KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 30 * 6179 SUBSCRIBERS
KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER 30 * 6179 SUBSCRIBERS
Understanding the meaning of economic, social and cultural rights through study of one aspect of these rights, the human right to food and nutrition.
Political Science 675c is the University of Hawaii's graduate course on Nutrition Rights. The central purpose of the course is to study the working of human rights systems through close examination of the human right to food and nutrition.
Convened by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), School of Government, University of Western Cape and the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), University of Zimbabwe. Course dates: 10-14 September 2001.
Finally - a book that neatly and intelligently dissects the democracy discourse that has come to dominate African political economy, and shows it for what it is: an absurdity with tragic consequences.
The 2001 UNDP report on technology: "technology networks are transforming the traditional map of development, expanding people's horizons and creating the potential to realize in a decade progress that required generations in the past."
A conference based on the theme "the communities commit themselves" - AIDS and STDs as a development problem, not just a health problem.
Six large publishing concerns have announced plans to provide free or discounted access to approximately 1,000 medical journals to medical schools, research laboratories, and government health departments in poor countries.
There was little to no coverage of HIV/AIDS related issues in the Zimbabwe mainstream print media in the week under review. Perhaps the most significant report appeared in The Chronicle (6/7) in which journalists were urged to report HIV/AIDS in a compassionate manner. However, this was just another workshop and/or event report. The article quoted a research and communication expert who noted that journalists tend to dwell on stories highlighting shocking death and infection statistics devoid of a human and social face.
Versions in English, Frangais, Espaqol, Deutsch. The report on the eLearning survey entitled 'eLearning for people with disabilities' is now available online in English, French, German and Spanish - in the ETV eLearning section.
COSATU takes serious exception to the behaviour of the Zimbabwe police in arresting and questioning the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Wellington Chibebe. We note with utter dismay this unbecoming conduct by the security forces and believe that the police are attempting to intimidate the Secretary General.
HREA and the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center are currently developing a joint project to make more primary documents and educational
materials available on the Internet in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. We would like to hear directly from you about your needs. We would be very grateful if you could take two minutes to fill out the short survey below. You can either reply by email or fill out the on-line form.
At the twenty-first session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, held in Nairobi from 5 to 9 February 2001, the Council adopted decision 21/21 entitled
"International environmental governance", in which it outlined a process for the review of the current state of international environmental governance and the submission of the results of the review to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, to be held in Johannesburg in 2002. The Civil Society Consultations on International Environmental Governance were held on 22 and 23 May 2001 at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi in order to enable representatives of civil society organizations to give their views on international environmental governance. If you are interested in receiving the report on the civil society consultation on international enviromental government, please email Dorothy Kello at Wougnet.
Lawyers representing ZANU (PF) parliamentary candidate for Seke, Mr. Phineas Chihota, in ZANU (PF)’s only election petition, finished inspecting the voters’ role on Monday, in a verification process ordered by Judge Vernanda Ziyambi last week. Chihota alleges that his supporters were barred from voting as their names did not appear on the voters’ roll despite having properly registered. He alleges that as a result, they were unduly turned away on the polling day. The petition is scheduled to resume on Monday, July 2, 2001.
The MDC is contesting the outcome of last June’s parliamentary elections in many constituencies that resulted in the victory of the ZANU (PF) candidate. Human rights abuses have been reported in all cases that have appeared before the High Court. The violence, which has mainly implicated ZANU (PF) supporters, but has also implicated some MDC supporters, is being used as a tool to intimidate people who had testified at the High Court. The intimidation continues to instill such fear that witnesses consider not testifying and in some cases have to be subpoenaed.
The Association of Uganda Medical Women Doctors (AUMWD) is a finalist in the 2001 Stockholm Challenge in the category of 'Health and Quality of Life'. AUWMD's project titled 'Providing information electronically on reproductive health' aims at disseminating information on reproductive health to women NGOs connected electronically so that they can use the information in their advocacy and other related activities. For more information on the project submission, visit their website.
One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa.
Africa's big men like their comforts, no matter where they are. Two days ago the skies above Lusaka were thick with circling presidential jets, waiting for permission to land. The big men, their wives and their retinues of heavily armed guards (each delegation restricted to six pistols) are in Lusaka for the annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Africa's answer to the United Nations. The leaders' club is supposedly the mark of unity among the African brotherhood, yet in its 38 years of existence the continent has been characterised by division and bloodshed.
An annual summit of African leaders expunged criticism of Britain's policy over Zimbabwe from its final declaration yesterday in a face-saving move that also served to humiliate President Robert Mugabe.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, appears in the Supreme Court today to defend himself against prosecution for terrorism. The Zimbabwean government is seeking foreign aid because of a shortage of food, following violent disruption of the country's farming. The Organisation of African Unity, which yesterday concluded its summit in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, backed off at the last moment from wholehearted support for the Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe – but the statement that Zimbabwe and Britain should "get together" on land ownership also managed to avoid full-scale condemnation of the violence that Mr Mugabe has unleashed.
A South African land protest which raised fears of Zimbabwe-style chaos has been halted peacefully by bailiffs who tore down newly built shacks with crowbars. But with hundreds of families claiming to have been homeless in sub-zero temperatures, the African National Congress government faced new accusations that it was neglecting the poor.
Amnesty International is gravely concerned over the threat posed for human rights in Swaziland by the recently issued law, Decree No.2. The Decree, issued by the Head of State, King Mswati III, on 22 June 2001 further restricts the exercise of fundamental rights that had already been hampered by the longstanding suspension of the country's constitution and bill of rights.
It was about time South Africa and the rest of the world moved beyond understanding the problems affecting refugees and started helping to solve them, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Thursday. He was speaking at a conference in Pretoria to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention governing the status of refugees.
A team of children led by an 11-year-old foreman was found working on a Cape fruit farm - just one piece of evidence in an investigation that shows child labour is widespread in the region's farmland.
This new, free, 24 page publication, provides an introduction to the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention no 182, and explains its significance for Civil Society Organisations, in terms of the new opportunities it creates for them. The brochure is intended for use by broad human rights groups, trade unions, local government and professional bodies such as the police, lawyers and teachers. The brochure is informative, yet clear and easy to read. Published in English, French, Arabic and Spanish, it is intended to reach a wide audience and to provide practical measures to tackle the worst forms ofchild labour. The brochure can be downloaded in each language from Anti-Slavery's website or hard copies are available free from Pins Brown.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is currently meeting in New York to review the reports of States Parties on their compliance with CEDAW, -also known as "the Women’s Convention". At this session the Committee is considering the reports of eight States Parties –-Andorra, Guinea, Singapore, Guyana, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Sweden, and VietNam. For daily press releases, visit the CEDAW section of the website of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (UN/DAW).
Winrock International: Maggie Range with Phoebe Omondi. Inspiring and empowering, this richly-illustrated training package includes a trainer’s manual and a free-standing pocket folder with a lively Participants’ Action Workbook, ready for easy photocopying, and a set of quotations, ready for posting. It is designed to train women leaders––individually and as a group––to move forward in their own professional development, build bridges with men, plan future gender activities and act as advocates for other women.
This event, which now takes place once every two years, is an open space for bringing together members of organizations, institutions and all development actors at various levels. It provides a major opportunity for gender and development activists to convene, share, take stock of achievements and constraints and foster joint action plans to further the civil society development agenda.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission has agreed on the first global principles for the safety assessment of genetically modified foods, on maximum levels of certain food toxins, and on guidelines for organic livestock production, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a joint statement today.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 37th summit of the Organization of African Unity, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan "urged" African leaders to halt Africa's "persistent" conflicts and build a "common future," the Xinhua News Agency reports. Annan said that the conflicts, which many on the continent "deemed as unavoidable," were "caused by human action" and can be "ended by human action too"
Speaking at an OAU "working breakfast" meeting with other heads of state, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi "called on" African leaders to develop and implement joint initiatives for fighting the continent's HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because HIV/AIDS knows "no regional boundaries," the need for such regional anti-AIDS efforts are "urgent," he said.
The World Bank will loan Nigeria and Burkina Faso more than $100 million to fight HIV/AIDS under the bank's $500 million HIV/AIDS Program for the Africa Region. The no-interest loans, which will be funneled through the World Bank's International Development Association, will go toward scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention strategies already established by the countries' governments.
The Roman Catholic Church in southern Africa is "consider[ing]" supporting condom use as a method to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region, Britain's Daily Telegraph reports. The church's "fundamental principle of the sanctity of life" forbids the use of condoms. But Bishop Kevin Dowling of South Africa stated in a policy paper that the church should "reconside[r]" this view.
A powerful Nigerian security chief was quoted on Tuesday as saying he handed over cash worth millions of dollars, plus 23 cars and 45 homes to the former military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998.
Health centres in Democratic Republic of the Congo are being urged by a United Nations agency mission to shift their priorities to preventative
medicine and focus on the country's main killer diseases in a bid to reverse spiralling mortality rates.
Today in London, the UNDP launches a powerful 'manifesto', the Human Development Report (HDR) entitled 'Making new technologies work for human development'. Its focus is 'new' technology and the global policies that could turn, for example, biotechnology and information technology into powerful tools in the fight against global poverty. But while ITDG welcomes the HDR as a vital first and powerful contribution to trigger international debate, the UK-based 'appropriate technology' charity, feels that the UNDP have overlooked the real challenge.
Disarmament of ex-fighters from Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front is raising hopes that children forced into service with the anti-government group will finally win their freedom.
UN talks aimed at reining in and regulating the global flow of small arms are fuelling tension between states wanting to take a comprehensive view and a powerful few seeking to limit negotiations to the illegal flow of arms to conflict areas. Whoever wins, the outcome of the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, which ends Jul 20, will be a legally non-binding promise by signatories to do something.
In a direct challenge to the world's pharmaceutical industry, the authors of a new UN report call on developing countries to strengthen their national laws in order to enable local production of cheaper, lifesaving AIDS drugs AIDS. Such an option can be pursued legitimately under compulsory licensing, a principle in international commerce that permits countries to "use patents without permission of the patent holder in return for a reasonable royalty on sale," says the Human Development Report 2001, released Tuesday by the UN Development Programme.
Want to buy an AK-47 assault rifle? In Sudan you could get it for the price of a chicken. It is against this alarming background - painted by The East African newspaper - that United Nations officials are meeting this week for talks on how to tighten controls on the flow of small arms. Charles Cobb Jr. considers Africa's role in the "global crisis".
The number of countries facing "exceptional food emergencies" in East Africa has shrunk due to heavier rainfall, said the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation last week.
The New Media Classroom faculty development programme has brought together an exciting group of educators, scholars and media producers from across the US to help teachers use technology to make history and other humanities subjects come to life for their students.
A Japanese education grant to provide schooling for Tanzanian children forced to work due to poor economic conditions, has been lying idle for nearly a year now.
Scores of absent educators in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province claim they have been intimidated by the community and do not feel safe in schools. However, they have been have been getting their salaries although some have
not been in a classroom since the beginning of the year.
When it comes to the selection of courses for your children, let their teachers guide you. They have the ability to judge the performance of students and help them select courses that would suit their individual needs, Ghana's top psychiatrist has advised parents.
This article by Steve Linberg was the basis for a presentation at the Technology in Adult Education: Trends and Applications conference in Farmington, CT in June, 2001. It talks about the possible technology trends that will impact the field of literacy in the years to come.
The United Nations made a new bid for relevance with its recent Special Session on AIDS, but the trend of neglect by the press that Danny Schechter spotted last year hasn't disappeared.
Southern African media systemically ignore or victimize women, argues a persuasive and practical guide to changing the system.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has brought charges of criminal defamation against journalist Nnamdi Onyenua, report the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Onyenua, editor of the weekly, Lagos-based magazine "Glamour Trends", was arrested on 8 June. The charges resulted from an article entitled "Secrets Behind Obasanjo's Trips" that appeared in the magazine's 6 June edition.
This training manual does not over-burden participants with legal terminology, but at the same time is clearly based on internationally defined human rights standards. The 24 exercises are designed for non-formal grass-roots education emphasising, among others: women's and children's issues, and organised around specified values, e.g., respect for dignity and fair rules, links between human rights and responsibilities, building civil society, confronting prejudice, and "information for empowerment.
This manual has been written primarily for AI campaigners yet is also useful for all those other human rights organisations. The book has been divided up into self-contained sections, making it easier to use and enable activists to photocopy or refer to particular sections as the need arises. It is relevant for newcomers to campaigning as well as veterans. Many of the guiding principles are probably universally applicable.
The prize for women's creativity in rural life honours creative and courageous women and women's groups around the world for their contributions to improving the quality of life in rural communities. Seven of this year's winners are from Africa. For information on how to nominate candidates for the year 2002, and to read about the 179 laureates awarded since 1994, please visit our Internet site or email us at the Women's World Summit Foundation.
A monthly newsletter with information on travelling in Africa. In July's edition: The SOlar Eclipse. It was a perfect day for the 21st June 2001 eclipse, there was a clear view of the sky and the thousands of people watching were not disappointed. We have updated our eclipse information and have included travelogues, news stories and photographs of the recent eclipse in our 2001 section.
Speaking on the occasion of World Population Day, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan linked the growing population to ecological stress on the planet's resources. Calling attention to deforestation, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, he said, "Our ecological footprints on the earth are heavier than ever before."
Over the past 300 years, humans have dramatically transformed the land surface of the Earth, changing vegetation, reshaping hills and valleys, and altering the course of rivers. In doing so, they have set in motion a scenario of global environmental change with impacts that promise to be at least as severe as global climate change, scientists reported today at a meeting in Amsterdam.
The Washington, DC-based Africa Trade Policy Working Group (ATPWG), which forms part of the Advocacy Network for Africa coalition, has launched a campaign to support African farmers' rights. Current trends in the formulation of global trade regulations put small-holder farmers in Africa - and the developing world generally - at risk of losing control of their seeds, crops and other agricultural resources to international business interests. We invite you to join us in this important campaign by endorsing the Declaration of Support for African Small-Holder Farmers. Please share the declaration with your networks and community groups.
In a letter sent to today to Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed deep concern about the murder of Alegria Gustavo, a journalist for the local branch of Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA) in the central province of Huambo.
According to a 'Sunday Independent' report, clinical trials conducted in Johannesburg and Cape Town have shown that despite poverty and scarce clinical resources, antiretrovirals can be used successfully by poor people. These findings come after the government's repeated refusal to offer antiretroviral therapy to all saying the majority of South Africans were poor and would misuse the drugs.
The Ugandan government is planning to establish an HIV/AIDS centre in each district referral hospital where patients will be able to get access to antiretroviral drugs used to treat the disease, according to the official 'New Vision' newspaper.
Race and Class is the journal for black and third world liberation published by the Institute of Race Relations. The July 2001 issue is now available and includes "Simunye, we are not one: ethnicity, difference and the hip-hoppers of Cape Town" By Lee Watkins, University of Witwatersrand and "All of Africa's gods are weeping" By E. G. Vallianatos, former UNDP adviser.
The Foundation Center's mission is to support and improve institutional philanthropy by promoting public understanding of the field and helping grantseekers succeed.
Amidst the breathtaking scenery of mountains and forests surrounding the town of Robit, 200 km north-east of Addis Ababa, there is something much more sinister. Hidden from the main road, behind the dense bush and scrub land, lies Shoa Robit Detention Camp, where for more than three months, thousands have been imprisoned without charges.
The women writers of Nigeria (WRITA) has taken the lead in immortalising the late Prof. Zulu Sofola, who died in 1995 by instituting a literary prize in her honour. Max Amuchie and Tunde Okoli look at her place in Nigerian literature.
Application deadline is extended to July 31. We are still accepting your application for Global Development Awards 2001!
Let me begin my presentation with a very provocative quote from an Ugandan political economist: "Anybody with any degree of intellectual integrity would see that globalisation of Africa --- or the integration of Africa into the global economy from the days of slavery to the contemporary period of capital-led integration – has on balance of costs and benefits been a disaster for Africa, both in human terms and in terms of the damage to Afirca’s natural environment. There is scarcely anybody in Africa who would talk of the last 300 years, including the last 40 years since the first African country gained independence, in language flattering either to colonialism or to governments that have taken over power since political independence."
The GAVI Immunization Advocacy Resource Kit is a collection of documents, video clips, and computer presentations which have proven useful when explaining about, and advocating for, stronger immunization programs. The online version of the Kit currently is posted on three websites. If one of them is slow to respond for you, try another!
As part of a major crackdown on corruption, the Ethiopian government has launched a nationwide survey to canvass people's views on the subject.
More than 10,000 mourners attended a funeral service on Monday for Zambian opposition leader Paul Tembo, who was murdered on Friday before he was about to testify in a government graft case.
In a court ruling on Wednesday last week, which has gone largely unnoticed, the status of Zimbabwe’s land grabs was finally made clear – they are illegal and cannot proceed legally until the rule of law is re-established.
A personal account of the armed siege at the home of Sekai Holland, MDC Secretary for International Affairs.
This article on TechSoup contains some good advice about adding a 'mail this web page to a friend' feature to your web site. It includes advice about formatting and user friendliness. If you are involved in the web coding for your organisation, take a look at these tips.
On Monday June 25 2001, the earth rights of the unsuspecting people of Ogbodo Community of Isiokpo in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State were seriously threatened following a major oil spill into the waters and lands of the community. The spill was reported to Shell and the State Government on the morning of June 26, 2001.It took the Shell Development company Limited three good days to respond to the emergency call and another five days to intervene and stop the spillage and fire outbreak.
An objective of the World Movement is to utilize technology enabling democrats to share their knowledge and experiences and to build networks of mutual solidarity. DemocracyNews serves as a primary means to achieve these goals.
We have created a new and open discussion forum on 'ICT for Development and Social Changes' at . This will be an open forum where anyone can subscribe and post their messages (with slight moderation of message approval). This list is particularly designed for Bytes for All readers and supporters who want to take part and want to be updated with ICT & development related issues in South Asia and in other developing countries.
ALTHOUGH its prosperity depends on a worldwide network of trade, finance and technology, the United States currently treats the rest of the world, and especially the developing world, as if it barely exists.
The Africa regional workshop at the 10th International Anti Corruption Conference (IACC) in Prague is jointly organised by Transparency International, UNDP, Global Coalition for Africa (GCA), USAID and DfID (UK). It aims to provide a venue to discuss concrete steps to forge regional co-operation and action in Africa. The workshop will aim to present the current regional and sub-regional mechanisms (informal or formal) and actions that focus on fighting corruption in Africa, provide a forum to evaluate lessons learned from past initiatives as well as recommend concrete measures to improve effectiveness in implementing these on the ground.
Tomorrow is the launch of the Digital Opportunity Initiative, a partnership between the UNDP, the Markle Foundation and private sector consultancy Accenture. This week we interview Accenture's International Chair Vernon Ellis who is also the UK's private sector representative on the G8 Dot Force whose work will shortly conclude.
The subject of accessibility and web design is not new. This editorial from Kathy Foley at NUA Internet Surveys describes the practical realities of web use for disabled users. It also examines needs of those who are using older hardware, text-only browsers, etc. There are some interesting links at the bottom of the article.
Communities' clashes in Delta State, Nigeria, sparked off by the activities of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), has claimed about 15 lives in the area.
The AMARC MoebiuS_PlanetRadio web site is online. Have a look and send us your comments! A web site in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, from, for, and about community radio... with information and audio and text-based files to nourish radio programming and promote the work of community radio across the world.
Echoes of Africa launched on 15 July 2001 - a new monthly online magazine with stories, images and educational fun from all over Africa. The debut issue went out to nearly 2000 subscribers, and is now online.