Pambazuka News 487: Racketeering: Jamaica, Angola, EPAs and Fifa
Pambazuka News 487: Racketeering: Jamaica, Angola, EPAs and Fifa
The East African Community has accelerated negotiations with Europe for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The race is on for negotiators and lobbyists to either let Europe in or keep it out. And so far, influential EPA advocates are in the lead, according to Yash Tandon, former head of the South Centre and critic of African EPAs with Europe. As corporate proponents advance the trade deal, negotiations threaten East African unity at a critical time in its still early development.
Once seen as an essential part of South Africa’s liberation struggle, today striking workers and their trade unions are more likely to be perceived as unpatriotic for ‘chasing away foreign economic investment’, writes Mxolisi Makinana. Although the ANC (African National Congress) presents itself as the government of the people, Makinana argues that legislation to regulate strikes is designed to ‘institutionalise the class struggle that continues in the post-apartheid period’.
Our hope of changing the world has to transcend conventional methods, writes Amira Ali, if we want to create a world for our children in which they are able to live, to grow and ‘become their best possible selves’. This will not happen, muses Ali, ‘unless, we are transformed, re-developed and renewed’. The alternative is to turn ‘our backs on atrocities and malaise, contributing to the cataclysms of the world and succumb to the spiritual hollowness of our lives.’
Chair of the board and CEO of Angolan parastatal Sonangol, Manuel Vicente's 25 per cent shareholding in Grinaker LTA Angola – a company that was awarded two multi-million dollar construction contracts by Sonangol – involves ‘passive corruption and conflict of interest’, writes Rafael Marques de Morais. De Morais takes a look at Vicente's role in the murky relationship between the two organisations and the Banco Africano de Investimentos (BAI) in light of national and international anti-corruption legislation.
Inspired by the atmosphere both at the World Cup in South Africa and at the Cup of Cultures in Berlin, Mphutlane wa Bofelo sees ‘the possibilities for the development of national, continental and international identities, rooted in the acknowledgement and the celebration of diversity as well as the interconnectedness of humanity and the universality of human experiences.’ But, says wa Bofelo, ‘we cannot expect a one-off event like the World Cup to work like a magic wand and spontaneously heal the divisions and tensions of the past and the present.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is pleased to announce that David Cote, head of the strategic litigation unit at the leading human rights organisation Lawyers for Human Rights, South Africa will observe the bail application in the matter of The State versus Farai Maguwu in the High Court of Zimbabwe from 16-17th June 2010. Mr Farai Maguwu, a respected human rights defender was arrested soon after a confidential meeting held on 25 May 2010 with the Kimberley Process Monitor for Zimbabwe, Mr Abbey Chikane, to discuss human rights abuses and the rampant smuggling of Marange diamonds. The ICJ is gravely concerned at the strong link being made between Farai Maguwu’s meeting with Mr Chikane and the subsequent and ongoing persecution of the respected human rights defender and his immediate family.
Fahamu and Syracuse University recently co-hosted an international conference ‘to assess and deliberate on the nature and future of the pre-eminent phase of Sino-African relations’. Micheal Otieno and Hayley Herman witnessed the discussions, which furthered the ‘important debate on the emerging role of China in global politics and international development’.
The family, friends and well wishers of former member of parliament for Nyakach and eminent trade unionist Hon. James Dennis Akumu,
Cordially invite you to a Harambee
on Saturday 3 July 2010
at the United Kenya Club from 5:00pm–8:00pm
Hon. Akumu has been unwell over the past five years due to kidney complications. The Harambee is organised to raise funds for kidney transplant in India at the end of July 2010.
If you cannot make it to the Harambee, you may send your kind donation to:
J.D. Akumu
Standard Chartered Bank Ltd
Yaya Centre
Account No: 01501-9736-9300
Nairobi
You may also contribute via M-Pesa to Mrs Grace Akumu, Tel: 0725-808.292.
Those in Kisumu may also get in touch with his sister Mrs Asenath Bole Odaga on
Tel: 0733-959.681 / 0724-690.137
Thanking you in anticipation of your gracious support.
Pambazuka reader Christiane Ströh de Martínez is looking for information about insurance for migrants. Let us know if you can help.
The world seems to be paying more attention to genocide deniers in North America and Europe than the facts on the ground about Rwanda, writes Chizzy Mswahili.
A civic education session attracts women from Kabete, Nairobi, who listen to educators and MPs deconstruct Kenya's proposed constitution ahead of the 4 August referendum. The event is one of many organised by Warembo ni Yes, a movement conceived by the women's arm of community group Bunge la Mwananchi and created to educate and prompt women to vote yes. Event organiser and Warembo ni Yes sister Grace Ngugi explains why her group reaches out to women, and why women are responding.
The 1994 Rwandan genocide was a tragedy that the rest of the world overlooked, writes Alice Gatebuke, and sixteen years later the international community is still turning a blind eye to Rwanda. Recent human rights abuses – the maltreatment of a presidential candidate and the suspension of rights of an American lawyer – and Rwanda’s actions in neighbouring Congo have not been condemned by the international community. Gatebuke, a genocide survivor, argues that present-day violations of universal rights and norms must not be ignored, nor can they be excused by consideration of past acts of evil against Rwandanese people. Rwanda too, she says, must be held to a universal standard.
A global conversation about the rights of sex workers is happening without African voices, writes Chi Mgbako. While activists on other continents have successfully organised to engage governments in dialogue, the criminalisation of the trade in Africa has pushed sex workers to the fringe, compromising more than economic protection in the industry as health, safety and legal rights are sidelined. Until African voices can be heard in the struggle, African sex workers will continue being denied their core rights as stigma and discrimination plague their ‘illegal’ livelihoods, argues Mgbako.
Uncertainty reigns around who was responsible for the grenade blasts that killed six people and injured several others at a constitutional meeting in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. What is clear, however, says Wanyeki, is that the stakes of the 4 August Kenyan referendum are critically high for the perpetrators. Rightfully, Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission has focused on hate speech in the aftermath of the attacks, but can the crime be addressed with an ever-expanding electronic platform that remains unchecked?
The recent arrest of two Dutch women for ‘ambush marketing’ at South Africa’s World Cup Soccer City stadium has revealed the legislative influence Fifa has exerted on its host, writes Alex Free. Pointing out that Fifa has acquired the nickname ‘Thiefa’ among some quarters, Free takes a look at who is really doing the ‘ambushing’.
As the World Cup focuses attention on South Africa, J. Mogwe is unimpressed by Fifa and the international media’s presentation of the global soccer event, the first ever to be held in Africa, as a turning point in the destiny of the country and of the continent, that will transform the lives of ordinary people for the better.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, alleged drug lord and leader of Jamaican gang, the Shower Posse, was arrested on 22 June. Coke’s arrest, writes Horace Campbell, opens up the possibility to ‘reveal the full extent of the corruption of the politics of Jamaica and the Caribbean by their rulers in collaboration with the intelligence, commercial and banking infrastructures of the United States’. Noting that 'political retrogression, gangsterism and violence have now reached the proportions that were similar to the period of enslavement', Campbell says the 'struggle against the cocaine business in the Caribbean is a struggle for a new form of society.'
I was once a fighter,
A fighter of great prowess,
A fighter of great calibre.
"I am a fighter!" I shouted,
And before I had realised it,
I had won the fight.
My opponents gave way
And surrendered with fear
"You have won," they said,
And grim faced, they left.
Without another glance at me, they saw the fighter,
Carried shoulder high by cheering supporters.
"I am a fighter!" I shouted
But there was nobody to fight,
So I had to relax.
But how can a fighter relax
Except by fighting?
How can a killer repose
Except by killing?
How can a dancer recreate
Except by dancing?
I had to relax too,
I had to repose,
I had to recreate.
"I am a fighter!" I shouted
But my enemies were no longer there,
They had long joined the mocking audience
Looking at me with nobody to fight.
So
I turned grimly to my supporters
Holding me high in worship:
"I am a fighter!" I declared to them.
Amir Demeke reviews , a book he regards as an essential read for Africans 'fighting for the real liberation of your community'.
Pambazuka News 486: Remembering Soweto/World Cup 2010
Pambazuka News 486: Remembering Soweto/World Cup 2010
In this week's roundup of emerging powers in Africa news, South-South cooperation offers new opportunities for transforming African economies, Kenyan green group seeks ban on Ethiopian power, China hunts for resources in North Africa, World Bank blacklists Chinese firms, and Botswana seeks Indian companies' investment.
The soccer World Cup began this weekend here in South Africa, with the home team playing a 1-1 draw with Mexico before 95,000 fans at Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium. Regardless of whether South Africa’s Bafana Bafana (our boys), ranked #90 in the world, can survive its next matches against France and Uruguay to advance a round, we know this society is already a big loser. The reason: egregious mistakes made by national and municipal governments, apparently under the thumb of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
At long last, soccer fans, the moment is here. On Friday, South Africa took the field against Mexico, the World Cup was officially underway. Nothing attracts the global gaze quite like it. Nothing creates such an undeniably electric atmosphere with enough energy to put British Petroleum, Exxon/Mobil and Chevron out of business for good. And finally, after 80 years, the World Cup has come to Africa.
Asian workers who stitch nearly all the world's soccer balls have seen little improvement in lives dominated by poverty, a report said days before the start of the World Cup tonight. Thirteen years ago companies such as adidas and Nike joined labour and development organisations to end the use of an estimated 7000 children to stitch soccer balls. However, ''child labour continues to exist'' in the three main ball-making countries - Pakistan, China and India - the report by the International Labour Rights Forum said.
Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is alarmed by allegations that Namibian and Botswana Governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are intent on forcibly repatriating some 1 000 Caprivian refugees from Botswana. Concerned Caprivian refugee sources anonymously informed NSHR that they had fear of an “imminent abduction” from Botswana.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concluded its first review of the human rights situation in Egypt under the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. The Geneva meeting on 11 June, in which the Egyptian government pledged to implement 140 recommendations presented by other state delegations, took place only a month after the government renewed the 29 year State of Emergency for another two years, in effect suspending most civil rights throughout the country.
An estimated 10,000 peasants gathered for a massive march in Central Haiti on June 4, 2010, to protest what has been described as “the next earthquake for Haiti” – a donation of 475 tons of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds by the US-based agribusiness giant Monsanto, in partnership with USAID. While this move comes at a time of dire need in Haiti, many feel it will undermine rather than bolster the country’s food security.
The Prize Committee met to discuss the award of the 2010 Mo Ibrahim Prize. Following its deliberations, the Prize Committee informed the Board of the Foundation that it had not selected a winner. Last year the Prize Committee announced that it had considered some credible candidates, but after in depth review could not select a winner. This year the Prize Committee told the Board that there had been no new candidates or new developments and that therefore no selection of a winner had been made.
An enigmatic, controversial woman returns to Israel after decades away and announces she's running for Prime Minister. She regrets the Holocaust, but after a tour of Yad Vashem, the country's main memorial to the genocide of the Jews, she can't help asking why no one bothers recalling all those good people that were killed by Jews resisting the Nazis. In fact she says not even sure whether more Germans or more Jews were murdered.
The Human Security Report Project (HSRP) has launched its new website. It can be accessed at . The new website, which replaces four separate sites, is easy-to-navigate and provides access to all HSRP publications, research and data, as well as the eNewletter archive. The new site delivers improved usability, additional features, and significantly more content than the previous sites.
FIAN’s Annual Report highlights both the far reaching and localized advances in the field of economic, social and cultural rights that FIAN, and its Sections and Co-ordinations, have helped make possible. This year’s report gives an overview of the main activities for each of FIAN’s target areas in 2009: access to land and natural resources, the right to water, extraterritorial States’ obligations, justiciability of the right to food, monitoring States’ right to food policies, and the gender perspective related to the right to food. Also included is a summation of FIAN’s highly successful European campaign for the right to food, and the high points of each of FIAN’s worldwide Sections and Co-ordinations.
The result of the recent elections in Ethiopia might have come as a shock to many. What lies behind the near total defeat of opposition parties in the recent elections is the combination of reduced trust in and decimated opposition at the political landscape. It is a logical extension of political developments since 2005
On behalf of Activists from Kisarawe, Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) and Health Equity Group (HEqG), TGNP is pleased to announce the Gender Festival which will be held in Kisarawe! The theme is Economic Justice: Making Resources Work For Marginalised Women, and will take place from the 22nd till the 24th of June 2010 at Chanzige Primary School. Please View the attached letter for more information.
The Labor Council has condemned the May 31st Israeli commando attack on the Gaza Aid Flotilla, which killed at least nine unarmed people and seized and detained some 700 passengers and crew. Many of these labor organizations, as well as the U.N. and Amnesty International, have also called for an independent international investigation of the attack and for a permanent opening of the Gaza border in accordance with international law.
From May 24 to May 28, JINN traveled to Houston for a week of events anchored by Chevron's Annual General Meeting and filled with activities with the True Cost of Chevron coalition. In an act symbolic of the way Chevron treats local communities, Chevron illegally barred JINN’s three-person delegation from entering the the company's Annual General meeting in Houston. At this time, we are exploring our legal options and will keep you updated on actions to ensure that community voices can be heard by the Board and shareholders in the future.
The impact HIV/AIDS has on the lives of the victims and the society as a whole brings in to question the significant factors responsible for the transmission of the epidemic, writes Nyiko Maluleke. The increased spread of HIV/AIDS has been identified to be due to a variety of physical, economic and socio-cultural factors. While the impact of these factors has been widely studied, the impact conflict has on the transmission of HIV/AIDS has not been given much attention; therefore the brief seeks to highlight the plight of HIV transmission through sexual violence during conflict time.
Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) is pleased to announce the release of Debating International Justice in Africa: OTJR Collected Essays, 2008-2010, designed to coincide with the ICC review conference in Kampala. Drawing together academic and practitioner contributors from Africa and beyond, this collection highlights the challenges that international justice has faced in addressing atrocities in Africa.
The Second Refugee Film Festival will be held in June 17-20, 2010 at the open air Cinema in Darb 1718 for Contemporary Art and Culture in commemoration of World Refugee Day. The festival will include screenings of 11 documentary and fiction films portraying the resilience of refugees. It will also include a two-day Bazaar of Eritrean, Iraqi, Sudanese and Palestinian food and handicrafts.The festival will end on June 20th with a closing concert by talented Sudanese artists featuring Reggae, blues and folk music.
Security stewards angered over low pay expanded their strike Tuesday to five of the World Cup's 10 stadiums, forcing police to assume their duties in a bitter counterpoint to the generally festive tournament. South African Police Services said it deployed about 1,000 extra officers in and around Johannesburg's Ellis Park to guarantee security for the night match between Brazil, one of tournament favorites, and North Korea.
About 3 600 security stewards - half in Durban and the rest in Cape Town - have lost their jobs at the World Cup stadiums after a wage dispute escalated. Now police have taken over the stewards' duties at the Moses Mabhida and Cape Town stadiums at the request of the Local Organising Committee, spokesman Rich Mkhondo said.
On the 13th of June 2010, the Poor People’s World Cup successfully kicked-off their first day of matches at the Avendale soccer fields, next to Athlone stadium in Cape Town. Early in the morning, the first minibuses with soccer teams arrived from all over Cape Town to play their first games in this Poor People’s tournament. Everybody was excited and the atmosphere was amazing, considering the bad weather forecasts.
Operation Amani Leo, launched jointly by MONUC (the United Nations Mission in Congo) and FARDC (the
Congolese army) in January to regain control of mining territories in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu from rebels, while ensuring security for the local population has been extended to September. But Congolese women are arguing for changes in the conduct of military operations.
The recent arrest of an American lawyer by the heavy-handed Rwandan government has human rights implications for the resource war in neighboring eastern Congo. Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues" and is now a major advocate for Congolese women suffering sexual violence, says the Rwandan government is part of the problem when it comes to ending the violence against women.
"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that," former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said. Uncomfortably close to a bald statement of fact for fans of the beautiful game in Somalia, who risk their lives to watch the World Cup unfolding in South Africa. In the final weeks before the tournament kicked off on Jun. 11, demand for satellite dishes was high. But the Islamist groups that control much of the country have declared the World Cup un-Islamic, threatening dire consequences for anyone found watching.
The year is 2010 and the destination is Johannesburg in South Africa. A group of women monopolise the backseat of a commuter transborder omnibus covering themselves with thick blankets despite the warm weather and at every police checkpoint, they pile more blankets, jackets and jerseys over their legs. Two hours later with Polokwane in sight, their thighs part to reveal the peeping faces of three young children smothered beneath the layers of wool, blankets and nylon – they last resurfaced five hours before for a toilet break along the Masvingo highway, long before the Beitbridge border.
What’s the best way of investing in the developing world? One organization is empowering families by investing in mothers. Hands to Hearts International (HHI) is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide simple and cost-effective programs with tools for women, caregivers, and organizations to improve the early development of children surviving in orphanages, refugee camps, and severely impoverished or conflict-ridden communities.
Attempts by President Robert Mugabe and his top aides to wrest control of controversial diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe could have serious consequences for the peace and stability of the country, a report by a leading human rights group said on Monday.
The Southern Africa Resource Watch organized a five day training workshop for SADC journalists at Fatmols Executive Lodge in Ndola, Zambia, from 9-14 May 2010. The training focused on reporting extractive industries and tackled a wide range of issues relating to this subject: policy and regulatory issues on SADC’s mining industry, SADC’s economic development debates, media and development in SADC, understanding corporate social responsibility in SADC mining, issues and debates on African forestry, reporting and writing stories on extractive industries, and promoting purpose-driven journalism in African media.
The top United Nations envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has paid tribute to a group of Senegalese blue helmets who are the first batch of peacekeepers to leave the country in line with the recent decision by the Security Council to alter the UN mission there.The Council last month agreed to transform the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUC) into a stabilization mission in the coming weeks, authorizing the withdrawal of up to 2,000 UN military personnel – from an existing strength of 19,815 – by 30 June from areas where security has improved enough to allow their removal.
In Africa’s Sahel region, even in years of adequate rainfall food insecurity is usually high. Now, as the region enters the precarious “lean season” (the period between harvests that lasts from May to August), the problem is expected to get worse. In recent months, rains have been erratic and scarce, in turn significantly diminishing the crops produced by farmers. Entire communities are without sufficient food reserves to survive until the next harvests in September.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for increased local and international support for children in strife-torn Somalia, where basic services such as education, health, nutrition and clean water are limited as a result of two decades of conflict. “Somali communities, families, parents, local administrations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), donors and international organizations should have a collective responsibility to put the best interests of the child first,” said UNICEF’s representative in Somalia, Rozanne Chorlton.
Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta presented the national budget for the 2010-2011 financial year to parliament on 10 June. The budget sees a near doubling of past allocations for HIV treatment, earmarking Ksh. 900 million (US$ 11.25 million) for antiretroviral treatment. Earlier this year UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé jointly launched the country’s National AIDS Strategic Plan (2010- 2013) with the Prime Minister, Right Honorable Raila Odinga.
A circle of women dance to the beat of drums in the morning sun, a crowd of adults and children watching from under tall, leafy trees. After a lengthy roll of beats, the dancing stops and the circle opens to welcome visitors – a group of water-and-sanitation experts.
The Burkinabe president, Blaise Compaore, has called for the acceleration of the establishment of electronic communication infrastructure in Africa, saying this would open up new tech n ology-related opportunities and cope with the digital divide that threatens to further marginalise developing countries. The Burkinabe head of state was speaking during the opening ceremony of the Third Panafrican Forum on Best Practices in the Field of New Information and Communication Technology.
She may have been little-known in political circles until now, but by putting herself forward as the first female independent presidential candidate, Luisete Macedo Araújo (50) has thrust herself into the limelight. Araújo is the first Angolan woman to set her sights on the country’s top job, held for the last 30 years by the same man, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Over 50 million people in Africa and elsewhere in target countries benefited from loans of the Food Facility, a special instrument with a budget of 1 billion euros, established a year ago by the European Union (EU) to face the food crisis in developing countries, official sources said. According to a document, made available to the media, 65,000 children received supplemental nutrition care through the loans of the Food Facility, managed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The international community risks losing the global battle against HIV/AIDS, unless funding for projects to stem the spread of the disease and keep those infected healthy is sustained and increased, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned. "In our global war on AIDS, the international community is on the verge of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," Ban wrote in an editorial opinion published in the Austin American-Statesman, a US-based newspaper.
A non-governmental relief agency, Refugee International, has criticised humanitarian organisations in the Horn of Africa for ignoring the plight of Somali refugees living in camps and urban settings in neighbouring countries, according to a report published here Thursday. The report said humanitarian actors overlook thousands of Somali refugees that have sought asylum in cities in neighbouring countries, thus exacerbating their already grave humanitarian situation.
Gambian opposition People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), has proposed the holding of primaries as a way of resolving the thorny issue of selecting a presidential flag-bearer for a united opposition front ahead of the tiny West African nation’s polls. The proposal followed PDOIS's recent congress during which party supporters and executive members adopted 'Agenda 2011', a blueprint spelling out strategies, plans and theories aimed at effecting democratic change in the Gambia.
A new report by UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that global prices of food could climb by as much as 40 per cent in the coming decade. FAO said that the rise would be caused by the growth in global population, which would increase the demand for more food. The report, entitled: "The Agriculture Outlook 2010-19", which was made available to the Pan African News Agency (PANA) on Wednesday, anticipated that wheat and coarse grain prices could jump to levels of between 15 and 40 per cent higher than they were between 1997 and 2006.
Ethiopia's main opposition parties on Tuesday won the first round battle in their attempts to challenge the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) landslide victory in last month's general elections. "At least we have managed to have our case filed at the court," Gidada Negasso, Ethiopia's former president, told PANA on phone after the Supreme Court allowed the opposition coalition to challenge the EPRDF landslide win in the 23 May elections.
Two Sudan rebel leaders appeared before the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges on Thursday over a 2007 attack that killed 12 African Union peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur. Describing themselves as revolutionaries, Mr Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Mr Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus said they welcomed the chance to clear their names and urged other war crimes suspects to also hand themselves over.
Zimbabwe has finally launched the programme to rewrite the country’s constitution but financial constraints, political intimidation and violence threaten the 90 day consultation process. Launching the long delayed programme to replace the constitution adopted at independence from Britain in 1980 on Wednesday, President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara made impassioned pleas for peace.
The United States has welcomed the release by a Rwandan court of Peter Erlinder, an American lawyer who had been detained since May on charges of denying the 1994 genocide. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said US embassy officials were at the court hearing and immediately shared the news with Mr Erlinder's family.
Twenty South African boys have died following botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape Province. "The deaths occurred over the past 12 days, with nine of them occurring over the past 24 hours," said a provincial health spokesperson. Some 60 boys have been rescued from 11 initiation schools which have since been closed. Circumcision is seen as a rite of passage into manhood in some South African communities
A Dutch court has sentenced five Somali men to five years in prison for attacking a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden last year, in the first such case to come to trial in Europe. The men were convicted in Rotterdam of attacking a Dutch Antilles-flagged ship, the Samanyolu. They were arrested last year when their high-speed boat was intercepted by a Danish frigate.
More than $300m (£200m) of health funding to Zambia's government is being suspended by the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It said it was concerned about alleged corruption in connection with one or more grants to the health ministry.
The World Cup has rightly captured the country’s imagination, writes Leonard Gentle. Despite Bafana’s anaemic performance against the Uruguayans, there is still a clear sense of relief amongst opinion makers that we’re pulling off hosting the event. The dominant voice proclaims that we’ve proven everyone – meaning the prophets of doom – wrong.
Shot at and raped. Arrested and beaten. Detained and deported. Extorted and robbed. Threatened and insulted. Ignored and shunned. The treatment of hardened criminals in some far-flung police state? The fate of political opponents by a repressive regime? Not quite. For Somali refugees - 80% of them women and children - this is their welcome to Kenya.
UNESCO's decision to delay awarding a controversial prize named after and funded by the dictator of Equatorial Guinea is a positive initial step, civil society groups said. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced June 15, 2010, that its executive board, consisting of 58 countries, approved Director-General Irina Bokova's proposal to postpone the award and instead engage in consultations to consider the prize's future.
New clashes between the Senegalese army and members of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) have caused new displacements since 2009 and hindered durable solutions for long-term internally displaced people (IDPs). Estimates of the overall number of IDPs in Casamance in 2010 range between 10,000 and 40,000, and figures remain unreliable in the absence of a comprehensive survey.
People look for refuge in other countries because they have no other option- they are being persecuted at home because of who they are, their beliefs or their opinions. Sadly, all too often, instead of finding safety in other countries, many find closed borders, xenophobia, detention and terrible living conditions. Some are denied a fair hearing of their asylum claims and could be forced to return home, where their lives are in danger. On World Refugee Day, 20 June 2010, Amnesty International calls on states to reaffirm everyone's right to seek and to enjoy asylum, as recognized in article 14 of the UDHR.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the decision of a court in Sudan which banned the publication of all news related to the trial of Rai-Alshab Arabic daily and its three editors who charged over reports on the alleged involvement of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the construction of a weapons factory in Sudan.
A persistent budget shortfall means that more than 120 million people in Nigeria and Ghana could remain at risk of contacting yellow fever if not reached with vaccinations, United Nations agencies and their partners cautioned. Funding shortages are threatening the global supply of the immunization, which means the two West African nations could be left off the list for upcoming campaigns, according to the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Yellow Fever Vaccine Provision, of which the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) are members.
Cholera outbreak in Uganda has killed at least 10 people leaving 20 hospitalized in Uganda's Kayunga district, officials said Thursday. The epidemic that broke out June 4 at the Kawongo landing site was due to poor sanitation, Edrisa Musisi, district health officer, said.
At least 11 people were killed on Friday and dozen others wounded after rebel militias attacked the barracks of Somali government forces in Hosh, southern Mogadishu. "Insurgents, supported by foreign terrorists, attacked our base in the Hosh area early this morning," government security official Ahmed Warsame said.
Chad is holding the first summit on the "Great Green Wall" of Africa which is a proposal to plant trees along the borders of northern Africa to battle alarming desertification. The Global Environment Facility is funding the project with about US$119 million. Eleven leaders are at the summit.
The Ugandan government will compensate about 10,000 people in the country's northern region, who were maimed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels over two decades, ahead of elections next year. One of the most ruthless rebel groups, the LRA waged a brutal but futile insurgency from their bases in northern Ugandan and southern Sudan to dislodge President Yoweri Museveni and establish a theocracy in the east African country.
Tunisia rejected on Thursday allegations from human rights campaigners that a new law setting out tough penalties for conspiring to harm the country's economy would suppress free speech. Tunisia's parliament this week passed amendments to the penal code which make it a crime for anyone to incite foreigners not to invest in the north African nation, give it loans or sign trade deals with it.
The world's oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain -- irreversible changes that have not occurred for several million years, a new study says. The changes could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people around the globe who rely on oceans for their livelihoods.
In a slow-motion disaster predicted months ago by aid agencies, Africa's Sahel region is lurching towards a food crisis which the world has only weeks left to avert. Yet even if more aid is pledged right now, the obstacles in getting succour to the most vulnerable and remote communities on the planet mean hundreds of thousands of children in Niger and Chad are already facing life-threatening hunger.
HIV activists have accused the United States and European governments of betraying their commitments to assist poorer nations fund treatment for those needing HIV treatment. “2010 is meant to be the year when we achieve universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) as set out in the Millennium Development Goals. But across Africa less than half of people in need of ART are accessing it. Despite this, the United States and Europe are retreating on their commitments to support HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and care. Their failure to honour these commitments will result in millions of avoidable deaths across sub-Saharan Africa,” the activists said.
Women in abusive relationships have a higher risk of being infected with HIV, a South African Medical Research Council study has found. Researchers said one in seven new HIV infections could be averted if women were not subjected to physical and sexual abuse or relationships inequalities. In a randomised trial they studied 1 099 HIV negative women in South Africa. Women were tested once over a period of two years. Face to face interviews were conducted with women to assess exposure to gender based violence and inequality in their relationships.
The historic meeting at the Kennedy Road settlement on Sunday went well despite the intimidation from the local ANC. The background to this meeting, and its importance, is that in September last year Abahlali baseMjondolo(AbM) and the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC), the openly and freely elected committee in the settlement, were expelled in violent attacks organised through the local ANC and supported by the police and the criminal justice system.
Kenya is positioning itself to reap minimum benefits from the expanded market set to be created by the integration of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market which comes into effect on July 1. Both the government and the private sector have lined a series of meetings to ensure the East African nation’s biggest economy makes economic grains from the regional market.
The seven states comprising the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) group are meeting in Gaborone, Botswana this week following negotiations with the European Union (EU) in Belgium last month. The meeting, which will run from Thursday to Friday, stems from a decision made at the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Heads of State meeting in Namibia on April 22.
Dozens of families on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital of Mali, are under threat of being evicted from their lands by the Government in favour of a housing project. The cultivation ban, ordered in July 2009, jeopardizes their right to adequate food. Moreover, if the eviction is realized, it will hinder the ability of the families to feed themselves in the long run. They already belong to the most vulnerable in Mali. The Government acted without prior consultation with the affected individuals and has not taken steps towards compensation or resettlement, which is in breach of human rights obligations.
Only two years after its last revision, the Swiss Asylum Act is about to be 'reformed' again. The changes include a gag order on political activism for asylum-seekers and a modification of the concept of a refugee. Ever since Switzerland adopted the Asylum Act in 1981, it has constantly been tightened, largely at the expense of the refugees, as in most European countries.
A water-sharing treaty among five upstream Nile Basin countries - to the exclusion of Egypt and Sudan - has reignited the longstanding dispute over water distribution. Local experts, however, say the agreement will not jeopardise Egypt's historical share of Nile water. "Egypt has relied on the waters of the Nile for thousands of years," Hani Raslan, head of the department for Sudan and Nile Basin countries at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told IPS. "No one can set a limit on Egypt's use of the Nile, which is protected by international law."
Discussing poverty with a Washington Post reporter last month, 5th graders at a Southeast Washington school (the poverty rate for Washington, DC is 32 percent) came up with an obvious solution. "Why not just give them money?" (Washington Post, May 11). Experts and policy-makers have found it easy to dismiss this common-sense suggestion, in favor of magical belief in trickle-down economics or of elaborate poverty-reduction plans. But a new book brings together weighty evidence that in fact the children are likely to be right.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) youth should celebrate themselves on Youth Day and assert the protections and freedoms enshrined in our constitution, Justice Edwin Cameron said as the country prepares to commemorate the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976.
The number of refugees voluntarily returning home has plunged to its lowest rate in two decades, partly due to chronic insecurity in war-torn nations, according to the UN refugee agency. Only 251,000 of the world's 15 million refugees returned to their home countries last year, the lowest rate in two decades, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Kenya's long-awaited biosafety law is likely to become operational this month — well over a year after its president approved the legislation. President Mwai Kibaki signed off parliament's approval of the biosafety legislation in February 2009, after a decade of controversy about the advisability of allowing the commercialisation of genetically modified organisms.
Despite international conventions prohibiting the export of dangerous waste to developing countries, enormous quantities of outdated and destroyed electronic equipment from Europe end up in Ghana's Agbogbloshie dump each week.
The economic crisis has affected the economy of Burkina Faso only in a limited way. Despite dry whether conditions and low cotton prices, GDP growth has only been slightly reduced. According to the latest analysis of the Burkinabe economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), GDP growth was reduced from 5.2 percent in 2008 to 3.2 percent in 2009.
Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has signed an African Union-brokered deal, allowing him to stay on power as "interim president" until November. Then, late elections are to be held. According to a statement by the Comoran Union presidency, the agreement that ends the archipelago's constitutional crisis was signed in Moroni, the capital, today. An election timetable is key to the agreement.
Much to the frustration of gender activists, Swaziland's Supreme Court has reversed a February 2010 High Court ruling that allowed a married woman to register property in their own name. After centuries of being classified and treated as minors, the new Swazi Constitution granted women equal status in 2005. Activist Mary-Joyce Doo Aphane wished to register a house in her own name and challenged the country's 1968 Deeds Registry Act. She was granted a High Court order declaring the section unconstitutional.