PAMBAZUKA NEWS 135: COMMONWEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS: CONTRADICTIONS AND WEAKNESSES
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 135: COMMONWEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS: CONTRADICTIONS AND WEAKNESSES
The wife of the President, Stella Obasanjo, has dragged the Independent Communication Network Limited, publishers of The News magazine, to an Abuja High Court, claiming N1 billion damages for alleged libel published by the news magazine, reports Nigeria Media Monitor. In her statement, Mrs.Obasanjo said the publication in the magazine issue of October 27, alleging that she got a contract from Comite des Jeux Africains (COJA) officials for the furnishing of the Games Village was "based entirely on speculation, unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations."
On 30 November the Administrative Court reserved judgement in the associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) case against the Media and Information Commission (MIC) in which it sort an order from the court to publish its two newspaper titles, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday. The ANZ sought the court order despite appeals to the Supreme Court by the state that the papers remain shut.
Burundi’s new peace deal could bring very large numbers of refugees back home within three months, but there are no preparations for their repatriation and reintegration. The issue was ignored in the negotiations leading to the ceasefire accord signed on 16 November 2003, but such an omission endangers the peace process itself. It is crucial that the November accord not be implemented at the expense of refugees and the internally displaced. Numbering over one million, Burundian refugees and internally displaced have been the prime victims of the conflict, and their situation has deteriorated in the past three years. This is according to a report from the International Crisis Group.
Judge Essop Patel delivered a ruling last month that should give some relief to media operations and journalists who are harassed by sources and others threatening litigation to obtain copies of news articles before they are published, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said. Judge Patel ruled in the Pretoria High Court that it would be an unnecessary burden for newspapers to hand over copies of articles and reports for public preview.
The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, has expressed "serious concern" at the confiscation of all equipment belonging to the independent For Di People newspaper. According to reports, on the morning of 24 November heavily armed police confiscated equipment belonging to For Di People, in connection with a damages award in a civil libel case. Editor Paul Kamara, who is also facing seditious libel charges in another case, was appearing in court at the time of the raid.
Mr Andrew Awuni, Deputy Minister for Information, on Saturday denied that the Right to Information Bill was a subtle attempt by the Government to re-introduce the Criminal Libel Law. He said the claim was far from the truth, since the government would not work relentlessly to repeal the Law, only to re-introduce it in its third year in office.
Editors from Southern African countries concluded a three-day meeting in Johannesburg on Sunday and agreed to form the Southern African Editors' Forum (SAEF). National editors' forums from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe constitute the SAEF.
Online fund raising is a relatively recent trend that involves bringing a nonprofit organisation's solicitation efforts to the Internet. At its most basic level, it simply means developing the capacity to accept contributions online. Since the easiest way for most people to give money over the Internet is to use a credit card, online fund raising is more or less synonymous to developing the ability to process credit card transactions online.
A Kenyan journalist and graduate of Internews’ “Local Voices” media training program has just received UNESCO's HIV/AIDS Red Ribbon Media Award for Excellence in Journalism in Eastern and Southern Africa.
AIDS' devastation is nowhere more obvious than in sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty and lack of access to health care -among many other factors - have allowed the disease to spread unchecked through country after country. But there is a small bit of good news. A number of organisations are taking innovative steps to mitigate the worst aspects of AIDS by helping affected communities ensure a supply of locally-grown nutritious food.
In 1994, Elias Timoso left his home in the Manica province of central Mozambique to study Portuguese and English in Zimbabwe. Two years later, he returned to his home, Manhemé, with a mission to teach basic literacy classes to willing students - a critical step in addressing the poverty of his village.
The United Nations was due to torch a ceremonial pyre of surrendered weapons to light a fire under the peace process in war-torn Liberia, but 14 years of bloodshed may not be reduced to ashes so easily. With the 50 million-dollar (42 million-euro) disarmament program the UN Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) hopes not only to convince an estimated 50,000 combatants to relinquish their weapons but also to reintegrate them in a civilian society battered by two back-to-back civil wars since 1989.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF holds its annual conference in the southern city of Masvingo on Thursday, but has ruled out any debate on the issue of a successor to President Robert Mugabe.
There's growing awareness among policymakers in Swaziland that a burgeoning orphan population created by AIDS is fundamentally changing the nature of their society. A National Draft Policy on Children, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), is in the works and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Swaziland met with government representatives on Wednesday to assess the country's OVC programmes.
Cholera outbreaks have claimed the lives of about 40 people in Zimbabwe and international NGO Save the Children UK (SCUK) has warned that if the disease spreads to urban and former commercial farm areas it could be disastrous.
The Botswana government has defended its decision to axe the phone-in section of the popular radio show Masa-a-sele (Morning has broken), amid concerns it was taken off the air because it allowed callers to voice criticism of the authorities.
Human rights activists and their supporters marched through Lagos on Wednesday to protest against President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and Nigeria's hosting of a Commonwealth summit, but they were dispersed by riot police. More than 1,000 activists belonging to the United Action for Democracy (UAD), a coalition of rights and pro-democracy groups, marched through the centre of Nigeria's biggest city.
Members of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) attending peace talks in Kenya have called on the conference organisers not to allow a proposed retreat for Somali leaders to become a parallel conference. Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, the current SRRC chairman, told IRIN that the Council welcomed any effort to move the peace process forward. "However we will not accept another conference," he said.
Lawyers defending Mauritanian opposition leader Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla against charges of threatening state security, walked out of court on Tuesday in the capital, Nouakchott, forcing a temporary suspension of hearings. Ould Haidalla, runner-up in last month's presidential elections, first appeared in court on Monday in a court session that lasted more than six hours.
As a mother leans over to breastfeed her hungry newborn baby, doctors look on anxiously knowing she could infect her child with the HIV virus. It is a dilemma medics in rural Ethiopia say they are facing almost daily, as the country launches a campaign to prevent mothers infecting their children with the virus.
* Civil Society Prepares for 'Civil War'
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21383
* No Democracy Without Access to Information
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21371
* Come To Us, People Tell Leaders
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=21363
MORE NEWS ON THE COMMONWEALTH MEETING IN PAMBAZUKA NEWS...
UNICEF will launch its annual flagship report, The State of the World's Children, on 11 December 2003. The 2004 report presents girls' education as one of the most crucial issues facing the international development community.
A study of African elephants suggests they may be more numerous than they were four years ago, scientists say. They think there are from 400,000 to 660,000 elephants across the continent, with large numbers in southern Africa.
At least 25 people have died of the incurable Ebola virus in the latest outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever in north-western Congo, according to a new official toll released on Wednesday.
At least 14 people, including three civilians, have been killed in clashes involving rebels of the feared Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) over recent days, military sources told AFP on Tuesday.
“The war is not yet over”, an International Crisis Group mission to Côte d’Ivoire repeatedly heard in November 2003. There are ominous signs that the Côte d’Ivoire peace process initiated in January 2003 has broken down. If the country goes back to war, it could well take all West Africa with it, endangering even recent progress in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The UN Security Council needs to take a leading role in the peace process, initially by upgrading its current presence to a full peacekeeping mission. This could include subsuming some 1,400 West African troops under the umbrella of an expanded operation. The UN should also step up cooperation between its ongoing peace operation in Liberia and its Ivorian peace mission, MINUCI.
Related Links:
* Peacekeepers clash with government troops
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38160
* Gbagbo militants threaten march on rebel capital
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38217
This review sets out to assess the extent to which the new democratic dispensation since 1994 has redirected the purpose and content of government policy and seeks to describe the impact of these changes on South African society.
Laws that infringe freedom of expression have not been repealed but have become more repressive, violent commercial farm invasions continue and the government consistently undermines the rule of law, said a Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition statement issued shortly before the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Abuja, Nigeria. The URL below links to the full statement, to URL's to further stories regarding Zimbabwe, to a Political Violence Report for October from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and to a statement from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
"I put it to you that you are a disgrace to your profession" were the last words addressed to former editor of City Press Vusi Mona on Friday by a member of the Hefer Commission. "You are entitled to your opinion," Mona replied to senior counsel Marumo Moerane, representing National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. But this rejoinder was delivered without spirit and in a small voice. Mona had just spent two days being verbally torn apart by Moerane.
Court papers have been served on South Africa's four largest political parties in an attempt to compel them to reveal the sources of all large private donations made into their coffers since January 1 this year.
George Bizos - who was a junior member of the ANC defence team in the historic Rivonia trial - has taken up a controversial role in the Hefer Commission, which was set up to investigate allegations that Bulelani Ngcuka, National Director of Public Prosecutions, had been investigated for being an apartheid spy and that he abused his position as the country's chief prosecutor. In this interview, Bizos explains his position.
Related Links:
* Conspiracy theories flourish as the spy story subplot thickens
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2003/11/30/insight/in06.asp
The Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) is currently engaging with the South African Council of Churches to implement a Skills Training Project, which will train approximately 450 unemployed youth throughout South Africa. UYF seeks to appoint accredited lead and training providers.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, (CHOGM) billed to begin Friday in Abuja may discuss new benchmarks for democracy and development, the core of which are tackling corruption, ensuring democratic accountability of government revenue and expenditure and how to guarantee peace and security.
Nigeria is still waiting for a national debate on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) after African leaders returned virtually empty-handed from a G8 summit in Canada where they were searching for the $64 billion needed to make NEPAD work. "The challenge really is what should the poor nations of Africa do when expectations turn into illusions in the global arena. Those saddled with the implementation of NEPAD in Nigeria should be conscious of this huge challenge," says this editorial from Nigeria's This Day newspaper.
About Shs 4.4 billion which Unicef paid out to local governments has not been accounted for. Mr Martin Emukulat, who led a team that did a performance audit of Unicef's country programme operations, said that the UN agency disbursed about Shs 20 billion to local governments in the last three years.
President Sam Nujoma personally intervened earlier this year to halt an investigation into the Roads Authority, The Namibian has learnt. Well-placed Government officials said Nujoma had orally reprimanded then Minister of Finance Nangolo Mbumba, and followed that up with a letter, ordering him to discontinue a comprehensive audit of the Roads Authority's books by auditors the Road Fund Administration (RFA) had appointed.
Despite the introduction of a series of measures to fight corruption in East Africa over the past 10 years, the war on graft is being lost, a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says. "The key reason for failure is a simple lack of political will in the upper reaches of sub-Saharan governments," a paper commissioned by the audit firm last week says. "Governments have paid lip-service to the cause and established anti-corruption commissions, only to render them virtually impotent by creating difficult conditions for commission staffers - low salaries, inadequate support, insufficient funding and others."
A new Global Health Council report, "Reducing Malaria's Burden: Evidence of Effectiveness for Decision Makers," highlights proven, feasible but underutilized strategies in the international fight against malaria. The report, launched at the Global Forum for Health Research in collaboration with international health experts and leading public health scientists, details in one report the best available evidence on what works to prevent and treat malaria.
Africa's governments are failing children affected by HIV/AIDS - up to 65 percent of countries in sub-Saharan Africa have no national policy in place to care for orphans and vulnerable children, a new UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report has found.
Eighteen months ago Botswana became the first African country to offer antiretroviral drugs to everyone for free. A huge amount of cash has been dedicated to the cause, but money cannot buy the workers so desperately needed. The government is desperately negotiating with China and Cuba to get more doctors, but existing staff are simultaneously being lured away by agencies in the West. Last year, Botswana lost 120 of its nurses to the UK.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has nominated the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and its chairperson Zackie Achmat for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat, who is gay and lives openly with HIV, has responded to the nomination by saying, "I am deeply honoured. The gains made by the TAC have been due to the efforts of thousands of people. It is the organisation as a whole that must be commended for the achievements thus far."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS have released a detailed and concrete plan to reach the 3 by 5 target of providing antiretroviral treatment to three million people living with AIDS in developing countries and those in transition by the end of 2005.
Satou carefully takes a pen in her hand, concentrates hard and slowly writes her name on a piece of paper. The group of colourfully dressed women bursts into applause and cheers. Satou lowers her eyes and smiles shyly, but her pride, confidence and self-esteem shine through. Satou is one of many illiterate and formerly illiterate women in the Mamudfana village Mothers' Club in The Gambia. They are coming together, with the support of UNICEF, to break down the barriers to education, including poverty, traditional customs such as early marriage and a resistance to educating girls.
Striking lecturers have urged President Kibaki to help initiate dialogue over pay increase. And in a move that signalled their preparedness to stay longer on the boycott, the lecturers' union launched a fundraising campaign to finance members' survival during the festive season.
When Joana Napeio first took her seat in the new classroom built by her local community, she wanted to cry. So it goes with children all around the world on their first day at school, but unlike most children, her tears were of joy. If Joana Napeio, bright and now being educated, represents the future of Angola, the country is in good hands. She is one of a quarter-of-a-million Angolan children who, at the start of this year, returned to school as part of the ‘Back-to-School’ campaign, an Angolan Ministry of Education and UNICEF initiative.
The government of the Central African Republic should appoint women to a male-only Ministry of Planning committee charged with vetting projects for submission to donors, a former government minister, Lucienne Goddot, said. "It is difficult to get a project presented by women's NGOs approved for funding [by the committee]," she told IRIN.
The increase of the global degradation of ecosystems, the excessive consumption of water, contamination and salinization of water-bearings, aquifers and dams, along with the impact of extreme poverty which has been worsened by privatization, are contributing factors to an environmental catastrophe. This has had profound effects on the availability of drinking water and, consequently, has led to the violation of the right to life, safety, food, health and education of billions of human beings. Women are the most affected by this crisis. More than half of the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to water are women and girls.
National women leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mrs Josephine Anenih, has urged women politicians in the country to resist intimidation and face political challenges squarely. Anenih told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend in Amawbia, near Awka, that name-calling, blackmail, harassment and intimidation had become serious impediments to the active participation of women in politics.
At the end of its 34th Ordinary Session in Banjul, The Gambia, held from 6-20 November 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights appointed Commissioner Jainaba Johm as focal point on Human Rights Defenders in Africa. The establishment of a focal point on Human Rights Defenders is an important first step to begin the full realization of the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders) in Africa through the African Commission.
Despite the many international commitments to gender equality, much remains to be done in terms of mainstreaming commitment to gender equality into development. It seems that the major global development institutions appear currently to be more concerned with mainstreaming trade into development. For example, the outcomes of the major international conferences, from the International Conference on Financing for Development to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, show a great deal of progress made in mainstreaming trade into development. Women’s rights and gender activists have voiced their concern that this progress is paralleled by lip service to gender equality and women’ s rights, says this article from the journal Gender and Development: Women Reinventing Globalisation.
At the second World Wind Energy conference that ended last week there was a call to the world community to create a level playing field regarding costs and subsidies and to increase their commitment to the production of renewable energies. Other resolutions include the need to find innovative financing schemes to foster the wind industry in poorer countries and to allow local communities to benefit directly from such industries.
Research from the University of Cape Town's Lung Institute has linked the high incidence of asthma in certain Cape Town residential areas to the local petrochemical refinery. The study included more than 3000 children, of which 57% said that they suffered from rhinitis, a year round 'wheeze' characterised by a runny nose and sneezing.
The schoolgirl at the centre of last month's alleged racist attack at Edgemead High School in Cape Town on Wednesday formally applied for an Equality Court hearing into the incident. Equality Courts are tasked under South African human rights legislation to deal with unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment.
A 1999 Bank report entitled Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn't and Why, found that government agencies that actively sought to encourage involvement of beneficiaries achieved a 62 percent success rate in their projects, while those that did not achieved just 10 percent. A more recent discussion paper by the Bank's Civil Society Team said relations with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) were "fragmented" and "lacking clarity". Engagement is described as "ad-hoc" and "disconnected from policy processes". High demands on staff time, ambiguous guidance and poor monitoring systems "fuel the tendency among task managers to 'tick the box' that they have involved CSOs. This is according to a briefing from the Bretton Woods Project on the World Bank's relations with civil society.
Many observers were sceptical when a few years ago the IMF embarked on a mission to respond to the "cries of the poor", in the words of its then head Michel Camdessus. Little has been delivered since then on what was supposed to be a new, more flexible approach and the time has come for an in-depth reconsideration of the Fund's role in low-income countries, says the Bretton Woods Project.
An independent review, commissioned by the World Bank, has recommended that the Bank stop funding all coal and oil mining projects in the developing world, and increase investment in renewable energy.
Over the past decade, progress has been made on the African continent in the area of women’s political and economic empowerment. Although the road to women’s full incorporation in the areas of development, peace building and politics in long and replete with obstacles, recent developments at the regional level provide space for optimism. This is according to Prof. Maria Nzomo, the Kenya High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, who was speaking in October at a keynote address made at a Regional Strategy Meeting on Women's Political Participation and Gender Mainstreaming in AU and NEPAD.
The growing culture of "handouts" which politicians give to their constituents in return for their political survival was this week blamed for promoting corruption and dependency among communities in Kenya.
Taking care of a person with HIV is not as an easy task. Yet, many people choose to travel the road alone because they fear stigmatisation from their families and communities. Too often, AIDS is wrongly viewed as a shameful condition. This perception can lead even the most dedicated caregivers to remain silent or to shun family members to avoid discrimination. Many Zimbabweans continue to suffer in silence without having help and support from those around them.
The main WTO negotiations carried out these days in Geneva, convened by the Chairman of the General Council, are held amongst only a very small group of about 30 delegations. This includes the all-important issue of agriculture. As one developing world negotiator informally commented: ‘We have been excluded from all the consultations post-Cancun. The process also has to be inclusive. How else are we going to ensure that our concerns are taken on board?’
So far, 6,000 fighters from the main former rebel movement, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democarite (CNDD-FDD), are assembled at Kibongo Commune in the southern province of Makamba and are ready for cantonment, the movement’s spokesman, Maj Gelase Ndabirabe, told IRIN on Thursday.
We are pleased to announce that Ford Foundation's Special Initiative for Africa has awarded Pambazuka News with a grant to assist in dissemination of information about the Special Initiative for Africa and its grantees.
On 20th November 2003, Universal Child Rights Day, the inaugural Regional East African Juvenile Justice Network (EAJJN) was officially launched in Nairobi, Kenya. The initiative came during the CRADLE's (the Child Rights Advisory, Documentation and Legal Center) first regional conference on "Promoting juvenile justice within East Africa", which featured prominent lawyers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as ministers and other representatives from the Kenyan government and the Swedish Embassy.
As the Commonwealth Heads of Government meet in Abuja Nigeria from the 5th to the 8th of December, many rights related demands will be made on the conference. Considering that 18 of the 54 member countries of the Commonwealth are African a significant percentage of these demands will relate to African countries and Zimbabwe will top the list.
The situation in Zimbabwe is horrific. It is sure to get worse, before it gets better. At present, state sponsored and state endorsed violence is inflicted against anyone and everyone that is opposed to or criticises the policies and actions of the Mugabe led government. This includes the political opposition, civil society organisations and the media. Sadly these are now ‘usual’ characteristics of any country governed by an elite, clique or determined to suppress opposition. The horror assumes even greater proportions with regard to the millions facing starvation and disease especially HIV/AIDS. Many will die slow and painful deaths.
For these reasons, a major demand of campaigners will be that Zimbabwe continues to be suspended from the Commonwealth in addition to a wide range of other suggested actions.
But painful as it is, an important question must be asked. Is the Commonwealth actually capable of promoting human rights in Africa?
It is important to ask this question for two crucial reasons. The first is for rights and pro-democracy campaigners working in Africa to determine if it is a worthwhile strategy to focus their energy and resources on an organisation that in the long run may turn out to be structurally incapable of seriously upholding democracy and human rights in Africa. The second is to determine if the Commonwealth as it presently constituted has exhausted any potential it may have had in the past to be a respected arbiter on issues of democracy and human rights in Africa.
These questions can only be answered by looking at the history, context and evolution of the Commonwealth.
History, context and character of the Commonwealth
The Commonwealth first emerged as an intergovernmental organisation of former British colonies. The term ‘commonwealth’ was first used in the 1920’s to describe Britain and its dominions and led to the formation of the Dominions office in 1925.
The 1949 London declaration modified the Commonwealth to permit Republic status [in the case of India] with the British Monarch as the Head of the Commonwealth. The British Commonwealth was also renamed the Commonwealth of Nations to reflect the new realities in India and other emerging independence struggles. Subsequently 1949 has been recognised as the foundation year of the modern Commonwealth.
Following the wave of African majority rule and independence that began with Ghana in 1957, the 1961 Commonwealth Ministers Conference upheld the principle of racial equality and forced Apartheid South Africa to withdraw from the Commonwealth [and rejoin in 1994 following the end of the last Apartheid regime]
Increased activity led to the setting up of the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1965 and with Secretary General and small number of staff. In 1966 the first Commonwealth Prime Ministers Meeting (CPMM) to take place outside London was held in Lagos, the then capital of Nigeria.
In 1971 the Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles set the framework for some agreements on human rights principles and free trade. The CPMM was also renamed Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting or CHOGM as it is known today. The 1971 decoration was further reinforced by the 1991 Harare Commonwealth Declaration, which defined and strengthened the Commonwealths commitment to promoting democracy, good government, human rights, social and economic development.
In the 54th year of the modern Commonwealth, its 54 member countries across all continents together have a population of an estimated 1.7 billion or roughly thirty percent of the world’s population.
Weaknesses and Contradictions
Not withstanding the transformation of the image the Commonwealth i.e. from a tool of Imperial Britain to an organisation of, apparently, equal nations it has always been undermined by weaknesses and contradictions.
One of these key contradictions is the role of the British Queen as the Head of the Commonwealth, and some of the foreign polices of different governments of the United Kingdom in relation to the Commonwealths goals and principles on racial equality, democracy and human rights.
For instance, while the international struggle to end Apartheid was gathering momentum, [including through the efforts of the Commonwealth Eminent Perons Group] former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher not only labelled the ANC a terrorist organisation but gave tacit legitimacy to the Apartheid government through her views on business and other links with it.
At the present time, this contradiction has again emerged with regard to the UK government’s relations with the Musharaff led government in Pakistan and its policies and actions on Zimbabwe.
In 1999 the year in which the Commonwealth met in Durban South Africa, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth following a military coup and the overthrow of Pakistan’s democratically elected government [led by Mr Nawaz Sharif] by then Army Chief of Staff General Pervez Musharaff.
The Commonwealth decision to suspend Pakistan was based on its 1995 Milbrook Action Programme [for reinforcing the] The 1995 Harare Declaration.
Section B of the Milbrook Programme, “Measures in response to Violations of the Harare Principles” states that:
'Where a member country is perceived to be clearly in violation of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, and particularly in the event of an unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected government, appropriate steps should be taken to express the collective concern of Commonwealth countries and to encourage the restoration of democracy within a reasonable time frame. These include:
'i. Immediate public expression by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth’s collective disapproval of any such infringement of the Harare principles;
'vi. Pending restoration of democracy, exclusion of the government concerned from participation at ministerial-level meetings of the Commonwealth, including CHOGMs;
'vii. Suspension of participation at all Commonwealth meetings and of Commonwealth technical assistance if acceptable progress is not recorded by the government concerned after a period of two years;'
[and, importantly]
'viii. Consideration of appropriate further bilateral and multilateral measures by all member states (e.g. limitation of government-to-government contacts; people-to-people measures; trade restrictions; and, in exceptional cases, suspension from the association), to reinforce the need for change in the event that the government concerned chooses to leave the Commonwealth and/or persists in violating the principles of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration even after two years.'
Following CHOGM 1997 in Edinburgh, these principles were translated into action against the General Abacha led regime in Nigeria resulted in the CHOGM empowering the Commonwealth ministerial Action Group CMAG to take actions including:
'* visa restrictions on members of the Nigerian regime and their families;
* the withdrawal of military attachés;
* the cessation of military training;
* an embargo on the export of arms;
* the denial of educational facilities to members of the Nigerian regime and their families;
* a visa-based ban on all sporting contacts;
* a downgrading of cultural links; and
* the downgrading of diplomatic missions.'
To quote the Edinburgh CHOGM Communiqué, the Heads of Government further 'agreed that, following 1 October 1998, CMAG should assess whether Nigeria had satisfactorily completed a credible programme for the restoration of democracy and civilian government. They further agreed that if, in that assessment, Nigeria had completed a credible transition to democratic government and to observance of the Harare principles, then the suspension will be lifted; and if not and it remained in serious violation of the Harare principles, Heads of Government would consider Nigeria's expulsion from the association and the introduction of further measures in consultation with other members of the international community as recommended by CMAG. Such measures would include a mandatory oil embargo, a ban on air-links with Nigeria and the freezing of the financial assets and bank accounts in foreign countries of members of the regime and their families.'
Rights and pro-democracy campaigners throughout the Commonwealth would therefore have expected that the same measures would be applied in the case of Pakistan.
However following the terrorist atrocities of September 11, The Musharff regime has positioned itself as a key ally of Britain and the United States. As a result, the Commonwealths suspension of Pakistan exists only in name. Consequently there have been several high level visits between Pakistan and the United Kingdom including visits by Musharaff to the UK in November 2001 and by Prime Minister Blair to Pakistan in January 2002.
It does not take a genius to work out that thus will seriously undermine the Commonwealth especially in relation the role of Britain in the Commonwealth, and sanctions by the Commonwealth against undemocratic governments and for human rights violations.
Since Robert Mugabe was the host Head of State when the Harare Declaration was adopted in 1991, he would not only have worked this out, he has also used this as a weapon in his armoury to reinforce the will of die hard party members by saying to them something along the lines of 'see democracy or lack of it does not matter if you are considered to be an ally of the UK government.'
As the redistribution of land is a main sticking point in Zimbabwe and is very much tied to race and the legacy of colonialism in Africa, Mugabes behind the scenes argument to leaders of African and possibly Caribbean and Asian ex colonies will undoubtedly have played on a shared colonial past to secure empathy. This is regardless of the fact that many leaders of Commonwealth countries will have clearly realised that the Mugabe government is playing on a genuine land grievance in order to divide and rule the country.
Although the British government is aware of this contradiction and has been pushing the Musharaff regime for some progress of democratic reform, the Pakistani dictator has so far fallen far short on what a British Foreign Office Minister described in August 2001 as 'a clear timetable for the transition to democracy in Pakistan by October 2002.'
Can the Commonwealth Resolve the Contradictions?
As the Queen and Prime Minister Blair arrive in Abuja for CHOGM 2003, they should be able to see as clearly as most informed observers that what appears to be a racial and North South divide is emerging in the Commonwealth on the question of Zimbabwe. Already leaders of several African and some Asian countries have indicated that they are unhappy with the continued suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. Some have even specifically pointed out that the Committee of three composed of the Heads of States of Australia, Nigeria and South Africa did not unanimously agree to extend the one-year [March 2002 – March 2003] suspension of Zimbabwe [the leaders of Nigeria and South Africa disagreed with Australia’s Prime Minister] and as far as they are concerned the suspension has lapsed.
If this nascent racial and North-South divide hardens, surely the capacity of Britain to play a leadership within the Commonwealth will not only be questioned, the Singapore and Harare Declarations on which the Commonwealth bases its legitimacy to intervene to promote democracy and human rights will also be seriously undermined. Consequently, the capacity of the Commonwealth to promote human rights and democracy in Africa could be virtually non-existent within a very short period of time.
Will the leadership of the Commonwealth be capable of taking the necessary steps to avoid this? And if not will pro-democracy and human rights campaigners working in Africa still consider it worthwhile to focus their energy and resources on the Commonwealth? Only events in Abuja and over subsequent months can answer this question.
*Sankore is a member of the Pambazuka Editorial Board and is Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights, which works on rights issues in Africa. CREDO can be contacted via Pambazuka or via [email][email protected]
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 134: WORLD AIDS DAY: INSTITUTIONALIZED AIDS AND THE QUEST FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 134: WORLD AIDS DAY: INSTITUTIONALIZED AIDS AND THE QUEST FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
The Economists Allied for Arms Reduction Review is a new anthology, to be published annually, on the economics of war, conflict, and peace. The 2003 edition, "Conflict or Development?" has a further regional focus on Africa.
Writers from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia have been shortlisted for the 2004 Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, 'the only prize to recognise the very best in unpublished African fiction for children and young people'. The shortlist of seven has been chosen from just over 500 manuscripts. Entries were submitted by both new and experienced writers from 19 different countries across the continent.
Local leaders in Mali, meeting at a recent workshop in Bamako, have agreed to set up committees to intensify the campaign against HIV/AIDS, improve networking among communities and promote prevention activities.
As on Friday, a total of 24 cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, including 12 deaths, in the villages of Mbomo (19 cases, nine deaths) and Mbanza (five cases, three deaths) in Mbomo District, in the country's northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department, were reported by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Kenya Human Rights Network (K-HURINET) and other civil society organisations have declared their strong opposition to the Suppression of Terrorism Bill which was published earlier in 2003. They have written to Kenya's legislators appealing to "all Members of Parliament who respect justice, who feel that Kenyans are entitled to the equal protection of the law and who feel that the rights of Kenyans are worth defending to strongly oppose the bill."
Rwandan police are holding the editor of a privately owned newspaper arrested on Wednesday near the Ugandan border, according to Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), a media watchdog in Paris. On Thursday, RSF reported that Robert Sebufilira, editor of Umuseso, was arrested as he went to collect 4,000 copies of the weekly printed in Uganda, where it is cheaper.
Angola's 27-year civil war has left the country in "smouldering ruin," and the "advent of peace may fan the spread" of HIV in the country, Reuters/Boston Globe reports. Some health experts believe that the war may have kept HIV/AIDS contained to small regions of the country because civilian movement was prohibited in much of the nation. However, now that the fighting has subsided, people in the country are able to travel.
Mozambique's generally peaceful and problem-free local elections have been marked by low voter turnout, observers say. In many places less than 15 percent of registered voters bothered to cast their ballots on Wednesday, mirroring the turnout in Mozambique's last local elections in 1998, which were boycotted by the main opposition party RENAMO. The link below will take you to an IRIN story on the elections and more detailed stories contained in the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin.
Logic would suggest, said former U.S. Ambassador Swanee Hunt, that a woman who lost a son or daughter to a war based on ethnic hatred would become bitter and broken. That mother might be expected to devote herself to vengeance, further fuelling the fires of hatred. "But what we find," Hunt said as she hosted a recent gathering, "is women who say 'this happened to me - and it must never happen to anyone else, because I know how terrible it feels.'”
The world is ageing faster today than at any other time in history. Research has shown that as this continues to happen, women are the survivors. They outlive their male counterparts who are more likely to suffer from deadly conditions such as lung and prostate cancers, heart disease or strokes. The older woman faces double discrimination, says Help Age International. First as an older person and then as a woman. Throughout Africa, she is denied opportunities by virtue of her gender – she is denied property rights, excluded from the decision making process and is denied opportunities to education and employment.
Drawing on qualitative field-based research and quantitative survey data, “From Combat to Community: Women and Girls of Sierra Leone” produced by Women Waging Peace assesses how consideration of gender issues can improve Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) processes and documents the contributions of women in official and civil society-based reintegration programs.
Can World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements, particularly the technology related provisions, enlarge the capabilities of African countries to procure and develop modern technologies? This paper from the African Technology Policy Studies Network attempts to analyse the extent to which this might occur and proposes a research agenda to study the resulting empirical implications, ultimately to identify specific technology policy issues that African countries should emphasise in the continuing debate on the effect of global market integration.
Women in parliament, civil society, and government have created crosssectoral initiatives and are beginning to play a significant role in post-conflict governance. Their participation is increasingly recognized as critical to the long-term security and stability of the country. Amid the complexity that characterizes Rwanda today, these are important developments, says the executive summary of a report by the Women Waging Peace Policy Commission.
On the 14th anniversary on November 20 of the international adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy called on world leaders to put children at the heart of their development agendas. "The generation of children being born today are the ones who need us to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves," Bellamy said, referring to the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the nations of the world in 2000.
"The basic fact still remains that the current debt relief initiatives such as the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative and the now famous Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have failed to adequately and satisfactorily address debt issues. Instead, they have successfully managed to contribute to negative economic growth and perpetuated poverty in these countries."
In a country where Mugabe's regime ruthlessly controls all radio and television output, and where the only independent newspaper has recently been shut down, SW Radio Africa is the only independent voice. It broadcasts not from Zimbabwe but from the third floor of an office block in a grimy suburb of north-west London. And it is run not by hardened political hacks or opposition party activists, but by a group of DJs turned journalists, most of whom made their names playing pop songs on Zimbabwean state radio in the 1980s and 1990s.
After years of delays, the South African government gave its stamp of approval last week to a plan for providing free anti-AIDS drugs. Over the next five years, the state hopes to extend the programme to over a million people living with AIDS. The price of a year's supply of the life-prolonging drugs, also known as anti-retrovirals (ARV's), is about 100 dollars - fifty times less than it was in November 2002.
After years of being labelled as highly corrupt, Kenya has put a number of measures in place to curb graft. The government is hoping that this will attract foreign investors back to the East African country. "Kenya is now open for business," President Mwai Kibaki said this week.
Angola is a country in transition. "Refugees are moving, the displaced are moving and so are ex-combatants," says Kallu Kalumiya of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In June this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began one of its biggest repatriation exercises, to bring home nearly half a million Angolans scattered throughout neighbouring countries.
A recent humanitarian assessment mission to Walikale territory of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has found populations in dire need of assistance, many thousands of whom remain unreachable due to the presence of numerous armed groups.
A daily lunch of boiled maize and beans, is not much of a meal to some, but across sub-Saharan Africa, it has become a lifeline for millions of vulnerable children. At a cost of just about nine US cents per child, such meals have proved nutritious to about 1.1 million children in Kenyan schools, improving their health and concentration.
Tribal militants armed with automatic weapons have seized two oil platforms in the offshore waters of Nigeria belonging to the oil giant ChevronTexaco, taking several workers hostage.
Thanks for focusing the attention on this conflict (Pambazuka News 130: Northern Uganda's Brutal War). The author is really in touch with the issue and has a keen interest to find a solution. However, for us African activists for peace in our homeland Africa, we feel that our governments are less sympathetic to our peoples demands and listen and act upon the advise of the competing interests of foreigners. So the author is appealing to the same providers of lip services to our security to come to our salvation. Can’t you see that such conflicts are fuelled to the benefit of producers? This is made very easy by our very arrogant governors who fill the air with slogans until they come to power and appear as listeners for the same historical propagators of colonisation. I hope our newsletter will concentrate more on how these fuelled conflicts are created to provide markets for surplus food in the EU and US. This is not new for imperialism.
Well written editorial; what is the way out of this inhuman condition in Zimbabwe is to be debated. I am in India - here too there are problems. We solve it through the power of people. The people should have a complete knowledge of what is going on and they should stand against the injustice - it is certain that there would be sacrifices. The people should be educated. Let us pray for the alleviation of the poverty and injustice in that land.
Your generosity for supporting initiatives in education, world health and population, and community has gained worldwide recognition. However, your recent announcement that you are donating $25m for research in GM food nutrition is based on some fallacious premises and will work against your stated mission and world-wide interest. Your investment ignores scientific evidence on the actual and potential risks of GMO’s and the benefit of superior alternatives (The Case for a GM Free Sustainable World, Independent Science Panel on GM). Citizens worldwide have shown preference for alternatives such as biodiversity-based organic agriculture. Your contribution is thus NOT working for a safe and healthy nutrition, but is working AGAINST science and democracy. We are strongly urging you to withdraw your $25m to support a failing genetic engineering industry that is making false claims on improving nutrition.
In her book, Aspects of Feminism and Gender in the Novels of Three West African Women Writers, Edith Kohrs-Amissah revisits the Third World or African feminist debate on feminist theoretical conceptualisation, naming, and identity. She does this by testing the theoretical contributions of leading scholars like ‘Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, and others against selected works of Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta and Amma Darko.
Riled by the challenges of trying to eke out a living on an arid piece of land, Zephania Phiri combined traditional agricultural wisdom with scientific land management to turn subsistence farming into a bountiful venture. Phiri's lifelong dedication to soil nutrition and water conservation generated an innovative land husbandry regime that is well regarded by agro-ecologists.
The relationship between African women and feminism is a contentious one. Embedded in this connection is the question of whether sisterhood - a mantra assuming a common oppression of all women and signifying feminist international/cross-cultural relations - describes the symbolic and functional representation of African women. In this book, the contributors confront the issues raised by the (mis)representation of African women by both Black and White American feminists.
The fourth annual International Training of Facilitators will be held over ten days in June 2004. Designed and delivered by the Institute of Cultural Affairs Ghana in conjunction with ICA:UK, the course is open to both beginners and experienced facilitators, and concentrates on introducing the principles and methods of the ICA's Technology of Participation, which has been used and developed worldwide over the past 35 years.
UNICEF and The Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) at the New School University would like to announce a call for papers for an International Conference that will promote Social Policies for Children, Women and Family. The three-day Conference will be held from April 28th – 30th, 2004 (see time-line below) at the New School University in New York. The papers at the Conference will present analytical and policy papers on the progressive realization of human rights and children's, women's, and family well-being issues based in the use of household data, especially Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS).
Africa is widely perceived as a hotbed of cyber-crime based on the proliferation of 419 scam e-mails but the reality is not as it might appear. Mark Davies of BusyInternet goes through the available figures and talks about his own experience of crime as a cyber-café owner.
As part of our Africa's Right to Health campaign, Africa Action is targeting President Bush and those around him as Africa Action's Most Wanted, for criminal obstruction of global HIV/AIDS funding and expanded treatment. We are mobilizing nationwide to put pressure on President Bush to keep his promises. We have chosen World AIDS Day as the key date to put our demands to the White House.
Stand With Africa is a three-year campaign of Lutheran World Relief. The campaign supports African churches and communities as they withstand HIV/AIDS, banish hunger and build peace. Currently in year three, the final year of the campaign, Stand With Africa is focusing on building peace and conflict resolution.
The Soul Beat is the bi-monthly e-newsletter from Soul Beat Africa, focussing on sharing information about communication for change and development in Africa. It is a space to share experiences, materials, strategic thinking and events, and to engage in discussion and debate. Soul Beat Africa is collaboration between The Communication Initiative and Soul City, with SANGONeT as editorial and network partner.
Although this year's good maize harvest in Zambia has alleviated food shortages, households in two provinces continue to face food insecurity, officials said. "There is still concern over the food situation in the Southern and Western Provinces," Elizabeth Phiri, secretary in charge of cooperatives and marketing in the Ministry of Agriculture told IRIN.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned last Thursday that a million vulnerable Kenyan children risk dropping out of school next year, due to an unprecedented funding cut in the agency's programme of providing free meals in schools.