Pambazuka News 500: Celebrating 500 issues for freedom and justice
Pambazuka News 500: Celebrating 500 issues for freedom and justice
The African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWC), launched the 'Beyond Numbers' publication on Friday, 8 October 2010. This new publication is based on a qualitative study that was carried out in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan. The objective was to reveal the impact of the women’s movement for participation and representation in political decision making in Eastern Africa.
The study considered the impact of a critical mass of women on such areas as institutional reform culture, service delivery, ability to challenge the status quo, change laws and policies that affect women at various levels of society.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifPambazuka News has a 10-year track record of publishing articles that present a direct counter to the status quo. Moving beyond its 500th issue and into its second decade, the Pambazuka News community will be able to connect and share information on an unprecedented level, thanks to a forthcoming new web platform. This, believes editor Firoze Manji, makes Pambazuka News well placed to reflect a mood in Africa that is one of ‘discontent, of a search for alternatives to the ideology of looting and personal enrichment’.
We are seeking a dynamic professional for a key specialist position in Dakar, Senegal. As the Senior Program Specialist, you will collaborate in managing research activities that support broader Program challenges around promoting inclusive growth, including labour market issues, institutional frameworks for investment, competition and entrepreneurial activity, and the role of social protection policies. Reporting to the Program Leader and the Regional Director, you will develop, manage and monitor a portfolio of research projects in West and Central Africa. As part of a global team and a corporate Program Area, you may have selected responsibilities for projects in other regions as well as working in collaboration with the Think Tank Initiative. You will also interact with experts in the field and represent IDRC in a variety of fora, draw attention to new developments in economic policies and research, and play a key role in the progress of strategic thinking in this area.
Alemayehu G. Mariam speculates on the possible benefits and drawbacks of remittances to Ethiopia from the Diaspora. Using examples from Latin America and Asia, the author suggests the cash influx to Ethiopia (estimated at over a billion US dollars per year) can either be harnessed for investment, or, more negatively, trigger ‘Dutch Disease’.
Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer and the second cause of cancer deaths among women in Kenya, writes Mary Onyango, the vice-chair of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission and also a member of the Kenya Breast Health Programme. Incidences of breast cancer are on the rise and those being diagnosed are getting younger. With this in mind breast screening and in particular mammography screening, which has saved the lives of women all over the world, is the way to go for women in Kenya, she says.
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are attempting to legalise their status in South Africa. They have been given a deadline by South Africa of December 31 to submit documentation seeking permission to work and live in South Africa. Most illegal Zimbabweans in South Africa say they fled to survive and earn money for their families and some fled fearing political persecution from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF Party officials.
The votes of southern Sudanese women in January's self-determination referendum will be a determining factor in the outcome, says the vice president of the regional government, Riek Machar. Women in Southern Sudan constitute more than 60 per cent of the adult population in the semi-autonomous region. Hundreds of women leaders across the region launched a two-day conference on Tuesday in the parliament organised by the office of the president under the theme: 'Enhancing Women's Participation in the Referendum.'
The UN refugee chief has called on countries to stop sending refugees back to the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu and the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Antonio Guterres also said it was time rich countries shared the global refugee burden more fairly with developing countries and revealed tentative plans to set up an enlarged EU-wide resettlement programme. Some Somalis have even been deported to Mogadishu - a city under nearly continual shelling, from which more than 200,000 people have fled this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Climate change is already negatively affecting the lives and livelihoods of poor men and women. Yet it is estimated that less than a tenth of climate funds to date have been spent on helping people in vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, says this Oxfam policy brief. The poor are losing out twice: they are hardest hit by climate change they didn’t cause, and they are being neglected by funds that should be helping them, says the brief.
Nnimmo Bassey examines how minority rights are still not protected in oil-rich regions of Nigeria. Oil companies and the national government could contribute to improving infrastructure and services for communities that are paying the environmental and social price of oil extraction, Bassey argues.
Africa's involvement in climate change negotiations needed to focus on giving Africa an opportunity to demand and get compensation for the damage to its economy caused by global warming while there was a need for Africa to be represented by one delegation empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states. This is according to Abebe Haile Gabriel, acting director of the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission. He was addressing the the Third Ordinary Session of the second Pan-African Parliament.
Alemayehu Mariam celebrates the release of Ethiopian judge and rights campaigner Birtukan Mideksa.
A report released by the United Nations calls for intensified investment in cost-effective interventions to address the problem of obstetric fistula. The document estimates that at least $750 million is needed to treat existing and new cases between now and 2015. Caused by prolonged, obstructed labour without timely medical intervention, the condition affects as many as 3.5 million women in the world. The report 'Supporting Efforts to End Obstetric Fistula', states: 'Obstetric fistula is one of the most devastating consequences of neglect during childbirth and a stark example of health inequity in the world. Although the condition has been eliminated in the developed world, obstetric fistula continues to afflict the most impoverished women and girls, most of whom live in rural and remote areas of the developing world.'
With new figures showing a record amount of World Bank funding for projects relying on coal power and other fossil fuels, the issue of reforming the institution's energy lending was once again a hot topic at the World Bank and IMF annual meetings, which concluded over the weekend. The figures, released by the Bank in mid-September, show it lent 3.4 billion dollars to coal projects.
Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi, who has come under sharp criticism over comments she made on homosexuality, maintains that gays and lesbians in Kenya must be involved in HIV/AIDS programmes. Murugi said on Tuesday that the gay community, which is classified under high risk HIV/AIDS populations, also had a right to healthcare like all other Kenyans and should not be stigmatised.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed its grave concern over the well-being of Tunisian journalist Fahem Boukaddous and urged his immediate release. Boukaddous, whose health has sharply deteriorated in prison, is serving a four year jail term following his conviction in March for 'forming a criminal association liable to attack persons'. 'We are very concerned about Boukaddous who needs urgent medical treatment unavailable to him in prison,' said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. 'Boukaddous has already been denied his freedom as punishment for his independent journalism. Without immediate action his long term health is under threat.'
In August 2009, Rwanda's health ministry launched an mHealth (M-Ubuzima) initiative to support community health workers in maternal and child health interventions by utilizing mobile technology. Community health workers, who are responsible for maternal health in the Musanze district, were given mobile phones equipped with Rapid SMS tools. These mobiles allow health workers to report difficult cases, complications or emergencies to the nearest clinic or hospital, and improve maternal health information tracking by capturing data about pre-natal health, delivery, and birth outcomes.
Malawian universities should become more involved in training primary school teachers, argues Steve Sharra. As it stands, a university teaching degree is a ticket out of the classroom into higher paid jobs. ‘The best teachers are always taken out of the primary school classroom and sent to secondary schools and other administrative positions,’ Sharra writes. Teachers should be motivated to stay in the classroom via ongoing skills development programmes.
Five people were killed on Tuesday in Algeria when a remote control bomb exploded on a construction site in the town of Tlidjen near the Algeria-Tunisia border. Security officials said the bomb had targeted public works officials who were inspecting the construction site of new homes. Those killed were three local public works officials and two entrepreneurs, AFP said.
The chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore Madhuku, has said that from next week they will begin mobilising people to reject the constitutional draft that will be produced by the parliamentary committee. ‘The constitution that we will be campaigning against will not be different from Lancaster House. So it’s not accurate or not correct to say if you reject the constitution you are going back to Lancaster House. It won’t make a difference.’ He said it was not the NCA’s fault that government kept coming up with defective constitutions and putting them before the people to vote on.
A lack of space has forced psychiatrists at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital to accommodate adolescents as young as 13 in the same wards as adult psychiatric patients, often risking their safety. 'This has tremendous implications for the teenagers’ safety,' said child psychologist Wendy Duncan. 'But if the young person needs secure care, in other words, they need to be in a facility that’s closed, the door is locked, then we have no choice but to accommodate them here at Bara,' said Duncan.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifDale McKinley discusses how Pambazuka News has avoided eclipsing grassroots activism in Africa by adhering to a Pan-African and internationalist foundation. He also adds new directions for the platform to pursue.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifTo celebrate the newsletter’s 500th issue, Henning Melber remembers two of his favourite contributors to Pambazuka News, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem and Dennis Brutus.
Greenpeace urges the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Energy (IMC) to consider an energy mix which among others calls for a nuclear free energy future. This follows the approval of the release of the Executive Summary, and the Medium Term Risk Mitigation Plan (MTRM) for Electricity in South Africa - 2010 to 2016 of the draft IRP 2010 for public comment. As Greenpeace’s Nkopane Maphiri states, 'The proposed balanced scenario will do very little to foster robust investments in the renewable technologies.'
Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa will be hosting a media workshop to improve the knowledge of reporters and provide additional skills on covering water issues in southern Africa. The training will be conducted alongside the SADC Multi-stakeholder Water Dialogue, scheduled from 12-13 October in Maun, Botswana. Participants include print and radio journalists from SADC countries.
A new campaign aims to beat stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive Africans in New York by urging the wider population to show solidarity with them. 'For those living outside their home turf, the vulnerability that comes with being HIV-positive really exacerbates HIV stigma,' explained Kim Nichols, co-executive director of the African Service Committee (ASC), an NGO that provides HIV and other health services to African immigrants in New York.
The Acumen Fund Fellows Program is a one year program that gives an opportunity for Fellows to undertake world-class leadership training, field work with social enterprises on the front lines and a community of changemakers and thoughtleaders.
A new roadmap for curbing the global epidemic of tuberculosis aims to save five million lives between 2011 and 2015 and eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2050 but comes with a price tag of US$47 billion, nearly half of which must still be found.
Alemayehu Mariam keeps coming back to Pambazuka News in his search for informed analysis on African current affairs. While Western countries have think tanks to debate important issues, Africans have Pambazuka News, he writes in his letter to celebrate Pambazuka News’ 500th issue.
While climate change has captured the headlines, many countries are running out of freshwater supplies, threatening human health and causing conflicts between nations. Water should be at the top of the global and national agendas, argues Martin Khor.
www.awaazmagazine.com
Will Africa end up paying for technologies that commodify life, or demand reparations for ecological damage done by the North, asks Patrick Bond.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifPambazuka News provides ‘very much helpful’ perspectives for Chinese scholars who seldom have the chance to visit Africa, writes He Winping.
A new addition to the African murder mystery genre, Ghanaian Yaba Badoe explores the mystery – literal and symbolic – of coming of age outside Africa.
Faced with the woes of the global economic crisis, an increasing number of Moroccan expatriates are coming back home. Meanwhile, the government is intensifying effort to aid the community abroad as well as help them maintain ties with their home country. The number of Moroccans living abroad (MRE) that have decided to return home is up 8 per cent year over year.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gifPambazuka News distinguishes itself by exploring the issues the continent faces ‘without reinforcing stereotypes about Africans’, writes Mandisi Majavu, challenging ‘the way we understand African politics’ and the way in which ‘African politics are presented in the mainstream media’.
Bomb blasts killed 12 and injured 8 people in Abuja during Nigeria’s 50th anniversary celebrations on 1 October. Dibussi Tande finds the country’s bloggers ‘torn between sadness for the innocent victims, anger at the perpetrators, and outrage at the federal government for its inept handling of events before and after the blast.’
European Union Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR) justifies its presence in the Horn of Africa with claims that is has reduced piracy in the region, yet according to ECOTERRA Intl, since the launch of EU NAVFOR operations in 2008, not only has there been an increase in cases of piracy, but also an escalation in the use of violence and arms. So what purpose do multi-national naval forces in Somalian waters actually serve?
I'm a historian at Yale University in the USA who just happened upon your online news service, and who has a special request. I'm writing a history of something called the World Youth Festival, a Soviet-sponsored event which met 13 times between 1947 and 1989. My research has taken me to Russia, Europe and across the USA. But sadly, I have not yet made it to look through African archives or interview African participants. I therefore would be especially grateful if you would put a call out to your readership in search of anyone who might be willing to speak with me about their experiences at the Festival, or who perhaps has written material (letters, diaries, memoirs) that they'd be willing to scan and share with me.
Write to .
A delegation of Indian political and business leaders was due in the East African Community (EAC) region this week with new incentives to increase Delhi’s presence in the region as the Asian giant moves to eat into the presence of China and Europe, the Indian government announced. Senior officials from 187 Indian companies will be participating in the ‘Namaskar Africa’ and ‘India-East Africa Business Forum’ events in Nairobi, opening on October 14. Representatives from the EAC countries will also be there for a preview of what India has to offer.
Social interaction between host community members and refugees are taking place within the camps at a significant scale, according to a September 2010 study entitled 'Socio-economic and Environmental Impacts of Dadaab Refugee Camps on Host Communities'. One of the findings of the study is that refugees are seen as getting the better deal as international humanitarian standards are applied to refugees but not to host communities.
New analysis shows populations of tropical species are plummeting and humanity's demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain, reveals the 2010 edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report - the leading survey of the planet’s health. The Ecological Footprint, one of the indicators used in the report, shows that our demand on natural resources has doubled since 1966 and we’re using the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support our activities. If we continue living beyond the Earth’s limits, by 2030 we'll need the equivalent of two planets' productive capacity to meet our annual demands.
Pambazuka platform has 'given voice to the vibrant and engaged people of Africa and its diaspora; people who are passionate about pursuing justice', writes Marion Grammer.
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy are seeking entries from inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy programmes from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Entry is free, and up to six winners will receive £20,000 each in prize money for programme development, with one overall Energy Champion awarded £40,000.
Malawian vice president Joyce Banda has called for tolerance towards homosexuality, at a meeting hosted by the Inter-Faith AIDS Association (MIAA) held in Blantyre, Malawi, on 29 September this year. Banda made the call when she officially opened a Religious Leader’s Policy Advocacy Conference in Blantyre, stating that same sex practices are reality in Malawi and that religious leaders need be tolerant on such issues in order to fight HIV and AIDS.
As the ICC prepares to prosecute perpetrators of the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya, Isaac Newton Kinity asks whether the court will view the boys who killed militia to defend the town of Nakuru – and who unwittingly prevented further bloodshed – as heroes or criminals.
The latest round of talks between north and south Sudan over the future of the oil-producing Abyei region has failed to reach an agreement. The issue stands as a key hurdle ahead of referendums in the country, and according to the north's National Congress party (NCP) and the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), 'serious efforts and many productive discussions, [the delegations] did not succeed in reaching agreement on the eligibility criteria for voters in the Abyei Area referendum'.
Jean Gregoire Sagbo is Russia's newly elected councilman of Novozavidovo, a rural community about 65 miles north of Moscow. Russia is still entrenched in the enigma of racism and plagued with systemic violence. But among the 10,000 residents here, 48-year-old Sagbo, though an immigrant from Benin, is perceived as a Russian who cares about his adopted hometown, reports
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is offering 10 fellowships to enhance news media coverage of complex issues surrounding HIV and AIDS in South Africa. The IWMF will partner with media organisations in South Africa to identify eligible senior reporters working on HIV/AIDS.
The launch of the Decade of the African Woman from 2010-2020 happens this week in Nairobi as delegates at another women's event in Johannesburg have noted that African women continue to be left out of the media. At the first day of the Fourth Annual Gender Links Gender and Media Summit in Johannesburg, the results of the Gender and Media Progress Study (GMPS) were highlighted and the lack of progress since the 2003 Baseline Study was widely discussed.
Residents of Mandela Park near Cape Town, South Africa, are still waiting for decent housing. In this letter to the minister of human settlements, they explain how housing development in the area is corrupt and that the situation will only get worse.
Only a handful of African governments have so far pledged financial commitment to a planned US$600 million endowment fund to support the activities of the fledgling African Network for Drugs and Diagnostic Innovations (ANDI) initiative - and none have yet paid up. ANDI aims to be the first pan-African health research and development (R&D) network, tackling Africa's diseases with home-grown drugs and diagnostics.
Scientists are failing Africa in its attempts to adapt to climate change, a conference was told this week. They spend too much time collecting data and attending conferences, and not enough time providing practical solutions that local people can implement, according to Anthony Nyong, manager of the Compliance and Safeguard Division at the African Development Bank.
Four NGOs have criticised a social movement for disrupting ordinary life in Cape Town with a protest campaign aimed at highlighting a lack of service delivery in informal settlements. But Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has launched the strike in informal settlements, have responded, saying they have never called for violence and accusing one of the NGOs, the Treatment Action Campaign, of double standards. This post contains the original statement issued by COSATU Khayelitsha, the Treatment Action Campaign the Social Justice Coalition and Equal Education, calling for a rejection of Abahlali baseMjondolo's tactics and a responding statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/10_500.gif‘Unity is indispensable in order for the peoples of Africa to live in peace, improve their quality of life, restore the natural environment, repair the human spirit and the earth,’ but there are challenges Pan-Africanism must overcome to achieve it. Horace Campbell looks at the role Pambazuka News has played in nurturing networks for the emancipation of the continent, and how it can champion transformation by 'strengthening popular power'.
Land and housing are the most urgent problems in South Africa’s cities, writes S’bu Zikode, but as long as the country pretends that the issue of land is technical and not political, it will not be resolved. The real struggle, says Zikode, is to ‘put the human being at the centre of our society, starting with the most dispossessed, who are the homeless.’
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/500/zahrah-pic_1b.jpgInspired by the nomination of Ngugi Wa’Thiongo for this year’s Nobel Prize for literature, Sokari Ekine reviews a selection of Africa’s art, music and literary blogs.
In the latest news involving Africa's engagement with China, India and other emerging powers: Asian giants extend assistance to Ghana; No prominent African politician congratulates Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo; China keen on investing in Sudan; China urged to withdraw funding from Ethiopian dam; Exim Bank gets $150 mn to push India-Africa trade; Uganda seeks easier study visas, job permits in India; India’s total trade with COMESA rises more than three-fold; Russia's LUKOIL wants more oil from Ghana and Nigeria Approves $2.5 Billion Sale of Nitel to Dubai's Minerva.
On October 27, 28 & 29, 2010 at 8pm AfricAvenir will present the world premiere of the theatre play ‘Traumatism’ by the Beninese director Ousmane Aledji and his company Agbo-N’Koko at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Ousmane Aledji – one of the most important directors in West Africa – and his company Agbo N’Koko will be in Berlin from October 25 to 31.
Is it possible to celebrate 50 years of African Independence? What has happened since? What has become of the Pan-African visions of Césaire, Lumumba, Nkrumah?With ‘Traumatism’ Ousmane Aledji artistically takes stock. Sarcastic, sometimes resigned, then again angry, explosive, fierce, he stages the collective memory of the ‘little people’.
Kimani wa Wanjiru interviews Professor Abdilatif Abdalla, a writer jailed by the Kenyatta regime after he questioned the direction in which it was guiding Kenya in a political pamphlet. Ironically the anthology of poems Abdalla wrote while in prison won the 1974 Jomo Kenyatta Award for Literature, which was named after the very man who incarcerated him.
Two prominent gender and human rights defenders, Dr Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang Sissoho were arrested and detained on Monday 11 October 2010 by Gambian security forces, kept in police custody at the Banjul Police station, and sent to jail on Tuesday 12 October 2010.
Pambazuka News 499: New technologies and the threat to sovereignty in Africa
Pambazuka News 499: New technologies and the threat to sovereignty in Africa
We are seeking a dynamic professional for a key specialist position in Dakar, Senegal. As the Senior Program Specialist, you will collaborate in managing research activities that support broader Program challenges around promoting inclusive growth, including labour market issues, institutional frameworks for investment, competition and entrepreneurial activity, and the role of social protection policies. Reporting to the Program Leader and the Regional Director, you will develop, manage and monitor a portfolio of research projects in West and Central Africa. As part of a global team and a corporate Program Area, you may have selected responsibilities for projects in other regions as well as working in collaboration with the Think Tank Initiative. You will also interact with experts in the field and represent IDRC in a variety of fora, draw attention to new developments in economic policies and research, and play a key role in the progress of strategic thinking in this area.
A new film and book, launched in London on 5 October, show how community participation in development projects has led to successful agricultural change and environmental recovery in Burkina Faso and Kenya. They show that despite a growing population, tree cover and food production have
both improved because of the tactics local people have adopted to manage their environment.
Following the International Forum on Food Sovereignty held in Mali in February 2007, the social movements that brought this initiative to life have decided to create a tool for communication and exchange in order to continue the fight for food sovereignty and to defend the interests of disadvantaged groups such as small - scale farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and those living from pastoralism. The situation of these groups continues to deteriorate due to the ongoing assaults of an increasingly inhuman capitalism. A new wave of landgrabbing can now be added to the problems of our times, a reality which the World Bank seeks to legitimize in its latest report. It is therefore urgent and critical for social movements to regroup and to strengthen our alliances in order to deal with the offensive of neoliberalism, unprecedented in the history of mankind. This newsletter aims to bring a small stone to the edifice of resistance that will be built to counteract transnational corporations, the World Bank and their allies. We urge all organisations and all movements committed to the struggle for food sovereignty to embark with us on this journey. The newsletter will be published every two months on the website. The next edition is on climate change. Send your contributions by the 10 October. For any further information, please contact [email][email protected]
For the first edition, visit: http://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/nyeleni-newsletter-en.pdf
On the 8th of September 2010 the UPM in Durban sent a letter of demands to Jacob Zuma. His office acknowledge reciept of that letter (which is pasted in below this email) but he has never given us the courtesy of a response to our demands. Therefore we have no choice but to take our desperation and anger to the streets. We will be marching in Durban on 14 October 2010 in support of the demands in this letter. In addition to these demands we also demanding an end to the attacks on democracy from the ANC.
The human rights council has adopted a resolution in which it established for a period of three years a working group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice, and a decision in which it decided to hold a panel discussion on human rights in the context of action taken to address terrorist hostage-taking with a special focus on the primary responsibility of States.
The October issue of the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Lasting Impacts publication, 'Food Security and Nutrition' has been published. This is the URL for the October issue: Or, you can navigate in from the Lasting Impacts homepage (http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts) and click on October.
Efforts to improve one of the world’s most resilient staples - cassava - have paid off, with lasting and, in some instances, dramatic benefits. Plant breeding has increased this starchy root’s nutritional value and resistance to disease, saving countless lives as a result, says the latest issue of Lasting Impacts from the International Development Research Centre.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is sponsoring the Guardian's Global development site is being heavily criticised in Africa and the US for getting into bed not just with notorious GM company Monsanto, but also with agribusiness commodity giant Cargill, reports the London Guardian. Seattle-based Agra Watch - a project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice - was outraged. 'Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well being of small farmers around the world… [This] casts serious doubt on the foundation's heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa,' it thundered.
'We call on government to listen to the demands of the poor in Hout Bay. We call on government to immediately end all evictions of poor people in Hout Bay. We call on government to upgrade all homes of poor people in Hout Bay to proper housing. We call on government to end police violence towards poor people in Hout Bay.'
A Million Women Rise delegation of British women is to attend the Third International Action of the World March of Women in Bukavu (province of South Kivu) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of a global action to campaign for an end to violence against women. The global action, from 14 - 17 October 2010, involves women from 48 countries travelling to the DRC to express concrete solidarity with Congolese women and all women struggling against poverty and violence.
Women leaders representing women’s human rights organisations, national women’s machineries and the media from 12 African countries in the West Africa sub region have called on Member States of the African Union to give high priority to the African Women’s Decade. The leaders, participating in a workshop in Accra, Ghana from 28-30 September 2010, entitled 'Beyond Beijing +15: Implementing and Resourcing the African Women’s Decade (2010-2020)' commended the African Union for declaring 2010-2020 a decade for African women. However, they stressed that in order to deliver on the objectives of the Decade, planning has to move from the continental level to the sub-regional (ECOWAS), national and community level.
Long regarded as the poorer cousin of its Zimbabwean neighbour, Zambia is fast gaining attention as a desirable destination for agricultural investors. International investors from Britain to South Africa have begun putting money into infrastructure development and transport, and about 200 exiled Zimbabwean farmers have taken leases from the Zambian government to develop farmland in the country.
President Robert Mugabe has insisted that foreign investors should embrace Zimbabwe's equity laws, which require them to sell a 51 per cent stakes to locals, or 'stay out'. 'Our resources are ours, they belong to Zimbabweans, they belong to the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe," he said.
Efforts to treat children poisoned by lead and to clean up contaminated sites in northern Nigeria's Zamfara State are being hampered by the reticence of communities to divulge cases, for fear of a government ban on lucrative illegal gold mining. Lead poisoning linked to informal mining has killed over 400 children under five since March 2010, according to the United Nations. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the medical relief agency, noticed high numbers of convulsions and deaths among children in Dareta and Yargalma villages in Zamfara State in March 2010, and started investigating.
On the eve of their Independence Day Guineans are uneasy as tensions threaten a political transition many had hoped would end decades of repressive rule. Concern over delays to a second-round presidential election merged this week with pain and anger stoked by the anniversary of the 28 September 2009 military crackdown on demonstrators in the capital Conakry, in which hundreds were killed, wounded or raped.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has become the first patent holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool, but unless other patent holders follow suit, the NIH's move will not increase access to HIV treatment. By licensing the life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV), darunavir, to the patent pool, the NIH has made the technology to produce it available for the benefit of low- and middle-income countries. However, this does not mean generic versions of the drug can now be manufactured and sold in these countries as additional patents on darunavir are still held by the pharmaceutical company Tibotec, part of Johnson & Johnson.
The Mozambican Parliament has assured the Mozambican branch of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Mozambique) that a Bill on Freedom of Information will be debated in the near future. Announcing this on 28 September 2010 the Director of MISA-Mozambique, Alfredo Libombo, said that all three political parties in the Assembly (the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) were in agreement on this, and that the assembly’s bill will be based on a draft that MISA deposited with parliament almost five years ago, in November 2005.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has expressed deep sorrow and complete solidarity with the board of 'Nichane', a Moroccan magazine that has decided to close down indefinitely as a result of financial difficulties arising from an advertising boycott. Pro-government companies had decided not to place any ads in the magazine because of its editorial line in support of freedoms and addressing corruption.
This blog post reports on a meeting in Prague hosted by the International Bar Association (IBA). One of the issues raised was that of developing countries taking action against foreign companies, as evidenced by in the case of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Interestingly, another issue is the concept of social damages for corruption, where those found guilty of corruption are made to pay to repair the damage caused to a society.