PAMBAZUKA NEWS 112
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 112
You are invited to participate in an online e-Symposium on Conflict Prevention, sponsored by the Japan Centre for Conflict Prevention and the Japan Times, with the support of the Tokyo Club. The theme of the e-Symposium is 'Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?-How Can Peace Be Achieved in Palestine, Chechnya and Other Conflict Zones?'. The dates during which the e-Symposium will take place are between Thursday 22nd May to Friday 30th May. Go to http://www.dwcw.org/3rd_e-symposium/
Karti News is released every two weeks and contains the latest news and information about Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa. The newsletter has sections on the peace process taking place in Kenya, human rights, health and education, women and gender and civil society. Karti News forms part of a project whose overall objective is the achievement of permanent respect for human rights, justice through rule of law, pluralism, good governance and sustainable peace in Somalia and Somaliland. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with only the word 'subscribe' in the subject or body of the message.
The two most important issues surrounding cyberlaw are its potential to affect an individual's right to privacy, and the difficulty in enforcing such laws, says lawyer Lisa Thornton, director of Lisa Thornton Inc. Delivering the keynote address at the South African Non-Governmental Organisation Network forum on cyberlaw and Internet rights, Thornton said that privacy is a key issue when looking at cyberlaw.
A number of technological trends, if extrapolated over the next two to three decades, provide a vision of a ubiquitous, networked computing and communication emerging as the core technological construct of a global information society. Even though poor regions may lag behind with respect to access to these technologies at present, it will be simply a question of time for them to catch up in terms of basic access and to begin to benefit more fully from these developments, says this paper.
419 e-mail scams are only the tip of the iceberg. Africa's cyber-cafes are being used by organised criminal gangs to carry out credit card fraud. It's hard to estimate the value of these fraudulent purchases but wherever we go, we hear reports of it. The evidence in this issue comes from one country - Ghana - where as one café operator told us it is "pervasive". Read more at Http://www.balancingact-africa.com.
The World Organisation Against Torture has received information about the neglect and maltreatment of so-called "child-witches" in Cameroon. Children are alleged to have been forced, with chains on their feet, to break and pick up rocks in the mountains. Click on the web link provided to find out who you can write to in order to voice your concern.
A 14-year-old girl in the Al Wihida Neighbourhood (Unity) of Niyala in Darfour has been sentenced to 100 lashes of the whip because she is unmarried and nine months pregnant. Click on the web link provided to find out more about the case and to write to the Sudanese authorities urging them to immediately repeal the sentence.
The G-8, in effect, asserts its function as a kind of world government, a role for which the world's people never asked of it. The G-8 thus illegitimately imposes its will upon the world's order. The G-8 prescribes neo-liberal policies that accelerate the concentration of wealth, attack workers' rights, jeaporadize employment, lower living conditions for the vast majority of the population, disrespect cultural differences, and harm the environment. Sign a statement against the G8 by clicking on the web link provided.
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Girl Child Network.
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PUDEMO Chief Representative
Thabo Thakalekoala, sub-editor of "Mopheme", a weekly English-language newspaper in Lesotho, has repeatedly been denied information relating to the treatment of Katleho Malataliana, a former member of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF). Malataliana was arrested in November 1998, along with other LDF members, and later convicted of mutiny against senior officers and the government.
The "war on terror" has left people around the world feeling more scared than at any time since the cold war ended, Amnesty International claims. The organisation's annual report also said that the fight against terrorism was being used by countries including the US and Britain as an excuse to trample on human rights.
The ruling ZANU PF will hold provincial congresses around the country in the next six months to ascertain from party supporters who they want to succeed President Robert Mugabe as ZANU PF president, The Daily News has established.
Attempts by the United States Administration to force Europe to accept GM food and crops received a serious blow after Egypt announced that it would not be part of a WTO challenge to the European Union's de facto moratorium on approving new GM licenses. The Egyptian Government says that it has taken its decision because it recognises " the need to preserve adequate and effective consumer and environmental protection."
The course will introduce the international field of human rights education (HRE), including presentations of programming approaches, teaching and learning resources, and related theory. The course is intended for educators and trainers working in both the formal and nonformal sectors. Participants will be assisted in the development of a curriculum, training, or plan to use these skills to further their organisation's advocacy efforts. Participants might be expected to apply these skills within formal education settings, for staff development within their own organisations, and for outreach and advocacy.
Standard methods of poverty measurement assume that an individual is poor if he or she lives in a family whose income or consumption lies below an appropriate poverty line. Such methods can provide only limited insight into male and female poverty separately. It is also possible to link family expenditure patterns to the gender composition of the household, which this paper, produced by the World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, illustrates using data from India and South Africa.
George Bush's thinly veiled accusation last week that Europe is perpetuating starvation in Africa by subsidising agricultural exports and by objecting to genetically modified food is both wrong and offensive. Africa is being starved of income and its people go hungry because the rich world spends little on aid and has done little to help the continent help itself by easing trade barriers. There is much talk about lifting Africa out of poverty, but not much in the way of action from either Brussels or Washington.
Low-income working women and female household heads are among the most vulnerable groups in greater Accra. They are generally able to meet caloric consumption needs, but are very vulnerable to income or price shocks, and sacrifice investment in health and education in order to meet consumption needs. The best options for reducing women's vulnerability is to increase their income earning potential by improving access to credit and skills training, and by improving the regulatory environment, says this paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
There has been a shortage of consultation time in Malawi's PRSP process, the government has dominated the process and been reluctant to share information, participation has been selective and structural and institutional linkages have been inadequate. This is according to a Christian Aid study examining claims from donors that the PRSP policy and planning processes have been opened up to extensive participation by ordinary people and civil society groups.
A new report launched at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) corrects some major popular misconceptions about tree plantations, and warns that the rapid expansion of often heavily subsidized industrial fast wood plantations cannot be relied upon to stop deforestation or generate employment.
Millions of Zimbabweans are starving. Thousands have been tortured. Hundreds of women have been raped. ONE man has led us into despair: the dictator, mugabe. But YOU are now being asked to join in mass action that will make sure the old man goes.
Since the presidential elections on 14 April there has been an increased risk of violence and a significant rise in human rights violations, leaving Somaliland more vulnerable than it has been for many years, says the organisation African Rights in a recent briefing paper. The paper brings to light a series of human rights abuses, including beatings and illegal detentions, a ban on protests, unfair dismissals and a curb on freedom of movement.
Fountain Neighbourhood Youths (FONEYO) is a group of young volunteers working in various neighbourhoods in Nigeria to help their peers lead "good" lives rather than fall into unhealthy, illegal, or dangerous behaviour patterns. Young volunteers assist with projects in their own neighbourhoods that are focussed on fostering good moral conduct by keeping young people busy and engaged - through meetings and social events, some of which have charitable aims.
ECPAT International, in cooperation with UNICEF, is organising a Regional Consultation on North Africa at the Hotel IBIS, in Rabat, Morocco, from 12-13th of June 2003. The agenda for the two day meeting covers aspects of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Chad, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. In particular it will look at the sexual abuse of domestic workers, early marriages and child prostitution. The meeting will also consider how networking can help the implementation of the Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action, as well as the Declaration of the Arab-African Forum against sexual exploitation of children, adopted in Rabat on the 24-26 October 2001 (in preparation for the Yokohama Conference in December 2001).
Botswana is the first country in Africa to implement widespread distribution of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs through its public health system under a programme aptly named 'Masa' ("new dawn"), a symbol of hope for those living with HIV/AIDS.
A team mandated to monitor the cessation of hostilities accord between the Sudanese government and rebels aims to have a permanent presence in the country by early next month.
A significant number of people fleeing war-torn Liberia has continued to arrive in the southwest of Cote d'Ivoire through 13 border crossing points, bringing the number of those who have crossed to at least 15,000 in the past week, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
A peace force must be deployed to Liberia before humanitarian aid can be delivered to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, a United Nations official has said. Peace talks between the government of President Charles Taylor and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Development (Lurd) rebels are due to take place in Ghana next week.
Medical experts from eight central African countries have formed a network to fight malaria following a three-day meeting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
The Nigerian President, Olesegun Obasanjo, is to be sworn in Thursday for a second four-year term of office - marking the first successful transition from one democratic government to another since the country's independence in 1960.
More than 11,000 people have been abducted in 20 years of slave-raiding in Sudan, a new report says. The East Africa and United Kingdom-based Rift Valley Institute released its report on the basis of thousands of interviews in the Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal province, which it says is worst affected.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has presented a new plan to the Security Council to resolve the political future of Western Sahara. A spokesman for Mr Annan, Fred Eckhard said the plan proposed a transitional period of semi-autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan rule, ahead of a referendum on independence.
Thirty people have died in an outbreak of yellow fever in southern Sudan, which has affected at least 80 people, the United Nations confirmed on Tuesday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the controversial decision of the independent Ethio-Eritrea Boundary Commission (EEBC) to place Badme town and surrounding localities within Eritrea was "wrong and unjust," the government press reported on Wednesday. Addis Ababa's objection over Badme going to Eritrea had raised fears of another war between Ethiopia and its former northern province, despite repeated assurances by Ethiopia that it wants a peaceful resolution.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia will on Wednesday start registering the first of an estimated 90,000 Angolan refugees for their voluntary repatriation.
The head of the mainly South African peacekeeping force in Burundi says there is no reason for them to be seen as the enemy by rebels, who have threatened to kill them. This follows remarks by Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, spokesperson for the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), who this week accused the peacekeepers of siding with government troops and accompanying them into the interior of the country.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday signed into law a $15-billion (about R120-billion) plan to help fund the fight against Aids in Africa and the Caribbean, and challenged Europe to match America's "generous" commitment without delay.
African leaders gathered here Wednesday to prepare their stall ahead of next month's meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial powers, with two summits here on development and regional security. More than 20 heads of state and government were expected in the Nigerian capital for a meeting on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).
Nelson Mandela's wife and South Africa's last white central bank head were among six people named Wednesday to Africa's first peer-review body, charged with pressing the continent's leaders to end war and corruption.
Leading women rights activists in Malawi have cautioned President Bakili Muluzi against using abusive language towards women at political rallies, a practice they claim frustrates efforts to uplift their social status.
Authorities in Malawi have opted to take advantage of the respect religious leaders command in society, to partner with faith-based organisations in anti-corruption campaigns.
In a bid to fight malaria among refugees in West Africa, the UN refugee agency has started testing new anti-malaria tools in two refugee camps in southern Sierra Leone. Under a project co-funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office, more than 16,000 refugees in Largo and Tobanda camps are taking part in a trial of insecticide-treated plastic sheeting.
An estimated 50,000 Burundian civilians have fled new fighting between rebels and the army near the capital, local officials said, reports AFP. The new exodus, from an area in the Kabezi region, began at the weekend when the army began an offensive against mainly Hutu rebels of the National Liberation Forces.
Millions of women and children fleeing the world’s conflicts end up in refugee camps where sexual abuse is pervasive, sometimes by relief workers, according to a United States congressional report. Eighty percent of refugees are in Africa, but only 55 percent of U.N. personnel responsible for protecting refugees are on the continent.
Angola's offshore oil riches will soon propel the country into the million-barrel-a-day club, but corruption and poor governance threaten billions of dollars in future investment, analysts say. Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest producer behind Nigeria, producing some 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil with a significant increase seen over the next five years.
The main opposition party in the self-declared republic of Somaliland says it does not recognise the legitimacy of President Dahir Riyale Kahin, according to a statement issued by the party on Sunday.
Two Kenyan Army battalions are stationed on the Kenya-Somali border in a fresh attempt to counter terrorism. The soldiers will patrol the border, now the focus of the government's fight against terrorism, said National Security minister Chris Murungaru.
Pharmaceutical industry officials on Thursday said that talks over access to generic drugs, including antiretrovirals, are "deadlocked," despite optimism from officials at the World Trade Organisation, Reuters reports. U.S. negotiators in February refused to sign a deal under the Doha declaration to allow developing nations to override patent protections to produce generic versions of drugs to combat public health epidemics such as AIDS unless wording was included to specify which diseases constitute a public health epidemic.
There is an urgent need for new vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments to address high mortality and morbidity associated with infectious disease. The current system of motivating research and development favours the needs of people in developed countries, while neglecting many diseases that primarily affect people in developing countries. This is according to a message from Medicines Sans Frontiers about access to medicines, made to the 56th World Health Assembly (WHA), held between May 19-28.
The Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has increased the pressure on President Robert Mugabe by calling for a five-day national strike and urging the people to take to the streets. "Rise up in your millions and take part in nationwide peaceful protest marches for democracy and good governance to encourage Zanu PF (the government party) to take dialogue seriously," he said in an advertisement published in the Daily News Thursday.
As Zimbabwe moves inexorably into greater and greater crisis, the prospect of a negotiated transition moves higher up the agenda of possible solutions. What place will the allegations of crimes against humanity have on the negotiating table for the political transition in Zimbabwe? This is not a trivial problem, writes regional human rights defender A.P Reeler in a report 'Crimes against humanity and the Zimbabwe transition', but perhaps the most serious issue to be discussed in all the negotiations over the transition. "The manner in which this is dealt with will have an enormous effect upon the future of Zimbabwe, as was the case with South Africa," says the report.
Land reform has brought about the most far-reaching redistribution of resources in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. After a slow but orderly process of redistribution between 1980 and 1999, a fast-track programme was implemented between 2000 and 2002. This phase of land reform involved the acquisition of 11 million hectares from white commercial farmers for redistribution in a process marked by considerable coercion and violence. Prior to land reform, an estimated 320,000 to 350,000 farm workers were employed on commercial farms owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Their dependants numbered between 1.8 and 2 million. How did farm workers fare in the massive redistribution of land? What was the broad impact on them? And what are their future prospects? This is the subject of a recent report, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers after Land Reform in Zimbabwe', prepared for the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe.
AMANITARE Voices, the thematic bi-annual newsletter of AMANITARE, the African Partnership for the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls offers articles and analyses on key issues around sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as news regarding AMANITARE activities. The theme of the second edition of the newsletter is “reaching out to new generations” and is available to download as a PDF from the website www.amanitare.org in the newsletter section. AMANITARE is an initiative of RAINBO, an African led International NGO working to protect and promote sexual and reproductive. The partnership currently comprises 43 partners in 16 different African countries. For further information on the partnership or the work of RAINBO, contact Karen Efford, Communications Officer at [email protected] or consult the RAINBO website www.rainbo.org
Leaders of the G8 are meeting in Evian, France from 1-3 June 2003. A counter summit - Summit for another World - will take place between 29-31 May in Annemasse and Geneva. Priority will be given to the opinions and suggestions coming from Southern actors, say the organisers. The issues to be discussed include: NEPAD - A opportunity for sustainable development in Africa?; Trade and development - A relationship on trial; Debt - An instrument of domination over Southern countries?; and Human Rights Arms transfers and human rights.
Visit http://www.tni.org/trade/docs/g8-june2003.htm for more information. Below are a selection of links related to the G8 and Africa.
Links:
* Human rights - No trade off!
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/g82003-index-eng
* The G8 and access to medicines
http://www.msf.org/content/page.cfm?articleid=311298AD-34D0-4B39-BE9F575...
* G8 Summit should back Chirac’s plan http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,963566,00.html
* Did the G8 drop the debt?
http://www.jubileeresearch.org/analysis/reports/G8final.pdf
* NEPAD – Holding the G8 accountable
http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000288/index.php
* G8 warned over development consequences of crisis in Zimbabwe
http://www.lchr.org/defenders/hrd_zimbabwe/hrd_zim_9.htm
* Peacekeeping: G8 to Meet Heads of Various African Governments
http://allafrica.com/stories/200305280272.html
* Statement against the G8
http://www.g8-evian2003.org/
* G8 Homepage
http://www.g8.fr/evian/english/home.html
* Will G-8 Move to Heal Scar On Global Conscience?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200305270534.html
The Economic Policy project E-Bulletin is intended to provide a news round up of activities on economic policy in the East and Southern African region. Also covered will be news, campaigns and resource materials from African economic policy activists, or in relation to African development. The newsletter would also like to cover news from the global movements for social justice, and global, regional and national policy developments that affect African economies. Organisations are encouraged to send in information on their activities (national, regional, international) around economic policy to [email protected].
International NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday that signs of malnutrition had been observed among an estimated 41,000 refugees from Central African Republic (CAR) who have fled to Chad since November 2002.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that 12.5 million Ethiopians are at risk of starving, as there is still a substantial shortfall to the agency's $90 million appeal for emergency operations in that country.
As public concern over the current bill on government procurement in the Ghanaian parliament gathers momentum, it has emerged that an earlier instrument prepared by Ghanaian procurement experts which would ensure genuine accountability while promoting domestic enterprises was jettisoned by the World Bank. In the place of this, World Bank officials almost single-handedly crafted the current bill, which the experts say sacrifices accountability for the primary purpose of granting foreign companies unparalled access to government procurement in Ghana, and to the detriment of domestic businesses.
A joint body of NGO’s has called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to reconsider his stand on the New Partnership For Africa's Development (NEPAD). The body described the establishment of NEPAD as an endorsement of World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) policies.
nigeria: Obasanjo swearing in ahead of verdict of election tribunal violates due process, says CREDO
The swearing in of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the governors of thirty-six states, and legislators elect, before the election appeals tribunal had reached their verdict on allegations of electoral fraud was a violation of due process, says CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights. Holding a NEPAD meeting in Nigeria on the eve of the controversial inauguration could also be interpreted as a cynical attempt to use the presence of heads of state to endorse the ceremony, said the organisation. CREDO Coordinator Rotimi Sankore criticised the election timetable and elections tribunal process. “It is not about whether General Obasanjo or General Buhari, or any of the governorship candidates are the true winners or losers of the elections. It is about democratic principles and creating confidence in the electoral and judicial system. The right to political participation means that complainants and defendants should be confident of securing justice. The chances of this are reduced if officials assume office before the election tribunals have reached a verdict.”
The challenges facing the African continent are enormous. On every front: economic and industrial development; scientific and technological know how; electrification; agriculture; education; healthcare; housing; telecommunications; transport; peace and stability; institutional respect for social, economic, political and human rights, and all other indices of modern society the continent is yet to fulfil its potential. The reasons for this have been articulated extensively – four hundred years of vicious slavery and colonisation including the murder of millions of Africans in their prime, decades of military coups and dictatorships of all sorts backed by both ‘eastern and western bloc’ countries in the cold war battle for strategic interests and resources etc. These are terrible events, which would have undermined the development of any continent
Nevertheless, present day African governments are still failing in their duty to break the shackles imposed on their countries by the injustices of the past and guide their countries into the 21st century.
On the 25th of May the African Union celebrated the 40th anniversary of Africa Liberation Day and the formation of the Organisation of African Unity. The 26th of May was also the second anniversary of the formal creation of the African Union. In his anniversary message, the current Chair of the Union President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa saluted “the distinguished leaders of the continental struggle such as Kwame Nkrumah, Gamel Abdel Nasser, Haille Selassie, Mmandi Azikiwe, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Kenneth Kaunda, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Augostino Neto, Samora Machel, Amilcar Cabral, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and many others” and their “Pan-Africanist vision of a Union of African States sharing common aims of multicultural unity, socio-economic and political co-operation and development, the promotion of human rights, the protection of human rights and freedoms, the promotion of peace and stability and the removal of the remaining yokes of colonialism and apartheid on the continent.”
He also acknowledged that “there are new issues on our agenda today such as democracy, peace and stability, human security, good economic governance as well as sustainable development, human rights, health, gender equality, information and computer technology, integrated regional development, cultural and heritage preservation and promotion.”
More importantly, he admitted that “The international community is eager to see whether we will be able to live up to the conditions that we have set ourselves in NEPAD and its African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in which we have designed measures to assist states where capacity gaps exist and to set benchmarks of excellence for a vibrant and progressive Africa.” “We, in Africa,” he said “are optimistic that a new dawn is breaking and that prosperity, peace and human security will be a reality rather than a figment of our imagination.”
But rather disappointingly, the first tasks that African Union has set for itself do not take account of President Mbeki’s fine words. Instead, the Executive Council meeting of the AU attended by Foreign Ministers of all 53 member-states of the African Union met last week to “consider issues” relating to the implementation of decisions taken by Heads of State and Government during the launch of the African Union” regarding: “Common African Defence and Security Policy; the new structure of the Commission; progress report on the election of the AU Commissioners; scale of assessment for member-states; and the link between the AU and the African Diaspora.”
This distinguished gathering of Ministers did not think it necessary to respond to the urgent issues such as warnings by the World Food Programme of looming food shortages and famine in several African countries including Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where various estimates of between thirty million to forty million people are at risk of starvation.
By no coincidence, the governments of these countries have been identified by several international and African press freedom and freedom of expression organisations as suppressing press freedom and freedom of expression. In almost all cases, the rights to association, assembly and political participation have also been curtailed.
There also seems to be no collective awareness of other grim facts and statistics hanging like a sword of Damocles over of millions of Africans:
* Of the ten countries in the world spending the least on healthcare, only one [Tajikistan] is not African. Liberia, Burundi, Somalia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Central African Republic and Chad top this list.
* Of the ten most undernourished nations in the world only three Afghanistan, North Korea and Haiti are not African. The other seven are Somalia, Burundi, Eritrea, Dem Republic of Congo, Liberia and Niger.
* The ten countries in the world with the highest death rate, and lowest life expectancy are all African: Botswana; Mozambique;’ Zimbabwe; Swaziland; Angola; Namibia; Malawi; Niger; Zambia; and Rwanda make up the first list with Sierra Leone, Burundi, Djibouti, swapping places with Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe on the second list.
* Of the ten countries in the world with the youngest populations [normally characterised by high death rates and high birth rates] nine are African: Uganda; Dem Rep of Congo; Chad; Niger; Sao Tome and Principe; Ethiopia; Burkina Faso; Mali and Benin.
* Of the ten most corrupt countries in the world, five Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Kenya and Tanzania, are African.
* The ten countries in the world that are worst for education are all African: Niger; Burkina Faso; sierra Leone; Guinea; Ethiopia; Angola; Mali; Mozambique; Senegal; Burundi and Guinea Bissau.
* Not surprisingly, eight of the ten countries on the planet with the highest rates of illiteracy are African: Niger, Burkina Faso; Gambia; Ethiopia; Senegal; Mali; Mauritania and Sierra Leone [the other two being Afghanistan and Haiti]
* Yet, Africa seems to be heading full steam towards a housing catastrophe with ten of the fastest growing countries in the world being African: Niger; Somalia; Angola; Uganda: Liberia; Burkina Faso; Mali; Ethiopia and Dem Republic of Congo.
It is therefore no surprise, that malaria, HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality are estimated to kill one million per year [or 2800 per day in Africa], an estimated two million per year, and forty percent of an estimated annual world total of 585,000 women year respectively. Add to these the numerous ongoing conflicts claiming hundreds of thousands of lives every year (estimnated at more than 3 million in DRC alone over the last three years) and it will be no exaggeration to say that Africa may well descend into a wasteland of conflict, disease and poverty if the trend is not revered over the next few decades. But 2020 or 2040 this is not so far away. It was only ‘yesterday’ that the 1970s and 1980s targets for ‘everything for all’ by the year 2000 were set without any clear arrangement to achieve these targets, and today it is 2003.
The ongoing SARS epidemic is yet to take a thousand lives globally but was placed at the fore of a recent meeting of Asian countries. The Canadian authorities were reported on the 29th of May to have decided to quarantine 5000 persons at risk from the SARS virus. Yet the AU does not think the healthcare crisis facing Africa deserves to be fast tracked to the fore of its Agenda. The right to life is after all the most important of all. To describe the African healthcare crisis as a result of criminal negligence will not be an exaggeration.
To anyone familiar with the political and economic history of Africa, the surprise is not that these statistics exist. The surprise is that there is no cohesive plan to reverse the trend.
The task to rebuild the continent must therefore begin immediately. Improved education, healthcare, dealing urgently with the tragedy of HIV/AIDS, agriculture, scientific and technological development, housing, conflict resolution, peace and stability, and so forth must be accelerated to the fore of the AU’s agenda. Unfortunately, this seems unlikely to happen unless African civil society makes every effort to ensure it is done.
But before any of these can happen, freedom of expression and freedom of association needs to be institutionalised. Nothing can happen without these. Only last week we witnessed the absurdity of a Moroccan editor being sentenced to four years in jail for publishing a satirical weekly which ‘insulted the King of Morocco.’ Such absurdities belong in the feudal past of humanity and have no place in the modern world. Yet Morocco is not alone. Eritrea one of the first few countries to sign the constitutive Act of the African Union has imprisoned 18 editors and journalists and banned the entire private media. In July, 53 African heads of state will gather in Maputo for a meeting of the African Union. At least two thirds of them possess a plethora of anti media and anti freedom of expression laws in the armouries employed to stifle debate and alternative opinion.
Last week, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Africa Liberation Day, CREDO wrote to President Mbeki asking him to “call on fellow African leaders to release all incarcerated journalists, repeal all anti media and anti free-expression laws and legislation in their countries and end the persecution of journalists, civil society and peaceful democratic opposition.” The letter also urged him to “act speedily and decisively on these issues and to ensure they are firmly on the agenda of the 2nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union planned for Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003.” The letter stressed that “an end to the suppression of press freedom, freedom of expression and the rights to assembly, association and political participation will be a first and crucial step” towards solving the problems facing Africa.
In order to ensure that these issues are placed on the agenda of the AU, CREDO in collaboration with FAHAMU, is today launching a forty-day campaign in PAMBAZUKA NEWS aimed at presenting a petition to the African Union assembly of Heads of state in Maputo [see link below]. The petition calls for among other things, the release of all journalists incarcerated in all African countries and an end to the suppression of press freedom and freedom of expression. We urge you to support the campaign.
Rotimi Sankore is Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights an NGO focussing on rights issues in Africa. He is Contributing Editor of Pambazuka News. Firoze Manji is Director of Fahamu.
Organisations and persons wishing to sign this petition should send their name, name of organisation and country to [email][email protected] and [email protected] with the title Africa Union Campaign to media freedom and freedom of expression. Please state clearly if you are signing in your personal capacity or on behalf of your organisation.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
His Excellency
President Thabo Mbeki
President of Republic of South Africa,
And
Chair of African Union
Dear Mr President
Call for African leaders to release all incarcerated journalists and repeal anti media and anti freedom of expression legislation
We are writing to express our concern over the continued incarceration of and harassment of journalists in the majority of African journalists for no other reason than carrying out their legitimate duties. We are also very concerned about the persistent violation of freedom of expression in Africa, which denies Africans the opportunity to participate in democratic debate towards solving the many problems facing the continent.
The multitude of challenges facing Africa includes improving, education, healthcare, HIV/AIDs, agriculture, building centres for scientific and technological, provision of adequate housing, conflict resolution - peace and stability and so forth. These challenges cannot be met without the active participation of the citizens of African countries.
Active participation of citizens in shaping policy and decision making of their countries is however impossible if their own governments continue to deny them the rights necessary to ensure such participation. These include the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and political participation, as well as media freedom to facilitate a free exchange of information, ideas and opinion.
However these rights continue to be violated by numerous government despite the fact that virtually all African countries have signed up to or ratified the constitutive Act of the African union, the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other similar documents.
May 25th 2003 marked 40 years of the celebration of Africa liberation day and the formation of the Organisation of African Unity. Similarly May 26th 2003 marked the second anniversary of the formal establishment of the African Union
It saddens us greatly therefore to note that more media houses have been shut down, and more journalists have been imprisoned, killed and driven into exile in the last forty years of independence of African countries than in the same period during the anti-colonial struggles that proceeded independence. With the exception of very few African governments, most have retained pre independence anti-media and anti-freedom of expression legislation that the colonial governments used to legitimise their incarceration of journalists in that era which remains one of the most shameful for the human race. Some have even managed ‘improve’ on such repressive legislation.
It was with great hope and expectation that all Africans and friends of Africa welcomed the launch of the African Union and looked forward to a new future based on its constitutive Acts. However two years into this bold experiment, no significant progress has been made. Even worse, two of the first five countries to sign up i.e. Eritrea and Zimbabwe having been turned into living hells for the media by the governments of those countries.
We therefore lend our voice to the numerous calls that have been made by regional and international organisations to the concerned African leaders to without delay release all incarcerated journalists, re-open all closed media houses, repeal anti-media legislation and recognise the importance of a free press, freedom of expression and other associated rights as vital ingredients necessary to build free, democratic and prosperous societies.
Only when this is done will the NEPAD initiative and any future similar initiatives have any real meaning for the peoples of Africa.
Yours Sincerely
Sign [List of signatories]
CC: Governments of the member countries of the African Union C/o African Union secretariat
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 111
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 111
The Workers’ Library and Museum is a non-profit labour service organisation based in Johannesburg. Dennis Brutus will be talking on the subject 'Whither Social Movements in the Aftermath of the War on Iraq' on May 24.
On World Press Freedom Day the Committee to Protect Journalists named Zimbabwe one of the worst places in the world to go about the daily business of being a journalist. And on May 2, Amnesty International released ‘Zimbabwe/Rights Under Siege’, a long, extensively documented report—largely ignored by the American print, broadcast, and cable television media. This report stated: "State repression of the media has never been worse. Prior to independence, the media was strictly controlled by the [white] government of Ian Smith through the use of restrictive legislation to defeat the nationalist movement…However, the past three years have seen a sharp escalation in the government's hostility towards the independent media…”
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established last year by the seven richest countries in the world (the G7) and the United Nations to address AIDS, TB and malaria, which kill over 6 million people each year. The Fund has distributed US$ 2.2 billion to finance 160 AIDS, TB and malaria programs in 85 countries around the world, but now faces a critical funding gap. Fund The Fund (www.FundTheFund.org) is a global initiative to promote advocacy for increased investment in the Global Fund and pressure G7 countries to mobilize the additional US$ 1.4 billion required to finance the next round of programs.
A global initiative to end the trade in "blood diamonds" has been a mixed success in war-ravaged Sierra Leone with a sharp rise in export earnings but illegal mining flourishing nonetheless. A decade of atrocities and the illegal trade in the tainted stones, popularly known as "blood" or "conflict diamonds", have helped make Sierra Leone one of the poorest countries in the world.
The Swaziland monarchy has retracted a statement that caused a mass resignation of the country's appeals court judges last year and plunged the tiny southern African country into a constitutional crisis. The six judges, who are all South Africans, had said they would return to the bench only if King Mswati III undertook to comply with court orders, which the monarchy repeatedly refused to do until now.
Women in Zambia's North-Western province are being helped with the knowledge and services to prevent HIV/AIDS through a project aimed at empowering the hardest hit population group. Last month, the NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC) - an umbrella body of women's organisations in the region - and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), gathered in Solwezi to open 'Bumi House'. This centre will become the base for the programme.
From Balancing Act News Update (http://www.balancingact-africa.com)
A recently approved project, allocating US$95,000 from the ICT Trust Fund, opts to strengthen the capacity to prepare a National ICT Policy in Lesotho. According to those setting up the project: "It is a major step towards developing ICT for development assistance in Lesotho, a country eager to address the growing digital divide".
Imagine a tiny, beautiful, land-locked, densely populated and extremely poor African country that seven years ago was the site of a devastating civil war and genocide that left it in tatters. Now imagine a country that sets up an ICT Commission headed by its President; that adopts a national ICT Policy for the country and that sets up a top level national IT Agency to oversee a 400-page 5-year US$500 million plan and strategy for ICT. And finally imagine a country that commits to transforming itself from an essentially agrarian economy to a knowledge-based society within twenty years and that plans to become a services center in its region, despite being poorer than its neighbours and much less well-endowed with natural resources.
Two warring factions in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) agreed on Sunday to cohabit in the town of Bunia, riven by weeks of ethnic clashes, UN sources said. A long-running feud between the majority Lendu and minority Hema groups has become even more deadly since the onset of DRC's wider war in 1998 led to an influx of weapons and numerous politico-military groups eager to recruit fighters and more than willing to exploit deep-seated animosities.
Related Link:
* Mass grave found in DRC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3049511.stm
*Civilians suffer as ethnic militias threaten genocide
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3046365.stm
Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) is a Zambian network of civil society organisations formed in October 2000 with the initial purpose of ensuring effective civil society input into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP’s). Now CSPR is looking beyond PRSP formulation to poverty issues at a broader level. CSPR of Zambia will be hosting a workshop that will bring together civil society actors from various PRSP formulating countries.
The 'quiet giant’ of the South African liberation struggle against apartheid, Walter Sisulu, was laid to rest at Croesus Cemetery near Soweto, Saturday, in the same way he lived his life - with quiet dignity and honour. Earlier, thousands of mourners gathered at Orlando Stadium in Soweto to pay their last respects to Sisulu. In a dignified, emotional and nostalgic ceremony, tinged with grief and sadness, South Africans bid "hamba kahle" ("go well") to one of their country’s foremost anti-apartheid heroes in a special funeral, witnessed by his grieving widow Albertina, 84, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as close friend and former jailmate Nelson Mandela.
An international truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) on violence against women in armed conflict "as a step towards ending impunity" is one of the key recommendations in a United Nations report launched last Friday. The Report of the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) is entitled "The Independent Expert's Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women's Role in Peace-building -- Women, War and Peace".
The main opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change ( MDC), says it has plans to make the country "totally ungovernable" with future rounds of mass action. The ratcheting up of pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is "a promise, not a threat", MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi said.
For the first time, Kenya has not featured on a list of countries considered hostile to journalists, issued to coincide with World Press Freedom day last month. No journalist has been killed nor imprisoned over the past year. But some media experts think these changes are superficially rooted in the recent political transformations in the country since last year's change of government. They see no legal backing for press freedom as such.
The administration in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland and opposition forces signed a peace deal on Saturday aimed at ending conflict in the region, a local journalist told IRIN on Monday.
Related Link:
* Kahin sworn in as Somaliland president
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34167
A total of 600 internally displaced people (IDPs), among them 400 teachers and their families, returned home on Saturday from Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), to comply with a government directive to resume schooling.
The Ugandan government has been urged to adopt a consistent approach in dealing with the rebel Lords Resistance army (LRA), and avoid contradictions which have so far undermined trust between the parties during peace efforts for northern Uganda. The Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), a coalition of 40 non-governmental organisations working with civilians affected by the conflict, also urged the two sides to renew their commitment to peace building and national reconciliation.
The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has granted women's organisations four more seats in the ruling National Transitional Council, government-run Radio Centrafrique reported.
A government-appointed Task Force on a possible Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Kenya is likely to face controversy over former president Daniel arap Moi, says Task Force chairman Professor Makau Mutua. "I think there are strong currents in the country that suggest perhaps that the former president Mr Daniel arap Moi, if he is implicated, should be treated somewhat differently as a former head of state," said Makau, a lawyer and head of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that Liberia's civil war could engulf the capital Monrovia, where half a million people are already in a desperate situation, unless President Charles Taylor and rebel forces can be persuaded to negotiate an early ceasefire.
Namibia's president Sam Nujoma has again said he won't be standing in the 2004 elections for a fourth term, The Namibian newspaper reported last Friday. Speaking at his farm earlier this week, Nujoma said he would stick to the constitutional limits of only two five-year terms, and was only serving his current third term due to a "unanimous" request from the Namibian population.
The standards of protection for women affected by conflict and the international response to their situations are "glaring in their inadequacy", says a report commissioned by the UN Development Fund For Women. The report, "Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts' Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women's Role in Peace-building", found that while women are often specifically targeted during conflict, they do not receive what they need in emergencies.
Voters on Pemba, the semi autonomous island off Tanzania, overwhelmingly demonstrated their support for Tanzania's main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF) in Sunday's by-election, which, despite speculation to the contrary, was held in an atmosphere of calm and order.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has put the number of refugees who have fled into Uganda to escape fighting in the Ituri District of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at between 15,000 and 20,000, the UN agency reported on Monday. Earlier reports had estimated the number of refugees entering Uganda through the border districts of Nebbi and Bundibugyo at 60,000 between them.
The view that developing countries would need to embrace trade liberalisation as a means out of poverty was "wrong and misguided". Zambia and Ghana were both examples of countries in which the opening up of markets has led to sudden falls in rates of growth with sectors being unable to compete with foreign goods. Even in those countries that have experienced overall economic growth as a result of trade liberalisation, poverty has not necessarily been reduced. This is not the message of any anti-globalisation think-tank, but that of former United Kingdom trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers.
The Claude Ake Memorial Awards Program seeks to encourage young and mid-career African scholars-activists to carry out research, reflection and writing about their ideas and activities. The award is intended for Africans, working in Africa, who are engaged in knowledge-based and reality-informed problem solving to address the continent’s development challenges. It will support research projects that are applicable to a country, region, or other defined setting within Africa. Successful applicants will receive stipends of $6,000 for innovative research aimed at meeting challenges that face the continent of Africa.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has highlighted the case of child soldiers in the DRC and asked those concerned to write to the authorities in the DRC voicing their protest over the sentencing to death of child soldiers in that country.
Despite the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Ethiopians are in no better position today than they were in the 1940’s when it comes to bringing human rights violators to justice. This time, however, we only have the Ethiopian Government to blame. Thus far, close to 90 states (at least 19 states from Africa, including Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zambia) are parties to the ICC Statute and a number of other states are expected to join soon. Ethiopia does not appear in either list, says this article from the Addis Tribune.
Mulu is the mother of two young children ages two and five, and is an active participant in the Community Based Health Care (CBHC) Project supported by Catholic Relief Services and its implementing partner, the Alemtena Catholic Church. Mulu feels that she is a better mother now with the knowledge that she gains during her monthly health education sessions in her village. During the sessions, she learns about managing various illnesses including diarrhoea, fever, coughs and colds that effect her children.
Massive inequalities remain in terms of both access to education and quality of education in poor and rich communities, in large part because of the system of almost unregulated school fees. As a result, the education system is not delivering. The education department's recent report on school funding points out SA's educational results are far worse than in many poorer countries. Of 11 southern and east African countries, only Lesotho and Namibia score worse than SA for reading and mathematics.
A series of meetings involving African leaders and representatives from the United States and Britain have taken place in Southern Africa aimed at forcing the removal of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The plan is to bring in a transitional government in Zimbabwe made up of the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that will then adopt economic emergency measures. The US is taking a more prominent role in Zimbabwe in exchange for British support for the war in Iraq.
The Organisation for Educational Resources and Technological Training (ORT) is seeking candidates for two potential long-term positions with expertise in anti-trafficking issues, child labour, education, and project management.
Lecturers are required to teach the following courses at the Academy of Screen arts - a new and exciting Film School in Ghana: Acting, Directing, Presentation and Anchoring, Set Design, Costume and Make-up, Animation, Pre-production, Post production, Music and Dance, Voice and Diction, Film History.
Main duties and responsibilities are to manage the nutrition and food security programmes in line with Concern's organisational policy and strategy.
The initial launch of "SDIN Discuss", a listserv set up by SDIN to continue a virtual discussion on sustainable development among major groups is underway. While SDIN is an NGO network, the "SDIN Discuss" list is open to all interested parties. The list is open to anyone interested in substantive discussion of sustainable development related to international policy, such as WSSD, CSD, or WTO. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list, visit http://sdissues.net/sdin/discuss.aspx
Policies are implemented within an institutional setting that dictates the distribution of costs and benefits. Among the challenges that we face today is the need to create a set of policy and legal instruments that will reconstruct the gender-biased institutional setting within which globalisation currently operates. The markets have generated a structure of incentives that encourages women to undertake productive activities. But we know of hardly any incentives to encourage men to take over caring responsibilities. The result is that social reproduction is being moved out of the households and into the privatised market sphere in what appears to be a move out of the frying pan and into the fire, says this paper from Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN).
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Ismail Alassan
Lagos State, Nigeria