PAMBAZUKA NEWS 190: Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A pre-condition for health and food security
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 190: Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A pre-condition for health and food security
Close your eyes. Imagine a farmer working in a field, back bending, arms swinging up above the head and then down towards the earth as a hoe slices into the ground. In your mind, what is the gender of the farmer? If the image is of a man, you’d probably be wrong. Male stereotypes dominate the world of farming, but it is women who account for 70-80 percent of household food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite women being the base of food security in African countries, their role has in the past been ignored by policy makers. The result is that gender inequalities have gone unchecked, conspiring against food security for women and preventing them from playing a fulfilled role in the food security situations of their communities.
The consequences of food insecurity are dire. Lack of food means poorer nutrition for mothers and their children and thus a deteriorating health situation. It leads to the breakdown of communities and family structures, as families are forced to migrate in search of livelihoods. Food insecurity may force women into prostitution and lead to a rise in child trafficking.
Many factors conspire against food security for women. Discrimination against women in laws governing access to land is one of these factors. According to a 1995 International Food Policy Research Institute paper, although land laws vary widely, some religious laws forbid female land ownership. When civil law does give women the right to inherit land, local custom may rule otherwise. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where women have prime responsibility for food production, they are generally limited to user rights to land, and then only with the consent of a male relative. The consequence is that women have limited economic choice and are exposed to homelessness, poverty and violence. (Sources and further reading: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2004/38247/print_friendly_version.html; http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/fps/fps21.htm)
Damaging economic policies cause or exacerbate gender inequality and food insecurity. While trade agreements are presented as gender-neutral, trade and economic policies are formulated within a social context that enables or disables women to gain access to and control over productive resources, according to a 2002 Aprodev conference. “Failure of decision makers to recognize the central role of women in food production and the nutritional well being of their families and communities and the impact of trade liberalization has led to the gradual erosion of the prime source of food security and sustainable development,” said the conference report. Marginalisation of small-scale farmers accentuates gender inequalities by pushing poor and women farmers into the background and reducing their market space. “People everywhere lose control over their means of survival, and become dependent on world market forces of trade and finance. They are excluded from progress, by being first integrated into the world market and then alienated from their means of survival,” states the Aprodev report.
(Source and further reading: http://www.aprodev.net/files/gender/2002GOODConf.pdf)
A devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic has accentuated a food security crisis, with food production reduced by up to 60 per cent in some cases because women's time and energy turns to caring for HIV/AIDS-infected family members. HIV/AIDS, food security and poverty are linked. The combination makes people poorer because they can’t work due to sickness and thus lose income. Expenses for medical bills and related costs skyrocket. Malnutrition resulting from poverty enhances the onset of progression to full blown AIDS. In the worst situations there is population displacement and increased sexual violence.
(Sources and further reading: http://www.odi.org.uk/Food-Security-Forum/docs/Shumba%20Ja03.pdf; http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000118/page5.php)
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 formally recognised the right to food as a basic right. More recently, the international community has identified the reduction of poverty and hunger as crucial for development goals. At the 1996 World Food Summit, reducing hunger and food insecurity was declared an essential part of the international development agenda. Leaders from 185 countries and the European Community reaffirmed, in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, "the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger." They further pledged to cut the number of the world's hungry people in half by 2015.
In 1999 the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, in the text of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights stated that the right to food is realized "when every man, woman, and child, alone or in community with others, [has] physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement." (Source and further reading: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib29.pdf)
In Africa, Article 15 of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa specifically recognises the right of women to food security. The article places an obligation on states to ensure that all women have the right to nutritious and adequate food by providing women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land and the means of producing nutritious food. States are further obliged to establish adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security.
How do the ideals and declarations translate into food on the table? Like the image of the farmer doing backbreaking work with a hoe, it requires hard work of a different kind. Political commitment, consultations with communities, shared decision making, transparency and education are some of the criteria needed to make food security a reality and decrease the estimated 800 million people globally who are undernourished and food insecure. But all of this will in itself be useless unless there is recognition of the damaging role that factors like unfair trade terms and high debt burdens play in militating against food security.
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It was with good reason that Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi highlighted the poor state of women’s health care in Africa at a conference on women’s reproductive and sexual health rights in 2003.
Referring to what he called an “unfortunate truth”, Mocumbi said: “Across our continent the health status of women remains precarious and in many instances is worsening, not only because of HIV but also because of the many unacceptable inequalities that exist in women’s health, the limited choices that are made available to women and finally, the lack of accountability for their health.” (First conference dedicated to African Women’s Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights, Johannesburg, South Africa February 4 – 7, 2003, www.amanitare.org/)
In making his statement, Mocumbi would have considered the statistic that 55% of adults with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa are women. Women with HIV/AIDS are less economically secure and are often deprived of their rights to housing, property, inheritance and access to adequate health services. Mocumbi would have been aware that 90 million African women and girls are victims of female circumcision and other forms of female genital mutilation. He would have known that many countries in Africa have restrictive abortion policies, with 11 000 unsafe abortions taking place every day. Apart from these facts, he would have known that women’s rights suffer in the many situations of conflict on the continent. Lastly, he would have known that decades of market reforms and structural adjustment policies in Africa have often marginalised women and had a detrimental impact on their access to health care.
So where does the idea of these rights come from? And how is the idea of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights supposed to improve the situation of women? According to a history of sexual and reproductive health rights on www.choike.org, a website that functions as a portal for civil society worldwide, the term "reproductive rights" first arose during an International Meeting on Women and Health in Amsterdam (1984) which was seen as the starting point of efforts by women to expand the scope of the concept of human rights.
At the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, participant States agreed to regard any violation of the specific rights of women as a human rights violation. In the Programme of Action of The Cairo Conference in 1994, the acknowledgement of rights enjoyed or denied inside the home won increasing ground in the conception of human rights. It was also established that post-abortion counselling, education and family planning services should be established. The Programme of Action further called on governments to regard unsafe abortions as a major public health concern, improve family planning services to avoid abortions, provide health care and guidance for women who have unwanted pregnancies, and urge the implementation of policies and changes in the approach to abortion.
The Beijing platform for action in 1995 was the most comprehensive document produced by a United Nations conference on the issue of women's rights, as it incorporated the achievements of previous conferences and treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), and the Vienna Declaration. It reaffirmed the definitions adopted at Cairo. The Third Special Session of the UN General Assembly, known as "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace in the 21st Century", took stock of the advances made in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action's recommendations (WPA or Beijing + 5).
On a regional level, the Protocol on Women's Rights in Africa adopted by the African Union in Maputo in 2003 affirms state responsibility to protect sexual and reproductive health and reproductive choice, and to combat violence against women and discriminatory cultural norms. The Protocol requires states to prohibit and condemn female genital mutilation, while women and men must have equal rights in relation to marriage. The reproductive rights of women must be protected and abortion provided in certain circumstances. Under the Protocol, women must be guaranteed the right to protection against sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
This international and regional human rights framework is not sufficient in itself to protect the sexual and reproductive health rights of women. In order to be effective many things need to happen. Laws have to be passed by individual countries so that commitments to international treaties can be enforced. These laws in turn have to be the subject of public awareness and education campaigns so that they are popularized. This education does not only apply to making women aware of their rights, but also involves educating men to treat women as equals. Resources will therefore have to be prioritized for women’s sexual and reproductive health and health services will need to be equipped to be able to deal with the increased needs of their populations and to incorporate a reproductive rights perspective into their daily functioning. Perhaps most importantly, the protections offered to protect rights must be enforced. (Source and further reading: http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/reprights/needs.htm)
Sadly, the kind of political commitment needed for this kind of action is completely lacking in many countries. Women continue to be treated as unequals in society. In recent years the attitude of the Bush Administration has threatened to erode the gains that the reproductive rights movement has made over the last two decades. A conservative, fundamentalist Christian element in the US has dictated that the US will withhold funds from organizations around the world who are involved in providing abortion services, dealing a blow to the funding of reproductive health services in developing countries.
Governments who haven’t taken the sexual and reproductive health rights of women seriously should wake up. Taking these rights seriously will lead to healthier populations and contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS. It will reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable development. It makes sense. And besides, in future years, women may well have a case for reparations against their governments and the male population at large for the continued violation of their basic human rights. Perhaps its a case that should be made.
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References and further reading:
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26492
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-sexualities.html
http://www.eldis.org/hivaids/abstinence.htm
http://www.ipas.org/english/default.asp
http://www.reproductiverights.org/pdf/pdf_BreakingThrough_04.pdf
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1197.html
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25397
http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/reprights/reproductive.htm
http://www.wits.ac.za/whp/sexualrights_beijing.pdf
http://www.unfpa.org/rh/index.htm
http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/reprights/sexual.htm
http://www.feministafrica.org/fa%202/02-2003/amanitare.html
In spite of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, in domestic and international conflicts women of all ages continue to be disproportionately brutalized, by the military but also by paramilitary forces and rebel groups. This systematic pattern of rape, torture, slavery and other sexual and gender crimes against women during wars and in so-called times of peace is directly related to the construction of masculinity. While some women participate in war or are active members of the military and even exercise violence against women, war is a patriarchal construction that reinforces the capitalist neoliberal system.
Women, girls and boys comprise the majority of civilian deaths and of displaced, abused and impoverished people during war (Byrne 55). For them, wars entail violations of liberty, dignity and autonomy, in addition to separation, displacement, the loss of family members and of their means of survival. Too often women are widowed or become single mothers with fewer means of economic support.
Women's movements have been fighting against patriarchal power and values common in thoughts and actions in both the public and private spheres. The use of these powers and the values implicit in them has resulted in the globalization of militarization, the undermining of democracies and the use of war as the dominant method of resolving conflicts between nations, within countries, between groups and within relationships.
Public wars as well as those I call "private" (two or more people), are based on this same logic; the values, ideas and attitudes behind private violence mirror those in armed conflict. That is, in the same way men exercise violence against women in the home to maintain their gender privileges, states exercise military violence to ensure their hegemonic place in the world, and corporations exercise economic violence to maintain and accumulate their economic and political powers.
Specifically, the creation of a masculine identity is based on competitiveness, power, control and repression of emotion. Masculinity constructed as control fosters, naturalizes and tolerates diverse forms of violence. After all, war is linked to a collective image of hegemonic masculinity, a masculinity that depends on the exercise of power and control.
Patriarchal ideology supports gender, class, race, ethnicity, age, hierarchies. These unequal structures and the resultant violence in all of its forms are applauded and legitimized by patriarchal institutions and expressions.
Furthermore, the masculine values of bravery, courage and patriotism are exalted and are symbolically rewarded to demonstrate that good citizens give their lives to resolve conflicts through violence. In fact, this violence is so valued, that most governments assign a larger part of their budgets to "defense and security" than to health, education, housing, human development or peace.
Violence against women is directly related to power differences that exist between men and women and are directly related to the violence that men exercise against other. In fact, violence between men is a mechanism used from childhood to establish a hierarchical order. Normalizing violence then renders men's power over women or over other men invisible, or more precisely, this normalization hides power. These same normalized inequities are evident in analyses of women in the legal and police systems, in their communities, at work, in armed conflicts, and in women's private and most intimate sphere.
Violence is now legally condemned, and this achievement has given many invisible abuses legitimacy and standing as human rights violations. However, a culture of peace and human rights requires the creation of social and legal mechanisms that condemn and do not tolerate violence, demands creative forms of resistance and of resolving domestic and international conflicts, and ultimately requires that we ask ourselves if our daily acts, thoughts and emotions support the culture of fear and masculine powers or the culture of peace and human rights.
A Culture of Peace for Development
The three pillars of the International Women's Year (1975) and the Decade for Women (1976-1985) were peace, equality and development. In keeping with the same, the UN General Assembly approved Resolution 32/142 in 1977, which urged states to proclaim one day a year as the United Nations day for women's rights and international peace.
Likewise, the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (1995) opened the door for future debates and resolutions on women's participation in the resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, reconciliation, reconstruction and maintaining peace at all levels. The Beijing Platform for Action focused specifically on the issue of women and armed conflicts (paragraphs 131 to 149).
Peace and development as ideals go hand in hand. This has been understood at least in the rhetoric of the United Nations and of some governments. A culture of peace innately implies a road towards sustainable human development and vice versa. And when I speak of development I do not mean countries in the North imposing on the South, or development as greater production of material goods. Instead the development that I speak of is synonymous with a dynamic process that has as its basic tenet the development of all levels of human beings and their potential. This development understands that there can be no peace with poverty, and that there can be no economic, political, social and cultural development at the cost of the marginalization and exclusion of women.
The development model imposed by the North has increased unequal power relationships between genders, races, ethnicities, classes, etc., and has particularly impoverished women because it answers to the interests of small international economic elite.
How then can we create a culture of peace under a development model which exacerbates inequalities, and especially how can we do it in societies that are in a permanent state of armed conflict?
A culture of peace for sustainable human development requires the creation of egalitarian societies with inclusive and pluralistic democratic institutions and processes, respectful of the indivisibility, universality and integrity of human rights and of the diversity of human beings. It implies the construction of a real citizenry securing the exercise of all rights, a non-capitalistic model of development which puts human beings and other living creatures at the center, and a feminist welfare state open to the full participation of civil society and accountable to it.
Defining sustainable human development, and thereby supporting a culture of peace, continues to be debatable given that equitable development in and of itself is a challenge for the majority of countries in the world. The rhetoric of placing women and men in the center of development is merely rhetorical if governments are subject to policies and guidelines imposed on them by international financial institutions.
Meanwhile, women constitute more than 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the South and the North, and children constitute 80% of refugees (19 million) and two thirds of the world's 900 million illiterates (Montero, 6).
Women in Peace Processes
Peace is not inherent to the end of armed conflict. It is a process that requires time, space, truth, transparency, reparation and reconstruction. It is a process that must address the structural inequalities of power that caused the conflict.
Each conflict has different effects on women and men, gender relations, the balance of powers and gender ideologies. This effect depends on the nature of the relationships existing prior to conflict, and largely on the cultural, political and economic conditions in the country, and on the origins and nature of the conflict (Bridge 22).
Whether the interests, voices and needs of all women and marginalized men (due to their race, ethnicity, age, class, disability, political or religious belief, sexual orientation, or other condition) are reflected or not in states' policies and actions in post-conflict negotiations depends on the above-mentioned conditions, relationships, balances and ideologies.
All too often women are later added to official peace processes, given that the lack of women's political participation is not conceived as a violation of human rights in and of itself. Instead women are added to peace processes peripherally or to meet 'gender perspectives'.
The increased centralization of power during war also influences women's exclusion from decision-making processes. However, "whether during a conflict or the absence of one, political institutions often exclude women. They are under-represented in national and international organizations during times of conflict as well as after conflict" (UNDP 10). This in spite of governments' international commitments to increase women's representation at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms.
In spite of women's exclusion from these processes or of their inclusion via traditional feminine roles, the international women's movement has been able to utilize a human rights framework to conceptualize the right to peace as a right based on equality and on development.
In Liberia, after 14 peace accords, the Liberian Women's Initiative was successful in mobilizing national support for disarmament before the elections. In North Ireland and South Africa, women's coalitions introduced values of inclusiveness and public participation in the political dialogue. In Burundi, a coalition of Hutu and Tutsi women struggled together to ensure their place at the negotiation table (Anderlini 13).
Women's organizing has been crucial to these processes. Women's efforts have increased the visibility of specific violations suffered by women in times of conflict and the general exclusion of women from negotiation tables. They have also demanded participation; increased the organizational level of women; created international networks of women working for peace; redefined many of the roles women and men had before the conflict; and supported the experience of sustainable local and communal economies during conflicts.
Incorporating feminist perspectives in all peace-making and conflict transformation processes is urgent. It includes recognizing the specific role that women can and must play in conflict resolution as agents of change, before, during and after conflict, and incorporating a feminist perspective in the process for a comprehensive negotiation on peace, equality and development and the reconceptualizing of a new paradigm.
Resolution 1325
In both United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security approved by the Security Council in its 4,213rd meeting on October 31, 2000, and the Namibia Plan of Action adopted in the Windhoek Declaration, the United Nations has urged all parties involved in conflict and peace processes to incorporate a gender perspective in legal, constitutional and judicial processes.
The basic problem with the resolution is that it does not clarify what a gender perspective is and uses the term gender as a synonym for women and girls. A gender perspective is a comprehensive view of the world and should not only be incorporated in legal processes but rather in all aspects of rebuilding a society.
Additionally, the resolution ignores many of the situations that require an understanding of the existing power inequality between women and men, not only during armed conflict but also after it. Systematizing a gendered application in peace processes (including contributions from women who have experienced armed conflict) allows the monitoring of success. Without concrete indicators, the effectiveness of the resolution will be difficult to measure in terms of women's lives and rights. And without this gendered understanding, it is impossible to create a culture of peace, development and human rights that advances, protects and respects the rights of all human beings.
Moreover, the resolution asked the United Nations Secretary General to conduct a study on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, women's roles in peace-making, and gender in peace processes and conflict resolution. The study Women, Peace and Security, presented by the United Nations Secretary General in accordance with Resolution 1325, states the specific measures required of the international community to put it into practice. For example, the international community must ensure that principles of gender equality and non-discrimination are taken into account when creating political constitutions in the period after conflicts, and that legal reforms are based on an analysis of civil and penal law from a gendered perspective, including classifying violence against women and girls, and sexual violence as a crime.
In an extensive and interesting evaluation by independent specialists (Rehn and Johnson 6-8) on the impact of armed conflict on women and the role of women in peace-making, the authors pointed out that in order to implement this Resolution, the following, although not an exhaustive list, is necessary:
? Strengthen protections for women and measures on violence against women and gender discrimination in conflict and post-conflict situations;
? Increase coordination within the entire United Nations system to ensure the implementation of commitments to women;
? Monitor, collect information and communicate systematically on gender issues during the crisis and provide assistance during the conflict and after;
? Institute consistent high-level commitment to gender equality and equitable representation of women in all peace-making activities.
Each of these recommendations includes a series of concrete measures that are worth considering in order to make the Resolution more effective.
Finally, the Windhoek Declaration establishes that accountability in the full incorporation of a gender perspective must be pursued at the highest level. The Special Representative of the Secretary General has the responsibility to guarantee that such a perspective is incorporated in all aspects and components of a mission.
Global Impunity, Justice and Accountability
The global policy of militarization, repression, impunity and other forms of human rights violations, like limiting civil liberties and reducing guarantees against violations of basic rights, function as mechanisms of social disintegration and political intimidation, concentrating more social, political and economic power in the corporate elite of the North and converting states into large police stations that obey the laws of the market.
Impunity has become the global rule, more than the failure to punish perpetrators. States, and their militarized and politicized institutions contribute to impunity by not categorizing crimes such as sexual and gender crimes into their legislation; by impeding the autonomy of the judicial branch and not providing it with human and economic resources; by allowing governmental, legislative, judicial and police corruption; by legitimizing sexist, classist and racist media that cover up, distort and reproduce official versions of the facts; and by accepting the normalization of violence against women before, during and after wars in the name of state security, religion, and the fight against terrorism.
Resolution 1325 specifically emphasizes states' responsibility to end impunity and punish perpetrators. Justice is possible, but branches of government themselves conspire to make it impossible. Impunity is as damaging for the whole society as the crime itself, and for that reason it must be sanctioned politically, legally and ethically.
In countries in the midst of armed conflict or in post-conflict situations, there exists a permanent level of violence against all citizens and particularly against women. Rebuilding societies and creating peace and national reconciliation continue to be very challenging, especially when there are no independent executive or legal systems, those that do exist are very weak or when implementing laws has been or continues to be ineffective for women.
The right to justice is a universal human right, which depends on the rule of law, social order and peace.
Yet, how can we ensure justice is achieved and not merely aspired to when so many countries have institutions which generally supported the regimes responsible for perpetrating violations- military forces, police, peace-keeping forces and members of the judiciary- are complicit.
Governments have been advised to develop effective mechanisms and procedures to ensure that national and international procedures do not re-victimize women during judicial proceedings. Some measures that can help prevent added discrimination and abuse of victims are: protection of victims and witnesses, psychological support, health services, and training judicial and police personnel on gender-based violence. The International Criminal Court statute establishes a series of gender-sensitive procedural measures to that end, which do not end complicity, but at least create a more just and transparent process for victims. However, justice is not only 'legal'. Justice is related to accountability of the state and society for crimes against women, which is not merely punishing perpetrators.
But returning to the judicial or semi-judicial system, women do not access justice systems because they lack the economic resources, are intimidated by the perpetrators, and lack the belief in a system that does not treat them equally. Institutional discrimination against women in the judiciary is a systematic pattern before and after conflict.
Post-conflict situations are further complicated by judicial systems' inadequate human and economic resources to judge a large quantity of cases resulting in the need for complementary or alternative justice systems, such as truth and reconciliation commissions.
The is no one formula to achieve justice, truth and transparency, human rights principles and a feminist understanding of the culture of peace. Peace processes are opportunities to create new discourses and alternate social, economic and political spaces, where dialogue begins with commonalities and takes into account differences, where new relationships of power are practiced which do not oppress, where other paradigms are created.
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* The author is a Costa Rican feminist lawyer, women´s human rights activist, and a former professor of law. She works as an independent consultant for national and international organizations.
* This is a shortened version of an article 'Masculinity, Peace Processes, Impunity and Justice' from the website of WHRnet (http://www.whrnet.org). WHRnet updates readers on women's human rights issues and policy developments globally and provides information and analyses that support advocacy actions. WHRnet has a regular e-bulletin. (To subscribe, email [email][email protected] with the word "subscribe" in the subject line).
* Click on the link below for the bibliography to this article
Djibouti s’engage vers la voie très prochaine d’une ratification du Protocole de Maputo relatif aux droits des femmes en Afrique
[English translation follows]
L’Union Nationale des Femmes Djiboutiennes , membre du Mouvement de Solidarité pour les Droits des Femmes en Afrique mène depuis juillet 2004 des actions de plaidoyer en faveur de la ratification par la République de Djibouti du protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.
Grâce à l’engagement de la première dame de Djibouti, présidente de l’UNFD, Madame Kadra Mahamoud Haid, la société civile djiboutienne se mobilise en faveur de la ratification du protocole de Maputo.
Par le moyen de pétitions, une large frange de la population djiboutienne composée de parlementaires, de juges, de personnes opérant dans les secteurs public et privé demeure aujourd’hui avisée de l’existence de cette convention africaine promouvant les droits des femmes en Afrique.
En juin 2004, une pétition a , en un temps record de 48 heures, recueilli 270 signatures.
Les médias djiboutiens n’ont pas manqué à leur tour de souligner les actions de plaidoyer menées par l’UNFD ; Saisissant l’occasion de la conférence des Chefs d’Etats de l’Union Africaine réunis en juillet 2004 à Addis-Abeba, l’UNFD a adressé, par la voie de communiqués de presse à la Radio télévision de Djibouti dans les quatre langues nationales arabe, afar , somali et français, des messages à la population djiboutienne en vue de l’informer de l’existence du protocole de Maputo, convention avant-gardiste dans la protection des femmes djiboutiennes et a fortiori des femmes africaines.
La stratégie informative de l’UNFD s’est poursuivie par l’engagement officiel de la première dame de Djibouti en faveur de la ratification par Djibouti du protocole de Maputo et ce par le voie d’une interview conduite par le journal « la Nation ».
L’UNFD, connue depuis les premiers jours de l’indépendance de la République de Djibouti pour son fervent combat en faveur des droits des femmes djiboutiennes, démontre ses capacités mobilisatrices, portant cette fois le flambeau de la cause des femmes de tout le continent africain.
En décembre 2004, dans le cadre des 16 jours d’activisme, 383 signatures ont été collectées par le support d’une pétition.
Par ailleurs, les militantes de l’UNFD ne relâchent pas leurs efforts de sensibilisation ; Ainsi, au cours d’un colloque « Femmes et Citoyenneté à Djibouti »organisé par l’association djiboutienne dénommée Solidarité Féminine qui s’est tenu le 17 et 18 janvier 2005, Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali a présenté, devant une large auditoire composé de personnalités issues d’horizons divers, les disposition méritoires du protocole de Maputo, la genèse du texte ainsi qu’une analyse comparative du protocole avec la législation djiboutienne.
Réaffirmant les atouts du protocole de Maputo, convention caractérisée par son pragmatisme, sa connaissance de la réalité des femmes africaines et sa volonté de conciliation des différentes acceptions juridiques de la protection des droits de la femme africaine, cette militante a clôturé son plaidoyer sur l’indispensable texte de référence que constituera, dès sa ratification, le protocole de Maputo pour les besoins de toute réforme de la législation djiboutienne relatif aux droits des femmes.
Fort de cette effervescence de la société civile djiboutienne, il semblerait que le Gouvernement de la République de Djibouti par l’entremise de Mme Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Ministre déléguée à la promotion de la femme a déjà inscrit, sur son agenda, l’adoption en conseil des ministres du projet de loi portant ratification du protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples relatif aux droits des femmes.
[TRANSLATION]
Since July 2004 the National Union of Djiboutian Women (UNFD), member of the Solidarity Movement for Women’s Rights in Africa, has been carrying out lobbying activities promoting ratification by the Djibouti Republic of the protocol relating to women’s rights in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Thanks to the involvement of Kadra Mahamoud Haid, first lady of Djibouti and President of UNFD, Djibouti civil society is mobilising in favour of ratifying the protocol.
A wide sector of the Djibouti population including members of parliament, judges and public and private sector workers is now aware of the existence of this African convention promoting women’s rights in Africa.
One petition in June 2004 raised 270 signatures in a record 48 hours. Nor did the Djibouti media miss their opportunity to highlight the UNFD lobbying actions: UNFD seized the opportunity of the African Union Heads of State meeting in Addis Ababa in July 2004 to prepare press communiqués for RTD (Djibouti Radio Television station) in the four national languages of Arabic, Afar, Somali and French informing the people of Djibouti of the existence of the Maputo protocol, a progressive convention in the vanguard of protecting Djiboutian women and indeed all African women.
The UNFD information strategy continued with the first lady of Djibouti’s official support for ratification of the Maputo protocol by Djibouti in an interview published in Djibouti’s ‘La Nation’ newspaper.
UNFD, known since the early days of the Djibouti Republic’s independence for its ardent fight for the rights of Djiboutian women, has demonstrated its ability to mobilise support, this time carrying the torch for women’s rights over the whole African continent.
In December 2004 during a 16-day action period, 383 signatures were collected with the help of a petition.
And UNFD activists have not been slackening their awareness-raising efforts since then: at a symposium from 17 to 18 January on ‘Women and Citizenship in Djibouti’ organised by the Djibouti association Women’s Solidarity, Mrs Zeinab Kamil Ali made a presentation to an audience of people from a variety of backgrounds on the positive measures in the Maputo protocol and how the text was arrived at, as well as a comparative analysis of the protocol with Djibouti legislation.
Activist Mrs Ali reaffirmed the key points in the Maputo protocol, describing it as a convention characterised by its pragmatism, its awareness of the reality of African women and its willingness to reconcile the differing juridical readings of the protection of African women’s rights. She brought her advocacy to a close, highlighting how indispensable a reference text the Maputo protocol once ratified will be for the purpose of any reform of the Djibouti legislature relating to women’s rights.
It now appears that through the intervention of Mrs Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Minister in charge of women’s advancement, the Government of the Djibouti Republic has already put the adoption of the draft law on the council of ministers’ schedule, bringing closer the ratification of the protocol.
[our thanks to Clare Smedley for providing this translation]
* Please send comments to
- Based on a recent update compiled by Equality Now
Status of signatures and ratifications
Total signatures – 33
Total ratifications – 7
Upcoming Events
The Executive Council Session of the African Union will take place in Abuja on 28-29 January 2005.
The 4th African Union Ordinary Summit - will take place 30/31 January in Abuja (Nigeria).
Pre-Summit on Gender will be held in Abuja during 25-26 January 2005
Members of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOWR) Coalition will have a consultation meeting on 26th January in Abuja and ask lobbying strategies and share campaign updates.
Conference on FGM in Djibouti - No Peace Without Justice, in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Djibouti, will be hosting a conference during 2-3 February 2005 in Djibouti. The conference will discuss the Protocol on the Rights of Women with a view to advocating for its ratification and generate strategies for implementation.
“Engendering African Politics” Conference, April 2005, Addis Ababa.
The African Association of Political Science is sponsoring a conference to bring together policy makers and activists to develop and debate recommendations for strengthening a women’s rights platform across Africa.
“When Women Gain, So Does the World” Conference, June 19-21, Washington, DC.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research will host the Eighth International Women’s Policy Research Conference. The conference will cover topics such as ‘family, culture, and population’, women’s leadership in public life, and women’s rights to health and income security. For more information visit www.iwpr.org
Latest Country Updates
Benin
The WiLDAF West Africa Office reported that on January 6, the National Assembly of Benin unanimously approved a law that authorized ratification of the Protocol. Although the official instrument of ratification must still be deposited with the African Union in order to take effect, the passage of No 2005-04 signals a willingness on the part of the Assembly to make the Protocol a reality for Beninese women.
Djibouti
FRENCH: Décembre 2004 : conduite d’une pétition dans le cadre des 16 jours d’activisme
- Support explicatif du protocole : document « présentation du protocole de Maputo au regard de la législation djiboutienne » établi par Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali
- Militantes chargées de la collecte de signatures de divers horizons
- Approche d’une large frange de la population djiboutienne : parlementaires, juges, personnel des Nations Unies, travailleurs du secteur public, personnel du secteur bancaire, ports et zones franches, travailleurs du secteur privé
- Collecte de 383 signatures
Janvier 2005 : participation de Mme Zeinab KAMIL ALI au colloque « Femmes et citoyenneté » organisé par une association djiboutienne SOLIDARTE FEMININE
- 1ère journée 17 janvier 2005 : intervention de Mme Zeinab Kamil Ali sur le thème des droits des femmes en Afrique
- Intervention axée sur une présentation du Protocole de Maputo et un fervent plaidoyer pour sa ratification par Djibouti
- Sensibilisation de femmes parlementaires, de la société civile, avocats, juges et représentants diplomatiques de l’ambassade américaine, représentant de la banque mondiale dans le cadre de ce colloque
ENGLISH: In December 2004, the National Union of Djiboutian Women, working as member of the coalition “Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR)”, collected
383 signatures on a petition to the Heads of States calling for ratification
of the Maputo Protocol. Those signing the petition reflected a large section
of the Djiboutian population, including judges, United Nations personnel,
public sector workers, and private sector workers. Also in December, Zeinab
Kamil published an article titled “Presentation of the Maputo Protocol With
Regard to the Djiboutian Legislation.”
In January 2005 Zeinab Kamil participated in a symposium titled “Women and
Citizenship” organized by a Djiboutian association, Female Solidarity. She
made a presentation on women’s rights in Africa and emphasized the need for
ratification of the Maputo Protocol in Djibouti.
UNFD is continuing with its campaign and anticipates that the Djibouti
government will soon be discussing the ratification of the Protocol.
Guinea
The Guinean Parliament has ratified the Protocol and the government has indicated that it is in the process of forwarding the ratification to the African Union. Campaign focus is moving to domestication of the Protocol.
Kenya
The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) is continuing with the lobbying of the Kenyan government to ratify the Protocol.
Mozambique
Due to the recent election, much of the lobbying work of the FDC (Foundation for Community Development) has been at a stand still. However, the government has promised to put the Protocol on the agenda of the First Session of Parliament. The FDC will continue its campaigning work to ensure that this happens and that the Protocol receives a fair and full discussion. Congratulations to Mozambique for the appointment of a female Prime Minister who also holds the position of Finance Minister!
Namibia
Sister Namibia is continuing campaigns to popularize the Protocol in the country. Naimbia was the 4th country to ratify the Protocol.
Nigeria
Nigeria ratified the Protocol and activists are now focusing on domestication and implementation.
South Africa
The South African Parliament ratified the Protocol in December 2004 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since deposited the instrument of ratification to the African Union.
Uganda
Progress on the Protocol has been slow in the Uganda. Akina Mama wa Afrika attributed this to the election campaigning and the fact that Ugandan women activists are focusing their energies on the Domestic Relations Bill, currently in the house, to ensure that this new family law bill will protect women’s rights. Despite these intervening events, the Ministry of Gender has prepared a cabinet brief on the Protocol which Akina Mama wa Afrika will use to lobby other members of government.
News Brief 1 – How to speed up ratifications to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa? This was the central question of a session at the recently-concluded 36th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights co-chaired by Equality Now Programme Officer Caroline Osero-Ageng’o and the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights Commissioner Angela Melo.
Commissioner Melo noted that she had been in contact with various NGOs and 48 ministries of foreign affairs as well as 45 officials that are working with these ministers. She has also been in contact with Mrs. Mongella, the Speaker of the Pan African Parliament. She said that the problem of lack of translation into Portuguese was slowing work amongst the Lusophone countries and noted that there was need to support the Special Rapporteur in her work for the ratification of the Protocol.
Together with the participants they explored strategies of attaining ratification and came up with the following suggestions:
- translate the Protocol into national languages and disseminate it at national levels in all countries,
- undertake an audit of ratification of the CEDAW and discuss the experiences in different countries, including whether it has been translated into national laws, with a view to replicating successful strategies,
- create awareness on the Protocol – meet religious associations and lobby parliamentarians with a view to building a strong constituency of support for ratification, and ensure coordination so as to reduce the expenses on the campaign, and
- engage men in the campaign on women’s rights issues.
News brief 2 - Mary Wandia (FEMNET), Hannah Forster (ACDHRS), Kafui KUWONU (WiLDAF) and Faiza Mohamed (Equality Now) attended a consultation on Human Rights that was organized by the Political Affairs Division of the African Union, with support from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and held at the African Union conference center in Addis Ababa from 9-10 December 2004.
They used this opportunity to brief participants, who were from all regions of Africa and the Diaspora and working on human rights, media, youth, community development, corruption, capacity building and peace building, about the campaign and urged them to add their signatures to the petition; and included a call for a speedy ratification of the Protocol in the communiqué that was generated at the conclusion of the consultation meeting.
The African Union declared the week of 6th –13th December 2004 as a treaties week whereby member states were called upon to ratify pending Protocols. Unfortunately, the Protocol on Women’s Rights only received 2 additional signatures – Chad and Swaziland – but no ratifications.
Text Now 4 Women’s Rights campaign and Petition signatures
This component to the campaign aimed at recruiting mobile users in Africa to support the online petition currently running at the Pambazuka website has continued. There are currently 3935 signatories to the petition, about 500 of which have been received by SMS. Signatories have been received from 111 countries. This breaks down into 43 African countries and 68 countries from outside of Africa. 'Block votes' numbering several thousand have also been received from membership organisations, but these have yet to be tabulated.
There are now over 500 people who have signed up for free SMS alerts about the campaign. If you haven't registered for this service, visit http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/alerts.php
Moving towards domestication: the challenges facing the seven countries who have ratified the Protocol
The following list of countries have signed and ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa: Comoros, Lesotho, Libya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa.
Comoros
The Union of Comoros is an emerging democracy ruled by President Azali Assoumani, who took power in a coup in April 1999 and subsequently was elected in April 2002.
Equality before the law
The Constitution provides for equality of persons and inheritance and property rights do not discriminate against women. Despite the existence of some matriarchal traditions, men continue to have the dominant role in society. Societal discrimination against women exists mainly in rural farming areas. While more women are part of the labour force earning decent wages in major towns, there are not a lot of women who hold high positions in business.
Political Participation
In 2002, there was one woman in the Cabinet and there were two women who held senior government positions. In relation to other African countries, Comoros has low female political representation, and currently, there are no women in Parliament. According to the World Bank ‘Africa Country Gender Database’ (ACGD) the gender disaggregated data for education, literacy and the representation of women in parliament show a gender gap that is smaller than the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) averages, with the exception of the primary enrollment gap.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
A woman can seek protection through the courts in the case of violence, but the problem is usually resolved within the extended family or at the village level. Prostitution is illegal, and most citizens did not consider it to be a problem.
Literacy rates:
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male 65.6%; Female 52.2% (UNESCO 2004)
Lesotho
Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy with King Letsie III as Head of State. In May 2002, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, the leader of the Lesotho Congress for democracy (LCD) party, won re-election and was the Head of Government.
Equality before the law
The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on sex and in civil courts, women and men are accorded equal rights. However, under the traditional chieftainship system, the rights of women in areas such as property rights, inheritance, and contracts are very limited.
Political Participation
After the May 2002 elections, there were 12 women in the 80-member National Assembly, and 12 women in the 33-member Senate. Four women were government ministers, and two women were assistant ministers. Currently, there are 14 out of 120 Parliamentary seats occupied by women.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Although domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and prostitution occur frequently and are considered criminal offences, few cases are reported or brought to trial. Slowly, wife beating is becoming socially unacceptable behaviour and rape can result in a minimum sentence of 5 years' imprisonment, with no option for a fine.
Literacy Rates
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male: 73.7%; Female: 90.3% (UNESCO 1990)
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Elected by the General People's Congress, the current Secretary of the General People's Committee is Shukri Muhammad Ghanim. National elections are indirect through a hierarchy of people's committees.
Equality before the law
While the 1969 Constitutional Proclamation granted women total equality, societal discrimination has kept them from attaining their full family or civil rights. However, due to oil wealth, development and education programs, young, urban women tend to have 'modern' attitudes towards life, whereas less educated, rural or older women tend to guard their more traditional attitudes towards family and employment.
Although Libya has ratified The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), they have entered reservations based on Shari'a Law, to CEDAW Article 2 which entails pursuing a policy measure to condemn all discrimination against women, and; Article 16 which eliminates discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.
Political Participation
In theory, the People's Committees are open to both men and women and provide political participation. However, there is not much evidence to support this information, as Libya does not have any women holding positions in Parliament.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Violence against women continues to be a problem and the intervention of community or family members usually limits the reporting of domestic violence. Traditional attitudes and practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) are still practiced in remote areas of the country. Prostitution and related offenses including sexual trafficking are illegal in the Penal Code, however they continue to exist.
Literacy Rates
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male = 99.8%; Female = 94.0% (UNESCO 2004)
Namibia
Namibia is a multiparty, multiracial democracy. President Sam Nujoma was re-elected in 1999, which international and domestic observers agreed were free, but included some government harassment of the opposition, unequal access to media coverage and campaign financing.
Equality before the law
The Constitution prohibits discrimination against women, including employment discrimination and against women married under civil law. Women married under customary (traditional) law continue to face legal and cultural discrimination. Traditional practices that permitted family members to confiscate the property of deceased men from their widows and children still exist.
Political Participation
Because women were heavily involved in liberation struggles in Namibia, they have also been integral in the process of re-building the country. Namibia is among the top 20 countries in the world at having the highest proportion of women members of parliament with 19 out 72 seats.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Domestic violence against women and children, including rape and child abuse, is widespread due to traditional attitudes regarding the subordination of women. However, there has been improvement in the attention paid to the problems of rape and domestic violence such as longer prison sentences for rapists and abusers and gender sensitivity courses for the police.
Literacy Rates
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male: 90.6%; Female: 94.0% (UNESCO 2004)
Nigeria:
President Olusegun Obasanjo's win in the April 2003 elections marked the first civilian transfer of power in Nigeria's history. The federal Constitution provides for diversity in legislation, letting some northern states practice the Muslim Shari' a Law.
Equality before the law
The Nigerian constitution of 1979 prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, as do the constitutions of 1992 and 1999. Before Nigeria's 1992 constitution only men could pass on their Nigerian citizenship to their spouses. Despite changes, some rights may still be outside the grasp of women due to continuing social and administrative mores.
Political Participation
No customary prohibitions prevent women's participation in politics, but women have not contested for political positions on a level matching men. Currently there are 24 Parliamentary seats out of 340 being occupied by women.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Domestic abuse is common in Nigeria. Female genital mutilation, rape, prostitution and sexual harassment are significant problems in Nigeria. Women in Nigeria also suffer legal discrimination in the control of contraception by denying them access to contraception by the Planned Parenthood Foundation of Nigeria without the signed consent of their spouses. Abortion is also legally and socially controlled. Shari'a Law in northern parts of Nigeria have been criticized for their harsh punishments of women, such as death by stoning for adultery.
Literacy
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male: 90.7%; Female: 86.5% (UNESCO 2004)
Rwanda
The largely Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which took power in 1994 and declared a Government of National Unity has remained the principal political force. President Paul Kagame was sworn in on April 22, 2000, in what was the first nonviolent presidential change in the country's history.
Equality before the law
Since the 1994 genocide, women have assumed a larger role in the modern sector, and many run their own businesses. Nevertheless, women continue to have limited opportunities for education, employment, and promotion. Government efforts such as scholarships for girls in schools, the provision of loans to rural women, and a Ministry of Gender program have all worked to increase the role of women in the workforce. The 1992 Family Code allows women to inherit property from their fathers and husbands and allows couples to choose the legal property arrangements they wish to adopt.
Political Participation
There are no laws that restrict the participation of women in the political process. With 49% of seats won by women in the recent parliamentary elections, Rwanda became the country that has the most number of women parliamentarians in the world. Rwanda reserves 30 percent of seats in the Lower House and Senate for women.
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Societal and domestic cases normally were handled within the context of the extended family and rarely came before the courts. Genocide survivors, including women and girls who were raped in 1994, have not been able to obtain reparations such as monetary compensation or other assistance for the human rights abuses they suffered. Further, many of them are now infected with HIV/AIDS and do not have adequate resources and support.
Literacy Rates
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male: 86.3%; Female: 83.6% (UNESCO 2004)
South Africa
After apartheid, South Africa had its first democratic elections for national and provincial government in April 1994. The African National Congress became the ruling party and Nelson Mandela became President. South Africa is now a constitutional democracy and the President is Thabo Mbeki.
Equality before the law
The South African Constitution has entrenched gender equality as a key political value. The Joint Committee on the Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women has been extremely influential in putting forth legislation such as The Termination of Pregnancy Act (easy access to abortion); The Maintenance Act of 1998 (rights and services for single mothers, pregnant women) and; The 1998 Domestic Violence Act (domestic violence as a public matter). However despite these laws, labour markets, rural practices, limited land rights and inequalities in resources and power within households, continue to marginalise women.
Political Participation
Right after South Africa's second democratic elections in June 1999, the newly elected President Thabo Mbeki appointed eight women to ministerial positions, double the number in the first government. The country ranks seventh in the world in terms of women parliamentary representatives (30 per cent).
Health, violence and reproductive rights
Despite legislation and a high number of women in political positions, there continues to be a lack of services and support for issues such as violence against women, HIV/AIDS, pregnant women, unemployment, housing, health care and rape. All of this despite the fact that South Africa has one of the highest incidence of rape in the world and 15% of women are infected with AIDS. Further, increasing levels of violence have increased women's fear and vulnerability, made it difficult for them to take up social and economic opportunities and put them at a higher risk of HIV infection.
Literacy rates
The rates for people aged 15-24: Male: 91.8%; Female: 91.7% (UNESCO 2004)
* Compiled by Rina Alluri, Fahamu
1. 600,000 women - one every minute - die each year from pregnancy-related causes.*
2. In the Global South, women traditionally eat less and do not get more food during pregnancy.*
3. 90% of the rural female labour force get classified as "housewives".*
4. Women produce nearly 80% of the food on the planet, but receive less than 10% of agricultural assistance.*
5. 75% of the refugees and internally displaced in the world are women.*
6. In Ethiopia and Nigeria almost 50 % of the maternal deaths result from complications due to abortion.**
7. In Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe the level of unwanted pregnancies among adolescent girls is 50% or more.**
8. In several African countries, up to 70% of women treated for abortion complications are younger than 20. **
9. In Uganda 49% of surveyed schoolgirls who responded that they were sexually active said they had been coerced to have sex.**
10. In North Sudan, 89% of women have undergone infibulation, the most severe type of female genital mutilation (FGM).**
SOURCES:
* Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) is an international, non-governmental organization (NGO) that empowers women and girls in the Global South to re-imagine and re-structure their roles in their families, communities, and societies.
http://www.learningpartnership.org/facts/human.phtml
** AMANITARE, which evolved from the need for a coordinated Pan-African effort to consolidate the skills, knowledge and institutional resources of groups and individuals active in the field of sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and women's rights.
http://www.amanitare.org/home2.html
Publisher: Femrite
Exclusively distributed by African Books Collective Ltd, The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU United Kingdom
[email protected]
http://www.african bookscollective.com
When Frieda’s husband came home drunk and she was unable to provide him with the money he demanded, he went to the bedroom and came out swinging a panga.
“I have no money, please I have no money. You know I can’t have any,” Frieda begged. She escaped from the house and went to hide behind a tree, to which a goat was tied. Her husband, in a rage, swung the panga and split open the head of the goat, killing it instantly.
Frieda knew that the blow was meant for her. She knew that if she stayed with her husband any longer it would only be a matter of time before either her or her children were killed.
The decision to leave was the end of 14 years of constant battery. The odds were stacked against her – she returned to her parents, but received no support for the children from her husband. He began selling off possessions and property they had acquired during the marriage, but her attempts to access these resources where thwarted by a corrupt beurocracy heavily weighted in favour of her husband.
After a long struggle, she found out about a legal aid clinic that supported women in claims about land and property conflicts, domestic violence, rape and other abuses. The legal aid clinic helped her to achieve limited justice – her husband is prevented from selling their property – but she is still on the back foot in a society where the odds are stacked against her.
Frieda’s story is typical of the collection of short stories in ‘Tears of Hope: A collection of Short Stories by Ugandan Rural Women’. The eight short stories reflect the situation of African rural women in an overwhelmingly male dominated society. These are stories about the lived experience of women that demonstrate their suffering, pain and humiliation, but also show the enormous inner strength, courage and fortitude of women.
Each story is a window on the discrimination that women face. In ‘Where do I belong?’ we are shown that women are valued for the offspring that they produce and that that offspring had better be male.
‘Frieda’s World’ follows on this theme. Women are seen and chosen for their potential fertility and their ability to work hard and increase the wealth of their husbands. Women are seen to be nothing more than a bundle of flesh to be beaten into submission, even through they are more often than not the producer of food and nurturer of children.
Many of the stories, told in the first person, are extremely moving. In ‘Maria demands her share’, Maria describes her husband coming home form work some time in 1994, extremely worried. The setting is Rwanda and as her husband notifies her, it is time to flee because the situation has reached a stage where their lives are in danger. They lose everything and join a mass of humanity running for their lives. Maria’s husband is subsequently murdered by her own brother, who uses the confusion to settle an old family score related to Maria’s bride price. From that stage on, Maria’s life becomes a constant struggle for dignity.
The system of male domination breeds selfishness and oppression, not only from the male members of society, but also from women eager to hold on to whatever tentative positions they have established for themselves within the hierarchy. In that hierarchy, women can only exist by belonging to someone, by being a possession. Breaking out of that structure to go it alone is a hard road fraught with difficulties. So, for example, if a women finds herself in a situation of domestic violence she must not expect the authorities to take action. The only way to escape is to leave her husband, following which she will stigmatised for not being able to make her marriage work and face immense pressure to return to her situation of abuse.
Each story involves the main character finding out about and accessing her rights, and even though these laws might be limited in the protection they offer, they do more often than not offer some respite.
But the stories also show that standing up for these rights and using the law to fight their oppression is only half of the battle. In this sense it is not only about accessing rights within the framework of the law, it is also about confronting a hostile society who, even when the law is against them, do everything within their power to make sure that women are deprived and disempowered. If, however, the violence that the characters in these stories suffer at the hands of their spouses is relentless, so is the determination and courage of the women to make sure that their rights are enforced. This is the real inspiration of this collection of short stories: It is through the courage of women like the eight represented in these stories that society is forced to make shifts, forced to change.
Reviewed by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu
* For orders, please contact African Books Collective.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 189: DRC: Less state is not best state
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 189: DRC: Less state is not best state
EISA intends to appoint two researchers for a period of three years. EISA's vision is the promotion of credible elections and democratic governance in Africa. EISA has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa and three country offices in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. Qualified SADC nationals are encouraged to apply.
Are you ready to work with poor people as a force for change in addressing the causes of poverty, suffering and injustice, and alleviating their symptoms? We are looking for someone like you to fill the position of Media and Communications Officer. You will be the country lead on media and communications for the Darfur crisis as well as serve as the primary Oxfam International field based spokesperson for all affiliate media on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. You will support programme in identifying messages for communication as part of media/advocacy strategy on Darfur crisis and future strategies on relating to North/South Sudan. You will research and write materials and provide visual images of the Darfur humanitarian crisis to support Oxfam’s media, policy and advocacy work, fundraising and other internal and external communications.
After years of technical, financial and political hurdles, the United Nations "Official Document System" is finally open and free to general public. The ODS is the main repository of 800,000+ UN documents dating back to its earliest days, from General Assembly resolutions to UN agency memoranda, in all six of the UN official languages. This is a major coup to those who have worked for years to see this critical archive of UN documents made freely and publicly accessible.
"The follow-up committee on the Protocol informed us that the National Assembly of Benin voted unanimously in authorizing the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa. The instrument of ratification must still be officially deposited at the African Union to be effective. Let us remind you that in addition of Benin, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria in West Africa are in the same situation. When the deposits will be done, the total of ratification will be ten (10), of which five from West Africa. The Protocol will come into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15th) instrument of ratification."
Please forward names and contact information for youth community based organizations (CBOs) engaged in: 1) entrepreneurship, 2) critical thinking 3) youth empowerment and capacity building and 4) sustainability and economic self-sufficiency of people on the ground in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, in conjunction with the Bank of Ireland is proud to announce a one-year fellowship in Human Rights Law for a scholar of note from a developing country. Applications for this fellowship are invited from academics from any developing country whose research output and teaching focus on the area of human rights.
Just to say keep on the good work and struggle for the self actualization of the African Child. Your articles have been timely and a good collection of reference material on issues affecting our dear continent. Wishing you and your team a very prosperous new year! And praying that the message of social justice and equity would be read and acted upon by the global community.
I didn’t have a happy New Year and I am galled because the slaves are in fact elbowing one another to stay in the master's house. My brother Tajudeen in his postcard aptly states that the saturation coverage on the tsunami has more to do with the number of Westerners killed in the disaster! Yet one cannot but cringe at the fact that the catastrophe not only wreaked havoc on its victims but also brought out the baser instincts. Poor orphans watch greedy kin cashing in, bereaved families contend with self appointed "corpse finders" demanding cash upfront!
As an African woman I am not comfortable with the fact that the reporting has been uneven and there is the tendency to obscure certain unpalatable issues. Some of those countries are favourite destinations for the hordes of shameless sex tourists exerting their power on what the Cuban poet laureate Nicolas Guillén termed “dark smiling natives”. Isn’t there the the risk of stepped up trafficking of women and girls with the paedophilia brigade relocating to our look the other way countries? Secondly I am concerned at the lower rung reserved for all things African when it comes to the scale of priorities. Even in disaster relief must we cool our heels awaiting the crumbs from the Annan-Eagland-CNN table of compassion and coverage by affirmative action?
The slaves have not left and in fact are on overtime! I weep for the African casualties who may never be known, for the lone Kenyan boy who died on the beach at Malindi, the coastal resort town famed as a playground of the affluent ranging from rowdy royals like the Prince of Hanover to retired colonial spies, mercenaries, livestock officers and new rich expatriates. The kind who can smuggle in a ton of cocaine labelled personal, purchase a speed boat to transfer the loot onto a waiting liner in the high seas then beat it as a well placed “contact” tips them off on the impending police “raid”! Hollywood? No.Malindi. Where the North shuts out the South using the compliant South, sanitizing itself of its ill gotten gains and unleashing the attack dogs of privilege on the natives they have disempowered with their SAPs and knee pads…
Enter the tsunami. Over one hundred Somalis, ten Tanzanians, one South African and one Kenyan meet their Maker. One statistic at Malindi. All his poor parents could get was a Government vehicle but no fuel. The same day the Chinese Embassy finally located them in the slums of Nairobi and donated 100,000 Kenya shillings towards the funeral expenses, the State donated 100,00 Kenya shillings to the S.E Asia victims, boxes of tea (Boxing day? ) and thirty doctors.. .A case of therefore those that have shall be given!
I beg to differ slightly with Tajudeen and the Gandhi quote. The issue is not just greed for wealth and power in both hemispheres! Those who have held the world in the bondage of debt and abject poverty are ably aided and abetted by our non tsunami compliant ruling elites whose very survival is at stake. Why, their alienation quotient is on autopilot!
The slaves cannot leave the master’s house until we say: Kumepambazuka!
The core research programmes of the institute are thematic in character and involve inter-disciplinary network building. They shall be based on co-operation between Nordic and African researchers to produce new knowledge and improved understanding of issues central to contemporary Africa. They aim at stimulating both academic and public debate on Africa. The core funding of the programme covers salaries for the programme co-ordinator and one administrator (half time), a set budget for travel, conference attendance, field work and other expenses necessary for the research including costs for seminars and publications. Additional activities will have to be funded from external resources.
Three articles published by the Associated Press in mid-December criticising the conduct of a trial of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine in Uganda are threatening to undermine its use in newborn babies in developing countries, according to South African experts. A single dose of the drug given to mothers while in labour and to their babies at the time of birth is known to greatly reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child. The articles, which appeared in newspapers and were broadcast on radio stations in the United States, Britain, South Africa, and many other countries, made allegations about a trial that was conducted from 1997 to 1999 in Uganda by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and subsequently published.
Nelson Mandela broke one of South Africa's great taboos last week by admitting his oldest and only surviving son had died of Aids. Makgatho Mandela, 54, died in a Johannesburg clinic after lengthy treatment for what had been an undisclosed illness. Hours later his father, looking frail but resolute, assembled journalists to the garden of his home to confirm what everyone had suspected.
The theme for this year's Hafkin Prize recognises community initiatives that use the internet and other digital communication networks to access markets, skills and opportunities to derive real economic benefits. The competition is open to civil society organisations, government institutions, educational organisations, community-based groups, networks, social movements or individuals anywhere in Africa.
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU CTA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) are inviting applications for the second round of the GenARDIS Small Grants programme. The 10 grants of 5,000 Euros is to address Gender Issues in Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) Countries.
The Development Gateway Foundation is seeking nominations for the second Development Gateway Award. The $100,000 award will recognize outstanding achievement in using information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve people's lives in developing countries. In launching the 2005 competition, the Development Gateway aims to help advance the use of ICT for development by recognizing leaders and innovative initiatives in the field.
"The villagers dont understand what has happened to their world. Our crew keep telling us that the people they meet are deeply afraid of the ocean that has sustained them for generations...the people are suffering from 'ganguan jiwa' .... a disturbance of the soul."
The main venue for this year’s festival is again in the historic Stone Town: the grassy side of Zanzibar’s Old Fort (“Mambo Club”) facing Forodhani Gardens and overlooking the Indian Ocean. Fittingly described by Ian Anderson in fROOTS magazine as “the big club venue most world music festival organisers would die for”. Freshly grilled prawns, octopus, squid, fish kebabs are all prepared on site, with a bar and stalls selling local crafts.
Kudos to the excellent work you are doing. It has consistently and undoubtedly satisfied the requirements of information, education, communication and research. Please keep the flag flying. Wishing you a properous New Year.
The Noma Award has announced that no title has been selected to win the Award in 2004. The Jury singled out four titles for Honourable Mention. These were: The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele; The Plays of Miracle and Wonder by Brett Bailey;
Lanre and the Queen of the Stream by Tune Lawal-Solarin and A Dictionary of Yoruba Personal Names by Adeboye Babalola & Olugboyega Alaba.
Thank you so much for the editorial: 'Have the Slaves left the master's house' by Amanda Alexander And Mandisa Mbali.
It is inspiring to see an editorial of such insightful critique. The "masters tools will never destroy the master's house". It is so clear! It is almost oxymoron to think otherwise. We have lived long enough to see all the games that are played. The disguising of enslavement, colonialism, exploitation and disempowerment into other forms and terminology. But we've still not changed our game! We respond to issues and agendas.
We respect only the institutions of others. We steadfastly refuse to innovate in thinking, in strategy, implementation and public service. We do not define our issues and put our heads down and work towards their resolution and take the pain ( no gain without pain) and persist to that greater freedom; of being truly the masters of our wealth creation, masters of providing for our citizens and masters of doing it our way! Reform, tinkering with existing ideas, concepts and structures and obedience to Western modes of operations and framework, institutions and paradigms will not work. They make the rules, in their favour! So clear! Children in the play ground understand that! 'Always be the rule maker'!
African leaders need to have independence of thought and do a lot of thinking or rethinking. Yes it is hard work, compared to taking off the shelf ideas and ways of doing things! Progress is elbow grease! There is no other way .....Those chains must be levered open and now, for heavens sake! I want to see it in my life time!
The Senegalese economist Demba Dembele's my hero - he gets to the point "... that the West will never develop Africa and that most African leaders do not care about the welfare of their citizens". When will our leaders get it and stop playing ball with the west and focus on carrying out their job description for the masses. As painful as the journey will be, As painful as the journey will be, As painful as the journey will be ( so true I have to say it thrice! We need to refuse engagement with the west (naive some will say? Show me where engagement has worked? We are still in a subservient position despite aid galore , commissions galore, developmental NGO's galore , what difference have they all made?) Tell them we will not pay any debt and concentrate on pan African trading, pan African creation of the goods and services. Rethink Pan Africanism, so that it informs our economic policies, our cultural outlook, our vision , our politics our philosophies and concepts!
We are skewered by European capitalism...! Why do we respect such philosophies and economic thinking... you cannot use a framework for which you did not participate in its creation or propagation? We do not affect, we react! The observation that by "...African leaders .. attending G8 meetings and producing a policy document endorsed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), are revealing that they 'fear freedom, as former slaves who walk back to their masters, not yet ready to leave the master's house'". Get the hell out ! Build your own house and make your own rules (forget globalism - it is not working for Africa!) Use a pan African framework.
TRANSITIONS, an exhibition of artworks from Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe opens on Wednesday 19 January at 18.30 at the Brunei Gallery in London. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Columbia University's Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) is now accepting applications for the 2005 program. Applications are due by March 21, 2005. Today, one of the greatest challenges faced by poorer countries is the impact of the global economy on their communities. Few of the leaders working in those communities have access to the institutions where the economic policies that affect their lives are made. Moreover, those who gain access are often not prepared with the knowledge, skills, and contacts necessary to influence the process.
Commentators are beginning to raise other fundamental questions about the Tsunami disaster, reports the latest edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin. "Most significantly, can the response to the tsunami be carried over to even more devastating crises that are less photogenic, such as AIDS, global health, conflict, and poverty? Or will the effect be to reduce resources for implementing programs that have not been scaled up for lack of political will and resources? " Despite significant expansion of programs in the last two years, only four percent of the estimated 3.8 million people in need of such treatment in Africa now have access. Global spending on HIV/AIDS in low and middle-income countries was estimated at $6.1 billion in 2004, with the need projected at $12 billion for 2005.
Sudanese women have remained conservative, covered and mostly out of power under the Islamist government which overthrew a short-lived democracy in a bloodless military coup some 15 years ago. Now, inspired by hope that democracy will follow a peace deal to end more than two decades of civil war in the south of the country, some women are throwing off conservative tendencies, defying the conventional preference for marriage over work and seeking roles in the flourishing world of Sudanese opposition parties.
The security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo poses serious challenges for planned June elections, a UN report warns. The report from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says rebel groups from Rwanda are still operating in the area. The UN's humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said on Thursday that about 1,000 people are dying every day in DR Congo.
The government of the Central African Republic has given the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to investigate possible war crimes within its borders, the court has said. Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who received the letter from the government of the African nation, will look into possible war crimes in the region, a statement said.
The African Social Forum, held in Lusaka, Zambia from 10-14 December 2004, attracted approximately 650 social movement activists from across sub-Saharan Africa. Attendees included trade unionists, church leaders, women activists, environmentalists and NGO representatives. The largest delegation was from Zimbabwe; about 100 travelled north by bus, buoyed by the recent success of their own national Social Forum, held despite repeated intimidation by the Zimbabwean authorities. There was significant representation from South Africa,Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria, and smaller delegations from Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal and other countries.
The third issue of the Nonprofit Online News Magazine is now available as a free download. This month the edition has an Email Newsletter Quicksheet, which will help you do a simple evaluation of your primary online cultivation tool.
United Nations peacekeepers in Congo sexually exploited women and girls, some as young as 13, a U.N. watchdog office said Friday in a new confirmation that efforts to curb abuses by U.N. troops are not working. Charges of sex abuse and other crimes have been lodged against U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world for decades. Officials have found it difficult to crack down because the United Nations doesn't want to offend the relatively small number of countries that are willing to provide peacekeepers.
Algeria's government has failed to take needed measures to protect women from rape, beatings and widespread legal and economic discrimination, Amnesty International told a U.N. panel on Monday. "The government of Algeria has shown a lack of political will to ensure that women are protected from violence," it said in a report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
The UN Security Council meeting about Sudan in Nairobi in November was a major success in that it succeeded in bringing the Naivasha process to successful conclusion by January, says the January 'Prospects for Peace' briefing from Justice Africa. In the post-Naivasha period, the biggest challenge for peace in Sudan will be in incorporating the legitimate grievances of the people of Darfur, Kordofan and the East within a political framework and schedule determined at Naivasha on a North-South basis, says the briefing. "The African Union mediators failed to get the Darfur parties to sign a Declaration of Principles. This means that there has been no political progress in Darfur, a shortcoming reflected in the Darfur rebel's rejection of Naivasha."
Related Link:
Peace at last in Sudan
* http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26967
Several human rights defenders, community and environmental activists, traditional leaders as well as political leaders in the Owambo district in northwestern Namibia have severally but unanimously expressed concern at what they described as 'unilateral and exclusive privatization of a community natural resource'. They are referring to a salt exploration and processing scheme soon to be constructed near the town of Oshakati. There are also fears in human rights circles that the profit-driven privatization of the communal salt resources might have serious environmental, cultural and political consequences. Warned Namibian Society for Human Rights executive director Phil ya Nangoloh: "We are not opposed to employment creation efforts per se. However, as human rights defenders our concerns about the scheme are obvious: income-generating business ventures of this nature result from neoliberal processes, such as privatization of natural resources and promotion of exports at the expense of local communities. Also, experience has shown that these neoliberal processes have locally led to uncontrolled and disruptive industrialization, proliferation of technologies aimed at maximizing profit with scant regard for resource sustainability as well as to rapid urbanization and environmental degradation."
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a January 6 letter to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo that it was "deeply troubled" by the recent violent attack on journalists by government security forces. On Tuesday, January 4, police acting as security at a meeting of the National Executive Council of Obasanjo's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the capital, Abuja, assaulted at least 10 journalists who were covering the meeting.
On 30 December 2004, Sam Obi, a Nigerian journalist and presenter for the privately-owned City Limits Radio station, was detained and subjected to questioning by officials of the Gambia Police Force's Serious Crime Unit for six hours, in Serre Kunda, following an interview he granted to Radio France International (RFI). According to Media Foundation for West African sources in The Gambia, Obi's interview with RFI dealt with a march organised by the Gambia Press Union to protest the brutal murder of Deyda Hydara, managing editor of the Banjul-based newspaper "The Point" (see IFEX alerts of 6 January 2005 and 17 December 2004).
The relief effort in the wake of the Asian tsunamis has highlighted the importance of using ICT. African aid agencies have become significant ICT users and have sophisticated ICT managers. Communication is key in when disasters occur as communications links are often disrupted. Yet for disaster relief workers who arrive on the scene these links are essential as they rely heavily on telecommunications to coordinate the complicated logistics of rescue and relief operations. This week Balancing Act News Update looked at how different aid agencies have used ICT to tackle the impact of tsunami waves on the coasts of East Africa and its offshore islands.
Looking for information on Edutainment? Soul Beat Africa has launched a new feature on the website - an Edutainment Window - focusing on experiences, strategic thinking, materials, evaluations and other information related to using Edutainment in Africa! There are over 250 experiences of programmes that use edutainment being shared in the Window. You can also find materials such as handbooks and films, and strategic thinking documents about using Edutainment, and evaluations. The home page of the window can be customised to reflect your interests. To contribute your own edutainment information, please contact Senior Editor Estelle Jobson [email protected]
Since the African Peer Review Mechanism was launched about two years ago, less than half of the African Union's 53-member states have acceded to the process – designed to improve governance on the continent. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) commits countries to opening themselves for inspection by a team of governance experts – this to determine whether they have conformed to principles laid out in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). These include observing the rule of law, and respecting human and property rights.
Rapid population growth only promises to exacerbate water shortages in Lagos. According to the United Nations, the city's population will jump to 24 million during the next decade, making Lagos the third largest city in the world. "We have to speed up infrastructural development because as we increase, so the population increases. We have an institutional problem in the sense that as our infrastructures improve they also attract more people, so it is a circle that keeps growing," says Olumuyiwa Coker, group managing director of the Lagos Water Corporation. Global leaders have made 2015 the deadline for halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water.
The chairman of Nigeria's ruling party has resigned following a bitter row with President Olusegun Obasanjo. People's Democratic Party chairman Audu Ogbeh has handed in his letter of resignation, his spokesman said. Mr Ogbeh had disagreed with Mr Obasanjo over how to handle a crisis between rival party factions in the south-eastern Anambra state.
A prominent Gambian journalist was killed in a pre-meditated operation by well-organised professionals says media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders. Deida Hydara's death three weeks ago had striking similarities with murders of other critics of the regime of President Yahya Jammeh, the group says. They have called for an independent commission to investigate.
Death row prisoners in Tanzania have entered the fifth day of a hunger strike saying their human rights are being violated. More than 15 inmates at Ukonga maximum security prison in Dar es Salaam complain of a poor diet and severe beatings in overcrowded cells. Ukonga prisons, on the outskirts of Tanzania's main commercial city, is home to more than 3,000 inmates. Of these, 90 have been waiting for more than 20 years to be hanged, after the courts found them guilty of murder.
Teachers in Guinea began an indefinite strike on Monday to demand a 40 percent pay rise. With no classes to attend, many pupils in the capital Conakry staged anti-government demonstrations which were broken up by riot police. The pupils chanted anti-government slogans, but no arrests were reported. Bamba Camara, the Secretary General of the Guinean Teachers' Federation, said the nationwide strike had been called to demand a 40 percent pay increase and the full implementation of a 2000 protocol with the government, which set a formula for raising teacher pay.
Malnutrition and related diseases are expected to rise in Zimbabwe, peaking in the January to March 2005 period, according to a new report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). While staple cereals are increasingly unavailable in rural areas, maize prices on the parallel market continue to climb, limiting the ability of households to buy enough food to satisfy their needs, said both FEWS NET and the World Food Programme (WFP) in separate surveys.
Efforts by Guinea's new prime minister to relaunch a dialogue with opposition parties have been blighted by the unexplained arrest of Antoine Soromou, a leading figure in the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) party of veteran opposition leader Alpha Conde. Mamadou Ba, the chairman of the Republican Front for Democratic Change (FRAD), a coalition of Guinea's six main opposition parties, said Soromou was arrested last Thursday. He was detained just 24 hours after opposition leaders met with recently appointed Prime Minister Cellou Dalien Diallo to relaunch a dialogue with the government.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a measure that sets prison terms of up to two years for any journalist found working without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mugabe and his government to turn away from such measures, including another piece of repressive legislation still pending.
The Zimbabwe government is planning to set up a transit centre in the busy southern border town of Beitbridge to assist vulnerable youths deported as illegal aliens from South Africa. The centre, to be established with the help of Save the Children Fund (Norway), will help youths under 18 who have been expelled for crossing the border illegally, but have no money to return to their homes. Further, there have been reports that some deportees, especially girls, had been victims of abuse and sexual harassment in Beitbridge.
The United Nations urged governments on January 11, 2005 to harness the unprecedented outpouring of support for the tsunami disaster and help more than 20 million other people caught in "forgotten" crises around the world. According to the Consolidated appeal for 2005, the top 14 areas in need of help are: Occupied Palestinian Territories, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Somalia, Uganda, Eritrea, West Africa, Burundi, Great Lakes Region of Africa, Chechnya, Guinea, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Congo.
The fate of Australia's longest-detained asylum seeker is shrouded in confusion after his family and refugee advocates were told he was to be deported from Perth. A former policeman, Abdul Khogali, 36, has spent the past seven years in the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, since fleeing Sudan in 1997. He left his home after refusing to enforce Islamic Sharia law, which includes the amputation of limbs and public execution. Mr. Khogali was to have been placed on a flight to South Africa Wednesday, but he never was. It is unclear exactly where Mr Khogali is being held, or whether he had been deported. If he is returned to Sudan, it is likely that he will be killed.
This interactive CD-ROM offers access to poor women with limited reading ability. It is intended for rural African women entrepreneurs who have access to a computer through a telecentre, but no experience using one. The CD-ROM uses a simple browser navigating system with graphic interface and spoken text, in English and Luganda. Topics covered include building on assets, making money from a product or service, and expanding opportunities.
This 450-page publication draws on a range of experiences dealing with communication technologies in Africa. It maintains that communication media and techniques can help overcome barriers of literacy, language, cultural differences, and physical isolation, and can educate people about agricultural ideas and technical innovations to improve food production. "Communication can facilitate agricultural development by giving a voice to those involved ... fostering acceptance of agricultural development policies and programmes; mobilising people for participation and action; conveying information for education and training; and helping to disseminate new technologies."
This book is a groundbreaking exploration of public opinion in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the Afrobarometer, a comprehensive cross-national survey research project, it reveals what ordinary Africans think about democracy and market reform, subjects on which almost nothing is otherwise known. The authors find that support for democracy in Africa is wide but shallow and that Africans feel trapped between state and market. Beyond multiparty elections, people want clean and accountable government.
Immediately following the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women, most countries adopted national strategies for mainstreaming gender into development initiatives. Non-governmental organisations embarked on a new formula for addressing gender inequality through the development of gender mainstreaming policies. This has been a generally accepted, undisputed approach to countering the feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern Africa, like many other regions globally. Mainstreaming has adopted a posh stance in development circles, indicating an overall solution to issues of concern.
South Africa, once the continent's pariah because of racial oppression, has become the favored destination for educated, ambitious refugees from other parts of Africa with political and economic problems. Many refugees eventually start their own businesses or find skilled jobs, though often not in the same line of work as in their home countries, and they are rarely a drain on public services. Two out of three asylum seekers here in 2003 had arrived since 2000, according to a U.N. survey. Most have come from Angola, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Congo, as well as its smaller neighbor, the Republic of Congo.
Why is it that almost a decade after ratifying and acceding the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action, after the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, engendering processes of the Millennium Development Goals, Maputo Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming , SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and various other treaties and conventions, southern African countries continue to battle with: gender power imbalances, gender based violence, gender based stigma and discrimination, feminization of poverty and ultimately feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
In the past decade, many African governments have been engaging in far-reaching legislative, institutional and financial reforms in the water sector. These reforms have focused on 'Integrated Water Resources Management' and encompass changes to registration, water rights, water fees, and basin-level decision-making. However, these reforms have generally paid little attention to their impact on small-scale water development, use, and management in rural areas.
The European Union has given $18 million to support about 400,000 refugees, mostly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, seeking asylum in Tanzania, the EU said in a statement on Tuesday. Although 76,000 refugees went home to Burundi in 2004, the east African country is still host to the largest group of refugees in Africa, despite the fact that it is also one of the world's poorest countries.
The aim of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content.
Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and trends. While it is interesting to see what features in a host of categories, Africa is not even on the radar screen.
Cheered by the official end to more than 21 years of civil war, hundreds of Sudanese refugees broke into song and dance in a Nairobi stadium Sunday, as the Khartoum government and southern rebels put their signatures to a comprehensive peace agreement. "I now believe that God has not forgotten Sudan," refugee Said Majok said as tears of joy flowed down his face. The comprehensive peace agreement paves the way for more than three million people displaced within Sudan – as well as more than 500,000 refugees in neighbouring countries – to go home, however, it does not cover the conflict in Sudan's western province of Darfur.
On 10 December, 2004, the noted environmentalist, women's rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner Ms. Wangari Maathai became the first African woman - and one of only 12 women in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She first gained international recognition in 1977, when she founded the Green Belt Movement to combat deforestation and soil erosion in her native Kenya. Nearly three decades and 30 million trees later, the movement had literally transformed the Kenyan landscape and become an influential force for democracy and women's rights.
During an exclusive interview with Africa Renewal in New York on 19 December and published on January 06, the 64-year-old biologist spoke about her long struggle for environmental and social justice and challenged African governments to "do their part" to accelerate Africa's social and economic development. She spoke about the connection between human rights, democracy and environmental conservation, and called on industrialized countries to support African initiatives for peace, democracy and environmental justice. The interview is reproduced here in accordance with Africa Renewal's republication policy, which states that material may be freely reproduced, with attribution to "Africa Renewal, United Nations".
AR: Could you please talk about the connection between human rights and environmental issues, and how you came to it?
Maathai: It is not as if, 30 years ago, I saw the link and worked on it. I was responding to the needs of rural populations, especially women, who were looking for firewood. They were looking for food. They were looking for building materials, for fodder for the animals. They were trying to meet the basic needs in their communities.
I happened to be at the University of Nairobi at that time, teaching. At the same time I was participating in the National Council of Women of Kenya, which is an umbrella organization for women of different social backgrounds. Rural women would bring to the table the issues I've just mentioned.
In listening to those women -- and since I had grown up in the rural areas -- I immediately connected what they were asking for, with the environment, with the land. I suggested that what we needed was to plant trees, because if we planted trees we would get firewood. Of course it would take a long time, but not too long because we are in the tropics and trees grow very fast. At any rate I could not see an alternative. I said, "If we protect the soil and we don't lose the topsoil, we are likely to produce more food. If we plant indigenous food crops, we are more likely to get food that is more nourishing.
When I am confronted with a problem I want to know: What's the source? If I'm dealing with the symptoms, I will continue dealing with them for a very long time! But if I get to the bottom, I can deal with the cause.
I started seeing that we really needed to do massive rehabilitation of our land. We needed to stop soil erosion. And I realized we needed to do that in large numbers; we needed to organize.
It was then that I confronted the problem of democratic governance. I noticed that we really did not have a democratic system, because immediately we started organizing, the government did not want us to organize. The government said you cannot meet. You need a license. That was their way of controlling. I eventually understood that what the government was doing was preventing people from meeting, from sharing information, asking questions, getting to the root causes of the problems they were facing.
AR: You could have gone to the president and perhaps persuaded him to act, instead of mobilizing the people. But you didn't organize it that way. Why was that?
Maathai: I didn't organize it that way because in the beginning I did not even think anybody would interfere. I thought it would be almost automatic: if people wanted to organize, they should be able to organize. Why did the government refuse people to organize? Because the president himself did not want people informed, people organized. This was a way of controlling people.
By the time we were massively organizing -- in the mid-'80s -- nobody was paying much attention to us, because it was just a bunch of women organizing. But when President [Daniel arap] Moi started really getting a grip on the country, that's when this organizing became noticed. The government machinery decided it should not be allowed. There was need to control the information that was reaching the people.
Now, why do we not have adequate clean drinking water? It is because there is logging in the forests protected by the government. So if there is logging in the forests, we must ask the government that question. If the government is doing it to benefit itself -- to benefit individual members of the government or to benefit companies that are connected to the government -- then of course the government does not want anybody to ask those questions.
Another thing we have been very much concerned about is green open spaces in the cities. There was a lot of privatizing of green open spaces by the people in power, or rich people. They would take the space and sell it to businesspeople to build development complexes. But we needed open spaces. So if you're going to say you cannot privatize this green open space because it is necessary for the urban environment, then you're going to be in trouble with the government or people who are connected with the government, because they're the ones getting these spaces.
These are examples to show how I eventually came to understand the importance of democratic space to be able to protect the environment. And to understand that if you're in a system which does not allow its citizens to participate in decision-making, or demand certain decisions from their government, it is impossible to protect the environment. Therefore for me, the connection between protecting the environment, managing resources responsibly and allowing for equitable distribution of these resources to avoid conflict required democratic space. The [Nobel] committee recognized this holistic approach -- that we need democratic space to be able to manage our resources responsibly, sustainably and to be able to share them equitably.
Otherwise, sooner or later there will be conflict. And we had quite a bit in the country [Kenya]. Sometimes it can flare into major conflicts such as we saw in Rwanda, or as we are seeing in Darfur. [There are] many examples in the world. What are people fighting over? Natural resources. Where these conflicts are, there is not democratic government. It is a government that does not respect democratic space or human rights. It's a government where a few people are in charge and the majority are not.
AR: Most economists define development in a traditional way -- producing cash crops, industrial development, emphasizing trade. But you don't define it that way.
Maathai: No. Development to me is a quality of life. It's not necessarily acquisition of a lot of things. I have been using the example of an African stool. An African stool has three legs. On those legs balance a basin. One of those three legs is peace. Another is good governance. And the other is good management of our resources. Now this good management of our resources, as I've said, includes equitable distribution -- allowing as many people as possible to share in the natural resources. This allows as many people as possible to experience respect, dignity [and] respect of their rights -- and therefore avoids conflict.
When you have these three legs, then the basin to me is development. It may be a very small basin, but it may also be a very wide basin. That basin, if it is not resting on the three legs, will not last. It will collapse. Even in countries where we can think there is peace, there is dissension. There is dissatisfaction.
AR: What impact does the international economic system have on this stool?
Maathai: Quite often we are used to thinking in blocks. When we look at peace, we just concentrate on peace. We go to the United Nations and have a Security Council decision: how much money we want to use for reconstruction, how much for peacekeeping forces and all that. Another agency is looking at what kind of democratic space is needed. Another one is trying to see how resources are going to be managed. Everybody is looking at their own sectors differently. Hardly ever do they come together so that they work in synergy. That is partly why the basin doesn't hold.
The Norwegian Nobel peace committee has told the world two things. Firstly, it is extremely important for us to look at all these things holistically, together, simultaneously. Secondly, to invest before there is conflict. If we invested as many resources before the conflict as we invest after, we would probably prevent more conflicts in the world.
If we invested as many resources before the conflict as we invest after, we would probably prevent more conflicts in the world.
We spend so many resources trying to reconstruct, trying to rebuild peace. Yet before we went over the cliff, we were not too willing to work together, to work holistically and to invest all those resources to deal with the causes that threw us over that cliff!
Will the United Nations development agencies address this? I hope so. Will the governments in the industrialized countries address these issues that way? I hope so. Will the Africans -- I feel that a big challenge has come to Africa -- will the African governments address this holistically? I hope so. If we do, then we will have changed the way we think. We will have reached a new level of consciousness.
AR: Back in 1995 you gave a presentation at the Beijing women's conference that included criticism of the world economic system and globalization. Now, 10 years later, globalization is that much farther advanced. What are your views today?
Maathai: It has only gotten worse. Africa has not been given the opportunity to trade fairly. The trade balance, the trade tariffs, the rules and regulations which are required for Africa, are still very harsh, very unequal.
In the year 2000 we were part of the [debt reduction] campaign Jubilee 2000. The debt has continued to eat into the capital of Africa so strongly that many governments are still not able to service their people as long as they are servicing the debt. We raised all the issues why it should be cancelled, but the industrialized countries did not do very much. They did very little in terms of the HIPC [Heavily Indebted Poor Countries] initiative.
Unfortunately, our own governments have not done their part either. I remember the industrialized countries and even the World Bank saying, "If we cancelled this debt, it is not the poor who will benefit. It is the leaders -- who are corrupt, who are mismanaging the economies of your countries, who are undemocratic, who are engaging in wars and making it impossible for people to do even the little that they could -- who will benefit. Therefore it doesn't make any sense to cancel."
That's where the challenge is today -- for African governments to decide whether they want to continue doing business as usual or whether they want to appreciate this challenge that has been brought to us. If our friends want to assist, we need to create an enabling environment in Africa. An enabling environment will then require that the international system deals with African governments justly and fairly. But until we put that house in order, this international system will continue giving excuses.
Fortunately, there are some governments that have addressed some of the bottlenecks. Kenya is one good example. As part of our campaign, we eventually reached democracy in the year 2002. But the challenge is still on the African side to a very large extent, to not give an excuse to those who don't want to help us.
* For the rest of the interview, please click on the link below.
The target of reaching equality in basic education for girls and boys is being met in much of the world, but girls and women still faced inequality in the labour market, in domestic violence and in vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, the United Nations expert on gender issues has said. Educational opportunities were being equalized in many countries and probably would be nearly met by 2005, except in sub-Saharan Africa and southern and western Asia, she said at the opening of the Committee's 32nd session, said the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Rachel Mayanja, who told the 23-member Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) that girls and women were being denied decision-making roles, were being left in abject poverty and were vulnerable to being trafficked.
Women are yet to find their bearing in the decision making process of Ghana. Women constitute more than 50 per cent of the 21.5 million population of the country but their share of political and public office appointments is a miserly eight per cent. And this is in spite of years of continuous public education by a host of non- governmental organizations and women groups.
Malawi aims to more than triple the number of HIV-positive people in the country who are receiving antiretroviral drugs at no cost by July with the help of a $14 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Malawian health official said on Monday, AFP/Independent Online reports. Malawi in May 2004 began a five-year, $196 million nationwide program to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people at no cost.
This UNESCO HIV/AIDS and education toolkit aims to promote HIV/AIDS preventive education and to increase understanding of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and education and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the system. It asserts that the education sector has a crucial role to play in the national response to the epidemic; HIV/AIDS prevention should not be left only to the health sector.
Members of Great Britain's two main political parties in a letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph on December 24 launched a petition campaign that would force the European Union to redirect about $5.75 billion annually in farm subsidies to help people in Africa who are living with HIV/AIDS, Reuters reports. The 22 members of Parliament who signed the letter hope to utilize a "little-known" clause in the new E.U. Constitution -- which has not yet been ratified by member states -- that would force the European Commission to take action if one million signatures are collected, Reuters reports.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015 can be seen as operationalising the objectives of sustainable development. Sustained growth is a fundamental determinant of reducing poverty because it enables households to increase their income expenditure and it also provides the government with resources to provide infrastructure and social services, states Professor Ibrahim Lipumba from the University of Dar es Salaam in the paper for a November 2004 conference of the G24. But, says Lipumba, even with 100 percent debt cancellation, improved governance and effective public expenditure prioritization, domestic resources will not be adequate to break the poverty trap, and additional external assistance will be required.
UK Chancellor Gordon Brown began a week-long tour of Africa on January 12 with his aid project in serious jeopardy because of a failure to win American support. The Chancellor arrived in Nairobi at the beginning of a four-nation tour to promote his ambitious package of debt relief, aid and trade reform. His failure so far to win the backing of the United States threatens his goal of doubling global aid to $100 billion (£53 billion) under his International Finance Facility (IFF). Each of Mr Brown's visits has been carefully chosen to illustrate the benefits of his "Marshall plan", for example in Tanzania he will contrast the success of primary education, which has received a massive boost from debt relief, with healthcare, which is still in a parlous state.
Mozambique's main opposition party, RENAMO, will reserve action on its allegations of vote rigging till the country's supreme law-making body makes a ruling on the conduct of the December 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections. The former rebel movement's national council announced after meeting this week that although it rejected the election results, it would only call for elections in the areas where "irregularities" had been reported, according to Namubrete. Last month the party called for a re-run of the entire electoral process.
African leaders gave South African President Thabo Mbeki more time to negotiate peace in Cote d’Ivoire, but his mediation initiative ran into trouble hours later when rebels boycotted a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday at which he was guest of honour. A rebel spokesman accused Mbeki, who has been trying to broker a peace deal for the past two months, of “betrayal.” The African Union’s Peace and Security Council wrapped up a summit in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with a plea to all the Ivorian factions to overcome political sticking points and proceed with disarmament to pave the way for elections in October.
Last Friday, the leading Rwandese human rights organisation, La Ligue Rwandaise pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme (LIPRODHOR), closed its doors. All its employees are temporarily suspended, a suspension that will become permanent if donors are not found before March 2005. LIPRODHOR was the only independent human rights organisation in Rwanda that maintained human rights monitors at the provincial and district levels. The organisation's expected demise means that Rwandese, particularly those in rural areas, will no longer have an independent human rights monitor to either record or attempt to resolve their human rights complaints.
As new controversy flares over the Auditor General's report on the multi-billion rand arms deal, the Democratic Alliance has called for a judicial commission of inquiry. "It appears that, despite the AG's repeated denials, he was indeed forced to bow to political pressure from the executive and in particular from President (Thabo) Mbeki," DA defence spokesperson Eddie Trent said on Friday. "The controversy surrounding the arms deal will not go away until it is properly investigated by a judicial commission."
The AED Social Change Group's Center for Civil Society and Governance (CCSG) focuses on projects and research that strengthen democracy and the ability of citizens and citizen groups to solve social and political problems as well as influence policy decisions that affect their lives. CCSG oversees a variety of USAID Cooperative Agreements, including the Global Civil Society Strengthening (GCSS) and Capable Partners (CAP) Leader with Associates Awards and the Managing African Conflict (MAC) IQC. As a growing unit within AED, CCSG continually responds to proposals with democracy-building and civil society strengthening objectives.
The media will be a decisive factor in the post-conflict era. It can take on a strong, supportive role vis-à-vis the peace process; helping to inform the public of the peace agreement and its implications, facilitate public participation and reconciliation and help diffuse the many threats to the peace process through professional media activity. On the other hand, it can fail to do this, cater for divisive elements within the main warring camps, fuel remaining tensions and further deepen dangerous divisions within Sudan.
Visit the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the advancement of women for topical discussions on a range of issues. The latest discussion question is: "What, in your personal opinion, are some of the issues that have emerged during the last ten years with reference to the Beijing and Dakar Conferences?"
The African Union called on the international community to take tougher action in Ivory Coast and Congo, two of the continent's biggest crises that risk destabilising their wider regions. Thirteen heads of state and ministers from at least 10 other nations met late into Monday night to try to revive faltering peace efforts in the two countries as well as in Sudan's Darfur region, anxious to show the African Union (AU) is more than just a talking shop.
For centuries, Ugandans have used herbs to treat the symptoms of malaria. Although experience shows that they are effective, their safety has never been tested. Grace Nambatya-Kyeyune is determined to remedy this. Nambatya is director of research at the state-run Natural Chemotherapeutic and Research Laboratory (NCRL). Together with clinicians at Mulago hospital in Kampala, she is evaluating the toxicity of several herbal formulations used to combat malaria.
Science journalists from across Africa have formed a network to share experiences and information, and to improve coverage of science news on the continent. The African Federation of Science Journalists intends, among other things, to provide African science journalists with information about scholarships, training opportunities and awards. It will also serve as a forum for members to share ideas, experiences and contact details of relevant individuals and institutions.
The 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place in New York from 28 February - 11 March 2005. The Commission will be focusing on two thematic issues as outlined in its multi-year programme of work: A review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century"; and Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and empowerment of women and girls.
The world's richest countries are betraying promises made to help the poor in Africa according to a new CAFOD report, "Justice Not Charity". Rich countries committed in 2000 to the Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing poverty by 2015, but they have produced neither the necessary financing nor policies to achieve them. As a result, Africa is way off track in meeting the MDGs by the 2015 target. For example, Africa will according to projections only halve the numbers of people living in absolute poverty by 2147.
South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel will host a meeting on the economic chapter of the Commission for Africa on January 17 and 18 in Cape Town, the National Treasury announced on Tuesday. Composed of top global policy makers, including Manuel, the Commission for Africa was formed by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in February 2004 to advise on ways of dealing with the challenges facing Africa in the context of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
Via Campesina - the global alliance of peasant, family farmer, farm worker, indigenous, landless peoples and women's organizations, and other rural movements - calls for solidarity with the millions of people affected by the tsunami disaster and is launching a global fundraising campaign to channel assistance to affected communities of fisherfolk and peasants, for our own relief and reconstruction efforts, through our grassroots member organizations (http://www.viacampesina.org) and our sister organizations of fisherfolk.
Ruling Zanu PF party councillors and the police have taken over the vetting of hungry villagers requiring food under new distribution procedures that could see opposition supporters sidelined. Under the new procedures, which Zim Online witnessed being implemented in the Midlands province and in some parts of Manicaland, villagers must first get a letter from the Zanu PF councillor of their local ward stating that they should be allowed to buy cheaper priced maize from the government's Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
Zimbabwean police have reported yet another clash between rival groups within the country's ruling Zanu PF. Police in the remote, central district of Gokwe say two groups of angry supporters - each backing different contestants in primary elections - clashed at a small rural business centre "damaging a lot of property".
The world’s most impoverished countries are forced to pay over £30 million every day to the rich world in debt repayments, while millions of their people die from poverty. Jubilee Debt Campaign is asking supporters to send an email to those who have the power to end this injustice.
"As Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are implementing the recently signed Customs Union Protocol, the European Union is undermining integration between the countries through trade negotiations which have seen the three countries split up in two different negotiating blocs", said Jane Nalunga from Seatini, Uganda, at a conference in Nairobi on the current trade negotiations between the EU and ACP countries. At this very moment a series of negotiations on crucial issues, such as agriculture, industrial goods and services, are going on - negotiations which will open East African markets to a flood of European goods and services. Forty civil society representatives from ten countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have gathered in Nairobi during two days to voice their concerns on the negotiations on the so called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
In what some may describe as adding insult to injury, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi has appointed just four women to the country’s new 91-member cabinet. This came after only 22 of the 275 seats in parliament were allocated to women. Somalia’s constitution states that 12 percent of all decision-making posts in government should be reserved for women, which means that at least 10 women should have been appointed to cabinet, and 33 women to parliament.
The Chancellor of the British Exchequer (that is Finance Minister to you and I), Mr Gordon Brown, a man popularly believed until recently, to be THE heir apparent to Teflon Prime Minister, Blair, is visiting Africa this week, taking in four countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. In his bag of Goodies is a set of proposals that have been dubbed 'Gordon's Marshall Plan for Africa'.
A former political ally and friendly rival to Blair but now disgruntled by his friend's unwillingness to honour their gentle manly deal to step aside and allow Brown to take over as her majesty's Chief Minister is believed to be striking out differently from Blair to put his own stamp on both domestic and international policy in preparation for his eventual take over. So just as he has been doing inside Britain he is raising his stakes in the rivalry for compassion about Africa in a year in which Britain is heading both the G8 Club of rich nations and their first cousins in the European Union.
Blair has pledged to make Africa the centre piece of his dual presidency but since it is not a personal mandate Brown has every right to put his stamp on it too, just in case the crown falls on him before or after the British elections in May although my analysts are suggesting that because he has waited too long for the crown he may become yet anther 'great PM' Britain never had.
To be honest Brown has been a long campaigner for reforms of the International Monetary Fund and financial institutions to allow for greater debt relief and tremendous increase in Aid to poorer countries in the world.
His friends and their allies in the British media are calling his plan the Marshal Plan after the famous post second world war American General who master minded the post war reconstruction of Europe. This is more than a bit hyperbolic. First Brown is no general. Second, the Marshall plan was fully paid for by the US treasury without needing the support of ay other country as a price for keeping communism out of Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Britain, a middle ranking post imperial country, has neither the resources nor the clout to do the `same for a vast and diverse continent like Africa.
The whole British effort for this year is predicated on the potential influence it may wield as a result of the historical opportunity of being President of the EU and Chair of the G8 countries during 2005. This influence is being talked up but the reality is different.
There are a number of factors that will impact in a humbling way on this accident of history. One, this is an election year in Britain. It is safe to assume that the governing Labour Party will win another term but it is not certain what the composition of that government will be. Thus the unresolved Blair/Brown rivalry will limit British influence. We won’t know which of them will be able to deliver on what deal!
Two, Tony Blair has promised a referendum on Europe to Britain's Euroskeptic public and political classes. The outcome is not altogether a foregone conclusion. If you are a European leader why should you listen to any sermon from Blair about Africa or any other international issue when his country has yet to decide if they are travelling together with you on the Euro train.
Three, Blair's Prime Ministership and his cringing hanging on to Bush's coat tails show that when the chips are down he will follow Bush whatever the European consensus therefore why should other European leaders trust him? So British influence in Europe despite its Presidency will be severely limited.
Four, apart from EU consensus he needs also the support of his American bosses and other G8 countries for his grand vision since Britain is not able to unilaterally support a Marshall Plan for anybody. Again here the answer has to be in the negative. His 'shoulder to shoulder' toadyism with Bush has not yielded any fundamental influence on the neo-con provincial isolationists and unilateralists in power in Washington.
So where does that leave Blair's and Brown's grand plans for Africa? From where I am looking most of it will add to the mountains of well meaning initiatives and little action. Does this mean that there is nothing Britain can do? I am a political optimist therefore I always look at political possibilities. But both Blair and Brown have to abandon their missionary approach to Africa and concentrate on what they can deliver as a government and hope that their good example can catch on with other EU and G8 countries.
They also need to listen and act on what Africans have decided to do for themselves instead of bringing on new plans. Africa does not need new promises but fulfilment of old ones, both those we made to ourselves and those made to us by others.
I will suggest a number of indices of progress for Tony Brown and Gordon Blair. One, it is good that Brown is suggesting a massive increase in Aid budgets for Africa but while this may appeal to the liberal guilt of his western audience and the compassion entrepreneurs in the huge Aid and humanitarian industry it is not going to help Africa in the long run.
The other aspects of his plan concerning reform of trade and finance and Third World debt must receive greater attention. You can quadruple Aid but in the long run it will be like putting water in a basket if unequal trade and unfair financial dealings and debt trap the poor countries. It is not debt relief that is needed but universal debt cancellation. Let Britain lead by example then we will know that it is serious. Two, the demands of global trade and financial justice is not just at the level of commodities and terms of trade but should include labour access. After 5.00 pm (when most offices close) Africans and especially West Africans are in charge of the city of London because they are the cleaners, security staff, etc. Your traffic warden car park attendant, minicab driver and security personel in stores in many areas of London are more likely to be Africans these days. Many of them are highly qualified and professional people just 'doing anything' to make ends meet. Why can't Britain normalise their stay and let them compete on merit with their skills and experience instead of banishing them into the parallel economy of illegal immigrants, permanent part time students, over stayers, etc. Yet in some countries the remittances from these workers are even more than the total Aid into these countries. Many hospitals will not function if African doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff, etc stopped working. So who is aiding whom?
Three, and on this Britain can really inspire the rest of the world and cause a fundamental shift in global accountability, the city of London has been a major beneficiary of stolen money and other assets looted from Africa and other parts of the world by dictators and their Western masters and agents. If we can get back some of these looted funds British taxpayers need not be giving Aid to many African countries. If either Blair or Britain or together can deliver on these three points even critics and cynics like myself will hire praise singers and roll out the talking drums. But would they?
* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa
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A statement by South Africa’s ruling party concerning judicial reform has sparked heated debate in the country. The war of words erupted after the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement to mark its 93rd anniversary celebrations Saturday, that the judiciary did not share the aspirations of those who fought to end apartheid. This was the system of institutionalized racial segregation that prevailed in South Africa for over 50 years until 1994.
A human rights commission appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo has concluded that three of Nigeria's former military rulers were personally liable for extrajudicial killings perpetrated while they were in power. Its report, published on Wednesday after a delay of more than two years, recommended that all three men be banned from holding high office in the future. One of those fingered by the report, General Ibrahim Babangida, is widely believed to be lining up a bid to succeed Obasanjo as elected head of state in the 2007 presidential elections.
Senegal's fledgling gay movement is battling for recognition in the struggle against HIV/AIDS and hopes to win its first ever government grant to assist homosexuals living with the disease. The problem is that homosexuality is illegal in devoutly Muslim Senegal, and the MSM movement - the acronym stands for "Men who have sex with men" - is asking for funds from the government-run National Council to Fight AIDS (CNLS).
Ethiopia is one of eight pilot countries undergoing assessments by the UN's Millennium Task Force on achieving the eight goals. Next week the government will release its own MDG report spelling out it requirements if it is to achieve the targets. Ethiopia needs greater policy reform, particularly in the private sector, to help achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a senior UN official said on Tuesday.
The world's attention was grabbed by the calamity of the Asian tsunami at the end of the year, but millions of people in Southern Africa have entered 2005 unsure of whether they will find enough food to eat. The regional humanitarian crisis that began in 2002, and threatened 15 million people at its peak, has persisted in four countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Three long-serving Southern African leaders bade farewell to high office in 2004 and handed power to their chosen successors after largely free and fair elections, a development welcomed by analysts in the region. Polls in Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique saw the ruling parties celebrating victories for the candidates in line to succeed veteran leaders Bakili Muluzi, Sam Nujoma and Joaquim Chissano. The wins were, with the exception of Malawi, substantial enough to cement "consensus one-party states", with parliamentary opposition weakened, and more prominent roles for civil society as a focus for dissent, analysts told IRIN.