PAMBAZUKA NEWS 114: FROM RHETORIC INTO REALITY - THREE STEPS TO END CHILD SOLDIERING
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 114: FROM RHETORIC INTO REALITY - THREE STEPS TO END CHILD SOLDIERING
Peaceful protests are expected to dog President Mogae of Botswana throughout his visit to Britain this week. The Botswana government has evicted hundreds of Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral land and dumped them in bleak resettlement camps, earning worldwide condemnation.
When 54-year old Mary Kuluo saw a poster urging Maasai women to rear dairy goats that had high milk potential she got interested. "The women are only allowed to own chickens, goats and donkeys", says Bernard Momanyi, the Narok District Agriculture and Livestock Extension Officer. "Thus any introduction of dairy goats among the Maasai had to involve women and they are excited about it".
Corporations are the dominant force in modern life, surpassing even church and state. The largest are richer than entire nations, and courts have given these entities more rights than people. Where did this powerful institution come from? How did it get so much power? In Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy, author Ted Nace probes the roots of corporate power, finding answers in surprising places.
This issue includes:
* The Politics of Refugee Hosting in Tanzania: From Open Door to Unsustainability, Insecurity and Receding Receptivity
Sreeram Sundar Chaulia, pp. 147-166
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_16/Issue_02/160147.sgm.abs.html
* Preventive, Palliative, or Punitive? Safe Spaces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, and Sri Lanka
Jennifer Hyndman, pp. 167-185
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_16/Issue_02/160167.sgm.abs.html
Amid a torrent of claims and counter-claims about the pros and cons of globalization, this book takes a critical look at the actors, institutions and processes that mediate the relationship between the forces of globalisation and the poverty experienced by the majority of the world's people. The chapters in this important book clearly demonstrate that globalisation is a process with repercussions that extend far beyond the power centres of the North where global economic policies are formulated. The book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and activists in development.
Drawing on case studies from Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Mali and Kenya (focusing on Turkana district) during the drought years of 1990-91, this book investigates why early warning signals were not translated into timely intervention. It examines, for the first time, the role of early warning information in decision-making processes, particularly within key donor agencies.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the article on "Ending the siege on Zimbabwean people is vital for African progress." I found the article to be a grounded approach to the Zimbabwean crisis.
The emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from Europe, Japan, the United States and other industrialized countries could grow by 17 percent from 2000 to 2010, despite measures in place to curb them, according to a new United Nations report. Greenhouse gases blanket the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet's surface.
Kenya is among nine African countries with the highest number of Tuberculosis (TB) infections. Kenyan Assistant Minister for Health Gedion Konchellah said there had been an upsurge of TB due to the HIV/Aids epidemic, urbanisation, increasing poverty and declining social economic trends.
UNIFEM Southern African Regional Office is currently compiling a database on women economists in Southern Africa. The objective of the exercise is to facilitate networking as well as creating a pool of resource persons who can be hired to either write articles on gender and economics or to make presentations at workshops. The targeted persons should have wide knowledge in macroeconomics, trade, gender and human rights issues. If you are interested, please contact Rachel Mujuru.
Higher education institutions in the country, the University of Zimbabwe in particular, have lost their status as academic institutions ready to offer a haven for constructive criticism of government excesses, writes Tapera Kapuya, the former Secretary General of the University of Zimbabwe Student Union. 'Bomber' militia run university security. Students are harassed and beaten with apparent impunity. Members of the secret police watch dissident lecturers and students, and armed riot police are ready to pounce at any slightest show of discontent by members of the academic community. As Brian Raftopoulos, a professor at the university’s institute of development studies and chair of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee, said in his Canon Collins Memorial Lecture in London last week, its academics are polarised between adjuncts to the Zanu PF propaganda machine and critics of the regime.
"Knowledge and information are power," said Uganda’s Education Minister, Khiddu Makubuya. "Our future is in our youth and we must offer them the best possible start in life". One would be forgiven for thinking that the words refer to kindergarten or primary school education in Africa. But he was talking about secondary schooling at the opening, Monday, of the first regional conference on secondary education in Africa, being held in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. To date, secondary schooling has played second fiddle to primary education, which has attracted most of the funds and attention of both donors and African governments in recent years.
A targeted urban intervention programme in Zambia is helping to keep orphans and vulnerable children in school by supporting their caretaker families. Zambia is among six countries in Southern Africa experiencing food shortages due to a combination of factors, including drought and the impact of HIV/AIDS.
The retired major-general with a mission to fight the corruption in Nigeria's public life works from an office in the back yard of a small poultry business in the sprawling outskirts of Lagos. Bearded, wearing a grey singlet and jeans, he cuts an unusual figure for a former top-brass officer. Ishola Williams heads the Nigerian branch of Transparency International, the anti-corruption lobbying organisation whose last ranking classed Nigeria as the world's second most corrupt nation, after Bangladesh. He sees in Nigeria a whole political system that has successfully resisted attempts to change its habits.
Amnesty International has called on the Tunisian government to urgently reform its justice system as the human rights organisation published a new report revealing endemic human rights abuse in Tunisia, where even the number of people held in its prisons is a secret.
The May 2003 conference on “The Work of Karl Marx and Challenges of the 21st Century" was held under the auspices of Cuban trade unionists, philosophers and economists. More than 500 attended, and in addition to lengthy interventions by Fidel Castro, papers were presented by the likes of Samir Amin, Fred Bienefeld, Liudmila Boulavka, Simon Clarke, Francois Houtart, Diane Flaherty, Barbara Foley, Marta Harnecker, David Kotz, Michael Lebowitz and Istvan Meszaros. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Johannesburg) has made available resources to discuss the conference and its implications for South and Southern African social change movements.
Is your writing getting the results you want? Perhaps you find writing a chore. Perhaps you know what you want to say, but not how to say it. Perhaps you need to polish your skills. If so, then JustWrite is just what you need. JustWrite is a unique online learning experience, created for anybody needing to write powerful, persuasive documents. It is ideal for anybody producing a research report; thesis; book or book chapter; advocacy document; paper for publication; essay; - or any other substantial piece of writing. In three intensive weeks, JustWrite will guide you from conception to final draft. The next online course begins on 14 July 2003. You can be anywhere in the world to benefit from this course; you only need access to a computer and email. Places are limited, so book early.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began on Monday to repatriate 2,562 Central African Republic refugees, who have been living in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo since June 2001.
Sixty women peace activists in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have appealed for the restoration of peace and stability in the city. Their call was made during a women's forum held in Mogadishu, organised by the Centre for Research and Dialogue (CRD), an affiliate of the War-Torn Societies Project International, according to Maryam Mahmud Haji, a CRD gender officer.
Mauritanian President Maaouiya Sid Ahmed Ould Taya took to the airwaves on Monday to praise loyal army units for seeing off a coup attempt which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital. Less than 24 hours earlier, Ould Taya appeared to have been ousted as rebel forces took over the presidential palace after launching a coup early on Sunday morning.
More than 2,500 malnourished children in Ethiopia have been admitted to emergency feeding centres in recent weeks, the humanitarian organisation Save the Children USA said on Monday. It said a further 2,000 children were on the "brink" of starvation as Ethiopia faced what has been described as its worst food crisis in two decades.
A UK-based NGO, Save the Children, has urged the multinational force currently mobilising in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to take an active role in efforts to prevent use of children by armed groups in the region.
The Swiss-based human rights group, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has expressed concern over a recent incident in which Sudanese security forces reportedly arrested a group of women activists, and it urged the authorities in Khartoum to conduct a "thorough and impartial" investigation.
Questions about what percentage of Africa's HIV infections are caused by dirty needles has prompted U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson -- who is also the chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- to order a review of all research linking HIV/AIDS and medical injections, Associated Press has reported. The review could affect how funding from the $15 billion U.S. initiative to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean is distributed, AP reported.
Policy-makers and donors should seize the opportunities new ICTs provide to reduce the amount of public information that is under-utilised or captured by local elites while avoiding the temptation to pursue ‘one-size-fits-all’ ICT applications. They should also realise that the rural poor need to be able to operate in increasingly sophisticated input and output markets: ICTs can improve inadequate extension services and ensure farmers have access to reliable information about agricultural technologies and markets. This is according to an Overseas Development Institute (ODI) paper that examines the untapped potential of ICTs to free up public information resources to stimulate rural development and more efficient markets and institutions.
Why are women hugely under-represented in parliaments across the world? What strategies can bring women’s interests into the policy-making process? What are the pros and cons of quotas reserving parliamentary places for women? How can participants in women’s movements avoid being co-opted? A paper from the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) takes a look at a subject largely ignored in the mainstream literature on democratisation. It notes the contrast between the lively debates on the reform of governments in ethnically segmented societies with the deafening silence on women’s absence from the world of institutional politics.
This online publication explores the need for journalistic training for all levels of reporting in regard to the importance of children's rights. This includes examining how media works, how existing principles of accountability apply and how media must be free from political and economical pressures that can limit professionalism and undermine ethical standards.
A report from the United Nations (UN) Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) that presents data, statistics and analysis to show a picture of women's empowerment in the new century, and illuminate what remains to be done to achieve true gender equality, shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest levels of achievement, primarily because of a devastating combination of national poverty, conflict and the effects of HIV/AIDS. The report shows that the level of women's representation in national governments has been improving. "The rise in women's share of parliamentary seats is primarily due to special measures - such as quotas - being introduced and is not tied to a nation's relative wealth or poverty."
The Africa America Institute would like to invite you to participate in an online discussion forum to be held in June 2003. We will be exploring the theme: Children Affected by AIDS (CABA) - The need for a broad based response.
Recent years have witnessed a growing international consensus on the illegality and immorality of recruiting and using children as soldiers. Child protection advocates have worked to strengthen international legal standards, based on an underlying assumption that a child-oriented body of international law will help to counter the culture of impunity surrounding crimes against children. However, international law is not enough; more effective implementation is required to end child soldiering.
International legal standards and child soldiering
The prohibition on all recruitment of children under the age of 15 into both armed forces and armed groups has acquired a customary international law status. It is therefore binding on all armed forces and armed groups regardless of whether the State is a party to specific international treaties, or even if there is no State.
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) allows for prosecution of those who recruit and use child soldiers. The Statute defines as a war crime the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 15 by any armed force or armed group, in both international and non-international armed conflicts. Moreover, it includes sexual slavery as a crime against humanity. This is important as some child soldiers are also forcibly held and used as sex slaves. The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed after the entry into force of the Rome Statute, on the territory of, and by nationals of, all State parties.
There is increasing international consensus on the prohibition of conscription or forced recruitment of children under 18. This higher standard is embodied in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (Optional Protocol), the International Labour Organisation Convention 182 (ILO 182) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).
Challenges to implementation
While these legal developments do set important standards of child protection, too often they do not effectively prevent child soldiering, because of inadequate implementation. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, all parties to the conflict continue to recruit and use children, some as young as nine, despite a prohibition on under-18 recruitment. What steps can be taken to prevent continued child soldiering in violation of international law?
1. Knowledge of children's rights and/or capacity to assert them
Where children, families and communities are unaware of children's rights, they are not empowered to resist child recruitment. Sensitization and public education are important advocacy and prevention tools. Moreover, child rights training sessions with governments and armed groups will help them to understand their commitments, translating legal treaty provisions into practical terms.
However, social awareness is not enough. Efforts must also be made to address “push” factors for child soldiering, rooted in poverty, militarisation of society and break-down of social structures. These issues go beyond a narrow focus on the legal abolition of child soldiering, to broader development and peace building efforts.
2. Monitoring and reporting
Child recruiters more readily violate international law if they feel they act outside public scrutiny. In response, several initiatives have been undertaken recently to gather data on the recruitment and use of children. Monitoring and reporting are inherently difficult, because of political sensitivities, limited access to affected populations and generalised break-down in infrastructure due to war. While precise figures are often difficult to obtain, trends and patterns can highlight problems and motivate appropriate actions for redress.
In November 2002, the Secretary General produced a list of parties to armed conflict on the Security Council agenda that continue to recruit and use children as soldiers in violation of international obligations. Based on the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1379, the list was limited, but a significant precedent in publicly “naming and shaming” child recruiters. Subsequently, Security Council Resolution 1460 called for on-going monitoring of parties on the list and other groups of concern, as well as proposals for more effective monitoring and reporting within the UN system.
The impact of the weight of national and international public opinion on recruitment behaviour will vary from group to group. At the governmental level, regimes that are heavily dependent on international aid and/or domestic support will likely be more concerned with tarnishing their image, while “rogue states” and strong, repressive regimes may be less susceptible to public pressure. Similarly, non-state armed groups tend to react to public scrutiny of their actions in a way that reflects their ultimate aims. For example, the Rassemblement pour la démocratie-Goma (RCD-Goma) perceives itself as the legitimate authority in eastern DRC. As a “government in waiting”, the RCD-Goma has publicly stated on numerous occasions its intention not to recruit child soldiers, and to cooperate with international agencies in demobilising some child soldiers within its ranks. On the other hand, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army is intent on fulfilling its interpretation of a higher spiritual calling; therefore, it is less concerned with international and domestic public opinion and regularly commits atrocities against civilian populations, including the abduction and brutalisation of children for military purposes.
3. Accountability
Unless the international community acts upon information obtained through monitoring and reporting, child recruiters will be tempted to limit actions to public relations exercises, without effectively changing the situation on the ground. In the DRC, for example, the government demobilised less than 200 child soldiers in a high profile ceremony, but kept thousands more children within its ranks. The RCD-Goma has tracked demobilised children, re-recruiting them once they have left the safety of rehabilitation centres.
Where clear evidence of child soldiering exists, it is important that perpetrators are brought to account. In Resolution 1460, the UN Security Council endorsed the Secretary General's call for an “era of application” and expressed its intention to “enter into dialogue” with parties guilty of child soldiering “in order to develop clear and time bound actions to end this practice”.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone has set an important precedent by indicting several men accused of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years into their groups or using them to participate in hostilities, enslavement, pillage, intentionally directing attacks against humanitarian personnel or peacekeepers, unlawful killings, abductions and hostage-taking. Members of the international community have also called for leaders of groups that recruit and use children in the DRC to be declared war criminals and prosecuted by the ICC.
In formal judicial processes, prosecutors only have the capacity to bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes. It is therefore important that crimes against children are also mainstreamed in parallel reconciliation processes. Truth Commissions in South Africa and Sierra Leone, for example, have specifically addressed violence against and by children. Traditional justice processes, based at the community level within the socio-political sphere governed by village elders and chiefs, should also be conducted in a child-sensitive way. Moreover, traditional cleansing and healing ceremonies in Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda have allowed some communities to recognise and assuage the guilt that child soldiers carry.
In all accountability processes, appropriate and meaningful child participation should be incorporated. This requires careful reflection on the ways in which children have been involved in, and impacted by, conflict. The best interests of the child should be the guiding principle in discussions surrounding juvenile justice for child soldiers accused of war crimes, and participation of child witnesses in formal judicial processes.
Conclusion
Increasing international momentum has led to the criminalization of the recruitment and use of children as soldiers. This legal progress must be matched by practical implementation. This is a multi-step process involving increased community sensitization and public awareness; adequate monitoring and reporting; and accountability processes for child recruiters. The increasingly robust body of international law prohibiting child soldiers is an accomplishment, but not an end in itself. More must be done to translate this rhetoric into reality.
* Christina Clark is Programme Officer for Africa at the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. This editorial is written in her personal capacity and should not be attributed to the Coalition or its members.
* Please send comments to
* An estimated 1.2 million children - both boys and girls - are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work. World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 aims to focus attention on trafficking in children to prevent and stop the practice. Visit http://www.ilo.int/public/english/bureau/inf/events/cl2003/index.htm for more information.
* In Soweto South Africa, thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976 to protest against apartheid education policies. Hundreds were shot down. In the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organisation of African Unity. The Day also draws attention to the lives of African children today. To find out more about this year's Day of the African Child visit http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/day-african-child/
An online system is giving new momentum to prison reform by helping to improve the reporting of poor conditions in prisons and violations of prisoners' rights. There are many examples of human rights violations against prisoners in South Africa that are given little or no attention by the police. But thanks to the new online system - which makes reporting about prisoner treatment more efficient and transparent - prison officials and the police are being held accountable.
Two journalists from the Voice of the People Communications Trust were detained, interrogated, beaten and had their mobile phones and recorders confiscated by ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front youths and war veterans. In a related incident, the home of John Masuku, Coordinator of Voice of the People, was searched and Voice of the People administrative files and a computer used in the production of programmes, confiscated.
Charities' dissatisfaction with Lotto funding will be one of the items on the agenda for the meeting of the United Community Chests of South Africa, being held in Pretoria. Despite dwindling income for Community Chests due to the scrapping of scratch cards after the introduction of the National Lottery, applications for compensatory funding from the Lottery have been turned down.
The world-renowned rock singer, Carlos Santana, has pledged to donate proceeds from an upcoming concert to fight HIV/Aids in South Africa, according to Daily Dispatch. The tour is organised under the auspice of Artists for a New SA (Ansa) Amandla Aids Fund.
A group of girls from the Diocesan School for Girls (DSG) in Grahamstown will swim across the English Channel to raise funds for the fight against Aids. The girls have already received funds and pledges totalling R800 000. The proceeds of this fundraiser will be used to buy and renovate an Aids day care, testing and counselling centre in Grahamstown.
The EU has pledged 10 million euros (US $11.7 million) for a new poverty reduction programme, known as "Ubudehe" in the Kinyarwanda language, an EU official said on Monday. The programme seeks to decentralise poverty reduction efforts and is designed to involve local communities directly in the implementation of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy.
A Sh4.5 billion project to end frequent power blackouts has won donor backing. The project is expected to be completed by May next year and would improve power distribution.
Bulawayo businessman Mr Delma Lupepe has donated $100 million to the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo and pledged more money over the next five years.
In one of several conflicts reaching a boiling point across Africa, gunfire and explosions rattled the Liberian capital this week. In civil-war ravaged Congo, meanwhile, French peacekeepers arrived, and the United States welcomed the failure of a coup in Mauritania. And in Zimbabwe, an opposition leader was ordered held in custody on charges of inciting protests aimed at toppling President Robert Mugabe.
With fighting intensifying in Liberia, the peace conference that opened here last week has taken a pause while West African leaders seek to broker a truce between the warring parties. On Monday, Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) left Accra in search of a ceasefire. Chambas said they would stop in the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown and spend the night in Conakry, Guinea, before heading to Monrovia Tuesday.
Related Link:
* BBC Country Profile
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1043500.stm
* Botched Taylor arrest embarrassing
http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/230606/page1.htm
As virtually all international embassy, business, and non-governmental agency staff evacuate Monrovia, Liberians find themselves in an increasingly desperate situation in the capital, Monrovia, according to the independent medical aid organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Fighting continues for the fourth consecutive day, and there is no functioning water supply, hospitals have no electricity or other source of energy, and Monrovians are now fleeing their homes to find safety elsewhere.
A new round of clashes has broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as United Nations troops deploy to stop bitter ethnic fighting in the town of Bunia. The latest fighting is in North Kivu province between the rebel RCD-Goma and the RCD-ML groups, a separate conflict to that between ethnic Hema and Lendu militias around Bunia.
The ruling RPT party, the former state sponsored party of Togo, was formed in the historical town of Kpalime in 1969. But significantly, the people of Kpalime in the Kloto district voted massively against President Eyadema in Sunday's polls by giving the opposition candidate Bob Akitani a whoppish 89.573 votes while reserving for the incumbent only 28.082 votes. According to observers here, this development amounted to a total rejection of the former ruling Togo Peoples Rally in the Kioto district of Southern Togo. The trend also represented a kind of voting along ethnic loyalties. This has deeply polarised Togo into two distinct political divisions, the north and the south.
Related Links:
* Fall-Out From Presidential Election: Togo to have 3 heads of state?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306110880.html
Prosecution has demanded heavy jail sentences for former bosses of the oil giant Elf Aquitaine over their dealings in Africa. Prosecutor Catherine Pignon asked a Paris court to sentence André Tarallo, formerly the company's top manager for Africa affairs, to eight years imprisonment and to impose a fine of 5.8 million dollars. This is the first move by the prosecution against the top bosses of the company. Tarallo, 76, who came to be known as Elf Aquitaine's 'Monsieur Africa', managed the company's business in Africa for 20 years from the late seventies.
Governments in rich countries demand that regimes in poor countries clean up their acts and eradicate corruption if they are to be given aid, and yet the governments of rich countries turn a blind eye when western multinational companies bribe on a huge scale to win contracts in poor countries, with the financial backing of those same governments. The Corner House, a think tank campaigning for environmental and social justice, has examined nine projects which Britain's export credits guarantee department (ECGD) has backed in the past two decades and concludes that there has been "a series of institutional practices within the ECGD that have permitted corrupt practice to go unpunished". For instance, Corner House believes little has been done to investigate the case of the Lesotho Highlands Water project. The ECGD's support to four British companies amounted to £215m. But, according to Corner House, it continued to give this support even after warning signs of possible corruption first surfaced in 1994.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi, has said that the government's commitment to the policy of zero tolerance for corruption is gradually waning in the light of its failure to significantly empower and resource official anti-corruption and countervailing agencies.
The rampant presence of corruption in a country seriously undermines its management and economic development, the executive director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, has said.
The pipes are already laid in southern Chad, where they snake south underground through tropical forests from the oil fields of Doba to a marine terminal off the coast of neighboring Cameroon. At the port of Kribi, the 660-mile pipeline will empty up to 250,000 barrels a day of coveted crude into tankers waiting to transport the unctuous black gold to Western markets. The World Bank says this multi-billion dollar project will help to reduce poverty, but many critics find that assessment surprising, given that scholarly studies for more than a decade have consistently warned of what is known as the resource curse: that developing countries whose economies depend on exporting oil, gas or extracted minerals are likely to be poor, authoritarian, corrupt and rocked by civil war.
Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's passionate and emotive speech at the Growth and Development Summit spared no one from criticism. The speech embodied the frustrations felt by the federation and organised labour in general about many things, such as the absence of a deal on the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, high unemployment and the deepening poverty levels, as well as the relatively low commitment on the part of business to invest in job-creation projects.
People living with HIV/AIDS take up about 80 percent of Ugandan hospital beds. This was revealed by Major Rubaramira Ruranga of the Uganda Joint Clinical Research Centre (UJCRC) during an aids awareness conference recently. "80 per cent of the hospital beds are occupied by people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. This shows that the disease is still an epidemic," said Mr Rubaramira.
A measles vaccination and vitamin A campaign, targeting more than five million children aged between six months and 15 years, was launched on Friday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the health ministry. "This campaign is part of our joint efforts to fight the major childhood killer diseases in Ethiopia," said Dr Mahendra Sheth, the head of UNICEF Ethiopia's health and nutrition section.
Leaders of the world's richest countries agreed at the G8 summit to provide billions of dollars to help fight AIDS in Africa but, under present trade rules, much of that cash will go to multinational pharmaceutical companies. To the disappointment of pressure groups monitoring the summit, the leaders failed to make progress on new trade rules to allow poor countries to buy cheap, generic versions of new medicines - including the drugs which arrest AIDS.
The government has lost 120bn shillings [about 1.6bn dollars] in the last five years through illegal use of Telkom facilities for private business. Those involved in the scam install communication dishes to make international calls.
Levels of corruption and poor accountability in the country may deteriorate further between now and the general elections next year, the British Department of International Development (DFID) said on Monday. Launching the Country Assistance Plan (CAP) for Malawi in which DFID will provide K22 billion to Malawi for the next three years, head of DFID Malawi Mike Wood said: "There is a risk that government may divert development resources for purely political purposes," reads the CAP document released on Monday.
A two-day conference on women's participation in politics opened in Abuja this week, with a call on women to work towards neutralising male-dominance in politics, with a view to contributing towards the sustenance of democracy in the country. Held by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the conference is expected to analyse and work out strategies for supporting women's participation in politics.
The purpose of the position is to implement a work plan agreed by the regional director to prepare the contingency plans at national and community level for Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in accordance with Oxfam International standards.
Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in its history. Save the Children has been running a food aid intervention since October 2001, and has also been providing technical support to two local NGOs undertaking supplementary and general feeding programmes. This postholder will work alongside a second food security advisor and be responsible for providing technical guidance on the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of food security interventions in Zimbabwe.
In 2002, IRIN launched its Outreach Radio project, a new initiative designed to help strengthen universal access to impartial news and information, especially among conflict affected and other vulnerable populations through a cooperative partnership with community radio stations. Having completed a successful pilot project in Somalia and Burundi, IRIN is now set to develop the project further, emphasising the provision of training and capacity-building support to local radio partners and expanding coverage to other crisis-affected countries in Africa and Asia. To facilitate this expansion, IRIN is seeking a dynamic Regional Project Manager for East and Central Africa with extensive programme management experience in the development of community radio.
A new global investment agreement proposed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) carries huge risks for the world’s poorest people, says leading development agency ActionAid. In its new report, Unlimited Companies, the agency calls on the UK Government and the EU to drop their support for the agreement and stop putting the interests of big business before the needs of poor countries. The report comes at a crucial time in trade negotiations, as the Working Group on Trade and Investment meets in Geneva for the last time before the WTO Cancun Ministerial in September.
The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has been rated by Nigerians on the level of interference in the work of the mass media and on freedom of expression generally. The verdicts were delivered via an opinion poll conducted by The Guardian newspaper. The poll, which sampled 2800 opinions, saw 40.5 percent or 1,134 of the respondents answering "Moderate Degree" to the question: "To what extent has government allowed newspapers and magazines to operate without interference?"
The Namibian Government has teamed up with a local company to produce cheap AIDS drugs, Health Minister Dr Libertina Amathila announced. Speaking during a discussion between visiting UN Special Envoy on AIDS Stephen Lewis and a group of Ministers, Amathila said Cabinet last week gave approval for an Ondangwa-based company to produce generic HIV-AIDS drugs that will be affordable to Namibians infected and affected by the disease.
The open meeting of the Security Council on Resolution 1422 must carefully consider the need, merit and legality of a renewal of the resolution, said Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) this week. Resolution 1422, adopted last July, provides UN peacekeeping personnel from countries that have not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a 12-month suspension from investigation or prosecution for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Court. It is due to expire on June 30, 2003. "As parliamentarians committed to the fight against impunity, we expect our governments to reaffirm their support for the ICC and take into account the compelling arguments against Resolution 1422 before the Security Council takes action on its renewal," said a press release.
A seminar on Human Rights and Peace will take place in Casamance in Senegal from the 14 to 16 June. During this meeting, a round table on the International Criminal Court will be organized on Monday June 16. Another workshop will allow participants to discuss the concept of amnesty vis-à-vis the requirements of international criminal justice. Many other topics on human rights issues will be discussed.
Since 1990, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has compiled an annual report to show the level of development in various countries of the world, across all social strata. A new Regional Human Development Report has emerged to analyse the global report from the African perspective. Africa currently contains 34 of the 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the world, with 300 million persons, or over 45 percent of the continent's population living below the poverty line. And according to the last Global Human Development Report (2002), 29 countries out of the 36 with a low Human Development Index (HDI) in the world are in Africa.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano warned on Monday that, since the "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there had been "a lack of political will to make available the resources necessary for the balanced and harmonious development of the planet". Speaking at the opening in Maputo of a Special Session of the Conference of African Environment Ministers, Chissano said that, despite all the commitment expressed verbally at Rio, "we are still witnessing a pattern of development that steps up the unsustainable use of natural resources".
The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation made a global call last week for nations to safeguard water, calling it the source of food security. Jacques Diouf, the general director of the UN body, singled out the Horn of Africa and parts of north Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia as particular trouble spots. The call was made to mark World Environment Day 2003, which was celebrated under the theme ‘Water - Two Billion People Are Dying For It!’
The Government will soon take action against management of factories which pollute rivers and other water resources in the country, Environment Minister Dr Newton Kulundu said. Kulundu said the Government had put in place new laws to regulate factories from discharging pollutants into water resources.
Water experts have predicted that a worldwide water shortage is set to worsen significantly over the next 25 years with billions of people affected by an unprecedented global crisis. The experts also forecast that women and children, especially in Africa, are the group that would be hit hardest. During a recent international workshop on the privatization of essential services participants sent distress signals that women would be the worse affected if water were put in private hands.
Global warming has precipitated the frequency and severity of droughts and floods, the Executive Director of Network Africa, Ms Grace Akumu says. Akumu said climate change was causing weather variability and that displaced weather patterns would be further witnessed in the future.
Wetlands are areas of marshes, swamps, peatlands or water-covered surfaces, whether stagnant or flowing, fresh or brackish waters; they include floodplains or adjacent coastal areas, as well as islands or seawaters within wetlands. This definition may not stress the importance that wetlands have for the environment, an importance which has also led them to be dubbed “the kidneys of the earth”, due to their role as natural filtering processes, replenishing groundwater and making it apt for human consumption.
A day after calling on the United Nations to deploy a peacekeeping force in Liberia, President Charles Taylor on Wednesday agreed to cease hostilities against rebels who control the western suburbs of the capital, Monrovia, paving way for ceasefire discussions.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday called on African leaders attending an economic summit in South Africa to embrace "child-centred standards as the primary measure for gauging progress" across their continent.
Fighting broke out again on Tuesday in the Medina district of Mogadishu, according to local sources in the Somali capital.
African commodities and raw materials are processed in wealthy nations and then resold by companies and corporations in those nations at prices many times greater than what is paid to the producers, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Tuesday night at a well-attended reception just hours after his meeting at the White House with President George W. Bush.
The main opposition party in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, says it now recognises the legitimacy of disputed April elections. The Kulmiye party's presidential candidate, Ahmad Muhammad Silanyo, told IRIN on Wednesday that "after the intervention of elders and others, we have decided as a party to accept the results".
Human rights violations continue unabated in Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a new report issued by a regional human rights NGO, Ligue des Droits de la Personne de la Region des Grands Lacs (League for Promotion of Human Rights in the Great Lakes). In its 92-page annual report, the organisation said as a result of years of civil strife in the three countries, poverty levels and insecurity had increased, forcing people to abandon their daily activities and to be constantly on the move, retarding development.
The mass action in Zimbabwe last week organised by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) should be seen in the context of a protracted struggle that is part of a process of building a successful movement, says this commentary published on the site. The harsh reaction of the state to the protests had been a "rude awakening" for the MDC and the party would now have to go back to the drawing room to reorganise. There was a need for civil society to be involved in this process and the ball was in the MDC’s court to immediately call in civil society and work together in strategizing for the future.
Shackled in leg irons and handcuffs, Morgan Tsvangirai was brought into court visibly shivering from cold. Despite the winter weather, he was wearing only scant prison-issue khaki shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and loose sandals. But after complaints on Wednesday by defence counsel George Bizos, Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader was allowed to change into a suit.
Related Link:
* Mugabe keeps Tsvangirai behind bars
http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=6959
* Hunger strikers urge Mbeki to use his clout to free Tsvangirai
http://zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=6960
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has pledged that the challenge to the Mugabe regime will continue with greater intensity. "From now onwards we will embark on rolling mass action at strategic times of our choice and without any warning to the dictatorship," he said in a statement. Tsvangirai said Mugabe had been exposed as a "violent and illegitimate dictator with absolutely no pretence to any semblance of civil mass support. He continues to shamelessly hang on to power through brutal force."
We are writing to implore you to seek a peaceful and just solution to your country's escalating national crisis. Those signed below are Americans of Africa descent - many of them representing major organisations of civil society in the United States - who have worked for decades to support the liberation movements of Africa and the governments that followed independence which promoted and protected the interests of all of their nation's people. We form part of an honorable tradition of progressive solidarity with the struggles for decolonization, and against apartheid and imperialism in Africa.
Zimbabweans returned to work after a week of strikes and violently repressed attempts at protests. But the country's daily suffering - including shortages of food, fuel, electricity, cash and even blood - is expected to bring a rapid return of tension. A five-day strike called last week by the Movement for Democratic Change was successful, but its attempt to bring people out on the streets "in your millions" was violently repressed by the security forces and their notorious militia allies, known as the "Green Bombers".
Education Minister Kader Asmal has announced that government is looking at the possibility of exempting 40% of South Africa's poorest from having to pay for education. The announcement comes at a time when scores of parents are facing legal action for non-payment of school fees and some pupils are forced to drop out of school.
A Dutch theatre group called The Lunatics have come to South Africa to perform at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. On their way to Grahamstown they will perform in Newtown, Johannesburg.
In 1999 there were only a handful of websites on Zambia and most of the sites lacked the aura of being able to attract potential visitors and investors to the country, writes Leonard Nelson. Furthermore a large number of Zambians residing in other countries were often dismayed by the slow response time and low uptime of other sites. To address these problems, The Zambian was established with the sole purpose of being able to deliver content to anyone interested in the country.
CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and Fahamu have launched a petition calling on African Union Heads of State to release all incarcerated journalists and repeal all anti freedom of expression legislation. The petition is to be presented at the African Union meeting of Heads of State in Maputo in July and is addressed to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the current Chair of the AU. Click on the link below to read the full letter and join the petition.
CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights and Fahamu have launched a petition calling on African Union Heads of State to release all incarcerated journalists and repeal all anti freedom of expression legislation. The petition is to be presented at the African Union meeting of Heads of State in Maputo in July and is addressed to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the current Chair of the AU. Click on the link below to read the full letter and join the petition.
The Western Cape was the first province to defy South African government policy by providing AIDS drugs to HIV-positive pregnant women in the public health sector. Two years later, the rollout campaign has achieved universal coverage and now babies and children living with HIV/AIDS are also to get access to treatment. Meanwhile, the South African cabinet is expected to discuss a national ARV costing report this week, ahead of a meeting between AIDS lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign and the National AIDS Council on 14 June. AIDS activists hope recommendations handed down by the report will end months of a bitter stand-off between them and the department of health over its refusal to implement a treatment policy.
Nigeria on Wednesday warned potential investors about fake documents offering crude oil for sale on behalf of the state-run oil group Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The NNPC said fraudulent persons and groups are offering non-existent crude oil for sale, using forged documents.
The UN refugee agency has evacuated its international staff from Monrovia amid weekend fighting near the Liberian capital and reports of violence and looting in the nearby refugee camps. UNHCR has expressed concern for 33 national staff who stayed behind, as well as some 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees previously hosted in camps near Monrovia.
The losers in this world are those who are excluded from globalisation and Africa stands the risk of being left out, Norway's Minister of International Development, Hilde Frafjord Johnson warned Thursday. Addressing the plenary session of the World Economic Forum - Africa Economic Summit 2003 taking place in Durban, South Africa, Johnson said it was important not to overlook Africa, while the focus was on Iraq. The African Economic Summit, which kicked off Wednesday afternoon, is focussing on harnessing the power of partnership in developing Africa. It is being attended by African government officials, the business community, non-governmental organisations and civil society groups.
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The NGO Network Alliance Project aims to improve the accessibility of human rights and civic information in Zimbabwe. Visit their web site and subscribe to their newsletter.
That the human rights of migrants are not a priority for most governments is nothing new. Abuse and discrimination are experienced by migrants themselves on a daily basis around the world. The entry into force of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families scheduled on July 1, 2003 won't change this situation overnight. But it is an additional tool in the hands of non-governmental organisations, one that is needed for our fight for more justice and respect. You can join a call for universal ratification of the UN Migrants Rights Convention by clicking on the URL provided.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 113: ENDING THE SIEGE ON ZIMBABWEAN PEOPLE IS VITAL FOR AFRICAN PROGRESS
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 113: ENDING THE SIEGE ON ZIMBABWEAN PEOPLE IS VITAL FOR AFRICAN PROGRESS
Three Nigerians sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex outside marriage will appeal before Islamic courts this week, turning the spotlight back on a bitter battle over Sharia law. In the best known case, 33-year-old mother-of-three Amina Lawal will on Tuesday begin her second appeal against her conviction for adultery at the Sharia Appeal Court in the northern city of Katsina.
Liberian President Charles Taylor and rebels fighting his regime since 1999 will meet face to face for the first time from Wednesday in Ghana to try and end a festering war that has spread chaos in west Africa. The three-day parleys under the aegis of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and a United Nations-backed contact group on Liberia are being touted by the organisers as a make-or-break chance for peace.
The US is pressing East African countries to accept imports of genetically modified (GM) foods and to move forward with the production of their own GM crops. President George W. Bush and the top US trade official, Robert Zoellick, both argued last week that African countries could enhance their food security if barriers to GM farm products were removed.
The role of African civil society in the development of Africa has been recognised for a long time. This is based on the fundamental premise that Africa's development must be about development of people. In view of the forthcoming Summit of the AU in July in which African civil society has been given a full opportunity to participate, the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development, AFRODAD, is organising a meeting in Maputo during the last week of May to fully prepare and secure the full participation of African civil society in the African Union Summit. Comments on draft documents are invited. Click on the link below for further details.
The government has rejected the Mail & Guardian report implicating it in an irregular oil deal with Nigeria, saying the allegations are "ridiculous as they are devoid of any truth". "There is nothing sinister about the deal because it was done as part of building bilateral economic relations between South Africa and Nigeria," the Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) said on Saturday.
The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) is pleased to announce the launch of a new version of its website www.scidev.net that will significantly boost its ability to provide news, views and information about science and technology relevant to the developing world. SciDev.Net was launched in 2001 with the backing of the journals Science and Nature – which provide free access to selected articles every week – as well as the Third World Academy of Sciences. Since its launch, SciDev.Net has established itself as a unique and authoritative online source of information and debate about the way that science and technology can meet the social and economic needs of the developing world. It seeks to achieve this by providing news coverage through a network of science journalists in the developing world, and in-depth 'dossiers' on key topical issues including intellectual property and the ethics of medical research.
The G8 goal is to halve the number of people without safe drinking water by 2015 and a £4bn figure will be held up as real progress on a problem that claims two million lives a year in deaths from water- related disease. But aid agencies say the figure underlines the gross disparity between the world's rich and poor when compared with the £31bn spent on bottled water in developed countries last year. The brand that sold the most was Evian. The amount spent on 500ml bottles of Evian by 10 customers at the Mur Blanc restaurant in Evian - the host town of the G8 summit - at lunchtime would have funded the water and sanitation costs of one child in the developing world for life.
Related Link:
* Evian water plan undrinkable, say activists
http://www.foei.org/media/2003/0528.html