A resolution on the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (E/CN.4/2002/L.47), sponsored by the Brazilian Delegation, was adopted by consensus on 22 April 2002 at the Fifty-Eighth Session of the Commission on Human Rights. The Resolution urges States to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, to achieve progressively the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; calls upon the international community to assist, without discrimination, the developing countries to this end; and appoints, for a period of three years, a Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

The finalists for the 2002 ICT Stories Competition run by the ICT Stories Competition is run by infoDev and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)have been selected. We are delighted to learn that Kabissa's story has made the shortlist.

In the words of Tobias Eigen, Kabissa founder: “When I was in Nigeria in 1998 working on a capacity building project with the World Organisation Against Torture (http://www.omct.org), my task was to provide 10 human rights groups in five cities with access to Electronic mail so that they could do a better job of reporting human rights abuses to them. In actual fact the organisations were desperate for capacity building training and access to the net. Access to Email was helpful, but they had already heard about the potentials of the Internet and were hungry for more. On the fly, I added a website component to the project by providing them with space on my web server, creating websites with them and training them on maintaining their websites.”

On his last night in Ikeja, Lagos after the OMCT project was completed, Tobias sat in the “Goat’s Head Soup” Café with Innocent Chukwuma, the director of the Nigeria’s Centre for Law Enforcement Education, and the two of them brainstormed on the implications of the lessons learned on this project. Innocent agreed with Tobias’ assertion that organisations throughout Africa share very similar needs for affordable Internet services and training on how to use computers and the internet better. Together they laid out plans for establishing an entity called Kabissa which would aim to fill this gap. Kabissa, meaning “complete” in kiswahili, would be operated on a non profit basis and headquartered outside of Africa. Kabissa would ensure that non profit organisations throughout Africa working in human rights, health and in other ways are agents for improving the lives of people in Africa, would have a presence on the Internet. Through an unbureaucratic and simple online procedure comparable to Geocities but without the advertising and other hidden costs, organisations would be able to complete an application form at http://www.kabissa.org to request space on the Kabissa server. Organisations that provide their name, mission statement and contact details for at least two people working in the organisation would be accepted and provided with mailboxes and web space provided by Kabissa. The modest server costs would be recovered through donations and provision of additional features such as domain hosting, mailing lists, and online databases... []