Pambazuka News 445: Clinton, Africa and US corporate interests
Pambazuka News 445: Clinton, Africa and US corporate interests
In this week's news on cooperation, visits and exchanges, Chinese special envoy visits Senegal, Nigeria's commerce minister set to visit India, and Liberia cooperates with China to improve its law system.
In company news and analysis, FirstRand partners China Construction Bank in Africa, and the contracted Chinese firm will replace faulty SAT-1 at no extra cost to Nigeria.
This week, Namibia plans to expand its inquiry on China, the U.S. gets nervous about China's growing footprint across Africa, and China opposes the arrest of LRA leader Kony.
Lack of structural reforms in the domestic economy puts Russia in an awkward position in the BRIC alliance.
China has in recent years taken great pains to show the world that it is a well-rounded emerging power with a complete strategy for engagement in places like Africa. Its Confucius institutes are an interesting feature in this show of sophistication.
Africa's success in avoiding the worst of the economic crisis that has swept the industrialised world has been due in large part to the remarkable growth of trade and investment with China, India, Brazil and other “emerging” developing countries.
This week's issue of Pambazuka News (445) will be our last until 3 September, as we are closing for a short break over the month of August. We still very much welcome article submissions during this period, but ask prospective contributors to be patient with us, as you may not receive a response from the editorial team until after 31 August.
Pambazuka News 444: Kenya: Impunity and the politicisation of ethnicity
Pambazuka News 444: Kenya: Impunity and the politicisation of ethnicity
If anything is to be deduced from the current face-off between the Yar’Adua government and striking staff unions of tertiary institutions: Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Union (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), it is that the ruling class in Nigeria is incurably politically treacherous and intellectually backward.
South Africa’s bilateral investment treaties should not be read in a way that conflicts with its human rights obligations under its own constitution or under international treaties that it has signed up to. Four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have joined together in seeking to assist the international arbitration tribunal in interpreting the relevant South African mining legislation in light of the country’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
The Coalition of an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Coalition) was founded in 2004 and brings together a group of African human rights organisations, individuals and national human rights institutions. Its mission is to influence effective, efficient, independent and credible African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Coalition was registered in 2007 in Tanzania and is headquartered in Arusha. The Coalition is recruiting an Executive Secretary to provide strategic and operational leadership.
The Skoll Foundation is accepting applications for the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. The Foundation seeks social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale positive change in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and economic and social equity. Within these issues, we are particularly interested in applications from social entrepreneurs working in five critical subissue areas that threaten the survival of humanity—climate change, nuclear proliferation, global pandemics, conflict in the Middle East and water scarcity.
When the film Blood Diamond came out in 2006, people were startled at the alleged origins of the precious stones from areas of bloody conflict and began asking whether the jewels on their fingers cost a human life. Will consumers soon find themselves asking similar questions about their cell phones and computers?
We the Kiamaiko Bunge la Mwananchi women social movement on this 16th day of July having examined the numerous contradictions imposed on the average Kenyan women the imposed poverty, under development and deprivation of Kiamaiko and women around the country; bearing in the mind that the rising food and other commodities prices are the direct result of increased Grand coalition government aggression against oppressed Mwananchi.
Kenya's cabinet is expected to meet Monday to review a bill establishing how the masterminds of the country's post-election violence will be punished. Presidential immunity against prosecution, should Mwai Kibaki be implicated in the violence, is one of the most controversial highlights of a bill that has seen previous cabinet discussions on the matter end in a stalemate. Under the Kenyan constitution the president is immune from prosecution while in office: the bill seeks to strip away this immunity.
The Daniel Pearl Awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting are unique among journalism prizes worldwide in that they were created specifically to honor cross-border investigative reporting. The contest is open to any journalist or team of journalists of any nationality working in any medium. Entries must involve reporting in at least two countries on a topic of world significance. Granted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the awards include two $5,000 first-place prizes, along with five additional $1,000 prizes. The awards will be presented at the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2010.
Africa has been "gravely affected" by the global economic downturn and its growth rate will halve this year due to collapsing commodity prices and a decline in donor funding, a new report has said. The 2009 African Economic Outlook finds that after half a decade of above 5 percent economic growth, the continent can expect only 2.8 percent growth in 2009. The annual report covers 47 of the 53 African countries and is a key document that influences government policy and donor spending.
The CLEEN Foundation is inviting applications for the internship/training programme on police reform in Africa at CLEEN Foundation, Lagos Nigeria. The internship program is open to Programme level staff of non governmental organizations based in Africa who are fluent in written and spoken English; Nominees of NGOs working or interested in justice sector reform work in African countries.
To highlight the global campaign to end warehousing, KANERE interviewed Merrill Smith, the Director of Government Relations and International Advocacy for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and the Editor of the World Refugee Survey. KANERE posed three questions relating to the UNHCR, greatest successes, and a refugee free press.
Although they need each other, the relationship between the media and civil society has not been at its best in post-apartheid South Africa, and both parties would do well to cultivate a more professional and respectful relationship. This was the assertion of Theo Coggin, chief executive of Quo Vadis Communications, during ‘Breakfast on the second floor’, a function held by The South African Institute for Advancement (Inyathelo) in Cape Town. Coggin, who worked as a journalist in the 1970s and 1980s, has extensive experience in both the corporate and NGO sector.
On 29 to 30 July 2009 Khumbulane Magagula, Johannes Mahlangu and Themba Mvubu will reappear at the Delmas Circuit Court on the charges of robbery with aggravating circumstance, rape and murder of lesbian soccer player Eudy Simelane, whose body was discovered with multiple stab wounds on 28 April 2008 in Kwa-Thema, Ekurhuleni. The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project together with partner organisations plan to have hundreds of activist and supporters from Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Delmas picketing outside and following the proceedings inside the Court.
The Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and local civil society organisations are united in their support of the government’s reluctance to sign an interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU). Wallie Roux tells Pambazuka News why he thinks Namibia is right to be wary of the agreement.
As global economic downturn staunches the flow of investment from China and the West, African interest in India as an alternative source of funding is growing. Renu Modi reports back to Pambazuka News on a recent conference aimed at fostering partnerships between India and Africa. African delegates at the conference highlighted the need to consider direct budget support for investments in development sectors such as health, capacity development and poverty alleviation, rather than simply focusing on high level project finance opportunities.
In this week's Pambazuka News, Jegede Ademola Oluborode asks whether the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), created three years ago, will be more effective than its predecessor body in ensuring that UN member states uphold human rights. Despite an improved institutional framework, Oluborode argues that ‘bloc politics’ and ‘regional sentiments’ are still getting in the way of genuine efforts to safeguard human rights in Africa and globally.
In the wake of a UN report on extrajudicial killings, the prospect of intervention by the International Criminal Court on post-election violence and the formation of a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission, Maina Kiai, former chairperson of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, speaks to Pambazuka News’s Firoze Manji about what the future holds for Kenya. As long as politicians operate under the notion that ‘the big man makes the country’ rather than institutions, cautions Kiai, it will remain impossible for the country to end impunity without outside assistance.
Following his ordeal both at the hands of the Ugandan police and in a local mental health hospital, human rights activist Vincent Nuwagaba shares with Pambazuka News why Uganda’s dysfunctional institutions must be reformed. Institutions that are ‘meant to protect and preserve life’ have been turned into ‘a killing machinery’ says Nuwagaba. Charging President Museveni with deliberately destroying the country’s institutions to serve his own interests and increase his power, Nuwagaba says regime change is needed before reforms can be made. ‘It is high time we realised that we are citizens and not subjects,’ says Nuwagaba, ‘and hence demand to be governed in a humane, convivial and dignified manner.’
A three-day Stakeholders’ Meeting on the Domestication and Implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was successfully concluded in Kigali, Rwanda with the adoption of a communiqué containing recommendations and strategies for strengthening the domestication, implementation and reporting on the Protocol fostering and protecting African women’s rights.
It isn’t an amnesty the people of the Niger Delta need to bring peace and security to the region, it’s equity and good governance, Sabella Ogbobode Abidde tells Pambazuka News. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and other groups like it are justice-seeking groups fighting their people’s cause, argues Abidde, and it is only when the government genuinely resolves to tackle underlying problems from environmental pollution to underdevelopment that the ‘ongoing, low intensity conflict’ in the Delta will abate.
Former president Moi should be arrested and prosecuted for ‘annexing and dividing the Mau Forest to his own tribe’ when he knew that it was one of Kenya’s most important water catchment areas, writes Isaac Newton Kinity, in an open letter to the country’s president and prime minister. Around 450,000 Kikuyus who lived and worked on forestry stations in the area were evicted in 1985, to make way for Kalenjin settlers under the Moi government. The Mau Forest was the source of several rivers, but after Kalenjin settlers cut down thousands of acres of trees, many of the rivers dried up and drought began ‘to hit Kenya’, says Kinity. Recognising the ecological importance of the Mau Forest, Kenya’s environment minister has now called for the eviction of Kalenjin settlers. Kinity argues that if the government intends to compensate Kalenjin settlers, it must first compensate the Kikuyu who previously inhabited the forest.
On the eve of the upcoming upcoming fourth Ministerial Conference on Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Yves Niyiragira argues that it is in both Africa and China’s interests that African politics and governance remain stable and predictable over long periods of time so that all the Southern powers find it attractive to invest across the continent.
The June issue of Refugee rights carries the following articles: Repatriation or Else: Closing the Mtabila Refugee Camp in Tanzania; World Refugee Day Celebrations in Africa—Civil Society Initiatives; World Refugee Survey 2009: Limited Progress on Refugee Rights in Africa; Justice and Reconciliation after Genocide: The Search for Co-existence in Rwanda on Film; International Community Moves to Address Worrisome Dynamics in Sudan; The Principle of Complementarity under Scrutiny: The ICC Rules DRC Unwilling to Prosecute Katanga in Attack of Bogoro Village.
The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, has passed the second and final reading of a bill on domestic violence against women, but with a clause tacked onto the end to placate the howls of rage from some male quarters that the bill was "unconstitutional" because it "discriminated against men". Some of the press has waged a relentless campaign against the bill. The private TV channel, STV, and the daily paper "O Pais", owned by the same company, have been particularly insistent that the bill violates the constitutional clause on equality between the sexes, and should be "more inclusive".
EISA and the UN Electoral Assistance Division (EAD) are implementing a project on Development of Sustainable Voter Registration Methodologies. The project is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It aims to promote development and awareness of sustainable and cost effective voter registration models, particularly in developing and post conflict countries. It will do this by analysing the relative costs, sustainability and effectiveness of low, medium and high tech approaches to voter registration.
For the past three years, EISA has held an annual symposium, each of which focused upon a selected democracy and governance issue. The Fourth Symposium will be held this year with the theme Preventing and Managing Violent Election Related Conflicts in Africa: Exploring Good Practices. It will focus upon the problem of persistent, violent election related conflicts in Africa with a view to understanding their causes, magnitude and consequences for democratic governance. The conference will explore ways in which these conflicts can be prevented, managed and resolved and, in the process, share best practices from across the continent.
Egypt receives some of the highest annual solar radiation in the world, yet the desert country remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels. "There is a lot of unachieved potential here," says Amr Mohsen, chairman and CEO of Lotus Solar Technologies, an Egyptian firm specialising in solar applications. "The sun is not only strong, but you have everything you need to produce the cheapest kilowatt hour in the region."
A criminal charge of "disturbing public peace and spreading false news" brought against Madiambal Diagne, managing editor of the Quotidien newspaper in 2004 was on July 20, 2009 dismissed by an Appeal court in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
In the last four days approximately three thousand houses have been demolished and the same estimated number of Angolan families has been forcibly evicted in the (commonly called) Bagdad neighbourhood, in the Sector 5 of M’Bonde Chapéu, in the Kilamba Kiaxi municipality of Luanda.
I have always been skeptical about male circumcision (MC) as a preventative measure for HIV/AIDS, pondering just how effective it is for not only men, but also their female partners. A new study - carried out in Rakai district, Uganda - gives a glimpse into the answer. Sadly, it is not what activists in gender and HIV hoped to hear. It seems that male circumcision may actually increase women’s transmission risk from their HIV positive circumcised male partner.
Taking to the streets is often the last resort, says William Gumede, and the community protests against poor service delivery sweeping across South Africa are evidence that ‘democratic institutions within the ANC’ and ‘broader society’ have failed the country’s poorest. ANC leaders whipped up expectations of immediate pro-poor reforms under a Zuma administration, which the current recession has put out of reach. If Zuma is to retain the support of the people, Gumede tells Pambazuka News, he must curb the lavish lifestyles of government officials, weed out corruption and provide emergency packages in the most depressed municipalities across the country. Most importantly though, says Gumede, the renewal of the ANC’s internal democratic processes must be made real now.
Namibia may perform well in rankings on human rights and democracy, Henning Melber tells Pambazuka News, but its response to the secession attempt in the Caprivi region ten years ago remains a black spot on the country’s record. Setting the case against its historical backdrop and presenting a range of viewpoints, from those of the government to an international NGO, Melber asks whether resolution of the Caprivi conflict is possible.
As protests against poor service delivery spill out across South Africa, Mphutlane wa Bofelo is irked by leaders who suggest that a third force is at play, mobilising communities against their local and provincial governments, with the implication that the poor are incapable of self-organising to improve their lives. There is a third force, wa Bofelo tells Pambazuka News, but it is not some ‘amorphous, abstract animal’ – it is ‘poverty, homelessness, hopelessness and despair’, and the ‘arrogance and indifference of the rich, the elites and the governing classes.’
Lydiah Kemunto Bosire shares with Pambazuka News commentary on Kofi Annan’s handing in of the ‘Waki envelope’ to the International Criminal Court two weeks ago, made by contributors to the African Arguments forum. Bosire discusses the possible implications of the story for Kenya, with reference to the opinions of Daniel Branch, Daniel Waweru, Gabriel Lynch, Tim Murithi, Wanjiru Kamau-Ruternberg and Sisule Musungu. Pambazuka readers are warmly invited to participate in the debate.
‘The Kibaki and Raila-led regime set up in February 2008 has conned and let down Kenyans by short-changing us of our democratic aspirations and derailing our efforts at implementing good governance, sustainable economic strategies, deepening a human rights culture and rooting out corruption, crime and insecurity,‘ Onyango Oloo tells Pambazuka News. Now, says Oloo, its time for Kenyans to work together to find ways to reclaim their country from the ‘power vampires’ and remove them from office by peaceful means.
On 8 June, the oil giant Shell reached a settlement of US$15.5 million in a case brought against it in the US by 10 Ogoni plaintiffs, who accused the Anglo-Dutch company of complicity in the deaths of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni activists in 1995. In this week’s Pambazuka News, Khadija Sharife reports on a case that, as Ken Saro-Wiwa Jnr has said, ‘very clearly sets a precedent that corporations have to be very careful when they operate in places like Africa’ and that ‘you can be brought to trial in America for violations in Africa.’
This latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group examines the peace process and what could still threaten it. There have been encouraging developments. Since last December, the former rebels of the National Forces of Liberation (FNL) have met legal requirements by dropping the ethnic reference “Hutu” from their name. They have integrated some of their combatants into the security forces, demobilised others and registered as a political party.
Following proclamations by the Gauteng premier on national television in support of legalising prostitution, Thelma Tafadzwa Madondo talks to Pambazuka News about the negative impacts such a move might have on child prostitutes.
Huge, multi-billion-dollar dams are often seen as the only solution to Africa's critical shortage of power. In this week’s Pambazuka News Khadija Sharife asks whether this is really the case, given the environmental damage caused by dams and the suffering that the relocation of vast populations entails. In an article that looks at the reality behind the damming of Africa’s waterways, Sharife questions whether dams are the solution or the problem, arguing that they rarely benefit the poorest and often cause them greater hardship.
The highway,
tarmac crumbling, potholes yawning,
snakes it way
between the village and the township.
Here by this roadside,
I take my rest.
In the city,
grim with the broken dreams of many hearts,
buildings stand,
a coat of grey clay dust
upon each forlorn facet,
the rank air,
surfeit with the sweat of struggling millions.
There thugs lie in wait for me
some want my body
others want my soul
And I have not double of both.
So I sit to pray
And in praying
Wake.
They who led us thus far have absconded,
having hurled reason into the river
that snaked its way to far away oceans
And we have none more to replace it
So I sit to cry
And in crying
Wake.
The village- they have torn down,
The township gapes, an unfinished hole.
Like old clothes with one too many patches,
the old ways are discarded,
The new ones are long in arriving.
I dream long and dream often
But visions flee when dawn arrives.
I sit to cry
And in crying
Wake.
With each awakening the nightmare lengthens,
Do I truly dream or do I live,
And can this a living be?
Where exists the glorious promise of which I dream?
Do I dream or do I die?
Thus stranded between village and township,
lost between today and tomorrow
caught between past and present,
called by dreams of glorious promises
and tied by a present that ever grows ever more
deprived
I sit to find
and in finding
Wake.
Professor Issa Shivji pays tribute in verse – in English and in Kiswahili – to the late Haroub Othman, former professor of Development Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam.
My dear friend and comrade, Ho:
I shan’t write a letter,
I can’t.
I shan’t sing a song,
Or recite a poem.
‘Cause I don’t have the talents.
I shall say what I feel,
Deep down in me.
Those were the days,
Of the Vietnam war.
Ho Chinh Minh was your uncle,
My uncle, our uncle.
Demos, sit-ins and boycotts,
Petitions, pictures and panels,
Unclothing war criminals.
People’s courts sentenced, public opinion enforced.
Those were the days,
Of Bertrand Russell and Stokely Carmichael,
Sitting in Stockholm,
Hearing napalmed men, women and children.
The public gallery wept, students shouted,
‘Down with uncle Sam,
Long live Uncle Ho.’
Your kinship was unmistakeable,
Your Cause was clear.
You stood on the side,
Of the oppressed,
humiliated and exploited.
You proudly signed your name,
with a big ‘H’ and a small ‘o’, Ho.
Moderate in language,
Measured in tone.
Civil in demeanour,
Generous in kindness.
Gentle in argument,
Steadfast in disagreement.
That was our Ho.
In Lebanon and Palestine,
In Vietnam and Indonesia.
In Chile and Cuba,
In Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau.
Wherever there was oppression and injustice,
Our Ho knew his side.
Imperialism he condemned,
Human rights he upheld.
On union, he stood his ground,
Often stoutly,
Seldom silently.
Unity he applauded,
Secession he feared.
More I say, more I want to say.
But a little more I’ll say.
Jenerali wrote:
‘Poor Saida!
She wanted to retire.
Now she’ll have to unretire,
To lead us from where Haroub left off.’
+
Ndugu yangu, rafiki yangu, kamaradi Harubu:
Sitaomboleza kifo chako;
Sitatowa salamu za rambirambi.
Tumelia ya kutosha,
Tumehuzunika ya kutosha.
Tumesononeka, tumelalamika:
Ewe Muumba,
Kwa nini unatupora watu wetu wema?
Kwa nini?
Eti ulimpenda zaidi ya sisi,
Kwani upendo wetu una kikomo?
Sasa basi:
Mamia tumekutana Nkrumah,
Maelfu wametega masikio,
Moshi, Miatu na Mbezi.
Sio kuomboleza, wala kulia, wala kulalamika.
Bali kusherekea.
Kusherekea maisha yako,
Fikra zako,
Msimamo wako.
Kusherekea maisha yako, Harubu,
Mwana wa Miraji,
Mwana wa Zanzibar na Tanzania,
Mwana wa Afrika.
Tunasherekea fikra zako,
Tunatamani kuchota kutoka busara zako,
Hekima yako,
Mtazamo wako.
Fikra zako za uungwana,
Fikra zako za ukombozi,
Ukombozi wa wanyonge,
Ukombozi wa mwana wa Adamu.
Fikra zako zisizotingisika,
Kupinga dhuluma na ufisadi na ubeberu.
Fikra zako za kutetea,
Haki za wanyonge.
Harubu, umetoweka bila kutuaga.
Hatulalamiki, hatukulaumu.
Kwani, kila pumzi la uhai wako,
Ulikuwa na ujumbe na nasaha.
Enyi makamaradi, wana wa harakati.
Katika medani ya mapambano,
Hakuna kuaga wala kuagana.
Hakuna muda,
Hakuna anasa
Ya porojo za kuaga na kuagana.
La kesho, tendeni leo.
La siku, tekelezeni kwa saa.
Mapambano sio lelemama.
Ukombozi sio usanii.
Buriani ndugu yangu,
Rafiki yangu,
Kamaradi Ho.
Kwaheri za kuonana.
In this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, Sokari Ekine looks at what people from Nigeria to Nairobi are writing about art, literature – and local cuisine.
The appointment of the Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) is a welcome development, writes Bill Rutto, but what will happen with critical violations that existed before and at independence and which remain outstanding to this day?
Mutsa Murenje doesn't want Mugabe to die, he just wants him to retire peacefully and let Zimbabweans get on with their lives.
Thousands of people in Harare face mass eviction from their market stalls and homes. Most of the targeted people were victims of the 2005 mass forced evictions that left about 700,000 people without homes or livelihood or both. Four years on, the authorities now want to forcibly re-evict some of these people.
Transforming Civil Conflict (TCC) is offered by The Network University, an initiative of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University, UK. The Transforming Civil Conflict course is a four-week online course in international conflict resolution, taugh entirely through the Internet!
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) claims that its "stress breeding", high-yield seed program and its emphasis on grassroots farmer input will boost agricultural production among poor, small scale farmers. But NGOs and environmentalists say AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) is essentially a top-down, corporate driven approach that further threatens food security on the continent.
Three varieties of Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce crops during the 2008/9 growing season, leaving up to 200 000 hectares of fields barren of cobs and crop losses across several provinces in South Africa. According the GRAIN SA, the varieties are: MON 810, NK 603 and MON 810 x NK 603. These seeds were sold to commercial maize farmers and provided to resource-poor farmers in South Africa.
Governments and investment funds are buying up farmland in Africa and Asia to grow food -- a profitable business, with a growing global population and rapidly rising prices. The high-stakes game of real-life Monopoly is leading to a modern colonialism to which many poor countries submit out of necessity.
The tragedy of Congo's women and girls has slowly emerged in recent years. Tens of thousands have been raped or otherwise assaulted by army soldiers, rebels, or other men. Sexual violence has been used to terrorise civilians by all warring parties. The European Union and other donors have started programs of assistance for the victims that have made a real difference to the lives of some - unfortunately not all - Congolese women and girls. Beyond immediate medical and social assistance, the European Union in Congo also runs programs for military and judicial reform called EUSEC and REJUSCO.
One of the underlying principles of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is that it should complement and support regional integration initiatives. However, the signing of the Interim EPA (I-EPA) by some member states, and not by others, has generated uncertainty within the region.
The leader of an Islamist sect at the centre of five days of fighting in northern Nigeria that has claimed hundreds of lives died in police custody last night. Mohammed Yusuf was killed hours after he was captured, according to police officials quoted by news agencies. Mr Yusuf’s death followed an assault on a mosque housing followers of the radical preacher, who demanded stricter imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, across northern Nigeria and the abandonment of secular education.
The two companies are resisting calls from the Congolese government to change the terms of their contracts. This deadlock is threatening the entire renegotiation process. Faced with the refusal to negotiate these two contracts, the Congolese government is unable to conclude the renegotiation process. There is a risk of other companies, which have already renegotiated their contracts, to not honour commitments they have already made
This report has been compiled by a group of African and international civil society organisations concerned about the lack of transparency in mining contracts, as well as the revenue that national budgets forego because of excessive mining tax concessions as well as multinational mining companies avoiding and evading tax.
The Vice Chancellor of the Dakar-based Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), Abdou Salam Sall, said Thursday in Dakar that African universities might set up a Master's degree programme on the theme of the United States of Africa in a bid to contribute to the continent's political integration.
East African leaders have emphasized the need to push further the regional integration to prepare the five-member East African Community (EAC) for opportunities to attract larger portions of the foreign direct investments. The leaders, attending an investment conference which ended here Thursday, called for more focus on financial stability, political unity and Africa’s exclusion from the global economy in order to rectify the region’s failure to attract investments.
The Kenyan cabinet has rejected prosecution of post-election violence perpetrators by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and instead opted for the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) as a means of national healing. After a day-long meeting at State House Nairobi, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga addressed a rare press conference where they said the TJRC Act would be amended to make it more effective.
UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah has told the UN Security Council that the Somali transitional government is on its heels trying to thwart repeated attempts by extremist groups to overthrow it. "Despite multiple constraints, the government is resisting and repelling multip le attempts to overthrow it and seize power illegally by force," the UN envoy said, adding: "Repeated attacks by Al-Shabaa b and Hizbul-Islam militants have sent the Horn of Africa nation into chaos, with refugees fleeing by the thousands."
If violence is not natural, and not ingrained in our genetic makeup then the question is, what the root of violence is (violence, which is gender based). Gary Barker has done lot of research in this area and he has an answer. He is associated with International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) as Director, Gender, Violence and Rights. He strongly advocates for the engagement of men in ending gender-based violence (GBV).
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has attended the first national security council meeting to be held since he and President Robert Mugabe formed a unity government in February. Tsvangirai, who had not pushed for an earlier meeting to avoid alienating a military crucial to Mugabe's hold on power, sat with generals who had previously vowed not to work with him at the meeting chaired by Mugabe.
The British Broadcasting Corp. has resumed broadcasting from Zimbabwe for the first time since it was banned in 2001 and the five-month-old coalition government said it also was considering allowing CNN back. Despite the signs that the government is serious about media reforms, former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's party continues to complain about ill-treatment and harassment by followers of President Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwean journalists on 28 July 2009 launched the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights (ZJHR) as part of efforts to curb violations of media freedom and the abuse of journalists’ professional rights with impunity. Speaking at the launch ceremony at the Harare press club, The Quill, ZJHR spokesperson Dumisani Muleya, said the organisation was moulded along the lines of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Two months after a new round of devastating violence broke out in the Niger Delta, the Nigerian government has offered amnesty if all militants turn over all their weapons and renounce violence by October, and the militants have offered a 60-day cease fire after a key militant leader - Henry Okah - was released from prison earlier this month. These actions should be good signs that the region is taking its first tenuous step toward peace, however most experts believe that the region is not close to any such reality.
Large parts of West Africa are struggling to get back online following damage to an undersea cable. The fault has caused severe problems in Benin, Togo, Niger and Nigeria. The blackout is thought to have been caused by damage to the SAT-3 cable which runs from Portugal and Spain to South Africa, via West Africa.
Tanzania has launched a bank aimed specifically at women in what officials say will be an empowering move. The bank says women need only an ID card or passport to open an account, unlike other banks which require title deeds or other proofs of wealth.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should emphasize human rights on her seven-nation trip to Africa, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to Clinton. The eight-day trip, to begin on August 5, will take Clinton to Kenya, South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, and Cape Verde. While in Kenya, Clinton will also meet with the president of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.
More than 130 civil society and human rights groups from across Africa have issued a statement calling upon African states that are parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reaffirm their commitment and their obligation to cooperate with the court. The statement follows a decision by the African Union (AU) at its summit meeting on July 1-3, 2009 that its member states "shall not cooperate" with the ICC in the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.
An April 2009 law that criminalizes homosexual conduct threatens to exacerbate the deplorable treatment of gays and lesbians in Burundi, Human Rights Watch said in a newly publishedmultimedia project. The project, "Forbidden: Institutionalizing Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians in Burundi," consists of printed and online narratives, photos, and voice-recorded testimonies of Burundian gays and lesbians that bring to life the daily struggles faced by the small lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Burundi.
The new Moroccan family law was designed to give women equal rights in the family. But five years after its introduction, Moroccan women leaders say opposition to the law from politicians and within the judicial system persists, and the new law has not been able to change Moroccan mentality. King Mohammed VI adopted the law, the Mudawana, in January 2004. Under the new law, a woman can ask for divorce without her husband's approval. And where men could earlier repudiate their wife arbitrarily, divorce is now made conditional on a decision by the court.
In Sierra Leone, a mother who transmits HIV to her child can be fined, jailed for up to seven years, or both. Human Rights Watch reports that in 2008, several men were arrested in Egypt simply for being HIV positive. New legislation is currently being discussed in Angola that could lead to a three to ten year jail sentence for those who knowingly pass on HIV.
In early July, Rwandan officials announced a new programme that aims to strengthen women's economic capacity by providing more access to credit and enabling them to start income generating projects. Rwanda's central bank has been given the responsibility of identifying beneficiaries - the sole criteria being that the projects should be aimed at women's empowerment.
The number of people fleeing fighting and reprisal attacks by Rwandan Hutu Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) South Kivu Province has increased by up to 600 percent in a few weeks, say humanitarian officials.