Pambazuka News 593: Women’s power, Sudan uprising and Somalia maneuvers
Pambazuka News 593: Women’s power, Sudan uprising and Somalia maneuvers
Abdramane Keita, managing editor of privately-owned bi-weekly L’Aurore newspaper was on the night of 2 July 2012 violently attacked by unknown armed men in the capital Bamako, accusing him of causing confusion in the country. The Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent reported that Keita’s assailants abducted him the same night and abandoned him at Senou, a town located in Bamako after seizing all his possessions including an unspecified amount of money.
A Liberian parliamentary delegation on security says it was told of the presence of rebel training bases in Grand Gedeh County, near the border with Cote d’Ivoire. The disclosure is contained in a report by the legislators to the House of Representatives. And it comes at a time when Ivorian authorities have been warning that disgruntled supporters of ousted president Laurent Gbagbo could be regrouping across the border in Liberia to wage war against the government of Alassane Ouattara.
A summit of Western African leaders has called for a national unity government to end the political crisis gripping Mali since a military coup in March. The regional bloc, Ecowas, also urged Mali to request international military intervention to win back the country's rebel-held north. The area was seized by Islamist and Tuareg rebels after the March coup.
The leader of the opposition party Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) has urged the director general of the National Intelligence Agency to resign over torture allegations. Mr Mai Fatty made these remarks in an open letter addressed to Mr Numo Kujabi, the head of the spy agency. Mr Fatty said over 90 per cent of NIA detainees had alleged some form of torture, and some of the worst brutalities were alleged to have taken place inside Bambadinka.
A Ugandan legislator has proposed to penalise Ugandans who give birth to many children, saying the unchecked population growth was outstripping the country's resources. Uganda has an annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent, but legislators say this is too high and should be slowed down. Parliamentarian, Peter Claver Mutuluuza called for enactment of a policy that would limit the number of children produced by Ugandans.??
Saudi Arabia has a major problem with water scarcity and only 1% of its land is suitable for agriculture. 'Saudi investors have reportedly planned or concluded investments covering 800,000 hectares of land in Africa (accounting for almost 70% of all large deals struck by Saudi firms globally),' says Standard Bank in a recent report.
Arable land is vital for Africa, both as a key asset for farmers and, together with vegetation, to help store carbon that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that by 2030 Africa will lose two-thirds of its arable land if the march of desertification. Luc Gnacadja, the executive secretary of the UNCCD, gave an exclusive interview to Africa Renewal’s Busani Bafana on the sidelines of the Rio+20 Summit, which can be accessed through this link.
The New York-based press freedom body, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has said that two unidentified gunmen shot a Somali journalist, Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle, PANA reports. The CPJ said in a communique that Abdulkadir, who works for Universal TV as a reporter and anchor, was shot on Saturday evening near his home in the southern Wadajir district of the capital, Mogadishu, but he survived the attack.
With the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum given to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and the country's Code of Conduct Bureau to provide information on the President's assets declaration, the Nigerian NGO Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) is heading to court to compel the bureau to comply with its request. 'Since the Bureau has so far failed to respond to our request after the mandatory period of 7 days; we have prepared the necessary court papers which will be filed before the court this week to compel the Bureau to discharge its constitutional responsibility,' SERAP said in a statement made available to PANA. SERAP had earlier sent a request to both the President and the Code of Conduct Bureau, arguing that the disclosure of the information requested will give SERAP and the general public a true picture of the assets of the President from May 2007 to May 2012, and will demonstrate the President’s oft-expressed commitment to transparency and accountability.
The highest court in Egypt has overturned a decree by President Mohammed Mursi to recall parliament. Mr Mursi had issued the decree in defiance of a military council ruling that dissolved parliament. Members of parliament gathered for a brief session earlier in the day before the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court was announced. Thousands have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against the court's latest decision.
Human rights campaigners working for Mau Mau veterans have complained that the Kenyan government is refusing to finance a case against the UK. The former fighters Mau Mau have arrived in London to sue the former colonial authorities for torturing them during their fight for independence. Kenya's government has previously said it supports the Mau Mau case. But officials were unable to explain why they were not helping pay the veterans' expenses.
In this article about the state of South Africa's public health system, a doctor relates her experience of working on a trauma ward. 'We shouldn’t, however, allow our feelings about how perfect we expect nurses and doctors to be to blind us to the real problem, which is the shambles in which the Department of Health has left our healthcare system,' she writes. 'It is not clinicians on the ground who decide how many hospitals there should be, how many beds those hospitals should contain, what services those hospitals should offer, and how well those hospitals should be staffed. Those things are decided by administrators, as they should be. Those administrators are appointed by the Department of Health, also as it should be. And the Department of Health is run by a bunch of politicians, who are doing the most terrible job of representing the interests of the people who put them there.'
As a gay man living in Tanzania, Cassim Mustapha could have faced imprisonment, but prosecutions under the country's Sexual Offences Act are rare, and the bigger threat came from his own community. After one of his neighbours attacked him with an axe leaving a deep wound in his head, Mustapha fled and applied for asylum in Malawi, the first country he reached. Persecution relating to an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity is increasingly recognized by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and in refugee law as grounds for claiming asylum. Most such claims are based on the 1951 Refugee Convention's definition of a refugee as someone having a well-founded fear of persecution because of 'membership of a particular social group'. However, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals fail to gain asylum on this basis.
Uganda is 'overwhelmed' by the current influx of Congolese refugees fleeing renewed fighting in North Kivu Province in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is calling for an emergency meeting of countries in the Great Lakes Region to work out a road map for lasting peace, say officials. 'We have a problem of feeding these big numbers. The influx has come at the time when our donors are experiencing financial shocks, which has a direct impact to government and UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] to look [after] and cater for the refugees,' Musa Ecweru, Uganda’s state minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, told IRIN.
One year after the formation of South Sudan, the country’s women say that independence has not resulted in the positive political, economic and social changes that they had hoped for. Women activists worry that even after separation from Sudan, when South Sudan became the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th nation, the government has not done enough to improve the lives of its women. But as people across the country celebrate the first anniversary of independence from Sudan, after a 21-year civil war, the year has been fraught with crises.
Renewed fighting over the last week in Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province has caused more than 5,000 people to flee across the border into south-west Uganda and left an unknown number internally displaced. As of Monday 9 July, Uganda Red Cross staff in the crowded Nyakabande Transit Centre in Uganda's Kisoro District had registered 5,075 new Congolese arrivals from North Kivu's neighbouring Rutshuru territory since the latest fighting between government troops and the rebel March 23 movement exploded. The defectors on Friday captured the border town of Bunagana followed by the important town of Rutshuru, causing thousands to flee.
Fifty four people trying to reach Italy from Libya died of thirst after a 15-day voyage in which their rubber boat gradually deflated, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday 10 July, citing the sole survivor. It said the man, an Eritrean national, was rescued by Tunisian coastguards in a state of advanced dehydration clinging to the remains of the boat after being spotted by fishermen the previous night, the agency said.
Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighbouring Rwanda on Tuesday 10 July of 'invading' a volatile border area, portraying an advancing rebel insurgency as a Rwandan military operation. The Rwandan government has consistently denied allegations by Congolese officials and United Nations investigators that it is fomenting and supporting the Tutsi-dominated M23 rebel movement in Congo's mineral-rich North Kivu province, long a tinderbox of regional ethnic and political tensions.
Accomplished female leader Betty Mould Iddrisu shares her top 10 lessons about leadership on the continent and the difficulties women have to overcome to reach - and stay - on top.
Dr. Gary K. Busch, de nacionalidade norte-americana, é especialista em política africana e possui vasto conhecimento em negócios nesse continente. Além da experiência como professor e responsável por Departamento na Universidade do Havaí, ele presta consultoria a várias companhias de transporte e logística que operam em escala mundial. Ele foi igualmente Diretor de Pesquisa em importante sindicato norte-americano e Secretário Geral Assistente de uma organização sindical internacional. O site francês Terangaweb o entrevistou com vistas a sólida análise baseada em experiência prática.
The time has come for social activists to campaign for a Global Constitution on the Right to Health ending the current status quo where 'our ill health is politically constructed by those above us', activist Mark Heywood told the 3rd People’s Health Assembly (PHA). He said that across the world there was a growing recognition of the right to health, but that there was no definition of the duties that flow from this right. 'This means that there has really been no change in the approach to health, which means we need a global campaign for a Global Constitution on the Right to Health,' said Heywood.
The world needs more doctors, nurses and other health care workers - 3.5 million of them, to be exact. The poor state of human resources in the health care system came under the spotlight at a session at the People’s Health Assembly, a five-day international meeting currently underway at the University of the Western Cape campus in Bellville. 'Human resources are at the heart of a good health system,' said Bridget Lloyd from the People’s Health Movement (PHM), who chaired the meeting. 'But in Africa we face great challenges with human resources in the health sector.'
On Wednesday 27 June 2012, at approximately 7am, one bulldozer arrived at Abonnema Wharf waterfront and, under the supervision of heavily armed security forces (members of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Polo Shield), began to demolish buildings in the community around 11am. Later a second bulldozer arrived. No notice was given prior to the demolition, reports Amnesty International. The demolition was carried out despite a High Court order in November 2011 restraining the Rivers State government from demolishing the community.
Group demands a full investigation into the unlawful assault of minors.
The finance and health ministers agreed on 10 important steps to promote value for money, accountability and sustainability in the health sector.
"It is essential that the ICC undertakes adequate and swift outreach to victims and affected communities to explain the sentence and what the next steps are, including reparation proceedings."
Since the end of the Cold War, the US and its European allies have enjoyed unfettered access to Africa. But with the rise of China and their own deepening economic crisis, they are once again determined to maintain sole control over Africa by any means.
Prof Tazoacha Asonganyi, Secretary General of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) from 1994-2005, speaks to writer Kangsen Feka Wakai about the politics of Cameroon.
Why are our Women leaders silent when children are being killed like animals in South Africa?
'We salute SYRIZA for its refusal to succumb to intense pressure to capitulate on its platform of repudiating the pro-austerity memorandum Greece has signed and rolling back the savage spending cuts that were a condition of a financial bailout by European bankers.'
Her Excellency Navanethem Pillay High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Sent via Fax: (41) 22-917-9011
IHRFG and the Foundation Center are excited to launch the first-ever visualization tool of the contemporary scope and landscape of global human rights grantmaking!
Every 40 hours in the United States one Black woman, man or child is killed by police, and by a smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes. These are the startling findings of a new Report on Extrajudicial Killings of Black People released July 9, 2012.
A new report provides details from the ground as the investor faces the Iowa Ethics Commission.
For Egypt, the potentially catastrophic implications of a eurozone collapse points to the urgency of breaking with the Mubarak-era economic policies in a substantive and genuine manner.
Debate is raging about the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P), a set of principles established by the United Nations in 2005 but still in a formative stage as regards implementation. A recent conference discussed R2P.
There's been a series of high profile gaffes by world leaders when referring to Africa. What is to be done?
Kenya is still in shock after hooded gunmen opened fire and lobbed explosives into two churches on 1 July in Garissa, north-east of the country, killing 17 worshippers and injuring over 60 others. Most funerals are taking place this week.
Police in Swaziland have shot dead a number of suspects recently in what appears to be a “Shoot-to-Kill” policy.
Many people under occupation are aware of the struggles of others living in similar circumstances. Building strategic solidarity among the different groups could be beneficial.
Na segunda-feira de 24 de janeiro de 2011, o Knesset, o parlamento israelense votara pela abertura de um inquérito parlamentar sobre a origem dos financiamentos às associações e às organizações não-governamentais em operação no território israelense.
Southern Africa’s long-awaited regional infrastructure development master plan is now ready for approval by the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit set for Maputo, Mozambique in August. This follows the finalisation of the master plan by ministers responsible for infrastructure in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who met in Luanda, Angola in late June. If endorsed by the southern African leaders, the master plan would guide development in key infrastructure such as road, rail and ports, and would also act as a framework for planning and cooperation with development partners and the private sector.
The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), the Arab Human Rights Organization (Egypt) and the Libyan Human Rights League, among several organizations and activists, signed on Sunday an international Pact of Honour against torture in Tunis, reported TAP news agency. LTDH President Abdessatar Ben Moussa said that 'the pact commits the signing parties to defend and campaign for the respect of human rights and fundamental liberties', stressing that the league will spare no effort to include the principle of criminalising torture in the future Tunisian Constitution.
SA's former ambassador to Iran will remain on full-paid suspension until the foreign ministry's investigation into allegations that he accepted bribe money from MTN is completed. Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, confirmed that Yusuf Saloojee, currently SA's ambassador to Oman, has been suspended by the department, on full pay.
Seventeen human rights non governmental organizations officially launched their 'Human Rights in 100 Days' campaign to pressure new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to follow through on rights of Egyptian citizens. The newly created Forum of Independent Egyptian Human Rights Organizations, which includes the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement (national focal point of Social Watch), had sent a letter to President Morsi 'delineating the most important steps which must be taken to improve Egypt’s human rights condition and which they believed were missing from the President’s strategies and statements,' reported Bikya Masr news portal.
Survival International says it has received disturbing reports from members of several tribes in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, which describe how the government is destroying their crops to force them to move off their land into designated resettlement areas. Those most affected by the land grabs are Suri, Bodi and Mursi pastoralists, and the Kwegu hunter-gatherer people.
The United Nations is increasingly hiring Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) for its missions across the world, raising concerns over the use of firms known for participation in human rights abuses, as well as an overall lack of accountability structures governing these contractors within the UN system. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, the UN increased its use of private security services by 73 per cent (from 44 million to 76 million dollars), according to a new report by the independent policy watchdog Global Policy Forum (GFP).
Non-governmental organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo province where Thomas Lubanga Dyilo used children as fighters in his militia in 2002 to 2003 have slammed his 14-year sentence as inadequate - and potentially dangerous. The International Criminal Court sentenced Lubanga, a former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, to 14 years in prison for recruiting children during a bloody conflict in the northeastern DRC province of Ituri. 'Fourteen years is a joke. Taking into account the six years he has already spent in prison (since his arrest in 2006), he will serve only eight more,' Joël Bisubu, from the NGO Justice Plus, told IPS.
What do the staggering billions of dollars spent on hair by black women say about them? Perhaps they should listen to some inspirational women. Meanwhile, another Nigerian wins the Caine Prize – but there are questions.
Don't forget to oil your elbows and cornrows
the caking dryness of your cuts and bruises.
We mustn't reveal the true nature of things.
You cannot forget to put yourself together pretty,
dress up the scars and put on some lip-stick on your dry, peeling lips,
dye dying shoes, weather the changing tide fashionably,
who knew you had it in you?
Let's not forget to speak to things as if they were for them to become,
courage contained comes from the curious ravings of mad men,
sometimes called faith.
Umbrella on a sunshiny day,
waiting for the rain to clear, blue sky.
We cannot succumb to realism
Too harsh to face
we can hardly relate.
When the waiting becomes wanting,
Job's patience combined with David's courage,
Paul's letters reaching out from time past
I become the song of broken, desolate souls.
So until the rain shows up to quench this parched ground
and make the fruit sprout,
I arise each day to my routine and do my thing.
Wait.
Let the herald arrive with my revelation,
Erase the desolation.
He's not late or early,
Write on time.
*Dennis Dancan Mosiere aka Grandmaster Masese is a poet,musician,actor,writer/editor, human rights educator and a Fahamu Pan-African Fellow For Social Justice. Founder Member,Mstari Wa Nne Performance poets,
Somalis living in the world’s largest refugee camp risk being recruited by armed groups and bandits as children grow up without education in increasingly desperate conditions, eight aid agencies said. Kenya’s overcrowded Dadaab camp, whose population swelled to 465,000 as a result of last year’s famine in war-torn Somalia, has been hit by a wave of bomb blasts and grenade attacks. 'You have lots of youth in Dadaab who can’t work - they don’t have an education, they’ve got limited ways of feeding their families,' Alun McDonald, Oxfam’s East Africa spokesman, told AlertNet.
Reporters Without Borders has unreservedly condemned the abduction and continuing detention of Libyan cameraman Abdelqader Fosouk and Youssuf Badi in Bani Walid (150 km southeast of Tripoli), one of the last pro-Gaddafi strongholds to fall to the rebels during last year’s war. They have been held since 7 July, the day of nationwide parliamentary elections which they had gone to cover in Bani Walid for Tobacts TV, a station based in Misrata, 100 km north of Bani Walid.
Over 500 foreign nationals have been displaced in xenophobic attacks in Botshabelo in the Free State, the SA Red Cross Society (Sarcs) said. The Red Cross said it was currently supporting 584 displaced foreigners at the community hall, providing food, blankets and other aid. 'Sarcs is pleading with the public, businesses and corporates to assist with clothes, school uniforms, toiletries and food to help the victims.'
The British-led process to replace the current illegitimate and intrinsically unrepresentative structure in Somalia with another equally illegitimate one is an affront to the best interests and rights of the Somali people.
Copyright, and patents, were once about balance – balancing the public interest of encouraging creativity with the public interest of access to creative works and intellectual endeavours, states this article on copyright in the digital age. 'Copyright is not encouraging creativity or intellectual endeavour. By creating private property on goods that were paid for publicly (through paying the academics for their time), all copyright is doing here is creating artificial property rights, artificial restrictions on information.'
The Jubbaland State Conference held in Nairobi Kenya on June 28-30, 2012, is part of the overall web of obstruction strategy unfailingly pursued by Ethiopia to prevent any chance for the rebirth of Somali state accountable to its people in the foreseeable future.
How corporations and their allies celebrated their successful promotion of a ‘green economy’ at Rio+20.
The world’s 105 biggest companies are worth more than US$11 trillion. They touch the lives of people across the globe. But just how much do we know about their impact on daily lives? Too often, citizens experience little benefit from global economic activity while suffering the consequences of unethical corporate activity. Transparency in Corporate Reporting assesses the disclosure of steps these companies have in place to fight corruption. It also looks at companies’ transparency footprint across 177 countries: to what extent are earnings and taxes in specific countries made public.
A long-time comrade of revolutionary figure Dani Wadada Nabudere provides an in-depth view of the Ugandan leader’s life and often uncelebrated achievements.
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has started a new project 'End violence: women’s rights and safety online' based on the experience and knowledge gathered in the past years. 'What this experience has shown, and what organisations providing support services to victims of violence have indicated, is that for evidence-building to be effective, a more systematic system for documenting technology-related violations is needed. While trends show that women around the world experience similar kinds of online violence, the lack of systematised data collection and analysis weakens responses to it.'
A tribute to the pan-Africanist Ugandan leader and towering intellectual, one of the last of the liberation struggle luminaries.
Gay rights activists have opened Uganda's first clinic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in the capital, Kampala, where it will provide testing, counselling and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. But Richard Nduhura, Uganda's Minister for Health (General Duties), told IRIN/PlusNews the clinic was unnecessary because despite the government's anti-gay stance, 'We don't discriminate and marginalize when it comes to offering health services. When people come for treatment at our health facilities, we can't ask for their sexual orientation.'
Unknown to much of the outside world, the Sudanese authorities have been very brutal while suppressing the protests that have swept the country in reaction to the high cost of living and growing opposition to the Al-Bashir dictatorship.
‘We urge the government of Mali to mobilize the country to recover occupied national territory and to combat fundamentalism and lack of respect for the rule of law.’
When Abdo Giro*, a 55-year-old evangelist minister and political dissident from southern Ethiopia, paid smugglers 55,000 birr (US$3,095) to take him from the Kenyan border town of Moyale to Johannesburg in South Africa, he was completely unprepared for the ordeal that lay ahead. Instead of the promised 'nice car', he was lucky to end up in a packed mini-bus for the first leg of the journey through Kenya and Tanzania. Smugglers are capitalizing on the demand for their services and the relative impunity with which they operate by making increasing financial demands on desperate migrants while showing little regard for their safety.
The Sudanese authorities should immediately stop the torture and ill-treatment of those detained following demonstrations since mid-June 2012, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. 'Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely prohibited under international law,' said Aster van Kregten, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa. 'We call on the Sudanese authorities to ensure that every credible allegation of such abuse is subject to prompt and impartial investigations, and to ensure that the victims receive reparations.'
The Africa Union Commission (AUC), an administrative branch of the African Union (AU), will push leaders at the bloc's summit in Addis Ababa this week to adopt the final implementation of the development Strategy Plan (SP) for the continent. This is because the AUC three-year Strategic Plan developed in 2009 expires this year and a new one needs to be implemented. The AU has had two plans since it was transformed from the Organization of African Union 10 years ago.
African governments have been urged to improve their investment on health. According to the Coordinator of the Africa Public Health Alliance 15 per cent Plus Campaign, Rotimi Sankore; health budget in Africa is lower than that of other continent. 'The gap in health investment between industrialised and developing countries is currently too wide. Average percentage allocation of budget to health in Africa region is only 9.6 percent – but a much higher 16.9 percent in America; 14.6 percent in Europe; and 14.4 percent in Western Pacific,' Sankore explained.
In 2010, Google announced the availability of driving directions on Google Maps in many African countries. The internet giant has now launched walking directions for 44 African countries.
The South Sudanese government must take immediate action to identify and prosecute those responsible for the recent attack on anti-corruption activist, Deng Athuai, said Global Witness. On 4 July, the Chairperson of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance, Mr. Deng Athuai Mawiir, was kidnapped in front of his hotel in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. He was reportedly held and beaten for three days by unknown assailants and interrogated about his work on corruption issues in the country. 'When civil society’s freedom to operate is threatened, all efforts to fight corruption and impunity are threatened,' said Global Witness campaigner Dana Wilkins. 'The South Sudanese government has promised its citizens an open and democratic society. It must now make good on that promise by bringing Deng Athuai’s attackers to justice.'
The World Bank should ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment are rigorously protected before funding a power transmission line connecting Kenya to a controversial dam in Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. The World Bank's board of directors was scheduled to meet on 12 July to consider the project. The World Bank project has the important goal of improving electrical service to people in Kenya, where more than 80 per cent of the population does not have access to electricity. However, the bank has been unwilling to apply the institution's social and environmental safeguard policies.
What is the relationship between economic development and rights violations? What limits are there on the international community and on the use of force in serious human rights crises? How do we reconcile the need for understanding and the urgency of action? What is the real impact of technology on the enforcement of rights? These four questions, which figure prominently on the agenda of human rights organizations from the Global South, constitute the themes of the debates and exchanges of ideas at the 12th International Human Rights Colloquium – Innovation in Human Rights: Rethinking Agendas and Strategies in the Global South.
Crucial hearings will begin on Monday 16 July 2012 in the High Court on time limitation periods applicable in the landmark case brought by Kenyan victims of alleged torture during the Kenya Emergency in the 1950s and 1960s. The British Government is arguing that the claims are time-barred and should be struck out, but the victims contend that this is a case in which the Judge should exercise his discretion and allow the claims to proceed. REDRESS, a London-based human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation, has made submissions in support of the victims’ claims.
People in the Swaziland lowveld have died of hunger, a member of the Swazi Parliament has reported. Nkululeko Mbhamali, Matsanjeni North MP, said hunger was rife in his constituency and some people had died at Tikhuba. Crops have failed this year due to poor rains. Mbhamali said a ‘food-for-work’ scheme organised by World Vision that was supposed to distribute food supplied by overseas’ donors had not been implemented properly and many people were not receiving food.
The economic and social prosperity of 130 million people in the East African region - minus those of Burundi - would be affected by how four countries, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, implement their combined $34 billion budget. The three main East African economies raised their spending plans for the 2012/13 fiscal year to fund key infrastructure sectors, but analysts faulted their Finance ministers' sunny dispositions on growth outlook and borrowing proposals. Officials in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania face the challenge of maintaining their recent economic growth rates - among the fastest in Africa - amid global economic uncertainties as well as high inflation and weak currencies at home.
The July edition of the Art for Humanity newsletter is available. The edition includes news on 'Dialogue Among Civilizations', 'Artwork by Amodou Kane-Sy and Poem by Marouba Fall', 'Youth Day 2012' and 'Art and Social Justice Workshops'. Click .
Brief nine of the National Reconciliation and Transitional Justice Audit reveals perspectives on issues of conflict, peace and justice by the community in Nakapiripirit in Karamoja, in the north-east of Uganda. The major concern of the participants in Nakapiripirit was the strained relationship between themselves as citizens in Karamoja and the state ruling them from central level. They said that in their local language, 'state' is 'arirang', which can be translated as 'enemy' or 'violent institution'. According to them, the relationship has been characterized by mutual distrust right from colonial times up to now, coupled with deliberate marginalization and an attempt to take away the Karimojong's way of life. They lamented that the rest of Uganda looks at Karamoja as a region apart and says that 'we shall not wait for Karamoja to develop'. In their view, conflicts in Uganda are a reflection of bad governance practices, such as corruption, unfree and unfair elections, lack of term limits, and an absence of border security. This inspires anger towards the Government and provokes rebellion. Impacts of conflicts include more strained relationships between citizens and the state, and delayed development. In that sense, causes and impacts of conflict constitute a vicious cycle.
A vibrant and cutting edge Cape Town-based NGO seeks an Advocacy and Human Rights Defence Manager to manage its Advocacy Programme. The position is available from the 1st August 2012. The organisation promotes the health and human rights of sex workers within the existing legal system in which sex work is criminalised, by providing and facilitating access to health care services for sex workers in several provinces in South Africa; facilitating the defence of sex workers’ human rights in and outside of court; providing safe spaces for sex worker empowerment and organising, and conducting action-oriented research and monitoring of sex worker human rights issues.
GSec (Grey Security), a hacking crew associated with the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, is claiming responsibility for hacking and defacing multiple Ugandan websites, including websites belonging to the Ugandan parliament, PayUganda.com, and pepsi-cola.co.ug. The Anonymous hacktivists claim they have access to Uganda’s official Bank, official news websites, and department of defence.