Pambazuka News 584: Struggles for the promised land: Letters from West African sisters
Pambazuka News 584: Struggles for the promised land: Letters from West African sisters
State prosecutors requested a life sentence for Burundian radio reporter Hassan Ruvakiki who was imprisoned after airing a November interview with a purported rebel leader, according to news reports. Chief Prosecutor Barbatus Ntakarusho made the request during a hearing at a court in Cankuzo, a city in eastern Burundi, saying the reporter had engaged in 'acts of terrorism', the journalist's defense lawyer, Onesime Kabayabaya, told CPJ. Ruvakiki is a reporter for the French government-funded Radio France Internationale and the local station Radio Bonesha FM.
Ethiopia's main, state-owned printing company has directed newspaper publishers to censor any content that may draw government prosecution under the country's anti-terrorism law or face cancellation of their printing contracts, according to local journalists and news reports.
The 2012 Africa Progress Report is available. The report's purpose is to provide an overview of the progress Africa has made over the previous year. The report draws on the best research and analysis available on Africa and compiles it in a refreshing and provocative manner. Through the report, the Panel recommends a series of policy choices and actions for African policy makers who have primary responsibility for Africa’s progress, as well as vested international partners and civil society organisations.
A Zimbabwean minister has ordered traditional leaders to seize land belonging to homosexuals and expel them from their communities. Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo, who belongs to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, said homosexuality was a 'foreign value'.
Thousands of Mauritanian opposition activists staged a march and sit-down protest in Nouakchott Wednesday evening 9 May, calling for former coup leader President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to step down. The turnout was larger than on May 2, when the demonstrators tried to occupy a square in the centre of the capital before being dispersed by security forces.
The Washington Post reports that since 2007, the US State Department has trained about 35,000 African soldiers for an international force in Somalia, mostly deployed to Mogadishu. The African Union is planning to expand its Somalia force from 12,000 to 18,000, the majority of the troops US-trained. Training has occurred at these three primary sites.
Patricia de Lille has the next few days in which to come up with answers for angry Sir Lowry’s Pass Village residents who threw stones at police and motorists. They also tried to burn down the local satellite police station by lobbing petrol bombs at it. Hundreds of residents protested last week, demanding service delivery in an area they claim has been ignored by the City of Cape Town for the past 10 years.
The United Nations has adopted global guidelines for rich countries buying land in developing nations. The voluntary rules call on governments to protect the rights of indigenous peoples who use the land. It is estimated that 200m hectares, an area eight times the size of Britain, has been bought or leased over the past decade, much of it in Africa and Asia.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for the European Patent Office to stop granting patents on the conventional breeding of plants and animals. The resolution was jointly tabled by Members of Parliament from several parties and was adopted with a large majority. The vote follows the demands of some national parliaments, such as the German Bundestag, to put a stop to patents on plant and animal breeding. 'This is a huge success for all farmers, breeders and consumers who are concerned about the monopolisation of our food resources,' says Ruth Tippe from the coalition No Patents On Seeds!
On Saturday 19th of May, Algeria Solidarity Campaign invites you to scrutinise the context of this month’s elections and how it relates to Algeria’s most recent history. The panellists will discuss the pouvoir’s resilience over the past twenty years, its relationship with leading western capitals and the degree of manoeuvre it has today amidst regional reshaping of polities. The results of the 10th of May elections will also be addressed in the same framework.
This National Geographic infographic by John Tomanio is staggering. Using the metaphor of a tree, it charts the loss of US seed variety from 1903 to 1983. And what you see is that we’ve lost about 93 per cent of our unique seed strands behind some of the most popular produce.
Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules. A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities. The report found that nearly one quarter of research funding at land grant universities now comes from corporations.
To celebrate the African novel and its adaptability and resilience, Kwani Trust announces a one-off new literary prize for African writing. The Kwani? Manuscript Project calls for the submission of unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the Diaspora. The prize seeks fresh, original work that explores and challenges the possibilities of the novel.
Volume four, issue one of Interface, a peer-reviewed e-journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out, on the special theme 'The season of revolution: the Arab Spring' with a special section 'A new wave of European mobilizations?' This issue of Interface includes 403 pages and 31 pieces in English, Catalan and Spanish, by authors writing from/about Australia, Canada, Catalunya, Dubai, Egypt, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US among other countries.
The African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) invites research grant applications from African researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners working on conflict and peacebuilding at universities and research institutions or regional governmental and non-governmental organizations in Africa.
For people of colour the time has come to seek true liberation: not by struggling to be heard by the powers that be but by hearing one another’s voice and building solidarity.
These simple exchanges between two citizens of Africa show their dreams, pain, hope and civic action to ensure that the continent becomes the promised land where everyone can live in peace and justice, solidarity and prosperity.
NOTE DE L'ÉDITEUR:
Les lettres qui suivent font partie d'un échange émouvant et d’une rare perspicacité entre deux femmes qui ont été, pendant des décennies, des leaders respectés de mouvements citoyens en Afrique de l'Ouest. Deux femmes connues pour leur sagesse, leur courage, leur créativité et leur engagement sans faille pour la justice, la paix et le bien-être de leurs pays respectifs, la Guinée-Bissau et le Mali. Cette semaine, Pambazuka est heureux de partager une partie de ces correspondances personnelles, échangées à la suite des coups d'Etat survenus d’abord au Mali en mars, puis en Guinée-Bissau en avril. Les lettres ont été traduites du français et sont signés avec des noms d’emprunt pour la sécurité de ces femmes, de leurs camarades et de leurs familles en ces moments difficiles qu’ils sont en train de vivre. (La version en anglais des lettres peuvent être lues à http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/82019]
'As we look forward to celebrating the 54th anniversary of Africa Liberation Day, we look back to its founding principles to assess and plan the onward progress of the African revolution.'
'Beneath the rhetoric that GM is the key to feeding a hungry world, there is a very different story - a story of control and profit.'
African countries operating under the exploitative CFA Franc must free themselves from its shackles.
Kenya's National Cohesion And Integration Commission (NCIC) has claimed that ‘the five largest communities’ have a disproportionate share of total workforce in public universities and constituent colleges in Kenya. But how does this make a contribution to national cohesion and integration?
An exhibition to be held in Nairobi aims to allow present and future generations of Somalis to learn about their rich heritage so that they can work towards restoring and preserving it.
‘Africans in China’ is the first book-length study of Africans travelling to China and forming communities there. Employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods involving prolonged interaction with approximately 800 Africans across six main Chinese cities - Guangzhou, Yiwu, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau - Professor Adams Bodomo (The University of Hong Kong) has constructed sociolinguistic and sociocultural profiles that illuminate the everyday life of Africans in China. This unprecedented book provides insights into understanding issues such as why Africans go to China, what they do there, how they communicate with their Chinese hosts, what opportunities and problems they encounter in their China sojourn, and how they are received by the Chinese state. Learn more about the book, which was published by Cambria Press in 2012, at
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Statement of a group of National and International NGOs in Guinea Bissau concerning the Coup d'e tat of April 12, 2012.
Though apartheid ended on paper, black South Africans in uMshwathi continue to struggle against being uprooted from farmlands by white land grabbers.
The recent damage to a Nok sculpture raises important questions about the legality and morality of removing African artefacts from their origins and transporting them to the West.
Sending troops to Somalia will be seen as furthering the agenda of imperialists. The idea of Africans fighting Africans is abhorrent.
Moving beyond ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensuring that it is incorporated into national legislation is the way to ensure children’s rights.
Are international criminal courts serving political agendas rather than upholding legal principles of justice? The recent ruling on the Charles Taylor case raises troubling questions.
The Refugee Law Project, under its video advocacy programme, has produced documentaries to show the work being done at RLP, as well as highlight the plight of forced migrants in Uganda. The latest video on a page featuring their productions involves land evictions in Apaa.
In this audio recording from Chatham House, Pa'gan Amum, Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Secretary General and Chief Negotiator of the Republic of South Sudan discusses the increased tensions between Sudan and South Sudan and gives his thoughts about how to solve the pressing issues of security, oil revenue sharing and border demarcation in order to prevent further deterioration in relations.
Mobile technologies, which play an increasingly important role in Africa’s education systems, are set to stimulate debate at this year’s eLearning Africa conference in Cotonou, Benin, from 23-25 May. Through a range of interactive expert-led sessions, participants at eLearning Africa 2012, the Continent’s leading conference on ICT for development, education and training, will explore the challenges, opportunities and success stories of mLearning.
This global overview from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre looks at internal displacement resulting from conflict and violence during 2011. 'In 2011, the number of people internally displaced by these causes stood at 26.4 million. The world in 2011 was an unsafe place for millions of people. From criminal violence including attacks by armed groups in sub-Saharan Africa or by drug cartels in Latin America, to armed clashes such as those associated with the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire or the uprisings across the Arab world: such events caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many risked their lives as they sought refuge in unfamiliar environments while facing a constant struggle to meet their basic needs.'
Mass unemployment is forcing thousands of Kenyans into the hands of private employment bureaus who export them to the Middle East where they often become trapped in abusive and exploitative work.
With the perpetrators of a war that has killed an estimated six million people in the Congo still roaming free, justice needs to be delivered to create the conditions for peace and reconciliation.
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga last week arrived in Nairobi in full graduation attire from the US where a college conferred on him an honorary doctorate, his third.
Gado welcomes new French president.
A report launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has warned that high levels of vulnerability, combined with more severe and frequent weather and climate extremes, may make some places such as African coastal cities increasingly difficult places in which to live and work. The report also said any delay in greenhouse gas mitigation is likely to lead to more severe and frequent climate extremes in the future, and will likely further contribute to disaster losses.
Ghana-based sub-regional press freedom body Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has said that some students in Mali ransacked a private radio station, 'Radio Kayira', destroyed broadcasting equipment worth about FCFA 18 million approximately (US$3,571,950), and stole more than FCFA 2 million (about US$398,556) in cash.
The Burundi government has rejected a recent critical report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 'the escalation of violence in Burundi' describing it as 'a declaration of war'. A statement said: 'As the previous reports were seen by the Burundi government as simple signs of provocation, the one which came out on Wednesday 2 May...is a true declaration of war against the Burundi people bound, according to the NGO, to disappear if it continues to live with the leaders it elected in the last elections.'
An independent United Nations expert has urged the Tunisian Government to ensure that human rights, especially the right to education, are kept at the heart of the historic reforms taking place in the North African nation. 'Tunisia is at a turning point in its history,' the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh, stressed at the end of his first fact-finding mission to the country. 'If it fails to secure in its new Constitution and its new laws the highest standards of protection of human rights, particularly the right to education, Tunisia will miss a historic opportunity,' he added.
The large amount of donor funding that has gone into Rwanda's fight against HIV has not affected efforts to prevent and treat unrelated diseases, such as malaria and measles, and may in fact have improved overall healthcare, a six-year study has found. Researchers at Brandeis University in the US compared the performance of health clinics providing HIV services with those that did not by collecting data on the number of vaccines administered, visits to register child growth, and non-HIV/AIDS hospitalizations to monitor the attention given to non-HIV health issues.
The spy chief for South African police, Richard Mdluli, has been moved from his powerful post pending the outcome of an investigation against him, the police minister said Wednesday. Mdluli has been embroiled in controversy since he was charged with murder and corruption in 2011. The charges were provisionally withdrawn earlier this year and a court inquest opened. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told lawmakers that the inspector general of intelligence would further look into claims that Mdluli was spared a trial due to political meddling.
Soldiers loyal to general Bosco Ntanganda have formed a new rebel movement called M23, civil society groups in eastern DR Congo said. The movement's name is in reference to the peace accord that was signed on March 23, 2009 and which enabled the rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) to be integrated into the DR Congo Armed Forces (FARDC). It is believed that Ntanganda and his associates formed this rebel movement to reposition themselves on the political scene once the institutions that are formed after the elections have been established.
Ethiopia has made more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of 'fertile and unutilized' land available for agriculture companies that meet government requirements, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. About 300,000 hectares has been leased for commercial farming so far, he said at an Ethiopian investment forum in the capital, Addis Ababa.
The late President Mutharika was hailed at home and abroad. But after the 2009 landslide re-election victory, his quest to engineer the election of his brother to succeed him in 2014 and increased autocracy astounded many.
Ghanaians have started a national debate as to whether the involvement of the private sector in the establishment of universities has lowered academic standards and thus affected the quality of their graduates for the job market. Growing demand for university education amidst a squeeze on the public budget has resulted in private entrepreneurs establishing universities all over the country. But instead of contributing to national development, the trend is creating a teeming mass of unemployed youth, opening a debate on whether these institutions are playing a useful role.
Tanzania will campaign for South African Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is seeking to become the next chairperson of the African Union Commission. But neighbouring Kenya has turned down a request from South Africa to support its candidate. When meeting with a South African delegation, President Mwai Kibaki said South Africa's ambition for the AU top job clashes with Kenya's own interest to have Erastus Mwencha, a Kenyan, for the post of deputy chairperson.
On the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese women in New York City gathered for a rally they called Pregnant With Fear of Radiation. Protestors wore fake pregnant bellies, or carried posters with images of pregnant women wearing face masks. Well aware that fetuses, children under five, and women are at the greatest risk from radiation exposure, mothers have emerged as a powerful voice in Japan’s growing anti-nuclear movement. To call attention to their message, the mothers have organized marches, petitioned government officials, fasted, and held months-long sit-ins in public locations. They regularly wear symbols of maternity and motherhood in deliberately confrontational ways.
Zambia's President Michael Sata has warned Western diplomats against meeting his country's opposition leaders, saying such acts amounted to meddling. 'We do not do it in Europe, and why should they do it here? I am therefore directing the minister of foreign affairs to address the issue of diplomats meddling in internal affairs of the country,' Sata said on state radio.
To push genetically engineered crops into Africa, the promoters work hard to ensure lax biosafety laws, ignore the Africa Model Law on Biosafety and ensure lack of transparency while truncating participation.
Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved.
'We want to make it clear that we want to have good working relationship with all progressive or potentially progressive forces. However, this does not mean that we can accept being oppressed within our own struggle.'
The proposed constitution serves the interests of the Transitional Federal Government and its international backers, not the people of Somalia.
Leading a dedicated team to accompany the development and implementation of campaign strategies led by progressive African social justice movements, the Utetezi Director will support innovative strategies to amplify grassroots demands and realize people-centred change.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya or Dakar, Senegal.
Deadline for application: May 18, 2012.
For further information, please the job description.
To apply, please send the duly completed application form attached to: [email][email protected]
An assault on the Libyan interim government headquarters has left one guard dead and several others wounded, according to reports. Fighters attacked and surrounded the building on Tuesday 8 May, demanding stipends that the government promised to pay to those who helped oust former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Nasser al-Manaa, an interim government spokesperson, said the armed protesters, some of them carrying mortars, tried to push their way into the building.
A two-week-long mass strike by doctors, who demanded a pay rise from hospitals in the Nigerian state of Lagos, has taken a deadly toll on a significant number of patients in need of urgent medical care. Hospital staff say many patients have either died or continue to suffer as the strike by about 1,000 doctors paralysed the medical institutions.
Following World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, Reporters Without Borders has taken a look at the breaches of freedom of news and information in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2012. During the period in question, Reporters Without Borders recorded: the murder of one journalist, the killing of another with no proof that it was linked to the victim’s work, nine assaults, seven arrests, three journalists threatened, four instances of seizure of equipment or deletion of files, three cases of access to information being cut off, three court cases against journalists and news organisations, the closure of a press centre and a media outlet’s premises vandalised.
Malawi's NGO Gender Coordination Network has expressed concern over low female representation in President Joyce Banda's cabinet, in which out of 30 ministers and deputies, only eight are female. The organisation’s chairperson, Emma Kalia, has been quoted as saying that the low representation of female ministers in the new cabinet is contrary to the Southern African Development Community and Africa Union regulations that call for equal opportunities between men and women.
The 21-member Civil Society Constitution Coalition (CSCC) has welcomed the Draft Constitution released recently, saying some clauses provided for in the document were progressive. CSCC spokesperson, Leonard Chiti, said the coalition had noted some progressive clauses provided for in the document and that it would protect them so that other interest groups would not take advantage of their numbers or influence to water down or remove them.
In connection with a recent gang rape video, Women’sNet has issued a statement supporting the criticism of organisations like Media Monitoring Africa, who have criticized the initial coverage of the story for revealing details about the alleged victim, and the Daily Sun’s publication of a picture of the girl involved. 'Survivors have a right to anonymity, and according to our law those who circulate and use images from this video are liable for prosecution.'
The two weeks since Egypt's abrupt cancellation of a Mubarak-era gas-export deal with Israel have seen an exchange of indirect threats and warnings between the two countries, culminating in an apparent Israeli military build-up on the border of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. 'In recent days, Israel appears to have begun preparing for military deployments on its southern border,' Tarek Fahmi, head of the Israel desk at the Cairo-based National Centre for Middle East Studies, told IPS.
Sudanese war planes have launched renewed air strikes against South Sudan, violating a UN resolution to end weeks of a bitter border conflict. 'The Republic of Sudan has been randomly bombarding civilian areas,' said Southern army spokesperson Kella Kueth, who said the air strikes hit the border states of Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el-Ghazal on Monday and Tuesday (7 and 8 May). It was not possible to independently confirm the reports of bombing and Sudan has repeatedly denied it has bombed the South.
The International Campaign to Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict unites organisations and individuals into a powerful and coordinated effort for change. 'Together we will demand bold political leadership to prevent rape in conflict, to protect civilians and rape survivors, and call for justice for all - including effective prosecution of those responsible.'
Egyptian-American columnist Mona Eltahawy has sparked controversy and debate over an article she wrote contending that women have not yet benefitted from the revolution and the women’s revolution won’t begin 'until the rage shifts from the oppressors in our presidential palaces to the oppressors on our streets and in our homes'. Critics have argued that while oppression does exist, her analysis is simplistic and irresponsible as it uses 'Orientalist' arguments to defame Arabic culture and serves a neo-colonial agenda of the 'white man'. In a blogpost, journalist and activist Mona Kareem called on Western media to highlight the voices of other Arab women for an accurate picture of 'Arab feminism'.
South Africa’s LGBTI community has reacted strongly against a statement made by ANC MP and Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) president Patekile Holomisa on the rights of gays and lesbians. Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) questioned whether the National House of Traditional Leaders knew that their comments constitute hate speech. In a press release FEW added, 'As the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community we are enraged that traditional leaders are making such careless statements. It is such a betrayal when a body that is supposed to protect the rights of people turns around and proposes an amendment of those very rights to exclude people from the constitution. We have a constitution to protect the rights of everyone, not just those of the majority.'
Members of the clergy and some human rights activists in Kenya have raised their objections to recommendations that homosexuality be de-criminalised in the East African country. The recommendations are proposed in a report on safeguarding sexual and reproductive health rights. The report is as a result of a public inquiry that had been set up by the commission to examine the extent and nature of violations of the two rights.
Website Africa Focus has a feature on HIV/AIDS and health as a human right. 'In the last 15 years, AIDS activists and medical professionals, in Africa and around the world, have won the recognition that the fight against AIDS, which disproportionately affects the African continent, is a shared global responsibility. Millions of lives have been saved. But the fight against AIDS and the wider commitment to health as a universal human right is now threatened by AIDS fatigue and austerity politics.'
Egypt’s parliament on 6 May 2012 approved amendments to the Code of Military Justice that failed to end the unprecedented expansion of military trials of civilians, despite pleas for reform from the legal and human rights communities, Human Rights Watch said. In 2011 more than 12,000 civilians, including children, faced unfair military trials which fail to provide the basic due process rights of civilian courts, more than the number of military trials of civilians during 30 years of rule by former president Hosni Mubarak.
This report examines the impact of the cancellation of Global Fund Round 11 funding and subsequent changes in Global Fund policies and practices relating to HIV and drug use programmes. It focuses on how future HIV and harm reduction programming will be affected by the Global Fund’s current funding crisis given the very low existing levels of funding for such programming.
The UN refugee agency has launched a repatriation programme for tens of thousands of refugees who want to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from neighbouring Republic of the Congo. In a low-key start to the operation, a small convoy of boats took 79 refugees down the Oubangui River from the town of Betou in Republic of the Congo (ROC) to Dongo in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province. UNHCR and senior officials of the two countries are expected to take part in a formal ceremony later.
Rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region said on Tuesday (8 May) they had seized control of a town from Sudanese government troops, part of their campaign to topple President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government. 'Our forces entered Girayda, south of Nyala, and took over the garrison completely,' Abdullah Mursal, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Minni Minnawi, said.
Zimbabwe’s new school term opened this week with teachers threatening another round of industrial action, if the government fails to meet their demands by June. The start of the last school term was marred by a nationwide strike, which only ended when the government agreed to pay teachers an extra US$58 and urgently address their needs.
The proposed law results from consultations between the state and traditional leadership structures. It ignores the voices of millions of rural women disenfranchised by those structures.
A lot of money and time have been invested in writing a new constitution. There are several drafts lying around. Why not immediately hire reputable drafters to finish off the job and put the resulting document to a referendum?
High Court orders South African authorities to investigate crimes against humanity committed by state officials in Zimbabwe.
Ghana’s health authorities officially declared a cholera outbreak in the country April. According to the country’s health service, as of 24 April 2012, over 1,570 cases and 21 deaths have been recorded in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions. This outbreak is linked to poor sanitation conditions and migration from affected regions to other regions.
The new Constitution of Egypt is on the verge of being drafted. In order to support the forthcoming work of the drafters, ARTICLE 19 has produced a comprehensive policy brief outlining how the new Constitution should protect the right to freedom of expression and freedom of information. The brief is based on international legal standards on freedom of expression, including the decisions of international and regional human rights courts as well as the authoritative interpretation of international human rights law by the UN Human Rights Committee, regional mechanisms and other bodies, such as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
At last week’s World Bank and IMF spring meetings, the G24, the group of developing countries governments made a bold bid to get debt work-out mechanisms back on the agenda. They called for a study on sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms, a topic which the IMF had ignored. The European debt crisis provided an opportunity to re-open the debate. Though the G24 call was not echoed in the International Monetary and Financial Committee’s statement, it was an important first step which shows how the problem of unpayable and illegitimate debt is increasing at international level.
The policy prescriptions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have failed to change the fundamentals of the economies of African countries and must be re-examined for the continent to develop, says a Professor of Law. 'The fundamentals remain unchanged. That the structure of African economies remains unchanged means that there will be no meaningful development,' Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr, a member of the Council of State, said at the launch of 'The Oxford Companion to the Economics of Africa' in Accra.
Egypt’s New Women Foundation said they are suing Islamist Parliament member Azza al-Garf over her pro-female genitals mutilation (FGM) statements. The women’s rights foundation sent a letter to the speaker of parliament Saad al-Katatny, informing him of legally going after Garf and asking for his permission to be allowed to take the MP to court. The parliament needs to lift immunity for an MP in order for them to be held accountable in a court of law.
At the recent Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) international forum on economic rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates from around the world highlighted the urgent need to link economic justice and LGBT rights. As one representative of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission noted, the United States LGBT rights movement has focused largely on civil and political issues, including hate crime legislation, partnership benefits, gay marriage, and repeal of the shameful military policy 'Don't Ask/Don't Tell'. The link between economic justice and LGBT rights, however, in both the United States and abroad, has received considerably less attention.
Abuzar Al Amin, former deputy editor-in-chief of Rai Al Shaab, a Sudanese newspaper affiliated with the opposition Popular Congress Party, was arrested in May 2010. He was convicted and sentenced to five year’s imprisonment. Abuzar Al Amin was finally released on bail on 22 August 2011. However, the charges against him have not been dropped and he has not been brought before a court. As a result, he is currently limited in his capacity to work due to the risk of re-arrest.
The conviction of a prominent member of Equatorial Guinea’s beleaguered political opposition is a travesty of justice, Human Rights Watch said. A trial court in the city of Bata found Wenceslao Mansogo Alo, a medical doctor, guilty of professional negligence and sentenced him to three years in prison in a politically motivated trial.
The much anticipated reconciliation talks between President Alassane Ouattara’s ruling party coalition and opposition parties ended much like they began: with the party of former President Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), conditioning future engagement on the release of Laurent Gbagbo and the other former party leaders in detention. These preconditions not only expose the FPI political elite’s contempt for the thousands of victims of often heinous forms of political violence, but also reinforce the perception that the party remains more interested in hard-line politics than in helping end the root causes of the country’s grave human rights abuses.
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A solidarity for the vulnerable that cuts across the ethnic, regional and political divide is the final counter-balance against tribalism in South Africa.
A drought is threatening Angola's already modest food production, in a setback for efforts to revive once-vibrant farmlands abandoned during decades of war. The dry season that normally lasts only about three weeks in December has stretched to three months in parts of the southern African country where most regions are used to abundant rainfall almost year-round. 'Production has collapsed throughout the central and southern regions,' said Belarmino Jelembi, national coordinator of the Association for Rural and Environmental Development.
A young person is three times more likely to be unemployed than an adult globally and if the disparity is not dealt with urgently economic protest will worsen. The International Labour Organisation revealed this and other shocking statistics at the Youth Employment Summit, hosted by the National Youth Development Agency, in Boksburg, East Rand. Unemployment remains high at 23.9 per cent in South Africa, and 70 per cent of the jobless are between the ages of 15 and 34.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan’s office rejected accusations Okah made in Monday’s request for bail in South Africa, where he was arrested and will stand trial for bombings in Nigeria’s capital that killed 12 people during 2010 independence celebrations. In the bail request made available on Monday, Okah said Jonathan’s government orchestrated the bombing to eliminate a rival and to fan ethnic tensions for political gain. Okah has been jailed in South Africa since being arrested here shortly after the October, 2010 bombings.
South Africa should investigate whether officials in neighboring Zimbabwe are responsible for human rights abuses there, a judge said Tuesday 8 May in an order that has grave political and practical implications. The ruling handed down in a Pretoria court Tuesday by Judge Hans Fabricius was the first under South African statutes spelling out its international law obligations. Human rights lawyer Nicole Fritz, whose South African Litigation Centre joined the Zimbabwean Exiles forum to bring the suit, said human rights groups have documented cases of torture and other crimes in Zimbabwe. Under Tuesday's order, she said, investigators from a country with a strong legal framework now will be able to hold Zimbabwean officials responsible for crimes allegedly committed during that country's political meltdown.
An international human rights group has written to Zimbabwe’s three main political party leaders urging them to scrap the death penalty from the new constitution. Amnesty International says in a letter to Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe and the two leaders of the MDC Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube that the death penalty’s deterrent effect is negligible. Zimbabwe’s new constitution which is being steered by the three parties is currently at drafting stage. A draft released last week shows the death penalty will be retained, but only for aggravated murder.
Shoppers in Malawi have been scrambling to buy basic goods, fearing huge price rises after the currency was devalued by 33 per cent. The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says that many shops had run out of staple foods such as sugar, cooking oil and bread by the end of Monday. The kwacha was devalued as part of moves by the new government to restore donor funding. The central bank announced that one dollar would now be worth 250 kwacha, up from 168, while the peg to the US currency would be scrapped.
African countries need more support from the private sector in order to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include important development targets like poverty reduction, and improved health and education. Governments cannot do it alone, development and economic experts told delegates at the MDG Review Summit, which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3-4 May.
One day after being sworn in on 2 April, Senegal’s new President Macky Sall reversed months of public denial of the hunger affecting over 800,000 of his people - part of the Sahel-wide crisis affecting 16 million inhabitants - by calling on partners to help the country get food to those in need. UN agencies and NGOs are struggling to raise enough money to get programmes working so they can catch up with the steadily rising number of hungry people.
In the dusty courtyard of a crowded clinic in Old Fangak, in South Sudan’s Jonglei state, throngs of people, some of them under mosquito nets strung between trees, wait to get tested for kala-azar, amid the worst continuous outbreak in three decades. Last year, this clinic – which lacks electricity or running water - handled around half the 11,000 total recorded cases of the parasitical disease, also known as visceral leishmaniasis. Spread by the bite of the sand-fly, it can cause fever, weight loss, enlarged spleen, rash, anaemeia, diarrhoea, fatigue and, left untreated, death.
The Brazilian government of Dilma Rousseff is taking firm steps towards stronger relations with Africa, such as the creation of a special fund to finance development projects together with multilateral lenders like the World Bank. South America’s giant is keen on establishing a strategic association with Africa, and the tool for doing that is its powerful national development bank, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), which will work in conjunction with the multilateral African Development Bank (AfDB).
Farima Samake, a widow living in the village of Gwelekoro in the south of Mali, regrets obeying her husband when he took their first daughter out of school to take care of her younger brother. 'Her father decided it and I didn’t refuse,' says Farima. 'Now she is married in another village not far from here. I think our decision has been an injury to her because if she had studied her life could have been different.' Farima didn’t oppose the decision because the law dictates that a woman must obey her husband. 'In all the villages of this region, girls get married at 15 or 16, even if they go to school,' she says. 'Their parents must ask the husband to let their daughter attend school once she is married.'
The faltering economies and tighter budgets of Europe and America, the traditional providers of development financing, have left organizations and communities wondering where the continued funding of their development projects will come from. In this special report on the Peace and Conflict Monitor website, veteran fundraiser and development guru Jürgen Carls reviews the remaining instruments and possibilities for north-south financing, and argues that the solution may be in a completely new approach to fundraising - an approach based on longer term relationships between funders and recipients, characterized by trust, openness, honesty, commitment, and international cooperation.
Although the Malawian constitution is clear about succession in the event of the death or incapacitation of the president, a cabal close to the late President Mutharika wanted to install their own man in power instead of Vice President Joyce Banda.