Ivory Coast's main opposition parties have signed an agreement to work together in October's elections. They will not field a joint candidate against President Laurent Gbagbo but they will all back whichever of them gets the most votes in the first round. The elections are part of a deal to bring peace to Ivory Coast, which has been divided by a two-and-a-half year rebellion.

After five years in prison, Prospere Kongo's only desire is to get out alive. "Here it's like, as soon as one guy dies, the next is about to drop dead," the illiterate taxi driver said. Prospere said he was caught with two accomplices when they tried to rob a Lebanese trader at gunpoint. The three men were jailed in Dimbokro, a small town in central Cote d'Ivoire. But Prospere's mates are already dead. "They contracted some kind of skin infection and died," he said.

We are a Somali Local Organization which is non-political and non-profit making, known as Somali Human Rights Action. We work in the central zone and Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. We feel Pambazuka News is helping us particularly in the following areas: We receive all the news particularly about Africa nations and the latest highlights news which is common for all people who read Pambazuka all the time. We receive knowledge of writing in English in many different issues. There is also workshop information. We also use this reference in writing proposals, reports and letters .We try to follow all the news, particularly the Human Rights Information. We try to follow all details, but most of the time we are unable to because of the financial situation. The better part of it is that we have the information and we know that we have a chance to succeed. I cant even explain in this small letter how we feel Pambazuka News has been helping our growth as an organization.

But the only thing I can say is that Pambazuka News has been helping our growth in many ways. For example. I gave two organizations and  one friend in Dubai the contacts and the information of Pambazuka News. The organizations are also local organizations. They thanked me because they had no idea that there was anything like Pambazuka which really helped them. Pambazuka News helps by giving us more information particularly on the Human Rights programmes like workshops and contacts for donors. Pambazuka News is helping in the free information that we receive every time which is knowledgeable. Currently, our biggest problem is rent of our offices and communication costs in this year 2005 and also building capacity of our organizational staff. We hope that all we have told you will help you to help us to get donors who can help us. Your cooperation and help will be highly appreciated.

Agenda feminist journal invites abstracts and letters of interest for the fourth issue of 2005 which will focus on domestic violence. This issue forms the first in a trilogy on gender-based violence (GBV). Although gender equality is enshrined in the South African Constitution and the world has been witness to incredible policy initiatives on gender and GBV, women on the ground are yet to be affected by the progress made at political high level. Gender based violence is a violation of human rights and the GBV Trilogy will tackle it as such.

The Communication and Social Change (CSC) Award is an annual award given to an individual or organisation for contributions to the theory and/or practice of communication for social change. Major theoretical contributions, and applied communication practices that are illustrative of frontline change and long-term sustainable development will be considered for this award.

A current corruption crackdown by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has been met with cynicism by some sections of the Nigerian public, who have questioned the motives of the president. In this context Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem remembers a humourous incident involving the president, some protestors and a new passport.

A couple of years ago President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria was the chief guest at Uganda's independence celebrations. As to be expected the Nigerian high commission in Uganda held a reception for him and invited the Nigerian community in the country to lunch
with the president.

For most of my time in Uganda I was in the unusual position of being one of the 'prominent Nigerians' in the country. Even when I could not go to the country during the military dictatorship the high commission was still kind enough to consider me worthy of being invited to meet all kinds of delegations from Nigeria. Their attitude was quite different from that of the Nigerian high commission in London with which I had only public demonstration and picketing engagements with throughout the same period.

What passes for the Nigerian community in Uganda is actually mostly West African citizens resident in the country. Since Nigeria is the only West African country with diplomatic representation in East Africa and Central Africa its high commissions or embassies serve as a West African diplomatic mission. For me that is the clearest proof, if any is needed, that Pan-Africanism is common sense. It is not only desirable but cost effective, efficient and pervades all our lives consciously and unconsciously among our peoples and between our states - both deliberately but often out of necessity.

The only obstacle is our artificial states created to serve other people's interests. They are illegitimate in the lives of many Africans. They often demonstrate their presence through the numerous inconveniences they can put in the way of their citizens. Many of them are so insecure about their existence they try to proove their independence and sovereignty in everything, including declaring themselves independent of the truth!

At the Obasanjo reception there was a group of 'Nigerian Boys' (mostly serial adventurers in transit in search of greener pastures) carrying placards protesting against exorbitant fees for acquiring the then newly introduced computerised Nigerian passports and the long bureaucracy in getting them.

Obasanjo, speaking after the lunch, in a mixture of standard English laced with Yoruba accent and the more universal Nigerian Pidgin English, in the spacious grounds of the High Commissioner's residence, confronted the demonstrators directly. He assured them that he was not trying to make money for the government of Nigeria through a hike in money paid for passports. He said the hike in the fees was due to the high standards of technical design of the new passports, which cost more to produce. It was computerised with a requirement for fingerprints. All these were necessary not just to catch up with the latest technology but because according to the President "I am tired of being a 419 President".

419 is a decree passed by a military government in Nigeria meant to punish people who are engaged in advance fees fraud on contracts allegedly awarded by Nigerian governments, its agencies and parastatals. Any user of the Internet will now know that there is nothing Nigerian about these scams anymore. All kinds of fraudsters from other countries in Africa through the Middle East and other parts of the world have joined in usually claiming to be sons, daughters, wives, concubines, etc, of one big man or the other who recently died but left the putative relative the secret code to huge sums of money which he/she now wants to pass through your account!

The original Nigerian scam was straight-forward. It played on the corrupt ‘contractocracy’ (government of contractors by contractors and for contractors that the country had become). The perpetrators usually claim to have secured a huge contract from the ministry of defence, national oil parastatals or a big person in the central bank. They will then quote fantastic figures to a recent contract that they
have secured. However there will always be a snag, some cogs in the greasy wheel that have to be oiled. Someone needs to be 'given something' so that the monies can be released quickly. That is where, if you are a bent greedy person yourself, you will be roped in. They will suggest you help with x amount of money to speed up the process and bingo, you can laugh your way to the bank.

Obasanjo was candid with his audience and explained how he had met two young men in Yola prison - where he was imprisoned by Abacha - who had given him tutorials on how 419 worked. He always also expressed his indignation at being informed of Nigerians in prisons in very distant shores he had traveled to. Therefore the computerized passport was part of the government's strategy to control the access to the passports which were previously available to the highest bidder. I am not sure if computerisation has changed anything. The President believed that the new passports were difficult to forge.

Trying to be more Catholic than his Pope, the high commissioner went further than his boss by stating that the new passport was "impossible to forge". In the crude frankness that Obasanjo is famous for he looked at his Uganda representative with bemusement that made all of us listening laugh. He retorted: "Mr Ambassador, it is difficult but not impossible - nothing is impossible for a Nigerian.” Even the placard bearing demonstrators fell about laughing and threw away their placards. Obasanjo was being realistic about the ingenuity and the negative creativity of his compatriots, but still determined to be one step up fighting the corruption (perpetrated by a few) that has become a bye word for the country.

His current anti corruption crusade that has already claimed two ministers and also the dismissal of the inspector general of police recently are part of this war against corruption. It may not end corruption but hopefully bring about some fear and sense of shame that may make the Nigerian elite to think twice before plunging into the national treasury. It is a long way from reversing the culture of graft in public office but the spectacle of seeing the former inspector of police in handcuffs being matched into a courthouse may send signals that no one is untouchable.

This week another trial began of the former federal minister for education, Prof. Fabian Osuji (definitely no connection with the more noble British Fabian Socialists), the former president of the senate (the third in line in the country) and other top officials of the education ministry and some national legislators. The minister had allegedly bribed members of a subcommittee of the national assembly in order to get his ministry's budget passed without alteration.

Many Nigerians are very cynical about the trials, the timing and the motives of their president. I am no admirer of Obasanjo and his “I-know all” executive insecurities but the baby and the birth water should be separated. The fact that all thieves may not be caught should not mean that those caught should not be punished. The law may not catch up with all lawbreakers but there must be certainty that those caught will be punished according to the law without any fear or favour.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa. ([email protected] or [email][email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Global banking group Barclays has just paid 33 billion rand (£2.9 billion or $5.5 billion) for a controlling stake in South African bank Absa, a cash injection that supporters of the deal have hailed as good news for Africa’s largest economy. Critics have slammed the deal as likely to benefit mainly foreign shareholders and lobby group Jubilee South Africa have called for Barclays to pay reparations for doing business with the apartheid regime. In the context of overwhelming corporate power devoid of ethics and based on the primacy of profits, this article charts the strong moral case to be made for reparations from corporations who cause suffering because of their actions.

Let's not kid ourselves. This world's socio-economic engine runs on capitalism, and corporations are driving the bus. Ever since the end of the Second World War, the power of transnational corporations has been in the ascendancy while that of organised labour, civil society, and the State has declined.

This rise - the spreading reach of financiers and businessmen into every corner of the globe, with no place free from a Coca-Cola sign and a marketing team - of corporate power in the latter half of the 20th Century has been well documented, starting with Dwight Eisenhower's prophetic warning in 1961 about the domination of America by an military-industrial complex. The fact that Eisenhower only warned the American people after serving as President hints at, even back then, the dark power of corporations to muzzle 'elected' politicians. Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and others have since charted the rise of the corporate (and branded) sun, an ascent yet to reach its apex.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent end of an alternative to Yankee-style capitalism - known for its neo-liberal, trickle-down theories of economic nirvana and pushed, punted and rammed home by IMF and World Bank bureaucrats - marked the beginning of a sustained process of hyper-consolidation of corporate power and the total integration of each local economy into one financial system. We've noted and tagged this process. We've given it a name, globalization.

And it is a process accountable only to a specific minority, the shareholders of the transnational corporations that are leading the global economy. Shareholders, it might be pointed out, are almost always interested in one thing, the maximisation of profit in the shortest period of time possible.

The 1990s saw not only the opening of virgin markets in Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere, but also the increasing use of stock options as an incentive for corporate management. Whether by design or by accident, stock options for management has resulted in an alignment of the interests of corporate brass and of shareholders -profit. Neither God nor glory factors into today's equation. The days of the wise chairman of the board, the old man who had built the company up from two pots and a piece of string, looking after the community that had spawned his company are lost in legend and myth. At most, modern transnational corporations have only the faintest of ties to geographical locations or people. They have become divorced from communities, economically, politically and ethically.

An ethical transnational corporation is an oxymoron. When risk analysts sit down at conference tables, the end result of any corporate action is assessed according to profitability factors. If it does not make a profit (or a small profit at high risk), an action is deemed unworthy of pursuit. The converse is also true; highly profitable actions at the lowest possible risk are extremely attractive. The ethical component of an action is not considered, and, if it is, it is usually weighed in as a risk factor (i.e. the bad press and damage to a brand that an unethical action (like using sweatshop labour) can cause). In all cases, the determining factor is profit.

Not all organisations or groups of human beings act in this manner. In fact, most don't. The ethical considerations of actions are at the fundamentals of a lot of decision-making. For example, societies often try to build legal codes on their moral codes. Aristotelian ethics and politics are quite explicit on this point; the reason behind legislation is to make men and women moral. At the very least, it is hoped that laws reflect society's morals (what those morals are is at the heart of most major disputes within communities), although this is often subverted by the vested interests of politicians and their backers.

Philosophers and religious leaders for millennia have been promoting the primacy of morals; one should do A because A is the morally correct thing to do. While it is very hard to implement morally right actions all of the time, most people make an honest attempt at a near instinctive level.

Transnational corporations do not subscribe to this primacy of morals. They believe in the primacy of profits, and that is why we see, over and over again, transnational corporations working with immoral regimes and engaged in shady practises. From no-bid contracts in Iraq, to oil for the Burmese junta and its tanks, to sweatshops in Central America stitching branded sneakers together for First World teenagers, corporations are engaged in immoral activities, working in collusion with unethical parties. Why? Because it is profitable to do so.

The abolition of transnational corporations is not an achievable goal in the short or even medium-term. Not only will this not occur any time soon, the likely outcome of globalization is, ironically enough, the withering away of the State. The signs are in contracts and budgets across the world. Governments have been increasingly outsourcing their traditional activities - those actions which seek to achieve the public good - to corporations; social services, such as healthcare and rubbish collection, have been outsourced to private companies on the economic argument that the private sector is more efficient (read cost-effective) than the State. Even the core of the State and its monopoly on legitimate force, is slowly being outsourced. The cutting edge of penal theory deals with how best to outsource the prison system, in its entirety, to private firms that transport, house and discipline inmates. The world's most powerful military moves these days with a critical baggage train of private companies that do everything from transport and cooking of food, to maintenance of military equipment, to the provision of ‘security consultants’.

Citizen pay taxes in return for protection and various social goods (healthcare, education, etc.) from the State. The State now pays the private sector to deliver these social goods and protective services. Sooner or later, someone will decide to cut the middleman out of this equation.

Further, governments are rapidly losing the ability to set their own economic policies, except within pre-determined limits. Economic policies that are unfriendly to corporations (living wage, perhaps) can provoke massive capital flight in the short-term and disinvestment in the longer-term. As many jobs have become tied (often through contractors and other such middlemen) to the activities of corporations, capital flight and disinvestment means job losses and, possibly, economic collapse. This economic threat has resulted in countries throughout the developing world scrambling over each other to provide the cheapest labour with the kindest corporate tax system. This is George Monbiot's infamous race to the bottom, and it is a direct result of the economic power that corporations hold over governments. In attempts to change the behaviour of corporations, civil society and organised labour are often lashed with a variant of this argument; if you don't stop criticising corporation X, it will leave these shores, the global business community will lose confidence, foreign investment will dry up, and the whole country will descend into an economic crisis of dust bowl proportions.

Corporations, on this analysis, are entities 1) with a overriding concern for the maximisation of profit in shortest possible time frame, 2) that do not believe in the primacy of morals, and 3) are so exceedingly powerful that it is possible to conceive of them replacing the State, let alone influencing government policy.

Enter the issue of reparations.

The concept of reparations is rather simple. It states that if damage (suffering) occurred because of an entity's actions, that entity should pay reparations to those who suffered. Various civil society groups across the globe have applied this concept in several different contexts: Creditor countries should pay reparations for imposing odious and crippling debt on debtor nations. Colonial powers should pay reparations for colonialism, slavery, plundering of national wealth, etc.. Polluters should pay reparations to those who suffered from their pollution (for example, victims of groundwater contamination). The concept of reparations is not an economic or political concept; it is a moral concept; the perpetrator of suffering inflicted on others needs to make amends. This is a basic moral precept: If you do something wrong, take responsibility and, if possible, try to correct the situation.

The case for reparations from corporations has many angles, but one of the most current is that corporations must pay reparations for their support (direct or indirect) of illegitimate regimes. The case is, perhaps, strongest in terms of direct support.

Corporations that support illegitimate regimes are committing fairly serious moral violations. For example, an oil company pays royalties to a military dictatorship. The revenue from these royalties is then used to purchase guns and tanks, which are then used to suppress the population. Why is this an example of a moral violation? After all, the corporation wasn't (via its employees) doing the actual suppressing, and it was doing nothing illegal. It was operating within the law of a sovereign nation.

The latter objection falls away quite quickly. The case for reparations is a moral case, and is independent of the law. Throughout history, including the modern era, there have been a variety of laws that make some of the most immoral acts legal; the Apartheid system was one such legal framework. The concept of reparations relies on a primacy of morals, not that of law.

It is the former objection that has more strength, and it is here that the relative power of corporations comes in. Countries cannot easily force transnational corporations to purchase a particular bond. Countries, especially in the developing world, have a hard time telling transnational corporations what to do in general. Corporations can move domiciles, threaten to disinvest, choose not to deal with illegitimate regimes. When corporations deal with illegitimate regimes that commit human rights abuses, they do so willingly and knowingly. They are like gun stores that sell weapons to the enraged husbands of cheating wives; there's only one reason why such individuals want to buy 9mm pistols and fistfuls of hollow-point rounds; there's only one reason why the South African Defence Force issued bonds in 1976.

Corporations that continue to support illegitimate regimes do so in full knowledge of the ramifications of their support, and do so despite having the ability to do otherwise. And, for this, they must pay. This demand for reparations from corporations is a part of wider attempts worldwide to impose morality on corporations. This will be resisted, mostly due to their non-acceptance of the primacy of morals; business, as they are fond of telling us, is war, and all's fair in love and war.

They are wrong. This world does not belong to them. It does not move according to the dictates of currency traders in New York, London and Tokyo. This is our world. It is for all human beings equally, and what makes us special is not that we crawled to the top of the food chain or that we can travel to the moon and back again or that we can bet on the futures market. What makes us special is that we are the only form of life we know of that can differentiate between good and bad, between the virtuous and the wicked, and then act accordingly. Without this, we would be nothing more than a bunch of particularly vicious apes. The belief that human inventions such as corporations and capital are different, are immune to moral judgment and action, is the great public relations trick of our times.

* Tristen Taylor is the Apartheid Debt and Reparations Campaign Coordinator at Jubilee South Africa, which is currently embroiled in a campaign to force Barclays National Bank Ltd to address and pay reparations for its Apartheid past. The views in the article above are his and are not necessarily those of Jubilee South Africa.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Fahamu has launched an SMS/text message service to support the Africa leg of mobilisation for the Global Campaign Against Poverty (GCAP).

The function will be available for use by the campaign in two ways. Firstly, users of mobile/cell phones will be able to subscribe to a free service that will send information about the GCAP campaign to their phones by SMS/text message. Secondly, users will be encouraged to send messages to a number voicing their support for debt cancellation, one of the key demands of the GCAP campaign.

1. SMS alert service

Mobile phone/cell phone users can sign up for a free SMS information service that will advise them on GCAP campaign progress, key events and mobilisation activities.

With the widespread use of mobile/cell phones across Africa, the service will enable GCAP campaign partners to communicate effectively with their constituencies and members of the public, keeping them up to date about the GCAP campaign throughout activities in 2005.

Those wishing to subscribe to this service can send a SMS/text message to

+27 82 904 3425

with subscribe in the body of their message. Other ways of subscribing include sending an email to [email protected] or by visiting the website www.gcapsms.org

Country partners will be encouraged to collect mobile/cell phone numbers for subscription to the list and send them to [email protected] Once countries have collected 500 or more numbers they will be able to send GCAP information updates to their own SMS country list, enabling them to send more specific new about country activities and mobilisation. Campaign partners are encouraged to include SMS details in their activities.

2. Sending messages in support of the campaign

Campaign partners and members of the public are further encouraged to voice their support for debt cancellation by sending a message to +27 82 904 3425 with No to Debt in the body of the message. To send a message, simply enter the number in your mobile/cell phone, type No to Debt and then send the message. The messages will be displayed on the website www.gcapsms.org and displayed at forums taking place during 2005, helping to demonstrate overwhelming support from Africa for debt cancellation.
* Please note that senders of messages will be charged the once-off fee their particular network provider levies for sending SMS/text messages. Other than this there are NO hidden costs. While we have examined ways to eliminate the cost to users of even sending this one message, these have not yet been successful. We hope that mobile phone/cell phone users will feel that the benefits of supporting this campaign and voicing their opinion outweighs the small cost involved.

This initiative is managed by Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice
http://www.fahamu.org/

With the outflow of Togolese fleeing disputes over presidential elections slowing significantly, the United Nations refugee and food distribution agencies are making sure that host families in neighbouring Benin and Ghana can bear the burden of the nearly 31,000 refugees they have taken in.

From farm to plate, the modern food system relies heavily on cheap oil. Threats to our oil supply are also threats to our food supply. As food undergoes more processing and travels farther, the food system consumes ever more energy each year. The U.S. food system uses over 10 quadrillion Btu (10,551 quadrillion Joules) of energy each year, as much as France's total annual energy consumption. Growing food accounts for only one fifth of this. The other four fifths is used to move, process, package, sell, and store food after it leaves the farm. Some 28 percent of energy used in agriculture goes to fertilizer manufacturing, 7 percent goes to irrigation, and 34 percent is consumed as diesel and gasoline by farm vehicles used to plant, till, and harvest crops.

Not far from scenes of war and conflict, which arise from the civil unrest that currently divides Côte d’Ivoire, children in Abobo primary school in the capital city of Abidjan are learning about peace. Pupils in a class taught by Florence Abo Kossia have just written words of peace on their slates. ‘Forgiveness’, ‘reconciliation’, and ‘peace’ are just a few. The pupils eagerly await their teacher’s approval.

The potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to train and educate communities that have limited or no access to formal education channels was the focus of an international conference at UNESCO Headquarters, and broadcast live on the internet, from 11 to 13 May. The conference, "ICT for Capacity-Building: Critical Success Factors" involved local leaders, community educators and experts in learning from all continents, from as far afield as Brazil, Afghanistan, Senegal and Jordan.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor has criticised tertiary education institutions for focusing on claiming funding without making enough effort to ensure that students passed. SA spent R1,5bn a year - about half of the state's higher education subsidy - on students who dropped out of study, Pandor said on Friday.

Uganda's external debt increased over the last ten years from $3 billion in 1994 to $4.5 billion in 2004. According to a document from Uganda Debt Network (UDN) released on Monday, the indebtedness affects Uganda's development and expenditure for essential services. "The odious debt is hampering our rate of development and expenditure on essential services for poverty-reducing sectors such as primary education, primary health care, water and sanitation, agricultural extension and rural roads," the document says.

South African officials are due to provide technical and financial aid to public service institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over a three-year period, a government minister said on Tuesday. The South African experts would also help with anti-corruption measures, and the setting up of a national public administration training institute.

Lusaka High Court judge Christopher Mushabati has ordered the immediate trial of former President Frederick Chiluba and two others without delay. Judge Mushabati made the order when he dismissed a constitutional reference from Chiluba's lawyers Simeza Sangwa and Associates that had asked the High Court to determine whether they could be availed with the documents that the prosecution intends to use during trial in an effort to prepare their clients' defence.

This paper summarises the findings of a comparative research project on the contribution of civil society organisations to democratisation in Africa. Drawing primarily on empirical case studies of civil society organisations in South Africa and Uganda, and related material from Ghana, the research examines their ability to influence government policy and legislation through tangible shifts in policy and legislative priorities and their implementation, and to widen the opportunities available to citizens to participate in public affairs, promoting a culture of accountability and challenging the power of the state to dominate decision-making.

Mozambique has failed to meet almost any of its targets for governance, justice or corruption control, but its performance over the past year was still "satisfactory", according to a joint donor-government statement issued Thursday 12 May. But speaking for donors, Swiss ambassador Adrian Hadorn said that the government would have to act on rights and on corruption if it expected to continue to maintain donor confidence. An accompanying independent report was highly critical of donor performance. It also criticised the government for being "passive", for failing to provide leadership, and for being subservient to donors. Read more details in the Mozambique Bulletin, available by clicking on the link below.

A recent statement by Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi that it was ”no longer necessary” for the country to establish a commission to investigate atrocities committed under previous governments was greeted with both outrage and delight. The promise to set up such a body, modeled on South Africa's internationally acclaimed inquiry into rights abuses that occurred during apartheid, was one of the key pledges made during the current head of state's campaign for office. President Mwai Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) were elected to power in December 2002.

Riot police in Zambia fired tear gas on Monday night at hundreds of students from the country's biggest university who stoned vehicles and barricaded main roads to protest the government's refusal to increase their allowances. Students from the University of Zambia battled police for over three hours before they were forced back to their campus, a law enforcement spokesperson said.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) is a regional specialized human rights organization. It was established in 1994. The CIHRS enjoys a special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It also has an observatory status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The CIHRS is also a member to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX).

Participatory development has been taken up enthusiastically by donors and governments alike. But their interpretation of participation as applied to development projects is some way from its origins in radical politics. Is it possible to achieve genuine participation through an emphasis on consensus and technical targets while ignoring patterns of local power and domination?

A campaign to rid African countries of "insult laws" - laws ostensibly intended to protect the dignity and reputation of people in high office, but which are actually used to protect presidents, parliamentarians and in varying degrees other state officials from scrutiny of their conduct in office - was launched on World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

Visit http://www.survivorsrightsinternational.org/newsletters/SRI_May05_news.pdf for the May edition of Survivors' Rights International, which examines the role of the Coltan trade in fueling the conflict in the DRC.

In a continent where at best 20% of the continent has access to electricity, new forms of technology that require this kind of power can seem largely irrelevant. Battery technology has not advanced as fast as other areas of technology. Then along comes a cheap, hand-held device from Freeplay (the people who made the self-winding radios) that can be used to charge a mobile. Not only is it useful for those areas where there's little coverage but it also offers Africa's many street vendors another stream of income. Read the full story at Balancing Act.

Strapped for cash, Ethiopians in the capital Addis Ababa have discovered a new way of campaigning for elections - the text message. Mobile phones are a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia, one of the least developed countries in the world, only emerging in cities and towns in the past five years.

The EDGE Institute and SWOP, in association with Constitution Hill, take pleasure in inviting you to attend the fifth public seminar in the series "Defining the public interest in South Africa". The aim of the series is to create a space in Johannesburg where an open and informed process of public engagement can take place around key political, social and economic issues facing South Africa in the global context.

The course will endeavour to bring pertinent civil and political rights issues to the fore. It will be an opportunity for participants from the different backgrounds and countries of southern Africa to share information and experiences. At the same time study visits will be carried out and presentations and panel discussions by different regional and international experts will be conducted.

Reviewed by: Christina Clark

This CD-Rom is intended to be a comprehensive training package on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It is designed for facilitators conducting CRC training workshops for a wide variety of audiences, including policy-makers, NGO support staff, youth workers, early years workers, teachers, social workers, and children and young people. Divided into four sections, the CD-Rom contains information, factsheets and innovative group exercises exploring the background to the CRC, content of the Convention, implementation of the CRC's key provisions, and working with the Convention in policy and practice.

The real strength of this CD-rom lies in its wealth of suggestions for participatory activities (39 in all), which attempt to make the Convention 'real' to a wide variety of audiences. As its title implies, this is a training kit -- i.e. it provides useful resources, including overhead transparencies, hand-outs and suggestions and materials for group exercises in training workshops. It also contains sample programmes, suggesting factsheets and exercises for the facilitator to use, depending on the intended audience and the time available. While some basic guidelines on running a workshop are provided, facilitators are expected to have training expertise and a basic familiarity with children's rights.

All of the training resources are provided in PDF format using Acrobat reader. While internal links directing the user to documents referred to in the text facilitate navigation, the CD-Rom may prove difficult to use for those with limited computer skills. Moreover, since materials are provided in electronic format, users must have access to a printer to prepare for group sessions and activities.

Key documents relating to child rights (such as the text of the CRC) are included in each section. In addition, there is a further resources section, which contains a comprehensive list of websites, as well as an annotated bibliography of key documents organised by subject. However, the latter does not include PDFs of, or internet links to, these documents, so some users, particularly those in developing countries, may have difficulty accessing them. Moreover, the resource section does not include PDFs of the support materials included throughout the course, so users have to go back to the relevant sections to find these resource materials.

Given the technological constraints noted above, as well as the £19.99 price tag, the CD-Rom seems to be most appropriate for international NGOs looking for training resources to promote understanding and awareness of the CRC amongst their staff, stakeholders and beneficiaries. Teachers and childcare professionals could also benefit from the resources and activities provided for group work with children and young people. However, since the CD-Rom is a training kit aimed at group facilitators, it is not appropriate for individuals seeking a course on child rights.

Indeed, this kit is not about child rights in general, but rather specifically aimed at the key provisions of one legal document, the CRC. While some of the preliminary sections provide context to the CRC's development and relate it to broad human rights treaties, the materials do not really interrogate and problematise the principles and philosophy behind the CRC. For example, discussions of cultural relativism do not emerge in the key resource materials and are only brought out indirectly in certain group activities, which not all facilitators may actually use.

In sum, this CD-Rom sets out to do exactly what the title suggests: it provides comprehensive training materials specifically on the provisions and implementation of the UN CRC. It therefore fulfils a necessary and useful purpose, but users should not expect it to move beyond the goals and uses the authors intended.

Information on how to order the CD-Rom is available on Save the Children's website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=2038...

The main opposition parties in Togo have agreed to meet President Faure Gnassingbe at a reconciliation summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss their possible participation in a government of national unity. Yaovi Agboyibo, the coordinator of the six-party alliance, which opposed Gnassingbe in last month's presidential elections, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that opposition leaders would attend the Abuja meeting, convened by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current chairman of the African Union.

A pioneering community radio station in Zimbabwe has been refused a licence by the country's broadcasting authority, but Bulawayo-based Radio Dialogue has vowed to continue its work. The station was established in Zimbabwe's second city in 2001 but, without a licence, Radio Dialogue has been unable to transmit its programming.

The Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly (WHA) is set to consider several critical health issues next week. The WHA, comprised of the World Health Organization's (WHO) 192 Member States, is the supreme decision-making body for WHO and its main function is to determine the policies of the Organization. This year's meeting takes place from 16-25 May. The Assembly will review the proposed programme budget for 2006-2007, and consider more than a dozen draft resolutions on issues including cancer prevention and control, health action in crises, tuberculosis, malaria, pandemic influenza preparedness and response, global immunization and social health insurance. The Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly (WHA) is set to consider several critical health issues next week. The WHA, comprised of the World Health Organization's (WHO) 192 Member States, is the supreme decision-making body for WHO and its main function is to determine the policies of the Organization. This year's meeting takes place from 16-25 May. The Assembly will review the proposed programme budget for 2006-2007, and consider more than a dozen draft resolutions on issues including cancer prevention and control, health action in crises, tuberculosis, malaria, pandemic influenza preparedness and response, global immunization and social health insurance.

Biodiversity within inland water ecosystems in Eastern Africa is both highly diverse and of great regional importance to livelihoods and economies. However, development activities are not always compatible with the conservation of this diversity and it is poorly represented in the development planning process. This document provides the background, assessment methodology, results, and conclusions and discussions on the IUCN/SSC Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment Programme, which aimed to eliminate the information bottleneck for effective biodiversity conservation and livelihood protection in the inland waters of Eastern Africa.

The Ugandan government must prosecute perpetrators of torture, said Human Rights Watch and the Ugandan-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiative this week. Last week during its session in Geneva, the United Nations Committee Against Torture reviewed Uganda's initial report. In its report, the Ugandan government explained measures it has taken against torture to comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On Friday this week, the U.N. committee is scheduled to publish its conclusions and recommendations to Uganda.

A new socially responsible tourism has recently emerged out of a widening and acute concern for the environment. Known variously as "ecotourism," "new tourism," "socially responsible tourism," etc., huge claims are made for this new model of tourism development. Garth Allen and Frank Brennan discuss these claims and explore the experience of three tourist areas in South Africa. Under the new political dispensation in South Africa, conservation authorities are now obliged to utilize their natural resources and expertise in local sustainable development, and socially responsible tourism has been identified as an important option by the national government. The South African experience thus provides an important and rare view of how the "new tourism" works in practice.

In the first week of May, provincial government officials barred South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television journalists and a camera crew from entering the Limpopo provincial legislature to report on the Lebowakgomo government's budget vote. They were allegedly thrown out after refusing to leave their cameras at the door. Two weeks earlier, Premier Sello Moloto's political adviser Jack Mokobi reportedly stormed into the SABC offices in Polokwane to complain about the "harsh" manner in which politicians were interviewed and to demand that Thobela FM's Willie Mosoma be removed from his post as current affairs presenter. Mokobi allegedly accused Mosoma of being biased against politicians from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that the biweekly newspaper The Independent, which lost its printing press in an unsolved arson in April 2004, has been forced to stopped publishing entirely after its printing arrangement with the private Daily Observer was abruptly terminated. The Independent has not published since May 6 and is still looking for an alternative way to print, according to Editor Musa Saidykhan. Other Gambian printing and publishing outlets have refused the paper's requests for a contract.

This brief study looks at girls' vulnerability to violence in prison and other forms of detention. The study identifies key issues of concern including: the widespread practice of detaining girls with adults, and their vulnerability to violence in this situation; and, the lack of attention paid to the particular needs of girls in prison policies, procedures and facilities, for example in relation to decisions on pre-trial detention, opportunities for education and employment, healthcare and family contact.

Government will ensure that all barriers against women's participation in national affairs are removed to enhance economic development, Gender In Development Division (GIDD) acting Permanent Secretary Lawrence Musonda has said. Dr Musonda said Government was aware that women played a critical role in various socio-economic activities of the nation, hence its resolve to redress gender imbalances in the productive sectors.

The piece on the life of one of third world's greatest thinkers Walter Rodney is salutary. His work: 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' provides a radical insight to the objective realities of the African predicament. Rodney's contemporaries  who provided relevant views of Africa are worthy of emulation. Their articles in the 'Review of African Political Economy' and other Journals made immense contributions to scholarship. However, these generations of scholars are fast leaving the stage; the problem is: who and where are the new generation of scholars to continue with their perspective? I will challenge Rodney's contemporaries still alive to begin to groom new scholars that will be their heirs. Understandably, structural adjustment policies in Africa have wrecked havoc on African universities and the dependency school, but proponents of the latter would have to do more to keep their ideas alive. Walter Rodney's idea is alive and should be a compulsory reading for all Africans at high school and undergraduate levels.

The Central Regional Director of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Frank Adoba last Thursday urged the media to do more to eradicate corruption, by exposing corrupt public officials. He observed that corruption was widespread and shrouded in various forms, from misappropriation, misapplication and embezzlement of funds.

Revelations of a covert rendezvous in Washington between top CIA officials and the head of Sudan's secret police have starkly exposed just how hollow and hypocritical are the US administration's expressions of concern for the plight of millions of Darfuri peasants, who have been systematically targeted by Sudan's rulers in a vicious 26-month-long campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass murder. Ken Silverstein, writing in the April 29 Los Angeles Times, reported that US government officials revealed to him that, in the previous week, "the CIA sent an executive jet ... to ferry the chief of Sudan's intelligence agency [General Salah Abdallah Gosh] to Washington for secret meetings sealing Khartoum's sensitive and previously veiled partnership with the administration".

Pact Inc., with funding from the U.S. Government through the USAID Regional HIV/AIDS Office (RHAP) in South Africa, is pleased to announce the availability of funds to strengthen the civil sector response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Lesotho. Pact Inc. will make funds available for HIV/AIDS projects in Lesotho and to assist with providing capacity-building to the civil sector and participating organizations.

This paper from ActionAid International states that while UK supermarket giant Tesco has commitments to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and an Ethical Trading Initiative baseline code, workers on South African farms supplying the company are paid below the minimum wage, are exposed to pesticides, suffer from food insecurity and are trapped in dismal housing. Action Aid calls for the adoption of new standards at the UN (the UN Human Rights Norms for Business) to establish legal obligations for companies to respect and secure the human rights of all workers within a company's sphere of influence.

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT), in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), is hosting a Thetha on 24 May 2005 to discuss whether Southern African organisations should use Creative Commons to licence the information that they produce. The Thetha will occur in the same week (25-27 May) as the launch of Creative Commons South Africa and an international conference hosted by the Link Centre entitled "Commons-sense: Towards an African Digital Information Commons". Refer to www.commons-sense.org for more information.

This timely and instructive book by Patrick Bond, a radical academic based in South Africa, shows that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair's current effort to project themselves as the saviours of the world's poor is far from unique. The South African president and fellow Third Way traveller Thabo Mbeki has also been donning the garb of global justice in order to repackage neo-liberalism as the solution to world poverty.

A study of a pilot project using mobile phones for healthcare in Africa has found that technology works, but implementation, management and human factors are real hurdles. Bridges.org conducted an in-depth investigation of a pilot project by the Cape Town Health Directorate that tested innovative uses of mobile phone technology to improve the treatment of Tuberculosis (TB) in its clinics. The treatment of TB in Cape Town offers a good setting to explore whether and how mobile phones can be used in healthcare.