PAMBAZUKA NEWS 176: FROM BEIJING TO ADDIS ABABA: WHAT PROGRESS FOR AFRICAN WOMEN?
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 176: FROM BEIJING TO ADDIS ABABA: WHAT PROGRESS FOR AFRICAN WOMEN?
Twenty-eight Internet fraudsters have been arrested in Lagos, in joint operations between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the FBI.Also, USD3.5 million (N490 million) was recovered in fraudulent cashier cheques and goods bought over the Internet and shipped to Nigeria by credit card scammers.
African lobby groups, as well as community and independent media, are using free software and the internet to fight a lack of money and skills. The internet had also helped overcome the problems associated with widely dispersed audiences and, in some countries, government crackdowns on freedom of expression, speakers told the Highway Africa 2004 conference in Grahamstown last week.
Young Africans will soon have a better chance of getting education and training, thanks to a new Canadian program. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is assisting the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) to launch this fall a two-year $1.4 million pilot project designed to benefit up to 250 young men and women in eight African countries.
Kenya's human rights commissioner Tirop Kitru has criticised conditions at Meru jail, where seven prisoners have died. After a tour of the prison, Kitur said many of the inmates had open wounds because of the cramped conditions and poor ventilation. Prison officials say the prisoners who died suffocated in a cell the size of a single bed. Another 28 inmates are in hospital in a critical condition.
Renewed fighting in South Darfur State has reportedly driven at least 5,000 people from their homes in the last three days, non-governmental organisations operating in the area said on Tuesday. The displaced, they added, were now seeking shelter under trees and waiting without food, water or shelter.
A one week workshop is to be held from 8-12 November, 2004 for practitioners and researchers to evaluate the ECOWAS peacekeeping experience from a gender (women, peace and security) perspective, is to be held at The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Ghana. The workshop aims to ensure that gender mainstreaming is sufficiently incorporated into regional planning training and preparation for peace operations in the future.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police is running re-orientation courses in which officers are taught about the ill-treatment of blacks by whites including the killing by British settlers of Zimbabwe's 19th century spirit medium, Nehanda. Sources said the courses were meant to prepare the law enforcement agency for the crucial general election scheduled for March 2005, but have been criticized as being highly political and apparently meant to drive a wedge between the police and anyone who did not support the ruling Zanu PF party and government.
If you would like to receive the UN senior vacancy job lists attachment for
Fall 2004, send your request directly to [email protected]. For requirements, eligibility and application deadlines, please visit the United Nations website at UN Human Resources e-Staffing System at: https://jobs.un.org/release1/vacancy/vacancy.asp.
Ghanaians in The Netherlands have hailed a ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court (Raad van State) terminating exhaustive verification of documents tendered for legalization at the Dutch Embassy in Accra. The court presided by a former Justice minister mr. E. M. H. Hirsch Ballin ruled on two separate cases that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is only mandated to check the authenticity of the signature or stamp on the document and not the contents.
On Monday, October 4, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m in Washington, DC, an important discussion will be held with a delegation of Afro-Descendant women leaders from Central and South America. Women of African descent face compounded gender and race barriers and are among the most vulnerable groups in the region. This meeting will be an opportunity for Afro-Descendant Latin community leaders and activists to share experiences in promoting human rights and socioeconomic development for their communities.
On Friday, October 8, 2004, Power & Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: The Impact of Globalization and Civil Society on Media-Government Relations by Carl Patrick Burrowes (2004) will be presented and discussed in Washington, DC. The Writers' Corner provides a forum for prominent authors to debut their most current works on issues pertaining to Africa and the Diaspora.
A Cape-based project called Cell-Life has developed software and data management systems that enable the health workers at the Hannan Crusaid treatment centre in Cape Town's Guguletu township to monitor patients who are on AIDS drugs and pick up problems before they become life-threatening. Now, thanks to an innovative application of cellphone technology, is on the verge of becoming a paperless operation.
South Africans living abroad and at home are more confident about the country's future, and many South African expatriates are showing increasing interest in owning properties back home. A South African real estate group says this reflects a growing trend among those either wishing to invest in residential property back home or planning to return home in the future.
South Africa is the top foreign investor in Africa and the region's "most attractive country" for investment, according to an annual report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report noted the liberalisation of South Africa's regulatory regime and trade and exchange controls, and a technological advantage over other African firms as factors that had driven the country's outward FDI.
As South Africa rolls out its national treatment programme, the country continues to lose skilled healthcare professionals to wealthier nations abroad, leaving severe shortages in an already over-stretched public health system. In the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the human resources factor is even more critical. Civil society groups have warned that the government programme to provide free antiretrovirals (ARVs) could fall apart unless more professionals are attracted into the health system.
Ivory Coast's week of reconciliation, to mark the second anniversary of the crisis, ended with 160 children being made United Nations ambassadors of peace. The children, from throughout this divided country, spent four days in no-man's-land between the rebel and government forces learning how to avoid conflict.
The eviction of pastoralists from the Teso wetlands started yesterday and it was spearheaded by the local leaders, the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and security agencies. The two-week deadline given to the pastoralists to vacate the wetlands expired on Monday. The eviction started concurrently in Agu in Kumi district, Gweri sub-county in Soroti and Apujan in Katakwi district.
The campaign for the ratification of the African Union Protocol for the Rights of Women in Africa have published a pamphlet to help mobilise support. The pamphlet is based on the special issue of Pambazuka News 162 of 24 June 2004. Further details: contact Faiza Jama Mohammed.
This book examines the important question of whether international human rights law and Islamic law are compatible, whether Muslim States can comply with international human rights law while adhering to Islamic law. It argues that there are no fundamental incompatibility between these two bodies of law. ICCPR, ICESR and CEDAW are examined in detail. Oxford, OUP 2003 ISBN 019926659X
There is a pressing need to improve teaching skills in Sub-Saharan Africa. A 'brain drain' of teachers taking their skills elsewhere, combined with the effects of HIV/AIDS infection on the teaching profession, is holding back development of education in the region. The Higher Education at the Secretariat is collaborating with the Commonwealth of Learning, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Commonwealth Centre for Education to assist member countries as they implement policies in support of these six action areas.
Ama Ata Aidoo writes: "From the first days of its publication, it was obvious that Tsitsi Dangarembga's NERVOUS CONDITIONS" had the makings of a classic: a timeless coming-of-age tale, great lyrical narrative, unforgettable characters and courageous. Sixteen years down the line, the notion has been amply confirmed." With an introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah, the novel is published by Ayebia ISBN 0954702336
One of the most profoundly amazing features of human society is the manner in which we have created – often through difficult and protracted struggles amongst ourselves, notions and practices of inclusion and acceptability, as well as brutal rituals and systems of exclusion and denigration. The human narrative is rife with battles over the ownership of wealth and identity; over the occupancy of space and the control over the physical and creative capacities of some groups or individuals by others. We have differentiated amongst ourselves on the basis of colour and race; gender; location; sexual orientation; ability and; social class. All of these markers have fractured and or cemented into seemingly impenetrable and unchangeable social and cultural notions of who is considered human and who can or cannot belong to the heavily mediated and qualified ways.
All social groups and communities in the world have traveled the path of struggle and resistance against different forms of exclusion and impunity. And each group and the individuals who constitute it, have had to find the courage and the desire to imagine themselves 'outside' the bounded notions and enclosures that their respective societies have tried to lock them into. Working people; people with disabilities; black people, female people; people with a non-heterosexual orientation; and numerous other social groups have had to resist exclusion in order to initiate the process of becoming part of their societies. For example, working people have over the millennia struggled and demanded to be remunerated for their labour, and for as long as they fought as
individuals, trapped in a fundamentally unequal relationship to those who controlled and owned the means through which human life is sustained, they did not have a snow-balls chance in hell of succeeding.
However, when they finally recognized that collective agency is the most powerful resource available to those who are faced with discrimination and exploitation, the journey towards a changing relationship with their societies, and those who wielded power was initiated. And, most crucially, this journey entailed stepping outside the boundaries of the privatized locations within which human labour could and had been ruthlessly exploited, largely through the manipulation of individual vulnerabilities, fears and insecurities. The crucial change occurred when the struggles of working people became both public and political – and their demands and interests were located within the public domain. This led to the phenomenon of Rights as Entitlements to become a historical fact that had to be reckoned with, acknowledged and respected – albeit still with the caveat that the struggle to ensure and improve, exercise and protect those rights remains a central priority of all worker's movements and organizations universally.
Black people have taken a very similar journey through the human historical – especially during the past half millennium; bought and sold with impunity, commodified in ways that are unimaginable but real in the living memory of millions of Africans around the world, immortalized in the blatantly inhuman practices of enslavement and barbaric cruelty on all the continents of the earth. And whilst the struggle against racist exclusion and supremacist impunity continues to rage on the African continent and in the diaspora, the transition from enslavement to recognition that Africans are human and persons occurs also when we collectively, persistently and with incorrigible resilience, struggle against the violation of our integrity and personhood as individuals with a collective identity and agency.
Why have I used such a detailed preface to arrive at the issue of the rights of African women today? There are many reasons, but for purposes of this short discussion, I would like to draw attention to two aspects or commonalities among these three social categories of human beings who have had to 'earn' the right to be recognized, and sometimes treated as human beings – and more recently as citizens of the societies they live in.
First of all, it is important to draw attention to the historical significances and commonalities between the struggles of working people, black people and women. We must look at these groups within a context and time period where neo-liberalism is trying to depoliticize and appropriate the legacies of each group in the academy, through post-structuralist and post-modernist claims and dismissive rhetoric, and through scrutiny, censorship and the sanitization of political debates at the policy levels in both state and civil society groups everywhere.
Secondly, while the struggles against exploitation, racism and sexism have been waged at different moments and in varied arenas over centuries of time, it is in the lives and on the bodies of black women – of African women – that these three crucial social differentiators play themselves out in the most dramatic and in-human ways.
Much has been written, said, declared and pronounced with regard to the human rights of women – globally and within Africa, much of which is admirable and often quoted. Therefore, while the statement in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that proclaims "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood" flew in the face of colonial and apartheid reality, in addition to being overtly and unabashedly sexist and exclusionary in its language and content – it did mark an interesting moment in the ideological and moral shift within the West as well as globally.
Without a doubt, since 1948 women all over the world have become visible and vocal in ways that were unthinkable only a few decades ago. In 1993, through the crafting of the Vienna Declaration, women from all walks of life across the globe insisted on the recognition and adoption of an international protocol that stated categorically that "The Human Rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable and indivisible part of Universal Human Rights" (Article 18). With hind-sight, it is clear that we have come a long way within human society; from a place where we were booty and bounty – things to be bought sold, exchanged and used – to currently standing at the cusp of a vibrant, modern identity; an identity that has become one of the most distinctive features of the progress in all our societies. Our conviction in ourselves and the determination to change our communities, families, societies, nations – the world, have become the flags that governments and often quietly resentful males of all classes, ages, colours and social statuses nonetheless proclaim as collective social achievements.
However, beyond the Conventions and Declarations lies the reality that much of what is understood as women's human rights are still basically rhetorical and inaccessible to the majority of African women. There are undoubtedly instances where small minorities of middle class women who have the knowledge, resources, mobility and courage to demand access, are able to exercise such rights in situations that affect their private and public lives. But for the vast majority of African women, rights are barely a dream; especially for those women who are located in the deeply feudal, privatized spaces of the countryside, or in the slums and ghettos on the margins of the cities and towns, or in the desolate vulnerability of so-called refugee camps – places where misogynist violation and impunity rampage across the lives and bodies of women and their children with a vengeance almost impossible to imagine or bear. Here, in these places of ruin and destruction, of incredible pain and waste of human life and worth - awaits the critical challenge to the claim that African women have human rights that are real and reachable.
That is why I would like to interrogate and juxtapose, even if only briefly, the claims of the current notion of Human Rights, in its liberal, universalistic, all-inclusive rhetorical construction, against an analysis of women's oppression and social exclusion from the category of 'human-ness'. 'Human-ness' centers the notions of bodily/physical integrity, autonomy, dignity and personhood vis-a vis the prevailing and dominant systems and practices of patriarchal supremacy, impunity, sexism and the private ownership of women as 'things' – as social goods that are born, bred, socialized and used by males, everywhere.
The fact of the matter is that Rights are the social outcomes of struggles and political engagements not only with the state, but with those institutions and structures within patriarchal societies that have institutionalized and preserved – and which protect and perpetuate the privileges and prerogatives – of maleness and male power. In every African country, the state, core patriarchal institutions and individuals across all the social divides, actively and deliberately collude and perpetuate practices and cultural myths that facilitate for or directly violate the human-ness of women and female children.
And the patriarchal, heterosexual family is the earliest and most resistant site of male control over the female body and its capabilities. In Africa, one need only look at the relationships of authority, control, surveillance and violation that men exercise over women and female children in particular, as their 'right' as the man who owns a family (or even as a brother or uncle) to see the connections between the denial of women's human-ness and personhood, and the perpetuation and institutionalization of male privilege in all the societies of the continent.
In these privatized spaces of families and rural areas where often the most basic infrastructure through which individuals could begin to acquire a consciousness of entitlement and a sense of being 'righted' simply do not exist, millions of women and female children survive in almost pre-historic conditions. The state remains a distant arbiter of tensions and conflict among males, often intervening only to intensify the crises of social and political reproduction in a particular location – in places like Darfur at the present time – and women and their families become trapped in the age-old struggles between males over the control of critical resources – both material and ideological, with disastrous consequences. In situations such as these, it becomes crystal clear that in spite of the fine sounding rhetoric and the claims by neo-colonial African states that they recognize and respect the rights of women (and poor men), the reality is actually radically different.
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Rights have to be understood and experienced not only as rhetorical devices in the articulation of demands and particular interests by classes or social categories of people within a society. Much more than that, they have to become the expression of an interactive, negotiated, flexible and mutually respective relationship between individuals – in this case women as individual persons – and the state, which is the dominant social and political player in the lives of Africans at the present time, regardless of whether we accept the existence of the state or not.
Humans invent and create states as mechanisms through which the tensions between and among groups and classes of people can be discussed, managed, negotiated and hopefully resolved. We create states so that they can manage and distribute, in the most equitable manner, those critical resources that our societies are endowed with, on behalf of those who cannot compete with others – for reasons related either to class, age, gender, and or other exclusionary systems that emerge in societies that are socially and economically differentiated.
Therefore, for all the reasons that historians, social scientists, and philosophers have ponder upon and debated for millennia, the state must always be made accountable and responsible to the people, regardless of who the people are. This is a fundamental premise for the existence of the state. And the protection of women's physical, sexual, and bodily integrity as citizens of our societies is neither negotiable nor open to any kind of compromise. The integrity and wholeness of women's bodies; their right to a life with dignity and protection is a responsibility that the state cannot and must not be allowed to compromise as an accommodation of some backward notion of cultural authenticity or African-ness. The Right of women and girls to integrity in all its aspects is fundamental to making rights real for women everywhere.
Pat McFadden is a feminist activist and writer currently based in the US.
* The full text of this article is available at the link shown below
The fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995 raised hopes of a substantial improvement in women's condition across the world and particularly in Africa. The Beijing Declaration and programme of action considered by the United Nations' Secretary General to be "one of the most remarkable documents ever produced by an intergovernmental conference [1] " commits States to taking concrete action in twelve priority areas in relation to women's autonomy. Ten years after Beijing and on the heels of the seventh regional conference at Addis Ababa, in evaluating the implementation of the platform of Action adopted there, where are we now? Have African women and girls really made remarkable gains in such essential areas as education, fundamental human rights, violence against women, their participation in decision making, health and the fight against poverty?
Notable progress but significant challenges remain in education
Education, a fundamental human right for women, is also a tool for transformation and an essential means of implementing egalitarian objectives, development and peace. In ten years of implementation of the Beijing platform, noticeable progress has been made in education and training for women and girls. Effort to bring about universal primary education for all, positive discrimination in favour of women's and girls' education and training in areas apparently reserved for men, and awareness-raising campaigns have had encouraging results. However, there are still major constraints on equal access to education form men and women. Cultural practices and stereotypes have a negative influence on access, maintenance and development of girls across the whole school curriculum. Credits allocated are usually insufficient, girls continue to be the object of sexual harassment in educational institutions, as is evidenced by the concept of "sexually transmitted marks" which persists under different appellations in several African countries. These are only a few of the challenges to be faced before women and girls enjoy full human rights in education and training.
For the complete article in English: Further details: http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=24944
DE BEIJING A ADDIS ABEBA : QUELS PROGRES POUR LES FEMMES AFRICAINES?
De Beijing à Addis Abéba : quels progrès pour les femmes africaines?
La tenue de la quatrième Conférence mondiale sur les femmes à Beijing en septembre1995 a nourri des espoirs pour une amélioration substantielle de la condition des femmes dans le monde et notamment en Afrique. En effet, la Déclaration et le programme d'action de Beijing considérés par le Secrétaire Général de l'Organisation des Nations-Unies comme " l'un des plus remarquables documents jamais produit par une Conférence intergouvernementale [1] " engagent les États à mener des actions concrètes dans douze domaines prioritaires en vue de l'autonomisation des femmes. Dix ans après Beijing, et à l'orée de la septième Conférence régionale d'Addis Abéba, devant évaluer la mise en ?uvre de la plateforme d'Action qui y a été adoptée, où en sommes nous? Les femmes et les filles africaines ont-elles vraiment acquis des gains remarquables dans des domaines aussi essentiels que l'éducation, les droits humains fondamentaux, la violence à l'égard des femmes, leur participation aux prises de décision, la santé et la lutte contre la pauvreté ?
Des progrès notoires qui laissent subsister cependant d'importants défis en matière d'éducation
L'éducation, droit humain fondamental des femmes, est aussi un outil de transformation et un moyen essentiel de réalisation des objectifs d'égalité, de développement et de paix. En dix ans de mise en ?uvre de la plate forme de Beijing, des progrès ont été remarqués en matière d'éducation et en formation des femmes et des filles. Les efforts pour concrétiser l'éducation universelle primaire pour tous, des actions de discrimination positive en faveur de l'éducation et de la formation des femmes dans des domaines qui semblaient être réservés aux hommes et des campagnes de sensibilisation ont permis d'obtenir des résultats encourageants. Cependant, on note toujours des contraintes majeures à une jouissance égale du droit à l'éducation par les hommes et les femmes. Les pratiques culturelles et les stéréotypes influent négativement sur l'accès, le maintien et l'évolution des filles tout au long du cursus scolaire. Les crédits alloués sont généralement insuffisants, les filles continuent d'être l'objet de harcèlement sexuel dans les établissements de formation comme en témoigne le concept de "notes sexuellement transmissibles" en vigueur sous des appellations différentes dans plusieurs pays africains. Ce ne sont là que quelques-uns uns des défis à relever pour que les femmes et les filles jouissent pleinement du droit fondamental à l'éducation et à la formation.
Aller vers une concrétisation des droits humains fondamentaux des femmes
La question des droits des femmes en Afrique a connu une évolution remarquable du point de vue du cadre juridique de référence. Les pays africains ont presque tous ratifié la Convention sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l'égard des femmes (CEDEF), instrument juridique de référence sur le plan mondial.
Sur le plan régional africain, la nomination d'une rapporteure spéciale sur les droits de la femme la première fois en 1998 par l'ancienne OUA sur proposition de la Commission africaine des droits de la femme a été perçue comme une opportunité à saisir afin qu'une plus grande attention soit accordée aux droits des femmes. Un protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme a été adopté en juillet 2003.
Au niveau national, la plupart des constitutions reconnaissent à tous les citoyens les mêmes droits humains fondamentaux sans discrimination basée sur le sexe. On a assisté ces dernières années à des réformes législatives visant globalement à reconnaître et à protéger les droits humains fondamentaux des femmes [2] . Des services d'aide juridique gratuits sont mis à la disposition des femmes dans tous les pays, des volontaires à l'éducation aux droits connus sous l'appellation de parajuristes ou juristes aux pieds nus font un travail de sensibilisation aux droits des femmes sur le terrain. Des actions de renforcement de capacité à l'endroit des acteurs chargés d'appliquer le droit sont initiées ici et là. Ces progrès sont appréciables.
Cependant, de nombreux obstacles doivent encore être surmontés en vue d'une jouissance effective de leurs droits par les femmes.
Plusieurs pays ont émis des réserves à la CEDEF. Le protocole relatif aux droits des femmes africaines attend de recevoir le nombre minimum de ratifications requises pour être applicable. Les difficultés actuelles rencontrées pour obtenir la ratification de cet instrument ne sont-elles pas le signe d'un manque de volonté politique des gouvernements? Ces derniers se sont engagés encore une fois en juillet 2004 à Addis Abéba à ratifier le protocole avant 2005. Le point sur cette question au terme de l'échéance qu'ils se sont fixés eux-mêmes nous édifiera définitivement sur l'existence d'une volonté politique de promouvoir les droits des femmes. Toujours au niveau régional, la première rapporteure spéciale sur les droits des femmes ainsi que celle dont le mandat est actuellement en cours se heurtent à des difficultés de moyens pour faire un travail consistant, susceptible de faire avancer les droits des femmes.
Au niveau des pays, beaucoup de lois faisant partie de l'arsenal juridique interne renferment toujours des dispositions qui constituent une véritable négation des droits fondamentaux des femmes : les codes des personnes et de la famille confèrent dans presque tous les pays africains le monopole du pouvoir de décision au mari chef de famille. L'instauration au Mali du devoir d'obéissance de la femme au mari illustre bien la non reconnaissance du pouvoir de décision à la femme au sein du foyer dans la plupart des législations africaines. Au Togo, la loi donne au mari la possibilité de s'opposer à l'exercice d'une profession séparée par la femme. Dans le même pays comme dans bien d'autres, les successions coutumières légalisées par le code des personnes et de la famille excluent les femmes de l'accès aux biens successoraux. Au Sénégal, au Mali, c'est toujours une disposition légale qui autorise l'application des successions musulmanes qui n'accordent aux femmes que la moitié de la part de leur collatéral homme dans la succession de leur ascendant. Les dispositions en vigueur dans les relations de travail interdisent parfois l'accès des femmes à certains emplois dans plusieurs pays ou soumettent la titularisation des femmes stagiaires à la production d'un certificat médical attestant qu'elles ne sont pas enceintes.
À ces dispositions discriminatoires s'ajoutent les vides juridiques qui ne permettent pas de protéger les femmes face aux nouvelles formes de violations de droits.
Enfin, dans la pratique, les femmes africaines continuent de subir de nombreuses violations des droits qui leur sont pourtant reconnus. Dans beaucoup de pays, elles n'ont pas le même accès à la justice que les hommes.
Les causes de ces nombreuses violations de droits des femmes sont multiples et complexes. Il y a bien sûr l'ignorance des lois et de leurs droits par les femmes, mais aussi par les hommes et les différentes composantes de la société. Cette ignorance est aggravée chez les femmes par leur situation d'analphabétisme. La pauvreté de ces dernières est un facteur favorisant la violation de droits. Il y a aussi le rôle négatif que jouent un certain nombre d'acteurs judiciaires et extrajudiciaires (magistrats, avocats, médecins, police judiciaire, chefs traditionnels et religieux) intervenant dans le règlement informel ou formel des conflits. Alors que leur mandat les prédestine naturellement à ?uvrer pour la protection des droits des individus, l'observation a montré qu'ils contribuent dans bien des cas aux violations de droits des femmes [3] . Le Rapport Mondial sur le Développement Humain 2002 confirme ce constat dans un encadré sur le partis pris contre les femmes et les procédures judiciaires [4] .
Deux autres paramètres sont déterminants dans le peu de progrès enregistrés sur le plan de l'effectivité des droits des femmes. Il s'agit du manque de volonté politique des Etats qui, malgré leurs engagements, ne montrent que peu de détermination dans la plupart des pays à poser des actes concrets mais aussi de l'influence du fondamentalisme religieux.
Pour aller de l'avant il est pourtant indispensable que des pas importants soient franchis à l'avenir vers une concrétisation de ces droits.
La participation aux prises de décisions publiques : un droit encore théorique?
Un pas important a été franchi dans la représentation parlementaire des femmes au niveau de certains pays comme le Rwanda classé au premier rang mondial avec 48 % de femmes au parlement depuis 2003. Cependant, la faible représentation des femmes dans les instances de prise de décisions publiques amène à conclure que leur participation reste un droit théorique reconnu aux femmes africaines. Les statistiques de l'Union Interparlementaire sont éloquentes à cet effet. En septembre 2002, au niveau de la représentation nationale, l'Afrique subsaharienne venait en avant-dernière position (avant les pays arabes dont le pourcentage de femme dans les parlements est de 5 %) avec un taux de représentation des femmes au parlement de 13,6 % [5] . La participation au pouvoir exécutif qui n'était guère plus reluisante se situait autour de 10 % [6] . Les mêmes statistiques au 31 juillet 2004 montrent un léger progrès dans la représentation parlementaire avec une moyenne de 14,4 %, toutes chambres confondues. Ces résultats ne sont pas étonnants lorsque l'on considère que même dans la sphère privée, et notamment au sein des familles, le pouvoir de décision est toujours exercé par les hommes. Il en est ainsi également lorsque exceptionnellement, comme au Burkina Faso, selon la loi la famille doit être dirigée collégialement par l'homme et la femme.
De manière générale, les femmes du continent vivent encore dans des sociétés patriarcales au sein desquelles les hommes ont le contrôle sur la prise de décision à tous les niveaux ainsi que sur les ressources.
Persistance de la violence à l'égard des femmes, malgré quelques efforts
Des efforts ont été notés en matière de violence à l'égard des femmes depuis Beijing. Ils ont consisté en l'adoption de lois réprimant certaines formes spécifiques de violence telles que les mutilations génitales féminines, les violences domestiques et le harcèlement sexuel [7] . Les ONG ont sensibilisé les populations sur les effets de la violence à l'égard des femmes et constitué des coalitions pour lutter contre le phénomène. Cependant, la violence à l'égard des femmes persiste dans le cadre familial et professionnel, dans la communauté et la société sous diverses formes : violences physiques morales et psychologiques, bains d'acide, mutilations génitales féminines, viol conjugal, harcèlement sexuel, et exploitation des femmes et des filles etc. On continue d'assister dans beaucoup de pays à des mariages forcés de filles et au lévirat [8] , malgré l'exigence légale du consentement personnel des époux au mariage. Des formes particulières de violence comme la traite des femmes et des filles prennent de l'ampleur dans la sous région Afrique de l'Ouest.
Ici encore, les obstacles sont liés au fait que les lois sont difficilement appliquées et les ressources allouées aux actions sont insuffisantes. La pression sociale, les préjugés et les pesanteurs socioculturelles inhibent les résultats des actions qui sont menées. Si l'on a assisté à une prise de conscience de plus en plus croissante des populations et, notamment des hommes qui commencent à être associés à la lutte contre les violences à l'égard des femmes, le chemin semble encore long vers une réduction considérable de ce type de violence.
La santé : trop de femmes qui meurent encore en donnant la vie ou subissent le fléau du VIH/SIDA
Sur le plan de la santé, l'adoption de politiques et de lois notamment en santé de la reproduction a facilité la mise en ?uvre de programmes sensés permettre aux femmes de progresser vers une meilleure jouissance de leurs droits et un plus grand contrôle de leur corps. Cependant, les chiffres des différents rapports annuels sur le développement humain jusqu'en 2004 ont toujours indiqué un taux élevé de mortalité maternelle et de femmes enceintes souffrant d'anémie.
Bien plus, la question émergente dans tous les pays, en matière de santé, est la vulnérabilité particulière des femmes au VIH/SIDA [9] . Différentes analyses mettent clairement en relief le lien entre les violations des autres droits des femmes et leur vulnérabilité à cette pandémie. Que trop de femmes meurent aujourd'hui encore en donnant la vie, ou subissent le VIH/SIDA, n'est donc pas une fatalité.
Des conflits armés qui continuent de peser particulièrement sur les femmes et les filles
La multiplication des situations de conflits armés en Afrique Centrale et de l'Ouest notamment favorise et accentue les formes spécifiques de violence à l'égard des femmes. Il s'agit de viols, exactions de tout genre, commis parfois par des agents de l'État ou des travailleurs humanitaires sensés les protéger. Une évolution positive en matière de répression de ces types de violences a été constatée dans le travail des tribunaux sur le Rwanda et la Sierra Leone qui ont jugé certains de ces actes. Mais cette catégorie d'actes répréhensible reste en général encore impunie.
Les femmes ont compris l'importance de s'organiser pour être plus visible dans les actions de prévention, de gestion des conflits, et de mieux participer à la reconstruction post conflit. L'exemple du Réseau de la paix en Afrique de l'Ouest des femmes de la rivière Mano (MARWOPNET) en est la preuve. Cependant, on est bien obligé de reconnaître que des efforts doivent être encore faits pour une participation des femmes au même titre que les hommes à la prévention et à la gestion des conflits ainsi qu'à la reconstruction de la paix [10] .
En toile de fond, la pauvreté qui prend un visage de femme
Tous ces constats ont pour toile de fond la pauvreté qui prend de plus en plus un visage de femme. Plusieurs actions et stratégies ont été développées par les Etats en vue de la réduction de la pauvreté comme en témoignent les nombreux plans de lutte appliqués dans les pays. Néanmoins, les plans ne sont pas conçus dans une perspective égalitaire et ils ne sont pas suffisamment sensibles aux problèmes et aux intérêts stratégiques des femmes. Les actions et stratégies qui y sont inscrites permettent rarement aux femmes d'avoir un contrôle des ressources et des facteurs de production.
Les programmes d'ajustement structurel et la globalisation sont par ailleurs des facteurs qui ont accentué la pauvreté des femmes africaines. La globalisation renforce le caractère inégalitaire de l'ordre économique mondial en limitant l'accès et la maîtrise des rouages du marché international par les femmes.
Il n'y a en définitive aucun doute que l'application qui a été faite de la plate forme d'action de Beijing n'a pas été à la hauteur des attentes des femmes africaines. Mais un des acquis de la Conférence de Beijing est que ces dernières ont pu en dix ans s'organiser davantage pour se constituer en véritable lobby poussant les gouvernements à agir. Au niveau régional, l'adoption de la parité au sein de la commission de l'Union africaine et du Conseil économique, social et culturel (ECOSOCC) [11] et d'un protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme sont des exemples de ce qu'elles peuvent obtenir lorsqu'elles sont bien organisées. De même au niveau national, les groupes de pression féministes ont réussi à obtenir des réformes de politiques et de lois importantes pour les femmes dans divers pays.
Il est à présent urgent que ces mouvements soient amplifiés et conduisent les États à réaliser davantage de programmes et à prendre des mesures concrètes qui font vraiment une différence dans la vie des femmes et des filles d'Afrique.
Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is coordinator of the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) in West Africa (http://www.wildaf-ao.org)
NOTES
[1] Déclaration et programme d'action de Beijing suivis de Beijing+5 Déclaration politique et document final, Nations Unies, Département de l'information Organisation des Nations Unies. New York, 2002.
[2] On peut citer en exemple toute la série de lois sur les mutilations génitales féminines enregistrées à la fin des années 1990 et au début de l'an 2000 au Togo, au Sénégal, en Côte d'Ivoire, au Kenya ; l'adoption récente en 2002 du code des personnes et de la famille au Bénin, le même processus en cours au Mali et au Togo où il est plus précisément question d'une révision du code des personnes et de la famille en vigueur depuis 1980 ; l'adoption de lois également sur les violences domestiques au Sénégal, sur le harcèlement sexuel dans le même pays et en Côte d'Ivoire ; l'adoption de lois sur les quota pour la participation des femmes en politique au Cap-Vert et au Niger.
[3] Fort heureusement, les actions mises en ?uvre à l'instar du programme de renforcement de capacité des acteurs judiciaires et extrajudiciaires réalisé en Afrique de l'Ouest par le WiLDAF/FeDDAF ont montré que ces acteurs peuvent contribuer plus efficacement au respect des droits des femmes lorsqu'ils sont sensibilisés et reçoivent les informations appropriées concernant les normes en vigueur.
[4] P.66.
[5] L'analyse des données par pays confirme cette tendance malgré les différences parfois considérables entre pays. Ainsi, le Sénégal enregistre le plus fort taux de participation dans la sous région Afrique de l'Ouest avec 19,2 % de femmes au parlement depuis les élections de avril 2001. Ces taux sont respectivement de 12 %, 11,7 %, 9 %, 6 % et 4,9 % au Nigeria (élections de février 1999), au Burkina-Faso (élections de mai 2002), au Ghana (élections de décembre 2000), au Bénin (élections de mars 1999).
[6] Population Reference Bureau, Les femmes dans le Monde 2002.
[7] Une campagne contre les violences faites aux femmes et le trafic des femmes et des enfants devrait débuter d'ici deux ans sur tout le continent africain si l'on se réfère à la déclaration solennelle faite par les Chefs d'État de l'Union Africaine lors de la dernière Conférence à Addis Abéba en juillet 2004. (Assembly/AU/Decl.12 (III) Rev.1)
[8] Lévirat : « Obligation d'un frère d'un défunt d'épouser la veuve sans enfants de celui-ci.»
[9] Un rapport de UNAID, UNFPA et UNIFEM de juillet 2004 révèle que 57 % des adultes séropositifs en Afrique sub-saharienne sont des femmes.
[10] Il faut espérer que l'Union Africaine mettra en ?uvre ce qu'elle a déclaré sur l'intégration des femmes dans les processus de paix lors de la dernière Conférence des Chefs d'État en juillet 2004 dans la déclaration solennelle sur l'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes et qui se lit comme suit : Qu'ils ont convenus d'« assurer la pleine participation et représentation des femmes au processus de paix … et de désigner des femmes comme envoyées spéciales et représentantes spéciales de l'Union Africain;» (Assembly/AU/Decl.12 (III) Rev.1)
[11] 50 % des membres du Conseil devra respecter le principe d'égalité du genre (article 4.2).Statuts adoptés lors de la Conférence de juillet 2004. (Assembly/AU/Dec. 48 (III))
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
This article examines the emerging human rights issue of trafficking in humans, mainly women and children. In a protocol supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, trafficking has been defined as: "…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practises similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."
Statistics about trafficking are unreliable for a number of reasons, including the clandestine nature of the activity. However, rough estimates suggest between 700,000 to 2 million women are trafficked across international borders annually. Adding domestic trafficking would bring the total much higher, to perhaps 4 million persons per year. Although slavery has been abolished from the world, the trade in human misery continues. Women are still considered property in some communities and may be sold into marriage. Men or women may be coerced into working in brothels, sweat shops, construction sites and fields. Many illegal immigrant workers may be subjected to sexual violence, horrific living conditions, threats against their families and dangerous workplaces. The majority of trafficked people are women and girls, most of who, according to experts, are sent from Africa and Eastern Europe for the sex trade in Western Europe. Thus, human trafficking is the fastest growing form of modern day slavery and our governments must play a concerted role to deal with it.
Although the problem is worldwide this paper will examine the problem as it affects Africa in particular.
The Dimensions of the Problem
Human trafficking has become a global business, generating huge profits for traffickers. New trafficking routes are regularly established and the market for fraudulent travel documents, clandestine transportation and border crossing has become increasingly well organised. Some victims are lured into subjugation by advertisements for good jobs. Others are sold into service by a relative, acquaintance or family friend. Traffickers target the most vulnerable and poor and may show up during a drought or before harvest, when food is scarce, to persuade poor families to sell their daughters for small amounts of money. According to a UNICEF study released in April 2004, about 80 percent of African countries researched, practice some form of human trafficking. The study also found that children were the most vulnerable to being exploited. Fifty-three countries were surveyed in this extensive research into the problem of human trafficking in Africa and analysis reported that although it was not possible to get reliable estimates on the actual number of people being trafficked, it continues to be a huge problem. The study found that in almost 89 percent of the cases, trafficking was conducted internally in Africa, meaning trafficking of women and children from African countries to African countries. The study also found that in 34 percent of the cases, there were cases of trafficking to Europe, and more interestingly, 26 percent of African countries were reporting trafficking directly to Middle Eastern and Arab countries. Trafficking is also increasing the HIV/AIDS scourge fuelled by the myth about curative powers of virginity of young girls. In some of the hardest hit countries, teenage girls are infected at five-to six times compared to that of teenage boys. Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting large numbers of children. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year.[i] There is demand for trafficked children as cheap labour or for sexual exploitation. Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives lie in other countries.
Root Causes and reasons for Trafficking in human beings
- Poverty and inequity are believed to be the root causes of trafficking;
- Conflict situations are a fertile environment for human trafficking;
- Gender discrimination within the family and the larger community, as well as a tolerance of violence against women and children, also come into play;
- Lack of appropriate legislation and political will to address the problem;
- Restrictive immigration policies;
- Globalisation of the sex industry; and
- The involvement of transnational organised crime networks is another causal factor.
The situation in Africa- A scan
In Africa, every country represents a different problem. Patterns of instability, oppression and discrimination may place women and children at greater risk, with social and cultural prejudices and the prevalence of gender violence presenting additional challenges to their effective protection from trafficking. The links between poverty, violence and trafficking have been compounded by the effects of HIV/AIDS. For many Africans trapped in the trade, it can be difficult to escape the clutches of traffickers. Often the victims' families boost their low income by tacitly cooperating with traffickers, which some see as the only option for leaving their countries and the accompanying problems. The only way out they have is to move, and since it is illegal in many instances to enter another border without proper authorisation, the only option they have is to go through trafficking patterns.
Trafficking is perceived as a particular problem among West and Central African countries, mainly because most of the countries in the region are origin countries.[ii] In West Africa, victims originating from war torn Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone, end up in Nigeria and Gabon, while individuals from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola are taken to South Africa, one of the only countries with an anti trafficking programme. African governments have not ratified much in terms of international conventions. The laws are inadequate so that while traffickers are usually apprehended, they are rarely condemned. For example, in Benin there is no anti-trafficking law but the country does have decrees, issued in 1905 and 1920, which address international and transnational trafficking. A 1961 law addresses the movement of minors under the age of 18 across borders and a 1973 ordinance modified the penal code 'sur la traite des personnes et l'enlèvement des mineurs.' In Burkina Faso, trafficking is a serious problem due its geographical location at the centre of Africa. It has become a transit country that receives people from different parts of the continent. Burkina Faso subscribes to the definition of trafficking in the UN Trafficking Protocol. Cote D'ivoire is a country of destination, transit and origin. However, there is still no law expressly forbidding trafficking. Due to the political crisis in the country authorities have not been able to pay sufficient attention to human trafficking. Many African governments are yet to ratify the main international conventions outlawing the trade in humans. African countries need to increase efforts and work in close cooperation with one another to eradicate trafficking in humans. South Africa has become a major centre for the problem-simultaneously a destination, a trading point and a source of human sale. Human trafficking in South Africa is currently dealt with under a variety of laws such as those against kidnapping and prostitution, which government agencies say have proved inadequate in dealing with the crime. A new law to specifically criminalize trafficking for sexual purposes is currently being prepared for consideration by legislators. As recently as August 2004, Home Affairs Ministers from Southern African Countries meeting in Tanzania, ordered law enforcements in the region to intensify measures against human trafficking. The ministers also pledged to review legislation in their respective countries to ease the transfer of evidence for criminal prosecution of suspects.
UN and African Protocols
The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted on 15 November 2000 by resolution A/RES/55/25 and came into force on 25 December 2003. Although the majority of African countries have signed the original protocol, (Transnational Organized Crime), those that have ratified it as of 18 September 2004 include, Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa but with reservations, and Tunisia. Countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, to mention but a few have not even signed the Protocol. Out of fifty-three African countries, the figure is dismal indeed.
At the Africa level, African governments have their own Protocol on the Rights of Women that is in African Women's eyes, the most wide-ranging and woman-friendly protocol ever adopted by African governments. The Protocol guarantees a wide range of women's civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights, thus reaffirming the universality, indivisibility and interdependency of all internationally recognized human rights of women. These rights include the right to life, integrity and security of person, protection from harmful traditional practises, prohibition of discrimination and the protection of women in armed conflict. Moreover, the Protocol guarantees the right to health and reproductive rights of women; access to justices; equal protection before the law, and prohibits exploitation or degradation of women. In sum, the Protocol obligates state parties to integrate gender perspectives in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans and to ensure the overall well being of women. African governments have to push for the ratification of the Protocol by the end of 2004. So far, ratification of the Protocol which was made by the AU Assembly in 2003 at its 2nd Summit in Maputo, Mozambique is a far cry from the commitments to achieve a speedy and regional wide ratification and thus remains largely unfulfilled.
The Protocol is an important tool relevant to everyday lives of women and would enable women to bring their concerns to the attention of regional human rights bodies such as the African Court of Human and People's Rights.
From the above, it is noted with concern that governments in Africa are not giving the issue of trafficking in human beings the priority that it deserves. Now that the Protocol has been adopted, African governments should show their commitment to ending discrimination and violence against women and the issue of trafficking in women and children, (italics mine) by ensuring a speedy and full ratification to pave the way for a prompt entry into force of the instrument, and its effective implementation (Amnesty international).
It is strongly recommended that:
- Governments Ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa without further delay and without reservations.
- Implement the protocol by reviewing all national laws, policies, practises and procedures to ensure that they meet the obligations set out in the Protocol. States parties should incorporate the rights enshrined in the Protocol into their domestic legislation and take all necessary measures to implement the instruments in good faith
- Ratify all other regional and international human rights instruments essential for the effective promotion and protection of women's human rights in Africa and examining any limiting reservations, with a view to withdrawing them. This is particularly important in the case of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, (CEDAW), where the commitment of many governments is seriously undermined by the extent of their reservations.
- Ensure the provision of specialised assistance for the support, rehabilitation and compensation for women whose rights have been violated under the Protocol;
- Train and sensitise judicial and police officials with regards to women's human rights recognised under the Protocol and other relevant instruments.
- Anti trafficking efforts across the continent must be strengthened by enacting tough laws and by punishing those responsible for trading in human beings.
If fully ratified and implemented, the Protocol on the Rights of Women could become an important framework for ending impunity for all attacks on human rights of women in Africa. The member states of the African Union made a commitment to sign and ratify the protocol by the end of 2004. We urge them to fully adhere to this commitment. It is not too late!!!!!
Marren Akatsa-Bukachi is Executive Director of Eastern African Subregional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), Kampala, Uganda
NOTES
i. material from UNICEF
ii. Adapted from 'Patterns, root causes and policy responses to trafficking in women and children'. Africa;
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, hereafter referred to as the Charter, recognizes the importance of women's rights through three main provisions. Article 18(3), covering the protection of the family, promises to ensure the elimination of all discrimination against women and also ensure protection of the rights of women. Article 2, the non-discrimination clause, provides that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter shall be enjoyed by all irrespective of race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status. And Article 3, the equal protection clause, states that every individual shall be equal before the law and shall be entitled to the equal protection of the law.
However, the above provisions are not adequate to address the rights of women. For example, while Article 18 prohibits discrimination against women, it does so only in the context of the family. In addition, explicit provisions guaranteeing the right of consent to marriage and equality of spouses during and after marriage are absent. These omissions are compounded by the fact that the Charter places emphasis on traditional African values and traditions without addressing concerns that many customary practices, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and wife inheritance, can be harmful or life threatening to women. By ignoring critical issues such as custom and marriage, the Charter inadequately defends women's human rights.
The World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria in 1993 made advances to human rights theory and practice with respect to women's human rights. The Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna emphasized, "The human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of the universal human rights".
It also emphasized that elimination of violence against women is a human-rights obligation upon states. This was the first attempt to address the marginalisation of women's human rights from the work of the mainstream human rights. Thus the slogan that emerged from Vienna: women's rights are human rights. Following almost directly on from Vienna, it was imperative for the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) to expose the specific inequalities that impact negatively on the lives of women and thereby acknowledge that "women's rights as human rights must be respected and observed".
The Process of Developing the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Article 66 of the Charter that provides for the establishment of Protocols and Agreements to supplement its provisions gave impetus for the consideration and subsequent formulation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, hereinafter referred to as the Protocol. The process started with a meeting organised by Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)[i] on the theme "The African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the Human Rights of Women in Africa" in March 1995 in Lome, Togo. The meeting called for the development of a Protocol to the Charter on Women's Rights. The meeting also called on the ACHPR to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa.
The Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) at its 31st Ordinary Session in June 1995, in Addis Ababa, mandated the ACHPR to elaborate a Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa[ii] . The first Draft was prepared by the experts group meeting organised by the ACHPR and the International Commission of Jurist (ICJ) in Nouakchott, Mauritania, April 1997. The experts comprising of members of the ACHPR, representatives of African NGOs and international observers prepared the first Draft Protocol that was submitted to the ACHPR during its 22nd Session held in October 1997 for consideration and comments. The draft was also circulated to NGOs for comments.
The 12th ICJ workshop on "Participation in the African Commission on Human and People's Rights", October 30 to November 1, 1997, in The Gambia, provided the opportunity for NGOs to make input into the Draft Protocol and pass a resolution calling upon the ACHPR to ensure the completion of the Draft Protocol in time for presentation to the next session of the ACHPR.
The First Meeting of the Working Group on Women's Rights that brought together members of the ACHPR, the ICJ, WiLDAF and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) was held in Banjul, The Gambia from 26-28 January 1998. The meeting amended the Draft Protocol and developed the terms of reference for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa. During its 23rd Session held in April 1998, the ACHPR endorsed the appointment of the first Special Rapporteur on Women Rights in Africa with a mandate that included working towards the adoption of the Draft Protocol on Women's Rights. The ACHPR forwarded the Draft Protocol to the OAU Secretariat in 1999. The Inter Africa Committee (IAC) and ACHPR met to merge the Draft Convention on Traditional Practices with the Draft Protocol in 2000, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The first OAU Government Experts Meeting on The Draft Protocol was held in November 2001, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The experts amended the Draft Protocol developed by the ACHPR and called on the OAU to schedule a second AU experts meeting in 2002 to consider the draft again before the hosting of an OAU ministerial meeting on the same issue. African women's organisations participated in the meeting as observers. The OAU scheduled the second experts meeting and ministerial meeting two times in 2002 but had to postpone them due to lack of quorum. Thus the Draft was not presented for adoption by the inaugural Summit of the African Union (AU) held in Durban, South Africa in July 2002 and it seemed that there was little political will among African governments to move this process forward.
In January 2003, African women's organisations from across the continent met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at a meeting convened by Equality Now, FEMNET and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) to come up with strategies to lobby the AU and individual governments to schedule and attend the expert and ministerial meetings on the Draft Protocol. Represented at the meeting were ACDHR, Akina Mama Wa Africa, the Association of Malian Women Lawyers (AJM), the Association of Senegalese lawyers (AJS), Equality Now, EWLA, Femmes Afrique Solidarite (FAS), FEMNET, WiLDAF, and WRAPA. These organisations pooled comments in a collective mark-up to strengthen the document and bring it into line with international standards. Following the meeting they met with officials of the AU, including the then Acting Commissioner for Peace and Security, who was in charge of the Protocol, and urged him to call for the second experts and ministerial meetings on the Protocol in March 2003 in an effort to ensure that the Draft Protocol was adopted by the AU Summit in July 2003. The organisations further lobbied ministries of Justice and Gender at national level through their networks to confirm their participation to ensure the AU obtained the required quorum.
The Second AU Experts Meeting followed by the Ministerial Meeting on the Draft Protocol was held in March 2003, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meetings amended and adopted the Draft Protocol and recommended it for adoption by the Executive Council and Assembly of the AU. But this was only after African women's organisations attended the meetings as observers and lobbied the experts and ministers to strengthen the Draft Protocol to the level of regional and international human rights agreements on women. The Second Ordinary Summit of the AU adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa on July 11 2003 in Maputo Mozambique[iii] . The Assembly appealed to all member states to sign and ratify the Protocol in order to ensure its speedy entry into force. The Protocol will enter into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth instrument of ratification. The Protocol will complement the African Charter in ensuring the promotion and protection of the human rights of women in Africa.
Content and meaning for women in Africa
Mainstream international human rights standards are defined in relation to men's experience, and stated in terms of discrete violations of rights in the public realm whereas most violations of women's human rights occur in private. The private/public dichotomy that is detrimental to women continues to exist. In most African countries, the same constitutional provisions that guarantee gender equality allow exceptions in the so-called "private law" areas of customary law, personal law and family law. Serious violations of women's human rights such as violence against women and provisions that discriminate against them are found in that private sphere.
Human rights guarantees in the legally binding human rights conventions such as those to the right of life, to bodily integrity, and to be free from torture, cruel and degrading treatment, have not been interpreted to include such acts as domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation, forced sterilisation, forced childbirth, and numerous other forms in which violence against women and girls is manifested in Africa.
Provisions on women's human rights in the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action have not involved a conceptual shift or effected structural changes needed to implement their resolutions. The Protocol[iv] primarily complements the African Charter and international human rights conventions by focusing on concrete actions and goals to grant women rights. It further domesticates CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the African context.
The Protocol is divided into three sections. The first section covers the rationale behind its elaboration, making reference to both regional and international commitments regarding women's human rights. The second section outlines the rights to be upheld by the Protocol. And the third and final section covers implementation by addressing the manner in which it is to be adopted and monitored, as well as the process through which it may be amended. The Protocol affirms four broad categories of rights: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; the rights to development and peace; and reproductive and sexual rights.
Status of Ratification
Almost a year after its adoption, only four member states of the AU, The Comoros, Rwanda, Libya and Namibia have signed and ratified it. Thirty-one member states have signed but are yet to ratify it as of July 19, 2004[v] . 12 more countries must ratify it in order for the Protocol to come into force. Its entry into force is critical because it will commit governments to:
- Submit periodic reports to the ACHPR on legislative and other measures they have undertaken to ensure the full realisation of rights recognised under the Protocol;
- Integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans and activities and ensure the overall well-being of women;
- Include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments fundamental principles of the Protocol and ensure their effective implementation;
- Eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women in Africa and promote equality between men and women;
Advocacy Needs and Initiatives
Given the time and effort necessary to persuade governments to adopt this Protocol compared with the desperate urgency to promote, protect and safeguard women's human rights in Africa, African civil society organisations have to campaign and lobby governments to sign and ratify the Protocol as soon as possible and in any event, as a gesture of commitment, before the end of 2004.
Oxfam GB, Equality Now, FEMNET, CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and FAHAMU have started a campaign targeting countries that have already signed with the aim of lobbying them to ratify. They have drafted a petition to be presented to the AU. Kindly sign up at:
To supplement their efforts you could as an individual or organisation:
- Contact relevant government officials in ministries of foreign affairs, women's affairs, and justice and urge them to ratify the Protocol;
- Urge governments to be fully involved in the full realisation of the human rights of women, if they have not done so;
- Encourage government officials to include the issue of the Protocol in contacts with other governments and to state their positions publicly in the media or other events;
- Inform and increase public awareness about the Protocol by putting women's issues on the human rights agenda at various fora;
- Mobilise national and local support for the Protocol among academicians, parliamentarians, and the media;
- Work on creating a better and common understanding of issues as provided for in the Protocol;
- Support the organisation of local focal points on the Protocol to lobby and monitor government positions. The focal points will later be effective in the monitoring of implementation of the Protocol by governments;
Conclusion
The Protocol, once it enters into force, will usher in a new and significant era in the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Africa and end impunity for all forms of violations of the human rights of women in Africa. As Dr Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, ACHPR notes:
"The women of Africa who have suffered for long, their efforts at building our beloved continent have gone on for long without acknowledgement, and the men of Africa should be equally committed to the task. The urgent need to work towards the ratification and effective implementation of the Protocol urgently is a great challenge, yet a duty we all owe to posterity and to Africa."[vi]
*Mary Wandia is the Advocacy Officer with The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) E-mail: [email][email protected]
* This article was originally published in Pambazuka News Issue 159 in June 2003.
NOTES
i. www.africa-union.org/home/Welcome.htm
v. See full list of countries that have signed/ratified at www.africa-union.org/home/Welcome.htm
vi. Dr Angela Melo, Special Rapporteur on Women's Rights in Africa, ACHPR in a paper presented during FEMNET's Regional Strategy Meeting on Gender Mainstreaming in the African Union on the theme "From OAU to African Union and NEPAD: Strategies for African Women" October 27-31, Nairobi, Kenya.
Some 28 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been charged with trying to overthrow Sudan's government, the official Suna news agency reports. They were accused of declaring war on the state, planning to assassinate political leaders and cut communication links, Suna says. It is not clear whether they are from the Islamist opposition party, which has been accused of plotting a coup, however, the government says the group is allied to rebels in the Darfur region.
The African Union (AU) has welcomed recent progress made towards the reestablishment of a functioning government in Somalia and urged the international community to assist the country's national institutions once they are fully installed, the AU said in a statement sent on Thursday. The 275 members of the assembly are due to elect the country's president on 10 October. The president will in turn appoint a prime minister, who will be required to form a government.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday appealed for US $7.8 million to fund projects to help an estimated 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in strife-torn northern Uganda. UNICEF said that during the past 12 months it had expanded and accelerated its response in health, water and sanitation, education and HIV/AIDS prevention and noted that these sectors remained inadequately funded.
The fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995 raised hopes of a substantial improvement in women's condition across the world and particularly in Africa. The Beijing Declaration and programme of action considered by the United Nations' Secretary General to be "one of the most remarkable documents ever produced by an intergovernmental conference" commits States to taking concrete action in twelve priority areas in relation to women's autonomy. Ten years after Beijing and on the heels of the seventh regional conference at Addis Ababa, in evaluating the implementation of the platform of Action adopted there, where are we now? Have African women and girls really made remarkable gains in such essential areas as education, fundamental human rights, violence against women, their participation in decision making, health and the fight against poverty?
This special of Pambazuka News focuses on women's issues and has been prepared in association with FEMNET for distribution at the forthcoming Seventh Regional Conference on Women (Beijing + 10) and the Fourth African Development Forum (ADF IV) on Governance, being held from 6-15 October 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. These two conferences mark an important step towards achieving gender equality and equity in Africa through national and regional action.
Pambazuka News 175: The International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Africa: A 'disastrous' record
Pambazuka News 175: The International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Africa: A 'disastrous' record
In the 1970s, the University of Minnesota's History of African Peoples course had the largest enrollment of any other course like it in the country. "That program today is on life support," said John Wright, assistant professor in the department of African American Studies. "It appears that fewer Black students are encouraged to consider it [African American Studies] as a career option, despite the reality that there are solid professional careers in higher education," he said.
Out here in the sandy moonscape of eastern Chad, you don't expect to see a diminutive Frenchman marching around, muttering, and staring at his global-positioning device. But Alain Gachet has come here to outdo generations of witch doctors, water diviners, and PhDs. He aims to pinpoint, with scientific certainty, the right places to dig the costly wells that pull precious water from beneath the sand. About 200,000 refugees have fled to Chad from Sudan's violent Darfur region. They each need four gallons of water a day.
It seems as if our lives our based on a series of deeply-ingrained myths that together function in a way that sets us on a path to serve power and in turn replicate the system that produces us. Often myths like old wives tales or those contained in children's stories are harmless, but the problem with the myths of capitalist society as we know it is that they hide the price that other people pay so that only a few can live a life that sets out to completely obliterate the future.
Mining is one such myth. In the capital cities of the world, the end products of mining are displayed in all the glitz and glamour appropriate for those who can afford to indulge the luxury of adorning their bodies with gold and diamonds. This is to say nothing of fashionable mobile phones which could not be made without the mining of coltan or the tank-like four by fours that housewives use to scoot to the shops, which could not function without the mining of oil. The list is endless, but the point is that in schools, universities and society at large mining is presented as a bastion of the economy and is symbolic of wealth and development.
Rarely does the human cost of mining surface into mainstream discourse and even where it does it is explained away as a necessary evil or, as in the case of reparations claims for past abuses, historic indiscretions which have since been rectified by a caring and humane industry. This makes possible, for example, reparations claims being incorporated into mainstream discourse without causing too much of a stir. Somehow the fact that survivors of asbestos mining who have collectively hacked their lungs out in violent coughing or even just slowly suffocated to death in the interests of shareholder profit does not result in a realisation of the horrible price that mining exacts.
Even if some development benefits are conceded to the mining industry, human society has paid a bloody price in the name of the mining industry and it continues to do so. The only consolation is that the difference between mining 50 years ago and mining today is that the myth is no longer as strong as it used to be because it has become obvious that the resources that mining relies on are finite and that therefore the entire endeavour is inherently unsustainable. And with that realisation comes a broader understanding that society, as social commentator George Monbiot has explained it, has all along been "borrowing from the future to pay for the present".
Mining: Social and Environmental Impacts, published by the World Rainforest Movement, sets out to highlight the "depredatory activities" associated with mining and to show that these activities are unsustainable not only because they exploit non-renewable resources but also because they leave behind them destruction of the environment and society, which is often irreversible.
Ricardo Carrere, World Rainforest Movement international coordinator, writes in his introduction that the hope is for the book to serve as a tool to support local struggles against mining, to generate awareness on the issue and to strengthen campaigns against mining ending in the destruction and degradation of wider forest areas and of local livelihoods and cultures.
The book covers Africa, Asia, Central America and Oceania and its value is that it brings together the impact of mining across a wide range of countries, thus making it possible to see the systematic way in which rights have been violated and the environment destroyed. The section on Africa, which covers the Central African Republic, DRC, Core d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, is particularly useful.
All too often coverage of the impacts of mining and the complicity of industry players and international financial institutions in human and environmental degradation tends to focus on mega-projects, like the Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline or the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. When problems are identified it is easy for them to be explained away as exceptions or again, necessary indulgences in the interests of a greater concept of "human development". The value of this book is that it shows just how widespread mining abuses actually are and in so doing makes a small contribution towards breaking down the myth that mining is a global good, perpetrated for the benefit of all.
* For copies contact [email protected]
* Reviewed by Patrick Burnett, Fahamu
Libya has started expelling hundreds of Somalis that had tried and failed to reach Europe. Those on board the first flight have been talking about their ordeals in Libyan prisons and the dangers they faced as they tried to make it to a better life overseas. Mogadishu human rights groups estimate that nearly 2,000 Somalis have either drowned in the Red and Mediterranean seas or disappeared into the long desert between Sudan and Libya over the past six years.
The International Women and Health Meeting (IWHM) has its roots in the
global women's movement and seeks to highlight politics, policies and issues that have adverse effect on women's health and simultaneously bring out the linkages and interconnections of these seemingly disparate phenomena. The deadline for submissions of write-ups/descriptions for paper presentation, cultural events, organization of workshops, symposia, etc, relating to the theme and objectives of the meeting is January 31, 2005.
Organised by The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University, The Regional Programme on Human Rights of Women for participants from the Middle East and North Africa (the MENA-region) will be held in Lund, Sweden from 15 November - 10 December 2004. This four-week course aims to give participants an overview of international human rights law as it relates to women. Particular attention is paid to the recent emphasis on democratisation as the method of enhancing two of the pillars of human rights, namely accountability and empowerment.
The 4th Annual International Conference on An Inter-faith Perspective on Globalisation will be held in Nairobi, Kericho and Mombasa, Kenya, from 18-28 April, 2005. Papers, panels, and roundtable submissions are invited from observers, commentators, academics and NGOs to address issues related to globalisation within identified themes of the conference by 15 November 2004. Please also note that the Conference is not only on Africa, but it is fully inclusive of other regions.
Deadline: 15 October 2004
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office invites applications for post-graduate study in the United Kingdom (UK) under the British Chevening Scholarship scheme. The candidates will be committed to returning to South Africa on completion of their studies to contribute towards its socio-economic development.
Deadline: 25 February 2005
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Civil Society Studies is pleased to announce a call for applications for the International Fellows in Philanthropy Program for the 2004-2005 academic year. This programme based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, affords an opportunity for advanced study, research, and training for up to eight participants each year who are involved in studying or managing private non-profit, or philanthropic organisations outside of the United States, or working as NGO liaisons in the public or commercial sectors.
This organisation is recruiting people with experience in Community
Services, Education and Protection (specifically issues around sexual and Gender Based Violence). Candidates should have experience in relief & development, preferably working with UNHCR in a refugee camp context, and must be fluent French and/or Arabic.
Date: 28-29 September 2004
The National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI) extends an invitation to your organisation to attend a conference from 28 - 29 September 2004 on "Improving the Impact of Poverty Eradication Programmes in South Africa." Civil society organisations and trade unions have been allocated two delegates per organisation, while all other structures have been allocated one delegate
The incumbent will conceive, design and implement study projects relating to the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict in Africa. The work will entail research and writing for publication, organising workshops and conferences, and representing the Institute at pertinent meetings.
The incumbent will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of
AATF's project portfolio. Other responsibilities will include the monitoring and technical supervision of individual technology transfer projects and the preparation of progress reports.
The HIV/AIDS Program Manager will coordinate, manage and oversee the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance's (FANTA) HIV/AIDS activities in Rwanda. The HIV/AIDS Program Manager will work with USAID/Kigali, the GOR, and their partners to design and implement technical support activities to strengthen nutritional care and support for HIV-infected individuals, management of nutritional implications of ART and links between HIV/AIDS services and food assistance programs.
NDI is seeking to hire a Country Director to oversee the implementation of its legislative strengthening program in Nigeria. The Director will be based in Abuja and will serve as principal liaison with the donor community, representatives from the executive and legislative branch of the Nigerian government, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the US Embassy.
The objective of the NEPAD Youth Expert Panel is to support youth mainstreaming in the implementation of the NEPAD goals through the three tiers of the NEPAD implementation framework. The Panel will consist of one representative from each country selected through a process that is gender sensitive and with intellectual diversity as well as knowledge of the African development environment.
The Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) and partners is planning to jointly review the National Response to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and also develop a new 5-year Strategic Framework to guide the National Response. This will require the cooperation of all organizations and institutions that have done any intervention in HIV/AIDS in Nigeria to send all available documents to the Directorate for Policy, Strategy & Communication, in NACA.
Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) is disappointed by the Delimitation Commission set by President Mugabe which is being entrusted with the responsibility of defining constituency boundaries in preparation of the upcoming elections in 2005. The work of the commission is extremely important as it will define which geographic boundaries determine constituencies, which has an effect on electoral reforms in Zimbabwe and the underrepresentation of women in politics.
The U.N. Security Council's new resolution on Sudan fails to provide protection for endangered civilians in the country's western Darfur region, Human Rights Watch said this week. Human Rights Watch criticized the resolution for failing to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government and for insufficiently expanding the international presence in Darfur to ensure the population's security.
Eritrea has been in an extended news blackout since September 2001 when the government closed the privately-owned newspapers and imprisoned the leading journalists. On the eve of the third anniversary since the round-up of journalists and the elimination of the independent press in Eritrea, Reporters Without Borders renewed its call to the authorities to free the detained journalists and let the privately-owned media resume working so that Africa's youngest nation may cease to also be the continent's biggest prison for the press.
To overcome obstacles associated with educating Ethiopia's pastoralist children, the Education Development Center is building the capacity of Somali educators and technicians to produce and broadcast interactive radio instruction programmes that deliver official curriculum in reading, basic math, and life skills. Students participate through question-and-answer sessions, drama, and songs.
The 4th International Conference & Exhibition on Traditional Medicine "Traditional Healing & HIV/AIDS" originally scheduled for October 4-6, 2004 in Dakar, Senegal, has now been postponed to April 11-13, 2005.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged the authorities to free Radio Rwanda journalist Dominique Makeli, who has been held for 10 years in various Rwandan jails without ever appearing in court. Arrested on 18 September 1994, Makeli is currently being held in Kigali central prison. "On the 10th anniversary of Makeli's arrest, we believe his release would send a strong signal of good faith if the Rwandan government wants to be able continue proclaiming its support for press freedom," the organisation added.
After Rwandan-backed rebels led an insurrection in the eastern city of Bukavu, the government in the DRC issued three directives restricting news coverage, authorities imprisoned four journalists, and attackers allegedly led by an army officer severely beat another journalists. These new attacks on the DRC press are explored in "Fragile Freedom," a special report by Julia Crawford, the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) Africa program coordinator. The report, is based on a two-week mission to the central African nation, more than 20 interviews, and a visit with the imprisoned journalists.
For ordinary Zimbabweans in the high-density suburb of Mbare, life is unbearable because of the dilapidated state of the housing units where residential flats are no longer suitable for human habitation. However, at the other end of the spectrum, are the likes of Robert Mugabe and Phillip Chiyangwa, whose wealth has been accumulated at the expense of the suffering masses. It is estimated that one half of the cost of the Mugabe mansion would be sufficient to refurbish all the dilapidated flats in Mbare.
Chairman of the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, has revealed that while 90 percent of Nigerians know about AIDS, only about 20 per cent of the country's 140 million population believe in its reality. Osotimehin noted the importance of the endemic in different sectors, saying it was not merely a health issue but a development phenomenon. The HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nigeria is at five per cent.
Two years after the outbreak of civil war, Cote d'Ivoire remains partitioned and unstable. Although there has been no relapse into full-scale fighting, none of the underlying causes of the conflict have been resolved. Diplomats and political analysts worry that the fragile tribal and political divisions could be easily threatened in a presidential election environment. Time after time peace accord deadlines are extended and broken, making the country's prospects for peace very limited.
Blade Nzimande, the secretary-general of the SA Communist Party (SACP), told the ninth congress of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) that the black economic empowerment (BEE) was not empowering workers, but enriching the few. In the midst of increasing working-class struggles over casualisation of the workforce, outsourcing and the continuing jobless bloodbath, he encouraged an audit of BEE in order to ensure that it was in fact creating more jobs, the fundamental criterion of black empowerment.
The Nigerian Federal Government has blacklisted an oil service company linked to the current United States Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited (HENSL), based on negligent conduct. The company is currently facing a probe over alleged fraudulent deals in Nigeria and Iraq. It has also been indicted over the loss of two ionizing radioactive materials from Nigeria in 2002 and lack of co-operation with the Federal Government in ensuring the return of the materials to the country.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) accused the African National Congress of trying to lure a number of DA councillors with offers of financial inducements, positions, additional perks and privileges, during the 15-day floor-crossing period. So far, about 10 instances of bribery from around the country have been reported. However, ongoing reports suggest the scale of enticements might be much larger.
To learn more about the seldom-publicized legal battle for massive reparations for all Afro-Descendants in the Western Hemisphere, visit the All for Reparations and Emancipation website.
As treatments become more available, particularly in developing countries, the line between a patient's health status and right to privacy is beginning to shift. More than 2 million Africans died of AIDS last year and 3 million others were newly infected with the virus that causes the disease, yet it is estimated that in most African countries fewer than 10% of the population know their status. Testing for the human immuno-deficiency virus is one of the thorniest aspects of a health debate fraught with human rights implications.
In June 2004 the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS released a policy statement that cautiously endorsed a new approach to HIV testing in hopes of increasing the number of people worldwide who know their status. While the two organisations emphasise that all testing still needs consent, should be confidential and offered with appropriate counseling, they now say a variety of approaches to testing should be embraced, in addition to voluntary counseling and testing.
Since the early 90s, when democracy began spreading around the continent, electoral processes have been the most critical moments in African countries' political life. Although some African States or political parties have been able to manage these in a satisfying way, what we observe today in a number of democracies should make us more careful, and have us consider the means to develop a more democratic culture of electoral processes and political change on the continent.
Even though Nigeria's forests are only some ten percent of the size they were just two decades ago, they still provide an incredibly rich and diverse habitat. From the tropical highlands to the lowland rainforest, from the plateau grasslands to the savanna, from the swamps to the mangrove forests.
The forests of Cross River State in southeastern Nigeria are the last remaining rainforests in Nigeria and are home to 2,400 native forest communities comprising 1.5 million people, the highest primate diversity on the planet --including the world's most endangered gorillas--, and an estimated 20 percent of the world's butterfly species. For global logging companies, Nigerian forests appear to be an easy target. Environmental regulations in the country are rarely enforced, and many officials in the recently ousted Abacha dictatorship were notoriously corrupt --more interested in personal gain than in the protection of Nigeria's natural resources.
Hong Kong-based Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) is one of the most destructive companies operating in the region (see also http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Nigeria/Odey.html). Although they own the rights to log in some areas of Cross River State, WEMPCO flaunts regulations and logs illegally in the forest buffer zone surrounding the Cross River National Park, not only threatening to decimate the forest's magnificent hardwoods, but also endangering the livelihoods of Cross River State's forest communities.
Logging has significantly reduced animal habitat, shrinking the animal populations that serve as a traditional source of protein in Cross River State. The bushmeat that was once plentiful is now scarce. The plundering of trees which provide shelter has left whole areas without windbreakers or sufficient trees to check the devastating rainstorms. Thus, the roofs of houses are often blown off by the slightest rainstorm.
Since 1996, environmental and human rights groups across the world have been campaigning against the destructive logging activities of WEMPCO which has operated in Cross River State since 1992, illegally harvesting and exporting the state's forest resources, inciting and inflicting violence and threatening those who have spoken out against their activities.
Prior to doing business in Cross River State, WEMPCO was kicked out of Nigerian Ogun State, for the same flagrancies of forest management policies and laws.
Indeed, the threats to the rainforest continue. The Nigerian government commissioned in 2003 the operation of WEMPCO's wood processing factory and approved a new 540 square mile logging concession located on the river upstream from many forest communities and the national park. The logging concessions will devastate the remaining forest in the buffer zones surrounding the national park. The mill's voracious appetite has the capacity to process twice the amount of wood legally designated by the concessions, sending the company looking for more hardwood in nearby Cameroon. By-products of WEMPCO's hardwood processing mill threaten to pollute the water sources of two million tribal people and threaten the habitat of the endangered gorilla and many other rare primate species.
Now, the NGO Coalition for the Environment and its members, including 2003 Goldman Prize Winner Mr. Odigha Odigha, Mr. Odey Oyama of Rainforest Resource Development Centre and Mr. Oronto Douglas of Environmental Rights Action, which has been actively opposing WEMPCO's logging activities, has something to celebrate. The Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke, has recently approved the closure of the WEMPCO wood-processing factory and the immediate cessation of the company's forest-related activities due to what it described as unwholesome activities contrary to the earlier agreement reached with the company.
However, the great menace of an unsustainable global log trade pervades the whole logging activity, either legal or illegal. That is why West Africa Rainforest Network continues pushing for a ban on all commercial logging for the next 12 months.
* SOURCE: World Rainforest Movement B U L L E T I N 86 September 2004, E-Mail: [email protected], Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy Article based on information from: "West Africa Rainforest Network", http://www.earthisland.org/warn/ ; "Odigha Odigha", http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/recipientProfile.cfm?recipientID=124
New Deadline: 12 October 2004
Submissions are now being extended for the Trade policies and Sub-Saharan Africa category of the 2004 Awards Competition: Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development, and the Medals for Research on Development. The five topics for the research medals competition relate to the theme, "Developed and developing worlds: mutual impact."
Some 500 people fleeing factional fighting near the southern Somali port city of Kismayo crossed the border into Kenya at the end of last week and are now living with local communities on the Kenyan side of the frontier, a spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. Most of the Somalis came from the village of Dhobley, not far from the border, and entered Kenya through the border town of Liboi.
On the fourth anniversary of the adoption of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Resolution 1325, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom have dedicated each week of October to a women, peace and security theme during which UN, governmental and NGO events will be held to coincide with that particular theme. Please refer to the online calendar, which will be available shortly on Peace Women's 4th Anniversary index at: http://www.peacewomen.org/un/4thAnniversary/4thAnniversaryindex.html
Fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels in Darfur does not allow aid agencies to access the region in order to assess the needs of the displaced people, the United Nations says. A UN report stated that "Due to clashes ... an interagency team was not able to commence assessment of villages in Tawilla rural areas." It added that clashes were in North Darfur, about 70 km (45 miles) west of the capital El-Fasher. The UN estimates that 1.5 million people have been displaced as a result of the fighting in Darfur, which it calls the "world’s worst humanitarian crisis."
Rita Marley, the widow of the famous Jamaican Singer, Bob Marley, paid a visit to the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, H.E. Alpha Oumar Konaré to inform him of the "Africa Unite" Initiative launched by the Bob Marley Foundation, with the support of the Ethiopian Government and Friends of Bob Marley, to commemorate the 60th birthday of Bob Marley.
As Libya gradually loses its pariah status and slowly but surely returns to the bosom of the family of acceptable nations, changes are also afoot within the state-run Libyan economy. Money is being spent on the country's tired and overstretched telecoms infrastructure and Libya now has a new mobile phone network that has introduced a sort of competition into what was a massively overpriced and moribund sector. However, both the new 'Libyana', and the original 'Al Madar', are owned by the Libyan government.
An Internet crime bill in Zambia, which includes provisions that could see convicted hackers facing sentences of up to 25 years in jail, has caused some controversy in the country's IT community but is expected to become law soon.
Deadline: 25 September 2004
Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI) and CORE Initiative this month released a Request for Application to nongovernmental, community, and faith-based organisations in Uganda that implement projects on the education of orphans and vulnerable children, and on improving household incomes. Twenty-four grants of up to $6,250 each will be awarded in three Districts of Uganda: Gulu, Lira and Katakwi.
On the weekend of September 2, 2004, a group of Kenyans in Toronto had the chance to meet with the e-government Kenyan delegation that was visiting Canada. Lead by the Hon Raphael Tuju, Minister for Information and Communications, the team was in Canada to explore ways and learn from experiences that would make it possible to implement the e-government strategy, which intends to enhance government efficiency, accountability and transparency.
This year's locust invasion is threatening to devastate crops throughout the Sahel and spark a food crisis in West Africa's worst locust plague in 15 years. Keith Cressman explains how the FAO's eLocust sytem – a palmtop computer, GPS device and HF radio equipment that run on a car battery - is helping to minimize the consequences for the region's farmers.
The Seventh African Regional Conference on Women (Beijing+10) will be held in parallel with the Fourth African Development Forum (ADF IV) on Governance, 6-15 October 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Beijing+10 fits within the global evaluation framework for assessing progress achieved after 10 years of implementing the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action on Women (BPFA). These two conferences mark an important step towards achieving gender equality and equity in Africa through national and regional action.
A R9-million housing development will soon be unveiled to cater for an estimated 5, 000 descendants of former Zanzibar slaves in KwaZulu-Natal. The Zanzibaris, one of the smallest minority groups in the province, were forcefully removed from King's Rest in Bluff, south of Durban and taken to Chatsworth in 1961 as part of the apartheid government's land policies.
Arab militiamen responsible for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region are now guarding camps for the displaced, a UN official has been told by refugees. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, refugees in different camps in North Darfur have told her that the militiamen have been recycled into Sudan's police force.
Let me take this opportunity to add my voice to those opposed to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). I have read with great care the debate and/or exchange between Doreen Lwanga and Faiza Jama Mohammed regarding FGM, and my observations are presented below.
Ms. Lwanga quoted the language of Article 5 relating to the vis: 'Elimination of Harmful Practices', defined in Article 1(g) as ".. all behaviour, attitudes and/or practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women and girls, such as their right to life, health, dignity, education and physical integrity." She maintained, "What is not clear [to her] is what forms of Female Genital Mutilation (or cutting) fall under this category as 'harmful'?". For cry not loud, couldn't Ms. Lwanga realize that the operative words are "harmful practices" and "Female Genital Mutilation"? Clearly and in the context of the contentious article:
a) HARMFUL: This means damaging, injurious, destructive, detrimental, hurtful, unsafe etc. To that extent, the Article would not bar practices that don't fit in any of the above. However, for the practice to be protected it ought to be so demonstrably antithetical "harmful" and ought to be backed by empirical evidence as opposed to emotional submissions and/or attachment thereto.
b) MUTILATION: this refers to disfigurement, defacement, damage, marring, injury, maiming etc. I was disturbed by Ms. Lwanga's using mutilation and transformation interchangeably when she stated, "In different African cultures, there are different forms of female genital transformation, some of which have never been harmful to the girl child or woman".
Whereas "transformation" may not be harmful, mutilation is definitely harmful. The equivalent of transformation is merely "makeover", "alteration", "renovation" none of which connote "disfigurement", "injury" etc.
When she states: "I do not want to sound pretentious that there are no incidences where the FGM practices have produced harmful results, however, that does not make the norm harmful by itself. Malpractice could occur because of using an unsterilised instrument, conduct in uncertain locations for fear of subjective law enforcers and/or just like any other accident happens. The results may become harmful such as bleeding profusely, genital injury or death, although that does not make the norm harmful. Thus, there is a need to emphasise that there is a difference between a 'norm' and a 'practice'."
Well, whereas we have an admission as to the harmful nature of female genital mutilation, with all due respect to her sincere contribution, our friend did not offer any safe alternative. Had she advocated for legalized monitored "transformation", which I don't doubt would provide a solution, such would have offered us food for thought, but she did not.
Art. 17 of the Protocol promotes "'Positive Cultural Context". This, she says, she does not understand and wonders how it relates to the cultural rights of women as human beings. She, understandably, is opposed to any society moving to codify people's cultural practices and label them "harmful", and vehemently asserts that it is wrong to assume that you can take a "broad brush" of one group (anti-FGM/C or pro-monogamous) and sweep away the aspirations and traditions. What she missed though is that when the language of the article provides for "'Positive Cultural Context" it implies that the contemplated laws must put into consideration its contextual environment. I submit that if this approach is adopted it would not amount to "a broad brush" per se.
Assuming that the impact of such Protocol would "criminalize women's cultural lives", which is not true, but so argued by Lwanga, the effect, if the law is contextually tailored, would in essence be reflective of peoples aspirations to transform society for the better. There are societies where children (little boys and girls who have not had their monthly periods yet) are sacrificed to the "gods." To those who believe in cleansing society of its curses by offering these innocent children it is "good practice" and a "virtue".
However, all common law jurisdictions classify this as murder. Can these people present any compelling argument in their defence? I think not! To that extent mutilation cannot be defended as a virtue whatsoever, and does not add value to the value or integrity of a woman. I shall not discuss the right of a woman to choose because Faiza Jama Mohammed already responded to that.
However, my question is what is the validity of a little girl's "consent" amid cultural pressure to be "a woman"? Lwanga cited examples where mothers may be forced to sneak out of cities and take their daughters for genital mutilation! These are the desires of the mothers and not of the daughters. Often times, mothers desire that their daughters walk the "cultural journeys" which they themselves walked because they are still slaves of their past! What is disturbing is Lwanga's statement that such protocol would "deny them a chance of becoming women". Gender is not defined by mutilation but by natural endowment.
Africa's dilemma is not its uneducated and/or illiterate population but rather her highly revered elite who, notwithstanding their western exposure, continuously labour to strike a balance between "intellectualism" and/or "enlightenment" vis-à-vis cultural preservation. Whereas we may be tempted to resist "undue western influence" we should keep in mind that we have a duty to re-evaluate our cultures and rid them of vices, especially those that tend to suggest that you are not a full human being unless and until your genitals are mutilated.
Lastly, my apologies go to my sister Lwanga if my tone was harsh, because such must have been unintentional. Nonetheless, I can assure you that I was refuting the ideas in the article and not rejecting the wonderful individual who has actually ignited a healthy debate.
In balancing the space for women rights and the space for respecting cultural practices Doreen Lwanga may not be entirely wrong in arguing for 'legislation aimed at protecting women's rights should also include the right to practice a certain culture, even if that might include FGM'. It is an accommodation of the right for cultural space. Is that so wrong? As cultures change and evolve, hopefully FGM will be left behind in time. My only concern in legislating against FGM is the criminalisation of our elders who wholly believe that it is an 'unharmful' cultural practice.
If two leading feminist activists who have the time and the brain power cannot arrive at a consensus on how we balance 'rights and culture' what hope is there for us lay women who want to believe and do the right thing, but at the same time do not want to disrespect our cultural practices.
My Grandmother without, the benefit of western education, rejected this piece of culture, so my mother was not done. My mother in turn rejected this piece of culture and I thankfully was spared. I have not had a daughter, but I do have a son, and he had to be circumcised in line with the cultural wish of the family. Was I wrong? Should I be criminalised (if for arguments sake male circumcision is outlawed)?
The ongoing debate on what has been called female genital mutilation is not only entertaining but also worrisome, especially reading the comments by Lwanga and Mohammed, two women activists who purport to be talking for women, but from two almost extreme sides.
Let me give a general comment on what the two have said from an outsiders perspective. Firstly, the discussion is about to get out of hand and if these two ladies were talking on a one to one (face to face) basis, we may need to call the fire brigade, so bring the fire down. This is because the import of emotions expressed by the two particularly Mohammed, are not only unhealthy for women's empowerment, but also questionable. Forgive me for saying that the two are trying to defend their positions in the name of women. For Lwanga, it should be understood that her arguments are scholarly, from an academician, but nonetheless impractical as the analogies she uses are grossly wanting. But as a scholar she is entitled to that for scholarship is about argument that leads to more and more debate that may lead to generation of knowledge over time.
For Mohammed she is an NGO executive, indeed a lobby group that would like to problematise every thing about women to get the much needed funding to continue eating. For me, eradication of FGM is not a basic need for women for it adds no extra food on their table, but education is. Why cant these organisations focus on the education of girls and put more funds there without concentrating on issues that won't add food on women's tables.
Female Genital Mutilation is a human rights violation that cannot be justified in the name of culture. I beg to differ that celebrating African womanhood entails continuing to perpetuate practices that are used to subjugate women. Celebrating African womanhood means that we should embrace wholeheartedly African cultural norms that uplift women and they are many, but at the same time, we cannot defend human rights violations using the tool of culture.
FGM violates a woman's womanhood, the very essence, the very vital part of her that makes her a woman. If we African women continue to think in these terms, whom do we expect to defend and advocate for our rights? It is tragic to hear such sentiments supporting FGM echoed by one who is obviously learned. Culture is a constantly evolving and changing thing and is actually determined by the people who practice it. For instance, wife inheritance was the norm in many societies but with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, societal norms have had to take cognisance of this and the practice is slowly dying away. Therefore to advocate for a practice like FGM in any of its forms given the attendant medical complications is quite unrealistic.
There are many alternative ways of passing education about being a woman to our children without resorting to mutilating them. Which form if any of FGM serves a purpose except to subjugate a woman's sexuality? The practices and norms that shape the rubric of a people's interaction are their culture. Culture evolves as society evolves. We have come too far in striving for the rights of African women to allow sentiments such as those advocating for FGM to drag us back.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan rang the Peace Bell at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 21 September 2004, marking the annual International Day of Peace with a call to the world to do a better job to strengthen collective security, tackle grave humanitarian emergencies, promote true global development and foster greater tolerance. Mr. Annan declared, "Today, let the sound of this bell inspire us in our work towards those goals. Let the call of the bell ring loud, clear and true around the world."
The Lord's Resistance Army has declared an immediate and unconditional cease-fire with the UPDF. According to the LRA's Political Commissar and spokesman, Brigadier Sam Kolo, the LRA decision is in respect to Uganda's "political changes" towards a multiparty democracy. The UPDF however, is still in doubt as to whether a ceasefire is both believable and appropriate.
They call the US military base at Diego Garcia the "footprint of freedom." The base is strategically located in the Indian Ocean, where its naval fleet and B-52, B-2, and B-1 bombers have recently been used to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Government and the UK Government that controls Diego Garcia and the rest of the surrounding Chagos Archipelago have called the base crucial to the war on terrorism and to fighting for the human rights of Iraqis.
But for almost 40 years these nations who are supposed to be the champions of human rights have been violating human rights in their own backyard-and they have been doing it against the UK's own people. Between 1965 and 1973, the U.K. and U.S. governments forcibly removed the people of Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos Archipelago from our native lands, dumping us in poverty with no resettlement planning almost 2,000 km away in Mauritius and Seychelles.
We are called Chagossians and for more than five generations we had been living in Diego Garcia and the rest of Chagos, working and enjoying lives of peace and happiness. We are the citizens of what the UK calls the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), but unlike other peoples, we have no right to live in our homelands.
Our nightmare began when the UK Government decided to lease our motherland to the US to build a base on Diego Garcia. The US paid the U.K. $14 million to create the BIOT in Chagos (in violation of two UN resolutions) and to remove us from our homelands. With dirty tricks, deportations, and the extermination of all our pet dogs in front of our eyes, we were exiled to foreign lands.
In Mauritius and Seychelles we have found lives of poverty and misery. We live in the poorest regions and face many difficulties including unemployment, poor health and education, dangerous housing conditions, drug and alcohol abuse, and prostitution. Meanwhile the US has spent billions of dollars to build the base on Diego. They even employ Mauritians, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, and others on the base, but never any Chagossians. While foreigners live and work and enjoy our beautiful islands, we are trapped in exile, prevented even from visiting our islands to pay respects to our ancestors' graves. (Now we learn with sadness that the US Government may be secretly and illegally detaining prisoners on our island as well.)
The UK Government collects millions of pounds sterling each year in fishing rights for the bountiful waters that we once fished. With its other overseas territories, like the Falklands, St. Helena, and the Isle of Man, the UK provides abundant financial and educational opportunities and other social benefits. We as the descendants of slaves from Africa are forgotten and ignored, left to live with no assistance as Britain's forgotten people.
For decades we have struggled to regain our rights through demonstrations, hunger strikes, arrests, and jailings. In 1998, we initiated legal proceedings against the UK Government to challenge the legislation that denied us access to Chagos. On 3 November 2000, the High Court in London delivered a landmark ruling in our favour, giving us the right to return to our islands. On the strength of this ruling, in 2001, we lodged claims against the UK and US governments for compensation as a result of their wrongdoings and to rebuild our society in Chagos to allow our return.
In 2003, the British High Court said that we have been "treated shamefully by successive UK governments," but ruled against us. In June 2004, the British Government made matters worse by shockingly announcing the Queen's enactment of two royal orders in council overturning our 2000 victory and our right to return to Chagos. With the help of lawyers and supporters in Europe, Mauritius, and the United States, we are now contesting the orders in UK court and launching new suits against the UK in European courts.
All that we ask for is to be treated as human beings, to be given our fundamental human right to live in our native lands, to put an end to our discrimination. Unfortunately the great protectors of human rights have not yet been able to see that to be uprooted from one's homeland and one's way of life and to be left in impoverished exile is a denial of a people's fundamental rights.
Maybe the UK and US governments will pay more attention to the definition of "Crimes against Humanity," found in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: "'Crime against humanity' means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread of systematic attack directed against any civilian population…a) Murder, b) Extermination, c) Enslavement, d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population."
We hope that international courts in Europe will soon consider this question, to judge once and for all if the treatment the Chagossians have received has been lawful, and whether we deserve the right to return to our native lands and reparations for the wrongs we have suffered.
* Louis Olivier Bancoult is Chairman of the Chagos Refugees Group
* Please send comments to
There is more to the resignation of Law Society Chairman Ahmednasir Abdullahi from the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) Advisory Board than meets the eye. Ostensibly, Mr Abdullahi resigned from the board because he was unimpressed by "President Kibaki's blatant and casual breaking of the law" in his refusal to confirm Dr Julius Rotich as a director of the commission. However, it seems that the greater significance of his resignation is that it signals a break in the cosy ties that the LSK and civil society as a whole have been seen to enjoy with the Narc government.
According to a report conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), "inappropriate" policies, corruption and the government's human rights record have contributed to Zimbabwe's continued economic decline. However, Anti-corruption and Anti-monopolies Programme Minister Didymus Mutasa told IRIN that, as far as he was concerned, the government had made substantial strides in addressing the issue of corruption.
In addition to DRC's shaky peace, her five World Heritage site national parks and their wildlife and unique ecosystems remain endangered. Although donors at a Unesco conference in Paris have just pledged $40m to protect DR Congo's natural heritage, conservationists on the ground have become victims of attacks by hundreds of roaming armed men who operate in the park's vast territory.
When Sharia criminal law was first introduced in Nigeria, it was very popular with many Muslims hoping it would deliver an improved justice system. However, an 111-page report by Human Rights Watch outlines how the law has contributed to many human rights abuses and how it has been used by many northern Nigerian governors to gain political advantage. To read the full report, go to: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/nigeria0904/
Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it may launch mass protests to press President Robert Mugabe to enact voting reforms ensuring free and fair parliamentary elections next year. Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, is accused by critics of a harsh political crackdown as Zimbabwe spins into economic crisis, partly due to the government's seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
Dozens of suspected masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide are boycotting their trials at a U.N. tribunal to protest plans to move future proceedings to Kigali, defense lawyers said on September 21st. Forty-three of the 67 detainees at the court in the Tanzanian town of Arusha began the protest on September 20th, fearing they could face the death penalty if cases are transferred to Rwanda's legal system. Observers say the U.N. is unwilling to use force to comply the defendants to attend their trials.
Fresh fighting in Somalia, the only country without a central government, cast a shadow over an anti-war rally by Somali politicians on the 21st of September for International Peace Day. Hundreds of Somalis have fled to Kenya this month to escape violence in the volatile south of the country stirred by warring militias battling for control of the port of Kismayo. "It is a pity to see there are some people who don't believe that the state of fighting is over," Joseph Nyaga, Kenya's assistant minister of East African and Regional Cooperation, told the rally.
South Africa on Saturday bid farewell to Beyers Naude, a rare white voice against the apartheid system of racial segregation. In a state funeral broadcast live on television and radio, speakers black and white praised Naude, an Afrikaner man of the cloth cut from a different material of many fellow churchmen who saw racial hierarchy in South Africa as ordained by God.
On September 1 2004, Mazuba Mwiinga, a reporter working for the Catholic-owned community radio station Radio Chikuni, was detained by local police in what appears to be a case of settling personal scores. Mwiinga told the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter that he was detained from approximately 15h30 hours on September 1, 2004, till 08h30 the following day on a fabricated charge of "telling falsehoods against the police". Such a charge does not exist in the Penal Code.
The National Council of Moroccans in France (CNMF) has urged French authorities to "act immediately" to put an end to racist acts targeting the Maghreban community in Corsica, notably Moroccans. This call was made after a man of Moroccan origin was shot dead September 17th by two individuals, and the car belonging to a Moroccan national was blown up in Bastia. The two incidents occurred following a series of attacks against the interests of the Moroccan and Maghreban community in the French Island.
Human Rights Watch has recently come out with a new publication, "The International Criminal Court: How Nongovernmental Organizations Can Contribute To The Prosecution Of War Criminals" (September 2004), written by Juliane Kippenberg, NGO Liaison in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and Pascale Kambale, Counsel in Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. In addition to answering frequently asked questions about the ICC, this guide also offers specifics on how NGOs can contribute to the ICC's work of prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide at the international level, including sections on "The Interaction between NGOs and the Court" and "NGO Assistance to Victims and Witnesses".
A year after the privately-owned Daily News newspaper was shut down by police, suspecting that they were publishing the paper illegally, a Zimbabwean court has dropped the charges against four of the newspaper directors. The publication will stay off the news-stands pending a decision by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the media legislation which compels all journalists and newspapers to be accredited by a government-appointed media commission.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Méndez, have arrived in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan to examine how to shield helpless civilians from further militia attacks. They have visited camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and talked to African Union (AU) monitors in North Darfur, to get their feedback for future recommendations.
For many African parents, raising their children abroad (particularly the U.S), is a very daunting and challenging task. The reasons are many, including the culture of the society, which gives enormous powers to the child. Torn between two cultures, African parents are therefore in a dilemma as to where to raise their children. And many believe that there is no substitute for education anchored on traditional African values.
Calls on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to quit the ruling coalition could lead to an early General Election, as the LDP has 68 MPs out of the 132 Narc MPs - leaving other parties in the coalition with 64. The LDP has already announced a new slogan, Rainbow Fagilia (Rainbow sweep), and a thumbs-up salute as its symbol - contrasting with Narc's two-finger V salute - and has established its Rainbow House headquarters in Nairobi's Lavington area, in readiness for the 2007 General Election.
The United States government has approved the sum of N28 billion ($200) million dollars to encourage educational development in Africa even after the US-sponsored Educational for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) handed over five community resource centers in Nigeria.