PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 95: Insegurança humana em Moçambique | Angola "rende-se" ao FMI
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 95: Insegurança humana em Moçambique | Angola "rende-se" ao FMI
It was striking to read Jack Mapanje's deeply impressive collection of 20th century African prison writing at a time when British newspapers were devoting so many columns to the vaporous 'prison diaries' of one Jeffrey Archer. The contrast, not least in the likely respective financial rewards for Mapanje and Archer, is stark, and not one which reflects well on either our society or its values. Jack Mapanje, Malawi's foremost poet, was imprisoned for over 3 years by Life President Banda for his elliptical depictions of life under a brutal dictatorship in his first book, Of Chameleons and Gods. His subsequent, post-prison writing (The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison and Skipping Without Ropes) brilliantly portrayed life in that claustrophobic and fear-ridden society. Gathering Seaweed - whose title is derived from a piece by Nelson Mandela about Robben Island - is a collection of writings by political prisoners from across the African continent. The authors are an interestingly varied lot - prisoners who became presidents (Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Kaunda, Neto, Mandela); politicians (Kariuki, Odinga) who were imprisoned both by colonialists and by ex-prisoner presidents turned jailers; and poets, playwrights, novelists, sculptors, lawyers and political dissidents. Some are writers who wrote in order to survive, creating poems in their heads or writing novels on hidden scraps of toilet paper. Others were activists who wrote simply to record their captivity for posterity. What shines through this book is a common, radical vision of what Africa might and should become.
* Refugees in Western Tanzania: The Distribution of Burdens and Benefits Among Local Hosts
Beth Elise Whitaker, pp. 339-358
* On the Threshold of Africa: OAU and UN Definitions in South African Asylum Practice
Anais Tuepker, pp. 409-423
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_15/Issue_04/150409.sgm.abs.html
* Book Reviews
Caroline O. N. Moser and Fiona C. Clark, eds.
Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence
Reviewed by Fiona Wilson, pp. 424-425
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_15/Issue_04/150424.sgm.abs.html
* Book Reviews
Anne F. Bayefsky and Joan Fitzpatrick, eds.
Human Rights and Forced Displacement
Reviewed by Hannah R. Garry, pp. 426-427
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_15/Issue_04/150426.sgm.abs.html
* Book Review
Rotimi T. Suberu:
Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria
Reviewed by Youssef Kamal, pp. 432-434
http://www3.oup.co.uk/refuge/hdb/Volume_15/Issue_04/150432.sgm.abs.html
The Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) is pleased to announce its IXth International Conference: Access to Care and Treatment for Women, Children and Families in Africa. Since 1989, SWAA has successfully organized eight pan-African conferences in venues from Harare to Kampala. These meetings bring together advocates, practitioners, scientists, community groups and People Living With HIV/AIDS from across Africa and around the world.
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
The Poverty and Development (PD) Fellowship for the Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development will be awarded to an early to mid-career planner committed to poverty alleviation and community development within Southern Africa. Nationals of the following countries may apply: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The Fellowship begins August 2003.
Abt Associates Health Policy Training Institute (AAHPTI) is pleased to announce its Global Core Course, "Building Skills for Implementing Health Reform and Strengthening Health Systems," to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, April 28-May 10, 2003. The course, designed for middle and upper level technical, management and policy staff, develops practical skills in resolving specific problems and issues that policy makers and managers confront when they reach the implementation phase of health reforms. For more information please contact us at:
[email][email protected]; www.abt-train.org
Sitting in a small compound of mud-brick houses, and shacks made of shrub branches and plastic, 24-year-old Adey Hillow may not look much like a trend-setter, but she is actually at the cutting edge of some innovative technology. The wood-box solar cooker she is using to prepare lunch for her husband, infant and three other relatives holds the promise of saving forests by using simple sunlight - instead of scarce firewood - to prepare traditional African meals.
South African HIV/AIDS activists have condemned an invitation by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to a leading AIDS dissident to address regional health ministers later this month. "For the health minister to invite someone who has been castigated by the medical profession for his belief that HIV does not cause AIDS only reinforces our suspicion that Tshabalala-Msimang has failed as minister of health," Sipho Mthathi of the Treatment Action Campaign told Plusnews.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and the IFJ promoting Accountability Website (IFJ-PA), contains information on submitting articles and reports on public accountability, corruption and democracy; information on the IFJ Journalism for Tolerance Prize; and links to journalism and advocacy resources.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has protested over the Ugandan government's crackdown on live outdoor radio broadcasts of the views of ordinary Ugandans. "This is just a means of preventing people from debating national issues and making themselves heard," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Information Minister Basoga Nsadhu, while calling on him to allow the broadcasts to continue.
Honey Care Africa, an IFC-supported small business whose supply chain has doubled the incomes of some of Kenya’s poorest people, is the winner of a prestigious United Nations sustainable development award. The firm has received the Equator Prize, a US$30,000 cash award honoring community-based poverty reduction initiatives in countries on or near the Equator, home to the world’s greatest concentrations of both biological wealth and human poverty.
The commercialisation and concession process recently embarked on by the SANP should be a matter of disquiet for all environmentalists and conservationists and South African citizens who are all shareholders in the National Parks of South Africa, says this petitions web page. The link to the web site below presents a synopsis of the matter and includes some of the many concerns raised by various parties involved in the issue.
Although the global community may not be making much progress on the daunting environmental and social problems humanity faces, local and grassroots initiatives are providing cause for optimism, according to the Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World report.
Nowhere is southern Africa's food crisis more acute than in Malawi. Out of a total population of 11 million people, more than three million run the risk of starvation due to a combination of flooding and drought. But Malawi has a saving grace. Natural wonders of lake and mountain and wildlife are attractive to tourists, and the government is moving to enhance the country's tourist drawing power.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is warning that immediate action is needed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The Swiss-based organisation says months of drought have left millions of people in urgent need of aid.
Take action now to stop Nestlé, the world's largest coffee company, demanding $6 million from a country where 11 million people are facing famine. What are Nestlé doing to help fight hunger in Ethiopia? They are demanding the Ethiopian Government pay $6m in compensation for a company that was nationalised 27 years ago, a company that they didn't even own at the time.
Iraq has made a direct appeal to Africa for more help in preventing a war with the United States. The call came during the Afro-Arab Parliamentary conference currently taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A river and communities poisoned by a cyanide spill from a gold mine in 2001 may have been hit by another spill from the same mining company. Water from an abandoned underground mine within the mining concession of Goldfields Ghana Ltd. has seeped into the Asuman River in the Wassa West District of the Western Region, sparking fears of contamination and a worsening health situation for area communities.
SOAT requires an individual with at least 5 years experience of working on human rights or international development projects, to conduct a short independent assessment of SOAT projects in Sudan, London and Egypt. Relevant knowledge or some experience of working in the region is essential. Fluency in Arabic and English required. The assessment visit is expected to last for approximately 10 days, and will take place in early 2003. The assessment is funded by the UK Community Fund. All travel, accommodation and other costs will be paid for, and remuneration for the assessor is negotiable.
Merlin has just finished an assessment in the west of Ivory Coast in the government held areas and has identified locations where vulnerable IDPs, displaced by the fighting, have settled or are in transit. It proposes a three-month emergency programme of mobile clinic health care and water and sanitation provision for which we need to put together an experienced medical and logistical team.
The Program Coordinator (PC) for the Consortium for Development Relief in Angola, based in Luanda, will ensure day-to-day management of the Development Relief program, serving all consortium members in their planning, administrative, logistical, reporting and representational needs. The PC is accountable to the Consortium steering Committee (SC), and will inform the SC of critical program issues and assist in the implementation of SC decisions.
To provide technical supervision and support to World Relief's HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and guide in the development of new strategic initiatives. The Africa Director will be resident in Nairobi, Kenya and report to the International Director of HIV/AIDS Programs.
The international medical NGO Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said last Friday that just one of Kenya's provincial hospitals was dispensing antiretrovirals (ARVs) to people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs). This was despite government funding allocated to five major hospitals last year to kick-start the national distribution of HIV/AIDS drugs.
Five million adults are carrying the AIDS virus in South Africa, making it the most infected country on earth. However only a fraction of these people can access essential treatment because the multinational pharmaceutical companies are keeping the prices of their drugs artificially high. Please sign our petition demanding that GlaxoSmithKline puts lives before profits at We need your help to get as many signatures for our petition as possible. If you can, we would be very grateful if you could include the message below as part of your email signature or send it on to family and friends: 'Every day, 1000 people in South Africa die of HIV/AIDS because they cannot afford treatment. Sign ACTSA’s petition now (http://www.actsa.org/action.htm) to stop GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, from putting profits before lives.'
Despite agreeing a settlement in December 2001 of £21 million for 7,500 claimants exposed to asbestos by its mining operations in South Africa, Cape Plc has still not yet paid a penny. The delays have in large part been due to a lack of co-operation by Cape’s bankers, including Barclays Bank. Please find time to write to the Chairman of Barclays to urge him to ensure that the bank faces up to its social responsibilities at
European trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has got a hold of your future and is doing all he can to hand it over to the transnational corporations. The vehicle for Lamy's villainy is an obscure trade agreement called GATS, or the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The agreement itself may be a less-than-riveting read, but its significance is relatively easy to grasp. All human activities are to become, in the fullness of time, profit-oriented commodities that can be invested in and traded, says this article on the web site of the Trans-National Institute.
Events in the lives of two women in Nigeria once more focus our attention on the position of women in class society. Safiya Huseini's face tells a life story - a woman oppressed by her religion, her womanhood, her society. For daring to challenge the dictates of a patriarchal society she was condemned to death. Amina Lawal is herself a no less "perfect" specimen of a Muslim woman. Neither was her crime any different from that of Safiya’s. They both had sex outside wedlock. But, while Safiya has escaped punishment Amina’s fate still hangs in the balance. Both women have more in common than a shared crime - and they share this with millions of women, particularly under the rule of Islamic law. To be sure the position of women in "Christian" society is not a paradise and much still has to be done to achieve genuine emancipation, but compared to her Muslim counterpart she has conquered more rights.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) this week strongly condemned the arrest of the Mayor of Harare, Engineer Elias Mudzuri on Saturday 11 January 2003. ZESN said the arrest, for holding a meeting without police clearance, was "ridiculous" as the mayor was an elected representative who was supposed to know the problems and concerns of the people.
Related Link:
* Mayor released without charge
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31694
An organisation called the Centre for the Defence of Peace and Democracy in Africa has drafted a peace plan for the Ivory Coast calling for a resolution from the United Nations' Security Council that would establish a United Nations Transitional Authority in Ivory Coast (UNTACI). The authority would assist in drafting a new constitution, initiate new electoral lists for presidential and legislative elections and transfer power to the newly-elected authorities.
Malawi President Bakili Muluzi has declared a "state of national disaster" and called for international assistance following severe floods in several parts of the country.
Sudanese government troops will be deployed in camps which Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group was occupying in southern Sudan to avert any attacks against Uganda.
President Mwai Kibaki is expected to unveil major changes in Government structure after the completion of the reorganisation of his ministries next week. The East African Standard has established that the President and his staff were putting final touches to the exercise which targets bloated ministries and departments as well as transferring "misplaced functions to their rightful areas".
Key legislation designed to protect employees in the public and private sectors from persecution if they blow the whistle on corruption could soon be expanded to include anyone who observes corrupt practices.
The Uganda Red Cross (URC) at Mpondwe border in Kasese district have expressed concern over the rising number of Congolese refugees entering the country.
More than 800,000 children from nine months to 15 years old will be vaccinated against measles in April this year in southern Huila province, in a joint action of the Provincial Health Management and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
A quarter of children in Ethiopia could be orphaned by the HIV/AIDS virus within eight years, experts warned last Friday. The warning came during a conference on HIV/AIDS in Addis Ababa, where it was also revealed that 2.2 million Africans are dying of the virus each year.
Aid agencies in the Republic of Congo (ROC) do not have enough relief supplies to assist the growing number of people displaced as populations in the Pool region have been forced to flee repeated bombings, banditry and attacks on villages, according to the United Nations.
A three-day consultative meeting that brought together Liberia's 18 registered political and other pro-democracy groups have recommended, among other things, that in the absence of a national census a thorough voters registration be conducted in the presence of political party representatives.
UN officials have made their first visit to a troubled refugee camp in western Ethiopia where more than 40 people were killed during ethnic clashes two months ago. Increasing tensions between rival ethnic groups sparked the clashes, which broke out in late November.
Two mass graves have been discovered in Mambasa, 50 km northwest of Beni, in the Ituri district of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.
The role of women as an engine for trade and development in Southern Africa needs better recognition, Mauritian Minister for Women's Rights Arianne Navarre-Marie told NGOs on Monday meeting to discuss US-African trade cooperation.
Allegations of human rights abuses in the northern enclave of Cabinda and the living conditions of some 80,000 demobilised soldiers should top the agenda during UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello's visit to Angola next week, rights activists said on Friday.
A 15-month project initiated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and other bodies to help hundreds of child labourers in fishing communities in Ghana has received a "fantastic response" from fishermen, according to an IOM official.
Belgian judicial authorities are investigating possible money-laundering activities linked to ore trafficking by a minister in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), state-owned Radio-Television Belge de la Communaute Francaise (RTBF) reported from Brussels last Wednesday.
The past decade began with genuine optimism for the world's children. But what has happened since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)? Children's Rights: A second chance looks at the impact that local, national and international policies and practices have had on children over the last decade. As the stories of Liberia, Jorge, Nancy and Mustajab show, the lives of millions of children across the world have barely been touched by the UNCRC. For many the situation has actually got worse. Yet, as this report demonstrates, the four key principles of the UNCRC - non-discrimination, acting in the best interests of the child, survival and development, and participation - remain the key to progress.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Environment Affairs Narend Singh is to visit the scene of a toxic spill in the Stanvac Canal, Merebank, South Durban.
Related Link:
* Residents overcome by gas
http://www.africapulse.org/index.php?action=viewarticle&articleid=794
The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office has granted MK27 million, which is equivalent to about E300, 000 to the United Nations Childrens Fund in support of the Cholera Preparedness and Control Project. The project, which is scheduled to run for eight months, will cover areas in Central and Northern Malawi.
The Combined Harare Residents Association, together with other representatives of civil society, including the 350 members of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, has strongly condemned the continuing repression of democratically elected representatives and the citizens of Zimbabwe in general.
A Zimbabwe private newspaper reported that Zimbabwean, South African and British authorities have hatched a plan for embattled President Robert Mugabe to hand power to his chosen successor, before the end of his current term in 2006. The Zimbabwe Sunday Mirror said the plan, which it claimed had the support of Zimbabwe's army commander, included the appointment of an interim government with the support of the main opposition and the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2005.
Related Link:
* I won't step down just now - Mugabe
http://allafrica.com/stories/200301160214.html
The US has acquired a new colonial device to get African States to submit to US imperialist rule, with the active support of African ruling classes. The US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), enacted in the year 2000, gives President Bush king-size powers to decide which African State he will open the US market to, and which African State he will close the US market to. AGOA is ridden with conditionalities that African States have to submit to in order for President Bush to favour them by opening the US market to their goods and services. AGOA, argues this essay written by Rajni Lallah of Lalit, Mauritius, in the context of the AGOA Business and Head of States Forum being held in Mauritius in January 2003, is really just a method of carving up Africa in a new kind of colonialism. Lalit states that the role of the African ruling classes in using AGOA to dispossess peoples in Africa of their collective property, economic, social, civil, political rights, and sovereignty, must be exposed. Postings from Africa Action on the AGOA meeting can also be found through clicking on the link below.
The first-ever survey assessing how democratic governments pursue a democratic foreign policy concludes that governments are doing a better job of promoting democracy beyond their borders, but still put other interests first when dealing with dictatorships or responding to violations of democratic rights. Defending Democracy: A Global Survey of Foreign Policy Trends 1992-2002, conducted by the Democracy Coalition Project and funded by the Open Society Institute, grades 40 countries on implementation of their pledges to protect and promote democracy. Readers can download the full report or individual country reports from the link provided below.
South African tourism could be affected due to loss of habitats and biodiversity as a result of climate change, according to a study produced by the Energy & Development Research Centre (EDRC), at the University of Cape Town. The study said tourism, which contributes as much as 10% of GDP, was the biggest potential economic loss to the country as a result of climate change. Other findings included a warning that forests, small but locally valuable in terms of commercial production of timber and non-timber products, stood to be “entirely lost”.
Vincent Matovu, managing editor of Mazima, a Ugandan weekly, was remanded in custody on two counts of sedition on 6 January. Matovu denied the charges before magistrate Suzan Kanyange. He was remanded until 21 January. Prosecutor Acio Marion alleged that Matovu, 34, published a seditious article about Joseph Kony and the Ugandan LRA rebels in November 2002.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is urging activists to write to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo urging them to repeal the sentences of those found guilty and sentenced to death for taking part in the assassination of former President Laurent-Désirée Kabila. OMCT is also advocating an amnesty for political crimes and a guarantee that human rights will be respected in the country.
This policy briefing from Save the Children and Oxfam calls on the international community to recognise the relationship between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Southern African food crisis. The paper briefly provides an overview of prevalence in the region and states that HIV/AIDS has a particularly damaging relationship with food insecurity in that it impacts most heavily the key members of society who can produce food as well as health workers, teachers and others of working age. The relationship between hunger and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is also discussed.
When Genet Girma and Addisie Abosie got married in Kembatta, Ethiopia, they did the unthinkable in their community. Genet wore a placard saying "I am not circumcised, learn from me" and her groom wore a matching one that said "I am very happy to be marrying an uncircumcised woman."
Prostitution was legalized in this predominantly Muslim country in 1969, and today the government tolerates it as long as each prostitute registers with the state, is over 21 years old, and comes regularly to a center run by the Ministry of Health for checkups, education, and medical treatment. And that's a big reason why this West African nation of 10.5 million, according to the World Health Organisation, has an HIV infection rate of about two percent while many of its nearest neighbors face rates several times higher.
Despite a drop in child mortality rates worldwide, rates in developing nations are on the rise or holding steady and international efforts to reverse the trend remain unfocused, according to an editorial in the current issue of The Lancet.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have set up a joint Science and Technology Council for East Africa in an attempt to boost science and technology in the region. The council is intended to allow the three countries to share and exchange their skills in science and technology. It will also seek funding from foreign donors, and co-ordinate science and technology training in the region to ensure that new developments are distributed evenly between the three countries.
The Mouvement de liberation du Congo rebel group (MLC) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has arrested five of its soldiers accused of committing human rights violations in Ituri District, in the northeast of the country. Ituri has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks between the MLC and its ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la Democratie-National (RCD-N), against the RCD-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team arrived in Malawi on Monday to assess whether to unfreeze US $47 million in vital aid to the country, news reports said. In May the IMF said it would withhold the US $47 million earmarked for Malawi under its Poverty Reduction Growth Facility due to government overspending beyond targets set by the Fund.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello has appealed for the speedy implementation of the power-sharing accord signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 17 December 2002. "My principal concern on this voyage is the putting into place of the accord," he told IRIN in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday.
The National Assembly of the Republic of Congo (ROC) has adopted a law creating a national human rights commission, as stipulated by the country's new constitution, which was approved by referendum in January 2002 and entered into effect in August 2002 following a five-year transition period.
A prominent Mogadishu-based faction leader Muse Sudi Yalahow left the Eldoret peace talks on Monday because he is unhappy over the progress of the meeting. Yalahow's departure follows that of another Mogadishu-based faction leader Muhammad Qanyare Afrah and of Colonel Barre Hiiraale, the leader of Juba Valley Alliance, which controls the port city of Kismayo and much of the Juba valley area of southern Somalia.
Swiss justice authorities will hand over to Nigeria files they built up in a money-laundering investigation of the West African nation's late dictator, General Sani Abacha, a leading official said on Tuesday.
Somalia lost many things as a result of having no government for over a decade during the 90s, but one of the least obvious was an ability to protect its environment. But one woman has been of critical importance in Somalia's environmental crisis. Now in her mid-fifties, Fatima Jibrell has made it her life's work to fight back. She founded the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organisation (Horn Relief) in the early 1990s and also coordinates the Resource Management Somali Network (RMSN), which includes environmental groups throughout the Horn of Africa.
Bureaucrats are blocking attempts to dispense food relief urgently needed for thousands of poverty-stricken rural people, according to an NGO activist. This accusation follows the discovery of a horrifying statistic - 150 000 South African families are starving. The audit may be just the tip of the iceberg because the study covers only 13 areas that have been identified as economically depressed.
The outlook for human rights in Africa at the close of 2002 was more hopeful than it had been for several years, says Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2003, released this week. During the year, there were significant moves towards resolving longstanding conflicts in Angola, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and African leaders made significant commitments to transparent and accountable governance and respect for human rights. But HRW notes that African leaders had promised reform on many previous occasions while continuing to embezzle national funds and to violate human rights. New or ongoing crises and longstanding repression in some countries continued to undermine progress towards respect for human rights and the rule of law across the continent.
The Government has moved to restore order in schools affected by congestion, advising parents to seek admission for their children elsewhere. Education, Science and Technology Minister, Prof George Saitoti said schools affected by a higher influx of admissions country-wide would "be de-congested".
Simputer, a hand-held computing device developed in India to take Internet to the rural masses, is set to be launched in the Middle East and African markets soon, its promoter said Monday. "We are looking at the market potentials of Africa and the Middle East to give out Simputer for contract manufacturing," said Vinay Deshpande, chairman and chief executive officer of Encore Software.
This page, full of language tools and developed by Google, will be most helpful to persons looking to translate short passages of text or entire Web pages. First, the page provides an engine that allows users to search for pages composed in over thirty languages. The most helpful feature, though, is a translator that lets users translate text passages and Web pages from English into five different languages, and several different European languages back into English. As of November 2002, the Web-based tool is a beta release.
The Internet Society has started a new discussion list: [email protected]. Description of list: "Discussions on software as a public good. Free software and open source software applications on third world development and Internet access. Open standards for interfaces and communications." Please visit http://www.isoc.org/members/discuss/pubsoft.shtml if you'd like to join the discussions.
A statement from the Civil Society Co-ordinating Group, comprising representatives of groups participating at preparatory committee meetings for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), has been sent to the WSIS Secretariat as input into plans and preparations for PrepCom 2 in Geneva, February 14-28, 2003.
Siwre Thiambe is one of 49 women's groups under the umbrella organisation PROFEMU, which was set up with Oxfam's support to help improve the lives of its 2,000 members in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and in the nearby town of Thiès. PROFEMU's wide-ranging programme includes a loan scheme, which has enabled the women of the Siwre Thiambe group to borrow money and set up a tie-dyeing business.
A commission set up to investigate human rights abuses in Ghana has begun hearing petitions from people who say they, or their families, suffered during past periods of military rule. The National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), modelled on South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission, is looking into allegations of torture and killings.
The Sudan government has been accused of engaging in ethnic cleansing operations in the vicinity of Talisman and Lundin oil installations in western Upper Nile. A senior official of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), Taban Deng Gai, who is currently in the affected area, confirmed that the government launched a six-day offensive in Mayom and Leer counties last December 31, involving approximately1,500 ground troops supported by helicopter gun-ships.
This document reports on the findings of a three-year program designed to strengthen the ability of women's NGOs in Africa to communicate more effectively. The initiative assisted these groups in using traditional media (posters and brochures), mass media (newspapers, radio, magazines and television) and ICT (e-mail and the Internet) to communicate and advocate for causes they deemed important. This refers to women's sexual and reproductive health, inheritance rights for women and the reduction of all forms of violence.
Preliminary figures from the latest vulnerability assessment indicate that the number of people facing hunger in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland has risen significantly. News reports from the kingdom quoted national disaster task team chairman Ben Nsibandze as saying that 297,000 out of a population of 1 million will require food aid to survive.
When a Canadian multinational took over control of a peasant gold mine in 1996 they had one problem - it was the lifeblood of a local community of peasant miners. Since then, what happened to the local miners who were deep in the shafts of the mine when the Vancouver-based company sent in the bulldozers has been a matter of controversy. The evidence that has surfaced since 1996 - ranging from a firestorm of memos and reports to disputed photographs and videos which may show the dead bodies of exhumed peasant miners - has inspired human rights lawyer Tundu Lissu to lead a growing number who say an independent inquiry is the only way to put this matter to rest, says this investigative piece from www.zmag.org.
The people of Zimbabwe are trapped in a leadership paradox. On one hand is the brutual authoritarianism of a government that is long overdue its sell-by date and has overstayed its usefulness. On the other hand is the apparent lack of leadership from an opposition that they have to look up to for answers to their daily anguish. Those that had put all their cards on a new political scene after the elections, feel the most pinch from the opposition’s lack of leadership as they still look up to it for a solution. Unfortunately, the opposition has not been pro-active and decisive in leading the people after the presidential election, says this commentary on the Centre for Civil Society web site of the University Natal.
The widespread and systematic use of rape and other sexual violence during the ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone is documented in a new Human Rights Watch report. The 75-page report, "We'll Kill You If You Cry:" Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict, presents evidence of horrific abuses against women and girls in every region of the country by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), as well as other rebel, government and international peacekeeping forces.
Volume 61 Number 2/December 01, 2002
The issue includes:
* Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Making of Democracy in Kenya: An Introduction p. 205
James Ogude
* Political Ethnicity in the Democratisation Process in Kenya p. 209
Ken Omolo
* Can Moral Ethnicity Trump Political Tribalism? The Struggle for Land and Nation in Kenya p. 269
Jacqueline M. Klopp
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition has said they are concerned about the welfare of MDC MP Job Sikhala and NGO Human Rights Forum research lawyer Gabriel Shumba, both of who were arrested and detained on Tuesday. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is deeply concerned for the welfare of these two individuals and urges the police to release them immediately, the organisation said in an urgent alert.
Beatrice Moyo, the wife of the Minister of Information and Publicity, has instructed her lawyers to sue The Daily News for $10 million (US$182 000) for damages allegedly caused by an article that appeared in the paper on Monday 13 January 2003.
Kenya's new President Mwai Kibaki has named Dr. Newton Kulundu as Environment Minister and Professor Wangari Maathai as assistant minister. Maathai was elected to Parliament in Kenya on December 27 on the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) ticket. Maathai is a world-renowned environmentalist, who rose to fame for her spirited campaigns against government backed forest clearance.
A major training resource designed to help those working in the not-for-profit sector hone their writing skills in order to influence, persuade and bring about positive social change has been made available free of charge on the internet, thanks to the support of IDRC. “The CDROM version has been so popular,” said Firoze Manji, Director of Fahamu, “IDRC and Fahamu decided to make the resource available in the public domain as well.” Writing for Change, originally published as an interactive CDROM by Fahamu and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is designed primarily for people working in the not-for-profit sector, including researchers, scientists, project managers, team members, campaigners, fundraisers, social activists and writers. Available in English, French and Spanish from Fahamu's web site (http://www.fahamu.org) the resource is thought to be one of the most comprehensive available, running at about 900 pages per language.
South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma urged the African Union's (AU) conflict resolution body on Tuesday to deploy the so-called African Mission to Burundi as soon as possible to enforce the cease-fire in the region. According to a statement issued by his office from the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Zuma said troops from South Africa, Mozambique and Ethiopia had all been earmarked to take part in the mission.
An alleged rightwinger accused of planning to blow up the Vaal Dam testified on Tuesday in the Bloemfontein Regional Court with his Bible at hand. Leon Peacock (42) regularly quoted from the small Bible while testifying in his defence. He told Regional Court President WA du Plessis, who was presiding, that the prophesies of the book of Revelations in the Bible were similar to those of 19th century Boer prophet Siener van Rensburg. One of Van Rensburg's prophesies is about the so-called Night of Terror, which some right-wing groups believe will precipitate a rightwing coup d'etat in South Africa.
Six companies involved with the UNAIDS- and WHO-sponsored Accelerating Access program said this week they would increase the antiretroviral drug supply to Africa, "acknowledging that current efforts only scratched the surface" of the continent's epidemic, Reuters reports.
Former Prime Minister Hage Geingob and Prisons Minister Andimba Toivo ya Toivo received gifts bought through the unauthorised use of a credit card issued to a manager at the Social Security Commission, it was alleged this week. The information surfaced at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Activities, Management and Operations of the SSC.
Senior officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are due to hold talks with the Kenyan government on Tuesday about resuming aid to the country. A spokesman for the Kenyan ministry of finance, Mohammed Lugh, said the IMF would meet President Mwai Kibaki to discuss an anti-corruption bill. Both the IMF and the World Bank have told Kenya it must pass laws to tackle economic crimes before lending can be resumed.
Families living outside of their original national boundaries have had, and continue to have, a profound influence over the flow of people, goods, money and information. More in-depth perspectives reveal how immigrants face troubling issues of cultural identity, economic change, political uncertainty and social welfare. From an examination of 19th century transnational families emigrating from Europe, to the Ghanaian Pentecostal diaspora in Europe today, this book combines broadly based analysis with more unusual case studies to reveal the complexities that immigrants and refugees must contend with in their daily lives. This book, wide-ranging in its geographical and thematic scope, is a highly important and timely addition to debates on transnational families, immigrants and refugees.
Deborah Fahy Bryceson (editor)
How can the world's bioresources be managed so that the social groups most dependent upon them benefit from conservation efforts, or are compensated for negative effects? How can ecological concerns be included in rural development initiatives where conservation is not the primary aim?
Should a good environment be our human right? To date, recognition has been given to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. This study examines the background to current discussions and argues that the environment should be added to the list.
How can African research become more accessible to both African and external policy-makers and researchers? How can African researchers exchange knowledge and expertise? Research by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) for Comunex explores ways in which policy-makers in Africa can network and share knowledge between research networks.
I like Pambazuka News because it keeps development issues in the limelight.
Mr. Nyarwaya Isaac
World Vision, Kigali, Rwanda
Although the Kenyan Constitution was amended in 1997 to guarantee equality between the sexes, in reality discrimination against women persisted in both the private and public spheres, says the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Expressing its concern in an alternative report to Twenty-Eighth Session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women entitled "Violence against Women in Kenya", OMCT said attempts to draft legislation ensuring equality for women had been thwarted, leaving women in Kenya with few laws specifically protecting their rights.
The Department for Gender and Peace Studies at the University for Peace is pleased to announce the Master of Arts Degree in Gender and Peace Building, beginning in September of 2003. The Programme has been designed to address the interaction between Gender and Peace Building when discussing topics such as: The Study of Peace and Nonviolent Transformation of Conflict; Cultures and Cultural Transformation: from a Culture of War to a Culture of Peace; Strategies of Inclusion and Exclusion: Diverse Human Groups; Peace Processes: Conflict Analysis, Resolution and Transformation; Human Rights, Democracy and Governance.
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa is a pan-African NGO that works towards the promotion and protection of human rights and development, through the implementation of African human rights treaties. The Institute will hold its Fifth Annual Workshop on Procedures of the African Regional Human Rights system.
Ivory Coast political leaders and rebel chiefs began talks near Paris on Wednesday to end a war that risks plunging West Africa into turmoil, with a peace call by ex-colonial power France ringing in their ears. Opening nine days of closed-door talks, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told delegates only they could end four months of bloodshed that has killed hundreds in the world's top cocoa producer.
United Nations officials in Angola on Wednesday said the reintegration of former child soldiers into civil society was underway despite the scale of the problem confronting the humanitarian community.