Pambazuka News 504: Biopiracy, biodiversity and food sovereignty
Pambazuka News 504: Biopiracy, biodiversity and food sovereignty
Cameroonians are attacked by police, politicians, the media, and even their own communities if they are suspected of having sexual relations with a person of the same sex, four human rights organisations said in a joint report. The government should take urgent action to decriminalise such consensual conduct and to ensure the full human rights of all Cameroonians, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, said Alternatives-Cameroun, l'Association pour la défense des droits des homosexuels, Human Rights Watch, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
A cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 600 people in Haiti has gained a foothold in in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince and is expected to spread widely and quickly in the sprawling city of three million people, health authorities said on Tuesday. The three-week-old epidemic, which had mostly hit Haiti's rural central regions so far, now menaced crowded slum areas of the capital, as well as tent and tarpaulin camps there housing more than 1.3 million survivors of the 12 January quake.
Governments in West and Central Africa should learn from this year's flooding - which has disrupted the livelihoods of nearly two million people - by urgently factoring climate change into their disaster prevention and response plans, aid groups say. Extreme weather linked to climate change, including heavy rainfall, is expected to cause increasing damage in the region. In West Africa alone this year, the number of people who lost their homes and property due to floods doubled from around 800,000 in 2009 to 1.6 million.
The main suspect behind twin car bombings in Nigeria's capital Abuja last month was also responsible for bomb attacks in the southern oil city of Warri in March, the secret service alleged on Wednesday. The State Security Service (SSS) said Henry Okah, who is facing conspiracy and terrorism charges in South Africa over the Abuja attacks on 1 October, travelled to Warri and wired the car bombs which were detonated on 15 March outside government talks about an amnesty programme.
Yakpaoro is part of a new trend in South America. The refugee from Guinea is one of a growing number of Africans and Asians, many of them refugees, making their way to the continent before joining mixed migration routes from the south to the north. UNHCR statistics show that so far this year between five and 40 per cent of total asylum applications submitted in various Latin American countries were lodged by nationals from Asia and Africa.
Every planting season, the women of Mapai-Ngale village near the Limpopo River in Mozambique face a tough dilemma. 'If we cultivate small fields on the extremely fertile lowlands near the Limpopo, we risk losing our whole crop to frequent floods. If we cultivate the infertile land on higher ground, we face losing our crops to drought,' said Maria Antonio Namburete, a 52-year-old widow and mother of five.
In recent years, climate change has wreaked havoc on this village of 500 people.
Residents in the West African state of Guinea have voted in a presidential runoff election described as the country's first free polls since independence from France in 1958. The runoff pitted Cellou Dallein Diallo, the former prime minister, against Alpha Conde, a veteran opposition leader - each representing one of Guinea's two most populous ethnic groups, the Peul and Malinke respectively.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia are keeping ahead of attempts by international authorities to stop them, capturing ever more hostages and bounty, a UN official has said. B Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said on Tuesday that more viable economic alternatives are needed to prevent the migration of young Somalis into piracy. More than 438 crew and passengers and 20 ships are currently being held hostage at sea near Somalia, according to latest International Maritime Organisation figures.
This South Centre report argues that the G20 agenda misses some of the key issues that need to be dealt with in order to effectively reform the international monetary system so as to avert future global financial crises. The missing issues include enforceable exchange rate and adjustment obligations, orderly sovereign debt workout mechanisms and the reform of the international reserves system. The paper also points out that there are no effective rules to control the unstable global financial market, no multilateral discipline over misguided monetary and exchange rate policies, and national policy makers are preoccupied with resolving crises by supporting those responsible for these crises rather than introducing measures to prevent future crises.
From 21- 24 October 2010, close to 180 feminist activists from all African sub-regions met in Dakar, Senegal for the third African Feminist Forum. The forum focused on the theme of communities, connecting discussions about women’s citizenship, state accountability, the market, the environment and our individual roles as activists.
Thousands of public servants in Swaziland are due to lose their jobs in cutbacks as part of a government bid to gain approval from the International Monetary Fund for a loan. But some Swazis would rather see the budget slashed for the country’s autocratic royals. The civil service of the tiny Southern African monarchy comes with a high wage bill, as 50 per cent of national spending going towards 35,000 state posts.
Four minors are among nine people who have been sentenced to death for a carjacking in Khour Baskawit in South Darfur. The case has raised fresh concerns over protection for children's rights in Sudan. Sudan is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the execution of minors. In line with this, Sudan reformed its laws in January 2010, raising the age at which an offender can face capital punishment from 15 to 18.
As nearly 25 years of development of a malaria vaccine come to fruition, health authorities across Africa will need to come to grips with how to effectively introduce it. Phase III testing of a malaria vaccine involving up to 16,000 infants in seven African countries has begun; success could see a vaccine ready for use by 2013.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the mistreatment of Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the blog name of Kareem Amer. The detained blogger should have been freed on 5 November on completing a four-year jail sentence. Kareem Amer was transferred from Burj Al Arab prison to Alexandria on 6 November with the apparent aim of releasing him. But last night, an official reportedly gave him a severe beating at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria. Detained since 6 November 2006, he has been held illegally for the past four days.
Radio Horseed Media FM director Abdifatah Jama Mire has been released after 86 days of detention in Bosaso, in the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland. Sentenced to six years in prison for broadcasting an interview with the head of a rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, he was pardoned by Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole.
The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) has denounced the decision by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to refuse them observer status. 'We have finally received a formal letter from the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights that our application for observer status has been declined. It [letter] has no reasons why our application has been declined. The immediate thing that comes to mind for me is that they must provide reasons for their decision and that we must appeal the decision,' said Fikile Vilakazi, Director for the Coalition of African Lesbians.
The gender unit of Third World Network-Africa is hosting a round-table on gender and regional economic integration in Africa on 18-19 November 2010, in Accra, Ghana. The meeting will bring together scholars, feminist economists and gender experts, as well as policy-makers, to discuss issues of gender equity and Africa’s economic integration.
Massive increases in carbon emissions will worsen climate change if the European Union does not urgently revise its energy policy, experts warn. The EU plan to increase its share of bio-fuels to 20 per cent by the year 2020 constitutes a major mistake, according to a new study. 'In Africa, we expect to see prices of food increase due to the new production of bio fuels,' Chris Coxon, Brussels-based spokesperson for ActionAid International, an anti-poverty organisation, told IPS in a telephone interview.
President Museveni has promised free university education for all science students from northern Uganda. Addressing a campaign rally at Akura in Alebtong on Sunday, Mr Museveni said the programme will include all students who are not on government sponsorship. Education ministry officials, many of whom admitted to being taken by surprise by the President’s campaign promise, were unable to offer any details on how the programme would be funded, how much it would cost, and what services would be sacrificed to fund the free A-level programme. Education is a key campaign plank for the ruling NRM party.
Idasa's executive director Paul Graham has warned that reviving democracy in Africa requires Europe to do the same. At the Netherlands Institute for Multipary Democracy conference held in Brussels earlier this month, Graham spoke of the need to understand the revitalisation of democracy as a global concern, focusing on the challenges that emerge as Europe cooperates with Africa to help us with our democratisation agenda.
Despite mounting concern publicly raised by civil society about the growing phenomenon of land grabbing, very little attention has been drawn so far to the specific role of private equity funds, says a new report. Most of the private equity funds aggressively involved in land grabbing are related to US financial markets However, European financial players haven’t just watched these developments silently and have become actors in the field of land grabbing too.
The two authorised sales of Marange diamonds make clear the Zimbabwe government has no reason to feel threatened by a Western diamond import ban, says this commentary from the International Crisis Group. Emerging powers are challenging the rules and becoming more influential. Buyers, especially from India, have been more than willing to fill the gap resulting from the absence of most Westerners. Chinese buyers could also potentially compete. With world diamond production falling by 24 per cent since 2009 and increased competition, buyers are becoming readier to push human rights and governance standards aside.
A recent decision by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit means an 'effective suspension' of the SADC tribunal, which will deny SADC citizens redress, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) said last week. The challenge by NGOs including the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the Africa regional office of the International Commission of Jurists, comes after a decision by the Sadc summit in August that the tribunal would not hear new cases. The tribunal hears cases between citizens of SADC member states and the states themselves, when the citizens have exhausted all domestic legal avenues.
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating up to 80 politicians and top government officials in the intensified war against corruption. Those targeted by detectives include Cabinet ministers, past and present permanent secretaries and parastatal chiefs and several MPs. A list seen by the Sunday Nation details the nature of the charges the politicians and government officials are likely to face if the Attorney-General's office decides to prosecute. The offences range from abuse of office to embezzlement of public funds, fraud, conflict of interest and outright theft.
South African politicians and businessmen who pocketed R1-billion from the arms deal are set to be named in a new investigation by Britain's auditing watchdog. The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) is to investigate KPMG, which advised BAE Systems on offshore companies that were used to pay 'commissions' to influence the awarding of lucrative contracts in South Africa's R47.4-billion defence procurement package.
The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (Afrodad) is undertaking research to critically evaluate Zimbabwe’s tax system to determine its role and impact on the development agenda. The move comes against the backdrop of reports that the country is losing billions of United States dollars in corporate tax through evasion and externalisation as institutions seek to evade a punitive tax regime. The Washington-based Global Financial Integrity revealed in February this year that Zimbabwe was among the world’s top five countries with the largest tax revenue losses as a percentage of total government revenue at 21,5 percent.
Although responsible for about 80 per cent of the agricultural production for the supply of households and markets, women own less than two per cent of arable lands in West and Central Africa. This was the finding of a study conducted by the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD), published in Dakar, Senegal.
The Director of the Banjul-based African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, Hannah Forster, on Sunday emphasised the need for African governments to ratify and implement the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance in order to reinforce the highest principles of democratic governance in Africa. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the forum of the participation of NGOs on the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, in Banjul, the Gambian capital, Forster lamented that impunity has become so entrenched in our countries that much thought should be given to the development of strategies to combat the phenomenon.
The shortage of doctors in Zimbabwe has reached crisis levels with the country having only 21 per cent of the required medical practitioners amid other frightening statistics on the worsening health situation, a Parliamentary report has revealed. 'Child health status indicators are worsening with infant mortality and under-five mortality rising from 53 percent to 77 per 1?000 live births in 1994 to 67 and 94 per 1?000 live births respectively in 2009,' a Parliamentary report said.
In 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates committed their foundation to eradicating malaria. It was, said Richard Feachem, director of the Global Health Group, part of the University of California, San Francisco, 'a shock to the system for the malaria community, because for a couple of decades the ‘E’ words, eradication and elimination, were not used in polite company'. That reticence was due to the very public failure of elimination campaigns, but the debate has been re-opened with the publication by the medical journal, The Lancet, of a special series on the subject.
After years of armed conflict, women in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are playing a leading role in its economic recovery with the help of vocational training centres which keep them fed while they learn new skills. Famiya Omari, a 50-year-old mother of five, once trudged for miles each day to ply fresh cassava. Now, she sells the bread and soap that she has learnt to make at a vocational centre run by a local NGO, the Reflection Committee For Development and Social Promotion (CORDPS).
A senior United Nations official has urged the national authorities in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate reports that women were raped when large numbers of people were expelled from Angola and forced to return to the DRC recently. 'I call upon the authorities of both countries to investigate these allegations and to proceed in compliance with relevant legislation,' said Margot Wallström, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Urging his compatriots to remain grateful to him for his 'numerous developments and the transformation that has taken place in the country', Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh on Monday declared that he would not run for presidency in the 2011 elections, which will mark the end of his third five-year term. Jammeh told local authorities, politicians and other stakeholders drawn from all the regions in the country at the State House in Banjul, that democracy must be respected in the country, PANA reported from here Monday.
The United States will continue its support for efforts by the Malian government in the fight against terrorist threats in the north of the country, said the US envoy with the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), Rashad Hussain, at the end of his 5 to 7 November visit to Mali. 'We support Mali in terms of training and military maneuvers. The process that has been underway for some time will continue,' Hussain said, adding that 'terrorist threats are cross-border threats that claim victims.'
Delegates drawn from African governments, international organisations, parliaments and civil society agreed on Friday, 5 November 2010 in Tunis that the time had come for African countries to rely more on their internal resources, such as taxation, the capital markets and better prices for their valuable commodities, and less on international aid for development. The second Regional Meeting on Aid Effectiveness, jointly organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union and NEPAD, convened on 4 and 5 February 2010, in preparation for the fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to be held in Busan, Korea, in November 2011.
The police have reportedly issued a warrant of arrest against Wilf Mbanga the London-based editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper following publication of a story linked to the death of a senior official with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in 2008. Mbanga is accused of publishing a story after the 2008 elections 'which undermined President Robert Mugabe'. According to The Zimbabwean, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported that the police want to question Mbanga over an article published in The Zimbabwean following the death of ZEC director for polling, Ignatius Mushangwe.
Gunmen have attacked an off shore oil rig operated by exploration firm, Afren, kidnapping five crew members including foreigners and injuring two others, the company said on Monday. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) made no immediate claim of responsibility but threatened to carry out new attacks on oil infrastructure in the country. A resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta would be an embarrassment for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the first Nigerian President from the region.
The Kenyan government is working to reduce health workers' risk of HIV infection but experts say there is a need for greater focus on providing health workers with proper safety equipment and education. According to government statistics, an estimated 2.5 percent of new HIV infections annually are health-facility related. Poor medical waste disposal, needle stick injuries and unsafe blood transfusions are some of the factors that put medical workers at risk.
Dominicano Mulenga, national coordinator of Zambia's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, goes through his to-do list as the rainy season sets in: Industrial pumps to suck water out of the roads serviced. Tick. Enough stocks of tents and mosquito nets. Tick. Mobile phones delivered to communities living along the upper catchment areas of the River Zambezi. Check. 'We do not want a repeat of the situation from last year, when 1,000 people were displaced in Lusaka [the Zambian capital] alone because of poor drainage,' said Mulenga. Mulenga is one of several officials in Southern Africa gearing up for the rainy season which normally goes on until the end of March 2011.
An epidemic akin to polio, which has raged for nearly two weeks in the main commercial city in southern Congo, Pointe-Noire, has already killed eight, and several dozen cases have been reported, say health officials. 'Patients admitted to hospitals have flu-like symptoms. They are also presenting with paralysis starting in the lower limbs which spreads to the upper limbs,' said Director-General of Health Alexis Elira Dockekias.
Every year a noxious black smog hangs over Egypt as the seasonal burning of rice straw by farmers begins, and with it comes a surge in allergic reactions and lung infections. The inky haze lasts from October to November; it is a time when hospitals see a rise in patient numbers, and parents consider keeping their children out of school to avoid the worst of the throat-burning smog. 'Straw burning-induced pollution causes acute health problems,' Mahmud Abdel Meguid, chairman of the state-run Abbasiya Chest Hospital, told IRIN.
Zimbabwe's economy will grow for the second successive year in 2010 due to positive policies and strong commodity prices, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, while calling for more reforms to sustain the recovery. An IMF team that visited between Oct 25 and Nov 3 for routine discussions with government and the private sector said Zimbabwe would have a budget surplus this year, among other signs of improved economic conditions.
Software piracy is becoming unnecessary. Open source software packages are becoming as user-friendly and adding as many features as proprietary packages - even in scientific circles. Africa should embrace open source scientific software, argues this article.
The Angola Monitor covers the politics, economics, development, democracy and human rights of Angola. It is published quarterly by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). This issue covers Angola's progress in measures of poverty and governance, forced evictions and housing demolitions, international cooperation and the latest economic developments.
In light of the growing East Africa integration, International Bridges to Justice has embarked on a new project which aims at institutionalizing best defender practices among East African lawyers. IBJ is teaming up with the East Africa Law Society (EALS), the premier regional bar association, to develop an East Africa Legal Defense Manual that will help lawyers improve their skills and knowledge in the area of criminal law and defense.
Event: Transitional Justice, Prophetic Role of the Church and the Challenge of Peace in Kenya
Location: Hekima College off James Kagethe Road,
Date: Tues 16 November 2010, 2.00pm – 4.30pm
Speakers: Tom Kagwe, Kenya Human Rights Commission; Dennis Oricho, Nairobi Peace Initiative; Anne Kiprotich, Regional Coordinator TJRC, Rift Valley Region; Fr. Elias O. Opongo, SJ: AFCAST Member & Conflict Analyst
This forum is organised by the African Forum for Catholic Social Teachings (AFCAST) & Jesuit Hakimani Center: Tel: 3597097
Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa with support from UNIFEM Southern Africa Regional Office will host the second Women in Politics Training of Trainers workshop in Flic en Flac, Mauritius, from 9 to 12 November 2010. Nomcembo Manzini, UNIFEM Southern Africa regional director says 'the capacity building programme will seek to nurture a pool of trainers spanning women in politics support organisations and political parties that have the skills and tools to train women in advocacy around gender, democracy and governance.'
Soon all information on bananas in Africa, including the banana growing areas, yield, socio-economic status of the farmers and spread of pests and diseases, will be available on a scientist-driven online dictionary. The website (http://banana.mappr.info), developed by Philippe Rieffel a student of applied geography at the University of Münster, Germany, under supervision of scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), hopes to make a wide range of reliable spatial information on banana readily available to researchers, policy makers and development workers.
Amnesty International says it is concerned that the government of Uganda has failed to date to ensure thorough, prompt and independent investigations into frequent reports of human rights violations, including possible unlawful killings, by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), in the Karamoja region thereby ensuring impunity for the perpetrators. The alleged violations have been committed in the course of an ongoing disarmament process in the area.
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, announces competitions for:
- Early career postdoctoral fellowships in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa
- Dissertation completion fellowships in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda (no dissertation fellowships in South Africa)
Stipends are $9,000 for Dissertation Completion Fellows and $16,000 for Postdoctoral Fellows.
The current turmoil in the world economy has demonstrated once again that the international arrangements lack mechanisms to prevent financial crises with global repercussions, writes Yilmaz Akyüz, the special economic adviser of the South Centre. Not only are effective rules and regulations absent to bring inherently unstable international financial market and capital flows under control, but there is no multilateral discipline over misguided monetary, financial and exchange rate policies in systemically important countries despite their disproportionately large adverse international spillovers.
In an audio-tape released to Al Jazeera on October 27, Osama bin Laden castigated France for its intervention in the affairs of Muslims in North and West Africa. It is likely to have profound implications on the so-called war on al-Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel, as well as on French and European policies in the region, writes Jeremy Keenan, a professorial research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and author of 'The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa'.
Absence of a formula based approach to budget allocation at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation has led to large inequities for water access in Kenya, with the poor paying more compared to the rich, and millions going without adequate access everyday. This finding is contained in a new analytical brief released by Twaweza titled 'It's Our Water Too! Bringing Greater Equity in Access to Water in Kenya.' Uwazi analysts have aggregated facts from a range of credible sources that demonstrate that persistent inequalities in access to water services in Kenya can be quickly reduced if an approach that links investments and resource allocation to needs rather than political weight is adopted and implemented.
In December of last year, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) hosted a public lecture by Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Cape Town on 'The State of Zimbabwe’s Economy', as well as a dialogue with members of country’s diaspora. Emerging from that dialogue, diaspora members recently launched the Development Foundation for Zimbabwe – ‘a non-profit, non-partisan organisation created and driven by Zimbabweans’. The Foundation aims to ‘provide a platform for constructive engagement between Zimbabweans in the Diaspora and fellow compatriots in the Zimbabwean government, business, civil society and the general public’.
Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi’s stranglehold on power received a major knock in the just-concluded elections. CCM candidate Jakaya Kikwete won the presidential race comfortably with some 61 per cent of the vote. But that in Tanzania amounts to a massive setback in a system where the party candidate is routinely guaranteed close to 90 per cent of the vote and the opposition can barely gather a handful of MPs.
Eldoret North MP William Ruto wants the International Criminal Court to indict President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the roles he says they played in the post-election violence. In a statement that could form the core of Mr Ruto’s defence at The Hague, one of the suspended minister’s lawyers says the process of securing justice would have no credibility if Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga are not charged.
Elders in Bukwo and Kapchorwa districts are preparing to circumcise over 200 girls next month despite a new law banning the practice. The practice, commonly referred to as female circumcision, is mostly practiced among the Sabiny, who occupy Bukwo and Kapchorwa districts on the northern slopes of Mt Elgon. The United Nations categorises it as female genital mutilation (FGM) because it damages a woman’s sexuality and leads to various complications. FGM refers to the removal of the external female genitalia.
Pambazuka News 503: Seize the time: Daring to invent the future
Pambazuka News 503: Seize the time: Daring to invent the future
How are we to understand Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to power? What does the movement which propelled him to power represent? And why has he not fulfilled the promises of his election campaign? Wazir Mohamed reviews a new book by Horace Campbell that seeks to answer these questions.
Reporters Without Borders has written to Angolan interior minister Sebastiao José Antonio Martins voicing concern about the recent wave of threats and violence against journalists. One has been murdered, two have been physically attacked and injured, and a fourth has been the target of intimidation. 'We are concerned by the fact that the victims all work for critical or opposition news media,' Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in the letter, sent on 28 October. 'The level of violence is very disturbing. The physical safety of journalists is in danger. We are alarmed by the gravity of these attacks.'
The Lindela Detention Centre in South Africa is a holding facility for the temporary detention of 'illegal foreigners' while they await deportation. This report from The Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand argues that despite the authority's efforts to improve operations at the facility, there continue to be systematic violations of the law at Lindela. The paper uncovers several lapses in correct procedures for detention in the center.
Researchers have attempted to link foreign aid to conflict with some suggesting that aid exacerbates existing ethnic cleavages while others say it presents an opportunity to payoff rebels who start civil war. Yet others argue that aid decreases the risk of civil war by promoting economic growth and strengthening state capabilities. This study delves into the confusion over foreign aid and its effects on armed conflict. It argues that aid shocks or sudden decreases in aid revenues, may shift the domestic balance of power and potentially induce violence because potential rebels gain bargaining strength with the government.
As Egypt assumed its year-long chairmanship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees executive committee in Geneva last month, its policy of shooting unarmed migrants along its 'death zone' border with Israel has come into stark relief. Last week a Sudanese man was shot and killed by Egyptian security guards as he attempted to sneak through a portion of the 160-mile barbed wire fence running through the barren Sinai desert. At least 25 African migrants have been killed this year alone, adding to the scores since 2007.
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (WGEID) has adopted two new General Comments on the crime of enforced disappearance. Phil ya Nangoloh, the Executive Director of NAMRIGHTS, states that in Namibia this effectively means, for example, that the perpetrators of the enforced disappearances of thousands of Namibians should be held responsible for the said disappearances starting before June 25 2002 when Namibia ratified the Rome Statute (RS) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and continuing after such ratification.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the leading independent network on elections in Zimbabwe, convened a conference in Vumba – Leopard Rock Hotel which brought together various organisations and partners working on elections to deliberate on electoral issues in light of the possible referendum on the new constitution and elections in 2011. The conference was held under the theme: 'Enhancing Mutual Cooperation and Interaction on election Related activities amongst CSOs.'
Entries for the UNEP Young Environmental Journalist Award Africa are now open. The competition, which is made possible through funding support from the Government of the United States of America, is open to African journalists between 25 and 35 years old, working for African news and media organisations.
'The Civil Society Conference held on 27-28 October 2010 will hopefully come to be seen as a historic turning point in South Africa. It may mark the revival of co-ordinated community based activism that aims to achieve social justice and better the lives of the poor in South Africa. It was attended by more than 50 independent organisations that believe in social justice and that fight for it every day. Civil society is therefore taken aback by attacks on the motives of the conference emanating from the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) on 1 November 2010. We are surprised by the insinuations that the conference is part of a plot against the ANC. We expect better of the post-Polokwane ANC. This is conduct reminiscent of the paranoia of the Mbeki era. It is a conduct that suggests the ANC, or some of the people who hide under its flag, have something to fear.'
The Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa (EISA) deployed a observer mission to the Zanzibar General Elections of 31 October 2010 and has issued preliminary findings and recommendations. The mission noted that there has been a significant improvement in levels of political tolerance since the last elections held in Zanzibar in 2005. The agreement between President Amane Abeid Karume, leader of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Zanzibar and Seif Sharif Hamad, leader of Civic United Front (CUF) contributed significantly to this observable change in political tolerance.
AFRODAD will in 2010 produce three reports on ecological debt, binding together debt, climate change and extractive industries. The objective of the research is to deepen the understanding of the concept of ecological debt. The research will help to define a conceptual framework that can help develop policy recommendations to be used in advocacy activities. Specifically the research will seek to establish the magnitude of ecological debt in Africa and recommend key policy areas for advocacy.
A judge has temporarily ordered a tabloid in Uganda to stop publishing lists identifying people it claims are gay after an advocacy organisation filed a lawsuit. The order came a day after Rolling Stone - which has no relation to the iconic US music magazine - published a list of people it said were gay, urging readers to report them to police. Last month the tabloid published names, photos and address of 100 people that it called the country’s top gays and lesbians, alongside a yellow banner reading, 'hang them'.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights organisations and activists have expressed concerns over the the Sexual Practices Against Nature Bill presented before the national parliament of the Democratic Republic of aiming to criminalise homosexuality and zoophilia as sexual practices against nature. Jean Bedel Kaniki, President of Groupe Hirondelles Bukavu, an LGBTI organisation in the DRC confirmed that on the 22 October 'the bill was judged admissible by the majority of the parliament and was sent to the socio-cultural committee that will discuss its permissibility in terms of the provisions and principles of the constitution before its promulgation'.
The Home Affairs office in Cape Town is facing a court interdict for refusing to renew asylum seeker permits and refugee status documents for foreign nationals who originally obtained their documentation in another province. As many of these foreign nationals whose documentation has expired cannot afford to travel back to the province where they originally received documents, they face the possibility of arrest and deportation, or, if they have a job, may lose it.
Somalians in Khayelitsha say they are wondering which one of their countrymen in the township will be killed next after Somalian shopkeeper Cyrix Man was shot on Tuesday night. Man, 23, was shot twice in the head outside his shop on Endlovini Street, in Khayelitsha C-Section at about 11pm last Tuesday, and died in hospital at about 3.30am on Wednesday morning. Khayelitsha’s Somalia Retailers Association chairperson Abbi Ahmed said more than 22 Somalian’s had been killed in the past three months.
Since the workers from Vale, Brazil’s giant mining company, started to drink at his bar, fortune has favoured Mario Sálimo. With business growing week by week, the 47-year-old has opened extra rooms, added a restaurant and installed a dance floor. At weekends Mario’s Bar, near the clogged and dusty centre of Tete, is open until five or six o’clock in the morning. And the bar is not the only thing booming in this remote Mozambican town, which grew up as a trading post on the Zambezi river. Tete sits directly above one of the world’s largest reserves of high-quality coal.
When a place in the Middle East is labelled as ‘gay friendly’, does this simply open it up to a new host of demands from the West, asks blogger A of Arabia.
‘Being queer in Nairobi means you have to man-up - or be a woman and a half - to admit, embrace, and live your life with no regrets,’ writes J. Blessol Jr, in an exploration of both the positive and the many negative aspects of queer life in the city.
‘In order to go beyond age as a defining feature, there needs to be a framework which accommodates other associated elements that cannot be taken for granted and vary across different situations,’ writes Eyob Balcha. In this piece, Balcha explores how youth is conceptualised, with a focus on the African Youth Charter.
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.
In the aftermath of elections in Ekiti State, Uche Igwe looks at what the rest of Nigeria can learn from the experience. Noting civil society and the judiciary's key role in enabling the restoration of John Olukayode Fayemi as executive governor, Igwe argues that a ‘transparent political space’ and a ‘vibrant and mobilised civil society' is all the people need to 'gird their loins’ and vote.
As election fever sweeps across the continent, Dibussi Tande presents a selection of blog posts on the situation in Cote D’Ivoire, Tanzania and Cameroon, along with a view from Africa on Obama’s US presidency.
Nine days after the general elections in Tanzania a panel of experts will discuss the scene on the ground leading up to the elections, the election process itself and the what next for Tanzania.
'We, the undersigned journalists and freedom of expression organisations, express to you and your administration our deepest concern at the worsening media freedom situation in the north-eastern regions of Somalia that are controlled by Puntland. Since you assumed the office of Puntland President on 11 January 2009, journalists have been arrested, physically assaulted, suspended, censored and even killed, and the operations of news media organisations have been threatened, closed or restricted.'
The Harvard Africa Policy Journal is the leading scholarly journal in the United States dedicated to African policy. A call for papers has been issued for this year's theme, 'From the Heart of Africa'.
‘Without mass power, we must all forget about liberating ourselves from the shackles of capitalism and apartheid,’ writes Zwelinzima Vavi, in a memorial lecture for Chris Hani, the South African activist assassinated in 1993.
Faced by high unemployment South Africans are ‘queuing up to be exploited’, writes Mashumi ‘Lindela’ Figlan. But there’s no reason why ‘each and every person cannot have their dignity.’
The country's economy is ‘a poverty machine’ perpetuating and deepening inequalities that ‘threaten the basis of social stability and growth’, writes Andries du Toit. But in re-imagining South Africa’s future, we need to focus on 'the quality of social relations' and not just ‘material issues’.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's call for the Cape Town Opera not to perform in Tel Aviv should be listened to, write members of the Gaza community. 'Do the Cape Town Opera members completely ignore the fact that instead of showing solidarity with us the voiceless and imprisoned, they will instead be performing to war-makers and Israeli soldiers and reservists?'
The excessive use of pretrial detention leads to overcrowded environments where unconvicted detainees are at risk of contracting disease, writes Kersty McCourt. But as disease outbreaks quickly spread to the general public, pretrial detention is not just a human rights problem but also a looming public health crisis.
For more than a decade, a host of young footballers, overwhelmingly under the age of 18 (more than 3,000 since 2000), have left the African continent to try their luck in Europe and Asia, according to the website of Association foot solidaire, a non-governmental organisation based in Paris, which fights against mistreatment of young African footballers. The mafia-type characters who extract money from parents, most of them poor, take young Africans to Asia or Europe with the promise of a trial at a big club. In the end, many of them are abandoned in the street, with no means to support themselves.
Children of South Africa (CHOSA) is a small funding NGO that is looking for a full-time Programs Coordinator with progressive politics who speaks fluent isiXhosa. This person should understand grassroots and community-led development as well as be anti-authoritarian in his/her socio-political outlook.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake joined the Kenya Government and other partners on Friday to roll out an innovative approach to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies (PMTCT). The initiative includes a combination of interventions and supplies such as a 'Mother-Baby-Pack' of antiretroviral drugs and antibiotics, which women can easily administer at home. Without treatment, around half of all children born with HIV will die before their second birthday.
Projections of the impact of circumcision on the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa based on clinical trials may underestimate the number of infections that can be averted by around 40 per cent, according to an international group of epidemiological modellers. The findings, published in advance online by the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, come from new epidemiological modelling work that incorporates findings from a pooled analysis of two recent studies that evaluated the impact of circumcision on HIV transmission from men to women.
Despite efforts by civil society and the government, violence against women remains an ever-present problem in Morocco, a women's rights NGO announced on 27 October. To reach its conclusions, the Chama Centre for Refuge, Counselling and Legal Advice documented 302 cases of gender abuse over the period 2009-2010.
The Algerian government has been implementing an array of pro-reading measures. In 2008, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia issued a decree covering the import and sale of books through festivals, fairs and trade shows. Last August, the Council of Ministers decided to introduce a VAT exemption on paper for book printing.
Morocco exercises secret detention and ill-treatment of detainees under counter-terrorism laws, Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleged in a provocative new report titled 'Stop looking for your son: Illegal detentions under the counterterrorism law in Morocco'. 'While Morocco has demonstrated the political will to adopt enlightened human rights legislation, it lacks the political will to enforce it when it comes to terrorism suspects,' said Leah Whitson, head of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.
South Africa is set to create a US-style development aid agency as it seeks to play a more prominent role as a major donor country in Africa, says International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. She made the announcement at a regional heads of mission conference in Nairobi, Kenya during a three-day foreign policy session, Business Day reported on Wednesday.
Ghana has lifted its ban on a business caught smuggling cocoa out of the country, after lobbying by Britain at the request of the company’s owner. As long as African countries are dependent on aid, they will find it hard to refuse the demands of potential donors, muses Cameron Duodu.
Sudan policemen and Darfur rebel militias clashed in Sudan's western region of Darfur, government and rebels said. It was reported that both sides are claiming a crushing victory. The Sudan government said its forces had killed many rebel fighters while rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) claimed to have killed about 50 policemen. The interior ministry said the fighting begun when Jem rebels ambushed a government fuel and food supplies convoy in southern Darfur.
Attending the NEPAD Forum in Abuja last week, Okello Oculi is disappointed by a lack of enthusiasm for the most interesting ideas raised. Meanwhile, the last-minute trade fair running in parallel to the forum is ‘a success by the mere fact of its taking place’.
Developed by Jidaw Systems Limited, a ICT training, consulting and web content provision firm in Nigeria, the Nigeria Computers blog is a public online resource for Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) in Nigeria. With an aim to promote ICT4D in Nigeria, the blog will provide information, insights and opportunities to network. The blog’s focus on ICT4D content is geared towards ICT for job creation, business development, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and poverty alleviation.
'We hereby recognize the resignation of Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat from the Chairmanship of the Truth Justice & Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). On behalf of all those Kenyans who wish to see a successful truth, justice and reconciliation process in Kenya, we applaud the former Chairman for taking what has certainly being a difficult option for him.'