African delegates are gathered in Ethiopia behind closed doors thrashing out various reports ahead of the African Union Summit that is scheduled for 30 June to 8 July. They are busy adding final details to reports including one on the Pan African Parliament (PAP) budget as well as experts' report on the relations between the AU Commission and regional economic communities. On the summit sidelines, women activists and lobby groups are finalising their action plan to chart the way for their involvement in AU structures especially in conflict resolution and management, poverty, HIV and AIDS as well as women rights programmes.

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Health: The criminalisation of poverty in Zimbabwe
HIV/AIDS: Facing the future together in Southern Africa
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"We congratulate you on the development of the vision, mission and strategic framework for the development of the African Union. We particularly commend the Commission on the aspects that seek to further develop a wide range of rights issues in Africa.

In line with this direction, our delegation has asked to meet with you today to draw your attention to the untenable situation of the media in Africa and the critical need for a new continental mechanism to promote and guarantee media freedom. In 2003, there were 170 reported cases of attacks on journalists and media houses by governments either through ‘legal’ and ‘judicial’ persecution or through harassment and intimidation by security agents. (Kindly see some examples in Appendix 1). Many more went unreported.

In June 2004 the figure for reported violations of media freedom already stands at 102. If this trend continues, there may be well over 200 such cases by the end of 2004, an increase of almost 20% on last year.
This sad situation persists, because many member governments of the African Union do not accept that their citizens and media have the right to express or report views and events that are contrary to, or are critical of the ‘official’ position.

This state of affairs is further underlined by the fact that at present, there are no legal or institutional frameworks that adequately guarantee media freedom in Africa, at the continental level.

Persistent official persecution, arbitrary harassment, and physical intimidation, make it impossible for the African media to collectively, effectively and freely serve as a platform for the dissemination of news and information, and as an avenue for debate, and expression of opinions and ideas - a process which is vital to the democratic, and socio economic development of Africa.

>>>>>Read the rest of this statement and the appendices that it refers to by clicking in the link below.

The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women by the Conference of the Heads of State and Government (the Conference) at the African Union (AU) meeting in Maputo in July 2003 was undeniably an important event in the history of African women's struggle for the recognition of their rights.

This Protocol, the fruits of exemplary collaboration between the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (the Commission) and civil society organisations, was identified as a priority for the promotion and protection of the rights of African women during a workshop in March 1995 on women's rights, organised by the Commission, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique (WiLDAF/FeDDAF) and the International Commission of Jurists, based in Geneva.

The workshop recommended that a protocol on women's rights should be established and a Special Rapporteur on the rights of women should be nominated. The Conference of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mandated the Commission to initiate and coordinate the process of developing a preliminary draft of the protocol. A working group was put in place to propose a text. Since the beginning, the process has been very participatory.

Civil society organisations mobilized themselves to enrich the first version written by the working group. This mobilization increased during the process, as more and more organisations became interested in all steps of the development of the protocol. The numerous ups and downs that punctuated the process sometimes worried civil society members. The long wait between the first and the second meetings, due to successive postponement of the second one, and in the absence of a quorum, was one of the most difficult moments.

However, the lobbying efforts of civil society and the determination of the officers of the African Union responsible for the file resulted in the second meeting of experts. This was followed by a meeting of ministers implicated in the process, who succeeded in registering the protocol on the agenda of the Council of Ministers in July 2003. Eight years after the beginning of the process, the protocol was thus finally adopted by Heads of State.

I relive the joy manifested by the lobby of women's organisations at the announcement of the protocol's adoption, and salute the cooperation that coalesced between certain commissioners and these women. But nobody was fooled! Once the protocol was adopted, there remained many equally important steps to take: to obtain the necessary signatures and ratifications for its entry into force and to respond to the challenge of its effective implementation.

One year on, where are we at in the process? Thirty signatures and one ratification had been registered by 15 June 2004, less than three weeks before the next AU Heads of State and Government Conference. Twelve of the signatory countries are in West Africa, eight in East African and five in southern Africa. Lobbying work must continue in all the regions of Africa, particularly in Central and North Africa, where only three and two signatures, respectively, have been registered. It is important to note that we are still far, very far, from the 15 ratifications necessary for the entry into force of the protocol. And the question of its ratification must absolutely, in one-way or another, be added to the agenda of the July 2004 Summit in Addis-Ababa, in the interests of women, African populations and the African Union.

But why is ratification of the protocol so important?

For African women, the entry into force of the protocol will be an essential step towards the recognition of their rights, the daily violations of which are the source of immense suffering. The protocol will offer, following the example of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) a legal framework of reference, allowing diverse actors, as well as the population, to daily work towards the effective respect of women's rights. But, in addition to CEDAW, the legal framework of the protocol reflects specific violations to African women. Its preamble justifies the adoption of the protocol by the existence of discriminations against women and harmful traditional practices, despite commitments taken by States at regional and international levels. It also expresses leaders' formal support to the principle of equality between men and women.

In addition to these declarations, the protocol contains provisions to respond to problems as crucial as the multiple violations of rights in marital relations, violence and grave risks to the life, physical and moral integrity, and security of women and girls, the pressing reality of which we cannot deny in our societies. The entry into force of the protocol offers an invaluable framework to end violations against civilian, refugee and combatant women and children, particularly girls, in periods of conflict, and to uphold the challenge of peace in Africa, a condition sine qua non of development.

The fight against traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls needs the protocol, which provides guidelines for eliminating them. Economic and social rights as vital as the right to health, including reproductive health, to education and to inheritance rights for widows and girls, which are daily transgressed out of ignorance or deliberately, would be better protected if actions taken could rely on adequate measures, such as those recommended in the protocol. Definitively, there is no doubt that, in the interests of hundreds of thousands of women and girls in Africa, the protocol on women's rights must be ratified as quickly as possible.

For African populations and societies, the absence of a legal framework of reference to fight against violations of women's rights currently constitutes a real handicap for the optimal participation of women in the development of their countries and of Africa, even though they constitute more than 50% of the population of the continent.

Finally, the credibility of the AU, which demonstrated its commitment to promote women's participation and gender equality, notably through parity in the AU Commission and in the equitable representation of Judges of the African Court for Human and People's Rights, rests on proving its coherence and consistency by implementing the protocol without delay. By doing so, the AU and its member States will show the world that, for them also, women's rights are truly an integral part of human rights, and that they are determined to promote and protect them without any discrimination.

The imminent entry into force of the protocol will mark, in sum, a decisive step towards entrenching a culture of respect and exercise of the human rights of women in African societies. For all these reasons, every human rights defender, man or woman, should feel concerned and lobby governmental and parliamentary authorities in order to convince them to ratify the protocol on women's rights and take steps for its effective implementation. Our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, including those who are rarely accustomed to demand their rights, cry for help in a meaningful silence, but are often too quickly assimilated into resignation. It depends on each person to ensure that the voice of the voiceless are finally heard by those who are responsible for the fate of African populations.

* Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson is the Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa, West Africa

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* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.

L'adoption du Protocole à la Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples relatif aux Droits de la Femme par la Conférence des Chefs d'États et de Gouvernement (la Conférence) de l'Union Africaine (UA) réunie à Maputo en juillet 2003 fût sans conteste un événement important dans l'histoire de la lutte des femmes africaines pour la reconnaissance de leurs droits.

Ce protocole, fruit d'une collaboration exemplaire entre la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (la Commission) et les organisations de la société civile a été ressenti comme une priorité pour la promotion et la protection des droits des femmes africaines au cours d'un atelier en mars 1995 organisé par la Commission en collaboration avec le WiLDAF/FeDDAF (Women in Law and Development in Africa/Femmes, Droit et Développement en Afrique) et la Commission Internationale de Juristes basé à Genève.

The adoption of the African Union Protocol represented a significant step in affirming the commitment of governments against gender discrimination and violence. In its wake, the protocol has strengthened the motivation for African governments to align their laws and policies in line with the expectations of the protocol.

The protocol bears testament to the tremendous involvement by many civil society groups, gender and human rights activists who held vigil throughout the long wait on its adoption. More significantly, it represents the collective determination by African governments to safeguard the rights of women.

But like all good laws and policies, the greatest challenge lies in translating the fine print into concrete action and thus giving meaning to laudable intent. It is on this issue that African governments must seize opportunity and work in concert in taking the next crucial step - domesticating its provisions into national law.

At the moment, the scorecard looks fairly disappointing. Only one country - The Comoros - has ratified the Protocol to date. A minimum 14 more must ratify it in order to bring the protocol into operation. While raising this number must be a reason for persistent advocacy and challenge on individual governments, the broader concern must be that of getting all African governments to ratify the protocol. Good is no good where better can be attained and African governments must be more ambitious on numbers.

Individual governments must feel sufficiently challenged to ratify without the need for prodding or pressure. That a laudable document of this stature should remain unratified since its adoption is enough reason for concern and an urgent call to action.

Attention will also need to shift towards creating the relevant institutional mechanism on which to articulate the rights of women. That infrastructure must be empowering, innovative and one that provides an important building block in consolidating the gains made on women rights. It must also be one that challenges existing prejudices and seeks to correct traditions and practices that support retrogressive structures.

National governments must therefore broaden their view on women's rights and recognize them as indispensable to the evolution of a democratic culture. The current phase of renaissance in Africa, best exemplified by the evolution of political maturity and democratic culture, can only be strengthened more not less, by paying closer attention to the rights of women.

However, African governments must avoid the trap of tokenism and paying obeisance to women's rights without sufficiently rooting these in the policy and legislative framework. For instance, one would wish to see better prioritization on women supported by gender budgeting in planning government spending. Governments must match rhetoric and intent with resources.

Ultimately, however, the cause of women will depend in large measure, on the commitment of each one of us. In our own small ways, there is much that we can do to entrench the rights of women and thus affirm the objects of the AU protocol. That first, small step that counts in the journey of a thousand miles must start with each and everyone of us - today because tomorrow may be too late.

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The archives of the regional southern Africa office of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has some precious photographs that offer a record of women's life experiences in the year 2003. In its own way, each image shows the very different ways women across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region endure a world in which poverty has increasingly determined the extent to which women are able to make choices. In one of the pictures four women in their late 20s and early 30s sit side by side, enjoying a moment of sisterhood in the African sunshine.

A shared experience connects them. They are all determined and gallant activists in the movement of women living with HIV and AIDS, agitating for their rights. Hope glows from their faces. Hope of an imminent victory in a struggle that seeks to set women free from all forms of oppression and injustice. But no amount of creative artistry could have enabled the photographer's lens to capture the story behind Angeline Chiwetani's glasses.

In 1999, the working mother of two young boys learned to be tough. She had hit the hardest of times. Her husband, HIV positive and without treatment, needed constant looking-after. Chiwetani drafted a letter of resignation and handed it over to her employers.

Moving away from a job that provided the family its sole income put Chiwetani's life at its darkest ever. For 12 long and lonely months she was miserable and knew little else but pain, anger and disappointment.

Women and the stigma of AIDS

"My marriage had problems. My husband used to go beyond our bedroom and have sexual relations with other women. I told my family lets talk and adjust the situation and they said I was trying to rule the roost, "says Chiwetani.

"No one came to see my husband except for my relatives and friends. My in laws, his brother and sisters labelled me a city woman. They meant I could go and sleep with any guy, " says Chiwetani, pointing to a kind of isolation that women caring for HIV positive husbands have repeatedly voiced.

Thousands of HIV positive women across the sub-Saharan African region daily suffer the nasty effects of gossip, ugly name-calling and being labelled everything from whore to witches. Their collective experiences show the extent to which addressing AIDS related stigma remains a critical priority for any actions aimed at cutting back the impacts of the epidemic on African women. Eliminating the segregation, isolation, emotional and psychological violence HIV positive women like Chiwetani and their families bear.

Women's resistance to AIDS gains momentum

Chiwetani has become a leader, organizing support and care for HIV positive women and their families and communities. The last four years have seen Chiwetani develop strength and resilience. Her boys, now aged 12 and seven, are at school and their grades have been encouraging. She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Network for Zimbabwe Positive Women (NZPW+), a not for profit group that supports more than 3000 HIV positive women across the country in various ways.

NZPW+ is supported by UNIFEM, through a special fund aimed at empowering HIV positive women to put pressure on public institutions to safeguard the rights of especially women living with HIV and AIDS.

"We need to get what we need to save ourselves", she says, running off her fingers some of the resources that HIV positive and other women need to secure empowerment and autonomy, "Education is key, so are jobs, access to treatments for the illnesses HIV positive women face and above all social and legal support".

She says a critical factor in providing support is to create a public and private environment that enables HIV positive women to live with their status. " I cannot emphasis how important it is to have stigma reduction programmes. This allows us to come out in the open and talk to some one who can comfort you and help you get over the stress, someone to share with. I opened up because when I got into this situation someone opened to me. I think I would be dead. There is no one to talk to you can get stressed up and have problems."

AIDS and Women's failing rights

Women and girls account for 58 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe that are deeply affected by the pandemic. In some instances girls aged 15 to 19 years are four to seven times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys within the same age group.

This reflects the low and oppressed status of women in Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe's women have paper rights enshrined in the National Gender Policy, a fracture exists between policy and lived reality. The AIDS pandemic has not only uncovered the very deeply ingrained sexual abuse, gender violence and impoverishment that especially poor black women experience, but it has also served to reinforce and provide new avenues of discriminating women and showing that a critical gap between proclamations and real change remains.

Sexist attitudes and sinister patriarchal practices that privilege men have kept women and poor, rural women in particular, in positions of deep disadvantage. Not only has this made women more vulnerable to HIV infection, but also forced women and girls into working as unpaid, unrecognized home nurses carrying the burden of community based care programmes.

The phenomenal sacrifice women of the sub-region make in nursing the AIDS affected, without appropriate training, equipment, food, water, firewood, money, medications or recognition, is a stunning sign of service. Yet it is also a form of exploitation that reveals the marginalisation of women and girls in societies that accept that women are unequal citizens who should be made to accept labour: washing soiled bedding and clothing, whipping wounds and sores, burying the dead without coffins, caring without knowledge or information or protection has led to a trauma so deep it is difficult to see recovery of families and communities from the burden.

AIDS, Women and the Family

As her husband's health deteriorated Chiwetani sent messages to his family requesting support. The harsh advice that came back was: "Go and stay in the village, near a grave," she says. The family did not want, in the event of her husband's death, the responsibility of moving his body from the city to the village where the funeral was bound to be.

On July 23 2000, while the rest of Zimbabwe was consumed by the headiness surrounding the constitutional reform debate and parliamentary elections, Chiwetani's husband died. "It happened in our house. When I sent a message to his brother the words that came back were "Tell her I am waiting for my wife to finish the laundry", she says.

In a short space of time Chiwetani had gone from wife to widow. No sooner had her husband's coffin been lowered into the grave that new difficulties emerged. A tug-of-war surrounding property believed to belong to the deceased put further strain on already mangled family relations.

HIV and AIDS? The Experience of Widows

"When I went home for the funeral, there was a lot of talk about how I had killed my husband and made him sick", explains Chiwetani. "My husband had amended his Will and reversed certain sections. The Will had been stamped by his lawyers. The family was not very happy that the children and I had been left with everything.”

Bitter inheritance disputes, that often leave widows and their children dispossessed and may even result in fatalities, have been the subject of extensive research by regional feminist networks such as the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, WLSA. The network, along with women's rights groups across the continent, has lobbied for legislative reforms that protect the property and inheritance rights of widows and children. AIDS Activists such as Chiwetani have recently added their weight behind the demands for just inheritance laws and legal practice before both civil and traditional courts.

"Zimbabwe's inheritance laws are very clear: widows and children are the rightful heirs to the deceased's estate, where there is a Will, its contents are meant to be respected,” says Arnold Tsunga, Co-ordinator of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). "Yet more than half of all inheritance disputes have women and girls as complainants. This is partly due to the prejudice women and children encounter through sexist legal practice and customary law that favours men as heirs."

Chiwetani couldn't agree more. "Wills are very important. They prevent people from grabbing property from widows at the time of need,” she says about the strategy that worked for her and her children. "Now that I have my life and our network is growing, my main worry is treatment for the women on whose behalf I have dedicated my life to.”

Women and AIDS Treatment Campaigns

With more than half of the people living with HIV and AIDS being women, treatment campaigns can no longer afford to sideline women's demands for appropriate care through service centres that meet the very specific needs of women.

As the UN's World Health Organisation rolls out its "3 by 5" campaign, which aims to have 3 million people on treatment by 2005, the momentum steadily gathering in the region to demand treatments will need to ensure that a significant number of the beneficiaries of treatment are women and girls living with the HIV.

"Treatment is something to do at all costs," says Jephias Mudondo, director of the Family AIDS Counselling Trust (FACT). "People are dying unnecessarily. The solution is political commitment. Commitment with action.”

"Women are more affected in a lot of ways. Even in infection by older men. Married men go out and get infected. A married woman is the most vulnerable person. When positive they carry all the burden. Poverty does not have access to treatment in the country. We have a programme of volunteers taking place. Of 600 volunteers only 10 are men. The rest are women. Community care impacts on them. When they get ill who do they get support from?"

AIDS and the Ballot Box

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination. Any other form of oppression would have caused massive outrage. The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.

On the eve of the National Conference on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe that ran June 15 to 18 women's rights activists showed their collective indignation at the deeply rooted gender and human rights violations that have allowed the full horror of this mammoth plague to emerge. Not providing early, affordable and accessible treatment, along with the resources so necessary for the disease's elimination has proved to be extremely costly and damaging.

As Zimbabwe moves closer to Parliamentary Elections planned for March 2005, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women, AIDS is steadily graining momentum as an issue of governance and democracy. Political will to tackle gender segregation in the context of AIDS will determine which way the millions of women whose lives have been rocked by the disease will cross their voting cards. After all, women command 52% of the vote.

* Isabella Matambanadzo is Zimbabwean Feminist Activist. She is currently the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) a women's pressure group that since its establishment in 1990 is committed to empowering women to make informed choices and decisions.

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Background:

An important step to establish a legal framework for the promotion and protection of the rights of women throughout the African continent was taken when The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted on 11 July 2003 by the Assembly of the African Union during its second summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

Scope:

The new protocol will complement the African Charter in advancing and ensuring the human rights of the African woman. It covers a broad range of human rights issues, including:

- Access to justice and equal protection before the law;
- The right to life, integrity and security of person; the right to inheritance, and calls for affirmative action to promote equal participation in the political and decision making process; equal representation of women in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies as an integral part of equal protection and benefit of the law;
- The broad range of economic, social and cultural rights for women i.e. the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to adequate and paid maternity leave in both private and public sectors; the rights of particularly vulnerable groups of women i.e. the elderly women, disabled women, widows, 'women in distress' - pregnant or nursing women in detention, poor women, women from marginalized population groups are all recognised; protection against harmful traditional practice; for women in armed conflict; refugee women; right to food security and adequate housing; and recognition of the right of women to participate in the promotion and maintenance of peace.

Landmark provisions highlight:

- The reproductive right of women to medical abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the continuation of pregnancy endangers the health or life of the mother; and
- The legal prohibition of female genital mutilation.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will supervise the implementation of the Protocol pending the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

States Parties to the Protocol commit themselves among others:
- To indicate in their periodic reports to the African Commission the legislative and other measures undertaken to ensure the full realization of the rights recognised in the Protocol;
-To include in their national constitutions and other legislative instruments these fundamental principles and ensure their effective implementation;
- To integrate a gender perspective in their policy decisions, legislation, development plans, and activities and to ensure the overall well-being of women; and
- To take effective measure to prevent the exploitation and abuse of women in advertising and pornography.

The Protocol will enter into force thirty (30) days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15) instrument of ratification. The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) has followed the process of the Protocol with keen interest since the beginning of the discourse in the early 1990s. The lobby for the Protocol has mobilised a wide number of networks when the inadequacies of the African Charter in providing for the rights of women was realized. ACDHRS has served as a member of the working group set up by the African Commission to develop and formulate the first draft which was forwarded to the AU, then OAU. Over the years, the Centre continued to work closely with other organisations and activists on the continent to maximize on our collective collaborative resources to advance this giant step in the cause of human rights.

The adoption of the Protocol ushers in a new and significant era in the promotion and protection of the rights of women in Africa. To date, only one country has ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, while 30 have signed, thus indicating their intention.

The Appeal

While the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies congratulates African Governments for taking the step of adopting the Protocol, we would wish to urge member states to pursue the process of ratification of the Protocol with much vigour and speed to ensure a prompt entry into force of the instrument and therefore its implementation. If the Protocol is ratified and fully implemented, it has the potential to become an important framework to end impunity for all forms of violations of the human rights of women in Africa. Furthermore, the action of ratifying and ushering in implementation would reinforce commitment to end discrimination and violence against women. The women of Africa who have suffered for so long, whose efforts at building our beloved continent have gone on for too long without acknowledgement, and indeed the men of Africa, should be equalled to the task. This is a challenge and a duty we all owe to posterity and to Africa.

We therefore add our voice to all those of our brothers and sisters calling on states to stand up to this challenge and perform the duty it requires. The momentum should not be lost less history judges us unequalled to responsibility.

* Hannah Forster is Executive Director of the African Centre on Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS)

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The Council of Ministers of Mali has approved last Wednesday June 9th the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa which was adopted in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 2003. The ratification has been submitted to the National Assembly to be adopted. Mali will then have to deposit its instrument of ratification at the African Union. This is according to a press release from Women in Law and Development in Africa.

I would first like to congratulate the African Union for the adoption of this very important legal instrument which fills a gap cruelly felt by women and all those who fight to help women secure their rights so that they can fulfil their duties. For, we cannot forget that no one can fully discharge their duties if their rights are ridiculed or categorically ignored.

It is curious to note that important international instruments, which were enthusiastically adopted, have vanished from collective memory simply because the States that adopted them wilfully forget to ratify them. We therefore need to all mobilize to prevent this from happening with the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

By adopting this Protocol, the African Union made significant progress in the protection of women and recognition of their rights. Now we must translate this political will into concrete action through its ratification.

The Protocol addressed several sensitive issues such as violence against women in general and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in particular, early marriages, divorce, involvement of women in socio-political decision making … all of which are deeply anchored in African societies and which governments are not doing enough to tackle at a national level.

The Protocol is a social, political, economic and legal instrument which protects African women and which by its title supplants pathetic political discourse for the benefit of women. The ratification of the Protocol is an opportunity for member states of the African Union to prove that they want to implement their political will to restore women’s rights. Those who do not ratify it will not convince anyone by making a few ministerial appointments to an insignificant number of women.

One cannot hide behind economic growth if the majority of the population, that is, women, cannot benefit from such growth because they are subject to discrimination and violence; moreover, is it really possible to have socio-economic growth if women are still confronted by these scourges?

The Protocol is not a gift to offer to women, it is their right. The member states of the African Union must therefore demonstrate their will to restore these rights by the ratification, and particularly the effective application, of this instrument.

In the Africa of wars and poverty, there is place for the rights of women. I am convinced that women who enjoy all their rights would play a pacifying role on our continent.

Girls that are uncircumcised, integrated, educated, married at a legal age, free from violence, empowered, and who participate fully in decision making at all levels: these are some of the results expected by the implementation of the Protocol. Which state would not want that for its citizens?

To ratify and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa is therefore a priority for our states and all their citizens. Let everyone make a commitment to this goal!

* Dr Morissanda Kouyate is Director of Operations Of the Inter African Committee Secretary General CPTAFE ([email protected])

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* For the French version of this article, please click on the link below.

Je voudrais d’abord saluer l’Union Africaine pour l’adoption de cet important instrument juridique qui comble un déficit cruellement ressenti par les femmes et par toutes celles et tous ceux qui luttent pour aider les femmes africaines à conquérir tous leurs droits afin qu’elles remplissent tous leurs devoirs. Car ne l’oublions pas, nul ne peut convenablement accomplir ses devoirs si ses droits sont bafoués ou catégoriquement ignorés.

MEETING THE GENDER PARITY TARGET OF 2005: A FAR CRY FOR AFRICA

1 The Planning Process for EFA in Africa
As African leaders and heads of state plan to join hands in the forthcoming AU summit in Addis next month, three years after appending their signatures to the Dakar Framework for action (EFA Protocol, 2000), civil society’s perception on progress made on EFA by African countries has mixed. While it is true that there has been a growth in the number of countries with ‘credible’ plans, this is far below the numbers expected and it is unlikely that the new target date of December, 2004 for participatory plans will be achieved in many countries. While countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Senegal and others have achieved their plans, there is some confusion about whether these are separate EFA plans, chapters of national development plans, sector review reports, MDG action plans or sections of their Poverty Reduction Strategy papers. A number of countries who claimed to have developed plans prior to the Dakar Forum have not reported any revision of their strategies in a participatory way – Nigeria, The Gambia, Zambia, Ghana, fall into these categories. Therefore, while the UNESCO progress report of 2001 suggested only 7 countries have this work to do in 2002/03, a deeper analysis of the state of ‘plans’ reveals the problem is significantly deeper than one would otherwise gather. Significant political commitment is required to put participatory and credible plans in place which will enable countries to strategically tackle the challenges which the Dakar Framework presents. Key among them is gender parity in education and promotion of girls education in Africa.

2 Making EFA goals and MDGs Indivisible
Barely six months after Dakar, the world’s leaders gathered at the Millennium Summit and committed themselves to eight over-arching goals - the Millennium Development Goals. Two of these correspond directly to Dakar goals. However, in the process of implementing Dakar, a new trend of emphasis on the MDGs has become the basis for action. Countries are focusing on access to primary schooling and girls' enrollment as the key indices of success. The international community, led by the World Bank, has aggressively adopted these two goals as the central basis for their support. The only two resource packages in sight since Dakar – The World Bank Fast Track initiative and the Commonwealth Education Fund – focus their emphasis on these two goals. However EFA goals and MDGs should not be treated separately. It is upon African governments to look at both EFA goals and MDGs broadly as indivisible frameworks whose attainment relies on each and similar strategies. This will help in building synergy, harmony and concerted efforts towards accelerating gender parity not as alone ranging goal but as part of the wider targets for education development in Africa.

3 Achieving basic education as a Constitutional right
All the documents, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and CEDAW, as well as Jomtien and Dakar Frameworks reaffirm the understanding that education is a basic human right. However, an analysis of most constitutions shows that this has not been translated effectively into national constitutions. With the exceptions of possibly Ghana, Kenya (Children's Act 2001 and the draft Constitution) and Malawi, there is no constitutional guarantee to the right of every individual citizen to education – even elementary or basic education. African leaders and governments should and must focus on this, as one of the priority areas. As long as basic education remain ‘a goodwill service’ devoid of constitutional provisions as a fundamental right girls access to education will continue to suffer a great deal. To unlock the potential of all boys and girls basic must be made not only accessible and compulsory but more importantly a constitutional entitlement. So all government policy documents should bestow elementary education as a fundamental right, allocate substantial funds to elementary education and reiterate commitment to close all gender and social equity gaps in accessing quality basic education for all citizens of the continent.

4 Financing of Education for Girls
Overall, financing to education continues to fall far short of the sums required to ensure access as set out in the Dakar Framework. Only very few countries like the Gambia and Senegal come close to the necessary budgetary allocations for achieving EFA – currently recommended at 26%. Most countries average between 5% and 10% with education often fairly low down on the list of national priorities – typically fifth or lower. Unless significant resources are mobilized into education, the MDG & EFA targets, particularly those on gender and girls education will remain a pipe dream. Governments must focus on national level resource mobilization to support EFA plans and initiate special funding mechanisms and sponsorship schemes to support girls education. This calls for affirmative action in allocation of resources to girls and boys from disadvantaged communities.

5 Participation of Girls in Education
Yes, more and more children are definitely coming to school and yes the teachers are also present, but one is left wondering how many girls in particular will actually complete the primary cycle with requisite skills. The tragedy is not that there is no demand for education or that people do not recognize the value of education in the overall growth and development of their children. Rather most of those children who do enroll are pushed from one grade to the next, thanks to the no-detention policy, that is if they are not pushed out of the system all together. School attendance varies across countries in the continent. Attendance rates too vary across different age groups - they decline as we move towards higher ages. This is more marked for girls in rural areas, where they decline by more than 50% for 10-17 year olds.

The situation is particularly bleak in rural areas, in urban slums and for children of communities who are at the bottom of the social ladder. The situation in these areas is fairly predictable - extreme poverty, low investment in primary education, low adult literacy, dysfunctional or poorly functioning schools, low learning achievements and high drop out rates. There are wide discrepancies between the percentage of boys and girls completing primary school. Moreover, for girls, socially disadvantaged groups, and those in rural areas, completion rates are lower. Equally disturbing is the distribution of out of school children by social group and by location, this is much more with rural girls belonging to disadvantaged groups. The real problem is that as we go down the social and economic pyramid, access and quality issues become far more pronounced. The vast numbers of the very poor in rural and urban Africa have to rely on government schools of different types. It is indeed the best time to make a decisive shift in the way education is envisioned - the demand side has never looked more promising. The overwhelming evidence emanating from studies done in the last 10 years clearly demonstrates that there is a tremendous demand for education - across the board and among all social groups. Wherever the government has ensured a well-functioning school within reach, enrolment has been high. The challenge for governments is to make public education relevant and of high quality so that parents and poor communities can reclaim their lost confidence in public and community education.

6 Quality, Diversity and Life Skills
Children who complete middle or even high school are left with almost no opportunity for continuing their education or acquiring employment or self-employment skills that could enable them to eke out a livelihood. Worse, there is no comprehensive policy to address the educational and training needs of educated youth. Basic, ordinary middle and high school education is not enough, particularly for girls. Given the changing scenario in the continent - especially with respect to the educational aspirations of our people - we have to seriously think about and plan for post-basic and or post-secondary education and training opportunities. Equally, linking education to empowerment (self-esteem/self-confidence), survival (for employment/self-employment), awareness of social, political and community issues and rights as citizens can yield handsome results for a continent that is experiencing unprecedented social as well as economic transformation.

Parents across Africa want to send their children - girls and boys - to school, but are at a loss in a situation where schools are dysfunctional. Also, teachers are not made accountable for learning outcomes of children, especially in the primary and middle-level schools where there are no agreed and child friendly evaluation benchmarks or systems.

7 Some conclusions and way forward
Access without quality is meaningless and quality is the essence of equity. There is little point in pushing children into schools if we cannot simultaneously gear the system to ensure children acquire reading, writing and cognitive skills appropriate for each level of education. This necessitates a multi-pronged strategy of bringing about changes in curriculum, classroom transactions, teacher training, classroom environment, teacher attitudes and school-community linkages. Working on any one of these without addressing related issues does not lead to significant improvement in the learning outcomes of children.

Creating multiple exit points, from post-primary onwards whereby children can access a wide range of technical/vocational skills (including agriculture, public/maternal health, nursing, social development, civic education and so on) is significant. Careful context specific planning has to be based on rigorous exploration of employment or self-employment opportunities and the resource base in the region. This is essential if we are to link education and training to life skills, governance, productive work and self consciousness.

While affirmative action for girls by way of reservations and special provisions does have a role to play, it is more than evident that in the last 20 years people from socially deprived communities (except for a tiny section) have remained at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. different educational institutions ensure that their literacy, numeracy, cognitive and critical thinking abilities remain poor. They enter adolescence and adulthood with little hope and are quickly sucked into a battle for survival that leaves little room for self-development. This reinforces prevalent ambivalence about appropriateness of formal education beyond the elementary level. Africa cannot hope to make a breakthrough unless the entire chain that binds education is addressed in totality. Piecemeal approaches have not worked in the past and are unlikely to do so in the future. This calls therefore for new approaches and comprehensive and broader sectoral reforms not only in education but in politics, economics and social development regimes.

Andiwo Obondoh works with ANCEFA - Africa Network Campaign on Education for All.

Note: the views expressed here are those of the author (collated from different papers) and not necessarily of ANCEFA since this paper has not been subjected to debate within the ANCEFA Network.

Last December, Internet portal Yahoo! and banking giant HSBC launched a Web site that allows people working in the United States to send money to family and friends living abroad directly from their computer. Currently, only a small fraction of overseas money transfers are sent via the Internet. Nonetheless, Yahoo! believes it will soon become dominant in the $50 billion United States remittance market.

Both government soldiers and dissident forces have carried out war crimes in Bukavu, killing and raping civilians in their battle to control the eastern Congolese city, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released last week. On May 26 dissident forces under Brigadier General Laurent Nkunda and Colonel Jules Mutebutsi started an uprising against the unified national army of the 10th Military Region in Bukavu. Government troops killed at least 15 civilians between May 26 and 28, including those from the minority Congolese ethnic group known as Banyamulenge. Dissident troops killed civilians and carried out widespread sexual violence against women and girls, some of them as young as three years of age. In an unconfirmed estimate, international humanitarian agencies report that as many as 80 people may have died in fighting in the city from May 26 to June 6.

Commenting on Shell's announcement that it would remain in Nigeria and "help reduce conflict by changing our operating, security and community development practices,'' Friends of the Earth Executive Director Tony Juniper said. "At long last Shell is facing up to the impacts of its activities in Nigeria. The company must take responsibility for the damage it has caused in the Niger Delta, compensate the communities devastated by pollution from Shell's oil spills and gas flaring, and work with people on the ground to find a sustainable way forward.”

Activist groups concerned about Africa expressed deep disappointment last Thursday with what they called a failure of the leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) richest nations to respond seriously to the ongoing crises that afflict the region. They were particularly downcast about the G-8's refusal to grant comprehensive debt relief to the continent's poorest nations, as had been promoted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the failure to commit major new funds to combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic which is killing roughly 6,000 Africans every day.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani, and that of Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, welcomed the appointment by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights of special rapporteurs on human rights defenders and on refugees and internally displaced persons. The Commission appointed Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga of Tanzania as Special Rapporteur on Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. Mr. Nyanduga faces a daunting challenge, as Africa is the continent most affected by forcible displacement, with almost 13 million internally displaced persons, out of a global total of 25 million, and over three million refugees, the majority of whom suffer from the most acute violations of human rights.

"We members of Africa Jubilee South Group, representing Angola, Cameroon, Cote d' ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, together with our solidarity partners from Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines as participants in the Illegitimate Debt Audit Workshop gathered in Cape Town, South Africa declare: We are united by our common history of slavery, colonization, neo-colonialism and struggles against domination arising from the policies of globalisation advanced by International Financial Institutions and driven in particular by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and western industrialized countries..."

Shut down for a year by civil war, schools in Nimba county in northern Liberia are finally starting to reopen. But pupils are taught in wrecked classrooms with no roof to keep out the rain. They are forced to bring their own chairs from home to sit on. And their teachers have yet to receive a salary. Authorities in the town of Sanniquelle, near Liberia's northern border with Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, have managed to reopen a few primary schools with unpaid volunteer teachers since UN peacekeeping troops were deployed there two months ago.

Applications are invited from South Africans who in the past were educationally disadvantaged by law and resource allocation. The Fellowship offers an opportunity for study of one academic year at Harvard University and includes payment of all tuition, a subsistence allowance, and a return air ticket.

The Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the International Deaf Children's Society (IDCS) is offering grants of up to £10,000 for projects that offer measurable and sustainable improvements to the individual lives of deaf children and their families. This could be either by piloting new services or improving existing services in the area of health and education or by promoting the empowerment and participation of deaf children and their families.

The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) is a project which aims to create a network of experienced and committed researchers, policy makers, activists and donors who will work together to ensure that the many aspects of sexual violence are addressed. The SVRI will focus on the sexual abuse and coercion of adult and adolescent women, child sexual abuse, sexual torture and sexual violence in war situations, and trafficking in women and girls for sex. For more information about and to join the Sexual Violence Research Initiative please look at http://www.who.int/gender/violence/sexviolresearch/en/

The humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has become more entrenched since fighting broke out in Bukavu earlier this month, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has warned. About 3.3 million civilians cannot be reached by aid agencies, the most of any conflict, and human rights are being violated on a massive scale, he said.

Increases in production and incomes, the development of contract-farming arrangements with smallholders, and attention to market dynamics, including a lack of recurrent subsidies, have positively impacted on the Kenyan horticulture export situation, according to a paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute. The brief examines some of the factors that have contributed to the over six percent growth in Kenyan horticulture exports over the last 30 years. The article highlights specific elements of Kenya's horticultural export market that have led to its success and specifies more general characteristics that could be applied to other markets seeking further improvement.

Agricultural experts are urging Malawian subsistence farmers to use organic compost - instead of manufactured fertilisers - to boost soil fertility and increase crop productivity. Accelerating soil degradation is increasingly being linked to declines in yields throughout the global south, but use of compost can help soils to retain both water and nutrients.

Save the Children (USA) is a non profit making organisation whose mission is to bring lasting positive change in the lives of children in need through out the globe. Save the Children Uganda Field Office is currently implementing a five year Food Security Program in Nakasongola district and is seeking to recruit competent professionals.

AMREF is the largest health development organisation based in Africa with the mission to improve the health of disadvantaged people in Africa as a means for them to escape poverty and improve the quality of their life. The Country Director, AMREF Tanzania will provide leadership and strategic direction to the country office and field-based staff in the AMREF Tanzania Country Programme, responsible for country performance and programme growth.

As implied in its provocative title, Where are the girls? by Susan McKay and Dyan Mazurana is intended to highlight the specific experiences, needs and capacities of girls in fighting forces, perhaps the least visible of the ‘invisible soldiers’. The authors argue: “At its core, this study’s findings emphasize the implications of seeing girls in fighting forces. It is these implications that provide a vision to help inform and shape future actions.” (p. 119) However, the book is not about girls in isolation. Rather, the authors’ approach is at the same time less categorical and more radical. McKay and Mazurana provide an insightful gender analytic lens to view girls not as a separate, monolithic category for ‘special’ intervention, but rather as members of dynamic communities, whose roles and relationships need to be recognised.

The study also provides a refreshing break from traditional portrayals of girls in conflict as either passive, traumatised, helpless victims or irrational, deviant villains. In contrast to this unhelpful sensationalism, McKay and Mazurana argue that girls and women in fighting forces are actors, with both needs and capabilities, embodying vulnerabilities as well as agency, facing opportunities and challenges. While drawing out common themes, the authors do not gloss over individual differences, but contextualize patterns of, and highlight nuances among, girls’ multiplicity of experiences in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique.

After a global overview of trends of the presence, entry and roles of girls in fighting forces from 1990-2003, the authors focus on the specific experiences of girls in three African conflicts. A brief overview of the situation in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique, as well as rationale for selection of the case studies, provide essential background for understanding girls’ experiences in fighting forces in these contexts. Comparative data and a rich analysis of psycho-social issues and the roles that girls play in the fighting forces form the heart of the study. The authors argue that entire communities must be involved in a holistic approach to reintegration, taking into account shifting social, political, economic and gender contexts. This dynamic process involves both girls adapting to often “disjointed, displaced, reconfigured” (p. 39) communities, and communities recognising and accepting how girls have changed because of their experiences. A thoughtful analysis of the multiple roles and experiences of girls in fighting forces in the three countries challenges monolithic stereotypes of girls as ‘simply’ ‘bush wives’, ‘sex slaves’ or ‘camp followers’. Rather, McKay and Mazurana show how girls’ and women’s productive and reproductive labour is essential to fighting forces and thus argue that conceptual, policy and programmatic approaches must be modified to take girls’ roles seriously.

Drawing on a wide range of secondary sources, as well as primary material collected from hundreds of interviews with girls and practitioners in the field, Where are the Girls? provides a wealth of information and analysis for academics, policy makers and practitioners. The extensive bibliography points to most of the existing literature on the topic, while the methodological appendices document useful research approaches and tools. An index and glossary would have further contributed to the book’s utility as a resource guide. The policy and programming recommendations in each section provide a realistic framework for action. However, these are almost exclusively targeted at the international community; a recognition of the specific interventions, challenges and opportunities of local organisations would have made the study more relevant to a larger audience. These few limitations, however, do not detract from the authors’ goal to render more visible girls in fighting forces. Indeed, McKay and Mazurana surpass this aim by also highlighting, in a refreshingly sensitive, nuanced and contextualized way, the multifaceted nature, causes and consequences of girls’ participation in fighting forces and challenge us to provide a correspondingly holistic, flexible, locally appropriate and gendered response.

* Montreal: Rights and Democracy, 2004. ISBN: 2-922084-74-4

* Reviewed by Christina Clark, Fahamu

A Place called Home is a contemporary arts exhibition planned for South Africa audiences with artists from the South Asian Diaspora (artists of "Indian"/South Asian descent from all around the world). The project focuses on photography, video, prints, web based and installation work.

The new African writer is in many ways better placed to understand and represent Africa than his predecessor. The new African writer is part of the new, powerless middle class; he has no privileges; often the best job he can hope for is as a teacher or a journalist. He is also luckier than his predecessors because he has an emerging indigenous educated audience to address. Ben Okri's novels are good examples of this emerging African novel. The work of the Ugandan, Moses Isegewa, is another. His Abyssinian Chronicles (2000) is not a beautiful novel, but it is an honest one, about being young in a country that has been destroyed by politicians and western hypocrisy and senseless tribal violence and disease and poverty.

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has dismissed allegations of racism levelled against them by a group of rebellious contracted players. ZCU chairman Peter Chingoka told a media conference that the allegations came from those who were against the unions integration policy, which they started implementing in 2001.

The Resource Alliance has announced a 3-day regional workshop on Resource Mobilisation in Uganda on 9th – 12th November 2004. The workshop has been organised in partnership with the Uganda Debt Network. If you are involved in local resource mobilisation in Eastern Africa, then don't miss this opportunity to update knowledge and fundraising skills. This workshop will address the challenges and opportunities of resource mobilisation in this region and will consist of a wide range of practical skill development workshops and inspirational plenaries. You will also have the opportunity to meet with experts on a one-to-one basis to discuss issues which are of specific relevance to your working environment.

Non-Governmental Organisations, Non-profit Organisations, Media, Grassroots, Religious bodies, Volunteers, Individuals in humanitarian courses and all other organisations that are involved in developmental missions will find this gathering relevant.

The global anti-foreign military bases network is inviting groups campaigning against the presence of US/NATO/foreign military bases to be part of a global website. The website aims to be a central site for information sharing and organising for the global anti-bases movement. It seeks to show both the global nature of US/NATO military bases but especially of the growing movement against them.

This invaluable guide to organising winning and profitable fundraising events is the culmination of over twenty years of experienced fundraiser Jill Ritchie's voluntary and professional involvement in event fundraising both in South Africa and abroad. It features over 100 fun, innovative and novel fundraising ideas with planning, preparation, pitfalls, potential, tips, hints and variations.

The village of Nyenasi is like most villages in Ghana; there is no electricity, library, post office, or telephone service, the major sources of information are the interactions on market days at the district capital Twifo Praso, and on portable radio sets which run on dry cell batteries. It is such communities that many development experts want to reach with ICTs.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives in over 120 countries, has condemned the recent decision by the authorities in Zimbabwe to suspend the operating licence of The Tribune newspaper. According to IPI's research, on 10 June, the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) suspended The Tribune's operations for twelve months for allegedly breaching the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

It comes as no surprise that the Zimbabwe government is turning its attention to censoring email and internet communications. Freedom of expression has been under siege in Zimbabwe for the last few years. Increasingly Zimbabweans find their human rights infringed upon in a variety of insidious ways. Just think about it for a second. You have to give notice to the police if you intend to hold a public meeting. You can be harassed by the State if gathered in groups of more than two. Wearing a pro-democracy T-shirt might get you beaten up by intolerant thugs. The Daily News was unceremoniously shut down. Editors from independent newspapers are routinely harassed and intimidated. And, by the way, our television and radio stations parrot the ruling party line. So it’s small wonder that the Zimbabwe government has recognised that email and internet communications remain one of the only avenues through which Zimbabweans can share information.

On 7 June 2004, Gustave Kalenga Kabanda, managing editor of the Kinshasa-based weekly "La Flamme du Congo" ("Congo's Flame") was arrested by judicial police at his home in Kinshasa-Ngaliema. Kalenga Kabanda was taken to the Kinshasa-Gombe Court's detention centre (commonly referred to as the "judicial locker"), where he was detained for 48 hours before being taken to the General Court's detention centre, near Kinshasa-Gombe's Court of First Instance. According to information obtained by JED, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) four vice-presidents, accused Kalenga Kabanda of spying after he was caught filming renovations being made to Bemba Gombo's home in Gemena, a city in Equateur province, northern DRC.

On 26 May 2004, High Council for Communications (Haut conseil de la communication, HCC) President Moussa Dago threatened to order the closure of FM Liberté, a community radio station based in the capital, N'Djamena. In a letter to FM Liberté's director, the HCC president criticised the station for airing a commercial, between 19 and 25 May, in which a collective of civil society groups commented on the draft amendment to the country's Constitution. The HCC said the commercial was of a political nature, thereby violating the broadcast law governing private radio stations in the country and opening the door to penalties.

The Mataffin Farm in Nelspruit, South Africa is testament to the country's thriving - and transforming - agricultural sector. Tidy rows of robust avocado trees splay across soft, rolling hills. Two schools and a spacious soccer pitch are enjoyed by the farm workers' children. Mataffin's white managers and its new black owners are working hand in hand to ensure that this coveted land continues to produce abundant harvests as it has for more than 100 years. The South African Land Claims Commissioner, Tozi Gwanya, holds Mataffin up as proof that land reform can be triumphant in the country.

Sudan is at the brink of peace and in the depths of war. The internal repercussions of the war in Darfur are proving far more destabilising than the Government of Sudan (GoS) had ever anticipated. This instability interacts with international condemnation, which is increasingly vociferous. The IGAD peace process has been hanging in the balance, but under considerable pressure made progress towards resolution on most of the outstanding issues. The conflict in Darfur threw the GoS peace efforts into disarray, dividing its political and diplomatic energies.

Thanks for your insistence that issues such as this remain in the public domain and consciousness, and for providing a vehicle for those who want to express what they feel about them. (With reference to the Petition on the Protocol on the Rights of Women).
Lanre Obafemi, Nigeria

Sign the petition at:

I would like to thank Tajudeen [Abdul-Raheem] and Gerald [Caplan] (Pambazuka News 160, Pan-African Postcard and Letters) for those mind blowing comments on the late Ronald Reagan. These two articles are a splendid entry point for an argument I have always made. I totally disagree with Baroness Thatcher when she gushes that Reagan freed the world. Not the African world as far as I am concerned. The pro democracy movement in Africa owes its roots not to the goodwill of the “free world” in Cold War language but quite to the contrary it is a direct consequence of the struggles of African people on either sides of the Atlantic, struggles that are intertwined in one Pan African aorta pumping for justice.

On making "America walk tall again by beating up tiny poverty-stricken nations”, I still shudder when I remember the TV clips of the eerie formation of the USAF's 82nd Air Division flying out of Barbados to go and hit Granada in1983. I still remember the pretexts used to bomb the Cuban airport construction engineers: the runway was too long and could be used to attack the US. That at a time when the USSR could have as easily deployed their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

In classic doublespeak, the bad guys are up to no good on the island. Strangely however, work resumed on the airport, the long runway of which was required for long haul aircraft in the tourist industry as in its only wrong when Africans and those of African descent say or do it. But even for the Reagan White House, the day of reckoning came at the Battle of Quito Cuenavale where the CIA- backed UNITA and apartheid South African forces were taught a lesson they'll not forget any time soon. For me it was that defeat in Angola and not the fall of the Wall that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The spirits of Yemaya and Nehanda oversaw the Independence of Namibia and the release of Nelson Mandela to avenge not only the fallen in Grenada and Angola but in all the struggles where the cry still is: Not yet Uhuru!

A luta continua.

At the root of the human rights disaster in Darfur, western Sudan, is the Sudanese government’s policy of repression, including incommunicado detentions, summary trials, 'disappearances' and torture, Amnesty International said in a 8 June Memorandum to the Sudanese government. "The rule of law and traditional mechanisms for resolving conflict between different ethnic groups have been destroyed by the government’s support for the ‘Janjawid’ militia groups, its failure to arrest anyone accused of attacking and killing villagers from sedentary groups, and its persecution of those thought to be critical of the government," said Amnesty.

European and US officials and industry professionals will meet to discuss ways of tackling the proliferation of racist, xenophobic and anti-semitic materials via the Internet, blamed for a rising tide of hate-crimes. Delegates at the meeting, held at the initiative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the French government, hope to find ways to trace the authors of racist propaganda, without reining in online freedoms.

Amnesty International has expressed extreme concern at news reports that the UK government has begun forcibly returning failed Somali asylum-seekers to the Somali capital Mogadishu, despite widespread violence in the city that continues to claim hundreds of civilian lives. In a little-publicised policy change, the government has been forcibly returning male Somalis to Mogadishu since 31 March 2004, with six people known to have been sent there by early June.

A major resettlement operation of Angolan refugees in Zambia has started. By October this year, 40,000 refugees are to be repatriated in Angola only from Zambia. Another 50,000 Angolans residing in the region may also be returned this year. Returnees are to be brought to a reception centre at Cazombo, where they will stay for several days to attend sessions on mine and HIV/AIDS awareness and get medical assistance if required, the UN says.

The world is turning to dust, with more land becoming desert wasteland every year and the problem threatening to send millions of people fleeing to greener countries, the United Nations says. One-third of the Earth's surface is at risk, driving people into cities and destroying agriculture in vast swaths of Africa.