they are participating in debates, conferences, television and radio talk shows. Many of those involved are educated women – lawyers, social workers, and academics. This struggle against religious conservatives means that the criticism they receive is invoked through religious and theological means, whether valid or not. This, for many of these activists, means that the work they must do for women must be centered on civil rights, rather than religious ones, as efforts to reform Islam from within, keep failing. Women’s Islamic discourse cannot be discounted, however, as it is starting to provide counterpoints. This is limited at the highest level, however, by the fact that women lawyers are banned from representing women in the Sharia (Islamic law) courts.

A brief overview of some of the most pressing issues facing Muslim women in African nations shows that there is a lack of legal reform in areas traditionally governed by customary and religious laws. Women suffer discrimination in the areas of marriage and divorce laws, property and inheritance laws that favor men, societal norms that condone violence against women, lack of access to proper reproductive and sexual health and rights and lack of access to education. In some of these nations, women are still forced to undergo female genital mutilation. Further, on an everyday basis, women’s roles are confined to those traditionally performed along gender lines – transgressing these boundaries is not a choice for most, should they desire to live beyond these prescribed roles. Freedom of movement and lack of a public life or voice are also a reality for many.

The solutions to these complex and ingrained problems will not come easily. Women’s behavior and roles, in many ways, uphold the core of what Islam is. Changing the way women are valued and treated thus requires not only legal, political and cultural change, but also a shift in attitude. Accomplishing this task without harming the positive essence of Islamic culture and tradition will be difficult, but integral towards realizing women’s rights.

However, there are numerous groups in Africa working towards realizing the rights of Muslim women. Their political and community level participation is in fact an important part of Islam, and is a duty owed to their society. In many African nations there exist small groups of dedicated women working for little pay, in conditions which are sometimes dangerous, to promote the rights of Muslim women. They work to strengthen laws that protect women within customary, statutory and religious laws, lobbying at local, regional and national levels. These groups provide knowledge and awareness to rural and urban women regarding how to exercise and develop their rights and advocate on their behalf in social and legislative realms.

* Researched and written by Karoline Kemp, a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional with Fahamu.

* Please send comments to

Sources:
http://hrw.org/women/overview-mena.html
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/genislam.htm

http://www.baobabwomen.org

Further Reading for International Women’s Day:

Exercising Power for Change - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, on the occasion of International Women’s Day
http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2006/
Global: Millions of girls still out of school on International Women's Day
http://www.campaignforeducation.org
Inspiring Potential – Background and Tool Kit
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Groups blast U.N. on gender parity

Sex worker rights group participating in national bus trip to stop violence against women and children
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/iwd.php
IWD - Aspiring decision makers do battle with tradition

This past week’s African Union (AU) Summit in Khartoum, Sudan, saw high drama as the country’s President, Omar El-Bashir was nominated for Presidency of the pan-African body. This sparked controversy and divisions on the African continent, threatening to tear the AU apart, but diplomacy and mature government won the day, with Congo-Brazzaville assuming the chair as a compromise candidate. Civil society organisations (CSOs) were instrumental in lobbying against the nomination of Sudan, which was surrounded by questions of human rights abuses. Human rights groups argued that choosing Bashir was unacceptable in light of the current situation in Darfur.

Bashir, a general who seized power in a coup, has been accused of leading a government that carries out attacks in Darfur and supports and arms the militia groups that terrorize the region. An international criminal court is carrying out an investigation into governmental officials and their involvement in the Darfur crisis. CSOs believe that by appointing Bashir, Africa’s credibility and that of the AU would be threatened. The ability to negotiate an end to the Darfur and other conflicts would also be hampered. “The Darfur peace process will be jeopardized if African leaders elect a President for the African Union (AU) who is a party to the conflict,” Alioune Tine, Secretary General of the Senegalese non-governmental organisation (NGO) RADDHO and member of the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of over forty African based NGOs, said in Khartoum as the AU summit got underway. “It creates a clear conflict of interest.”

Sudan’s officials argued that they had been working hard to bring peace to the region, and that they had made progress on a number of fronts. Lam Akol, Sudan’s Foreign Minister, asked: “Which country in Africa does not have internal problems?” Information Minister Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, when asked if the country pulled out of the AU race because of the allegations of human rights abuses, reported that: “Some quarters hostile to Sudan prevented it from getting the chairmanship.”

But in large part due to a flurry of emails between civil society organisations from around the African continent, who were united in protesting against Sudan’s nomination, civil society organisations and human rights groups were successful in their campaign to prevent Sudan gaining the chairmanship. African leaders and CSOs alike feared that the debate might create a distraction as they attempted to solve problems faced by the continent. The issue also threatened to divide governments. African governments were split over their support of Sudan. North Africa and East Africa initially backed Sudan's candidacy. West and central Africa refused to support Sudan, although Chad was the only country to openly condemn their bid. Southern Africa was split with president Levi Mwanawasa of Zambia and Festus Mogae of Botswana said to be supporting West and Central African positions.

The decision to hold the AU Summit in Sudan was not seen without contention, and the fears of CSOs were realised when both local and foreign activists and EU, UN and government officials were detained, harassed and arrested at an open civil society forum. Laptops and documents were retained. Forum members met to promote support for and engagement with the key objectives and institutions of the African Union. “This was a serious interference with the rights of freedom of expression and information and a severe violation of the Sudan Interim Constitution,” said Salih Mahmoud, a member of the National Assembly (the Interim Parliament) who was among those detained.

Leaders reached a compromise by agreeing that the Republic of Congo would take over the African Union Presidency. Officials said that Sudan would then take over in 2007. "It's not a question of what Congo Brazzaville brings to the table, the important thing is what it doesn't bring; human rights violations, genocide allegations and obstruction of AU peacemaking, all the things that Sudan represents," said Peter Kagwanja, analyst at the International Crisis Group. "It's an indication that the AU system is working, that the system is conscious of if its vision." However, Congo’s history is not without turbulence and violence. Despite the introduction of multiparty politics in the 1990s, the President of Congo, Sassou-Nguesso, himself seized power in a 1997 coup. However, the country’s record is still deemed better than that of Sudan.

Still, the power of governmental diplomacy and civil society lobbying came at a crucial time in the history of the AU. The Pan African Movement issued a statement saying: “It will send a clear message to other leaders that Africa has moved away from the dubious principle of non interference in internal affairs of member states’ to non indifference to the sufferings of Africans wherever they may be.” After the demise of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 2002, the AU is trying to distance itself from that body, which was accused of being a toothless dictator’s club. The decision to withhold Sudan from leading the new organisation is thus an important step in building up its credibility.

* Karoline Kemp is a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional Intern, currently working for Fahamu.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* For more information, visit http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/

So you’re thinking of going open source? Karoline Kemp looks at the benefits of freeing yourself from the grip of Microsoft domination, touching on issues of cost, accessibility and participation, but also cautioning that issues of infrastructure and compatibility need to be taken into account. The article ends with a listing of useful resources related to open source.

Free and open source software is not a new concept or tool, but is only beginning to gain in popularity. This too is the case in Africa, where, by its very nature, it is beneficial for organisations working with few resources. By way of a brief introduction to Free and open source software (FLOSS), a definition may be useful. Wikipedia defines FLOSS as “computer software and the availability of its source code as open source under an open source license to study, change, and improve its design.” FLOSS has over the years become an area of increased interest, not least because, as University of California FLOSS expert Steve Weber has stated: “Software determines how information is manipulated, where it flows, to whom, and for what reasons.”

That said, FLOSS’s growing popularity can be put down to a number of reasons. These can be identified as the following:

- Reduced costs and less dependency on imported technology and skills;
- Affordable software for individuals, enterprise and government;
- Universal access through mass software rollout without costly licensing implications;
- Access to government data without barrier of proprietary software and data formats;
- Ability to customise software to local languages and cultures;
- Lowered barriers to entry for software businesses;
- Participation in global network of software development;
- Supplier independence;
- Patches or updates become available quicker, which limits breakdowns and security risks.

A further examination of these benefits reveals the following.

Free and open source software is free in the sense that its code is free, and can thus be changed and manipulated. The difference between FLOSS and proprietary software is that there are no restrictions coming from patents, copyrights, licensing fees, etc. Because the code for FLOSS is free, it can be run for any purpose and further, can be studied, adapted, improved and then redistributed. It may not necessarily be free monetarily, but is often much cheaper than proprietary software.

The potentials for FLOSS to NGOs to become autonomous from corporate providers are also notable. Not only does this address economic issues, but it also gives the freedom of self-reliance. This means that NGOs using FLOSS can reduce their dependence on external technology providers. They also own what they have developed, thus building on capacity development. If a community owns their resources – understands how it works, adapts it for their specific purposes and takes pride in the fact that they have reclaimed something that was once not a part of their own infrastructure, then capacity is built.

FLOSS also has a political role to play. Not only does it offer a commercial alternative to Microsoft domination, but it also puts software into the hands of people, making it a freely available public good. This increases the choices available to users and means that software can meet a diversity of needs.

One of the primary advantages of FLOSS is its capacity to be customized and localized.
FLOSS can be used by anyone, but can be advantageous to NGOs in a number of ways. Groups can run and operate computers with FLOSS that have been programmed to meet their specific needs and preferences. The possibilities for software customisation are unlimited.

Free and open source software can also be localized to meet local demands, including the use of local languages. This aspect has huge potential, as it makes accessibility to information and communications technology widespread. This involves writing software so that words appear in a different target language.

Governments are often the heaviest consumers of information and communication technologies in developing countries, thus their participation is paramount to the success of any open source initiative. Historically, research and development of ICTs have responded mainly to global market incentives. Because developing countries do not usually have the resources to invest in these sorts of schemes, they have often been left behind. FLOSS introduces the potential to close this digital divide, and this is one area where the government has a crucial role to play. In addition, both governments and non-governmental organisations in the developed world alike are increasingly becoming computer enabled, which means that they will favour interaction with countries in the developing world that are similarly enabled and can interact effectively with their information and management systems. FLOSS also has the potential to save governments large amounts of money, as well as make them less dependent on the developed world in general terms of technological and skills transfer. Long term cost savings may also occur as a result of reducing reliance on single sources and suppliers.

The development of FLOSS also represents a means for skills development and knowledge transfer. Local personnel can be trained in the field – organisations benefit, jobs are created and African programmers thus have the opportunity to participate in a global market. This potential also creates prospects for further involvement in creating and strengthening the traditional ICT field of a country - business opportunities are thus created.

There do exist certain problems with FLOSS in Africa. The primary pitfall of FLOSS is that it needs, from the outset, someone with enough IT knowledge to implement the software. Having the actual resources – computers and some initial software also pose challenges, as does the ability to pay IT staff. Having the appropriate infrastructure to support all of this is also a problem, but not one confined to FLOSS users. What is unique, however, is the problem of compatibility with other operating systems as well as hardware. Having to adapt software to make it fit with other operating systems poses a big challenge. Being able to find existing FLOSS is also difficult, as it is generally not advertised. Upon finding the appropriate software it is often accompanied by documentation that is not user friendly.

* Karoline Kemp is a Commonwealth of Learning Young Professional Intern assigned to Fahamu.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Sources/Further Reading:

Alternative Routes in the Digital World: Free and open source software in Africa. Victor van Reijswoud and Corrado Topi
http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/reijswoudtopi.pdf

Open Software & Open Standards in South Africa: A Critical Issue for Addressing the Digital Divide. National Advisory Council on Innovation (Open Software Working Group)
http://www.dst.gov.za/reports/discussion_docs/NACI%20opensource%20discus...

Open source software in Developing Economies. Steven Weber
http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications/ITST_materials/webernote2...

Open source software: Perspectives for Development. Paul Dravis
http://www.infodev.org/files/837_file_Open_Source_Software.pdf

Straight from the Source: Perspectives from the African Free and Free and open source software Movement. bridges.org in collaboration with the Tactical Technology Collective
http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource/essay

The Politics of Open Source Adoption, NGO's in the Developing World. Gabriella Coleman
http://www.tacticaltech.org/SSRC_Report

Further links and reading:

NGO in a Box
http://ngoinabox.org/
(Offers peer reviewed and selected OSS tailored to the needs of NGOs)

Martus - http://www.martus.org/
(Offers software that allows users to document human rights abuses, upload them and store them on redundant servers around the world)

Nigerian Open Source Project
http://www.wazobiasoft.org/
(A Nigerian Open Source Project that aims to make software available in the three main Nigerian languages)

Ubuntu Linux
http://www.ubuntulinux.org
(OSS project based on the belief that OSS should be available free of charge, software tools should be useable in their own language and that people should be able to alter it)

Tactical Tech Conference http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource2
Conference in Uganda in Free and Open Source Software in local communities. It is an eight day conference aimed at building the technical skills of those working with African NGOs

Open Source Africa
http://www.opensourceafrica.org
(Aims to bridge the information divide by raising awareness about the benefits (and pitfalls) of open source software on the ground in Africa.)

Open NGO
http://www.openngo.org/
(Builds OSS for non-profit, NGO and social sectors)

Freedom Toaster
http://www.freedomtoaster.org.za/
(Provides free OSS downloads across South Africa)

NonProfit Open Source Initiative
http://www.nosi.net
Informal group of non-profit sector tech providers interested in the way OSS could benefit their work

Source Forge
http://sourceforge.net/
Largest OSS website, hosting OS code and applications

Open Knowledge Network
http://www.openknowledge.net/
Among other things, OKN uses OSS for the creation, display and exchange of locally relevant information)

Linux Chix Africa
http://www.africalinuxchix.org/
(Linux training of trainers in South African Townships)

Resources:

Free and Open Source Software in Africa - http://www.FLOSSfa.net
(Promotes the use of OSS in Africa and partners with the Health, Education, and Government Departments to meet ICT objectives in Africa)

Shuttleworth Foundation
http://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/
(Supports education and social development through technology, including OSS)

Opensource Initative
http://www.opensource.org/
(Non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting OSS for the good of the community)

Association for Progressive Communications
http://www.apc.org/english/index.shtml
(International network of CSOs dedicated to supporting social justice through the strategic use of technology, including the internet)

Tectonic - http://www.tectonic.co.za/
(Source for African OSS news)

In 2000, 189 world leaders signed the Millennium Declaration and committed to "free all men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty". As a result eight Millennium Development Goals were formulated with a target to half poverty by 2015. The 2005 World Summit of the UN General Assembly will be held from 14-16 September to review progress towards these goals. Karoline Kemp examines what the MDGs say about gender and how they relate to African women.

“Without progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women, none of the MDGs will be achieved.” - From the Gender Equality & the Millennium Development Goals website

Source: http://www.mdgender.net/resources/monograph_detail.php?MonographID=21

What do the Millennium Development goals say about gender?

The framework of the MDGs is comprised of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators. Although the achievement of all goals will benefit women both indirectly and directly, there are a number of objectives that pertain specifically to gender. Goal 3 aims to “promote gender equality and empower women.” The target is to “eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.” The indicators for this particular goal include the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; the ratio of literate women to men, 15 to 24 years old; the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector; and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. In addition, the MDGs endeavor to improve maternal health, by reducing “by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio” (Goal 5). The attempts to combat HIV/AIDS (Goal 6) also make special note of women, as gender equality cannot be reached in environments affected by the pandemic. Key indicators include the HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15-24 years and contraceptive prevalence rates, among others.

Source: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_goals.asp

What is the status in Africa on the progress of these particular goals?

There are a number of ways of measuring the MDGs goals for girls and women, and the level of education for girls is one of these. UNDP statistics show that there has been a decline in the gap between girls’ and boys’ enrolment ratios for primary schools in the 1990s, and by 2000 the proportion of girls to boys in primary schools was over 90% in more than half of the countries in Africa. In some areas the enrolment of girls is greater than that of boys’, while in other countries these numbers are much lower (one third or below). Female literacy is yet another way to measure the MDGs as they relate to gender. In Africa, the rates for female literacy rose in proportion to male literacy throughout the 1990s. While many improvements have been made in these areas, the MDG targets for female enrolment and literacy will not be made by their desired date.

Source: http://www.undp.org/mdg/mdgreportinafrica.pdf

The number of women in wage earning employment (non-agricultural) has risen only nominally in Africa, increasing from 31.5% to 35.8% over the years 1990 to 2003 in Sub-Saharan Africa and 18.9% to 21.5% in Northern Africa. There are a number of reasons for this, but the low integration of women into the monetary economy as compared to men is directly related to educational opportunities. In addition, the disproportionate representation of women in the informal economy and as unpaid laborers contributes to these numbers, which are directly affected by socio-cultural and political attitudes towards women.

Involvement of women in parliamentary seats is a measurable statistic of gender equality and women’s empowerment. According to the UNDP, these numbers have increased in Africa between the years 1990 and 2005. In Sub-Saharan Africa the percentage of women in parliamentary seats in the single or lower house only increased from 7.2% to 9.0% in 1997 and have finally reached 14.2%. In Northern Africa these percentages have been 2.6, 1.8 and 8.5, respectively. Some African countries have made provisions to enforce quotas in regards to the numbers of women in parliament, which has resulted in a number of countries with high numbers of women in government. This involvement is important to reaching MDGs because women in these positions have the potential to influence policy making.

Source: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/goals_2005/goal_3.pdf

Maternal health is another measurable statistic, and UNDP reports show that in Sub-Saharan Africa, problems in pregnancy and childbirth cause the death of at least 250 000 women each year, which is the highest in the world. High fertility rates and the low rate of care by skilled health providers during pregnancy and births remain impediments to the goal of decreasing maternal deaths, which will most likely not be met by its projected date.

The pandemic of HIV/AIDS has many effects, least of all its consequences for women and their families. Of the over 40 million people living with HIV, more than half are in Africa, and at least three quarters of AIDS related deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women who are poor, or have little or no education - those without much power in society – are most vulnerable, and in many parts of Africa, teenage girls are at a proportionately higher level of risk. While some African countries are combating the pandemic with education, a crucial part of its elimination, others face a wall of silence perpetuated by “silence, shame, stigma and superstition.” This is one area of the MDGs that will most definitely not meet its targets - even if new infection rates drop, as many as half of the young people in the most seriously affected areas of Africa face the risk of AIDS related deaths. Indeed, the pandemic has not only become the leading cause of death in Africa, it has reversed the development of many of its countries.

Source: http://www.undp.org/mdg/mdgreportinafrica.pdf

How do these specific goals relate to the women of Africa?

While it is key that gender equality and the empowerment of women are featured prominently in any undertaking towards development, and that these issues are addressed in the Millennium Development Goals, some would argue that they do not go far enough. Hilda Tadria, Senior Regional Advisor for the African Center for Gender and Development at the UN Economic Commission for Africa offers her critiques in an interview with the Development Gateway. She maintains that the largest challenge in achieving gender equality has more to do with socially accepted cultural beliefs and ideologies that uphold male privilege than with educational or economic goals. The goals will only be met once the interdependent and related inequalities of gender, such as unequal power relations and violence are addressed. These two examples alone may be said to be at the root of unequal access to resources, which can then potentially create dependence and poverty, and can lead to abuse in any number of manners. Tadria argues that if gender were key to the MDGs then each target would include gender related issues, and that while judging the access of girls and women to education and government may be some indication of equality, it does not go far enough. She proposes that all of the Millennium Development Goals would be met more successfully if they attempted to reinforce women’s rights in regards to property ownership, control of reproductive rights and freedom from violence.

Source: http://old.developmentgateway.org/node/130685/special/gender/InterviewHi...

The 2005 World Summit of the UN General Assembly will be held from 14-16 September. What will be its impact on the MDGs?

This summit aims to review progress since the Millennium Declaration, which was adopted by Member States in 2000. Policy decisions and reforms necessary for movement on these goals will be undertaken with the hope of revitalizing the MDGs. Priority areas for action include the development of national development strategies, each taking into account the clusters of policy, which include gender equality, the environment, rural development, urban development, health systems, education and science, technology and innovation.

In addition, financial assistance to development must be addressed, specifically by the meeting of pledges already offered by donor countries. In terms of trade, the Doha negations should be fulfilled, with Member States providing duty and quota free market access for all exports to Least Developed Countries. Debt Relief is also a priority, with the goal of reaching 2015 without an increase in debt ratios. Other goals include the efforts made to prevent terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, reduction in prevalence and risk of war and the adoption of a resolution to set out principles for use of force. The right of freedom to live in dignity will be met through the policies of the “responsibility to protect,” the increase of human rights bodies and the implementation of a Democracy Fund. In addition, the goal of strengthening the United Nations will be addressed, specifically through reform towards the adaptations to the needs and circumstances of the 21st century.

Source: http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/summary.html

* Compiled by Karoline Kemp, an intern with Fahamu.

* Please send comments to [email protected]