PAMBAZUKA NEWS 78
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 78
Human rights should be a central principle for all new policies on world sustainable development, says the organization Rights & Democracy, which notes that the draft political declaration contains no reference to human rights.
The WSSD must declare that HIV/AIDS is not only a threat to sustainable development, but a global catastrophe and a global responsibility. The fight against the epidemic must continue and must be intensified, while maximum political will and grassroots participation must be mobilized, argues this position paper on the pandemic prepared for the WSSD.
For sustainable development to mean anything people must be healthy enough to benefit from it and not have their lives cut off prematurely. Development without health is meaningless. But the processes that are likely to occur in a world undergoing globalisation, climate change, urbanisation, population increase and many other changes, will impact on human health in many complex ways. Some of them will benefit us, others will create new threats to survival and health, while many others will have a complex mixture of threats.
The World Health organisation is spearheading a global initiative for healthy environments for children, which will be presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The initiative will work to safeguard the places where children live, learn and play from threats such as unsafe drinking water, air pollution and diseases carried by insects and parasites.
Throughout the 1990s, several major United Nations conferences stressed the importance of including women in sustainable development. But despite these commitments on paper, there has been far too little action. Gender myopia—or blindness to women’s issues—still distorts environmental, economic, and health policies. Today, a full decade after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, governments, development agencies, and even some NGOs remain resolutely patriarchal. Despite the widespread belief that women “have come a long way” in achieving improved social and economic status, they continue to face many of the same obstacles they did ten years ago. And in some cases, these problems have become even more formidable.
Increased migration is one of the most visible and significant aspects of globalisation: growing numbers of people move within countries and across borders, looking for better employment opportunities and better lifestyles. National and international policies need to reflect the contribution of migration to sustainable development, and to explicitly protect the rights of migrants which are all too often ignored in attempts to curb their movement.
Mining is one of the planet’s leading polluters, with most new mining development taking place in some of the world’s most ecologically fragile regions. Yet mining has not proven beneficial to local communities or national economies over the long term.
The eve of the WSSD is an opportune moment to reflect on the meaning of 'sustainable development', its genesis, the road it has traversed and what it means for the peoples of the world. More importantly, it is an opportunity to assess whether the rhetoric of sustainable development has the potential to shift the emphasis from wealth generation and bring wellbeing of the world's peoples into centre-stage of societal concerns.
The world's governments, facing a deteriorating planet, are making a last ditch effort to save the Earth. The industrialized countries of the North and the developing countries of the South are scrambling to reach a global deal that will combine environmental protection and poverty alleviation. But a group of global corporations are claiming that they have the answers to the planet's environment and development woes and suggest redefining "sustainable development" to focus on "profit, planet and people." George Bush, President of the United States, sides with the corporate approach. Is the year 1992 or 2002? Take your pick.
Earthscan has a range of books that cover many subjects relating to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), including social, economic and environmental issues.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is planning to convene a peace meeting on Liberia that would include President Charles Taylor and the rebels of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), news agencies reported last Friday.
Following four years of war, the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Uganda reached an accord in the Angolan capital, Luanda, last Thursday, whereby Uganda will withdraw its remaining troops from the DRC, and the two countries will normalise relations.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has sent out an urgent appeal for funding to help assist victims of heavy rains which hit parts of northern Sudan between 3 and 8 August, causing severe flooding and rendering thousands homeless.
Liberia's government said last Thursday it had recaptured the northern town of Voinjama, which rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) had been using as a field headquarters. The town, which is the capital of Lofa County, is 270 km north of the capital, Monrovia.
Human Rights Watch has welcomed the arrest of General Augustin Bizimungu, chief of staff of the former Rwandan army, as an "important step"towards delivering justice for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.
A Zambian High Court judge will rule on 30 August whether the parliament had the right to lift former President Frederick Chiluba's immunity from prosecution.
The people of Angola should not be among the poorest in the world. World Bank statistics put Angola's GDP at close to $9 billion, with more than 50 percent coming directly from the sale of petroleum. Yet, Angola ranks 161 out of 173 countries on the Human Development Index of 2002.
A new report from Human Rights Watch has identified top commanders of the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel movement implicated in May massacres in Kisangani. The report finds the rebels responsible for widespread killings, summary executions, rapes, and pillage during the put-down of a mutiny beginning on 14 May.
ANTI-CORRUPTION NOW! will carry relevant information to its members and partners on anti-corruption initiatives and programmes that TI-Z is embarking on. This information should be of use and interest to the public, as well as officials in the public and private sectors. The first edition carries background information on the mission and objectives of TI-Z, articles on the Presidential Elections, and unfinished cases of corruption.
Corruption generating conditions peculiar to the region include but are not limited to the digital divide and poor information exchange, capacity constraints and technical challenges associated with generating demand for accountability in the midst of poverty and limited literacy, north-south dependency, repressive political environments, lack of credibility in international engagements and transparency inhibiting legal regimes, says a position paper on the Independent Anti Corruption Commission.
The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, has called for laws to guide the conduct of public and civil servants. He said because ethics are not enforceable legally, most public and civil servants do not feel obliged to serve the nation as expected.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) should go beyond creating awareness and publicising information to building coalitions across the socio-political sectors and developing action plans in order to breathe new life into the crusade against corruption.
Transparency International senior advisor Augustine Ruzindana has urged government to institute sustainable ways of punishing corrupt officials. "We have all the laws to check on corruption but they are not followed. Officers are sacked today and they get new appointments the next day," Ruzindana said.
It is the duty of parents to educate their children about HIV/AIDS and the use of condoms. Boyce Mgcina, a traditional healer from Izifo Zonke Traditional Healers and an HIV/AIDS counselor at Zola Clinic in Soweto, says in most cases fathers become not just heads of the house but also role models to their children - girls and boys irrespective. Mgcina says traditional healers should talk often about HIV/AIDS during imbizos.
Parliament has reversed an amendment to the Industrial Property Act curbing imports of generic HIV/AIDS drugs, the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines (KCAEM) announced last Thursday.
Health officials in Madagascar said last Thursday a flu outbreak that had claimed the lives of hundreds of people, was now under control.
Swaziland, where 34 percent of adults are HIV-positive, now has the second-highest HIV infection rate in the world after Botswana.
Children as young as ten years now collect the meagre rations of maize, beans and cooking oil handed out by aid agencies in Swaziland. The youngsters have become the heads of their families since their parents have either died of HIV/Aids, or are extremely ill with the virus.
A youth organisation has developed an innovative approach to education and informing people on HIV/AIDS by designing a board and card game series. Designed by Youth Now!, all the games in the series encourage high levels of message retention by teaching youths even during leisure hours. They also provide long hours of game play.
Zambia has refused emergency food aid from the United States despite being one of the countries worst affected by famine in Africa.
An expedition headed to Angola last Wednesday to search for the giant sable, a majestic antelope that scientists hope has survived the southwest African nation's decades-long civil war.
An action plan to assist Liberian refugees in western Côte d’Ivoire in the areas of health and environmental sanitation has been put in place, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies reported last Wednesday.
Since the signing of the landmark Machakos Protocol on 20 July between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, tens of thousands of people have been displaced by a government offensive in the area of the oil fields in western Upper Nile (Wahdah/Unity State).
A recent TV programme about refugees in The Gambia explored why the country has become a magnet for displaced people. The programme revealed that, unlike in most countries, refugees in The Gambia are not confined to camps. The majority live in the community, and are actively encouraged to seek employment in all professions.
When a group of unarmed women protesters occupied ChevronTexaco's main oil export terminal in Nigeria last month, they not only disrupted operations in a key oil facility, but also altered the rules of engagement in the longstanding conflict in the Niger Delta oil region.
UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer has called on the Security Council to make sure that women, peace and security become a regular item on the political agenda and in thematic debates of the Council.
Some school children in Zimbabwe cannot afford to buy a pencil. Often up to ten children share one pencil between them and in some cases children just cannot write or participate in lessons because of the lack of stationery. Got some pencils or pens that you can spare? Then please share them with these children.
In 12 states of Nigeria, Adultery is now punished by stoning to death. Sign our petition urging the Attorney General of Nigeria to seek judicial interpretation of Sharia Criminal Law.
In the past weeks, oil-bearing communities in the western flank of the Niger Delta have been witnessing a rising tempo of resistance to the violence of the oil and gas industry. The protests are being organised by women whose local industries such as fishing and farming and livelihood have been destroyed by transnational oil companies, ChevronTexaco and Shell. Write to ChevronTexaco, Shell and the Nigerian government telling them you support the demands of the women and their communities for a safe and conducive environment necessary for their survival.
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, that the appeal to the District Chief of Justice in Darfour Province of 88 persons, including two children, who have been sentenced to the death penalty was rejected on 11 August. Please write to the authorities in Sudan urging them to repeal the death sentence and guarantee the safety of those involved.
NANGO is organising an NGO Expo to be held in October 2002. The theme of the Expo is “Towards a Better Understanding of the Work of NGOs in Zimbabwe”. NANGO believes that it is important for NGOs to come out in the open and allow the general public, government, private sector and the international community to see for themselves what NGOs are doing, capable of doing and who they represent.
An all-Africa meeting of civil society groups and non-governmental organisations working in the area of HIV/AIDS care and treatment, will take place from August 22-24 in Cape Town, South Africa. The meeting is jointly organised by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Medecins Sans Frontieres/South Africa, Catholic AIDS Action Namibia, Kara Trust Zambia and a host of other organisations.
The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Bioethics Institute, in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Clinical Bioethics, are pleased to announce the availability of a one year training program in research ethics for scientists from sub-Saharan Africa.
Are you an NGO leader or fundraiser keen to find out about effective ways of mobilising local resources? Do you need fresh ideas and insights from some of the world's best fundraisers on how to develop your fundraising and communications strategy? Could you benefit from learning about trends in philanthropy and giving in Eastern Africa? The Resource Alliance are pleased to share 21 years of international fundraising and local resource mobilisation experience in a three day event to be held on 24-27 November 2002, in Nairobi, Kenya.
There is no shortage of books on human rights, but most of them view the subject uncritically. Sellars, by contrast, has set out to expose the hypocrisy of a movement that seeks, to use one of the author's many powerful phrases, 'to occupy the moral high ground by day and sleep the sleep of the just by night'. Her book will make uncomfortable reading for modern day high priests and practitioners of the secular religion of human rights. And her book will be grist to the mill of those who are prepared to question whether the human rights approach can genuinely promote human rights.
By Patrick Bond
This book offers a critical reflection on the post-apartheid 'sustainable development' experience. What is of greatest value from South Africa is the warning not to pursue neoliberal, market-oriented strategies--as did Pretoria and most SA municipalities since democracy dawned in 1994. Working with local activists, Bond and his colleagues have researched and campaigned on behalf of social and environmental justice for years: offering alternatives to a minerals smelter in the Nelson Mandela Metropole, opposing Lesotho mega-dams, helping township residents end disconnections of electricity and water, and advocating for free lifeline services.
* Document. The end of asylum? The changing nature of refugee policies in Africa
B Rutinwa, pp. 12-41
* Document. Returning refugees or migrating villagers? Voluntary repatriation programmes in Africa reconsidered
O Bakewell, pp. 42-73
* Document. Negotiating humanitarian access in Angola: 1990-2000
A Richardson, pp. 74-112
* Document. Refugee identities and relief in an African borderland: a study of northern Uganda and southern Sudan
J Merkx, pp. 113-146
* Document. International refugee aid and social change in northern Mali
S Sperl, pp. 147-159
* Document. Repatriation as peacebuilding and reconstruction: the case of northern Mozambique, 1992-1995
OT Juergensen, pp. 160-200
This book By Christa Wichterich, Jochen Toepfer & Theo Mutter is the first study on the construction of a civil society environmental agenda in East Europe and in the South. It is based on a cross-sectional study of projects and programs run by project partners and regional offices of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in the period of 1996-2000. It is a strategic review of practical and political interventions of partner organizations in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe in the area of ecology and sustainability.
An email service designed to enable the rapid and efficient use of ICT's as a tool for Ghana's development has been launched. ICONNECT GHANA is a quarterly online, offline and email service knowledge vehicle.
"In his address before a packed house at the Open Source Convention, Lawrence Lessig challenges the open source audience to get more involved in the political process. Lawrence, a tireless advocate for open source, is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and the founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. He is also the author of the best-selling book Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Here is the complete transcript of Lawrence's keynote presentation made on July 24, 2002."
fyuze is a free online news portal which you can use to customize your news reading. I've been trying it out for a week now, and am streaming headlines onto my version using rss feeds from various blogs, news sites and portals and search engines. Try it out - it's free! (Look for extra feeds on
When 56-year old Rhoda Gichiku speaks, she does it with authority.From outside, her Kathangu village in Embu, some 130 kilometres northeast of Nairobi would pass as any other African village, desperate, struggling and failing to harness local resources. But Kathangu's women have a different story - and it is the story of how some 26 women have joined hands in an Avocado soap-making project, a grassroots' initiative that is changing their lives.
Amnesty International has voiced concern over the arrest of Fletcher Dulini-Ncube in Zimbabwe over the alleged abduction and murder of two ruling Zanu-PF members. Amnesty is worried about Dulini-Ncube’s state of health and has called on concerned parties to write to the Zimbabwean authorities.
Some corporations continue to abuse the rights of people, destroy the livelihoods of communities, and pollute water and forest resources for future generations, according to a new report by Friends of the Earth International. The report graphically illustrates the need for governments to agree to introduce tighter rules for multinationals at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
Ten years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Governments are gathering to assess progress in achieving sustainable development and agree a new plan of action to implement the commitments they made. But a massive gulf still exists between rich and poor countries over the need for more concrete action while the industrialised world is shirking on its responsibilities.
Pambazuka News’s A-Z guide on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) contains key information for Summit-watchers. You’ll find the web site addresses of background articles explaining what’s at stake and links to details on where to find information on the main and side events. There are also links to websites that will provide 24-hour coverage of the event. And if that’s not enough, remember to watch out for Summit news and articles in the regular sections of Pambazuka News.
A programme to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission that will involve free provision of the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine to the 150,000 infected pregnant mothers and their infants in provincial and district hospitals has been launched.
There is tentative evidence that the high-risk sexual behaviour of teenagers, which has been driving SA's high rate of HIV infection, is changing as a result of awareness campaigns, LoveLife CEO David Harrison says.
The UN children's agency UNICEF and the Mozambican government are set to sign a US $86 million cooperation agreement aimed at fundamentally improving the living conditions and prospects of children in the country, UNICEF said in a statement released on Monday.
An Islamic appeal court has upheld a sentence of death by stoning for adultery against a Nigerian woman. Amina Lawal, 30, was found guilty by a court in Katsina state in March after bearing a child outside marriage.
Fighting has intensified between Rwandan forces and ethnic Hutu Interahamwe rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a Rwandan official has said.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela last Friday reiterated his belief that all HIV-positive South Africans should have access to antiretroviral drugs through the public health system.
While nearly 99 percent of global population growth is occurring in developing nations, the global economic slowdown is making it more difficult for these nations to finance population control initiatives, according to a new report.
A top director in the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has been reinstated to his plum R375 000-a-year job - despite being found guilty in an internal inquiry of mismanaging more than R2.5-million of taxpayers' money.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned that Liberia is showing all the major warning signs of political, military, economic and social deterioration.“The question is whether the international community will muster the will to take effective action,” says the ICG in a new report.
A cargo of potentially dangerous plutonium has been driven away from South African waters after the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza set sail from Cape Town to track and monitor the shipment.
Health ministers from 10 southern African countries and senior officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) are to meet next week in Harare, Zimbabwe, to examine responses to the region's humanitarian crisis.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released a report on the challenges facing journalists in Sierre Leone. Journalists, says the report, have begun to address problems of corruption in the media and other unethical practices that undermined press credibility.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is “extremely concerned” about the safety of Hassan Bility, editor-in-chief of The Analyst newspaper, which is based in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. He has been held incommunicado in state custody for almost two months.
The authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have issued orders banning two local correspondents from reporting to the BBC's Somali service, a senior official in the region's commercial capital, Bosaso, told IRIN on Monday.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for a global commitment on press freedom to emerge from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), warning that the aims of the Summit will not be achieved without a commitment to human rights.
NDI seeks a resident director to manage and develop its program in Burundi. The goal of the anticipated 12-month program is to strengthen the capacity of Burundi's transitional legislature, in particular its ability to implement key provisions of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement (APRA).
The incumbent will research and collect information pertaining to human rights matters from a variety of data sources; keep abreast of issues/events and provide up-to-date information; assist in the analysis of information, to include the impact on the countries and thematic mandates on the human rights situation in assigned area.
The IFES-Nigeria project involves developing and conducting a variety of capacity building programs for the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria in its preparation for the April 2003 State and Federal Elections.
Will provide technical assistance to the Relief Program Director in the design, funding, implementation, evaluation, and reporting for all relief and rehabilitation programs in the country of assignment, in collaboration with Relief and Rehabilitation specialist staff.
Reporting to the Director, the Head of Programmes is responsible for the coordination of programme development, management and implementation, provision of an effective interface with partner institutions and funding agencies, monitoring and evaluation of programme delivery and operational performance, staff supervision and general administration.
The undersigned organisations are supporters of a strong United Nations. We believe in a United Nations which holds commercial interests subservient to human rights, labor and environmental principles, which avoids excessive and undue corporate influence, which holds corporations accountable in a legal framework and which maintains the integrity of international social and environmental agreements. We are concerned, in particular, with the influence of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) on the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) process. In your speech at the World Economic Forum in January, you described the ICC and the WBCSD as having "embraced the issue" of sustainable development. We think this conclusion is premature and gives these groups an undeserved seal of approval.
A follow-up round of a polio vaccination campaign on Tuesday entered its second day in six Burundian provinces bordering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
A leading Tanzanian health official has warned religious and civic leaders against "infighting" and "finger pointing" in the war against HIV/AIDS in the country.
Efforts to combat corruption in the last 10 years failed because of lack of political commitment, Transparency International (TI) board member Leonard Kalinde has said. Kalinde said there was an absence of top level commitment to the fight against corruption.
This year's theme is people-centred information and communications technology policy in Africa. The prize is open to civil society organizations, government institutions, educational organisations, community-based groups, networks, social movements and individuals anywhere in Africa.
The overall responsibilities will be to provide efficient and effective leadership in the development, co-ordination and control of CAFS activities to meet its obligations as negotiated between donor agencies, regional governments and other stakeholders.
Perform the duties of CEO of a small, relatively new NGO. Managing a coexistence center that has been established in Uganda and develop a network of similar centers in Africa and elsewhere. Responsible for all fiscal and administrative management of the organization.
The book by Gary Alexander argues that we have an upside down economy, driven by the needs of producers rather than the needs of people or the environment. It describes a future with a co-operative free-market economy driven directly by the health of the environment and the well being of all of humanity rather than money flows.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday that it had resumed overland repatriations from Guinea, suspended at the end of June because of logistical constraints.
Joseph Olenghankoy, president of the Forces of Innovation for Solidarity and Union (FONUS), a political party with disputed links to the government, has threatened to "break" the local media rights group Journalists in Danger (JED). He has also publicly criticised BBC correspondent Arnaud Zajtman for reporting JED's campaign to free jailed Achille Ekele N'Golyma, publisher of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri.
A new WWF report says that the choices that world leaders make on energy at the WSSD will have widespread implications for biodiversity, water supply and food security in Africa.
A wave of baby murders are commanding front-page news in the small conservative kingdom of Swaziland. But while editorial writers are denouncing "mother murderers", women's rights groups argue the rising number of abandoned babies are a symptom of gender inequality in this traditional society.
Street children and child sex workers in Zambia's capital Lusaka will soon become familiar with a kerb crawler of a different kind - a mobile clinic equipped especially to treat children for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
In June 2002, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) hosted an online conference on Information Access for Rural Women. Information, communication and entertainment are as critical for rural living as they are for urban living, and indeed there is increasing demand for information and communication equipment and services in rural areas. However, major challenges exist in terms of available means of information access and dissemination as well as how to operate the audio-visual systems used in rural areas.
If the Washington Consensus was the ideology of the late 20th century, can ecological economics and a genuine recognition of market failure for most of the earth's human inhabitants inform heads of state negotiating a grand deal in Johannesburg? If so, they will have to change direction rather dramatically.
Earth Emergency invites people everywhere to sign a statement of support for a nine-point plan of action to deal with the Earth's state of emergency. It aims to create a popular, global alliance to lobby world leaders at the Summit. You are invited to sign up, discuss the nine points in the plan of action, and suggest existing projects and partnerships to take the work forward.
Sustainable development means the elimination of poverty in ways that do not damage the environment for future generations. If world leaders can't take steps to ensure trade benefits poor people and the environment, who can?Write to world leaders with your demands on sustainable development.
WSSD listservers carrying information about the Summit include:
*http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csdlistserver.htm - UN Summit Secretariat listserver;
*http://iisd.ca/enb/2002summit-l.asp - International Institute for Sustainable Development's 2002 Summit list;
*http://www.worldsummit2002.org/ - Heinrich Boell's WSSD newsletter;
*http://lists.healthdev.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?join=earthsummit2002 - Stakeholder Forum's EarthSummit2002 list;
*http://earthsummit.open.ac.uk - Earth Summit for All features discussions on education for sustainable development.
The Public Services International (PSI), a global trade union federation, is planning to use the World Summit on Sustainable Development to call for an end to the privatisation of water supply.
Zimbabwe is now in crisis with millions starving as a result of Robert Mugabe's land grab policy. Almost two hundred white farmers have been arrested for defying Mugabe's instruction to stop farming.
At least 90 government officials of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' State (SNNPS) have been arrested by the state authorities in the Sheko Zone for involvement in human rights violations and abuse of office, IRIN has been told.
Combination antiretroviral therapy is the "only thing that will really impact on survival" for people with HIV/AIDS, Charles Gilks, a senior adviser to the World Health Organization, said on the BBC program "Health Matters," BBC News reports.
The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) joins the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN), Article 19, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and other concerned actors in condemning the abuse of human rights and press freedom in Zimbabwe.
Despite the continuing peace process in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, the overall humanitarian situation has not improved, according to the latest report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).