Pambazuka News 421: Zimbabwe: Transitional justice without transition?
Pambazuka News 421: Zimbabwe: Transitional justice without transition?
Botswana's government has warned that it may have to cut or completely withdraw its HIV/AIDS funding, despite the rising number of people needing treatment, as the global economic crisis takes a toll on the vitally important diamond-mining sector. The government is the main financier of the national HIV/AIDS response, contributing up to 80 percent of the budget, with donors making up the remainder. But the global economic slump has led to significant declines in the sale of diamonds, Botswana's most important revenue source.
The phenomenon of Leblouh is one of the oldest social values related to beauty in Mauritanian society. Under the practice, girls are made to eat huge quantities of food, sometimes by force, to make them fatter. The aim is to give them greater chances of marriage, beauty and social acceptance, as slim women are traditionally deemed inferior.
Although there is an abundance of natural energy resources such as sunlight and water in sub-Saharan Africa, investment in renewable energy in the region has remained low. However, the recognition of the potential of hydropower is opening up a potentially lucrative market for suppliers of hydro turbines, say energy consultants Frost & Sullivan.
In an overwhelmingly positive vote for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Central African nation of Burundi, the country's Senate has rejected a provision that would have criminalized consensual same-sex activity.
The UN refugee agency expressed concern Tuesday about mounting violence against Congolese civilians in North Kivu province after some 3,000 people were displaced during an attack on their village. "Since February 14, the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda [FDLR] have carried out numerous attacks in Masisi, Lubero and Walikale areas in North Kivu, sparking a new wave of displacement," a UNHCR spokesman said, referring to a rebel militia composed of ethnic Hutu fighters.
Soaring food prices and lack of land have forced Mauritius, a net food importing country, to launch an ambitious initiative. The island state is starting to grow its food in other African states where land is lying fallow and labour is cheap. Mauritian agro-entrepreneurs Murveen Ragobur and Gansham Boodhram are back from Mozambique where they cultivated rice on a trial basis last year, as well as potatoes and onions for the local market.
States emerging from protracted crises struggle to provide basic services. This is no more crucial than in the health sector where vulnerable ‘post-conflict’ populations are frequently in dire need of care. However, development actors are frequently faced with difficult choices – particularly how much emphasis to place on ‘humanitarian’ emergency health relief in the face of a need for health systems building. Yet is it possible to simultaneously provide basic health services whilst also developing local health provision?
This paper makes the case that attending to fundamental issues such as social exclusion and gender inequity is crucial to the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The challenge is to inspire the public and professionals alike to step up efforts - not by focusing solely on the goals themselves, but, rather, by broadening the perspective through linking the MDGs to leading global development debates.
With increasing demand for resources to tackle the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, questions arise as to where such resources are to be found and whether they can be fully absorbed and spent. One major source of financing for HIV and AIDS control is external aid. The debate continues as to whether increased external assistance causes macroeconomic instability.
Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Madueke, has recently denied the existence of gay people in Nigeria. He said this at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review meeting, held in Geneva from 2-13 February, where he claimed that gay people are not visible in that country and that they do not have any registered organisations.
Pamela (not her real name), a resident of Kenya's largest slum, Kibera, continues to experience pain and discomfort one year after she was gang-raped when election-related violence erupted in the country. "The saddest part of the experience is that I don't know the rapists so I can't even say I am waiting for justice; they pushed my head under the bed and so many of them raped me until I fainted; when I came to, they had fled," Pamela said.
Calm has returned to the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi following two days of sectarian clashes that killed 14 people, displaced 4,500 and left 100 hospitalised, according to police and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The violence erupted on 20 February, with youths burning mosques and churches, according to residents of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state, about 300km northeast of the capital Abuja.
Last week, regulars at the HIV treatment clinic at Pelonomi hospital, in Bloemfontein, capital of South Africa's Free State Province, would have told you that the clinic has never been this quiet. Ever since the provincial government stopped initiating new patients on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, the buzzing treatment literacy classes for people about to start taking ARVs had shrunk in size, while some existing patients stopped coming to check whether their drugs were in stock.
A Bandundu court has declared the charges pending against Bwamputu Akienzin Zéphyrin unfounded, acquitting him on all counts at his fifth court appearance. Zéphyrin was originally summoned to court in December 2008 on a defamation charge brought by Marie Théodore Kipulu Samba, a former RTNC director, after he broadcast the news of Kipulu's sacking as director of RTNC-Bandundu. Kipulu asked the court for US$50,000 in damages, in addition to the sentence provided for by law. His request was denied.
On 25 February 2009, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has temporarily closed Mzimba Community Radio Station, based in the northern part of the country, on grounds that the station did not comply with the regulatory body's rules and regulations as stipulated in the Communications Act.
Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe has dismissed as "nonsense" Western demands that he free up Zimbabwe's media in order to get sanctions lifted. In an interview with Zimbabwe television aired late on Thursday, Mugabe also denied foreign media reports that his family recently bought a luxury home in Hong Kong, and criticised Britain for plans to help some of its nationals leave Zimbabwe.
As the dust settled on President Hu Jintao’s four nation African visit, a sense of relative normality returned to the Africa-China debate. A few residual commentaries and debates continue to make media headlines and blog sites around the interpretation of President Hu’s Africa visit and . But attention has now shifted to a more a significant diplomatic visit, namely Hilary Clinton’s first official engagement and visit to Asia as US Secretary of State.
As discussed in earlier editions of the China-Africa-Watch, Mrs Clinton’s visit to China has been characterized by all kinds of expectations, not least that the Obama administration would continue with its tough trade talk against China, in keeping with the new President’s election stance. Even Washington hawks and Clinton opponents expected her to stick to her guns in pushing China on its human rights record as she did during her election campaign.
But, it was Mrs Clinton who did a 360 degree turn and caught most off-guard with her comment that while Washington ‘would press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet…’.‘form a pragmatic partnership with Beijing on the financial crisis and climate change’.
By making her first diplomatic trip to Asia and China in particular, the new Secretary of State was sending a clear signal about her priorities. But where does Africa fit in all of this?
As the US and China begin to define their pragmatic but symbiotic relationship, how does President Hu’s talk of forging a new Africa-China consensus take into consideration this thawing of relations between Washington and Beijing? Perhaps, it is too early to draw conclusions, but for African scholars and commentators the issue is that any change to the engagement between Beijing and Washington does have important implications for how Africa engages with each of them.
This is especially relevant since the global financial crisis was the backdrop of President Hu’s African visit with the underlying message about strengthening partnership and cooperation during times of adversity.
Some might fear that America could be a rival to Africa for China’s attention and affection. But American-China relations are based on a real economic interrelationship whose health is also key to Africa’s hopes of mitigating the worst of the economic storms. In particular President Obama depends for his economic stimulus package on China’s willingness to continue to lend the USA money.
As the Financial Times reported on 22 February; ‘The level of Chinese demand for US Treasury paper could play a crucial role in determining the interest rates the US government has to pay for its rapidly growing debt pile.
‘In the past year, Chinese investors – mainly its central bank – have become the biggest foreign holders of US Treasuries, increasing their holdings 15 per cent last year to nearly $700bn (€545bn, £485bn).
‘Foreign investors now own about $3,000bn of US Treasuries, or more than half of the amount publicly available. Whether Chinese buying continues to increase this year at the same pace could be an important factor in the outlook for the Treasury market.
‘In turn, the level of demand from China depends on the health of the US economy. The fewer Chinese goods Americans buy, the fewer dollars China will have to invest in dollar-denominated assets’
So much as economic reality forced Hilary Clinton to moderate her election campaign line on China’s human rights issues, so China has little laternative but to continue to buy US Treasury bonds to enable Obama’s rescue package – although mounting opinion in China is asking if the money would notbe better spent at home.
This ambivalence was pungently expressed by Luo Ping, a senior Chinese banking official, at a recent conference; ‘“US Treasuries are the safe haven; it is the only option,” said Mr Luo. “Once you start issuing $1-$2 trillion ... we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys, but there is nothing much we can do.”
If this China-America marriage of convenience lasts long enough to pull the global economy out of recession, then Africa along with the rest of the world economy will feel the benefit of a shorter-lived downturn. But many expect that once the global economy recovers, China will be looking for alternatives to the dollar, and to reforms in the global financial architecture.
This could be to Africa’s benefit, if her leaders know or can be pushed and pressured into knowing, how to make the best of the opportunities.
But in forging a new consensus with Africa, China should also reflect on how Africa’s newest Diaspora in China is affected by the global financial meltdown.
As Chinese traders and merchant families have to find new ways of keeping the Chinese dream alive, similarly African traders in China are finding it harder to maintain their business activity, not least due to the increased pressures of ‘dared to think and act’. But African traders are also making the same trek to China with the same intentions and ambitions. Therefore, if the ‘financial crisis breeds new opportunities’ for China’s private firms and traders in increasing investment into Africa, then the traffic should certainly not be only one way. The official rhetoric of ‘win-win partnerships’, may sometimes appear to be contradicted by realities on the ground.
* Stephen Marks is research associate and Sanusha Naidu is research director of Fahamu’s China in Africa programme
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.
Sokari Ekine reviews the following blogs:
They are no longer stirring still. In fact, they are dying at an alarming rate. First, there was Edward Said, then Mahmoud Darwish, and now Tayeb Salih. And if Said sang about the pleasures of the “placeless place,” Darwish wrote like a jealous child unwilling to share the page with anyone, especially with a ruthless occupier. Salih, on the other hand, spent most of his life living on borderline between East, West, and the Rest. As a thinker, citizen, and writer, he towered quietly over our time with extraordinary luminosity. He also had a prodigious capacity for understanding people no matter where they came from. A sign well defined in his work of art, Season of Migration to the North, where the narrator intones: “They [the Sudanese people] were amazed to learn that Europeans with some differences were much like us, marrying and raising children in accordance with tradition and that generally they were a moral and honest people.” A humanist voice at its best! This is not the nonsense one finds in shabby screeds likes the “clash of cultures” or “what went wrong?” Suffice it to add that Salih had an unbounded energy for waging struggles on behalf of the truth—the truth not only of usually unrecorded social suffering, but also the truth about the institutional obduracy that lurks insidiously beneath the surface of things, and a persistent endeavor of his last years the callous posturing of so-called realistic, or pragmatic writers.
CREAW is a non-governmental, non-partisan, membership organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. Our Vision is to realize a just and free society in which women and men have, exercise and enjoy equal, full rights and opportunities. CREAW's mission is to transform society by empowering and expanding new frontiers for Women's rights and freedoms. The organization also seeks to expand the legislative and policy framework through Lobbying and Advocacy for laws and policies that enshrine women rights whilst, its research and documentation work
lays a framework for more ground breaking interventions against gender based violence and discrimination.
When the incidents of cholera in Zimbabwe were first reported, the government in that country went on a denialism trip. It insisted that the disease was nowhere nearer to reaching epidemic proportions and that there was no humanitarian crisis in the country. This response was an effort to dismiss the view that the outbreak of cholera was a consequence of social policy failures and a result of the general decline of the Zimbabwean economy. Such obfuscation and obscuration of social reality by neglecting the systemic and structural factors behind problems is typical of the responses of the political establishment to crisis situations. Very often the easiest escape route is to blame it all on the ignorance and negligence of the poor or to find a scapegoat.
cc With doubts lingering over its ultimate productivity, Lim Li Ching seeks to dispel fears around ecological agriculture’s low yields and demonstrate its capacity to be more than simply an idealistic socio-environmental approach. Drawing upon evidence from Ethiopia’s Tigray Project and data accrued from a variety of environments around the world, Lim Li discusses the benefits of using compost in place of chemical fertilisers and scope for ecological agriculture’s greater use in enabling countries, regions, and individual families to achieve improved crop yields and more sustainable food sources.
We have three arms of government in Kenya:
1) The Executive
2) The Legislature
3) The Judiciary
These three arms of government are supposed to be independent, complementing each other in the functions of state.
The Executive is normally an elevation of members of the Legislature to new roles. You are voted in as a member of the house, get appointed to the cabinet, then join the president in the executive wing of government.
Those in the Executive are meant to execute the wishes of the Legislature. In Kenya, the Executive in most cases overrides the Legislature and oftentimes operates as if it is above the law.
cc With Madagascar still in the throes of a political crisis, Zo Randriamaro discusses the broader background to the conflict outside of the media’s focus on the contest for power between President Marc Ravalomanana and Mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina. With presidential power becoming progressively more dictatorial in recent years, Randriamaro points to the heightened discontent of both the weakened opposition party and the country’s civil society groups in the face of neoliberal policies and growing social inequality. Underlining the key historic divide between urban and rural areas, Randriamaro argues that the current crisis represents a key opportunity to re-direct Madagascar onto a path towards democracy and improved human rights.
Francio Guadeloupe explores the meaning of activism by reflecting upon personal encounters of human rights abuses in Brazil, South Africa, and the Netherlands. Narratives of discrimination and brutality lead Guadeloupe to believe that a clear split exists between activists in the West and the non-West, a split which we must work towards eliminating. Guadeloupe suggests that an activist recognises the equality of humanity; whether one demands the right to be perceived as human for oneself or for others, an activist, in so doing, demands human rights for all.
cc Drawing upon the parallels behind Cambodia’s experience of the trial of members of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, Yash Ghai considers some of the lessons Kenya could learn in seeking justice around its post-election crisis. Following the collapse of the Khmer Rouge, the international community – primarily through the UN – played a central role in revitalising Cambodia’s economy and monitoring human rights. With corruption often entrenched and political players quick to interfere for their own benefit, Ghai discusses the inherent difficulty of ensuring the involvement of domestic legal figures without creating space for political self-interest.
Kasahun Woldemariam’s book, , has recently been published by Africa World Press.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/421/54418_Monica_Nyeko_tmb.jpgD... her approach to writing and her family’s response to her success, Shailja Patel interviews the 2007 Monica Arac de Nyeko.
-
Gender Links, a dynamic NGO based in South Africa that promotes gender justice and equality seeks to fill the post of manager of the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance, which comprises 40 NGOs around the region that campaigned for the adoption of this protocol in August 2008. The alliance has drawn up a work plan over the next three years for the implementation of the 28 targets for the attainment of gender equality in Southern Africa by 2015.
Over the next few weeks, Pambazuka News will be publishing a series of articles on the case for reparations for the Mau Mau (Kenya's liberation movement). This is a call for articles on this theme. Articles should be no longer than 3000 words, written in clear, jargon-free language, and should include a summary of no more than 200 words. Please send contributions to
Thanks for such a comprehensive . This piece clearly articulates the role that African governments' in complicity with Western companies play in raping our continent of natural resources, including the under development of people and places. May all readers be motivated to do their bit to resist state violence and the oppression of women and communities.
African Women's Development Fund
cc The July 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) offered the first glimmer of hope in resolving the longstanding crisis in Zimbabwe. With the signing of the MoU, the parties began to negotiate a settlement to the crisis under the mediation of Thabo Mbeki, the then South African president. However, it is still unlikely that the current negotiations will lead to a political transition in Zimbabwe. The current regime will remain in power and block meaningful efforts at accountability for past violations. Though a political transition remains highly unlikely any time soon, it is important to consider the form that transitional justice could take in Zimbabwe if ZANU-PF were to lose political power. This essay discusses what shape transitional justice could take if some form of transition were to occur, while recognising the immense challenges to this becoming a reality.
LIMITATIONS OF NEGOTIATED TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
cc and is reproduced here with permission.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.
FOR THIS ARTICLE'S NOTES, SEE THE LINK BELOW
cc President Marc Ravalomanana and beleaguered mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina – the two protagonists in the Malagasy crisis – have finally met. Thus the crisis that escalated into violence and which has left hundreds dead since 26 January seems to be headed for a negotiated settlement. But for Malagasy writer Jean-Luc Raharimanana, the blood that has been shed must not be washed away by yet another period of political games and treachery. The ‘Great Island’ must move away from the political vagaries that have plagued it since independence, the author writes.
cc The Chair of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, His Excellency Kofi Annan, today [24 February] warned that further delays in establishing a tribunal to try those accused of post-election violence committed in Kenya in 2008 could have grave consequences for the country’s reform agenda, upon which Kenya’s stability and prosperity depend.
Hans M. Zell’s is unique and certainly one of the most useful reference resource books on publishing and the book trade in Africa. First published in 1996 under the title: Publishing and Book Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. An Annotated Bibliography (co-edited with Cecile Lomer), this book has filled a gap in the publishing world ever since.
Pambazuka News 420: Women's response to state violence in Niger Delta
Pambazuka News 420: Women's response to state violence in Niger Delta
Li Jinglin is one unique Chinese businessman. This owner of a textile company in Egypt has become one of the few Chinese businessmen to sniff out opportunities in the African nation, mainly to beat fierce competition from back home. Even as domestic enterprises start to feel the pinch from deepening credit woes caused by the global downturn, Li has been busy dealing with rising orders from the US and European markets.
A near-$20 billion (13.8 billion pound) investment by China's top state-owned aluminium producer in miner Rio Tinto and some of its best assets shows how Beijing can use the commodities downturn to buy good assets, and raise the game of China Inc. While China has a long-term strategic interest in securing resources supplies, its big banks are among the most likely to buy minority stakes in foreign counterparts, analysts said, as Western peers bleed red from the global financial crisis.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is on his first foreign tour of 2009, which includes four African states -- Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius. Business is booming between China and Africa in commodities and energy. Here are some details of China's growing business in Africa: Trade between the two has jumped in the past decade, driven by China's resource needs and growing African demand for cheap Chinese-made products. In 2008, total Sino-Africa trade was $106.8 billion, up 45.1 percent on 2007.
Emerging economic powerhouses China and India may be encouraged to strike a “grand bargain” at a coming London summit in which they will take on a greater role in the international financial system in exchange for keeping down protectionist barriers. The deal could be struck at the April 2 summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) countries in London - to be attended by US President Barack Obama - and forms part of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s efforts to seek sweeping reforms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
SA’s first legal bid to protect itself against unfairly subsidised imports from China has been thwarted, under what appears to have been undue pressure from the Chinese government. South African manufacturing firms are already squeezed by heavily subsidised imports from China. The situation is set to get worse as the Chinese government increases payments to its manufacturers to keep exports competitive in the global economic downturn.
The trade and industry department has formally asked China to extend import curbs on clothing and textiles from that country. The request was apparently made without consulting industry players, as none of the industry’s representative bodies was aware of SA’s bid to extend the quotas.
India and the five-nation South African Customs Union (SACU), a regional sub-group of African countries, are likely to sign a preferential trade agreement by the year end, an official of South Africa High Commission said on Wednesday. "By the end of 2009, we should be close to signing of the PTA between India and its southern African customs union partners," Counsellor in the High Commission Jardine Omar said.
South Africa is hoping that its participation in the forthcoming International Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF) in Bangalore, as well as recent investments in India by South African firm Sasol, will lead to doubling of bilateral trade to $12 billion by 2010. The 18th IETF, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, will be held Feb 23-26, and will see 500 exhibitors from 25 countries.
Chinese President Hu Jintao completed his visit to the four African nations of Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius on Tuesday. This was his first overseas trip in 2009 and his sixth visit to Africa. Obviously China is sending a strong message that it intends to expand and develop its relations with the continent. China’s goals in Africa include increased trade and greater market integration. They also include spreading its culture, values and political philosophy toward a harmonious world.
The National Coalition on Mining reports that the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has declared that mining will no longer be allowed in protected forest reserves. This decision follows years of destruction to Ghanaian forests by mining interest, which have displaced thousands of citizens and contaminated water supplies.
On the morning of February 16, 2009, President Hu Jintao delivered an important speech to a welcome conference attended by people from various sectors of Dar es Salaam. He stressed the Chinese people cherish their traditional friendship with Africa in the past, now and in the future, always take the African people as completely trustworthy and all-weathered friends and will maintain brotherhood and partnership with the African people forever.
The University of Westminster has three new studentships available for students starting their PhD research in October 2009. Each studentship includes a stipend of £15000 and a fee waiver, and applications must be received by 5pm on March 3rd, 2009. Applicants need to apply for one of the specific projects advertised at
CAFS seeks a dynamic and charismatic Director to be an ardent advocate, leader and champion of our work in training, technical services, and research. Our goal is to build and sustain human, institutional and program capacity for health and development in Africa with emphasis on population and development, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV&AIDS. Reporting to the CAFS Board, the Director is accountable for the overall leadership, executive management, strategic partnerships, and institutional success of CAFS, and for ensuring its efficient and effective operation. The position is based in the CAFS Corporate Head office in Nairobi, Kenya
IPID (the International Network for Postgraduate Students in the area of ICT4D) together with GSHCID (Graduate Students in Human-Computer Interaction and Development) are organising a workshop for "young" researchers to be held on Friday 17 April 2009 8:30am - 5:00pm at Carnegie-Mellon's campus in Doha, Qatar.
As part of OSI, the International Women's Program (IWP) seeks to promote the advancement of women's rights and gender equality in law and practice. The mission of IWP is to use grant-making and programmatic efforts to promote and protect the rights of women and girls in priority areas around the globe where the principles of good governance and respect for the rule of law are absent or destroyed because of conflict. Reporting to the Director of IWP, the Africa Program Officer (Nairobi) will be responsible for facilitating the implementation of IWP's strategic plan for the region. The Program Officer will work jointly with the Program Officer for Africa and Director of Advocacy Projects based in New York.
We are pleasedto announce the next intake for our Advanced Conflict Transformation course which will be taking place in South Africa starting from the 4th of May to the 29th. The training now has independent modules, each running for a period of one week. Participants can apply for whichever modules they are keen to attend.
CREAW is a non-governmental, non-partisan, membership organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. Our Vision is to realize a just and free society in which women and men have, exercise and enjoy equal, full rights and opportunities. CREAW’s Mission is geared to transform society by empowering and expanding new frontiers for women’s rights and freedoms. The paralegals responsibility will be to give limited assistance to clients. They will also help clients access the police, chiefs, write simple documents and hold monthly community forums.
CREAW is a non-governmental, non-partisan, membership organization whose goal is to transform society by empowering women and expanding frontiers for women's rights and freedoms. CREAW aims at setting standards in upholding human rights and empowering society through civic education, legal advocacy and women's rights awareness. CREAW seeks to fill the position of Finance officer
The Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW) is a non-governmental, non-partisan, membership organization whose Mission is to transform society by empowering women and expanding new frontiers for women's rights and freedoms. Our Vision is to realise a just and free society in which women and men have, exercise and enjoy equal and full rights and opportunities. We are seeking the services of a researcher.
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has condemned the killing of Malagasy broadcast television journalist Ando Ratovonirina and called for improved safety of journalists. “I condemn the killing of Ando Ratovonirina,” declared the Director-General. “Ando Ratovonirina died in the line of duty, while reporting on events that are important for the whole of Malagasy society. His loss is a blow to a profession that is essential to the fundamental human right of freedom of expression, a right that is important to each and every one of us, a right that is vital for democracy and good governance.
With the onset of multi-party democracy in Kenya, three of the four general elections conducted have resulted in a web of violence of an unprecedented scale, each seemingly surpassing the other. Taking the dimension of inter-ethnic struggles, they have not only been notable for their brutality, but also for the widespread internal displacement of civilians and destruction of property never seen since the days of colonialism. The election held in December 2007 was the latest, and led to an unprecedented process of national reconciliation and dialogue.
The Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford (RSC), in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute (HPG), is organising an international conference on the theme of /Protecting People in Conflict & Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World/. This conference aims to convene a broad range of academic researchers, humanitarian practitioners, policy makers and civil society representatives to review the state of policy and practice in the broad field of humanitarian protection as
we look forward into a potentially turbulent 21st Century.
The International Council is pleased to announce the release of its report Corruption and Human Rights: Making the Connection. What impact does corruption have on enjoyment of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights? When can human rights principles and tools help to curb and prevent corruption? In recent years, governments, NGOs and international organisations have taken many initiatives to fight corruption. However, these efforts have rarely been analysed from the point of view of human rights, despite their potential and relevance.
The swearing in of the Prime Minister and the ministers in a unity government in Zimbabwe should be hailed as a landmark in the political development of the country. We acknowledge the political leaders in Zimbabwe for forging this outcome and the role played by SADC and former President Thabo Mbeki in facilitating the process. Now, everything must be done to sustain the momentum generated and make it irreversible. In particular SADC must closely monitor the arrangement to make sure that there is full implementation and the desired outcomes are realised.
The Arab Regional Office in Amman of the Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI) works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI) is recruiting a Program Manager whose responsibilities will include grant review administration and grants management as well as other programmatic and administrative responsibilities.
IPHU and PHM UK are pleased to announced 'People, politics and Global Health; Actions to change the approach', a six day short course for health activists, scheduled for London, 30th March to 4th April, 2009. IPHU aims to contribute to achieving Health For All by strengthening the people's health movement by providing learning opportunities which are well targeted and address priority learning needs and which are well designed and presented.
We, members of Vondrona Miralenta ho an’ny Fampandrosoana (VMLF), association working to promote women’s increased political participation in Madagascar, are outraged and grieving because our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and friends had been slaughtered. We express our deepest sorrow and concern about the loss of human lives and the deadlock in the life of our nation. In the face of this tragic bloodshed, we affirm that it is utterly inappropriate to take sides with any particular force, and we call on all stakeholders to uphold the Nation’s interest over any party consideration.
On March 20-22, a conference will be held in Toronto at the University of Toronto to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, which claimed the lives of some 1,000,000 in approximately 100 days. The conference, which will focus on lessons learned / not learned from the Rwandan Genocide, will feature some of the world's most renowned genocide scholars and genocide activists. Hundreds of scholars, students, teachers, members of the Rwandan community, and other members of the general public are expected to attend.
Negotiations are underway on the services agreements towards concluding a full and comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between East and Southern African countries (ESA) and the European Union (EU). The services negotiations will impact on health services and access to health care. The brief outlines the issues affecting health services, and presents options for ESA negotiators to ensure that the negotiations meet international and African health and human rights commitments, use available trade flexibilities, promote public health and ensure adequate assessment and information to support the negotiations.
We women of Africa from Angola, DR Congo, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan and Zimbabwe, together with activists and supporters from UK WILPF and diaspora organisations, aware of the negative consequences of neo-colonisation in Africa, have gathered in London in November 2008 to voice our concerns. We take this opportunity to ask the general public for their support and to raise our demands to decision-makers including the international community, national governments and non-governmental agencies.
We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law. We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.
February 11 to 13 saw the first days into the trial of murdered lesbian soccer player, Eudy Simelane, at the Delmas Circuit Court. Four men, aged between 18 and 24 were to appear before Judge Moses Mavundla on the charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and rape. On February 10, a bus load of activists left Kwa-Thema (Gauteng) to 'camp' in Delmas (Mpumalanga) for the duration of the trial.
The number of Canadian miners poking the arid terrain of Niger is increasing, and the relative durability of the uranium price in a down market isn't the only thing fuelling their inquisitiveness. Possessing one of the world's best uranium resources, Niger has long been all but closed off to foreign investors - unless they were French.
This symposium will bring together students of media, journalism academics, communication professionals, civil society groups among others to discuss the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Act, 2008 and Kenyan media reportage of it.
The 2009 RVI Sudan Field Course will be held from 24 to 30 May 2009, in Rumbek, Southern Sudan; the Horn of Africa Course from 20 to 26 June in Lamu, Kenya. RVI courses are intensive, graduate-level immersion programmes, covering history, politics, culture, environment, livelihoods and human rights.
On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, BBC News asks one of Africa's pioneering scientists, Dr Ave Kludze, of the US space agency Nasa what inspired his stellar career and what he thinks of the standard of science teaching in Africa today.
The 2009 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour.
In mid December, 2008, Robert Fowler, a career Canadian diplomat who is currently the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Niger, and his aide Louis Guay, an official at Foreign Affairs, were abducted in Niger. They were kidnapped not long after visiting a mine operated by Montréal-based SEMAFO (Société d’exploitation minière-Afrique de l’Ouest). The president and CEO of SEMAFO, Benoit La Salle, told the National Post: “Louis [Guay] called me and said he was going down there on a UN mission and that he heard the mine was a Canadian success, and he wanted to report this back to Canada.”
The controversial Suppression of Terrorism Act was passed by the Swaziland parliament in May 2008. Certain provisions of the Act empower the Prime Minister to declare virtually anyone or anything to be a terrorist entity. Lawyers have challenged the Act saying it violates fundamental rights of ordinary citizens protected under the constitution. Political activists and human rights defenders have apparently become persona non-grata, battered and/or arrested.
The 53rd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will consider the theme: "The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS" at its 53rd session at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 2-13 March 2009. As part of efforts to increase its focus on national-level implementation, the Commission will return to this theme in two to three years time to review the implementation of the policy recommendations adopted and to identify remaining gaps and challenges.
I am disappointed that the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill 2009, which would have paved the way for the establishment of a Special Tribunal in Kenya, was defeated in Parliament yesterday. This development is a major setback to the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV).
The case against the Co-Publisher and Managing Editor of the Gambia's Point newspaper, Mr. Pap Saine, standing trial for alleged false publication and broadcasting was Thursday adjourned by Magistrate Sagarr Jahateh of the Kanifing Magistrate's Court to 25 February 2009 for hearing.
The Democratic Front of the Comoros has appealed to the head of state, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, to mobilize the people against attempts by France to hold a referendum in March with a view to transforming the Island of Mayotte into its overseas territory.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Professor Philip Alston, met with victims and survivors of the Mt.Elgon conflict. The civilian population in the area had been trapped between the violence of the Sabaot Land Defence Force (or SLDF) and a military and police operation within Mount Elgon's district.
CODESRIA/SEPHIS collaborative programme is pleased to announce the sixth session of its Extended Workshop on New Theories and Methods in Social History which is scheduled for the 3rd -21st of September 2009 in Dakar, Senegal. The theme of the workshop is: Historicizing Citizenship. The Workshop will be organised around the comparative experiences of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.
An unidentified armed group has launched an attack on the presidential palace in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. The West African country's ambassador to London accused Nigerian militants and said they had been repulsed.
The prosecution was on Thursday allowed to withdraw a case against seven journalists accused of taking part in an unlawful assembly. Prosecutor Capis Otieno, told Nairobi's Kibera senior resident magistrate Cosmas Maundu that he had been instructed by the director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Keriako Tobiko, to withdraw the case.
Robert Mugabe on Thursday swore in 19 deputy ministers to a new unity government with opposition agriculture nominee Roy Bennett still held in detention on a criminal charge. The ceremony finalised the historic unity government formed last week after years of political turmoil between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Harare High Court judge Justice Yunus Omerjee on 19 February 2009 dismissed a bail application by detained freelance photojournalist Anderson Shadreck Manyere accused of acts of banditry saying he was facing a serious offence. Justice Omerjee ruled that the photojournalist had been found in possession of rounds of ammunition and faced a serious charge making him an ineligible candidate for bail.
Belgium has lodged a case at the International Court of Justice seeking to compel Senegal to prosecute former Chadian President Hissene Habre. Mr Habre, who is accused of crimes against humanity, has lived in Senegal since being removed from power in 1990.
Burundi's parliament should respect its human rights obligations and reject a pending criminal code revision that would outlaw consensual homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to President Peter Nkurunziza and the members of the Burundian Senate.
The United Nations Security Council should act with urgency to send additional peacekeepers to northern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues its brutal attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The Security Council is expected to discuss the situation in Congo on February 17, 2009.
The Sudanese government is censoring the media and cracking down on human rights activists and journalists who speak out on human rights and justice, Human Rights Watch said in a report today. Harassment, repression and censorship has worsened in the last year, particularly since the International Criminal Court's (ICC) request for an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir in July 2008.
The rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) brutally slaughtered at least 100 Congolese civilians in the Kivu provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between January 20 and February 8, 2009, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed dozens of victims and witnesses who recently arrived from neighboring areas of Ufamandu and Walowaluanda (North Kivu province) and from Ziralo (South Kivu province) at displaced persons camps near Goma, the capital of North Kivu.
Three days ago, Jean-Charles Marchiani, a former member of the French secret services, was released from the Paris prison of La Santé where he had been serving time since May 2008. Last year, a tribunal in Paris found Marchiani guilty of influence peddling and other corruption charges involving African countries. Marchiani, who was also a close collaborator of former French minister of the interior Charles Pasqua, was sentenced in 2008 to three years in prison. He has been freed early thanks to a special amnesty granted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Environmental experts warn that climate change will lead to oceanic acidification and increase surface water temperatures, especially around the African continent. This will affect fish stocks and, as a result, threaten the livelihoods of small-scale fishing communities. "Acidity levels of our oceans predominantly affect fish larvae, which depend on calcium carbonate in the seawater to build their shells, skeletons and cell coverings," explained professor Geoff Brundritt, chairperson of the Global Ocean Observing System in Africa (GOOS Africa). "A higher acidity level hampers this process."
Despite the Algiers Peace Agreement and the decision of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission, there is a continuing impasse over the demarcation of the border between the two countries and the status of the town of Badme. This presents an ongoing serious risk of escalating tension and of renewed conflict that may have serious political and humanitarian consequences.
More than 15,000 Congolese have fled to South Sudan since the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) began launching attacks in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations refugee agency reported today. “It is critical to move all of these refuges away from border areas both for security reasons and to facilitate distribution of aid,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva. “Access to the refugees will soon become impossible when the seasonal rains begin in April and roads become impassable.”
Representatives from Africa and poorer Asian nations have been asked to attend the G20 financial crisis summit in London on April 2, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday. Brown has asked the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Association of South East Asian Nations and the African Union Commission to send delegates to the summit.
Repairing Zimbabwe's battered economy could cost as much as $5 billion, said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday, adding the country is looking to attract direct foreign investment to help its recovery. Meeting South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to discuss a recovery strategy, Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe planned to use a number of currencies but was not considering adopting the rand as legal tender.
Pia Engebrigtsen worked for 2 months as a nurse in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province during the country's cholera outbreak, in which MSF has so far treated more than 45,000 people. Here she shares her story of death, heartbreak, survival and saving lives against all odds.
HIV prevalence in Kenyan adults has remained relatively steady since 2003, at around 7%, according to a major national study presented to the Sixteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) on Wednesday. However, less than one in five HIV-positive adults were aware of their HIV status, and over half had never been tested for HIV at all.
The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy may paradoxically increase stigma, reduce counselling and testing and increase sexual risk-taking, according to the findings of a Tanzania based study published in the online edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Starting antiretroviral therapy earlier, before the development of symptoms, is the most likely way to reduce the high death rates after treatment initiation seen in people with HIV in resource-limited settings, two large cohort analyses show. The studies also show that the major disadvantage of starting treatment late - an increased risk of death - may persist for some years, burdening already overstretched health systems with illness that could be avoided by earlier treatment.
In a positive step towards establishing peace in northern Mali, more than 500 Tuareg rebels laid down their arms in their fight against the Malian government. The brokers of the tentative quieting of violence are encouraged about the prospect of putting an end to the conflict in the Kidal region.