Pambazuka News 390: Palestine: a South African perspective
Pambazuka News 390: Palestine: a South African perspective
Human Rights Watch is pleased to invite you to a news conference to be held in Nairobi on July 28, 2008. Researcher Ben Rawlence will present the findings and recommendations of a new Human Rights Watch report on Kenya: “All the Men Have Gone: War Crimes in Kenya’s Mt. Elgon District.”
This is a vivid study of the day-to-day experience of living in a working class neighbourhood on the Cape Flats. It deals with issues of criminality and the search for dignity in a harsh, economically depressed urban landscape. Gangs are the main focus of the study, but gang members are presented on a broader canvas as family members, neighbourhood friends, members of sports clubs, employees. Within this intensely claustrophobic world devout Christians and Muslims, drug dealers, cops, gangsters and welfare workers all rub shoulders.
On 11 May of this year, representatives of 18 African Human Rights NGOs meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, to participate in the World Organisation Against Torture
(OMCT) African regional seminar on the economic, social and cultural root causes of torture drafted and adopted the Maputo Declaration Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In this document, the seminar participants - representing organisations from various countries in Africa - express their extreme concern at the erosion of the absolute prohibition against torture and urge concerted action at both national and international levels to bring an end to this practice.
The soldiers in the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) will be the first men to benefit from a government policy to use male circumcision as a tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS, according to senior health officials. Early in 2008, the Rwandan Ministry of Health declared its intention to include circumcision – scientifically proven to reduce a man's risk of contracting the virus from an infected sexual partner by as much as 60 percent – in its HIV prevention programmes. The voluntary circumcision programme is expected to start in August.
The article, , provokes some important things to think about when engaging in the victim's rights work around SGBV...It is not as simple as giving voice in the courtroom...Hopefully more resources can be put into the day to day support activities that are desperately needed.
Thank you so much for your enlightening article, . Now some of us are actually able to analyse the issue of xenophobia with important background information that which we had no knowledge about. i must say, it was very informative and educative!
Certainly I agree with your analysis in . But I just wish that this whole grievance v. grievance contest could be avoided in favor of the candidates' stands on the issues.
I personally am more 'radical' than either of them, and perhaps there's not enough difference between them on issues such as war, global warming, emptying the prisons and other social issues to make a choice, but with Hilary's known history of NAFTA-backing, kicking mothers off welfare rolls with no good substitute-backing, bombing Kosovo (even, reportedly, to using nuclear weapons)-backing, among other things, I can find no way to relate to her as a woman, let alone a candidate for anything. None of the progressive women I know can stand her - we feel she still doesn't know now what she "didn't know then"!
I'm hoping that Obama is more progressive than he's daring to say, in order to get elected. This is looking dubious in light of some of the 'advisors' he's calling on: Madeline Albright!; Robert Rubin!, etc. Let's hope he's taking their advice as what not to do!
As a collective of concerned organizations and individuals, the Resist AFRICOM campaign is comprised of organizations and individuals that are dedicated to speaking out against this extension of the military industrial complex. It is imperative that those of us that care about various wars in Africa show our support of this campaign. Whether it be the pending war in the Niger Delta or the continous tragedies in the Congo, Sudan or Somalia, it is time we come together to say: enough is enough! AFRICOM is currently staged in Stuggart, Germany and as of October 2007, it is scheduled to be a fully functional military command in October 2008.
The debate is no longer whether to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in education in Africa but how to do so, and how to ensure equitable access for teachers and learners, whether in urban or rural settings. This is a book about how Africans adopt and adapt ICT. It is also about how ICT shape African schools and classrooms.
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) will be attending the XVII International Aids Conference in Mexico, August 3rd- 8th. Activities AWDF will be involved in at the Mexico conference include the press launch of a progress document on the achievements of our HIV/AIDS fund since it’s inception in November 2005.
In the republic of innovation, life is unfair. A relatively small number of places — all in wealthy countries or in China and India — create nearly every important technological advance. Consider Wilfred Mworia, a 22-year-old engineering student and freelance code writer in Nairobi, Kenya. In the four weeks leading up to Apple’s much-anticipated release of a new iPhone on July 11, Mr. Mworia created an application for the phone that shows where events in Nairobi are happening and allows people to add details about them.
The application by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur creates both big opportunities and big risks for peace in Sudan.
These are the first charges of genocide and the first charges against a head of state to be brought before the ICC. The judges will now have to weigh the Prosecutor’s evidence and decide – a process that could take some months– whether to issue the arrest warrant.
EU foreign ministers have stepped up their pressure against Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean president for almost three decades, by adopting additional sanctions against his regime. The fresh sanctions will see travel restrictions and a financial embargo imposed on 37 people and four companies connected to Robert Mugabe. Similar measures against 131 Zimbabwean officials have already been in place for some time.
Here is the full text of the Memorandum of Understanding signed today by the ruling Zanu PF party and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change, one led by Morgan Tsvangirai and the other by Professor Arthur Mutambara. The historic signing was on Monday 21 July, 2008.
This report aims to shed light on how innovative solutions have arisen at the local level to address sustainable development challenges in Africa. The case studies in the volume identify the determinants of success, ongoing problems and unfinished business, and the scope for replication. The report is a contribution to the background documentation for the 16th and 17th sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which has Africa as one thematic focus. Its preparation is the result of a fruitful dialogue and interaction between the UN Secretariat and practitioners in the field in Africa.
The Development Worker will work as a Child Welfare Programme Development Adviser with the organisation to help build its capacity in organisational development (OD), effective programme design, planning and management, fundraising, networking, and marketing the organisation. S/he will also support the building of capacity in ZNCWC’s membership, including through the development of trainings / training materials so that the membership become more effective in responding to the needs of children
The Batsirai Group is a Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation working to strengthen community responses to HIV and AIDS. Following a successful one and half year placement focussing on community mobilisation, organisational learning as well as participatory monitoring and evaluation, the organisation is currently seeking to consolidate its work in promoting community participation in HIV and AIDS interventions among its target beneficiary communities. The Programme Adviser will therefore assist in strengthening systems documentation, knowledge management, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials production and dissemination.
I hope you have all seen reporting over the past few days about the video of the shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma in the Palestinian town of Ni'lin and the obvious abusive use of force by the Israeli Occupation Forces. If not, briefly, Rahma was handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten, and eventually shot at close range by a rubber coated steel bullet fired by an IOF soldier. The event was documented by a 14 year old girl who captured this human rights abuse on video from the window of her home. The video shows that Rahma was handcuffed and blindfolded when he was shot, and clearly identifies the face of the soldier who shot him. Residents of Ni’lin have since seen this soldier, who continued to serve his unit in Ni’lin. The shooting took place in the presence of a lieutenant colonel, who held Rahma’s arm as the soldier deliberately fired the shot.
As the petition notes: "The shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma is consistent with the abuse that Palestinians suffer at the hands of the IOF, and consistent with the abuse that the people of Ni'lin suffer as they exercise their basic human right to protest against the construction of the illegal apartheid wall that is being built on their land....."
The petition demands that the soldier in question, his lieutenant commander, and all others involved in this incident are brought to justice. This shouldn't even be a question.
Please consider signing the petition and please circulate as they need as many signatures as possible within this week.
Video can be watched at: [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
The Joint Working Group (JWG) a network representing 24 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) organizations throughout South Africa was outraged by a column that appeared in the Sunday Sun on 20 July 2008 (Call me names, but gay is not ok) that is filled with hate speech against lesbian and gay people.
Women, Ink., a project of the International Women's Tribune Centre, is urgently seeking new publications about various gender and development issues - with a special focus on those produced in the last three years by small independent and women's presses and information-producing groups in the Global South.
In line with the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)’s information blitz activities programme, we will now be sending you a weekly update on the service delivery situation and other related issues in Harare. This alert will be titled ‘Harare Last Week’ and will be sent to you every week. This is the first issue of the ‘Harare Last Week; 13-19 July 2008’.
The Kenya Government was jolted into action by the rising cases of student riots with Education minister Sam Ongeri chairing a crisis meeting with key players in the sector. As the key leaders in the education and security sectors were seeking a solution to the crisis that has affected over 300 schools in the last one month, Tourism minister Najib Balala said the ban on caning should be lifted.
“The ONE Africa Award has opened its CALL FOR NOMINATIONS to individuals, organizations based in Africa. The award is a one time grant of US$100,000.The deadline for receipt of nominations is August 15th, 2008.
This view represents a consulted way forward recommended by Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA/MOZA). We are an organisation owned by its 60,000 members who hold qualifications in daily survival and degrees in nonviolence despite the deeply polarised political environment in Zimbabwe since 2000. WOZA was born in the community and seeks to draw the attention of preoccupied politicians to people?s needs, namely bread and butter issues; or as WOZA likes to put it, bread and roses issues - bread representing food and roses representing the need for lasting dignity.
At the moment, the highway that is Zimbabwe has two vehicles going in opposite directions, Zanu PF, the so-called 'liberation war party' and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). These parties speed along preoccupied with their own importance, hardly ever taking the off-ramp to consult with the suffering masses.
WHAT DO WE WANT POLICY MAKERS TO FOCUS ON?
The reality on the ground for Zimbabweans right now is tantamount to torture. For representatives of political parties to sit at the negotiating table cutting an elite power-sharing deal whilst ignoring the crashing economy and the undeclared civil war by Mugabe against ordinary people is a crime against our humanity. We suspect that they do not understand the day-to-day struggle of ordinary Zimbabweans. As a result WOZA is determined to hold our placards up high to get their attention and demand that they address our needs.
The current food crisis is yet another reminder of the feminisation of poverty. Women produce most of the food in poor countries, yet they have less access to seed, fertilisers and extension services. They are also the most hungry -- about seventy per cent of the people who do not have access to enough food are women and girls. Women form the bulk of the working poor -- they toil long hours without reaping enough to enable them to climb out of the dollar-a-day absolute poverty bracket. In some countries women widowed by HIV and AIDS are routinely disinherited, and in these and many other countries women's lower cultural or legal status means that they do not own the land they till. The food crisis has inevitably taken a greater toll on women, and consequently the well-being of whole communities is affected.
Some of the grim statistics are as follows [1]:
- Food prices have risen 55 percent from June 2007 to February 2008, including an 87 percent increase in the cost of rice in March.
- Households in developing countries spend an average of 70 percent of their incomes on food, compared to the 15 to 18 percent that households spend in industrialized countries.
- Even before the food crisis hit, an estimated 7 out of 10 of the world's hungry were women and girls.
- Rural women alone produce half of the world's food and 60% to 80% of the food in most developing countries, but receive less than 10% of credit provided to farmers.
Black History Month is also celebrated each October in the United Kingdom, which has had a substantial black population since the 16th century. In this interview Contact FM talks to Dan Lyndon, history teacher and member of the British and Asian Studies Association.
Malawi’s media diversity continues to grow and vary especially in radio broadcast, a sharp contrast to the previous trend in the first ten years of multiparty politics where newspaper business mushroomed with down-market tabloid papers like the Democrat, the Chronicle, the Dispatch, the Generation and others making in roads and establishing themselves for critical reading.
And as the Daily Times, Malawi News, and the Nation took a traditional and sober stand, other papers in the likes of the National Agenda, the People’s Eye, the Malawian, the Times, the Sun established themselves as either anti government or anti opposition spewing venom at opponents without regard to fairness, truth and balance – the basic tenets of professional journalism practice.
On the broadcast spectrum, the country has witnessed a boom in radio broadcast and prides itself with three broadcast stations (Malawi Broadcasting Corporation Radio one and two and Television Malawi). There are three private radio stations (Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Capital FM Radio, and Radio 101 FM) and 13 community radio broadcasters.
The wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS
By Elizabeth Pisani Viking Canada,
372 pages, $35
This is an utterly fascinating book. I must admit that it's been growing on me since I read it, the arguments and language reverberating in my mind. Elizabeth Pisani writes with enormous verve and acerbity, her prose alive with anecdote and metaphor. There is, to be sure, a certain adolescent touch, delighting in naughty words and vivid sexual description, but all of that is forgiven in the sweep and force of the narrative. The Wisdom of Whores is a great read.
The title is meant to convey the variety of sexual experience and the savvy that attaches to it. The text is replete with references to "prostitutes, rent boys, pimps and clients ... addicts, cops and rehab workers." The chapter on Indonesia alone is an astonishing foray into the world of female, male and transgendered sex workers, all of them imparting wisdom on AIDS. Even in the preface, Pisani talks of a trip through several Asian countries where "I encountered a world of women with penises who sell anal sex to men who are completely heterosexual. I found men who buy sex from women and sell it to men. I found heroin addicts who fly airplanes and Muslim fundamentalists who run protection rackets for brothels."
Yes, some of it is designed to shock. But as the pages turn, the interlocking universe of bureaucrats and sex work and NGOs and agencies yields fascinating insights into the pandemic. It would be a great mistake to discard Pisani because of the bizarre or the uncomfortable. There are many home truths to be found in the most unlikely of places.
Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits: An anthology
by Rasna Warah
Author House, 2008
There is a new, East African book, edited by the excellent Kenyan columnist Rasna Warah, that for us here in the region articulates postdevelopmentalist concerns from a more relevant, specific and local perspective – indeed, in exemplary fashion employing the sort of local and grassroots perspective that such thinkers and activists claim that classical developmentalism too frequently ignores.
Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits is an anthology that brings together some of the region’s best and best-loved writers, whose individual essays enable a kaleidoscopic view of developmentalism in East Africa, its discontents, its hubris, its smugness, its ability to kill through often genuine and well-meant kindness.
In it, as the editor states in her very accessible introduction, we find young and established writers who are, if you like, reformed developmentalists and former NGOers themselves, who are diasporans who can see the industry from the ‘external’ perspective of the donors, leftists who can penetrate the sinister economic motives behind certain forms of development, fiction writers who bring a knowing wit to the debate, investigative journalists who know how to hunt down and express the real suffering of individuals and communities. And the names of the writers are those we know, as East Africans, we can respect. Among others, we have Rasna Warah, Binyavanga Wainaina, Parselelo Kantai, Sunny Bindra, Onyango Oloo, Kalundi Serumaga, Issa Shivji and Firoze Manji.
*Stephen Derwent Partington, is the Kwani? poetry editor and a member of the Concerned Kenyan Writers Initiative.
*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
While the mainstream media doesn’t always ignore the pressing issue of hunger in Africa, it rarely explores the root causes of this problem. Behind most news on the issue, there’s an assumption that casts hunger as a natural result of unfortunate weather conditions, coupled with bureaucratic inefficiency and bad economic planning.
With this in mind, in 2005 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a plan to “help millions of small-scale farmers lift themselves out of poverty and hunger.” In the years since, the foundation has been joined in its efforts by a number of other organizations that have founded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
ACCORDING TO AGRA
AGRA programs develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural “value chain”-from seeds, soil health, and water to markets and agricultural education…. A root cause of… entrenched and deepening poverty is the fact that millions of small-scale farmers-the majority of them women working farms smaller than one hectare-cannot grow enough food to sustain their families, their communities, or their countries.
AGRA’s assumptions — and those of the mainstream media — rest on the premise that the Africa’s hunger problem is one of production. While production may be part of the story, it’s far from the complete picture. The heart of the agriculture crisis that Africa and the world are currently experiencing lies in the failed policy paradigm promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, institutions that still have enormous control over economic policy in many African countries.
Fatima Hassan, is a prominent South African human rights lawyer who was part of a that in early July visited the Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The delegation undertook the mission in order to: "support those, Palestinian and Israeli, working daily, by non-violent means, to bring an end to the post-1967 Israeli occupation, to end all human rights abuses and breaches of international law, and to move towards peaceful relations and a just settlement...to express solidarity with those who are living in oppressive, restrictive and dangerous circumstances; and to to draw attention to the injustice of the occupation and its devastating consequences." Mukoma Wa Ngugi interviewed Fatima Hassan on the solidarity visit and the implications of the Palestinian struggle for Africans.
====
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Well, let's get straight to it: A Independent Newspaper article quotes you as saying "The issue of separate roads, [different registration] of cars driven by different nationalities, the indignity of producing a permit any time a soldier asks for it, and of waiting in long queues in the boiling sun at checkpoints just to enter your own city, I think is worse than what we experienced during apartheid." But the same article goes on to say that "Ms Hassan herself said she thought the apartheid comparison was a potential "red herring." Can you speak more about this?
FATIMA HASSAN: I think that the debate/discourse about whether this is Apartheid or not is not helpful. Too often people get bogged down in whether this IS Apartheid or not. And then use this as the measure of whether the situation in Palestine and Israel is intolerable from a legal and moral standpoint. Of course there are similarities in respect of the indignity and inhumaneness of the consequences of the occupation. And of course people in Palestine and Israel call the wall the 'apartheid wall' because it is premised on a policy of separation and closure.
But the context is different and the debate on whether this is Apartheid or not deflects from the real issue of occupation, encroachment of more land, building of the wall and the indignity of the occupation and the conduct of the military and police. I saw the check point at Nablus, I met with Palestinians in Hebron, I met the villagers who are against the wall- I met Israeli's and Palestinians who have lost family members, their land and homes. They have not lost hope though ---and they believe in a joint struggle against the occupation and are willing in non-violent means to transform the daily direct and indirect forms of injustice and violence.
To sum up – there is a transgression that is continuing unabated– call it what you want, apartheid/separation/closure/security – it remains a transgression.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Can you speak about the Palestinians in the West Bank and living under Israeli occupation. Are they struggling for inclusion and equal rights within Israel or for a viable Palestinian state?
FATIMA HASSAN: I think I have realised that physically and geographically --with the massive encroachment of land –that a 2 state solution may not be realistic. But it is not for me to determine the solutions for people who live there.
As for Palestinians, they stressed to us that they are against the occupation, not against Israel or Jews, but against the occupation and denial of human rights. What they want depends on who you speak to and where they live. Of course, everyone we spoke to stressed inclusion, dignity, autonomy.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Can South Africa serve as source of instruction to both Palestinians and Israelis? In what ways?
FATIMA HASSAN: In some ways yes and in some ways perhaps not. In SA we agreed to accept each other not as enemies but as people first , then we talked, and still do. As Dennis Davis from our delegation commented – 'they are talking divorce whereas we (SA) talked marriage'. There are ways in which we cannot be instructive because we have limited experience – we had invisible barriers and one road for everyone.
They have barriers, check points almost everywhere and different roads! They have children stoning other children who are trying to go to school (Hebron) – we had Bantu education and a language forced on us but not the scenarios we saw and heard of in Hebron.
We did not have deeply religious views and claims defining the injustice and land grabs. In fact faith based organisations mobilised against apartheid. In SA we have some (limited) experience on race and dealing with racism ---but not a racism rooted in religion.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Is there any instruction for the Palestinians in the South African struggle against apartheid?
International solidarity and exposure of injustice is critical. We used several means to struggle- inter solidarity and sanctions, limited armed struggle and mass moblisation. The Israeli and Palestinian joint struggle is perhaps the best place for us to offer solidarity as our struggle was also inclusive and mass based.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Do South Africans have a special responsibility to Palestinians? Is there historical solidarity between the PLO and the ANC?
FATIMA HASSAN: I think you have to ask the ANC about historical alliances…But of course they were historically linked.
Iowe any community and people around the world solidarity if they face injustice anywhere in the world or in my own country- I owe it as a human being, and as South African - because they provided solidarity to us during years of terrible race based oppression. Yes we have a special obligation to condemn and respond to injustice given our own shameful history.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: In the past African states have been very vocal in their support of Palestinians. For example in the 1970's a number of African countries cut diplomatic ties with Israel. What kind of actions can/should the present generation of African leaders take?
FATIMA HASSAN: Several small steps first- build a consensus and voice to condemn oppression and injustice in Israel and elsewhere.
Ensure that companies that benefit from building the wall and benefit from the occupation are not given business.
Ensure that they visit ordinary villagers and peace activists who are engaging in joint non-violent struggles as opposed to only meeting career politicians from one or other 'side'.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Did you get a sense of the ongoing struggle between Hamas and the Fatah movement? What in your opinion is a constructive response from Africans to this split?
FATIMA HASSAN: We only had 5 days of visits so this is impossible to answer properly. When I went to several villages there were activists who were originally part of both movements now working together to feed children, educate them and provide humanitarian relief as well as working with Israeli activists in a non-violent struggle.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is the effect of the wall-barrier on prospects for peace and on the Palestinians?
On the wall, fence, separation barrier, I think it is the biggest mistake and obstacle to peace-- it's physical presence, its emphasis on increased security, its ability to cut off people from their land, schools, neighbours and homes and from Israelis and Jews, will and cannot make anyone think that peace is even on the negotiating table.
The parts of the wall that we saw, the many demolition orders that had to be taken against parts of the fence/ wall show an absolute failure to understand the livelihoods and lives of people on both sides of the wall- the wall has meant that thousands of Palestinians have lost access to their land and livelihoods (about 250 000 are affected– with 8000 Palestinian families in the safety zone).
The wall cuts off neighbourhoods and to me only protects settlements – might I add that that many of the settlements are actually illegal and are considered illegal outposts. For it to work they have implemented complex permit systems – even a horse needs a permit to get across. It really is a shame.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Do you see a one state or a two state solution? Considering that a one state solution is not even on the table, and it does not seem that Israel will allow for a viable independent and thriving Palestinian state, how do you see one of the two solutions working?
I cannot comment on the prospects because I visited for 5 days only- I do not believe that I can comment on solutions- I went to learn. Off course one must be hopeful for a single state based on human rights for all with dignity and inclusion for all.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Finally, we never get to hear about Jewish/Palestinian solidarity movements yet they exist. Can you speak more about this?
FATIMA HASSAN: There is a growing number of such movements – they may be small and 'fringe' right now but I believe that their message is simple and universal- non-violence and inclusion of all people that make up Israeli and Palestinian communities. They will grow in strength and with our solidarity.
Combatants for Peace, Anarchists against the wall, Breaking the Silence, Bereaved Parents Families Forum are just some examples…And the Popular Committees in villages, Ta'ayush, Children of Abraham as well.
Their greatest strength right now is that they see everyone as human beings in a common struggle for peace; their greatest threat is that they talk about peace and human rights – they often told us that the greatest threat to removing barriers is fear – I think they are right. People are scared in Israel and Palestine – they are scared of peace.
*Interview conducted by Mukoma Wa Ngugi, co-editor of Pambazuka News.
*For more information on the solidarity visit, please click here: .
The primary intention of our visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories was to understand the reality. Rather than attempting to bring solutions, or to spend our time here debating solutions, we came to learn, and to witness first-hand the suffering, pain, anger and human rights abuses. While it is clear to us that there should be freedom and security for all who live here, our deepest concern is that suffering and human rights be addressed as the basis for moving towards a resolution. We have been deeply affected by what we have seen, and intend to engage in this regard, in our personal capacities, with all our communities and constituencies. We intend to be sensitive to the anxieties and perspectives that exist, and to use our visit to promote thoughtful discussion within and between our communities.
We also came to support what we understood to be a new and small movement of Palestinian-Israeli joint non-violent struggle. We found this, and it surprised us. Our hosts have proved that Israelis and Palestinians can and are working together to bring freedom and equality for all people in Israel and Palestine.
This work is characterised by mutual respect, true partnership, and a willingness to take personal risks for each other. We are immensely struck and moved by the courage and integrity of these people. Amidst the increasing difficulties under which all people are living, this work brings hope and the promise of a real peace, with justice, equality and security, in the future.
We would particularly like to recognise the joint work being done in occupied territory in Silwan, Bidu, Bil'in, Budrus, Na'alin and Hebron. This work is being done by the popular committees of these villages and cities, along with organisations including Ta'ayush, Children of Abraham, Anarchists Against the Wall, Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence, Active Stills, the Parents Circle, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Coalition of Women for Peace, and Yesh Din.
*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
A new report details a wide range of abuses occurring on a rubber plantation in Liberia owned by the Bridgestone/Firestone tire company. The report, titled “The Heavy Load: A Demand for Fundamental Changes at the Bridgestone/Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia” was published by Liberian-based Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) and exposes poor living and working conditions for rubber tappers, a meager pension system, barriers to educational and health access, water and air pollution and violations of workers’ right to organize. The report is also one of the first examinations of the role that several different security forces operating on the plantation play in violating the rights of workers, their families and communities surrounding the plantation.
Robert Nyahn of the Save My Future Foundation said, “There is time for everything, the time for exploitation and abuse is over; it is now time for Firestone to clean up the ugly and unimaginable past and begin to make fundamental changes that reflect a company committed to contributing to the growth and development of a developing country. With our hands joined together we will no longer accept this kind of evil.”
Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studiessaid, “This groundbreaking report shows that the heaviest load in Firestone’s largest rubber operation is still being born by the women and children of Liberia. After 82 years of exploitation masked by a massive public relations campaign, Firestone must be held accountable for its continued violations of worker rights and abuse of the environment. Liberian workers and future generations need good corporate neighbors. Firestone can and must do better.”
Tim Newman, child labor campaigner at the International Labor Rights Forum said, “This report reveals the widespread abuse of workers’ rights on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia. As the first independent and democratically elected union leaders on the plantation negotiate a new contract, it is important that Firestone take the demands of workers and their allies to heart. Eighty two years of exploitation is enough and the time is now for a new day on Firestone’s rubber plantation in Liberia.”
Firestone has operated the world’s largest rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia since 1926. As the report shows, rubber tappers have a daily production quota they must meet in order to receive their daily wage which is just over $3 a day. As a result of the unreasonably high quota, workers must bring family members to work with them or hire subcontractors using their meager salaries. Additionally, workers must carry two 75-pound buckets of raw latex on sticks on their shoulders and work without protective gear. Workers live in crowded shacks without electricity, running water, indoor latrines.
The new report is a follow up to SAMFU’s 2005 report on human rights violations and environmental abuses on the Firestone rubber plantation called “Firestone: The Mark of Modern Slavery.”
*The complete report can be read online by clicking .
*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Climate Change is accepted today even by die hard sceptics as a real crisis that must be urgently tackled for the preservation of the earth in a form that would sustain human and other life forms. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the best known body of climate scientists who accepts that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activities [1].
It has also been recognised as a human rights issue by the UN. There have been several conferences, studies and multilateral discussions on the issue. There has also been plenty of foot dragging by governments who erroneously think that prodigious carbon emission is a mark of progress and development.
We note that the global North has historically contributed disproportionately to the amounts of greenhouse gasses (GHS) in the atmosphere whereas the global South has been saddled with the impacts and is now being forced into a corner from where she has no option but to seek means for mitigation of the impacts and adapting to them as well. It is instructive as we shall see that the slant of these official frameworks and mechanisms have been intimately tied to trade and have had the main slant of opening up opportunities for huge financial benefits for polluting industries while the South will be further pushed into the debt trap through the strategies of the World Bank and other international financial players.
This paper aims to review governmental frameworks for addressing climate change with an underlying premise that there is an urgent need for the delinking of carbon emission from positive development.
The KYOTO PROTOCOL
The Kyoto protocol will effectively end in the year 2012. The protocol had set very minimal targets for reduction of carbon emissions that was to be achieved between 1990 and 2012. Major emitters such as the USA and Australia did not accept these targets. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other analysts have shown that even if the targets set by Kyoto were met, the climate crisis would not have been sufficiently tackled.
Following the announcement by International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Ocampo-Moreno of the application to the Court for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, the African Union (AU) chair, Tanzania, has said that any attempt to arrest the Sudanese President would derail efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict. The AU added that ‘the move would also affect the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the Southern Sudan and the efforts to solve Sudan-Chad crisis’. A special report of the Executive Council of the AU states that "African states can lodge diplomatic protests objecting to the abuse of universal jurisdiction by some states, especially where a right of diplomatic protection may be more appropriate to proceed in cases concerning nationals of the states concerned". The Ugandan government has suggested that the AU Peace and Security Council investigate the alleged crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese President. Furthermore, the AU has urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to defer the ICC process. Arab League criticisms and almost daily demonstrations in Sudan against the ICC have added weight to that call. ‘While transitional justice may be necessary and important, judicial approaches have been accused of endangering fragile peace processes by threatening the perpetrators, while some fear that non-judicial means let murderers get away.’ Lessons from other African countries remain invaluable to countries seeking peace with justice, in this vein, former representative of the UN high commissioner for human rights in Liberia, Dorota Gierycz, shares her experiences of transitional justice mechanisms in Liberia in an interview with IRIN. Meanwhile, the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) forces, which was expected to be 26,000 strong, now totals 8,000. The announcement came as UNAMID welcomed 172 Chinese military engineers.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) welcomes the current moves towards a negotiated settlement to the ongoing political and economic crisis which has gripped Zimbabwe for the past ten years.
While we are still of the view that President Thabo Mbeki is not the best person to lead the mediation, we take note of the inclusion of the AU and the UN on the expanded mediation team.
We are reliably informed through rumours that an expanded mediation team, led by South African president Thabo Mbeki, is currently in Zimbabwe to facilitate the signing of the MoU.
Our concern however is that, there has not been openness and wider consultation on the drafting of the MoU. On behalf of labour, the MoU has not been availed to us for scrutiny or comment. The only time we have had a feel of the MoU, has been through the media, where we are told that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had at one time refused to sign it. Nothing more has been said about the document.
The process seems to have been left to the three antagonizing parties, that is, the MDC – T, the MDC – M and Zanu PF.
The current problems in Zimbabwe now require, not only a political solution, but concerted approach which involves all arms of the civic and political world.
Zimbabwe is not made up of supporters of Zanu PF and MDC alone, but a plethora of groupings which have to be consulted if the process is to gain wider acceptance by the majority.
On behalf of labour, we call upon the facilitators of the dialogue process to include civic groupings, churches, labour and political parties in the negotiation process.
It is our hope and wish that the above will be taken seriously for the outcome of the negotiating process to reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe and not self seeking power sharing agendas.
*Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Pambazuka News 391: Cyber democracy: an African perspective
Pambazuka News 391: Cyber democracy: an African perspective
The UPEACE Africa Programme has secured funding from The Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This funding will be strictly allocated to African students studying at African institutions and in particular for those, who are in the final stage of their PhD studies. The award is intended to support PhD candidates in their field research, data analysis, associated travel and production costs.
Pambazuka News 389: Tributes to and reflections on an African icon: Nelson Mandela at 90
Pambazuka News 389: Tributes to and reflections on an African icon: Nelson Mandela at 90
We are living in a confusing time in the history of commodity markets. Commodity prices are currently high. Yet producers in Africa and other parts of the developing world do not seem to be benefiting from these high prices. Instead, they are crying out for protection.
Members of FoE Africa from Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Tunisia and Swaziland met for five days in Accra, Ghana reviewing issues that confront the African environment. A particular focus was placed on the current food crisis and agrofuels on the continent.
Monday’s request by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant charging President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan with crimes against humanity and genocide is generating enormous debate and controversy. Diplomats express increasing concern that the arrest warrant will endanger the work of humanitarian organizations and peacekeepers in Sudan.
Special measures may have to be taken to reduce growing inequality in South Africa, despite the fact that the standards of living of all South Africans have risen over the past few years. According to Head of the Policy Coordination and Advisory Services unit in the Presidency Joel Netshitenzhe, poverty has been reduced in overall terms, especially since the turn of the century.
Japan's relations with Africa date back to the 1600s, but since 1993 it has formalised its engagement with Africa through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). In May 2008 Japan hosted TICAD IV within 2 months of the G8 summit, with the intention of feeding the outcomes of one into the other. The Africa Programme produced a pre-summit report on Japan-African engagement, together with a report on an international conference held at Chatham House to discuss the outcomes of TICAD IV and the G8 summit agenda.
International Law must be delivered with the right procedures and indubitable evidences if it has to be credited as objective justice. This Law of Nations must not be biased with politics of selfish competition in the international and global interests. This Law must always be the servant of security, stability, order and peace and not vice versa, writes James Okuk.
Despite the stalled peace talks in Juba, many internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Uganda’s cities and towns have begun to plan for an end to their displacement. But many more could remain displaced indefinitely, as many of the urban IDPs the Refugee Law Project has spoken with say the government’s return and resettlement assistance has so far been too little.
In July 2005, approximately four-fifths of Botswana’s population did not have access to electricity. However, enterprising village entrepreneurs have utilised the opportunity created by the lack of electricity to fill the resultant niche in the market for the recharging of cell phone batteries.
Adult male circumcision is being pushed as the latest magic bullet for the HIV pandemic. There is good reason for the enthusiasm about a new use for the world's oldest surgical intervention. But let's be clear about what circumcision will and will not offer a man and his partner or partners.
Debt campaigners from around the world have called on G8 leaders to face up to their role in creating the food crisis and climate change, as they meet in Japan. They call on the G8 to cancel the debts of those countries most seriously affected by the food crisis, and not to run up new debts in trying to solve the problems of food price rises and climate change.
The government in Niger has signed an agreement for China to help improve the country's power supplies.China will transfer several electrical power units to Niger under the agreement, officials said. The deal comes as Niger's cities have been experiencing power outages, partly due to problems in supply from Nigeria.
The 24th World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association will be held in Vienna, November 3 to 6, 2008. It will be co-organised by local member group Hosi-Wien. Its theme will be “Organising locally to bring on global change”.
Poor farmers in Burkina Faso who have been hit by soaring food prices and severe weather conditions have been boosted by supplies of crop seeds from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).bIn all, FAO has supplied about 600 tons of seeds, including millet, sorghum, maize, cowpea and peanut seeds, as well as 432 tons of fertilizers, to 33,000 farmers in the country’s eastern and central zones in time for the current planting season.
The authorities of the South African province Gauteng expect the camps for displaced refugees affected by xenophobic violence to be empty by next month, but no one seems to know what will happen to the people afterwards.
ICTs provide a window of opportunity for developing countries to harness and utilise indigenous knowledge and help fight persistent poverty and low agricultural growth, Professor Patrick Ngulube of the University of South Africa has said.
European Union countries will agree on Tuesday to widen sanctions on Zimbabwe, including more travel bans and asset freezes on supporters of President Robert Mugabe and measures against companies, diplomats said. "There is an agreement in principle on reinforcing the sanctions. Ministers will approve it soon," a EU diplomat said.
Jean Ping, the African Union Commission chairperson, is expected to meet with President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa on Friday to discuss the ongoing talks between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations. Mbeki has been the sole mediator on the Zimbabwe crisis and the MDC is insisting that an additional mediator be appointed to work with the SA President, who is accused of favoring ZANU PF.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has agreed to restore diplomatic ties with neighbouring Chad, broken off in May after a rebel attack on the Sudanese capital Khartoum, mediator Senegal said on Friday.
U.N. human rights experts voiced concern on Friday at new European Union rules on illegal immigrants, saying they were not criminals and should not detained. In a joint statement, the 10 experts said they had written to France, which holds the EU presidency, and all 27 member governments ahead of a meeting of justice and interior ministers about the plan next Thursday.
The European Commission backed a plan on Friday to give 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boost output, despite opposition by many EU states. The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leeway in the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 million euros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. This year's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June.
The United States Senate has passed the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which also amends the Immigration Act to lift the ban on travel and immigration to the country by HIV positive non-citizens. The International AIDS Society (IAS) has welcomed the announcement saying that repealing the entry and immigration ban was an important step in combating stigma and discrimination associated with HIV.
Knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and their ability to increase the risk of infection with HIV is “alarmingly” low in rural Tanzania, according to a study published in the June edition of Sexually Transmitted Infections. The researchers found that lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted infections was associated with sexual risk-taking and being HIV-positive.
A political tug-of-war in Mauritania's majority party garnered the public's attention during the first week of July. Citizens say the fall of the two-month old government is a sign of democratic progress and evidence that the common man's voice is being heard in Parliament.
In a culture that marginalizes rape victims, Generose felt isolated socially, economically and psychologically from the society that failed to offer support in her need. But once she found people who cared and made her feel safe again, both physically and emotionally, the 32-year-old Congolese woman began to rekindle her dreams of building a new life in South Kivu province after months of internal displacement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Sierra Leone’s women’s advocacy group "50/50" has expressed disappointment at the poor showing of women in the July 5 local council elections. "We expected more women to contest for mayorship in the municipalities and ward councillors across the country but this did not happen," says Harriet Turay, the group’s president.
Kenya stands to lose a nature-based economic asset worth over US $300 million alone to the tea, tourism and energy sectors if the forest of the Mau Complex continues to be degraded and destroyed, the UN Environment Programme has said. The Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, announced this week that the Kenyan government is taking steps to combat the destruction of the largest forest ecosystem in Kenya.
Sudan on Thursday rejected a deal with the International Criminal Court to hand over two indicted officials in exchange for dropping the court's arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo however ruled out dropping his call for a warrant for Bashir on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, a move that some powers fear could derail peace efforts there.
An armed group in Nigeria's delta region said it will resume attacks on oil installations and other facilities after Britain pledged help in tackling unrest in the south. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said on Thursday that the two-week-old ceasefire will end at midnight (23:00 GMT) on Saturday.
People continue to be enslaved in northern Mali, according to Malian human rights organization Temedt, despite a widespread belief that slavery no longer exists in the country. "The government believes slavery ended with independence, when many of the people who had been living as slaves in the colonial period were freed," said Temedt president Mohammed Ag Akeratane, "but I would estimate there are still several thousand people living in slavery or slavery-like conditions in modern Mali."
Women, Ink., a project of the International Women' Tribune Centre, is urgently seeking new publications about various gender and development issues – with a special focus on those produced in the last three years by small independent and women's presses and information-producing groups in the Global South.
Kenyans are paying more bribes for services due to government inefficiency in services delivery which results in bribery by citizens who want to speed up access to services. This is according to The Kenya Bribery Index (KBI), released by Transparency International-Kenya (TI-K).
The former South African President and anti-apartheid icon on Friday celebrated 90th birthday at his rural home in the Eastern Cape province. Nelson Mandela, whose birthday celebrations took a national colour, used the event to express concern about the growing gap between rich and poor in South Africa.
Climate change has the potential to bleak the future production of Uganda's major export, coffee, a British charity Oxfam warns in a report, urging the government to speed up the process of adapting to climate change by immediately implementing the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA).
Rwanda's lawmakers voted in favour of a constitutional amendment that guarantees former Presidents immunity from prosecution for life. Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama hailed the amendment, saying it would alleviate constitutional ambiguity. The amendment exempted a former President from being prosecuted on charges he/she was not put on trial while in office.
A High Court has ordered the development of a controversial $370 million sugar and biofuels project in Kenya's Tana River Delta, guaranteeing a temporal reprieve. Mumias Sugar Company's intention to convert 20,000 hectares of the Tana Rive Delta to plant sugarcane has raised anger and opposition of local and international conservationists, fearing that the proposal would threaten biodiversity and livelihood of local communities.
Armed conflict, poverty, alcohol abuse and cultural attitudes are responsible for the high incidence of domestic violence in Ugandan communities, according to a report presented to parliament by jurists. Some 92 percent of 6,000 people surveyed by the Uganda Law Reform Commission reported some form of domestic violence was taking place in their communities.
The trafficking of girls from villages to cities in Nigeria is increasing and the state is powerless to stop the trade, officials told IRIN. “The business of recruiting teenage girls as domestic help in rich and middle-class homes is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it”, Bello Ahmed, head of the Kano office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP), told IRIN.
Thousands of business-owners closed down their shops across the capital and several of the city’s main roads have been blocked in protest of a government decision to stop fuel subsidies, which caused prices to rise steeply overnight. The government, which has been subsidising fuel prices for the past three years, removed these subsidies on 6 July because it could no longer afford to keep them in place. As a result the price of a litre of fuel rose by 29 percent in 24 hours, and the price of diesel by 44 percent.
As G8 leaders wrapped up their forum in Hokkaido in Japan, some 13,000km away, the hundreds of people who had gathered for the seventh annual alternative People’s Forum, this year held in the town of Koulikoro, Mali, were issuing a closing statement to their own conference, and its tone was defiant.
Fears of major clashes in the town of Beletweyne in central Somalia's Hiiraan Region have sparked a mass exodus from the town, sources there told IRIN on 14 July. "Thousands of people have already left the town and many others are still leaving," Ga'al Hirsi Hooshow, the chairman of the Beletweyne Elders' Council, said.
Larger numbers of pregnant women living with HIV in Swaziland can now access services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, but activists and health officials say more emphasis should have been placed on quality rather than quantity.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that the pending Mass Media and Freedom of Information Proclamation, passed by the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives on July 1, does not fully incorporate public input, including that of local journalists and legal experts.
On 10 July 2008 immigration authorities raided Joy Radio premises, searching for foreigners allegedly employed by the station. The incident happened barely a day after State House Press Officer Chikumbutso Mtumodzi warned the station against what he termed "embarking on a disinformation crusade, airing libellous and slanderous programmes and playing derogatory songs" against President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Freelance journalist Frank Chikowore and the 13 alleged Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters, charged with inciting public violence and burning a bus, were on 14 July 2008 removed from remand. The presiding Magistrate, Margaret Rusinahama granted the application for removal of remand made by the defence lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, on the condition that it would not prejudice the state in anyway.
Seventy-two people were killed in clashes between supporters of a radical Islamic preacher and police who went to arrest him in Chad, Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said on Wednesday. The fighting broke out on Sunday night at Kouno, 300km south-east of Ndjamena, when officials tried to stop the inflammatory sermons of the preacher on holy war and the end of the world.
A series of tragedies involving migrants off the coast of Spain has raised fears that the summer could see a record-breaking death toll in the region, as refugees embark on increasingly perilous routes in smaller boats to avoid detection. According to human rights agencies, there has been a sharp increase in the numbers of people trying to make the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe, many of them from sub-Saharan conflict zones such as Eritrea and Somalia.
Scientists may have finally found out why HIV infection is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, than other regions of the world. American and British scientists say a gene which apparently evolved to protect people from malaria increases their vulnerability to HIV infection by 40 per cent.
The history of African American science is still today an area not widely known about. Contact FM take a brief plunge into this history talking with writer Patricia Sluby, author of The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity.
At the end of this year, Hivos will commission an external evaluation of its ICT & Media programme "Making Civil Voices Heard", to be carried out in the course of 2009. A call for proposals & Terms of Reference will be circulated in October 2008 to interested evaluation researchers. Would you be interested in this assignment and do you want to receive the Terms of Reference? Please let us know by sending an e-mail with a very brief CV, to Karel Chambille, Hivos Evaluation Manager ([email protected])
Only three short years after the G8 pledged to ‘make poverty history,’ a global food crisis is making poverty in historically large proportions. And the G8 has so far done nothing to stop it. The ranks of the hungry have swelled to over 950 million this year, and ActionAid estimates that a further 750 million are now at risk of falling into chronic hunger.
This one-day conference will address those aspects of China’s intervention in Africa that are related to media and other cultural exchanges. Aimed at allowing journalists, academics and politicians from Africa, China and elsewhere to share experiences that are relevant to understanding the contemporary role of China in relation to the media
The African Economic Research Consortium is hereby calling for papers for presentation at an international conference on Natural Resource Management, Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa. Papers are particularly solicited from AERC network members, but anyone with relevant experience and credentials in the topic area is invited to submit their work. Qualified women are urged to send papers, and research teams are encouraged.
The Minority leader in The Gambian Parliament, Momodou Sanneh on July 3, 2008 called on the government of President Yahya Jammeh to respect the ECOWAS court ruling by releasing Chief Ebrima Manneh, a detained reporter of the Banjul-based privately-owned government-controlled newspaper.
When post-election violence erupted in Kenya at the end of December, U.S. media quickly settled into a familiar story: African tribes were savagely tearing each other apart. Journalists described the events as “savage tribal killings” (L.A. Times, 1/2/08), “gruesome ethnic killings” (Washington Post, 1/6/08) and “tribal riots” (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 1/3/08). “This is a tribal situation,” explained CBS (Early Show, 1/2/08). “And what is terrifying is that the veneer of this country is so thin, that there’s so much tension and hatred that’s been here all along.”
The world's desperate need for nuclear power plant energy means a sound future for uranium mined in Niger. But the international corporations that have won concessions to remove it are careless of the land and its people, who are fighting back.
There is potentially enormous mineral wealth in the DRC province of Katanga. In exchange, investors from all over the world, and especially China, are prepared to offer money and infrastructure to revive the DRC after 15 terrible years of war and invasion. The potential for ecological disaster, social exploitation and corruption is almost limitless.
The two-day conference will take place in Accra on November 17 and 18, 2008 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of the bubonic plague epidemic in Ghana (then the Gold Coast). This conference will use the occasion to discuss epidemic disease in general and increase dialogue between academics, policymakers, and the general public regarding epidemic preparedness and policy.
Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-based refugee rights organization assisting refugees who seek asylum in Egypt, is seeking a Program administrator, a Psychsocial team leader, and an IT administrator.
93 Malagasy peasants appeared in the Court of Miarinarivo, a town situated in 90 km west of Antananarivo in mid-November, 2007 following a "popular rebellion" in the hamlet of Ankorondrano which led to three deaths.
Full scale work by the Chinese begins to rebuild 2,050 miles of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, left to rot in the rainforest after the Belgian colonialists pulled out 48 years ago and further shattered by seven years of war. The vast project, which will triple Congo's current paved road network, is part of China's largest investment in Africa, a £4.5 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal signed in January.
FEMNET being a regional organization that promotes and protects the rights of women in Africa, we have decided to probe the impact of the current Global Food Crisis and Climate Change on African women, in our next issue of FEMNET Newsletter for September-December, 2008. FEMNET invites you to contribute articles relating to this theme. The article can either be in French or English with maximum words of 800 words and minimum 400.
Reproductive rights advocates issued a collective condemnation Tuesday of a draft proposal by the Bush administration to set new restrictions on domestic family planning programs. Under the draft proposal, federally funded hospitals and clinics that provide family planning services would be required to promise in writing that they will turn a blind eye to health care providers' views on abortion and certain kinds of birth control, such as emergency contraception.
This course offers a new approach in integrating technologies and participatory strategies within the natural landscape or "watershed" for sustainable resource use, conservation and protection. use, conservation and protection. The course is designed for planners and field staff working with government and non-government organizations in the areas of food security,sustainable agriculture,water resources and natural ,resources management in rural areas.
The African Union has acknowledged receipt of Liberia’s instrument of ratification of the African Women’s Rights Protocol bringing the total ratifications to 24. Congratulations to all!