Pambazuka News 456: Counterterrorism's blindness: Mali and the USA
Pambazuka News 456: Counterterrorism's blindness: Mali and the USA
AU Chairperson Jean Ping Tuesday called on the four Malagasy political leaders here to put the interest of the people before every agenda of their crisis talks to resolve the political crisis in the country.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday said he had called off a boycott of power-sharing ties with President Robert Mugabe that had paralysed the fragile unity government for three weeks. His announcement comes after a Southern African leaders' emergency summit aimed at ending the power-sharing deal impasse in the country.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says he will request ICC judges to open an investigation into Kenya's post-election violence. Luis Moreno-Ocampo made the comments after meeting Kenya's president and prime minister, who said they would co-operate with the ICC probe.
A senior commander of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels has surrendered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Charles Arop, believed to be behind a brutal attack last Christmas, handed himself in to the Ugandan military.
A camp housing thousands of mainly Somali refugees in north-eastern Kenya has been completely flooded following almost three weeks of constant rain. Reports indicate that the main road into the area has been cut off by flooding.
A group of parents in Sierra Leone has accused a charity of sending more than 30 children abroad for adoption without consent during the country's civil war. The parents say they have no idea what happened to their children after they were handed over to Help a Needy Child International (Hanci).
"All shall call." This phrase was popularised by Pallo Jordan in the mid 1990's, and became a catchphrase of telecommunications transformation in South Africa. It echoed the idea espoused by Jordan at the Plenipotentiary meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that access to telecommunications was a right, not a privilege.
Shell’s commencement of a new gas flare at a time when the routine gas flaring has received global condemnation, and with the full knowledge that gas flaring is an illegal activity in Nigeria, is seen by the locals as an act of impunity and total disregard for their health. Gas flaring is a major contributor of global warming greenhouse gases. The commence this destructive activity a few weeks from the climate negotiations in Copenhagen indicates Shell’s disregard for the welfare of humanity and our climate.
A proposed Ugandan law on HIV/AIDS promotes dangerous and discredited approaches to the AIDS epidemic and would violate human rights, a group of more than 50 Ugandan and international organizations and individuals said in a report released today. The HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill could be taken up by Uganda's parliament shortly.
Congolese armed forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have brutally killed hundreds of civilians and committed widespread rape in the past three months in a military operation backed by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch has said.
In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Chinese investment outstrips the ability of state-run banks to provide low-interest finance, Africa leads the way on climate change, and China faces allegations of hoarding rare earths and precious metals.
A network of African civil society and international organizations today called upon African Union (AU) states to use the AU's upcoming session about the International Criminal Court (ICC) to promote the court's ability to prosecute the world's worst crimes fairly and effectively.
Three quarters of people in South Sudan have no access to medical care, and 10 percent of children there and in Darfur die before their first birthday, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the vote on Friday October 30, 2009 by the National Assembly of a legislation reinforcing the powers of the High Authority of Audio-visual and Communication (HAAC) and which seriously threatens press freedom and freedom of expression in Togo.
Africa’s efforts to meet the global anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 deadline are threatened by the impact of the global financial crisis on the continent’s economies, said Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, a former senior official of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who has been charged with war crimes, will begin in April 2010. Mr. Bemba, the former Congolese Vice President, faces charges for alleged crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 2002 and March 2003, including rape, murder and pillaging.
The United Nations has begun to parachute food aid into isolated areas of conflict-ridden southern Sudan with the aim of reaching more than 155,000 people cut off from road access by heavy rainfall, the World Food Programme (WFP) has announced.
The United Nations refugee agency has rushed relief items to help tens of thousands of Angolans expelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last month. A Boeing 747 jet from Johannesburg, South Africa, touched down in Angola’s capital, Luanda, over the weekend carrying thousands of tents, sleeping mats and blankets, as well as a prefabricated warehouse.
Nearly 30,000 victims of toxic dumping in the Ivory Coast may be deprived of £30m compensation after an African court froze the bank accounts into which the money has been paid. British lawyers for the victims are concerned that the legal action is the first step in the expropriation of the funds, released to the claimants this year by Trafigura, a London-based international oil trading company.
The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro – the highest mountain in Africa – may soon be falling on bare ground following a study showing that its ice cap is destined to disappear entirely within 20 years, due largely to climate change. The vast ice fields of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania are melting at a faster pace than at any time over the past 100 years and at this rate they will be gone completely within two decades or even earlier according to one of the world's leading glaciologists.
Oil firms operating in Gabon will be banned from flaring gas in 2010, the government said in a statement. Exports of unprocessed timber will also be banned next year in an effort to increase employment by making logging companies mill and add value to wood locally, according to a statement issued after a cabinet meeting late on Thursday.
Madagascar's leader stormed out of internationally mediated power-sharing talks in the early hours of Friday, threatening to derail attempts to form a national unity government and end months of turmoil. Andry Rajoelina, who seized power in a March coup, insisted his leadership of the Indian Ocean island, increasingly eyed by investors for its oil and minerals, was not up for negotiation.
A retreat from international funding commitments for AIDS threatens to undermine the dramatic gains made in reducing AIDS-related illness and death in recent years, according to a new report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).The MSF report highlights how expanding access to HIV treatment has not only saved the lives of people with AIDS but has been central to reducing overall mortality in a number of high HIV burden countries in southern Africa in recent years.
On October 30, the internet opened a new chapter in its long march towards internationalization. It entered a new era of multilingual globalization. Up to now, web addresses could only be displayed using Latin characters. This increasingly makes little sense as more than half of the world's 1.6 billion internet users employ non-Latin scripts including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, and Russian.
Moroccan courts on Friday (October 30th) convicted two journalists of desecrating the national flag and failing to show proper respect for a member of the royal family. Editor Taoufik Bouachrine and caricaturist Khalid Gueddar were put on trial after the daily Akhbar al-Youm published a cartoon of Prince Moulay Ismail's wedding in its September 27th edition.
Four Moroccan teachers' unions paralysed public schools nationwide on Thursday (October 29th) by striking to protest problems that include shortages of instructors and overcrowded classrooms. The unions are also protesting poor infrastructure and changes in the promotions process.
Namibia President Hifikepunye Pohamba, earlier this week likened the European Union's trade negotiations with Namibia to the days of apartheid, saying the powerhouse is refusing to treat the country as an equal and listen to its concerns about the controversial economic partnership agreement (EPA).
Of the many proposals on how to combat poverty in Africa, the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is championing what must be one of the simplest - make it cheaper and easier for migrants to send money home.
Uganda is considering an anti-counterfeit bill which analysts say will impair the country’s ability to import and export cheap but effective generic medicines. Activists fear that the bill, once enacted, will deny Ugandans access to safe, effective, quality and affordable generic medication which currently forms the bulk of Uganda’s medicine imports.
Improving water quality and access can help lower maternal mortality rates, say advocates. Now a new fellowship program is being launched to explore various solutions to the maternal health problem in the world's poorest nations.
This article explores how globalisation is challenging activist groups that use a human rights framework that has traditionally been used to hold national governments accountable for human rights violations.
In this week’s [mp3] In this week’s labour news roundup, tens of thousands of Nigerian citizens protest over the government’s plan to deregulate the downstream oil sector, five Zimbabwean farm workers have been shot and injured with rubber bullets on a farm in the Chinhoyi area, and a South African mineworker is killed. This bulletin is part of a partnership between Worker’s World Media Productions and Pambazuka News that seeks to highlight labour issues affecting Africa’s workers.
Cameroonian LGBTI activist and Deputy President of the Association pour la Défense de l’Homosexualité (ADEFHO), Sébastien Mandeng was allegedly a victim of homophobic slurs and discrimination in the hands of Douala police station officials on Saturday 31 October, following an altercation with a taxi driver.
Two Kenyan lesbians have been released on bail after being allegedly arrested for lesbianism, and later being charged with stealing, an offence which the women refuted suggesting it was blackmail. According to the co-ordinator from the Solidarity with Communities in Distress (SOLCODI) Program which advocates for the gay and lesbian community, the women are being blackmailed because they are lesbians.
The International Lutheran Council (ILC) a world wide association of Lutheran churches has unanimously adopted a statement against homosexuality at the recent international gathering held in Seoul, Japan 26-31 August. Themed “In Christ: Living Life to the full” and held in Seoul, Japan, 26-31 August, the conference was organised with the aim to confront the homosexual debate which according to the council has divided and brought bewilderment within various congregations including the Lutheran Church.
A Tanzanian court has sentenced four men to death by hanging for the murder of a 50-year-old albino man. Local media late on Monday reported the case, which brings to seven the number of people sentenced for murdering albinos following the first conviction of three people in September.
Whatever else it is, information and communications technologies (ICTs) policy-making can often be symbolic, especially in poor countries. The vision is one of social upliftment, and a new golden age of possibilities brought on by technological roll-out.
As a key United Nations meeting approaches involving 141 countries, governments are deadlocked about meaningful monitoring of their compliance with the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention. The meeting will be held in Doha, Qatar on 9-13 November. Decisions made or avoided there could mark a turning point – for better or worse – in global efforts to curb corruption and its destructive impact on millions of people.
Mortality rates, which have been increasing in South Africa since the 1990s, are on their way back down, reflecting a downturn of the AIDS epidemic and signalling longer lifespans for South Africans, statistics published today reveal.
A first-ever outbreak of dengue fever in Cape Verde, already causing four deaths and infecting 9,000 persons, has caused panic on the archipelago. Tomorrow, everybody is urged to kill mosquitoes instead of going to work, and both the police and army are sent out to root out the disease.
Despite strong efforts by the toppled democratic government of Mauritania, slavery has yet to be rooted out in the country, a UN report documents. Under the new government, little progress is made to fight slavery.
Media professionals in South Africa say a possible new bill is in reality a form of censorship, obstructing journalists from doing their jobs, reports the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Meanwhile, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is concerned about another bill already signed into law that has introduced a system of pre-publication censorship.
Interface is a new journal produced twice yearly by activists and academics around the world in response to the development and increased visibility of social movements in the last few years - and the immense amount of knowledge generated in this process. Interface welcomes contributions by movement participants and academics who are developing movement-relevant theory and research.
The South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) pays humble tribute to Comrade Ronnie Press, one of the Movements great heroes, one of whom may not always be spoken of, but one whose contribution to the National Liberation of South Africa, the working class and the international Communist and trade union movement will be a shining example for generations to come. He was by nature and profession a teacher one who imparted his brilliant intellect and scientific knowledge amongst the working class and student community as a whole.
People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences.
Sudan has started registering voters for presidential, legislative and regional elections, but officials in the south and international observers say the process has begun on a flawed note.
At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials.
is an online service to provide access to African-published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship. AJOL is a Non Profit Organisation based in South Africa.
Historically, scholarly information has flowed from North to South and from West to East. It has also been difficult for African researchers to access the work of other African academics.
In partnership with hundreds of journals from all over the continent, AJOL works to change this, so that African-origin research output is available to Africans and to the rest of the world. AJOL hosts over 350 African-published, peer-reviewed journals from 26 countries. The AJOL website is visited each month by over 80,000 researchers from all over the world and allows near instant download of full text articles from its partner journals.
EISA, the Electoral Institute for Southern Africa, has added to the criticism of Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) . The problem started with the selection of civil society CNE members. “The transparency in the selection of CSO [civil society] representatives was questionable, thereby casting doubt over the integrity, impartiality and independence of the CNE”
Pambazuka News 455: Climate change and Africa's natural resources
Pambazuka News 455: Climate change and Africa's natural resources
She is her, like-in-her
poetic rituals
mystical diamond
that speaks
multi-fold'd miracles
on earth,
she
wearing moonstone for slippers
gleams
like meteoric splendor,
affectionate for stars
blossoms early
in seasons of
darkness,
Enough-in-herself
graced with all inside
she
always river-like,
harbors black water
emerging from
hollow mountains
varied terrains
swelling to gush
divine truth
into seas
infinitely vast
in breadth and depth,
She makes, petals of jasmine
fall open
she-as-in-her
roses that leave shadows on ground
bless gardens scented
Afrika, born of night musk
our garden queen
paradise to us
thousands over,
she
open to us, as-in-blossomed flower
silently residing in us,
as-in the secret word
of Divine's love,
She,
firstborn as-in-known-in legends
royally sits
above honored
Kings and Queens,
throne
bent across high heavens
she, a sight of elegance unseen,
birth-er
of many-colored rainbow
gifted butterflies
float on diverse seas,
she
ancestor of seasons
goddess of wealth
brings all around
belonging to all, but yours only.
Gifted bee of the heart
that resides deep
inside
she-is-her
who makes me
feel safe
to be a rose,
she-is-her
who lies abed with me
enraptured in her embrace
she
helps me rise to live
destiny's fiery life-giver
heartbeat of bodily soul to me,
Aye Afrika, yene fikeregna.
(to be continued)
With Nigeria's Yar'Adua administration pursuing a policy of 'deregulation', Ayodele Ademiluyi calls on Nigerian workers to oppose the country's direction and stand up for their rights. Critical of the marked gulf in the decision-making power of labour's leadership and ordinary workers, Ademiluyi also stresses the need for greater democratic organisation in the struggle to effectively challenge the excesses and exploitation of the government.
Following the release of the latest IMF 'regional economic outlook' report for sub-Saharan Africa, Stephen Marks argues that predictions around Africa's ability to bounce back from the global economic crisis rest on a number of 'good-news' assumptions.
Responding to intellectuals' efforts to repair the downtrodden image of African people, Chielo Zona Eze urges us to recognise that we have 'moved beyond the world shaped by the 19th century ideas of the African'. Stressing that he sees little probability of Nigeria's difficulties coming to an end anytime soon, the author asks us to consider a 'change of heart that begins with a radical rejection of the thought that the West is only interested in grubbing in the African compost'.
This week, Dibussi Tande reviews blogs on , a relatively new blogging and communication platform specifically designed for the sub-Saharan blogger and writer. According to its founders, Maneno 'allows those with limited or narrow-bandwidth internet to use a system that is lightweight and straightforward in functionality'.
The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law has issued a statement on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was tabled in Uganda's Parliament on 14 October 2009, and is currently before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament. The coalition argues that the bill targets everybody, and involves everybody: It cannot be implemented without making every citizen spy on his or her neighbours.
The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, has taken note of the
introduction into the Ugandan Parliament of the Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009.
We are of the very strong view that this bill should not be adopted. It not
only violates the Ugandan constitution and Ugandas international human rights
obligations, but also stifles debate, undermines civil society and demeans the
common citizenship of all Ugandans.
Dr Darsi Ferrer is one of the most important civil rights leaders in Cuba today, and a tireless, courageous fighter against social exclusion. Dr Ferrer was arrested more than three months ago, and jailed on absurd, untrue charges of having 'stolen materials' from the state.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum unreservedly condemns the arrest and detention of NANGO Board Chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo and Chief Executive Officer Cephas Zinhumwe on Sunday, 25 October 2009. The conduct of the police in Victoria Falls is reminiscent of the repression and clamp down on Civil Society and political opposition forces that was taking place before the inception of the Inclusive Government.
On the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference this December, ‘momentum for action falls far short of that needed to avert catastrophe’, William Minter and Anita Wheeler write in this week’s Pambazuka News. When it comes to Africa's natural resources, say Minter and Wheeler, the ‘prospects for change depend squarely on African governments, on foreign companies and their home-country governments, and on the pressures that can be mobilised by national and international civil society’. With Africa predicted to ‘suffer consequences out of all proportion to its contribution to global warming, which is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from wealthy countries’, African governments ‘can and should take action now’.
Why are so many Kenyans unhappy with the work of the Committee of Experts charged with determining options for resolving contentious issues around reforming the country’s constitution, L. Muthoni Wanyeki asks in this week’s Pambazuka News. And will their disgruntlement end up defeating and derailing the latest effort to finally conclude Kenya’s constitutional reform process?
Ethiopia’s aspirations for a fair and free election in 2010 depend on whether the country’s government agrees to and abides by an election code based on respect for the rule of law and human rights, Alemayehu G. Mariam writes in Pambazuka News. An election code of conduct forged through ‘a consensus of all the political parties and administered by an independent and impartial electoral commission could go a long way to ensure a peaceful, fair and free election in 2010,’ writes Mariam, or it could simply ‘end up being the old zero-sum game the regime has played for the past two decades’ in a different guise.
Capitalism is in crisis, Samir Amin writes in Pambazuka News, creating new opportunities to challenge its imperialist dimensions. While the first wave of struggles for the emancipation of workers and people simply wore itself out, Amin asks whether this time round bridges can be built that ‘associate the anti-imperialist and popular struggles in the South with the progress of a socialist conscience in the North’, converging struggles from the North and South in ways that previous movements of the 1950s failed to.
Corruption in South Africa is becoming so widespread now, that unless it is decisively tackled in this presidential term, it will become entrenched as a ‘normal’ aspect of life in our country, William Gumede writes in Pambazuka News. And once it becomes part of the ‘culture’ of South African society, it will be impossible to uproot.
With a government that makes it illegal to leave the country and military service compulsory for all men and women aged 18 to 40 in the name of a festering border conflict with the more powerful Ethiopia, it’s no wonder Eritreans undertake perilous journeys in search of a better life. But getting out of Eritrea itself is no guarantee of change for the better, thanks to flawed international responses that fail to see the humans behind ‘the refugee problem’, Yohannes Woldemariam writes in Pambazuka News.
Raúl Chambote
The prominence of the Obama family has brought black people's humanity onto the world stage, writes Patricia Daley. The Obama family's success challenges patriarchal systems headed by white alpha-males and reveals possibilities of overcoming exclusion for non-white people across North and South America and Europe, Daley contends, albeit in the face of a backlash aimed at reinforcing white supremacy. But if struggles in the West over racial exclusivity can ultimately promote greater confidence from Africans and black people around the world, will there be a fresh impetus to challenge explicit and implicit claims of superiority?
Vuyiseka Dubula, general secretary of the will be speaking on ‘HIV/AIDS: The struggle for human rights and dignity in South Africa’ on 4 November 2009 in Oxford, England, at an event hosted by Ruskin College and Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice.
Citizenship Law in Africa: A comparative study, published by two programs of the Open Society Institute (AfriMAP and the Open Society Justice Initiative), describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international rights norms.
The Secretary-General has issued a widely awaited Guidance Note on Democracy to all parts of the United Nations Secretariat, setting out the UN framework and committing the Organization to action in support of democracy. The Note, which followed the Secretary-General’s call in 2007 for an organization-wide strategy for democracy support, was the product of many months’ collaboration by several entities of the UN, including UNDEF
The Acting Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Joseph Kamara, has welcomed the final convictions of three leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The trial convictions of the RUF leaders were upheld by the SCSL Appeals Chamber, with Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon convicted on 16 counts and Augustine Gbao was convicted on 13 counts of an 18-count Indictment charging them with atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
The International Council on Human Rights Policy has released a new report, When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-State Law. This report highlights human rights impacts and dilemmas associated with plural state and non-state laws, such as family laws based on religion, customary justice practices and Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. Drawing on examples of such plural legal orders from around the world, it proposes principles and a framework to guide human rights practitioners and policy-makers.
This paper looks at IMF agreements with 41 countries. These include Stand-By Arrangements (SBA), Poverty Reduction and Growth Facilities (PRGF), and Exogenous Shocks Facilities (ESF). The paper finds that 31 of the 41 agreements contain pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies. These are either pro-cyclical fiscal or monetary policies – or in 15 cases, both – that, in the face of a significant slowdown in growth or in a recession, would be expected to exacerbate the downturn.
The residents of Mandela Park in Khayelitsha are reliving their worst nightmares once again - residents are being evicted from their homes just like five years ago. More than 200 homes have been served with eviction orders, with approximately 10 evictions having taken place in the past two weeks alone. However with the help of the community those families are not on the streets as they have been returned to their homes forcefully by the residents.
The PhD in Human Rights and Peace Studies is the only PhD program of its kind in Asia, while the MA is the longest running graduate degree program in human rights in Asia. These programs offer a unique opportunity to engage in depth with the highly important issues of human rights and peace in the world today. The objectives of the programs are to produce graduates with excellent research skills and thorough theoretical and conceptual knowledge of these fields, and who are able to apply this knowledge to the field.
With the click of a mouse, students at Canadian universities find information quickly and download what they need at high speeds. They could not imagine doing research without using the Internet to supplement material from their university library.But it’s a different story in most parts of Africa, where limited library collections make access to the Internet even more critical for research, yet that access is harder to come by.
With the growing use of satellite imagery and easy-to-use technology, geographical maps are being used more often by human rights organizations. Geo-mapping can help an organization map crises, places of heritage, visualize data, monitor the impact of conflict, uncover critical evidence, and more! The goal of this dialogue will be to take the stories shared by practitioners with experience using these tools and tactics and draw out lessons to enable other organizations to strategically apply these resources.
ARTICLE19 is recruiting a Programme Officer to further strengthen our presence in Kenya and East Africa. He/she will ensure ongoing projects are delivered in a timely manner and assist in the preparation of future project plans. Educated to degree level, the successful candidate will have extensive experience in policy work, monitoring, advocacy and/or campaigning work in the human rights sector combined with demonstrable project management, implementation and budgeting skills. Familiarity with human rights issues and knowledge of societies in Eastern Africa are also essential.
Please apply by CV and a covering letter detailing how you meet the person specification to [email][email protected]
Alternatively, send your CV and covering letter to:
The Selection Panel
ARTICLE19, Kenya & East Africa
ACS Plaza, 3rd Floor, Lenana Road
PO Box 2653, 00100
Nairobi
Kenya
Closing date for receipt of applications: 5.30pm 6th November 2009
Only short listed applicants will be contacted
It’s a busy day as usual in the city-centre, with everyone moving about their daily business. Looking around, it seems that you will mostly find women and girls sitting by the roadside selling fruits and vegetables, while men are operating bigger businesses, like construction. Male directors are moving up and down their construction sites to make sure work is at its best. Meanwhile, women dust their wares, waiting for passersby to purchase, so that at least they are able to put food on the table by the close of day.
Gender Links is commissioning submissions that will be used as part of activities for 16 Days of Activism 2009. Commissioned pieces may be used in a booklet to be launched on Human Rights Day entitled “World Cup 2010: Problems and Possibilities" and/ or distributed to mainstream media and through the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.