Pambazuka News 571: Change, transformation and resistance
Pambazuka News 571: Change, transformation and resistance
Following a nine-hour court session, presiding judge Ahmed Refaat announced that the final verdict in Hosni Mubarak’s trial will be pronounced on 2 June, adding that the session will be aired live on national television. In what is known as the trial of the century, Egypt’s ousted president Mubarak, his ex-interior minister and six of his aides face charges of complicity in killing protesters during the popular uprising that toppled the regime in January 2011. Mubarak also faces corruption charges along with his two sons Alaa and Gamal and businessman Hussein Salem in the same case.
A local rights group has demanded that parliament repeals a law issued by the ruling military council that allowed for settlements in cases of squandering public funds. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) sent a memo to the People’s Assembly’s legislative and economic committees Wednesday demanding the repeal of a law issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on 3 January to settle with investors under legal investigations in cases of squandering of public funds. The law is an adjustment to the Investments Guarantees and Incentives Law No. 7 of 1997, giving the government full authority to settle with investors in financial corruption probes even if they are referred to criminal courts or are subject to preliminary prison sentences.
In a letter submitted to the 8th session of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Javier Sáchez Anso, a member of International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of La Via Campesina, urges the international community, including the development agencies and the United Nations, to make a significant policy shift toward the full integration of human rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. 'This policy shift includes policies that prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable people working in rural areas. It includes improvements in the implementation of existing human rights instruments that protect the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. We feel that the existing instruments are clearly insufficient to ensure the protection of our rights.'
The meeting, dubbed ‘Encounter of Intellectuals for Peace and Environmental Conservation’, was attended by more than a hundred laureates in literature, history and social and natural sciences and eminent thinkers from 21 countries.
Africa's 54 nations have decided to establish a continental free trade area by 2017, speed up infrastructure development and put related policies and laws in place to boost the integration process. 'The Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) should be operationalized by the indicative date of 2017, and enhanced intra-African trade and deepened market integration can contribute significantly to sustainable economic growth, employment generation, poverty reduction, inflow of foreign direct investment, industrial development and better integration of the continent into the global economy,' according to the Declaration on the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa. The document was endorsed at the 18th African Union (AU) summit 23-31 January in the Ethiopian capital.
A leading gay activist in Libya has responded to his country's delegate who told a planning meeting of the UN Human Rights Council that gays threatened the continuation of the human race. Libya's representative told the gathering of ambassadors that LGBT topics 'affect religion and the continuation and reproduction of the human race.' But a gay activist from Tripoli responded: 'Human rights are universal and include LGBT rights. Therefore how can a human right be a threat to humanity?'
There is no way President Wade can hang on to power for very long. Chances are the politicians will work out some deal.
Zimbabwe's trade with the European Union increased by 36 per cent last year, reaching 664 million euros from 488 million euros in 2010, the European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Aldo Dell'Ariccia, has said. Meanwhile, trade between the two partners is set to receive a further boost as Zimbabwe is now very close to completing the ratification of an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. There are concerns, however, that Zimbabwe's full EPA ratification will pose further challenges for local industry.
A democratic government must have the capacity to deliver decent services that meet basic needs to enable the Constitutional guarantee of dignity and to confront the epic threat of climate change.
Madagascar is aiming to plug its energy gap and reduce its carbon emissions by encouraging a major investment in large-scale wind-turbines, the country’s interim president, Andry Rajoelina, has announced. Unofficial figures put the cost of the initiative at US$80 million. But experts say that instead of importing costly infrastructure, the country should make micro-wind power stations from locally available materials.
On 14 February, French authorities searched the upscale Paris residence associated with President Obiang’s son, Teodoro 'Teodorín' Nguema Obiang, as part of a probe into the 'ill-gotten gains' of President Obiang and two other African Heads-of-State. Teodorín is the target of ongoing government corruption investigations in the United States and France, report EG Justice.
South Africa as a powerhouse on the continent expected to take the AU Commission Chairperson’s job. But the outcome of the election indicates that opposition to Ms Dlamini-Zuma was intractable.
There is a paradox between the Dickens of empathy for the working class in industrial England and the Dickens who spoke and wrote about and supported some of the vilest descriptions and actions on blacks and Asians.
‘The attack on Libya was an attack on Africa! It was an attack on my aspirations as a person of African descent to have a free and independent Africa. That's what was attacked!’
If Black Republicans want more members of the Black community to learn about the benefits of their party, they are going to have to do a better job of openly holding their party accountable for racially divisive and hatefully charged rhetoric.
'We are now also faced with a new scramble for Africa – the mad rush by European countries and multi-national companies to loot African resources and re-occupy our land.'
The colonial ‘empty land’ theory has no historical credence. It stirs very deep emotions in the hearts of African people who were dispossessed of their land at gunpoint and are still dispossessed – hence rampant poverty among them, whether they be Zulu Africans or Khoi Africans.
Saharawis are becoming increasingly impatient with the UN and many are willing to break the ceasefire between Western Sahara’s liberation front, Polisario, and Morocco, which has been in place since 1991, and return to war.
Did the Tanzanian activists cause a breach of the peace or prejudice public safety and the maintenance of public order? Crucially, were the police, by prohibiting the alleged assembly and subsequently arresting the activists, using their discretion appropriately?
The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) has described the Traditional Courts Bill as 'highly anti-democratic, unconstitutional and discriminatory'. The organisation says it is 'extremely concerned' that the Bill puts rural women in a discriminatory position. 'The Bill basically opens the door for women not to approach the customary court but be represented by a man. Women’s rights to equality before the law is compromised in this situation which make it worse for lesbian women since it is the general knowledge that customary law is not favorable to people who have intimate relations with people of the same sex,' said LGEP in a press statement.
With South Sudan's oil revenues cut off, why should people who have known austerity their whole lives be made to pay for a further round of austerity? asks Nyantung Ahang Beny. Instead the wealthy should pay through taxes hotels and other luxury items while luxury government vehicles should be sold and per diems abolished.
Victims of environmental disasters or other abuses inflicted by corporations in Nigeria are being denied justice as they are too poor or do not know how to seek legal recourse, jurists say. 'Poor rural victims of corporate human rights abuse are usually unaware of their legal rights and don't have the financial resources to file court process, gather information and evidence, and afford legal services,' said Carlos Lopez, the International Commission of Jurists' senior legal advisor in a report.
Two strong explosions rocked the strategic Somali city of Baidoa hours after Ethiopian and pro-government forces wrested it from Al-Qaeda-backed insurgents, officials and witnesses said Thursday 23 February. Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying they had inflicted 'heavy losses' on pro-government forces. News of the blasts came as world powers met with the fragile Somali Government at a conference in London Thursday, designed to build on progress in the years-long struggle against the Islamist militants who have allied themselves to Al-Qaeda.
While welcoming aspects of South Africa's new budget announced on 22 February, civil society grouping SECTION 27 says it remains concerned about aspects of the health budget. Even though the health budget has increased, SECTION 27 fears this could be undone by mismanagement, corruption, wasteful expenditure and a lack of capacity for implementation. Amongst other concerns, it notes that increases in allocations for HIV and AIDS programmes will not result in the expected expansion of these programmes unless problems relating to staffing, infrastructure and the payment of service providers are resolved.
A Burundian anti-graft activist detained two weeks ago for criticising the justice minister over alleged corruption was freed Tuesday 21 February. 'I am happy to be freed from prison where I spent two weeks for no reason, because all that I said is true and has been spoken about by several senior officials in the country,' said Faustin Ndikumana. Ndikumana had written in a complaint letter that candidates had been obliged to pay $1,450 for jobs at the judiciary.
European governments have opened the door to a radical offer of 'debt relief' for Arab north African neighbours such as Egypt, EU and governmental sources said. The plan emerged barely 24 hours after eurozone governments backed an unprecedented write-down of Greek sovereign debt held by private investors, one expected to reduce Athens' debt burden by nearly one third, some $141 million.
How is successful has the Nigerian security forces been in dealing with the Boko Haram menace?
The Zimbabwean president is amazingly still going strong.
Kenya is headed to elections. How are the politicians going about their campaigns?
How much do they own?
‘Should Labour and the Left Propose a Global Green Jobs Alternative to Austerity and Climate Change?’
President Wade wants a third term in office over the dead bodies of Senegalese people. Yet this is the same man who has tried to identify with Pan-Africanism. After Sunday’s elections, popular struggles for a better Senegal will continue.
My sense is that there are texts that one should be able to see (right away) that need wider audience. I think the written by Hirji on Henry Mapolu is one such text…if one is going to agree with what is said by Hirji.
What is crucial, it seems to me, is that people beyond Tanzania, beyond sociologists, beyond academics, must hear/learn about what someone like Henry stood for. One of the things that stands out, among the many things, is how he refused to go for the job of district commissioner. A presidential appointment.
In this day and age very few people know what ‘principled values’ mean. Hirji's obituary of Henry conveys that in a very clear way.
A new book scrutinises the labour structure of the South African mining industry over the last 350 years.
The plight of domestic workers in Middle Eastern countries and the lack of laws to protect them inspired Elyas Mulu Kiros to write a poem.
The power imbalances underpinning the structural layout of public worlds have reflected economic inequalities in areas characterised by those lacking political capital.In Zimbabwe, the scene is ripe for private waste sanitation companies or toilet capitalists.
The film ‘Bulaq’ succeeds in highlighting the fact that strong social ties and a community’s sense of ownership of place are far stronger than state plans and oppression.
‘It is necessary to formulate alternative policy options which have their centre of gravity in social struggles, antagonistic to today’s ruling class.’
Gasasira has reason to be wary of Rwandan authorities. After three men beat him severely in 2007, his newspaper was suspended in April 2010 and his deputy editor assassinated in unclear circumstances in July that year.
Education in Nigeria is in crisis following years of underfunding. And private universities that have mushroomed to meet the growing need for higher education have become so commercialised many of them are no better than glorified high schools.
The Ugandan government must protect its citizens against threats, violence and harassment based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Having almost completely destroyed their own fisheries, European fishing fleets are attacking the fish stocks of African waters. As a result, traditional fishing communities along the west African are catching fewer and fewer fish. Their livelihoods are under threat. The next Senegalese presidential elections will take place in February - so now is the perfect time to pressure politicians. Tell future leaders of Senegal to make sustainable fishing a priority. To sign the petition, go to
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a legal opinion declaring that the detention of Lapiro de Mbanga, one of Cameroon’s most famous singers, by the Cameroonian government was completely arbitrary and a violation of international law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Article 43 of Kenya’s constitution provides for social and economic rights of the citizens. All proponents of change need to work very hard to realise these rights, which are essential for ending the suffering of the poor.
Ghana is embroiled in a corruption scandal that ruling party MPs believe won't effect how people vote. Think again.
‘They tell you in the mainstream media that Quattara won? How did he win? Who decides on who wins elections? What constitutional body has absolute and final say on election malpractices? The Supreme Court.’
A proliferation of small arms is fueling conflict and instability in East Africa.
A Belgian court has rejected an application to ban a colonial-era book about the Congolese adventures of the cartoon character Tintin for breaching racism laws. Documents from the court of first instance in Brussels show that it did not believe the 1946 edition of Tintin in the Congo was intended to incite racial hatred, a criteria when deciding if something breaks Belgium's racism laws. In 2007, Congolese campaigner Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo launched legal proceedings to ban the book, arguing its portrayal of Africans was racist.
Three senior diplomats have resigned from their posts at the Congolese embassy in London and claimed asylum in the UK. Baby Kazadi Moussonzo, first secretary to the ambassador; Mamie Yaya Efunga, another first secretary; and Kabengele Mamba, second secretary, had between them a total of 14 years service at the London embassy. They resigned earlier this month and have issued a lengthy statement denouncing their government, accusing it of presiding over a 'climate of terror'.
The international community has failed to grapple with the real underlying political and economic issues facing the troubled East African nation of Somalia, which has been surviving without an effective government for over two decades, according to a new study released here. With the country's 3,300-km coastline virtually unprotected, industrial fishing vessels from Europe and Asia have entered the area in large numbers and are plundering Somalia's rich maritime resources. 'Having over-fished their home waters, these sophisticated factory ships are seeking catch in one of the world's richest remaining fishing zones,' says the report published by the New York-based Global Policy Forum (GPF).
The final version of the 'Climate Change Adaptation in SADC: A Strategy for the Water Sector' report is available. The main goal of the Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Strategy in SADC is to improve climate resilience in Southern Africa through integrated and adapted water resources management at regional, river basin and local levels. The objective is to promote further the application of integrated water resources management as a priority tool to reduce climate vulnerability and to ensure that water management systems are well adapted to cope with increased climate variability.
An Ethiopian politician standing trial for terrorism is said to be injured and in fear for his life after being attacked in his prison cell by a convicted murderer. The leader of the largest opposition party is appealing to Ethiopia's human rights body to intervene in the case. Former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada sent an urgent appeal to Human Rights Commission chief Teruneh Zenna asking protection for opposition leaders being held at Addis Ababa's Kaliti prison.
This Committee to Protect Journalists page looks at attacks on the press in 2011, shown on a global map and with accompanying articles on censorship, internet restrictions, sexual violence, impunity and imprisonments.
At least one person has been killed in Uganda as government troops evict an estimated 6,000 squatters from a nature reserve where authorities say the people are living illegally. The local people claim the property in question as their ancestral land and have accused the government of attempting to sell it to foreign developers.
A cholera epidemic has spread to nine out of 11 provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations has said. The UN said the spread was 'worrisome' as the epidemic had so far killed 644 people and infected 26,000 since January 2011.
A gas-fuelled fire, with flames as high as 5m, may burn for months in waters off the Niger Delta in south-east Nigeria, Chevron has told the BBC. Two workers died after January's explosion at the KS Endeavour exploration rig, owned by the US firm. Friends of the Earth says this is the world's worst such accident in recent years.
A top military official says that US troops are now deployed in four central African countries as part of US efforts against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army. Brian L Losey, the top US special operations commander for Africa, said that US troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
The Kenyan government has denied it is planning to close the world's largest refugee camp, playing down suggestions that President Mwai Kibaki might do so during his visit to London. Kibaki is currently in the UK for a three-day conference with David Cameron. Almost half a million Somalis live in the Dadaab camp, 60 miles from the Somalian border. Numbers in the camp grew steadily last year as famine gripped the region.
Government has moved one step further towards the establishment of the massive National Health Insurance scheme for South Africa, with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan today announcing an allocation of R1 billion to the scheme's pilot projects. The money comes from the R121 billion health budget which aims to improve hospital infrastructure and strengthen the public health system ahead of the introduction of the NHI, which will be phased in over a period of 14 years, starting this year.
Halliburton Co. said it’s responding to a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a probe into its operations in Angola over possible violations of US foreign bribery law, the Wall Street Journal reports. It isn’t the first time Halliburton has faced problems with the FCPA. The company and its former subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., agreed in February 2009 to pay the US $579 million to resolve violations of the FCPA in connection with a four-company joint-venture project, dubbed TSKJ, to get $6 billion in contracts for liquefied natural gas facilities at Bonny Island, Nigeria.
A faction of Angola's ruling party said recently its leader was detained, a claim the police denied. Though the MPLA is expected to win legislative elections due later this year, it has faced unprecedented challenges from youths inspired by the Arab Spring. Claims of arrest of an MPLA leader suggests he is also facing problems within his own party's ranks, suggests the Wall Street Journal.
Zambia appeared to have sparked a fierce diplomatic row with Kenya when it claimed the son of former President Rupiah Banda who is wanted on corruption charges is hiding out at State House in Nairobi. Zambian investigators recently claimed Henry Banda, who is wanted by police for alleged corruption during his father’s rule, is seeking refuge in Kenya after the alarm was sounded for his possible interrogation.
More than 50,000 women have been treated for complications from unsafe abortions in Zambia during the past decade, compared to just 600 women who have received legal abortions in the same period. International organizations and local activists cite barriers to safe and legal abortion, despite a law regarded liberal regionally. Others say abortion should not be legal under any circumstances in a Christian nation such as Zambia.
A Save the Children report has cited Zambia as one of the ten countries with the slowest annual reduction of stunting between 1990 and 2010. Rising food prices and malnutrition are putting future global progress on child mortality at risk. According to a press release by Save the Children Zambia director Marc Nosbach, 45 per cent of children in Zambia were chronically malnourished and there has been no significant improvement in reducing the rate in the last few years.
In a cyclone-prone country like Madagascar, being prepared for disaster makes all the difference. The Malagasy National Disaster Office organizes annual simulation exercises in vulnerable areas to test the preparedness of local authorities and communities. However, in Brickaville, on the east coast of Madagascar, power lines had been down for two weeks and news that the town lay directly in the path of Cyclone Giovanna. The cyclone destroyed and damaged thousands of homes and killed at least 23 people, but this number is expected to rise as more remote locations are reached.
A group of about 50 Zanla war veterans last week allegedly stormed Matopo Hills in Matabeleland South Province, but were blocked by Chief Masuku after they attempted to dig up the remains of Cecil John Rhodes from the tourist resort area. Rhodes was buried on World’s View (Malindidzimu Hill) in Matopo National Park following his death in 1902. According to sources, they reportedly claimed the remains of the former colonialist were causing poor rains in the region. National Museums and Monuments director Godfrey Mahachi described the move as illegal. 'All I can say is that the reason why we are keeping Rhodes’ grave is that it is part and parcel of the history of Zimbabwe,' he told NewsDay.
On 14 February, police pre-emptively dispersed a planned demonstration in central Maputo by the Forum of Mozambican Demobilised Soldiers. The police response and lack of progress in negotiations between the demobilised fighters and the government is likely to drive further protests in Maputo in the next weeks, says Think Africa Press. There are over 13,000 demobilised fighters in Mozambique. While former combatants of the anti-colonial struggle have received pensions, demobilised fighters from the 1975-1992 civil war have not received the same benefits. The civil war soldiers demand equality of status and a monthly pension of $460.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said that he reserves the right to disregard efforts by South African President Jacob Zuma to mediate disputes in the nation’s troubled coalition government. Mugabe also repeated his pledge to hold elections this year, even if it means defying Zuma and other regional leaders who say new polls should be held only after a new democratic constitution is in place. 'This year we must have elections, they must take place with or without a new constitution,' Mugabe said in interviews aired by the state broadcaster on the eve of his 88th birthday.
A miner was killed in clashes with police at the strike-hit Impala Platinum mine in South Africa, the second death since violence broke out last week, police said on Monday 20 February. 'One miner was found dead with live ammunition in his body, and another was injured with live ammunition,' police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane told Sapa news agency. Production at Impala, the world's number two platinum producer, has been hobbled since January 20, when some workers began a strike that was declared illegal by a court. That allowed the company to sack workers who did not return to the job, with more than 17,000 people fired. One week ago, Implats agreed to re-hire workers, but the deal failed to address the root cause of the strike - discontent that some categories of workers had been awarded bonuses while others were left out.
New laws governing traditional courts could strip 22-million rural South Africans - and women in particular - of some of their most basic rights. The Traditional Courts Bill, on which public comment closed this week, aims to set a framework whereby customary courts will have legal clout. Civic organisations have slammed it as being unconstitutional, but traditional leaders argue that the Bill has been grossly misinterpreted by civil society.
Out of a population of 49-million, 7.5-million South Africans are out of work. Young people are worst affected, with over half of 18- to 25-year-olds unemployed. According to the labour federation, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), there's no other middle income country in the world with such a high rate of unemployment. 'This is a crisis. We call it a ticking bomb,' said Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's general secretary.
This BBC page examines why the UK government, at a time when it has made drastic cuts in domestic expenditure, is maintaining it's foreign aid budget and taking a greater interest in Somalia. It has useful infographics on areas of political control, piracy, refugees and food aid.
It is well known that African urban populations are growing. Almost every article or policy document on the topic is foregrounded with this point. 'However, whether most African countries will fairly soon be mainly urban is another issue. There is now plenty of data to suggest that in many cases, they will not.' This is important, argues this article, because of what it reveals about how African cities have coped with the globalised economy and the livelihoods of residents in the urban setting.
The secretariat of the Basel Convention has published a report looking into the current state of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Africa. The report highlights the importance of developing safe recycling capacity and recovery infrastructure in Africa. As is well known, the impact of inappropriately-treated WEEE can be catastrophic for the health and the environment in communities that do not have adequate recycling facilities in place.
While there is a strong relationship between increasing urbanisation and increasing prosperity, it cannot be assumed that gender inequalities are reduced at the same time. In several spheres of urban life such as labour, education and transport, urbanisation may have contradictory effects for women and girls.
It is a financial controversy that has already led to the sacking of an attorney general; the resignation of a former attorney general; the arrest and appearance before court of two top civil servants and a businessman. In 2009, the businessman managed to convince the then attorney general that the government of Ghana owed him money. According to him, a contract he had to build football grounds was cancelled illegally by the previous government of then-President John Kufuor. The businessman then went to court to seek compensation - by which time the sum of money he was claiming had undergone many inexplicable upward changes. The attorney general decided not to contest the claims, and the businessman emerged from court a much richer man.
South Africa served as a transit point for a shipment of crowd-control weapons to Madagascar's former president, a Johannesburg-based newspaper reported. The Sunday Independent cited a cable from the United States embassy in Antananarivo saying Chinese-made riot control equipment - including grenades, rubber bullets and teargas - were unloaded in South Africa and then collected by then-president Marc Ravalomanana's private jet.
A map on the blog of the LA Times newspaper shows patterns of global civilian gun ownership. Guns are much more common in North America than in Africa and most of Asia and South America than in India, according to the most recent data available from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The statistics include handguns, rifles and other small firearms.
By systematically refusing to answer questions about abuses and dispossession in Sudan and Ethiopia the oil giant Lundin Petroleum and Sweden's minister for foreign affairs Carl Bildt have found a winning strategy, writes Kerstin Lundell, author of the award winning 'Business in Blood and Oil: Lundin Petroleum in Africa'. 'Based on earlier experiences, we find it's not of a constructive nature to comment on unsubstantiated claims about Lundin Petroleum and the corporation's business.' That's all the answer I've received for all the questions I've asked for the past four years about the company's knowledge of or involvement with all the events - the murders, the burning of entire villages - in Sudan and Ethiopia that I've encountered as I collected material for my book 'Business in Blood and Oil' and for articles in Process Nordic magazine.
An American reconnaissance plane crashed six miles (10 kilometers) from the only US base in Africa, killing four service members on board, after returning from a mission in support of the war in Afghanistan, the military said Monday 20 February. The statement said that the crash occurred at about 8pm Saturday in Djibouti.
The perpetrators, of what were unquestionably crimes against humanity appear to have got off free. The consequences of the Igbo genocide for Africa have been catastrophic.
Pambazuka News 572: Calls for freedom and the drums of war
Pambazuka News 572: Calls for freedom and the drums of war
IRIN’s latest film, 'Out of Sight', explores the lives of blind undocumented migrants from Zimbabwe as they try and eke out a living begging on the streets of Johannesburg. In the aftermath of xenophobic violence, the South African government put in place a moratorium on deportations to Zimbabwe in 2009, enabling undocumented migrants to regularise their status. But none of the women in this film were able to take advantage of that dispensation. Deportations resumed in October 2011, and to date, more than 10,000 undocumented migrants have been expelled to Zimbabwe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Pambazuka News 570: Keeping Pambazuka free and independent
Pambazuka News 570: Keeping Pambazuka free and independent
Rethinking development: global and regional alternatives for the development in the South
African applicants should send their applications to:
CODESRIA,
2012 South-South Summer Institute,
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.codesria.org
Asian applicants should send their applications to:
CODESRIA,
2012 South-South Summer Institute,
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.codesria.org
and
CLACSO,
2012 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.clacso.org
Latin American and Caribbean applicants should send their applications to:
CLACSO,
2012 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: www.clacso.org
Swaziland and Lesotho have the highest HIV prevalence in the world. They also share another distinct feature: during the last century, they sent a large numbers of migrant workers to South African mines. This paper examines whether participation in mining in a bordering country affects HIV infection rate.
The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is an outreach project of the School of Law, Makerere University. Our Mission is to empower asylum seekers, refugees, deportees, IDPs and host communities to enjoy their human rights and lead dignified lives. RLP is currently seeking to appoint a number of staff, including the following: Human Resources Manager, Research Analyst, Volunteer English For Adults (EFA) Instructor, Volunteer Lawyer – Durable Solutions, Volunteer Lawyer – Gender & Sexuality, Volunteer Assessment Assistants, Finance Assistant and Volunteer Finance Assistant, Office Assistant, Community Interpreters.
Blog Black Looks has listed a number of Ugandan and African human rights organisations who have condemned the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, including the Ugandan Law Society, Coalition of African Lesbians, Urgent Action Fund Kenya and Ugandan Frontline Defenders.
'LGBT Liberians live in fear, disempowered and daily imperiled. The war for them has not ended. Their lives are defined by danger and violence, persecution, hate speech and threats, discrimination and harassment. They are stigmatized, publicly rejected and almost completely abandoned by government. Their vulnerability affects all areas of their lives – church, school, employers, landlords, media, street mobs, rapists, predators, political actors, opinion leaders, family.'
Sixteen Tanzanian human rights defenders were arrested on 9 February. In protest against the Tanzanian authority's act that goes counter their state commitment to protect, respect and fulfill human rights, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) has drafted a letter urging the Tanzania authorities to release and drops all charges against these activists. They are requesting people to support the 16 activists by:
1. printing and delivering/posting the letter to the president's office in Dar-es-salaam if based in Dar-es-salaam or any part of Tanzania
2. printing and delivering the letter to the Tanzania embassy/consulate in your country if based outside Tanzania,
3. adapting the letter and putting it on your organisation's letter head, signing it and delivering it to the president office or the representative of Tanzania government in your country.
February is the hottest month in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and Mading Ngor, a reporter and presenter for the Catholic-owned Bakhita FM, trudged his way through the heat to cover parliament proceedings last week - only to be thrown unceremoniously out of the assembly. 'Before I had time to argue, four security guards pinned me to the ground and dragged me across the floor, tearing up my trousers,' Ngor, a hard-hitting, critical journalist, told me. The ensuing furor included apologies, a protest, an opinion column, a committee investigation, parliamentary debate, the banning of Ngor from the assembly, and finally, a parliamentary call to revive deliberations over three media bills originally drafted five years ago.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma must try again to be elected as the African Union Commission chairperson, the Southern African Development Community decided at the weekend. Foreign ministers from SADC countries met in Cape Town at the weekend, where her recent defeat at the AU summit in Ethiopia was discussed. Dlamini-Zuma contested the election against Jean Ping, the AU Commission head, who was standing for a second term.
A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.
The Journal of Peace Research has published a special issue on climate change and conflict that constitutes the largest collection of peer-reviewed writings on the topic to date. The research covered in the journal includes:
- The publics' concern for global warming: A cross-national study of 47 countries
- African range wars: Climate, conflict, and property rights
- Climate change, rainfall, and social conflict in Africa
- Come rain or shine: An analysis of conflict and climate variability in East Africa
- Climate change, violent conflict and local institutions in Kenya's drylands
- Climate clashes? Weather variability, land pressure, and organized violence in Kenya, 1989-2004
- Does climate change drive land-use conflicts in the Sahel?
- Climate variability, economic growth, and civil conflict
- Civil war, climate change, and development: A scenario study for sub-Saharan Africa
- Climate-related natural disasters, economic growth, and armed civil conflict
- Don't blame the weather! Climate-related natural disasters and civil conflict
- Could climate change precipitate peace?
- Climate change and the institutional resilience of international river basins
- Weathering climate change: Can institutions mitigate international water conflict?
- Climate change and international water conflict in Central Asia
- Climate change and security in the Israeli-Palestinian context.
Exiled Somali journalists based in Nairobi, Kenya celebrated the world’s radio day on 13 February 2012 at hotel Madina in East-Leigh village of Nairobi. The gathering was organised by the Somali Exiled Journalists Association (SEJASS) as UNESCO requested all countries to celebrate this Day by undertaking activities with diverse partners, such as national, regional and international broadcasting associations and organisations, non-governmental organisations, media organisations, outlets as well as the public at large.
This edition deals with the housing crisis and includes the following articles:
- The Neoliberal Project, Privatisation and the Housing Crisis
- Housing Associations: Privatisation Via Not-For-Profits
- Housing Profiteers and their Facilitators & Company Profile: Grainger
- Homelessness: Who profits from destitution?
- The Return of Class War Conservatism: the Realities of Housing in the ‘Big Society'
- Housing Benefit Cuts: Educate, Agitate, Organise!
- Anti-Squat Security Companies: Protection by Occupation?
- The Criminalisation of Squatting
- Alternatives: Housing Co-ops & Case Study: Phoenix Co-op
- Campaign Spotlight: SQUASH
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In this KPFA special broadcast, Africa Today and Transitions on Traditions present a three-hour program on artist, musician, and poet Gil Scott Heron and a tribute to the Peoples Free Medical Clinic survival program of the Black Panther Party. The program features the music of Gil Scott, interviews on his life and work, and discussions on the Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
Across the Darfur region of western Sudan, female workers weighed down by heavy buckets are a common sight on building sites. The work is arduous and the pay pitiful, but many women in Darfur have no other way of earning a living. 'This work is very hard,' said Aisha (not her real name), who works on a construction site in Nyala. 'Most days, we stay on the site from six in the morning to six at night without eating anything. We drink water perhaps once or twice a day. Anything we do eat is taken out of what we are paid.'
Sudanese police have raided student dormitories at the main university in the capital Khartoum, arresting and beating hundreds of students, activists say. The youth activist group Change Now said Friday's raid took place before dawn, adding that more than 350 students had been arrested at the University of Khartoum. The university has been the scene of student protests since late December. The students have previously staged a sit-in to demand the right to form a student union and to protest against police violence in earlier raids there.
At least five people have been wounded in a bomb explosion near a church in the Nigerian town of Suleja, on the edge of the capital Abuja, authorities and witnesses said. The blast went off near Christ Embassy Church on Sunday and shattered glass of five vehicles, nearly destroying them, according to the Reuters news agency. Grey ash was cast across the ground.
The European Union has lifted some more of its sanctions against top officials and institutions in Zimbabwe. An EU diplomat said the bloc was ending measures against 20 entities and 51 people - including the justice and foreign ministers. However restrictions on President Robert Mugabe continue.