Pambazuka News 255: The fight for rights: stories of sexual oppression
Pambazuka News 255: The fight for rights: stories of sexual oppression
The African Union (AU) called Monday on the United Nations to urgently dispatch a team to Darfur to work out contingency plans for transition of peacekeeping operations to a UN force. The ceasefire between government and rebels forces in Sudan's Darfur province is currently being monitored by the AU's African Mission in Sudan (AMIS).
This award recognises print articles or a radio production on the theme 'ICT, Democratic Governance and Development in West and Central Africa.' Print and broadcast media journalists from the region may apply for consideration for one of the four prizes of F CFA 500,000 to 1,000,000.
The Institute of Development Studies is publishing a pocket-sized guide to help people find some of the best websites on a wide range of development issues. They are requesting help to select 5 favourite websites about the issue of conflict. Send no more than 150 words indicating what you use the website for and why you recommend it. If your entry is chosen, it will be credited to you and you will receive 5 free copies of the book to share with your colleagues and friends.
The Meraka Institute's Open Source Centre (OSC) will launch a Soweto office on Friday 12 May, which aims to expose open source talent in the sprawling township just south of Johannesburg. The initial focus of the project will be on creating a wireless mesh network in Soweto to get the township on the Internet.
South African ICT market analysts, BMI-TechKnowledge (BMT-T), believes that over 12 million South Africans will be connected to the Internet by 2009. BMI-T's latest research report, The South African Internet Services Market report for 2006, predicts that spending on dial-up will decrease up to 2009, as users migrate to broadband. Dial-up will maintain a high share of connections, but spending on broadband will account for a larger proportion of the market's total value.
Pambazuka News 254: Darfur - can peace succeed?
Pambazuka News 254: Darfur - can peace succeed?
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem visits a Pan African Parliament session in South Africa and reports back on the progress of one of the African Union’s most important institutions. After two years of existence, the PAP is making progress, although teething problems remain.
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has been sitting for its Fifth Ordinary Session in Midrand, South Africa. On its agenda are: the rationalization of Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa; Peace and Security in Africa focusing on the Great Lakes region, Darfur, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and the DRC; PAP and civil society linkages in enhancing effective implementation of NEPAD/APRM; the PAP audit and strategic plan.
I have taken the trouble to identify the agenda partly to let all Doubting Thomas’s know that the PAP is not just an assembly of eminent MPs from across Africa who meet occasionally as a kind of Pan African Parliamentary lobby group. It is also to show critics and cynics that despite its statutory 'advisory' role, according to the Constitutive Act of the AU, the parliament is finding its feet and developing a pro-active programme of action to make itself relevant to the yearnings of African people to make the dream of unity a reality.
The PAP is one of the most important institutions in the AU that distinguishes it from the old Organisation of African Unity. The latter was statutorily and in practice a leaders' forum, whereas the former seeks to be a pro people and people - driven organization, hence the inclusion of democratic and potentially democratizing institutions like the Parliament, ECOSOC, African Court of Human Rights, etc.
It has not been easy for the parliament to take off properly since it was inaugurated two years ago. There was a lot of politics about where it was going to be based. Libya was one of the countries that offered to host it. It has the resources to do so but many felt that while they may have a huge building there may not have been much of a parliament because of the maverick nature of the Libyan political system. In the end South Africa won and it was a very good decision because despite one's reservations about the Pan Africanisation of Apartheid power relations, the country is one of the most vibrant democracies on the continent. It also has resources to support the infrastructure of a parliament. The South African parliament already uses 11 national languages, therefore providing for a PAP that officially uses 6 working languages was not a problem at the level of facilities. South Africa has fulfilled its obligations about providing a permanent home to the PAP, with a custom-built parliament equipped with the latest techno facilities including individual offices for all the 200 parliamentarians and 24-hour Internet access. Many of the parliamentarians do not even have these facilities in their national parliaments.
However the building and technical support is not what makes a parliament. It is the quality of what they do inside their sessions and how much they impact on the lives of ordinary Africans that will give or deny legitimacy to the parliament.
I had the honor of visiting (along with a number of civil society activists) the PAP in session last week. We found a generally enthusiastic, warm and people-friendly PAP. From the speaker to the clerks to the parliamentarians, they did not mind that we had not made any formal appointments but had just dropped by and they were willing to engage and entertain our queries.
They all wished that more Africans would take and interest in and interact with the PAP. Maybe two years is too short for the parliament to be visible to all Africans, but we need to take more interest in it. The South African Broadcasting Corporation is trying its best to popularize the work of the parliament by having daily broadcasts of interviews, features and discussions on the PAP while it is in session. The PAP also needs the support of media in all the African countries for people to know that it exists - and exists for them.
The challenges that the PAP faces derives from the structure and powers conferred on it. One, it is merely advisory therefore its debates and proceedings are not binding on countries. Two, it is not directly elected thereby denying it Pan African legitimacy. It is either elected or appointed from national parliaments which makes it like a kind of continental subcommittee of parliaments. Three, by statute it is only required to meet twice annually, with each session lasting not more than 30 days.
In reality most sessions have been for two weeks because of limited resources. The parliamentarians do not get any extra allowance apart from per diem and transport for the duration of their stay, which is covered by their national governments. This has meant in practice governments limiting themselves to the statutory meetings, with little money for any activities in between the two sessions. It has 10 subcommittees, which must also meet during these ‘sessions’. Consequently the PAP is not able to perform its monitoring, oversight and advocacy functions effectively. Four, there is also a high turn over in membership due to different electoral timetables in the 53 countries. This means that at every session more members are being sworn in while experienced members are being lost. A departing member called PAP the most prominent transit lounge in Africa! For instance, three of the five members from Uganda will not be returning for the next session because they lost their seats in the last parliamentary elections. One way of stopping this is to have PAP elections at the same time in all the countries and separate it from national elections and parliament. We cannot have an effective PAP without offering Pan African citizenship and full participation to all Africans wherever they may be.
Finally, our leaders have to put their money where their mouth is by making available the resources that PAP needs to function. We cannot have PAP running like another donor-driven NGO or aid-addicted state bureaucracy.
* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa
* Please send comments to
UN head Kofi Annan has warned African leaders against tampering with constitutions to extend their rule. "We need to play by the rules," he told the Guardian newspaper in Nigeria where a third term row is dominating the country's politics.
Young African girls are being brought into Britain and "deliberately impregnated" so they become eligible for council flats, MPs have been told. Debbie Aruyo of Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) said later some of the children were aged 12 to 16.
Health authorities have been unable to contain the cholera outbreak sweeping through Angola, a country considered to have some of the greatest potential for wealth and economic growth in Africa. The epidemic is currently claiming an average of 25 lives a day. A total of 1,034 deaths have been recorded since mid-February. Many of these are in Luanda, the capital of this former Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa.
WhiteAfrican refers to a Wired Magazine article 'The Cost of Staying Connected'. He writes: What I find the most interesting is that they split up the price per hour and the percentage of GDP per capita per day. In other words, it might be more expensive to get online in New York, New York ($12.80/hr), but it took a higher percentage of the average persons wages in D.R. of the Congo (68.4%)."
Africa's effort to accelerate development through increased Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) has gained momentum with the formation of the NEPAD e-Africa Youth Programme that is intended to generate awareness on information society. Participants from various African countries gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, in mid-April to form the NEPAD e-Africa Youth Programme.
The Pan African Parliament is meeting in its fifth ordinary session, and is starting to address the magnitude of its challenges. A long-time dream of African political parties, individuals and institutions, the continental parliament now meets in South Africa twice a year, and in previous sessions has been debating largely the questions of logistics and resources for its own viability. The parliament is advisory for the first five years, not legislative, and thus faces the challenge of being taken seriously in its deliberations and interventions. However, one of the first indications that this body intends to be pro-active was its recent fact-finding mission to the Darfur region of Sudan, which recommended a larger and stronger role for the African Union in finding and keeping peace there.
Militants in Nigeria's volatile oil-producing region detonated a car bomb late Saturday and issued a warning that investors and officials from China would be "treated as thieves" and targeted in future attacks. The threat came as Chinese President Hu Jintao returned home from a week-long tour of Africa in which he reached a series of deals securing access to oil and other resources to meet the needs of China's booming economy.
Among the inmates languishing in prisons throughout Congo are at least ten children, some as young as 15 years old, condemned to death and waiting to be executed, according to a September 2005 letter from the United Nations to the Congolese government.
A US policy that forces groups fighting AIDS overseas to denounce prostitution in order to receive federal funding violates free speech rights, a judge ruled Tuesday (May 9). The Supreme Court “has repeatedly found that speech, or an agreement not to speak, cannot be compelled or coerced as a condition of participation in a government program,” said U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero.
Public sexual harassment against women has become a pervasive problem in Egypt and presents a significant obstacle both to women's well-being and their participation in public life, which in turn impacts the course of democratic progress in Egypt.
Chronically weak and outdated arms controls urgently need strengthening to stop an ever-expanding chain of arms brokers, logistic firms and transporters from fuelling massive human rights abuse around the world, according to a new report issued today (10 May). The report from Amnesty International and TransArms shows how increasingly sophisticated freight transport and brokering operations now deliver hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons around the world with an ever-greater proportion going to developing countries where they have fed some of the most brutal of conflicts.
Five small European countries are pooling their resources to help girls and women living in villages belonging to the Youri community in Niger. Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Monaco and San Marino signed an agreement with UNESCO on 26 April to contribute to a joint fund totaling $200,000 that will finance the project. The project focuses on reinforcing the capacities of girls and women through increased enrollment in schooling, literacy training, empowerment of women through income-generating activities and sensitization to human rights.
Batsirai Group is a Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation working to strengthen community response to HIV and AIDS. Following a successful two-year placement, the organisation is currently seeking to consolidate its work in promoting community participation within its partner communities and within its own staff. The postholder will also assist in strengthening documentation systems, organisational learning and participatory monitoring and evaluation.
The UN’s humanitarian point-man, Jan Egeland, warned that a UN operation to assist quarter of a million people who fled to eastern Chad to escape fighting has only received a tiny fraction of the funds needed. Most of those in need of help ran from brutal terror campaigns in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan. Others are displaced by fighting in Chad or are refugees from war over the border in Central African Republic.
Angolans living in South Africa would be more willing to return home if Angola's education and health sectors were improved, according to a NGO that focuses on development in the war-battered country. The South African government and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, are to launch an information campaign on Thursday to inform Angolan refugees that 2006 will be the last year that they will be given assistance to return home. About 14,000 Angolan refugees are living in various parts of South Africa.
Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women and partners would like to invite you to wear a skirt or white top on Friday 12 May 2006 to show your support for survivors of rape and gender-based violence and join us in asking HOW FREE ARE WE? We will also be gathering at 13h30, in Wale Street, Cape Town, outside St George's Cathedral to raise our voices in asking the question HOW FREE ARE WE?
FEATURED: Peace at last? Julie Flint assesses the Darfur peace deal
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Questions and Answers on the Jacob Zuma rape trial
- Four South African women respond to the Jacob Zuma trial verdict
LETTERS: Readers voice their views on Charles Taylor and healing in South Africa
BLOGGING AFRICA: The Blogosphere hummed this week over the Jacob Zuma rape trial and arrest of activists in Egypt, writes Sokari Ekine
BOOKS AND ARTS: Shailja Patel writes about ‘Imagining Ourselves’ (IO), an online project featuring the stories of young women
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem visits the Pan-African Parliament
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News about the fifth Pan African Parliament
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Escalation of fighting in Mogadishu
HUMAN RIGHTS: Reports say torture in Zimbabwe on the rise
WOMEN AND GENDER: Save the Children report exposes sexual abuse by aid workers in Liberia
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: UN third term warning on Nigeria, Chad opposition reject polls
DEVELOPMENT: The rise and rise of NGOs
CORRUPTION: Catching the big fish?
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Rebuilding African health systems
EDUCATION: AIDS hindering education goals
ENVIRONMENT: Kenya’s Maathai seeks laws on resource sharing
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Online discussion on media development
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: France remembers slavery victims
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Campaign to stop sexual harassment in Egypt
PLUS: Internet and Technology, e-Newsletters, Courses and Jobs.
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A peace deal to end three years of fighting, the death of tens of thousands and the flight of millions was signed last Friday between the Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel faction. The next stage in the peace process will be on May 15, when the African Union meets in an attempt to persuade two other rebel factions to sign the peace deal and to discuss when the United Nations will take over peacekeeping duties from the African Union. Can the peace deal succeed? Julie Flint weights its chances.
It took four years to negotiate an end to Mozambique’s civil war. That peace, signed in 1992, has lasted until today. The Darfur Peace Agreement, which it was hoped would end the first genocide of the 21st century, was forced through in little more than a year. If it fails to end the conflict in western Sudan, it will be because of its process rather than its provisions. The process has been flawed from the beginning, and could be fatal at the last. The DPA may well be the best the people of Darfur can get in their present, miserable circumstances. But international pressure for a quick fix threatens to cripple it - and in so doing to condemn Darfurians to further suffering.
Defenders of the peace process that began in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in mid-2004 before shifting to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, will argue that it lasted almost two years. On paper, yes. In truth, no. The first four rounds of the seven-round talks were dominated by the Sudan government’s egregious violations of ceasefire agreements and the international community’s failure to take a single meaningful step to stop them. When serious negotiation was finally engaged, the African Union mediation was almost as problematic as the rebel negotiators themselves. The mediation improved towards the end of 2005, but popular pressure from outside Darfur for armed intervention was by then encouraging a series of deadlines that culminated with a 30 April date set by the AU Peace and Security Council. The best of the AU’s experts in Abuja believed April was unrealistic, off by a couple of months at least.
On 25 April, the AU presented its draft agreement. Previous deadlines had come and gone. But this one, astonishingly, was enforced (more or less). Officially, the parties had five days to take the agreement - or leave it. Five days, that is, for those able to read and understand English. Those who were dependent on the Arabic text, completed on 28 April, had only 48 hours. The people of Darfur, who will live or die by the agreement, know very little about it. They have not been party to the talks. No-one has explained the agreement to them. (Least of all the state-controlled media, which would not be permitted to mention the state’s many concessions.) They do not know what it offers and what it doesn’t - and, most importantly, why it doesn’t. There is no individual compensation, they tell me. But there is. No timetable for the disarmament of the Janjaweed militias. But there is. No guarantees for implementation. But there are - inasmuch as there can be in the face of a government that will see implementation as defeat and will fight it every inch of the way.
This was never a people’s peace, a peace that grew from within and had strong, deep roots. Today it is an imposed and partial peace- between the Sudan government and the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army that is led by Minni Minawi, who represents 8% at most of the population of Darfur. It is already faltering: Darfurians are demonstrating against it in towns and displaced camps, recognizing in the signatories two narrowly-based parties who believe in domination through force and preferring continued struggle to what they believe is surrender. SLA Chairman Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur, until now the single most important rebel leader in terms of popular support as opposed to firepower, is insisting he will not sign, refusing sack-fulls of dollars intended to change his mind.
There are many in the Khartoum government who believe they can crush the movements by force and who, given half a chance, will try. Rushing an agreement that some factions still oppose could, in a worst-case scenario, give them that chance.
Interpretation of the DPA varies enormously. My own is that it is a pretty good deal. Not the best, perhaps, but not bad. The rebel movements have from the beginning suffered from delusions of grandeur. Unlike the southern rebels of the SPLA, they have not fought for 20 years. Their region is of little or no strategic importance: it has no water and it has no oil. The rebels themselves are divided, without a leader who can hold a candle to the SPLA’s John Garang. Most importantly: they did not win the war. Their only asset was the support of the international community, and their comportment in Abuja - and in Darfur itself - has damaged that.
Even those who have rejected the agreement acknowledge that its security provisions are surprisingly good. The Sudan government must withdraw its forces from many areas it currently occupies, and must disarm the Janjaweed within five months - before the rebels even begin to lay down their guns. Guarantees include an independent advisory team that both Canada and Norway, outspoken critics of the Khartoum government, are keen to head up. The government must downsize the paramilitary Popular Defence Force and Border Guards in which Janjaweed have been hidden. The hated PDF must be abolished in three or four years. Thousands of rebels will be integrated into the Sudanese Armed Forces. Some will even be given command posts.
The agreement’s weakest point, from Darfur’s viewpoint, is its provisions for power-sharing. At the federal level, the rebel movements have won few concessions and have been refused the third place in the national hierarchy. But they have the fourth - in itself a gigantic step up. The government has won the battle to keep Darfur divided into three states, until a referendum on a single region, and controls 50% of state legislatures to the rebels’ 30%, with 20% going to independents - a division that could, in reality, produce an anti-government majority. Critically, however, the movements will control the Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) and annual income of hundreds of millions of dollars. It is the TDRA which will be the real power until elections. It will implement the peace agreement, supervise reconstruction and economic development, and help the return and resettlement of the refugees. All the TDRA’s commission heads will be the movements’ nominees.
The real, abiding concern is implementation. Because of the timetable, the implementing force will be the AU, which has been hopelessly under-resourced so far. UN troops may be accepted by Khartoum now the strongest rebel faction has signed the agreement, but they cannot arrive much before year-end. The threat of UN sanctions frightens no-one. What is most disturbing is the degree of eagle-eyed, unrelenting international pressure that will be needed to force Khartoum to do all the things it is refusing to do in South Sudan. Not just now, when the world’s eyes are on Darfur, but in a few years time, when foreign chancelleries and Hollywood’s finest may have shifted their attention to another crisis and another photo opportunity.
* Please send comments to
* Julie Flint is co-author, with Alex de Waal, of ‘Darfur - A Short History of a Long War’, published by Zed Books. She wrote Human Rights Watch's May 2004 report, ‘Darfur Destroyed’, and is currently a consultant on the inter-Sudanese peace talks in Abuja. This commentary first appeared in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper,
Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma walked away from rape charges in a Johannesburg High Court this week, following a trial that has revealed deep rifts over the race for leadership in the county, but also exposed entrenched attitudes on issues of gender and HIV/AIDS. Judge Willem van der Merwe accepted Zuma's version that his accuser, a 31-year-old family friend who is HIV-positive, had participated in consensual sex. Zuma, whose supporters say charges against him are a plot to thwart his political career, now faces further charges on July 31 – this time on corruption. Should he clear these charges, his road towards presidential power could be unchecked. Pambazuka News has received a number of articles in response to the verdict, which we are reproducing in the entries below. The first article consists of a question and answer email exchange between Pambazuka News and Delphine Serumaga, executive director of People Opposing Women’s Abuse (POWA). In the following four articles, four South African women respond to the not guilty verdict. Sibongile Ndashe, Vanessa Ludwig, Nikki Naylor and Lindiwe Nkutha all express anger and disappointment over what the trial meant for South African women and victims of gender based violence. Next week in Pambazuka News, we will feature a series of articles on the theme ‘The fight for rights: Stories of sexual oppression’.
Pambazuka News: What is your assessment of the verdict in the trial of Jacob Zuma?
Delphine Serumaga: We feel that the verdict reflects the problems and constraints generally experienced by survivors of sexual violence. There is only a 7% rape conviction rate, and many of the reasons for this low rate were evident in this case. Some of the challenges include the legislative and policy framework, which still reflect institutionalized gender oppression. Also, the current definition of rape places a high burden of proof on the complainant/rape survivor. There is also still some application of cautionary rules in rape cases. The law becomes a tool for relentless cross-examination and secondary victimisation by defence attorneys. The Judge in this case seemingly subscribed to the defence's case and reasoning and characterisation of the complainant as being mad and incapable of telling the difference between consensual sex and rape. Women are routinely characterised as being mentally unstable, loose or of questionable morality during the course of rape trials. This reflects the patriarchal context within which courts operate. The stereotypes and misconceptions we heard inside the court were a reflection of the myths and misconceptions heard outside the court.
Pambazuka News: The judge said this would not have an impact on reporting of rape because the case was unique. What, in your opinion, does this judgment mean for women who have been raped and want to go through the legal system?
Delphine Serumaga: Prior to this judgment the conviction rate was low. Reasons for this include women's fears of experiencing secondary victimisation - particularly during cross-examination, low confidence in securing a conviction and the state's inability to protect women from violence and intimidation by the accused. There is no doubt this judgment will reinforce women's fears and low confidence levels in the criminal justice system, particularly if she has been raped before. This occurs even though statistics reflect that a) more women are raped by someone they know (acquaintance rape) than by someone they don't know (stranger rape) and b) multiple experiences of rape are extremely common.
Pambazuka News: The decision by the judge to allow questions about Kwezi's past sexual history resulted in some controversy, and in his verdict the judge spent some time justifying his permission for this. In general, feminist groups oppose the admittance of past sexual history in rape cases. What implications does the way the judge dealt with this have for future cases, if any?
Delphine Serumaga: There is a chance that this will be referred to in future cases. The new Sexual Offences Bill does propose tighter requirements and a set of criteria to be met before this evidence can be deemed admissible. The Bill, if passed as is, will still not be sufficient in protecting women from having their sexual history dragged into court. Once passed, gender activists will need to scrutinise the application of the new section.
Pambazuka News: The judge reserved some tough words for the media and the role of other special interest pressure groups, especially questioning the role of various women's organisations in their application to be friends of the court. In particular, he said "pressure groups should not jump to conclusions before hearing all the evidence". Is he correct? Why?
Delphine Serumaga: I think the Judge on more than one occasion used his position on the bench to make moral and other pronouncements. He did speak at length about pressure groups who he said were in breach of the sub-judice rule and who lodged the amicus brief. As gender violence organisations it is our key mandate to lobby for changes to unjust laws and practices, and to inform the public of the problems confronting survivors who engage the courts for justice. As made evident by the judgment, we were not jumping to conclusions. The very essence of the amicus brief was to provide expert evidence and to explain multiple experiences of rape (which he interpreted as being unlikely and therefore probably made up by the complainant).
Pambazuka News: What has the case shown about the rights of the rape survivor and her position in the legal system?
Delphine Serumaga: Overall rape laws and court processes surrounding rape cases continue to disadvantage rape survivors. Some of the aspects of this have been explained above, but additionally, the absence of legal representation for the complainant makes her vulnerable, as the prosecutor cannot be said to represent the complainant, but is there on the State's behalf.
Pambazuka News: Quite aside from the verdict and whether one holds the opinion that this was a good or a bad verdict, the trial has shown that in an environment where there is an entrenched protection for women, some very ugly attitudes have nevertheless been expressed. How has the trial reflected prevailing views in South Africa about women's sexual roles and rights?
Delphine Serumaga: This case has revealed commonly held myths and misconceptions about rape survivors that are still being held by many sections within society. This refers not only to those beliefs about women and rape, but also about HIV and AIDS. Myths and misconceptions about rape seek to maintain the current gender imbalance and reinforce male privilege and power. They further place the responsibility for the violence on the survivor (i.e. victim-blaming), effectively releasing the perpetrator from responsibility for his/her actions.
Pambazuka News: In some senses, women's rights and concepts of culture appear to have been diametrically opposed. Why have the two been so at odds in this context and how can the tension be resolved?
Delphine Serumaga: Culture is dynamic and subject to the interpretations of those with power. In South Africa we are the sum of many cultures but subject to only one Constitution. This Constitution was developed by all the people and was not imported or imposed. Much of the cultural norms about women's dress and so on are in fact imported notions of gender. Progressive interpretations of culture need to be promoted but those that run counter to this must be discarded.
* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to
Links:
- Trial judgment
http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/lawclerks/zumajudgment.pdf
My attempt to construct a response to the epic that has become the Zuma trial was interrupted by a phone call. One that I found extremely irritating yet useful in its insistence that I contextualise one of the things I consider problematic in the discourse on gender based violence. Part of my irritation stems from the fact that at the time of the call I was trying to write a difficult piece on the intersect between race, gender, class and why the division of the women’s movement between madams and maids makes it difficult for black women to enter this discourse without first making apologies for the other sector they represent – their ‘womanness’ or their blackness.
The caller wanted to voice his disappointment with a comment I made on a TV programme where I said “…that the Zuma judgment is a set back for women’s rights.” He charged that such a statement meant that women’s rights would have been realised had Zuma been found guilty. And that it suggested that every person accused of rape had to be found guilty, regardless of the evidence before the court.
I could not help but notice how unfortunate this deduction was. It helped that the caller was a lawyer, and I was able to remind him of the distinction between a verdict and a judgment. My caller’s disappointment stemmed also from my perceived failure to endorse or reject the verdict. Why was it my duty to refocus attention on the law, in the three minutes I had? Why did my dissatisfaction with the judgment have to necessarily draw an adverse inference for potential rapists? This distraction is quintessential of the sidetracking that forces black women to engage on fringe issues, whilst attempts are made to silence our voices. I mentioned the treatment meted to K in support of my dissatisfaction. I told him that I did not understand why I needed a password to enter a discussion on gender-based violence, as protection from having to respond to things that I did not say, because not saying them meant I was saying something about Zuma.
The password is often a demand for qualifiers that have become a pre-requisite for debate on gender-based violence. So one needs to say ‘not all men are rapists, and that in the past some people have been falsely accused.’ Had I said that, I would have unlocked my audience. Fact - sexual violence disproportionately affects more women than men, but it does not follow that men do not count amongst survivors of sexual violence. Women lay rape charges, but it does not follow that all of these charges are true. There’s a distinction that I feel needs to be drawn, (one which we are all too eager to draw in other spheres of life), and that is that the norm in rape cases is that most of the complaints are not false, and the fact that some women lie is an exception. Therefore the eagerness to entrench an exception as a norm in rape cases - that women lie about rape - is at the heart of the demand for the concession that this judgment is indeed the correct one.
I have difficulties with Judge Van der Merwe’s judgment, when he finds that an extract from a draft autobiography, regarding K’s ‘experience with a penis’ when she was five, is relevant in determining her sexual history. In this instance there was no accused person, nor a charge of rape. This ‘experience with a penis’, which exists in the autobiography, is made relevant because in it she called it a rape. Acceptance of that evidence, that relates to how a person chooses to name an invasion of her person by a penis at that age, in a private document, not prepared for court, is what I call a set back for women’s rights. Accepting evidence from a gang, who claim to have had consensual sex with a thirteen year old, as relevant in determining whether she had a history of making false rape accusations, constitutes a set back for women’s rights. Disputes about whether there was vaginal penetration or ‘a series of thrusts between the thighs’, an experience that a thirteen year old should rightfully call rape, constitutes a set back for women’s rights.
So, although I think the verdict of an acquittal is a correct one, in law at least, because the state failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, my immediate reaction to the judgment is a NO! and not a statement that extols Van der Merwe’s virtues and legal acumen in acquitting Zuma in a manner that is so inimical to K’s dignity in any civilised society - let alone in a country that lists human dignity, achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms as its foundational values.
* Sibongile Ndashe is a woman who works with the law but believes in justice
* Please send comments to
On Monday I came back from a very long and tiring journey, to be greeted by a vexing headline at Cape Town International: ‘Zuma Rape Verdict Today’, it read. I sighed, because a part of me already knew what the verdict was going to be. I was certain a not guilty verdict would be returned. Not because I had any evidence that Zuma did not do ‘it’, but because of the way the trial had unfolded, from the search for a ‘qualified judge’, to the unbridled scrutiny of Ms K’s ‘sexual history’. But for me the official verdict was never going to be important. What was of importance to me throughout this trial was the workings of the South African justice system. The outcome of this case in my eyes, and many others, is clear - our justice system has been found guilty. It has been found guilty of being hostile to women, Black women in particular; it is guilty of its refusal to protect us.
From the outset, this system did not protect ‘K’. Instead, from day one, it allowed speculation over who she is. It allowed disgusting demonstrations, reminiscent of the days of witch-burning in Europe and North America in days gone by, by Zuma supporters to continue outside the court. It allowed for the unabated and invasive interrogation of her ‘sexual history,’ as it slowly stripped her of her dignity. What’s more, Judge Van Der Merwe’s 174-page judgment did nothing to restore that dignity. In fact, it served only to further humiliate her.
But what can one expect from a system based on Roman-Dutch law, which by its very nature is not sympathetic to Black women. A system constructed within a framework of white supremacy, and male dominance. One in which the Black woman is at the bottom of the human hierarchy. A system that is blind to the inequalities in our society. One that claims to treat everyone as ‘equal before the law’, all the while denying us our realities, and by extension our humanity. One that reifies colonial constructions of Black women as sexual objects, and overly sexualized beings. One that sprang from the same mindset that prompted Cuvier to dissect Sara Bartmann and place her brutalized genitals and brain on display. This, it must show, is a system whose effects are not going to be wiped out overnight, simply because we have signed a new constitution, or because we had Madiba, or because we live in a new South Africa.
All of this angers me, but not half as much as the pretense that the judiciary is independent and that the law is somehow above politics. It angers me also that the judiciary has a propensity to turn a blind eye to the fact that both in making laws and in their administration, issues of culture, historical experience, political ideologies, values and group interests are very much at play, and that imbricated within these processes are power and authority.
Justice is also not blind, neither are those who administer it. They see, or more aptly do not see, things in particular ways, influenced by their socialization, prescribed as it is by race, class, gender, sexuality, and values. Van Der Merwe, a white male, sitting in judgment in a case, which essentially revolved around the credibility of a Black woman, clearly showed in his six and a half hour judgment that he, like the rest of us, has gaps in his understanding.
“… pressure on a court in a matter like the present is big enough…It is not acceptable that a court be bombarded with political, personal or group agendas and comments. As one contributor to a daily newspaper very correctly put the matter…‘The trial is more about sexual politics and gender relations than it is about rape.’ Wise words but what a pity it had to be said.” (p. 3)
What a pity indeed! It would seem that rape and gender relations, within a patriarchal society, following on the judges reasoning, bear no relation to each other: one is about power relations within a system of male dominance, while the other is about?
K’s sexual orientation, her ‘disappeared hymen ring’, and mental health were at the centre of his treatise. Am I the only one finding this offensive? Am I the only who thinks that there is something seriously wrong with a judiciary that can have a white man so strip a Black woman of her dignity, in a sanctified, socially sanctioned manner? Am I the only one who feels that we are in desperate need of a different justice system? One infused with dignity that comes with respecting people’s humanity, especially that of Black women. One that will ensure that both those who have been wronged or who felt that they have been wronged and those who have done wrong, or have been accused of having done wrong, can find peace and healing?
In the not guilty pronouncement, Zuma has had his dignity restored. K’s kanga will be returned, but the question still remains, who will restore K’s dignity to her?
* Vanessa Ludwig is an African womanist who believes in Justice for Africa, and in particular for African women.
* Please send comments to
I am angry. I am pissed off. I have been trying to write about this Zuma debacle for months, but have been plagued by unease and self-censorship, and I have remained silent, while seething inside. The polarization into two camps of the country, into those who claim to be speaking on K’s behalf, and those who have out and out turned their backs on her has me bothered. I am angry and irritated with K herself and those surrounding her. I am angry with the men and women hurling stones and burning effigies, but all of this not new, because for ages I have been seething inside. Today, nudged by Judge Willem Van der Merwe, my anger can no longer be contained, it has become resolute, and I’m spilling it on this page.
But I have to start by being nice, so here is my attempt at being just that. Van der Merwe’s finding that the state failed to prove its case, and that the accused should be acquitted is correct. His decision on that score cannot be faulted, though many feminists may disagree. I believe that, legally, the State failed to discharge the onus of proof. But whether the decision could have been different, save for the misogynist reasoning, the question should be asked, but that’s another issue. I suspect the answer would still be a resounding no. We would still have landed with the same decision - this acquittal.
I’m not one who succumbs to misogynist notions about what women should wear, how they should talk, in order to avoid being raped. But I did have issues with the complainant and the state’s paltry efforts in dealing with this case. Such lackluster efforts intensify my anger. I am angry because for too long we have been subjected to misogynist reasoning, shrouded in the notion of the neutrality, objectivity and impartiality of judges, a notion which obscures the fact that judges make political decisions and these decisions are informed by their political and social contexts. We need to acknowledge this fact.
The law does not have one single meaning, and it often differs and is in the habit of being contradictory, depending on who is applying it and to whom they are applying it. Today the chilling effect of Van der Merwe’s words has left me reeling. Most judges believe that they need to uphold the distinction between law and politics, identify objective criteria and thereby create a factual distance between their own personal views, opinions and political philosophy. Professor Griffith, in his work on the ‘Politics of the Judiciary’, points out that the notion of impartiality has been regarded as an absence of personal bias or prejudice and the exclusion of “irrelevant” considerations such as a judge’s political views. Accordingly, when a judge acts like a ‘political, economic, and social eunuch’ with no interest in the world outside the courtroom, he/she is deemed to have delivered a fair and impartial judgment. Thus, Van der Merwe’s argument is that he has been fair and impartial by removing himself from the outside world. He makes the point strongly at the outset, as though this vindicates him, and that by behaving like a socio-political eunuch, he suddenly becomes impartial. But we know that this is not what has happened here.
We know that there are no determinate legal outcomes based on neutral, general principles and often judges rely on subjective factors in order to find solutions. We also know that different judges selectively rely on different factors – in this case the use of underwear and kanga’s. This has been the case with Van der Merwe. When faced with the choice of either starting from a premise of a women’s right to be free from violence, or from some apparently neutral legal basis, such as ‘judicial discretion’ or ‘reasonableness’ he chooses the latter, failing at every step of the way to acknowledge constitutional rights to dignity and freedom.
It is imperative that as women fighting the scourge of violence, we should be at the forefront of broadcasting the correct message. It is important that we interrogate our blind faith in justice and the law. It is also necessary that we start accepting that judges can never be neutral in relation to their society. Neutrality, as here espoused, is risky, since it blinds judges to their own involvement in recreating and perpetuating stereotypes. Judges, we must insist, should bring their own and women’s experiences into their courtroom, in order to fill legal gaps. Concerning gender based violence we should be adamant that judges strive more for socially responsive attitudes (in order to bring the law in line with women’s needs), above their quest for neutrality. The lawyer in me needed to say that. Now, having said it, I need to add that I no longer have faith in the evolution of our criminal justice system.
In this light, how do we take what the Court has said and move forward as a nation of women who are being raped, daily, in our homes, in the streets, in courts and in the media? Well, we can’t take it forward I am afraid. I feel the need to tell women to, ‘stop, don’t come forward, please don’t!’ If you have a sexual history, if you have ever been abused. Stop, go to counseling, heal yourself, and don’t subject yourself to the court process. Don’t subject yourself to being a victim.
I am certain the overwhelming silence that is left hanging in the aftermath of this Zuma debacle resonates within all of us. We have been silenced. How does one get beyond the allegation that walking around in a kanga with no underwear on and sending SMS messages ending in ‘love, hugs and kisses’ are an invitation to sex? How do we get beyond that? I don’t know if I know how. How do I start taking responsibility for myself and stop being a victim? I am tired of being a victim. Do we need to be more radical and renounce all forms of flirtation? I am sexual? I love sex? I am one of those who flirt unashamedly with men, sometimes? Do I then loose my right to change my mind and say no? I have a sexual history? I have slept with men I hardly knew? I have picked men up in bars and taken them home? I have worn practically nothing on those occasions? I have sent provocative SMS’s? What does that make me? Someone who will never be able to place myself in a witness box. Right now I don’t feel the urge to speak out in a court of law. I can’t. Yet, I want to add my voice in the name of the movement for other women to speak out? No. I need to be consistent, so I feel tempted to say – let the deathly silence hanging over us hang as ominously as it now does, while we regroup and rethink and formulate new strategies on Speaking Out. I feel we can no longer continue putting women through horrendous processes that re-victimize them. Let’s be silent.
May this silence be akin to the quiet before the storm. And that when we break it, nothing but thunderbolts of new voices should leave our mouths.
* Nikki Naylor is human rights lawyer and social justice activist having worked in the Violence Against Women Project at the Women's Legal Centre in Cape Town, South Africa for the last 5 years. She has litigated violence against women cases at a Constitutional and Supreme Court of Appeal level in the country and has published widely in the area of rape, violence against women and sexual harassment.
* Please send comments to
Monday, 8 May, 2006
Today is a sad day in my life. Not in mine alone, in a lot of other people’s too, I’m sure, some for different reasons no doubt, but some, I suspect for the same reason as me. Today also marks the last day of our relationship. I am afraid I can’t write in you anymore, without risking incriminating myself. Who knows in whose hands these pages might one day end up? And who knows what unreasonable deductions they may seek to make about me, after leafing through you. I am afraid I can no longer share my innermost thoughts with you. Not my joys either, or my traumas, or my nightmares borne of my past and present. I’m afraid I can no longer come to you at the end of a harrowing day, to tell you, in that honest and sincere way, I seem able to tell only you. I’m afraid that if I should ever get raped, again, and cry wolf (because there really is one), they might make you admissible evidence, and that you might just contribute to my downfall. It’s not because I don’t love you anymore. Not that you have not provided an outlet for my frustrations, and emotional turmoil. If there’s anyone who knows all my highs and lows, it is you. It’s just that this place that I love with all my heart, has made it somewhat unsafe for us to carry on. But I thought it would be unfair if I left without telling you, the best I know how, the reasons why I have to pack away my commas and exclamation marks. I hope you understand.
Today I woke up in a place that said to me be free
so long as I kept my mouth shut and made no
demands that my freedom actually be taken seriously
I woke up in a place that said be what you want to be
so long as what I wanted to be did not include
me being a woman who wears a kanga,
has a history of mental illness
is prone to forgetting
or has in the past been raped
I woke up to a dream, and I realised that I am stronger than I was yesterday
but this dream rapidly turned into a nightmare
right in front of my eyes as I began to see
that I had in fact been rendered much weaker than I was,
just yesterday
I woke up in a place where it’s the size of your heart that counts not your fists
and realised that no matter how big my heart was,
these fists would continue to find a landing pad on my face
and that if I am to survive, I needed to pack a punch in mine.
Because yesterday I was digging for gold, and today I am wearing it
on my wrists, around my ankles, across my heart
it shackles my every step,
because now it is expected that I wear my chains with pride,
in line with the dictates of my culture
Yesterday I was burning with frustration; today I am growing big business
and this business of growing ever more sick and tired fuels my anxiety
I woke up and realised that I don’t need a gun to make you listen
because the one that hangs from your crotch
isbhamu somdoko as you call it, is more potent
and if that does not make me listen, what else will?
And even if I have nothing, this place can give me everything
on condition that I give it in return every inch of my entire being,
until I am left in the end with much less than what I had when I started.
All I need do is believe
in nothing, because nothing much is worth believing in anymore
not the comfort in the knowledge that my elders will not hurt me
not the comfort in the fact that if they do the law will protect me
just the ugly reality, that depending on how its spun
every sexual act I am forced to engage in,
no matter how many times I say no
will be construed as having being consensual
Today I woke up in a place whose cheering can be heard on the other side of the world
but whose screams land on deaf ears inside my home
A place where my brother is my brother no matter what
and my sister is someone who does not matter, no matter what
Today I woke up in a place that flows with courage
but drowns under showers of cowardice
That laughs,
at me often
that’s cried
sometimes with me, (well only a handful)
that says it’s okay
go ahead do to her what you please
we will find something in her history
to make her allegations sound like a fairy tale
Today I woke up in a place that sings with hope to the rest of the world
but mutters despair to itself
And I smiled because
well because this morning left me a tad haggard,
and smile to stave off my tears is all I can do sometimes
when I’m feeling like this, besides I hear,
South Africans are creating a new dawn everyday
oh how I wish this dawn would cast its rays my direction too.
Today I woke up in South Africa
and so help me I am never ever going back to sleep
lest those who relish in plotting against me should
devise more schemes while I slumber
lest I miss in my sleep a chance to be part of a legion
that will create for myself, my sisters, my aunts, my mothers, my daughters
a solid string of incandescent dawns that are truly
Alive with possibility
Unlike the one I woke up to today
that seems to me to be languishing in a state of atrophy
So you see why this full stop I am about to write has to be my last, from now on I am holding inside me everything I otherwise would have shared with you, so long.
* Lindiwe Nkutha is an author and a woman in the world
* Please send comments to
Liberian President Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says the governement urgently needs to set standards and penalties to deal with people who are found to be engaged in corruption in the country. President Sirleaf said those who violated the trust of the public while in public service, must be subjected to what she called, "certain sanctions," such as prosecution.
Tanzania has put in place strategies and policies that focus on poverty reduction and economic growth. While attending the Wilton Park Conference in London recently, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro said such policies need among other things, transparency and good governance to flourish.
Swaziland's home-based caregivers are too few and too poorly paid to cope with the growing numbers of bedridden AIDS patients, but in the absence of adequate health facilities and trained professionals, they are seen as the immediate answer to a national emergency. Over 40 percent of sexually active Swazis are HIV positive, but only a few thousand are on antiretroviral (ARV) medication that can help prolong their lives.
Podcasters share similar concerns to bloggers in relation to defamation, privacy, reporter's privilege, media access, election and labor laws and adult materials. This guide has been developed to help podcasters steer through this minefield.
The government of Liberia and the UN peacekeeping mission on Tuesday promised to conduct investigations into a report by British-based charity Save the Children that government workers, peacekeepers and aid workers are giving Liberian girls money, food and favours in return for sex. And ordinary Liberians told IRIN that growing poverty appeared to be fuelling promiscuous sexual behaviour. In its report released this week, Save the Children said officials at camps for displaced Liberians, peacekeepers, government employees and teachers were among those abusing their positions of authority to have sex with girls as young as eight.
A year after Operation Murambatsvina ('Drive Out Filth'), the government's sudden campaign to purge informal settlements, the lives of thousands of affected Zimbabweans have not changed. Uprooted last year from homes built illegally in the capital, Harare, families with five or more members have been squeezed into tiny living spaces authorised by the government on the outskirts of the city, with no source of employment and, in some cases, no access to medical facilities.
The first of some 850 Congolese who fled to southern Sudan over 40 years ago after the coup that brought Mobutu Sese Seko to power have returned home. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire and ruled until a rebellion in 1997 after which the Democratic Republic of Congo was pitted into a brutal five-year war. Despite continued insecurity, the refugees were determined to go back. The UN agreed to help their return to Kisangani because of their advanced age and poor living conditions in Sudan.
Governance performance in sub-Saharan Africa is, on average, quite weak despite the strong positive effect of governance on development and its importance to effective aid delivery, the 2006 Global Corruption Report says. The report prepared by Transparency International last year ranked Namibia as having a Corruption Perception Index of 4,3 - 0 indicates highly corrupt and 10 highly clean.
African countries can increase their incomes four times by tackling corruption and embracing the rule of law, a World Bank official told participants at the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference. This would also help reduce infant mortality rate in most African countries by more than 70 five per cent.
The UN refugee agency is helping to move dozens of Congolese refugees who had been struggling to make ends meet in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, to a camp in Giharo in the south-east of the country where they can get more help. The first group of 67 refugees was transferred from the city on Wednesday. Most had fled from South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in late 2005 because of continuing violence and insecurity in the area. Unable to secure their basic needs in Bujumbura, the refugees asked to be moved to a refugee camp where they can benefit from the assistance provided by UNHCR and its partners.
This article, from Third World Quarterly, argues that: "The prosecution of past elected presidents for corruption in office is an option that has recently entered the public discourse in several of Africa's nascent democracies, progressing farthest in Zambia, followed by Kenya. That such moves could be contemplated, let alone initiated, responds to frequent policy demands to 'do something about corruption'. Moreover, prosecution poses a challenge to the scholarly literature on neo-patrimonialism, which suggests that presidential corruption is endemic—indeed, expected—in Africa because it is culturally embedded..."
The issue of appropriate health care financing mechanisms is once again high on the policy agenda of African governments. Not only have a number of governments (including South Africa, Uganda and Zambia) abolished some or all fees at public health facilities, which looks set to have ripple effects around the continent, but international organisations are placing considerable importance on health care financing in their engagements with African governments, reports the latest edition of the Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (Equinet).
Recent media focus on intellectual property rules has led many to believe that the entire debate centers around the issues of piracy of films, videos and DVDs. There is a constant refrain that a watertight regime of intellectual property rules is essential to protect the rights of those who devised, developed and produced innovative goods, be it art or health cures.
In a bold move, African leaders meeting in Abuja have unequivocally demonstrated their commitment to accelerating access to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria services in the next five years. Meeting in Abuja this week, at the Heads of State Summit to review progress towards the implementation of the Abuja Declaration on ATM and other related infectious diseases, leaders adopted ambitious continental targets for implementation of programmes addressing the three diseases.
HIV and AIDS, drought and conflict make it hard for developing countries to feed their children properly. Ultimately, this pushes up the mortality rate of children under five. This is according to the United Nations Children's Fund's annual report on children's progress. The UNICEF research surveyed more than 100 developing countries, 17 of which are in eastern and southern Africa. The report says virtually no progress was made in these African countries to address the problem of hunger, a major cause of the incidence of under-weight children.
Finding your journal online was akin to taking a breath of fresh air after a very long time. I have been looking for you for a very long time and now that I have found you I will endeavor to support you in every way I can.
Peace to you and your readership! If we are unable to learn from the lessons of the past we certainly can't go too far forward (See In addressing the plight of the oppressed peoples of the earth, we must come to some very basic conclusions very fast, because time is running out for all of us. As the old saying goes: "The Leopard does not change it's spots nor the Tiger it's stripes." We are getting bogged down deeper and deeper in the quicksand of false hopes. Those who have oppressed us and in many instances still oppress us in one way or another will not change because they are incapable of change.
I think the good Bishop and a great many of us oppressed folks have overlooked the fact that "Whites" are not sorry, and to "hope" that they will be sorry has been one great exercise in futility. Yes, there are a few who do care but they make up the vast minority and are looked upon as traitors by their own people.
We must stop wasting valuable time hoping (& praying) that "they" will change.
A new scramble for Africa is under way as multinationals from all over the world take a new interest in acquiring communications companies on the continent. The temperature for fresh deals has also been raised by a number of companies on the continent itself seeking to shape a regional or indeed international strategy for themselves, reports Balancing Act News Update.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by attacks on radio stations in the Comoros in the run-up to May 14 federal elections in the Indian Ocean state. Unidentified assailants armed with machetes stormed two radio stations on the island of Grande Comore on May 5, forcing them off the air for 24 hours. The army shut down a radio station on the island of Mohéli more than a week ago, and it has not resumed broadcasting, local journalists told CPJ. Attackers ransacked Radio Ngazidja, the official station of the semi-autonomous government of Grande Comore, and Moroni FM, a private station that supports the federal government.
Why the current pressure from the international community by urging Sirleaf to bring Taylor to Sierra Leone to face trial? Do they know its implications on the people of Liberia and the Sub region?
The ECOWAS need to understand that in the 1997 general elections, Taylor had 75 percent of the total vote cast and this clearly shows that he has a lot of followers, which includes ex-combatants.
Some have argued that putting Taylor on trial would be the way to deter others. Indeed, if it is about deterrence we would not have witnessed the current coup in the Gambia.
The political, economic and socio-cultural conditions of Liberia have deteriorated for far too long and the leaders of Africa could do well if they supported Liberia rather than leaning on the international community to refurbish the country. For example, Nigeria can provide Liberia with oil on credit.
I just wanted you to know that I am really appreciating the Pambazuka newsletter, which I've been reading for some months thanks to Riccardo Moro from Signis (Rome, Italy), because it is gradually introducing me into a deeper approach to African politics and society.
I am using material from the newsletter with my students at school: we - a highschool in Italy, no NGO involved - are twinned with a high school in rural Rwanda, and we are on the final run to furnish our partners with a small ICT lab, powered by PV panels and with a satellite internet connection. Among the others, the articles by Gerald Caplan and the links in Pambazuka "Internet and technology" section have helped us to avoid possible overall errors during the planning of our project.
Highlights include a requirement for complete, verfiable disarmament of Janjaweed militia by mid-October, 2006. Provides milestones such as the containment of Janjaweed and other armed militias into specific restricted areas prior to disarmament, removal of heavy weapons, specific assurances of security in assembly areas of the rebel movements, and other steps to contain, reduce, and ultimately eliminate the threat posed by such forces. Places restrictions on the movements of the Popular Defense Forces and requires their downsizing.
Government and civil society in South Africa are expecting to come to an agreement within two weeks on a plan of action to complete the country's African Peer Review Mechanism process. The new timetable comes after the governing council which oversees the process failed to meet last week's deadline. Civil society and government attributed the failure to the sheer scale of the task. Civil society has been pushing government on such issues as electoral reform, to improve services and to fight poverty. The programme of action will be presented to an African Union (AU) team expected to visit SA in July. It will form part of an AU report and be presented to heads of state at a special forum to consider the peer review reports.
Awaaz researches, records and disseminates information on the South Asian community in East Africa, and in Kenya in particular, and acts as a catalyst to record the history, and establish linkages with the Indian subcontinent and the South Asian Diaspora in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Awaaz responds to a need for a publication that fosters serious debates within the Kenyan South Asian community and is meant for a general audience.
The NEPAD e-Africa Commission, a body mandated with the development of a continental ICT infrastructure network, is taking a tough stance over ownership of the proposed Eastern Africa undersea cable system (EASSy). The Commission appears to be set on a clear collision course with the consortium formed to promote the project, which prefers the 'Club' or members-only ownership, against the Open Access, favored by the World Bank. For months now, the US$240m project has been marred by controversy over its ownership and financing, with consortium members openly bickering against each other.
Media houses and media practitioners in East Africa are increasingly coming under scrutiny from informed consumers and must maintain ethical practices and high standards to survive. It emerged at the first East African media conference held in Nairobi last week that while the power of the media to set the national agenda is growing tremendously, the media is increasingly coming under scrutiny from different directions, mainly from the consumers of its content.
The death toll continued to rise in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as fighting between rival militias entered its third day, local sources said. "As of last night [Monday], the death toll stood at 41. It will get higher, since the fighting is still going on," said a doctor at Keysaney Hospital in the north of the city, where most of the injured were being treated. "If the fighting continues, the hospitals will not be able to cope," the doctor said. "Some of the hospitals have already run out of medicines," warned the doctor.
A briefing paper prepared by the Geneva based Darfur Releif and Documentation Centre (DRDC) contends that the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur remains worrying inspite of the international community's attention to it. They note the sharp rise in mortality and morbidity rates in the region estimating 4 million war affected people including civilians in inaccesible rural areas. The government of Sudan continues to reject international calls for the deployment of a UN peace keeping force in Darfur. Government assault against national and international organizations including humanitarian releif agencies has continued. They highlight political reasons which are undermining the Africa Union's efforts to end the crisis. The paper makes certain conclusions and recommendations at the end.
The two big stories on the African Blogosphere this week are the arrest of 10 Egyptian activists, including blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah, last Sunday and the acquittal of Jacob Zuma on charges of rape in South Africa. Due to the large number of posts I am only including the Blog name and a short quote from each.
The comments on the Zuma trial range from outright disgust at the verdict to agreement with the verdict but disgust with Zuma’s perceived immoral behaviour to no comment on the verdict but an analysis of the political repercussions.
The outraged
Chump Style (http://chump-style.blogspot.com/2006/05/zuma-fucks-over-south-africa.html):
“He gets acquitted of the charges, thereby sending a message out to all rape-inclined men, ‘hey guys it’s ok if you rape a woman, if she isn’t wearing 300 layers of clothing down to her toes…She is asking for it!”
Shailja Blog (http://shailja.com/news/newsletterblog/2006/05/false-accusations.html), in response to the judges comment that the compliant had a had a history of making false accusations of rape:
“The prospect of crowds of his supporters, chanting for my blood, sending death threats, yelling ‘Burn the bitch’ outside the courthouse, just thrills me! I can't wait to be grilled on my whole life and sexual history in an open witness stand. Thank God South African law doesn't allow rape victims to testify in camera!”
Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/05/zuma_aquitted_.html):
“The verdict is a loss for Khwezi and for all the other women who will now be deterred from reporting rape knowing that they cannot expect justice to be done. That their personal lives will be invaded in the courtroom should it reach that far. That their credibility as sane people will be challenged. That she will be abused and denigrated in the media and on the streets. That other women will stand against her and heckle her.”
Nigeria, What’s New (http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2006/05/dreadful-men-power.html):
“In a world of shrinking leadership, the news that former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been acquitted of raping a 31-year-old family friend and the Judge's conclusion: ‘The complainant was inclined to accuse men of raping her or attempting to rape her’ is greeted here with shame, shame, shame. When is it acceptable to have sex with a young daughter of a close and long-standing friend? Someone that calls you Dad!”
The Moral Disgust
Urban Trash (http://urbantrash.co.za/blog/?p=122):
* he cheated on his wife (or wives);
* his sexual immorality has expressed great disrespect towards his family and peers;
* he had consensual sex with a HIV-positive family friend;
* he had consensual sex with a HIV-positive family friend half his age;
* he is a self righteous, arrogant harlequin.
It’s The Question That Drives Us Mad (http://itisthequestion.blogspot.com/2006/05/was-justice-served-in-jacob-...):
“But Mr Zuma, you have coloured my perception of you with your anachronistic beliefs and chauvinist attitude. You have shamed men as you have sung your war songs with phallic symbolism. You and your supporters may be loud and visible, but you represent an ugly side of mankind.”
Acoustic Motorbike (http://ggernst.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=314708), on a recent visit to South Africa from Zimbabwe:
“Others were dismissive of the trial based on the complainant’s history and her perceived lack of credibility. One taxi driver I spoke with at length said that he feared it would make it more difficult for other women to report rape in the future. In my cynicism, I fear he might be right. Not that the complainant’s case was necessarily unfounded. But in a culture that doesn’t treat domestic violence or women’s rights with much seriousness, it’s hard not to trust that the slightest loophole won’t be exploited.”
The political fallout
The Fish Bowl (http://jontyfisher.blogspot.com/2006/05/ancs-zuma-dilemma-as-i-had-thoug...):
“Many have written off Zuma's chances…but I'm not so sure. This is a man that is clearly not being judged by his populist support on his Western-style leadership credentials, but rather on the fact that he is ‘their man’. If he comes through these two trials unscathed, he may not count on the elite votes, but I would imagine he would still have much of his populist support intact.”
Yebo Gogo (http://americanafrican.blogspot.com/2006/05/zuma-acquitted-of-rape.html):
“So what does this mean for the country's politics? It's obviously a bit too early to tell, but this is the Internet, so I feel like I should have some comment. Zuma will walk away a free man, but his political history is likely done. He was, entering the trial, considered one of the nicest men in all of South African politics and a hero of the left because of his populist leanings. But even being found guilty, would the ANC still risk putting him up as president? Would a breakaway left-leaning political group (possibly a breakaway consisting of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions)?”
The arrest of the 10 Egyptian activists has caused outrage in the Egyptian blogosphere and a campaign is already underway for their release. The campaign has been taken up throughout the African blogosphere with bloggers using “Googles Blog Bomb” to spread the word throughout the blogosphere. Anyone clicking on Egypt will go straight to the Free Alaa website.
Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket (Alaa’s and his wife’s blog) - (http://www.manalaa.net):
“Alaa and the rest of the group that was kidnapped yesterday, will be detained for 15 days. They didn’t go directly to the prison as we thought, but spent the night at the Khalifa's police station and are supposed to be transferred to the prisons now. The 3 women will go to El Qanater prison, as Tora prison where the rest of the 40 detainees are held has no section for women, and the men are supposed to join the rest and go to Tora prison, but some think that they will also be taken to El Qanater prison (which has sections for both men and women).”
Rantings of a Sandmonkey (http://www.sandmonkey.org/2006/05/07/alaa-arrested):
“Alaa, blogger, co-founder of the Egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and democracy activist, got arrested today during a protest to support the Judiciary's branch fight for independence…The way it worked, the police made sure to press the demonstrators close to the Egyptian museum, where they cordoned them and wouldn't let them leave, while continuously hurling insults at them. The demonstrators tried to get the police to let them go for half an hour, but to no avail. The Police cordon then opened where a group of plain dressed police officers and thugs rushed in and started beating up the demonstrators and dragging them on the asphalt till they threw them in the police vehicles. The Police also made sure that none of the satellite news channels would be able to get video footage of what they did by not allowing the press to come close and keeping them away the entire time.”
Freedom for Egyptians (http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/05/egyptian-regime-is-getti...) provides some background to the arrests:
“Since the beginning of the year, the Judges Club in Cairo and Alexandria has started a nation-wide movement calling for an independent judiciary. The current judiciary system is ruled by the strong grip of the executive authority of the regime of Mubarak. The members of the Judges Club could not tolerate taking the rigging of the parliamentary elections in November/December as a normal procedure to fool the Egyptians and the world. When they tried to take their responsibility and uncover the rigging of the elections they were crushed by the regime and some of them were slapped on the faces in polling stations. The regime made it clear to the Egyptian people and to the judges that there is no will but that of the President.”
The Big Pharaoh (
writes that the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC has been bombarded with free Alaa and other activists emails and for further action he suggests:
“There is a blog dedicated to Alaa and the others who were detained during the demonstration on May 7th. As I stated before, the Egyptian embassy in DC got bombarded by emails from concerned average Americans. We are also suggesting you to contact David Welch, Assistant Secretary and head of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. His email is: [email][email protected].”
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to [email protected]
This 51- page Zambian advocacy resource book is aimed at individuals, community groups, People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), youth and school pupils, district level organisations, teachers associations, church groups, local government leaders and others concerned and wanting to make a positive contribution to the response to HIV and AIDS in Zambia.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), is hosting an online discussion in May and June 2006 to gather suggestions from African media professionals on ways to strengthen the continent's media. Sponsored by the U.K. Department for International Development, the online forum will incorporate participants' input into an ECA strategy paper that will build a case for greater investment in African media development.
The African Union is seeking nominations for the African Union Nelson Mandela Award for Human Rights Defenders, which honours an African individual or organisation that has used innovative methods of promoting human rights in the face of great odds.
“The Other Side of the Coin” looks at the responsibility of the UK to combat corruption and money laundering. It examines what the UK can do to support African countries in fighting corruption, but does not excuse corrupt rulers from their ultimate culpability.
Alaa Abd El-Fatah, one of the Egyptian political activists, and one of the first bloggers in Egypt was arrested today (May 8) together with around ten more activists during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with sixty activists who were arrested over the past two weeks in a non-violent sit in, as well who were held in custody for two weeks under investigation for “crimes” that if anything would raise only mockery including, humiliating the president, possession of “publishing equipment”(graffiti spray) and blocking traffic.
As we survey the terrain of political contestation it is very difficult to be sanguine about the options open to civic forces and opposition political parties. The spaces for peaceful democratic politics have been ruthlessly eliminated, and the state appears set to discourage any prospects for national political dialogue. Under these conditions the democratic forces will feel an increasing sense of frustration and strategic blockage, tempted to lock themselves into ritual calls for redundant strategies with little organisational capacity to deliver on such claims. This is according to a publication, ‘Reflections on democratic politics in Zimbabwe’ published by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
The South African Institute of International Affairs has launched a new portal on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a resource and training tool for African countries and civil society groups participating in the process.
This is a programme on M & E for Learning, Management and Accountability. Please contact Evangeline Govender for an application form or download from their website. Closing date for applications: 22 May 2006.
‘Global Action Week' saw international attention turn towards the global education crisis. 18 million more teachers are needed if every child is to receive a quality education. 100 million children are still being denied the opportunity of going to school. Millions more are sitting in over-crowded classrooms for only a few hours a day. Without urgent action these children will remain in poverty and at far greater risk of HIV infection. The Campaign for Education reports on actions taken across Africa to promote education.
In May 2006, the UNESCO Sector for Social and Human Sciences is calling for nominations for the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education. The Prize, amounting to US$10,000, was created in 1978 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to encourage organizations and individuals that have made an exemplary contribution to the advancement of knowledge on human rights.
Zimbabwe state security agents have stepped up the use of torture against government opponents, with 19 cases reported in March compared with three during the previous two months, a local rights group said on Saturday. President Robert Mugabe's government dismisses as political propaganda charges that it uses intimidation, arbitrary arrests and torture to keep its opponents in check in the face of a deepening economic crisis many critics blame on its policies, reports Reuters.
Work has begun to repair a massive hydroelectric power station in Congo which, if fully developed, could produce enough electricity to make blackouts across Africa a thing of the past. The Inga plant, the largest single hydropower initiative in the world, was one of the few investments made in the vast central African country by former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko but has suffered from years of neglect.
Deep links exist between NGOs and trade unions. Many NGOs were established by unions and the two groups still work together in powerful coalitions and joint campaigns. But while the NGO sector has expanded rapidly in recent decades, the union movement has declined. The diversity between NGOs makes the movement impossible to pigeon hole, except that "it represents civil society's most visible response to globalization." The author states that unions must draw from NGOs' example and become the new civil society alternative.
President Robert Mugabe’s complex succession struggle took a dramatic twist this week with disclosures that he has given ministers orders to amend the constitution to move the presidential election to 2010 to secure a two-year extension to his hold on power. Reliable official sources said Mugabe last month gave Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, his point man on constitutional issues, and his Rural Housing counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa, also Zanu PF’s legal affairs secretary, a fresh mandate to change the constitution to delay the 2008 presidential poll until 2010 to allow him to hang onto office for a further two years.
Cash benefits for children are reducing the impact of poverty on school enrolment in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, child support grants are helping children, particularly from the poorest families, to be educated. Families receiving such grants are more likely to send their children to school at earlier ages than other equally poor households.
The United Nations General Assembly today (9 May) elected 44 of the 47 members of the newly established Human Rights Council to replace the much criticized and now defunct Human Rights Commission, with a second round of voting expected later to decide the full quota of representatives from Eastern Europe. All regions – Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and Other states – obtained or exceeded the required 96-vote majority needed to fill their allocated number of members.
Potential local investors meet German industrialists next week to discuss setting up a South African company to manufacture hi-tech solar energy panels developed by South African scientists. A German company has acquired the initial rights to make thinner and cheaper solar panels developed by local researchers led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) physics professor Vivian Alberts, and goes into full production next March.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Monday he was considering a plea for clemency from the nation's first post-genocide president, in jail for crimes including inciting ethnic violence and embezzling state funds. Pasteur Bizimungu, who in February received a 15-year term for the crimes committed after his resignation in 2000, said his release would be "for the good of the nation" in a letter printed by local newspapers last week. “It is true that I received the letter of Mr. Bizimungu but I am yet to think about it and analyze its content," Kagame told reporters. "I will let you know if I make a decision," reports Reuters.
YouthNet, a program of Family Health International (FHI), has announced Youth InfoNet No. 24. This issue of the electronic newsletter features 15 recent program resources focusing on youth reproductive health and HIV prevention.
As part of the celebration activities marking its tenth anniversary, EISA will launch its First Annual Symposium in Johannesburg from 18 to 20 October 2006. The theme for the Symposium is Challenges for Democratic Governance and Human Development in Africa. Please see the website for more details on the conference and the call for papers.
Students at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government have launched the school’s first public policy journal focused solely on Africa. The Africa Policy Journal aims to provide rigorous analysis and practical solutions to some of Africa’s most pressing policy challenges. A student-led initiative, the online journal recognizes many policy challenges are specific to Africa.
Racial hatred and violence is growing in Russia, analysts say. “Ethnic hatred, xenophobia and violence are on the rise in Russia - so is the activity of skinheads towards non-Russians, those who do not look Slavic. Most sociological surveys confirm that,” Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of the Moscow-based Sova think tank, said from the Russian capital on Monday. According to Kozhevnikova, skinheads beat up 124 people who came from 23 different countries in 2005.
The Program Officer will be responsible for grant making in media, arts and culture in the Foundation’s Office in Eastern Africa. The Program Officer will build on and develop programming achievements in the portfolio’s ‘Building Sustainable Spaces for Creativity and Culture’ initiative, while developing and strengthening innovative interventions in an emergent media aspect of the work.
The informal sector (IS) plays a significant role in developing countries, through the provision of employment, income and supplying neglected markets. However, working conditions and income levels in the IS remain low and thus create a poverty trap. Various approaches have been adopted by stakeholders in order to overcome the obstacles to formalisation and this paper aims to assess these approaches.
Burundian and Rwandan government officials have agreed to resolve by June border land disputes involving communities from the two countries. Rwanda's minister of state for cooperation, Rosemary Museminali, said experts from the two countries would use maps as the main tools to settle the land disputes among the communities living along the border, mostly in Burundi's northern provinces of Ngozi, Kirundo and Muyinga in the northeast.
As Russia assumed the Presidency of the G8, New Era's Max Hamata approached the Russian Ambassador, Nikolay Gribkov on the essence of Russia's G-8 Presidency to Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He spoke on the need for African permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council and Russia's role in the stabilization of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how Russia's G-8 Presidency will affect relations with SADC.
HREA is calling for applications for the distance learning courses Human Rights Monitoring, Introduction to the European System of Human Rights Protection and Promotion and Project Development and Management in the NGO Sector, which will be offered from September-December 2006.
France is to become the first European country to hold a national day of remembrance for the victims of slavery. Wednesday's (10 May) day of commemoration has been ordered by President Jacques Chirac, who says the stain of slavery on history must not be forgotten. He will attend a special ceremony in the nation's capital designating 10 May as Slavery Remembrance Day.
The World Conservation Union’s (ICUN) recently released 2006 Red List of Threatened Species reveals ongoing decline of the status of plants and animals. The number of known threatened species increased to 16,119, while the ranks of those facing extinction are joined by familiar species like the polar bear, hippopotamus and desert gazelles as well as ocean sharks, freshwater fish and Mediterranean flowers. However, the report also notes that positive action has helped the white-tailed eagle and offered a glimmer of hope to Indian vultures.
Ashoka’s Changemakers initiative is launching a global search for innovative strategies that provide high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable health solutions reaching low-income and marginalised populations around the world. These health solutions may focus on healthcare delivery, health financing, health education and disease prevention, pharmaceuticals or other key issues. The Changemakers Innovation Awards series is based on a unique ‘open source’ format by which participants compete for best solutions to pressing social issues while collaborating to advance current initiatives.
International Alert is looking for a committed and experienced Manager to provide strategic leadership to our conflict transformation programme in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This programme, which has a strong gender component, facilitates dialogue and trust-building between parties in conflict, conducts research and advocacy on conflict related issues and works with the international community in its attempts to assist countries either in or coming out of conflict.
Hind al-Hinnawy is a slight, 29-year-old Egyptian mother. She's also a household name in Egypt, thanks to a high-profile paternity case she brought in 2004 against a famous actor, Ahmed al-Fishawy, who she says is the father of her 16-month old daughter, Lina.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, has expressed their deep concern over a Bill that would introduce criminal penalties for public advocacy or associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people, as well as for relationships and marriage ceremonies between persons of the same sex. As a consequence, human rights defenders and organisations defending those rights will be at a greater risk of criminalisation.
At the creation of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) which later translated into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, many thought that Africa was in for the much awaited sustainable development and poverty reduction. Unfortunately, observers and analysts have expressed shock and disappointment over the state of Africa and her poor despite their toiling and excruciating pains to wriggle out of poverty using the instrumentality of trade.
“We call upon civil society organizations and social movements from around the world to join with us in showing their strong, united and unequivocal opposition to the completion of the World Trade Organization’s trade ‘round’, and other bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements being forced on people by governments. We are committed to campaigning together to stop these negotiations, which ignore the needs of developing countries, the peoples of the world and the environment, and promote corporate globalization. We agree to mobilize, nationally and internationally, in late April, mid May and late July, to ensure our voices are heard as governments meet for the WTO’s scheduled General Council meetings.”
Nigeria’s Police Service Commission (PSC) held its first official joint advisory committee meeting with civil society organizations on April 11, marking an important step forward in increasing police transparency. Civil society organizations including the Justice Initiative used the inaugural meeting to recommend that the PSC be authorized to investigate extrajudicial killings, torture and rape allegedly committed by police in Nigeria.
Child labour, especially in its worst forms, is in decline for the first time across the globe, the International Labour Organization (ILO) says in a new, cautiously optimistic report entitled "The end of child labour: Within reach". The ILO report also says that if the current pace of the decline were to be maintained and the global momentum to stop child labour continued, it believes child labour could feasibly be eliminated, in most of its worst forms, in 10 years.
In Ethiopia, some 12.6 million people require food aid, up from 11.3 million. Donors have pledged enough to meet about 82 percent of food needs, but only 54 percent has been delivered. Sound familiar? This alert was issued three years ago by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Guess what? Ethiopia appeared again this year on FEWS NET's list of "current emergencies," alongside Somalia,
Zimbabwe, and Chad.
Four months ago, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was fuming at the African nation of Chad for diverting oil revenues from the Chad-Cameron pipeline slated for poverty alleviation and social spending to a budget allocation for arms purchases. But now the former number two at the US Defence Department has decided that Chad, which threatened to halt its oil exports if the World Bank continued its aggressive posture, was not so wayward after all.
At a time when concerns about global warming and the need for renewable energy sources are grabbing headlines the world over, it seems particularly regrettable that communities would be afflicted by the theft of solar panels. Yet, this is precisely what is happening in rural areas of Senegal, in West Africa.
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is looking for a Deputy Director to be based at the Headquarters in New Delhi, India. CHRI is an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation working for the practical realization of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth. CHRI is an advocacy organisation, focusing on systemic human rights issues related to Access to Information and Access to Justice.
A farmer who builds gallows and has sold them to African countries with poor human rights records has been condemned by Amnesty International. David Lucas, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, said he had been selling execution equipment to countries including Zimbabwe for about 10 years. Amnesty said the export of gallows, which will be made illegal by an EC regulation in July, was "appalling".
The hundreds of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members - men, women and children - who marched for eight blocks through central Bulawayo on May 4 to the government offices at Mhlanhlandlela, calling for a reversal to crippling school fee increases of up to 1000%, have finally been released. Having completed their march, the peaceful group were beginning to disperse when riot police arrived. Initial reports suggested that approximately 200 people were arrested, including 73 children. Follow the link for the day to day details regarding the imprisonment.