Pambazuka News 437: Shell–Ogoni settlement: Victory, but justice deferred?
Pambazuka News 437: Shell–Ogoni settlement: Victory, but justice deferred?
President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria, halfway through his presidential mandate, has undermined the country's foremost anti-corruption body, done little to rein in an abusive police force, and failed to address the root causes of the escalating crisis in the Niger Delta, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Yar'Adua that there have been serious setbacks during the first two years in addressing Nigeria's chronic human rights problems and endemic corruption.
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan believes that Africa has not been affected as "profoundly" by the global economic crisis compared to other regions in the world - despite the number of Africans living in poverty having increased by 16 million in the last year and annual growth dropping from six to one percent. The 2009 annual report of the African Progress Panel (APP), headed by Annan, was launched yesterday on the first day of the 19th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa meeting currently underway in the South African coastal city of Cape Town.
"Kenya has a long history of serious human rights violations but it now has an opportunity to turn the page," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, concluding the mission to Kenya. "Successive Kenyan governments have been good at establishing Commissions and Taskforces and poor at implementing their recommendations. This government must not repeat that pattern."
Amnesty International has released its report into the dire conditions and gross human rights abuses endured in Nairobi's informal settlements. The Unseen Majority: Nairobi's Two Million Slum Dwellers describes how half of Nairobi's population live in informal settlements, but are crammed into only 5 per cent of the city’s residential area and just 1 per cent of all land in the city.
The head of the joint United Nations–African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has reiterated that there is no military solution to the problems facing the strife-torn Sudanese region, as he met with the leader of a major rebel group. The meeting in North Darfur between Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada and the Chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, was the second of its kind this year and part of a “continued effort to establish a good working relationship with all parties involved in the Darfur conflict,” the mission said in a news release.
Despite some impressive gains in rebuilding Sierra Leone seven years after the end of its brutal civil war, the situation in the West African nation remains fragile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said. “The outbreak of political violence in March of this year was a wake-up call on challenges that require urgent and continued attention,” Mr. Ban told the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission’s high-level meeting on Sierra Leone.
Madagascar's armed forces are on maximum alert, days after African economic bloc COMESA declared military intervention to end the island's political crisis remained an option, the government said on Friday. Armed Forces Minister Noel Rakotonandrasana told Reuters that COMESA's stance, which has drawn criticism from both France and the United Nations, had to be taken seriously.
United Nations peacekeepers are refusing to patrol a zone in eastern Congo, leaving tens of thousands of civilians vulnerable to massacres, rapes and looting by gunmen, officials and witnesses said. The civilians, under attack from Rwandan Hutu rebels, are trapped in a corner of North Kivu province Indian peacekeepers officially operate in but cannot get to due to poor roads, and Pakistani soldiers nearby refuse to enter due to procedures.
African health and human rights activists have called on leaders attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on Africa to “not use the same pie and split it between more people”, but to make the pie bigger. Representing a coalition of African HIV and tuberculosis activists, Paula Akugizibwe of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa spelt out their list of demands which includes a challenge to the region’s leaders to guarantee the right to health, ensure that it is financed as a priority, and mobilise the additional resources needed to secure universal access to TB/HIV prevention, treatment and care.
Kenya’s ICT Board is in the throes of setting up what it has dubbed Pasha Centres as part of its preparations for the opening of the Seacom cable at the end of next month. Pasha Centres are designed to deliver voice and Internet services out into un-serviced rural areas. Unlike many other African Universal Service initiatives that are delivered by existing companies or donors, these will be set up by local entrepreneurs who will not necessarily have previous experience of ICT.
The encampment of hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees in Tanzania is coming to an end after more than 20 years. Rather than respecting the safety and dignity of refugees through truly voluntary repatriation or the pursuit of alternative durable solutions, the Tanzanian Government is pressuring refugees to repatriate through intimidation and the denial of basic services in violationof basic international human rights and refugee law.
The UN refugee agency has condemned the victimization of Somali civilians in Mogadishu after a weekend spike in the fighting in the capital sent thousands more people fleeing the city. This latest exodus pushed the number of displaced from the capital past the 100,000-mark to 117,000 since street battles erupted on May 8.
Over 2008 large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have increased. This report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them and the way these are negotiated. It also analyses the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.
In the course of his May 28 speech to the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development, to be chaired by France over the next year, Kouchner went so far as to pledge support for experimentation with a financial transactions tax, a proposal that was quickly dismissed by French Foreign Minister Christine Lagarde. But it is still true that the momentum for new forms of funding, for health, education, and climate change, continues to build, a recognition that financing for such global public goods should not depend on the political fortunes of official aid budgets.
Learning institutions in the country have been urged by experts to set rules and regulations regarding homosexual behaviour in schools. Kenya Female Advisory Organisation coordinator Dolphin Oketch has said that boarding schools are more prone to witnessing cases of students practicing homosexuality, and thus the need for some set rules. While not expounding on the matter, Oketch however said that these educational institutions should create space for dialogue among students on their sexual lives, and not resort to only discussing the issue when a crisis has occurred.
Amnesty International’s 2009 Report on the state of the world’s human rights has revealed a staggering evidence of human rights violations purported against LGBTI communities in African states. Nigeria, Uganda and Senegal, according to the report are countries that record the most and worst abuses of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. It further states that in Nigeria, “human rights abuses against individuals suspected of same-sex sexual conduct continued throughout 2008.”
This policy brief, published by the International Institute for Economic Development (IIED) outlines how and why information and communication technology (ICT) projects do, or do not, work for development. Rapid growth of ICTs in rural Africa and emerging economies such as Brazil and China is closing the gap in ICTs between North and South. Governments pushing ICT infrastructure projects such as mobile mast networks have successfully reduced access costs for many in the developing world.
The lives of Maasai men and women in rural Kenya’s community will never be the same now that they have access to maarifa – knowledge in the Kiswahili language. Launched in April by APC member Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), the new Community Knowledge Centre commonly referred to as Maarifa centre lies in the heart of Massai country and is the newest of four containerised community knowledge centres in the region.
The US State Department has named Dr Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia as the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for his monumental contributions in the production of sorghum, one of the world’s five principal cereal grains, which have dramatically enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Civilians in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) villages are continuing to flee repeat reprisal attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The attacks have been provoked by ongoing anti-LRA operations by the DRC army in the region, according to locals. "The LRA continues to attack the villages, which they burn and loot, and kidnap civilians," Leandres Bwilu, the administrator of the worst-affected territory of Dungu, in Orientale Province, told IRIN.
The financial crisis could force more girls into work as financially squeezed families withdraw their daughters from school to seek jobs, warns the International Labour Organization in a report released on 12 June, World Day Against Child Labour. “The root cause of child labour is poverty”, report author, Patrick Quinn told IRIN. "There is a strong likelihood that girls will be sent into work as families cannot afford school fees and need their children to help support them.”
The percentage of people living with HIV in South Africa has barely changed in the last six years, but new data has revealed that between 2002 and 2008 there were many changes in HIV knowledge, risk behaviour and testing habits.
The thing (the authorities) are most angry about is my voice," says Philo Ikonya, president of PEN Kenya. Ikonya has been involved in a number of protests and political readings recently and was arrested and severely beaten in police custody this past February. Ikonya was one of four extraordinary women who met across a table at a "Silenced Women's Voices" panel on 4 June in Oslo, Norway at the recent Global Forum on Freedom of Expression (GFFE).
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, has proposed a minimum a set of principles and measures based on human rights in the elaboration of large-scale transnational land acquisitions and leases, more commonly referred to as "land grabbing". His call comes at a time when Governments are preparing to negotiate on responsible investment in agriculture at the forthcoming G8 Summit.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has dismissed a bid by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ex-militia chief Germain Katanga for his war crimes trial to be thrown out. Judge Bruno Cotte dismissed an argument by Katanga that the case was inadmissible on the basis that legal proceedings had been brought against him before courts in his home country.
Moroccans began voting on Friday in a local election where the government of conservatives and socialists aims to limit gains by opposition Islamists and a new party formed by staunch backers of King Mohammed. It is the second local election of the reform-minded king's reign. He is widely credited with loosening restrictions on political activity and improving the north African country's human rights record.
The Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union organised, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Fifth Citizens’ Continental Conference on the 13th African Union (AU) summit themed ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’. The civil society organisations convened drew up recommendations on issues including agriculture, land management and food security and peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Jacques Diouf called the growing trend of leasing or selling huge and fertile African land to foreign investors for large-scale agricultural projects and biofuel production a form of ‘neo-colonialism’. Indeed as the African Union prepares for its summit in Lybia under the theme ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’, analysts observe that the export oriented African agriculture of cash crops such as cocoa, cotton and fresh fruits for the international market ‘caters for the foreign consumers more than for the local communities’, which forces Africa states to import subsistence crops like rice, millet, manioc and maize especially from China and the European Union.
Members of the United Nations Security Council delegation recently concluded a visit to Africa aiming to enhance collaboration with the AU to promote peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, heads of State and government of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa called on the International Criminal Court to suspend its arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Further, Richard Cornwell, of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, suggests that ‘many of Africa’s states have complex legal codes, but no real rule of law’. Meanwhile, as the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the future legislative body of the AU, held elections, it is suggested that PAP ‘has neither any tangible impact’ on the lives of Africans ‘nor a public profile to speak of’.
Dambisa Moyo argues in her book ‘Dead Aid’ that ‘no country on Earth has ever achieved long-term growth and reduced poverty in a meaningful way by relying on aid’ and that the strategy of aid that has no ‘evidence of working anywhere on Earth’ could not work in Africa. Finally, Asare Otchere-Darkothe of the Danquah Institute examines the reasons ‘why Ghana is now the subject of strategic U.S. energy and military interests which, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, has raised the stakes considerably in Ghana–United States relations’.
Pambazuka News 438: Remembering the Soweto youth uprising
Pambazuka News 438: Remembering the Soweto youth uprising
The NEW PATH: AFRICAN FORUM FOR INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT is published quarterly by the African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) and provides a forum for innovative thinking about our common future and about how we need to tackle the most intractable problems facing Africa today – focusing on Eastern Africa.
calls on the US government to fundamentally shift US policy towards Zimbabwe to promote the expansion of democratic space, good governance, economic recovery and truth, justice and reconciliation.
Political groups and civil society from Southern Africa issue a call for open and credible talks between the monarch and representatives of the Swazi people
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center looks back at , and ponders whether the experiences and expectations, are worthy of celebration.
This Oilwatch International paper on divide and rule strategy in climate politics outlines many of the tactics used by the more powerful governments and corporates within the UNFCCC process that have led to its apparent inability to do meet its stated objectives and solve Climate Chaos.
This statement from The Center for Elections and Governance in Zambia, on the occasion of the Day of the African Child (16 June), calls for heads of state, members of parliament, elected councilors and public workers to be more accountable and responsive to needs of children.
cc Imprisoned at 17 as an anti-apartheid activist, Mphutlane wa Bofelo emerged even more determined to confront the system. It was the dream of ‘the freedom of our people’ that people act with boldness and bravery, he writes, even though ‘we knew the ultimate price could be death’. Yet 33 years after the 1976 youth uprising, confronting living conditions in Durban’s Kenville squatter camp, wa Bofelo considers why ‘former freedom fighters can sometimes be more vicious in attempts to abort freedom’. As Kenville residents consider class action against the government for decent housing, wa Bofelo wonders why South Africans should have to go to court to secure constitutionally enshrined basics of water and housing. ‘How can you have a sense of self-respect and dignity when you live in opulence but your brothers and sisters… live in squalor?’ asks wa Bofelo. ‘Pity how it seems we joined the struggle to be rich materially but poor in spirit!’
Massive rural-urban migration into Freetown is putting pressure on the city’s capacity to provide clean, safe drinking water for all its residents, writes Roland Bankole Marke. In a country whose infrastructure is ‘obsolete’ and nearing ‘breaking point’, Marke calls for the nation to make an overhaul of its structural water supply system its ‘top priority’. At present water shortages leave the city vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, while the poorest cannot afford water sold privately. Solutions discussed by Marke include organisation at community level to raise funds for securing water provision, and the construction of a dam on the Orugu River.
cc Recent rioting and violence in Freetown and the east of Sierra Leone has brought into focus the fragility of the post-conflict peace, held in place since 2002, writes Lisa Denney. At first glance, says Denney, it points to a new breed of trouble in the West African nation, a harbinger of the party political and ethnic violence that some predict will be the next great challenge faced by the country. Not just the work of criminal elements, the riots belie the potential for a new wave of violence that requires serious prevention efforts, Denney cautions. But events since the violence have taken a surprising turn, with inter-party tensions prompting youth cooperation, rather than escalating conflict. Thus a seemingly low-point in party politics may prove to be a necessary wake up call that quells rising tensions, rather than fuelling them, Denney suggests.
In light of the rapid growth of China’s investment in Africa and bi-lateral trade worth US$100 billion in just two years, Sanusha Naidu, debates whether the country is promoting development across the continent, or is driven largely by mercantilist imperatives. The questions to ask, says Naidu, are which Africans are benefiting from Chinese money, and whether China will continue its large-scale investments in Africa as the financial crisis bites. Naidu cautions that Beijing may ‘become more strategic and perhaps more prudent around which of its investment projects it wants to initiate based on overall benefits and viability’, making it unwise to bank on China’s massive foreign reserves. If Chinese investment is to promote development, Naidu argues, it must take ‘a bottom-up approach that recognises the daily social justice struggles of ordinary Africans for socio-economic survival rather than intensifying them’.
cc With a view to wresting Ghana and Africa at large from the entrenched control of neocolonial institutions, Kofi Mawuli Klu looks to Kwame Nkrumah's legacy for inspiration. While broadly optimistic about Ghana's potential under President John Atta Mills, Klu cautions that achieving effective change will rely on supporting progressive forces through both words and deeds and the ability to involve the country's masses in an ongoing process of 'conscientisation'. If country and continent are to liberate themselves from external influence, the author concludes, the focus must be on drawing on the cultural, organisational and politico-ideological resources of the masses in the pursuit of 'genuine pan-African community regeneration'.
cc With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Binyavanga Wainaina, the 2002 winner of the prize. The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 6 July.
cc With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, the 2003 winner of the prize. The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 6 July.
Nigeria’s to quiet critical voices, the government closure of Fela’s club in Lagos, the death and diaries of a young are among the stories covered in a review of blogs drawn from the Shackdwellers.org social justice aggregator.
With reference to four key areas of 'political leadership', 'social stability', 'agricultural production' and 'initiative and aid', Li Anshan discusses China's developmental record and its potential lessons for Africa. Stressing the importance of a country's developing its own path, Li writes that foreign aid should not be permitted to become a permanent source of income or to compromise individual countries' sovereignty. If Africa is to realise its bright future and harness the considerable potential of its human and natural resources, the author argues, its governments must use their funds in ways which sincerely benefit areas most in need.
cc Following the assassination of Radio Shabelle's Media Director Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe in Mogadishu on 7 June, the Somali Speaking Centre of International PEN (SS PEN) condemns the attack and decries the inability of Somali journalists to operate without risk of physical harm.
cc With Kenya still in the throes of an entrenched crisis, Korir Sing’Oei considers the broader history behind the deficiencies of the country's political system. Arguing that there are clear similarities to be drawn between events such as the state's response to the 1963 Shifta War and today's military crackdowns at Mt. Elgon, Sing’Oei stresses that the government continues to have a single method of conflict resolution, that of state-sponsored violence. But if Kenya's dream of a new constitution is to come to fruition, Sing’Oei concludes, there must be firm resolve to see accountability for its leadership, beginning on the first day of the country's truth commission with an apology from President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the post-election violence.
cc 16 June was the anniversary of the 1976 uprising in Soweto, South Africa. With today's black youth in South Africa finding themselves marginalised in much the same way as those protesting against apartheid policy, Blackwash seeks to commemorate the 1976 uprising and further the development of black consciousness. Inspired by 16 June and the words of Steve Biko, Blackwash encourages young black people in South Africa to take up the struggle to put pressure on the government and create genuine change.
cc Kwame Nkrumah brought the Convention People's Party into power within two years of its formation, creating independent Ghana, writes Yao Graham. An overwhelming electoral victory gave Nkrumah a platform for mass anti-colonial mobilisation around Africa. Accra became a staging point for the African anti-colonial movement with the All-African People's Conference, drawing delegates from 62 nationalist organisations, including future ruling parties and post-colonial leaders, who were urged to 'fight for independence now'. Post-colonial construction, however, was different from bringing down colonialism and Nkrumah struggled to generate resources for steady improvement in the living standards of people with expectations fuelled by independence and his own visionary pronouncements. Today Ghana is seen as a development icon, but the challenges Nkrumah grappled with have not been overcome, argues Graham. Reliant on a few commodities for export earnings and aid for public investment, it is far from the independent structurally transformed model Nkrumah wanted to establish as a ‘black star’ for Africa.
AFRODAD, a pan-African regional organization providing research-based lobby and advocacy in issues of Debt, Development Aid and Economic Governance is seeking to recruit a Team of competent people to fill the positions of Executive Director, Policy Advisor on Debt, Policy Advisor on Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanisms on Debt; Policy Advisor on Economic Governance and Development Aid. The Team will be based at the AFRODAD Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe. Application deadline is 28th June 2009.
Pambazuka readers respond to Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji’s commentary on settlement. Although some see the settlement as a step in the right direction, other ask questions about the part played by the federal government of Nigeria in the executions. There is recognition all round though, that the struggle for justice for the people of the Niger Delta continues.
cc The death of Gabon’s President Omar Bongo on 7 May has sparked a range of reactions, reflecting the dubious legacy of a man who played a central figure in the shady web of political and economic ties between France and Africa. Tidiane Kasse explores what politicians and commentators had to say.
While China is yet to establish itself as a great power, it is certainly one in the making, writes Saliem Fakir. On the strength of global demand for its cheap goods, the Asian giant's rise has enabled it to accumulate considerable surpluses from Western capital flows. Just as this rise has somewhat dispelled the idea of no-development-without-democracy, China's willingness to regard its trading partners' policies as internal matters marks a clear contrast with the conditionalities stipulated by Western countries and institutions. Though unlikely to entirely displace the influence of the West in the immediate future, China's own prioritising of economic reform over political liberalisation is proving increasingly influential in a changing world order, Fakir observes.
In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Path out of Poverty Programme we are launching a new campaign: 10 000 olive trees planted at Goedgedacht to support 10 000 children on the Path out of Poverty from 5 POP centres in the next ten years (2018). After ten years we are convinced that the Path out of Poverty offers new hope to rural children who still live their lives without hope for the future.The POP model has been noticed and is now ready to be replicated in other places
The president of the African Union (AU), Gabonese economist and politician Jean Ping, met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and other government officials in Caracas to prepare for the Africa - South America Summit scheduled to take place in Caracas in the last week of September. "Venezuela and especially President Hugo Chávez has become a spokesperson for those nations that do not have a voice, not only on this continent but in the world, especially in Africa," Jean Ping told the press in Caracas.
We are civil society organizations from throughout the world that have contributed to the Human Rights Council and its work since its establishment. We have observed with increasing concern developments in the Council, including at the current 11th Session, that are undermining the work of the Council’s Special Procedures. This session has seen extraordinary personal attacks by some States on the integrity of mandate holders and specific threats to their independence.
The financial crisis has underscored Africa’s vulnerability, notwithstanding a decade of solid progress, the APP said at the launch of its annual report today. The key conclusion of the report is that Africa needs to drive its own development agenda as the basis for partnership and shared responsibility for progress. “The global economic crisis can serve as a wake-up call for both African leaders and their international partners,” the Panel said.
It may be no surprise, in light of the global economic recession, that the world's richest nations have failed to deliver much of the aid they promised Africa four years ago. But campaigners are not letting the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries off the hook. According to ONE, an advocacy group founded by U2 singer Bono, most of the blame for the shortfall in pledges made at the high-profile Gleneagles summit in 2005 rests on just two countries — Italy and France.
Niger's media regulatory body, the High Communication Council (CSC), on June
8, 2009 banned all live discussions on the prevailing political situation in
the country by privately-owned electronic media outlets. The CSC Chairman, Daouda Diallo, who announced the ban, said it has become necessary as it would prevent what he termed as "risk of media excesses".
With high-volume class strife heard in the rumbling of wage demands and the friction of township 'service delivery protests', rhetorical and real conflicts are bursting open in every nook and cranny of South Africa. The big splits in the society are clearer now. Distracting internecine rivalries within the main left bloc - which saw off the main trade union federation's president
The Bliss Women and Children Project is a Christian, non-profit organization. Our aim is to provide opportunities for women and children who are living in extreme poverty, are abandoned, orphaned, internally displaced, widowed or living with HIV/AIDS. More than 100 women and 80 children benefit from our programs every day.
Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network has the pleasure of announcing the launch of its blog platform, Zimbabwe Women's Voices. The blog will begin on the Constitutional Reform Process and seeks to provide Zimbabwean women and community at large an opportunity to voice their perspectives on the Constitutional Reform process between now and November 2009 when public consultations are scheduled to be complete.
Greenpeace is pleased to announce the appointment of two prominent African activists into senior positions in the organisation, Kumi Naidoo as Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and Michelle Ndiaye Ntab as Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa. Kumi Naidoo from South Africa and former General
Secretary of CIVICUS(1), will take over from Gerd Leipold in November 2009, and Michelle Ndiaye Ntab from Senegal assumed her appointment in April.
To celebrate World Humanism Day on June 21st Hivos and the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO made a selection of the best Metropolis TV movies on the theme ‘independent people’. The central idea of the movies is: 'people are in control over their own lives'. We have chosen beautiful movies from China (Jiang and his globe), Zambia (walking hunger striker), Burkina Faso (photographer of mad people), Kenya (anti-circumcision village) and Turkey (young ambitious politician).
Abdul Hamid Adiamoh, managing editor of Today, a privately-owned newspaper who has been in detention since his arrest on June 10, 2009 was on June 12 charged with “ publishing and broadcasting false information”, contrary to Section 181 (A) of the Criminal Code of the Gambia. Speaking with the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper, ASP Sulayman Secka, Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Police Force could not tell whether the journalist was still in police detention or not.
The Gambian Press Union (GPU) has in a statement issued on June 12, 2009 condemned President Yahya Jammeh’s deliberate attempt to vilifying Deyda Hydara, editor and a former critic of his repressive administration, brutally murdered in 2004 by unknown assailants, immediately after his newspaper celebrated its 13th anniversary.
2008 was the Year of African Youth, yet the African Youth Charter, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in July 2006, has still only been ratified by 13 countries –needing two more ratifications before it can enter into force. In January 2009, the Assembly declared the years 2009-2019 as the decade of youth development in Africa.
Twelve political parties operating in Zanzibar yesterday revived their ‘alliance’ vowing to win the next Zanzibar general elections by strengthening the partnership including placing one candidate for presidency. “There is no way we can manage to remove the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) from power in Zanzibar without reviving our alliance and field one candidate for presidency,” the parties leaders said at a meeting.
Submit your essay on democracy, and get your free ticket to the world’s largest gathering of democracy and human rights activists in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2010! The World Youth Movement for Democracy (www.wymd.org), a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen winners (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be invited to participate in the upcoming 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010.
On 15 June 2009, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court confirmed some of the charges brought by the Prosecutor against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo for crimes committed on the territory of the Central African Republic from on or about 26 October 2002 to 15 March 2003.
On the occasion of Day of the African Child, the Africa Public Health Alliance & 15%+ Campaign is calling on African governments to end the "5 by 5 Tragedy" of an estimated 5 million African infants and children under the Age of 5 dying annually of preventable, manageable or treatable health causes. Rotimi Sankore Coordinator, Africa Public Health Alliance & 15%+ Campaign stated: "While there may have been some progress over the years on infant and child mortality, such progress is clearly not enough and there is nothing to celebrate today."
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Voix des Sans-Voix pour les Droits de l'Homme (VSV), a member organisation of OMCT SOS-Torture Network, about the arbitrary detention as well as of the acts of torture and ill-treatment inflicted upon Mr.Norbert Luyeye Binzunga, president of the party “Union of the Republicans” (Union des Républicains, UR). He is currently detained at the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education Centre, the main prison in Kinshasa, charged with “contempt of the head of State”.
History and current experience shows that so deep are the pains of most of the conflicts experienced in Africa that the popular individualized and rationalistic approaches to healing and transformation simply lack the language and resources to solidly address the challenge of holistic peaceful transformation. “Arts approaches” provide an accessible language, compelling processes that affirm everyone’s creativity and, above all, an inclusive space that enables healing, genuine dialogue and transformation to happen particularly where the violent conflicts and pains are experienced by masses of people. African countries that are victims of conflicts, can use dance and drama to subtly address the issues among community members.
The mandate of the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) must be strengthened if the elimination of all forms of violence against women is to become a reality. This was a key recommendation from the parallel event ‘15 years of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women: gains, challenges and the way forward’ held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland on June 5, 2009, in parallel to the 11thsession of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence. Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year. South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
Gender Links is inviting submissions from women and men across Southern Africa who are involved in polygamous relationships. We will select an assortment of these experiences and life stories to be included in a special collection of "I” Stories, that will be published in a book series, on the GL website and offered to in the mainstream media across the region. Each "I” Story will share the personal experience of someone who has been involved in a polygamous relationship – husbands, wives, and children. Those wishing to use a pseudonym are welcome to do so, and should indicate this when submitting.
Two hours later, there was no sign of what had taken place. The park in the Shapira neighborhood of southern Tel Aviv was again teeming with life. Foreign workers gradually arrived, filling the place up, children came to play and only a green garbage bin located at the foot of a tree in a corner of the park remained as evidence that a short while earlier, at 3:30 P.M., someone's life had come to an end. Abrehale Misghina, a 28-year-old refugee from Eritrea, dragged the bin to the tree, climbed on top of it, placed a noose around his neck, threw the other end of the rope over one of the branches, and committed suicide.
This is a photo essay of the recent occupation of a piece of land in Macassar. On Tuesday 19th backyarders in Macassar, desperate for homes, built shacks on municipal land on a field adjoining the N2
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) on June 15, 2009 imposed a news blackout on the country’s judiciary, as part of its sustained campaign to get the Supreme Court to expunge the obnoxious Public Order Act of the 1960 from the laws of Sierra Leone. A source told the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that the action is as a result of the Supreme Court’s long delay in giving its verdict on the case filed by SLAJ challenging the constitutionality of the Public Order Act which is very inimical to media freedom in particular and freedom of expression generally.
This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations to function and to develop in more healthy, human and effective ways as they strive to make their contributions to a more humane society. It has been developed by the Barefoot Collective.