PAMBAZUKA NEWS 154: SADCS REGIONAL SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 154: SADCS REGIONAL SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
The strong prospect for peace in Sudan has been dealt a severe blow by the devastating conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, says Christian Aid. Whilst these attacks continue, government leaders and the main southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), have been negotiating a peace settlement in Kenya and are expected to reach agreement in the summer. However, as the devastating conflict in Darfur indicates, the war in Sudan is much more complex than north versus south - there are numerous conflicts which must be resolved if peace is to become a reality for all the Sudanese people.
* Editorials: World Press Freedom Day: Demanding a right to expression
* Pan African Postcard: new section
* Conflicts&Emergencies: Update on the Sudan peace process
* Human Rights: Student activist arrested and beaten
* Women and Gender: To the moon and back - Women and water
* Elections and Governance: Ten years of democracy in rural South Africa
* Development: The breaking of the Bank
* HIV/AIDS: World Bank shows low credit in response to HIV/AIDS crisis
* Education: World Youth Report - the global situation of young people
* Environment: Nations agree on climate watch system
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 153: DARFUR: RWANDA GENOCIDE REVISITED
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 153: DARFUR: RWANDA GENOCIDE REVISITED
At the rate land redistribution is going, it will take 40 years before half of Namibia's commercial farmland can land in the hands of black people. Present policies of land redistribution, described as transfer of commercial farmland from whites and foreigners to blacks, have led to only one percent of commercial land being redistributed every year. The above assumptions are contained in a research paper written by Robin Sherbourne, Director of Public Policy and Research at the Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR).
A Canada-based representative of the Anuak Survival Organisation has given chilling testimony on a genocide being perpetrated against the Anuak people in Gambella Province, Ethiopia. Obang Metho spoke to a special UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva on April 8, 2004. Mr. Metho said, “I speak to you as the representative of a forgotten people, the Anuak (or Anywaa) of Ethiopia. We number only 100,000 persons in the Gambella province of south-western Ethiopia. Our province is the tongue of fertile land, rich with natural resources such as oil, gold and other minerals that extends into southern Sudan. In the past four months, over 1137 Anuak have been murdered by the Ethiopian defense forces and some others from the highland.”
Government has been accused of "trampling upon the human rights of its citizens". The accusation was made by Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) secretary general Temogo Makgele when addressing Botswana Congress Party (BCP) third national congress in Ramotswa. Makgele said there were many contradictions in the country's democracy which government was reluctant to rectify.
HIV/AIDS prevention and conflict prevention should go hand in hand, states a new report from the International Crisis Group. "The correlation of HIV/AIDS and war is difficult to calculate with precision because the data are less than complete, and numerous interacting factors are at play. Nevertheless, the evidence available demonstrates that war can lead to increased risks of HIV/AIDS and suggests that HIV/AIDS can make conflicts worse," says the report.
The African Union said at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week that it would send a group of monitors to Sudan's western Darfur region, where severe conflict has resulted in the outpouring of some 110,000 refugees into Chad and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. The military observers, from Ghana, Senegal, Namibia and Nigeria, will be there to see that a 45-day cease-fire is carried out among militia groups, government soldiers and rebel fighters, so that aid workers can more easily assist the suffering.
Extreme care will have to be taken to ensure that Burundi’s forthcoming November election will strengthen and reinforce the progress that has been made thus far in securing peace rather than reversing the gains that have been made, argues a report from the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS). "In short, elections should not merely be regarded as a necessary formality in a country that is again trying to democratise. Far more is at stake. Any contestation of the election outcome and the conflict it may precipitate will merely further weaken the fragile belief that the present process can actually deliver durable peace," says the ICG.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano received on Wednesday a delegation from the Portuguese section of the human rights body Amnesty International (AI) that is currently visiting Mozambique. Among the delegation's priorities is to request the Mozambican government to ratify the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, a supra-national tribunal that will be empowered to deal with war crimes.
Elcidio died before his ninth birthday because he was given the wrong anti-malarial drugs. Thousands of African children like him die every day for the same reason, and will continue to die until effective drugs and insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs) are available. April 25th is Africa Malaria Day, commemorating the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria in Abuja, Nigeria that took place 4 years ago. The Abuja Summit brought together 44 African leaders and donor organisations who committed to systems reform and a massive scaling-up of funds to fight malaria in Africa, and set five-year targets for reductions in malaria infections and deaths. With one year remaining to reach the 2005 targets, there is little to celebrate. Many African countries are still administering ineffective drugs, and less than 2% of African children are sleeping under ITNs.
The guns in Liberia's civil war have been silent for several months now, as the country makes tentative efforts to establish lasting peace. But in many respects, inhabitants of the capital - Monrovia - have simply exchanged one sort of war for another: the battle against criminal activity. Fourteen years of intermittent fighting have stripped government departments of the personnel and equipment needed to perform their duties. The result is that citizens have taken to meting out mob justice to real and perceived criminals.
The Nile Perch, popularly known here as ‘sabulenya’, is one of Uganda’s most consumed fish species after tilapia. It was introduced to Lake Victoria, the world’s largest inland fresh water lake, in the 1950s and 1960s. Today the Nile Perch constitutes up to 50 percent of the catch in Uganda, some of which is exported as fillet to Europe, Asia and the United States. The Nile Perch has become a cheap source of protein, often referred to as ‘aquatic chicken’. Yet statistics show that the majority of Ugandans go hungry.
A Kenyan writing about the taboo subject of incest has taken first prize in the BBC's African Performance playwriting competition. John Rugoiyo Gichuki's prize-winning play looks at the after-effects of conflict on family relationships. A Time for Cleansing tells the tale of a couple returning to visit their family in Rwanda.
The Ivorian opposition has agreed to reopen dialogue with President Laurent Gbagbo if a plan of reforms is met. The opposition left the government of national reconciliation around a rally last month in which at least 37 died. With both the president and prime minister agreeing to the bulk of their demands, the opposition has now agreed to reopen dialogue.
International agencies have warned that many governments are failing in their commitment to help improve access to drinking water. A global campaign launched two years ago brought pledges to halve the number of people who do not have access to clean water by 2015. But the six agencies, including Water Aid, Green Cross International and Oxfam, say the global situation is getting worse rather than better.
The printing press of Gambia’s most outspoken newspaper, The Independent, has been burned down by armed men for the second time in six months, employees of the bi-weekly publication said on Friday. The Independent has been a consistent critic of President Yahya Jammeh. Its staff have frequently complained of harassment by the authorities.
A Zimbabwean human rights body has criticised an African-Asian grouping which shot down a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe for the second year at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Geneva last Thursday. The draft resolution, mooted by the European Union and supported by the United States, would have expressed "deep concern" at what it said were "continuing violations of human rights in Zimbabwe, in particular politically motivated violence, including killings, torture, sexual and other forms of violence against women, incidents of arbitrary arrest, restrictions on the independence of the judiciary, and restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression, association and assembly".
The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has announced that it will equip health institutions in three towns in the southwestern province of Mambere Kadei with HIV/AIDS research centres and other facilities, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Friday. It added that the government would also establish centres for voluntary AIDS screening, regional centres for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, a blood bank, and blood transfusion centres in the health facilities in the towns of Berberati, Gambaoula and Carnot, respectively 188 and 281 km southwest of the capital, Bangui.
It is vital that aid agencies continue to refine their approaches to food aid distribution, given the impact of HIV/AIDS in the region, says the Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE). As a result, C-SAFE is running its own training course, "HIV and AIDS: Opportunities for Food Security Programming", for its members in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Kate Greenaway, C-SAFE Regional HIV/AIDS Technical Advisor and workshop organiser, said in a statement that "the goals of the training are to provide technical updates on HIV, AIDS and nutrition that will influence and inform future programming".
Military authorities in Nigeria said last Thursday they had set up a special panel to determine whether a group of soldiers and civilians arrested on suspicion of plotting to topple the government should face court martial. General Alexander Ogomudia, the Chief of Defence Staff, has created an all military "Special Investigation Panel" which will determine whether those arrested should face military trial on the basis of the allegations against them, his spokesman Colonel Ganiyu Adewale said.
The medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said last Thursday it had launched an urgent vaccination campaign against a measles epidemic in Niger that has led to more than 20,000 cases of the disease and 149 deaths in recent weeks. MSF said in a statement it had begun vaccinating and treating children between the ages of six months and five years in Niamey, the capital of the landlocked Sahelien country, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.
Your newsletter deserves great commendation. It's been useful as a good tracker of events on social justice in Africa. The multifaceted approach adopted on social issues, in addition to the plurality of views, gives it a rich blend of highlights on key social issues.
My comment takes root in the concept of sustainable development in Africa, especially with concern to our natural resources.
African leaders are apt to ratify international conventions and treaties without a proper conceptualisation of underlined ideologies; one tends to ponder on our subjugated position. From experience it is apparent that the concept of sustainability must be redefined for instance by the AU through the organ of NEPAD and other African initiatives to accommodate African traditional institutions and structures. Sustainability for us would include the active involvement of our indigenous local actors and stakeholders.
The question we must answer therefore is what is obtainable for Africa in the sustainable development paradigm?
Take for instance the conspiracy and cartel within the oil sector in Nigeria. Nigeria earns annually about $8.5billion, only 5% of this is earned by the indigenes and a mere 2% of the total sum in earnings remain in the country. Something obviously needs to be done if we are to gain control of our own resources.
I am afraid the message of sustainability will be lost in African economics if its denotations and connotations are not clearly defined within the African context. Local content for me is beyond using a few paid indigenous people collaborating with the west in managing our own resources. Africa has come of age to begin taking responsibility for its spatial domain.
It is my hope and dreams that African natural resource specialists and contributors will emerge from their hibernation to take charge of their natural resources for the continuity of the African Continent.
When six million Jews died in the Shoah, the Jewish civilization indeed vowed, "Never again."
When the Rwandan genocide occurred, in 1994, the world was wrong to ignore the victims' plight and choose not to intervene. Black Africans, like Jews before them, were not worth the effort to save. It was a familiar lesson.
Dr. Abdul-Raheem is right to point to a similar situation developing today in Darfur, in western Sudan, where black Africans are again being massacred, this time by Arabs, with the support of Sudan's government, and with the tacit support of the Arab world. The world should take heed and do something now, before it is too late.
Unfortunately, Dr. Abdul-Raheem's otherwise perceptive piece is spoiled by his own anti-Semitism, when he drags into his article a typical demonization of Israel, and compares its self defence against terrorists to a "holocaust." The only thing that prevents the Palestinians from doing to the Israelis what is being done to the black Africans in Darfur is Israel's ability to defend themselves. As they vowed, "Never again."
Editor's comment: It helps no one to dismiss anyone who criticise Israel's policies, including acts of gross violations of human rights, as being anti-semitic. It's an old trick that uses abuse in place of debate - and has no place in the pages of Pambazuka News.
The ESA CIP is an initiative of the Catalysing Access to Information and Communications Technologies in Africa programme. It is a new Centre dedicated to increasing the capacity of East and Southern African stakeholders to participate in international information and communications technology (ICT) policy-making and is being launched in Kampala, Uganda in April 2004. The following positions are available: Policy Research Associate; Executive Director.
CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations based in Johannesburg, South Africa, seeks to recruit a Project Manager for its Civil Society Index programme (CSI). The CSI is an international action-research initiative assessing the state of civil society in currently over 60 countries around the world. Reporting to the Director of Programs, the CSI Project Manager will be responsible for implementing and managing the CSI programme and overseeing the work of CSI staff members.
The main purpose of the job is to strategically manage and develop APC's Communications and Information Policy Programme (CIPP). The incumbent can be located from anywhere in the world.
Links is set in a city that is at once shockingly foreign and hauntingly familiar: Mogadiscio, the capital of Somalis, just weeks after the U.S. troops have pulled out, leaving a decimated, starving city ruled by thuggish clan warlords and patrolled by qaat-chewing gangs who shoot civilians simply to relieve their adolescent boredom. This is the city so disturbingly captured by CNN cameras and in Black Hawk Down, but from a startlingly different - and surprising - point-of-view. Gripping, provocative, and revelatory, Links is the finest work yet from Farah, a novel that will secure his place in the international literary firmament and stand as a classic of modern world literature.
As globalization proceeds apace international law, and the scope and powers of international institutions - the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization - continue to grow. If democratic values are still an aspiration of the 21st century, then their deficit at international level must be addressed. Patomaki and Teiveinen survey the range of proposals now on the table. Ruling nothing out, they emphasise feasibility. While democratic advances do not come without political mobilization, there is little point mobilizing people for the utopian and unrealizable.
This is a multi-contributor work on the vast subject of debt and debt relief in Africa; the focus of the book being the welfare implications of debt, and its impact on the poorest and most vulnerable, and on future generations. The volume presents a pan-African perspective, giving an overview of the 'Africa debt dilemma', causes, effects and policy options. It presents case studies on virtually all the southern, central-southern, and east African countries, and comparative studies on debt and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and in the SADC region in particular.
This study focuses on internal persecution among Muslims. Internal persecution within the Islamic tradition means the persecution of Muslims by other Muslims, what might be characterised as “intra-religious” as opposed to “inter-religious” persecution, exposing the political and sociological nature of religious persecution, since the persecuted group is of the same religion as the persecuting majority. This study also helps to challenge the alleged religious rationale of such persecution in that every religious majority was in the past, and may become in future, a minority. Three case studies (the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, the Shi’is in Saudi Arabia and the Republican Brothers in the Sudan) are analyzed, and based on these cases, a contextual framework for understanding and combating intra-religious persecution is outlined.
Water is a critical enabling resource for poverty reduction. And people use water from multiple sources and in multiple ways to improve their livelihoods. But sub-sector planners (domestic and irrigation) seldom recognize this, leading to the provision of services that frequently only address some of the needs of their users. However, times are changing and there is increasing interest from all sectors in finding more appropriate, sustainable, and demand-responsive ways to provide multiple use services that really impact poverty.
Organisation Development and Community Management Trust (ODCMT) is a local NGO registered in March 2000 to provide assistance building the capacity of civil society to enhance their missions. The organisation undertakes popular campaign activities on poverty and trade issues, offers short-term development skills training courses and provides information and advisory services to leaders and members of civil society. In the last four years the organisation has managed to build and consolidate its capacity to gain a reputation as an alternative training resource institution to universities and colleges in the provision of practical skills training services to development practitioners.
Recent comments on press freedom from Information Minister Jonathan Moyo clearly confirmed the suspicion that repressive media laws reflect government's pathological terror of a free media environment in Zimbabwe, says the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ). According to media reports, Moyo dismissed the universally held doctrine of democratic societies that media freedom is an indivisible element of freedom of expression when he addressed diplomats at a luncheon. He told the diplomats that Zimbabwe did not believe press freedom was a basic constitutionally guaranteed human right because it was merely "the baggage of unipolarism" that "only came about after the end of the Cold War".
The World Press Freedom Committee says it is "deeply alarmed" to learn that a writ of summons has been issued by the Civil Law Court in Monrovia on the management and editorial staff of four newspapers, namely, the National Chronicle, Monrovia Guardian, The Forum and The Heritage, for their editors and certain staff members to appear before court. This is after Labour Minister Lavella Supuwood filed a suit against the journalists, following a series of publications by the newspapers chronicling instances and names of people who allegedly committed crimes against the people of Liberia during the country's bloody 14-year civil war.
Mathurin Constant Momet, publication director of the independent daily Le Confident, and Le Confident Editor-in-Chief Patrick Bakwa were detained last Thursday by police in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), and held for questioning. Local sources said the two were summoned to the police station at about 11 a.m. in connection with a report about a press conference by Maximilien Boganda, a Central African businessman. Le Confident reported that during the press conference, Boganda criticized his former lawyer, Pierre Ouadda-Diala, and called the CAR's judicial system confused and mafia-like.
For nations moving from authoritarian to civilian rule, debate about whether to forget past human-rights abuses and focus on the future has always been emotive. Freed from prison in 1990 after 27 years, Nelson Mandela presided over South Africa’s attempt to put the atrocities of the apartheid era behind it through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. More recently, Sierra Leone’s truth commission has asked how combatants in the country’s brutal civil war could slice open the wombs of pregnant women and amputate villagers’ limbs in the name of a senseless civil war. Ghana, too, has opted for a National Reconciliation Commission to examine the abuses that took place under the leadership of President Jerry Rawlings.
Twenty years after images of starving Ethiopian children shocked the world, famine and drought continue to stalk this African nation. Now, a new strategy to address poverty is prompting experts and farmers to ask whether it will substantially alleviate hunger. Since 1984’s much-photographed famine, Ethiopia has experienced more than seven famines - with far less world attention. However, successive governments have quietly tried different ways to improve agricultural output in a bid to resolve the root problem. Still, the latest drought in 2003 left 13.2 million people in need of food aid.
The availability of information on the impact of scientific developments - both positive and negative - is paramount to the effective functioning of democracy. But a recent survey of South Africa's leading newspapers and magazines shows that less than two per cent of editorial space in the country's leading publications is devoted to science and technology. The press is one of the most important vehicles through which science news can be distributed. Print media lends itself to investigative in-depth reporting, but unfortunately, this benefit is not being harnessed effectively, says the leader of the survey in this article.
How monolithic is the group of twenty developing countries that emerged as a regional force during the World Trade Organisation's 5th Ministerial meeting at Cancún? Will the so-called G20 expand its agenda beyond the question of agricultural subsidies? Will it prove a force to shift the global balance of power? Walden Bello, Right Livelihood Award winner and Trans National Institute (TNI) board member and fellow, addressed these crucial questions at a Policy Dialogue organised by TNI and the Institute of Social Studies on the 5th April, as part of an ongoing series of policy dialogues aimed at inspiring critical thinking about the current neo-liberal development paradigm.
Four young gorillas captured illegally and kept in a Malaysian zoo have been sent to South Africa, despite Cameroon's insistence they were caught there and should be returned, a newspaper reported on Friday. Cameroon says it has proof that poachers illegally captured the western lowland gorillas in the country's south-west, transferring them to neighbouring Nigeria and then northern Malaysia's government-run Taiping Zoo about two years ago.
There is no law in Tanzania specifically addressing air pollution control, according to Leandri Kinabo, the Head of Process Technology Standards Department with the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS). Instead the country has several pieces of legislations targeting hazards posed by various forms of air pollution. These include the Mining Act and the Standards Act.
Members of the Landless People's Movement (LPM) arrested on election day in Thembelihle informal settlement near Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, were granted bail in the Protea magistrate's court last Thursday. LPM spokesperson Mangaliso Kubheka said 60 activists were granted R300 bail after spending a night in the holding cells. They were charged with contravening electoral laws. Kubheka said some LPM members were "subjected to interrogation, harassment and physical violence last night while in prison".
The Equinet Newsletter is the newsletter of the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa and delivers a comprehensive round-up of equity and health issues. You will receive two issues from this mailing list per month. One will contain a briefing of Equinet's activities and the other links to information about equity and health issues in the content categories of Equity in Health; Values, Policies and Rights; Health equity in economic and trade policies; Poverty and health; Equitable health services; Human Resources; Public-Private Mix; Resource allocation and health financing; Equity and HIV/AIDS; Governance and participation in health and Monitoring equity and research policy. There are also sections that include the latest jobs, conferences and other useful resources related to equity in health. Read the newsletter online by clicking on the URL provided.
Eurodad currently offers two news services focusing on Debt and Finance and Poverty Reduction Policies. The articles posted are a combination of short analytical pieces written by Eurodad staff on key developments in each theme, and summarised documents, invitations and requests from external sources.
Police in Zambia have questioned former Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba, over further allegations of corruption. Mr Chiluba's lawyer said he was likely to face new charges that he used state funds to buy two houses which he later sold to pay legal bills. The former head of state already faces charges of stealing tens of millions of dollars of public money.
The World Bank last Thursday released a major report that says that more than $1 trillion is paid globally in bribes yearly. This comes to an average of $2.7 billion per day. The figure does not include embezzlement of public funds or theft of public assets. The study by the World Bank Institute (WBI) in Washington, United States, is an ongoing research, but it shows that the scale of bribery as an economic crime is alarming. This can be seen when the figure is compared with the estimated size of the world economy in 2001-02, for example, which stood at just over US$30 trillion.
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. (Buy this book from Amazon and Pambazuka News will receive a percentage of the sale.)
Thousands of people displaced by wars in neighbouring Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have at different times poured into Uganda to seek refuge and rebuild their lives. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Uganda is currently hosting 18,000 refugees from Rwanda and some 171,000 from Sudan. It is harder to give exact figures for refugees from the DRC. UNHCR says that technically the war in eastern DRC has ended, but since migration between western Uganda and eastern DRC has been such a regular part of life in the region for centuries, it is impossible to estimate how many Congolese refugees live in western Uganda.
Up to 30,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced by fighting into the garrison town of Malakal in Upper Nile, Sudan, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital, Khartoum. A regional analyst told IRIN that up to 75,000 people were believed to have been displaced by conflict in the nearby Shilluk kingdom, which pits government-backed Nuer and Shilluk militias against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The vast majority of the IDPs were women and children, who had arrived in the town with scant personal belongings, reporting looting, burning of villages, killing and rape, especially around Tonga, about 75 km west of Malakal, according to Nadia. The men are believed to have scattered into "the bush" to protect their cattle.
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus - if that's really all there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it," Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in a country far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. But the situation is not so simple. (Buy this book from Amazon and Pambazuka News will receive a percentage of the sale.)
Angolan refugees coming back under a formal programme from the Republic of the Congo, and neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Namibia are aided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But many more - the so-called spontaneous returnees - have struggled home on their own since the end of Angola's civil war in 2002. In recent months their passage has been hampered by the rainy season, which has rendered many roads impassable and increased the ever-present threat of landmines. Just crossing the border back to Angola can be the biggest challenge facing returning refugees.
In downtown Lome there is an area known locally as “The Child Market,” where girls as young as nine are offered for sex, sometimes for less than a dollar. Child welfare groups complain that Togo lacks strong laws to punish the pimps who ruthlessly exploit these children. And the kids themselves complain that the police who patrol the district and are supposed to protect them, simply demand sex for free. Many of these girls have been separated from their families. Others have simply been abandoned. Most are illiterate. Being alone in the world all of them are highly vulnerable to exploitation by pimps and brothel keepers.
Although little research has been done in the area of child abuse, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that existing data showed "a grim picture of the reality many children are facing" in Mozambique. The "Government Report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child" cites a survey among minor sex workers in the capital, Maputo, in which 25 percent of the children interviewed were between 10 and 14 years old, and 22 percent said their first sexual encounter had been violent and against their will. They had been violated by a close relative, including their own father, or a neighbour. According to UNICEF, some of the underlying causes of abuse and sexual exploitation were poverty, gender discrimination and harmful traditional practices.
Police in Madagascar have rescued 11 babies between the ages of three weeks and nine months who were in the process of being sent abroad. The rescue followed a raid on a house in the capital Antananarivo where eight men were arrested and charged following a police inquiry on illegal child trafficking. The illicit acquisition and adoption of babies has increased during the last four years in Madagascar, according to Director of Judicial Police Mr Albert Rakotondravao.
Trafficking in Nigeria is seen as an everyday part of West African life. It starts with the promise of a better life. The parents are taken in. The children are persuaded. When they leave home they do so willingly, with some excitement, not trepidation. The trafficker has promised a good job, a schooling, a regular income. But that is not how it works out.
This book is concerned with assisting providers of online education with useful tools to carry out teaching and learning transactions online. It presents the theory, administration, tools, and methods of designing and delivering learning online. It aims to bring to the teaching community a valuable product which should go a long way in popularizing the use of the learning technologies.
In Senegal, pastoralists are tracking their wandering cattle herds using cell phones and Global Positioning Systems. In South Africa, small tourist businesses operating out of the townships are attracting customers from around the world by using the Internet. In Mozambique, forest wardens are using high-frequency radios to stop poaching. Across the African continent, communities are using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for their social and economic development. The articles in this collection present stories of how research is helping to create a “made in Africa” information revolution.
The Five College African Scholars Program invites proposals for competitive residency fellowships from junior and mid-level teaching staff employed full-time in African universities. Projects relevant to the study of Africa are welcomed in the humanities and social sciences. The theme for the January 2005 residency is power and representation. Deadline: 1 May 2004.
The Hannah Neil World of Children Awards honour ordinary people doing extraordinary work for children. Each year nominations from across the globe are reviewed to identify selfless individuals whose unwavering commitment to children makes the world a better place, for youth and all of humanity. The $100,000 Kellogg's Child Development Award, recognises those who have made a significant lifetime contribution to children's futures by significantly improving their opportunities to learn and to grow. The $100,000 Cardinal Health Children's Care Award, recognizes an individual who has made a significant lifetime contribution to the health and well-being of children. The $15,000 Founder's Award recognizes a young person under age 21, who is making extraordinary contributions to other children. Deadline for nominations: Monday, April 26, 2004.
With the re-commencement of the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration (DDRR) of fighters of Liberia’s warring factions on15 April 2004, UNICEF is mobilizing resources to provide immediate care and reintegration support to the estimated 15,000 children who will come through the demobilization process. Extensive awareness campaigns have been conducted jointly with UNMIL to prepare children for demobilization and reintegration. The campaigns have also aimed at preparing families and communities for the reunification of the returning children. Sensitization messages have focussed on peace and tolerance, the importance of disarmament, sending children to school and protecting their rights.
Following a briefing by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, on the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda, the members of the UN Security Council on 14 April 2004 condemned the atrocities carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and expressed their concern about the humanitarian crisis, in particular the large-scale displacement of the civilian population, as well as the abduction of children and their forced recruitment as soldiers. The Council members called on the Ugandan government “to enhance its protection for displaced persons and those providing essential services to them”, and called on all parties to facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to the civilian population in accordance with international law.
Early in the morning, when the fog lifts, the Land Cruiser carrying a team of three lawyers from the UN refugee agency leaves the town of Muyinga in north-eastern Burundi for one of the many hills covered by eucalyptus and firs. As soon as the car stops in an open space, the first "clients" arrive. They ask the lawyers for advice. Soon there are long queues of people hoping to find answers to myriad problems facing post-war Burundi. Normally, they are related to property and domestic disputes. Many returnees find their land and houses occupied. Others arrive with new families, causing tensions with those they had left behind. UNHCR set the legal clinic in motion to help find answers to these problems before they come to a boil.
Marratane camp has more than 30 churches to meet the spiritual and other needs of less than 5,000 refugees. Some say religion helps them overcome conflict, some simply enjoy the singing and dancing involved, while others are praying for resettlement to the west.
Thousands of Congolese refugees are still in Uganda more than a year after a peace deal was signed back home. The refugees are unwilling to return home for fear of ethnic reprisals because parts of eastern Congo, where the Hema and the Lendu – the principal actors in the tribal clashes from which they fled – are said to be still under the rule of warlords. The Congolese, estimated by the Uganda People's Defence Forces to be 10,000 in number, live in Bundibugyo district without refugee status. The Refugee Law Project (RLP) says that they are living in inhuman conditions.
Children’s right to education is being seriously undermined in dozens of countries by contradictory laws that allow them to work, be married or held criminally responsible at an age when they are legally bound to be in school, concludes a new report. “In the same country,” concludes Angela Melchiorre, children’s rights expert and the author of ‘At what age…are children employed, married and taken to court?’, “it is not rare to find that children are legally obliged to go to school until they are 14 or 15 years old but that a different law allows them to work at an earlier age or to be married at the age of 12 or to be criminally responsible from the age of seven.” The report, launched on the occasion of Education for All Week (April 19-25), found that there is no compulsory education in at least 25 States, of which ten are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Education For All Week 2004, 19-25 April, will focus on the world’s 100 million children who have no access to education. UNESCO and the Global Campaign for Education are organising the Big Lobby to give children the world over a chance to ask their governments to do more to enrol all children. The aim of the Big Lobby is to raise awareness of this fundamental human right, the denial of which makes children more vulnerable to poverty, hunger, violence, exploitation and disease.
ontrac is the newsletter of INTRAC (the International NGO Training and Research Centre). It is published three times a year. To subscribe to ontrac, please contact Natasha Thurlow at INTRAC ([email protected]) indicating whether you wish to receive it by email (English, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish) or post (English and Russian only).
The government of Ghana has provoked a feud with civil society organisations just as Accra becomes the first to fall under the lens of the African Peer Review Mechanism. In an attempt to purge the private voluntary sector of alleged graft, the government has ordered all non-governmental organisations to register with the Registrar General and submit annual reports and financial statements by the end of April 2004 or risk being black-listed.
It has a reputation for being as calm as the lake that bears its name, but as Malawi heads into its third multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in May, serial attacks allegedly perpetrated by ruling party youth militias against opposition leaders and journalists cast doubts over the stability of the sliver-shaped central African country. The Malawi Human Rights Commission has warned that rising incidents of pre-election violence by the Young Democrats, the militant youth wing of the ruling United Democratic Front, is polarising the country along ethnic and regional lines. Political analysts, furthermore, worry that voters are losing faith in the democratic process. The upcoming vote marks the second consecutive poll to be marred by ruling- party violence.
Advocates for survivors of genocide in Rwanda have called for antiretroviral treatment to be made available free to women who were infected with HIV during the systematic rape of tens of thousands in 1994. The Survivors Fund has launched an online petition calling on the British government to do more to pressurise pharmaceutical companies to make antiretroviral treatment affordable in Rwanda. International donors are also being urged to do more to help Rwandan women.
The International Criminal Court could begin investigations this year into war crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following a request by the country's president, the ICC said. President Joseph Kabila sent a letter to Louis Moreno Ocampo, the court's chief prosecutor, asking him to look into alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, the court said in a statement. When the court was launched last July, Ocampo said he intended to probe the situation in the war-torn Ituri region, and he has received six complaints of atrocities in the northeastern region since that time.
The world needs to more than double its spending if it is to achieve its 2015 target of halving the proportion of people without access to sanitation and drinking water, a senior United Nations official told a UN commission set up to promote sustainable development in poor countries. José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said that while there has been progress towards meeting targets for access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation, especially in East and South Asia, it has not been fast enough, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Since February 2003, Sudan's western province of Darfur has been the site of an extremely violent conflict between the province's nomadic Arab tribes, supported by the government in Khartoum, and the native African settled peasant tribes. The present conflict started in February 2003 and has rapidly developed into one of the most violent military confrontations on the continent. There have been an estimated 30,000 casualties, one million people are displaced within the province and over 120,000 have fled into neighbouring Chad.
The European Union has told Sierra Leone it will not help fund May local government elections due to still unanswered questions about corruption during previous ballots, a government minister said Monday. "The EU wrote my ministry that they are not in the position to fund the elections, even though the request was made eight months ago," Sidique Brima, the minister for local government, told reporters.
A breakdown of the current fragile ceasefire in the Darfur region of Sudan could trigger a further, rapid escalation in the violence leaving the international community helpless to respond with sufficient speed to save lives, warned Minority Rights Group International (MRG) this week. "The situation in Darfur is an immediate test of the resolve of the United Nations to act upon its pledge never again to allow genocide,” stated the rights group amid reports of continuing attacks and violence in Darfur in breach of the ceasefire.
The constitutional review process in Kenya has reached its final stages after the presentation of a draft Constitution to the Attorney General on 23rd March. However a constitutional court has ruled that Kenya’s parliament be given powers to alter the draft Constitution document, a move which minority and indigenous rights groups claim could seriously weaken important provisions for minority and indigenous rights, which they have lobbied hard to achieve.
Thabo Mbeki recently advocated unity with 'anti-globalisation' activists: 'They may act in ways you and I may not like and break windows in the street, but the message they communicate relates.' This raises two critical questions: is the South African government genuinely opposed to what Mbeki calls 'global apartheid'? And are the reforms advocated by Pretoria failing -- even on their own limited terms?
Mbeki's critics, from left and right alike, suggest that his AIDS policies, corrupt arms deal and support for Zimbabwe's repressive regime have damaged his credibility beyond repair. Others claim Mbeki's global ambition is his saving grace. But the content of Pretoria's broader reform strategy is rarely examined.
Between incomparable drawings by Zapiro, Patrick Bond considers the dynamics of international political economy and geopolitics.
He reviews a series of contemporary examples where Pretoria is frustrated by unfavourable power relations: US unilateralism and militarism, the UN's World Conference Against Racism and reparations for apartheid profits, soured trade deals, stingy debt relief and counterproductive international financial flows, unsuccessful reform of multilateral institutions, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Water Forum.
Bond poses alternatives and also assesses the progressive social movements, which may well be Mbeki's most persistent, unforgiving judges, both locally and globally. (back cover)
The School of Public Health is a forerunner in the public health areas of health promotion, health equity, health information systems, nutrition, health programme development and human resource development. Two senior researchers are required for a new project, aimed at assisting development of health programmes such as HIV/AIDS and nutrition, at health district level. The senior researchers are expected to assist programme managers to develop information systems for their programmes.
A Ghanaian lawyer and human rights campaigner has won recognition for his work to stop water being privatised. Rudolf Amenga-Etego, who is campaigning against a privatisation scheme being backed by the World Bank, has won a 2004 Goldman environmental prize. Rudolf Amenga-Etego founded Ghana's National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water, an attempt to halt a $400m project which would have meant water being sold at full market rates.
A U.N. fact-finding mission’s new report on gross human rights abuses in Darfur must be made public before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights votes on a key resolution on Sudan, Human Rights Watch has argued. A fact-finding mission from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was due to present its findings on Darfur to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The mission recently spent 10 days in Chad interviewing Sudanese refugees who had recently fled the conflict in Darfur. Unexpectedly, OHCHR decided not to release its report on Darfur to the Commission, which on Friday will conclude its annual six-week session. The decision came at the same time as a move by the Sudanese government, which had denied OHCHR access to the country for the past two weeks, to finally grant it travel authorization. The Sudanese government had allegedly called for a delay in the release, arguing that the report would be “incomplete” without a visit to Sudan.
Nigeria has struck a deal to bring 50 million dollars belonging to late dictator Sani Abacha that were frozen by the Swiss authorities in 1999 back to the country, the justice department said Monday. In total, more than 600 million dollars (498 million euros) of Abacha's money has been frozen in Switzerland. Nigerian authorities finished an investigation into an individual involved in the Abacha case and, in an out-of-court settlement, secured the return of 50 million dollars through the Bank for International Settlements, the Federal Office of Justice said.
Can South African schools be led away from apartheid's grim legacy? Are policy interventions ridding schools of injustice? Are schoolchildren learning values of democracy and equity? Or are classrooms still places where kids learn about the unjust divisions that exist between different groups of people?
Lack of skilled labour is a major obstacle to achieving development goals. Kenya has devoted the largest share of its budget (29% in 1998) to expanding education. Has substantial state and private investment in education been worthwhile? How are returns to education different for men and women and for primary, secondary and tertiary education?
Over fifty environmental and social justice NGOs and other groups this week sent a letter of protest to the World Bank calling for the closure of its new emissions trading fund, The Prototype Carbon Fund. In the year of the World Bank's 60th anniversary and in the run-up to intense protests in Washington D.C. at their annual meeting this month, the groups state that the Bank's new fund is destructive greenwash and has in fact created extra problems for communities and the environment. The fund was set up in 1999 to facilitate the new trade in greeenhouse gases created under the Kyoto Protocol. The NGOs state that so far the fund has exacerbated existing human rights violations and furthered environmental destruction.
There are two possibilities for the parliamentary elections that the government has indicated will be held in less than a year's time, observes the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a new report. One is that a negotiated inter-party settlement or greatly intensified international pressure - or both - will produce the conditions for a free and fair electoral process. The other is that the ruling party will continue to stall on talks, rig the electoral process, increase state violence, and win a non-credible vote. "If the latter happens, Zimbabwe will probably be at the point of no return," says the ICG.
A publication from the Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice (WICEJ) brings together a wide range of issues and debates in relation to gender and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The debates include looking at the impact of gender activism; how different players are interpreting the MDGs; and what some of the broader challenges are which need to be addressed. Many of the articles explore how to use the MDGs as tools to challenge the existing status quo, to demand action on women's key concerns, to mobilize civil society in both North and South, to highlight labour rights and employment needs, and to push for a global reordering of the world's resources.
Darfur has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, with an estimated one million people displaced since fighting intensified early in 2003. The UN’s emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, recently characterised the situation as ‘ethnic cleansing’. With the hungry season approaching, violence continuing despite a recent ceasefire agreed at peace talks in Chad, and humanitarian agencies unable to access the majority of the at-risk population, there is a clear risk of large-scale famine mortality. This Briefing Note draws on a variety of sources and on thematic research previously conducted by the Humanitarian Policy Group to highlight some of the key humanitarian issues in the context of Darfur.
The Southern Africa Human Rights NGO Network (SAHRINGON), consisting of at least 50 human rights NGOs' in the region, has noted with regret the recent kidnapping, assault and torture of a fellow human rights defender Been Masudi Kingombe by security forces in the town of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Kingombe is the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights (CDH) based in Lubumbashi, DRC.
We at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative are working on Access to Justice and Access to Information as the broad parameters in the advocacy of Human Rights in the Commonwealth. We bring out a report every two years on different subject matters which is tabled at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
The report to be tabled at the next year's CHOGM is on "Police Accountability". In this regards we are researching extensively on Police Acts, articles and researches conducted on police organizations, stories from across the globe that deals with the Police in any form, civil societies, justice mechanisms and other social structures.
We shall be grateful and happy if you could send across any document, or related items that could augment and enrich our research and therefore the report.
The course will critically examine and debate the contribution of the African diaspora to Africa's development; consider the role of African diaspora organisations in terms of influencing development and practice in ways that advance the interests of African development; and critically examine contemporary issues including advocacy, sustaining small and community development groups, future strategies and development policy processes.
Organised by the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network), the weekend includes presentations on Pan-Africanism and Neocolonialism and leafleting about wars in Africa.
With a quarter of the year already gone the British government has still failed to organise a single event to mark the United Nations year to remember slavery. Many Africa countries, and the UN itself, have organised a series of exhibitions and events. But Britain stands alone as the only state with a major role in the slave trade that does not have any events planned.
Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts presents ‘Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’, a group exhibition exploring the cultural impact of the famous Nigerian musician and activist who died in 1997. Thirty-four artists will examine and respond to this cultural icon through approximately forty works of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, mixed media and sound installation, video, film, computer animation, and music. On view in our galleries from April 17 to July 4, 2004, Black President is organized by the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed concern following the disappearance of Guy-André Kieffer, an independent journalist who has been missing since 16 April 2004. "We are very concerned about Guy-André Kieffer's disappearance. In this country that remains divided and unstable, journalists continue to work in a very volatile situation; nobody can forget the tragic death of Jean Hélène," RSF said. "We urge the Ivoirian authorities to take all necessary steps to ensure that the journalist is found as quickly as possible," the organisation added.
The government of Swaziland has allocated R2 million (307,692 dollars) in its budget for an anti-corruption office that does not function, but is sorely needed. "Corruption is part of any national government, any business, any place from a school headmaster’s office to a religious organisation where money and influence are found. It is to government and society’s benefit that an anti-corruption authority exists to take action," said an Mbabane attorney with the Swaziland Law Society.
Africa’s Anglican archbishops have vowed never to receive donations from western churches which support the ordination of gay priests. "We do not want any money from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. This is not rhetoric. It is not a matter of a joke. We mean what we say," the chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola said, as the other clergymen nodded in affirmation.
A number of employees in Kenya’s export processing zones claim they have been threatened with dismissal should they continue associating with human rights groups that are championing better conditions for workers. However, certain companies in the zones also appear to have taken heed of the groups’ concerns. The employees who are alleging threats of dismissal work in textile firms. Their employers have reportedly complained of several contracts being cancelled by foreign buyers who were concerned about poor conditions in the export processing zones (EPZs).
Nigeria's state-run oil company is reported to have sacked seven senior managers in connection with a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme. The dismissals have been approved by President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) told the French AFP news agency.
Scores of human rights activists on Friday demonstrated in the streets of the Kenyan capital Nairobi against what they called "blatant violation of human rights across the country". The demonstrators raised banners that condemned the increase of rapes, extra-judicial executions and inability of the government to offer security to Kenyans. The Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-governmental organisation which organised the demonstration, presented a memorandum detailing rights violations to the justice ministry.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed Monday to free women from the yoke of the repressive Islamic "family code" that considers them perpetually dependent on men. Bouteflika, taking the oath of office for his second and final term after winning re-election in a landslide on April 8, said he rejected that women "should be subjected to a status that assails their rights and condemns them to a condition inferior to men".