PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 94: Moçambique: As saias das alunas têm machismo pintado
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 94: Moçambique: As saias das alunas têm machismo pintado
Women church leaders in Zimbabwe have declared war on abuse of women and children. The leaders argue that women and children are treated as sex workers.
A combination of bad weather, late deliveries of seeds and fertiliser could condemn Lesotho to another disastrous harvest this year, World Food Programme officials say.
Norna Edwards, the editor of The Mirror, a Masvingo weekly newspaper, was arrested and charged for contravening Section 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Seven-thousand Kwa-Masiza Hostel residents in Sebokeng have prepared for the possibility of eviction as negotiation with property owners is expected to be met with armed police, clearing the way for the hated Red Ants.
Conference theme is men and the role they play in the response to the pandemic, in terms of power relations, engaging men to become more involved, prevention programmes, cultural practices and the boy child. The aim of RAISA is to provide in-country partners with building blocks which strengthen their capacity to develop their multi sectoral programmes and to increase their impact.
A third of Eritrea’s population - 1.4 million people - were directly affected by drought and this number was set to increase this year, says the US government's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS). "Insufficient rainfall for crops and livestock, labour shortages due to mobilisation, the pressure of internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees, and an economic tailspin contribute to an overall picture of high food insecurity," it said.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, military peacekeeping forces have increasingly intervened in countries in conflict, forcing a more direct engagement than ever before between the military, local populations and humanitarian agencies. Military movement into what has traditionally been 'humanitarian space', raises significant issues of principle, as well as policy and operational questions, for the entire international community, including governments, the military, humanitarian agencies and the UN. It is essential that these two roles - impartial humanitarian assistance as a response to an urgent and inalienable right, and peace operations with their inevitably partial and political mandates - are kept separate, argues a paper by the The Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN).
There should be greater teacher education and development in Sub-Saharan Africa, with distance education a possible solution to the recruiting and retaining of teachers, says a paper from the International Extension College (IEC). Distance education, argues the paper, remains on the sidelines and governments should embrace new, computer based forms of teacher training and development.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has written to DRC president Joseph Kabila expressing 'grave concern” at the detention of journalist Kadima Mukombe. According to reports, Mukombe, a journalist from Radio Kilimandjaro in Tshikapa, was arrested by seven soldiers on 31 December, and is accused of 'insulting the army'.
South African HIV/AIDS lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) on Tuesday cautiously welcomed an announcement by the government that it will provide nutritious food to people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs).
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively. WOUGNET requires an information/researcher officer to strengthen the delivery of WOUGNET programs. Women are particularly encouraged to apply.
Guess who is claiming $73m this year from the famine-stricken Ethiopian government? Nestlé? Some big multinational suffering a temporary corporate social responsibility bypass? Guess again. The vulture creditors in question are the World Bank, the IMF and the governments of some of the world's richest countries. Ethiopia is not alone. Three other sub-Saharan countries facing an epidemic of hunger - Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi - will pay back an estimated $250m to their creditors this year, even as they struggle to feed their people, writes Charlotte Denny from Jubilee Research.
Would you like to be part of a dynamic, results oriented work team committed towards working with others to overcome poverty and suffering? Look no further because Oxfam GB is seeking someone like you for the position of Donor Reporting and Accounting Officer.
The GOAL Country Director is responsible for the management and ongoing development/expansion of GOAL's work in the country. They are responsible for ensuring that GOAL's work contributes effectively and efficiently towards meeting the short, medium and long term needs of the poorest of the poor.
The IRC seeks a Community Development Coordinator for its Guinea Program based in the Kissidougou field office with frequent travel to project sites located in the Prefectures of Gueckedou and Macenta. The primary goal of this position is to oversee all of the project activities of the USAID funded Community Development Project in the three prefectures of Guinea and to coordinate the community mobilization component. The strategic direction of this position is local community capacity building through participatory development principles.
The Jifunze Project is a joint American/Tanzanian NGO which works in Kiteto District, Tanzania to help create innovative, empowering and sustainable educational opportunities for all individuals. We are currently working in close collaboration with the Kiteto District Council, a local steering committee, and Elimu ni Ufunguo (a local CBO), on the development of a Community Education Resource Centre. For more information on the Jifunze Project, please visit our website at
Three Million US dollars will be granted by the French government in the months of March and April, to support demining programmes and the resettlement of displaced people in Angola.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has issued a major report to inform and focus international development assistance - looking back over five decades of work and looking ahead to future challenges: "Foreign Aid in the National Interest: Promoting Freedom, Security, and Opportunity." The report, commissioned by USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios, draws on the best minds of development, democracy and governance to address the critical development challenges facing the world in the next ten to twenty years and beyond.
The British Embassy has announced a further £30 million (R430m) contribution for emergency assistance in Africa. Half the contribution, R215m, will be put to humanitarian assistance and recovery programmes across Southern Africa and the other half will go to Ethiopia.
The famously sardonic travel-writer Bill Bryson assures the readers of his African Diary that "in acquiring this slender volume you didn't actually buy a book. You made a generous donation to a worthy cause and got a free book in return." More disappointing than the text's brevity is its tone. African Diary is permeated by a po-faced, gee-whizz sincerity ill-suited to a writer who has made his reputation for being light and wry (and even snide) in droll travel books.
For almost forty years the Socialist Register has brought together the leading socialist writers from around the world to consider themes of vital importance. As new global conflicts are being shaped around questions of race, religion, and nationality, the Register focuses on this theme.
This book, edited by John Feffer, tells an untold story - the life-affirming response of ordinary people around the world to the 'irreversible' juggernaut of the global economy. Many books contain cogent intellectual critiques. Here, in contrast, we see the modest attempts to create alternatives by those for whom globalization has no need. There is no single response but many different ones, all sharing important common features: meeting basic needs, making sustainable, culturally appropriate improvements to people's lives, and on the basis of active civic participation, solidarity and learning one from another.
[email protected], previously known as Somali Civil Society News, is delivered by email every two weeks and is part of a project that aims for the achievement of permanent respect for human rights, justice through rule of law, pluralism, good governance and sustainable peace in Somalia and Somaliland. The name of the newsletter has been changed to [email protected] to ensure synergy between this newsletter and the one that is also produced periodically by the NOVIB Somalia project that is also known as KARTI. For more information on this project visit http://www.somali-civilsociety.org. The newsletter contains links to stories about the Horn of Africa region in various content categories. For free subscription send an email to [email protected]
The American Bar Association (ABA) produces a weekly newsletter focusing on human rights news and events. Sections of the newsletter include a Bulletin Board, Featured Websites, Job & Volunteer Postings, Educational Courses and Conferences, and Human Rights News. To subscribe to the ABA International Human Rights Committee listserv visit http://www.abanet.org/scripts/listcommands.jsp?parm=subscribe/inthumrights or send an email to [email protected] with a line "Subscribe inthumrights followed by your first and last name" (without quotations) in the body of message. To unsubscribe to the list send a message containing the text: “signoff inthumrights” without quotations to [email protected].
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched a program to relocate the parents and relatives of several unaccompanied children of Liberian origin.
Non-governmental organisations have asked political leaders to step up the fight against child torture and neglect in homes, reports Charles Kakamwa. Shamila Galiwango, the chairperson of Kigulu Development Group (KDG), on Thursday said some leaders had taken no action against child abusers, leading to the increase of such cases.
Angola has the world's fifth highest child death rate in the world, with 118 deaths out of every 1 000 babies born, a 2002 report from the United Nations, released last Friday in Luanda, says.
Unless Zambia redoubles its efforts in 2003, it is in danger of missing Millennium Development Goal targets set in education and health care, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) country representative Dr. Stella Goings has warned.
Lack of funds and partial lack of awareness and the failure to commit full-scale attention to conservation of birds by Nigeria and many African countries in the past, may have stalled the interest of overseas non-governmental agencies' activities, a Daily Trust newspaper investigation has revealed.
Government should maintain the current stand not to accept Genetically Modified foods by employing the precautionary principle, Zambian scientists who recently went on a fact finding mission on GMOs have recommended.
Environmentalists want the Government to protect the environment and to reclaim thousands of hectares of forest land, demanding a tangible policy on environmental protection and the cessation of forest destruction for human settlement and timber products.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that ongoing tensions in Liberia and the emergence of a new conflict in Cote d'Ivoire continued to pose threats to peace and security in the sub-region.
The self-declared republic of Somaliland has postponed presidential elections from January to March, according to a senior official. Mahmud Jama Warfa, the Somaliland deputy information minister, said the move was taken after the independent electoral commission decided more time was needed to have everything in place for smooth elections.
Somali political groups participating in the Eldoret peace talks have called on Kenya's new president, Mwai Kibaki, to save the talks from collapse. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the leaders' committee alleged that the talks were being mismanaged and conducted contrary to agreements.
The leaders of the various militia groups that have been fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are to meet this week in the northeastern city of Kisangani, according to the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.
The offices of a local human rights group in the south-central town of Baidoa have been attacked by armed militiamen, according to an official of the organisation. The offices of the group, Isha (Somali for "eye"), were overrun and looted by militiamen, who stripped them of their equipment.
Jubilee Debt Campaign and Jubilee Research have accused national governments and international agencies of backing out on multilateral commitments. Two years to the day after the millennium deadline set by the international Jubilee 2000 campaign, the co-founders of the campaign are accusing creditors of reneging on their commitment to cancel the debts of the world's poorest nations.
Raymond Majongwe, leader of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe recently released a jazz album called Which Way Africa? The creative diversity of voice, lyric and message is absorbing and strongly illustrates the never-say-die spirit of the singer himself. All proceeds from the sale of this CD and cassette tape go to the Suspended Teachers Defence Fund. Email [email protected]
This is a revised and updated version of A Guide to Press Law in Zimbabwe published by the Legal Resources Foundation of Zimbabwe. As this guide covers the law relating to both print and electronic media this new edition has been entitled A Guide to Media Law in Zimbabwe. This booklet is intended to assist journalists to understand the various aspects of the laws in Zimbabwe that have a bearing on their professional work. Media practitioners in both the print and electronic media can use it as a reference work.
Zimbabweans have had enough of violence, agreed church leaders and civil society actors gathered from across the country at a National Peace Convention in Bulawayo. The group met from 13-14 December, 2002, to develop an action-oriented, non-partisan response to Zimbabwe’s growing crises and spiralling violence.
When the bully started moving in the corner of the playground
the rest of the children didn't really believe him:
He was just one of them,
and if he got to be too much,
he would surely be stopped.
Over the next few months,
the bully began to learn the successful politics of bullying
If you are prepared to follow up your threats
by hitting back at a few individuals
the rest of the kids were intimidated into non action.
HREA is offering an introductory course on using the Internet for human rights work. Participants will be introduced to proven methods of using the Internet efficiently and effectively, including the use of search engines, Web browsers, listservs, Web-to-email services, information management, and security and privacy tools.
The worm has finally turned. In mid-December Kenya Telkom's monopoly, international internet connection company Jambonet decided to block a number of its ports claiming they "were being used to transmit VOIP traffic." The net result was a near two-day shutdown of internet services in Kenya a week before the elections. Private sector lobby groups TESPOK and the Cyber Cafe Operators Association of Kenya first protested and then decided to fight back.
The vacant Mdantsane Arts Centre has finally been given funding to operate after two years of standing deserted.The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has finally approved the use of R191000 to furnish the centre as well as improving its fencing and security.
More than 17 million Africans have died of HIV/Aids since the late 1970’s, leaving 13 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Most of these children do not have Aids but are in danger of slavery, dying of childhood diseases, or forced into prostitution to survive.
Paltry audiences of about 100 people brave the chilly cold weather of the mountainous Dedza to attend a HIV/Aids open day organised by the National Initiative for Civic Education. Speakers are armed to impart all their best to those present. The audience is well aware that the speakers will dwell extensively on how one gets infected with HIV and what the preventative strategies are. The speaker will also communicate how one can live longer after being infected.
This web site, although aimed at journalists, contains links for web developers and anyone else who is looking for information. Well organised and nicely annotated. Take a look!
No action has been taken to remove a dozen drums of highly toxic calcium cyanide, which have been discovered at an abandoned mine, in the Namib Desert outside Swakopmund in October last year.
As Zimbabwe enters 2003, the entire formal business sector is being driven underground and the elite of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party are acquiring revered names on the company register at fire-sale prices. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, evicted white farmers surreptitiously try to keep some production going, risking jail terms. Independent journalists live in a nebulous state, and the only daily newspaper not controlled by the state is in trouble.
The Human Rights Consultative Committee has expressed concern that the Malawi Government has never submitted any reports on human rights to the African Commission. The attitude has been described as a result of lack of respect for human rights.
Munyaradzi Hwengwere, the Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, says that the state owned corporation welcomes the production of programmes on any topic and that the ZBC would not censor programmes. Hwengwere says that it would be a crime for a national broadcaster to limit people's freedom, ideas and creativity.
Hundreds of people from throughout the state of Maine are expected to protest a January 11 rally that has been scheduled in Lewiston, the state’s second largest city, by a white supremacist group calling itself the World Church of the Creator. The racist group, which is based in East Peoria, Illinois and claims to be the fastest-growing white supremacist organisation in the US, is calling for the expulsion of all Somalis from the Lewiston area. More than 1,000 Somali refugees have settled in the city over the last two years.
In response to escalating HIV infections among women, South Africa's Medical Research Council will be launching the country's first microbicide research initiative.
A South African zoo is celebrating the birth of seven red pandas in a captive breeding program designed to save the species from extinction. Red pandas are smaller relatives of the better known giant pandas, which are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. Several zoos around the world are successfully breeding red pandas, but fewer than 2,500 adults are believed to be left in the wild.
The old man of African politics, former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, was swept from power in largely peaceful elections held in Kenya on December 27, but as the euphoria died down, analysts pegged corruption and an end to human rights abuses as some of the most serious problems that would have to be overcome by the new government. Kenya's new leader Mwai Kibaki immediately promised sweeping reforms in the form of free primary education, better healthcare, a stronger economy and an end to corruption - but stressed his National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) party would not engage in a witch-hunt against Moi's displaced Kanu party, the party that ruled the country since its independence in 1963.
US President George W Bush approved 38 Sub-Saharan African countries as eligible for tariff preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on December 31.
The approval is based on progress toward a market-based economy, the rule of law, free trade, economic policies that will reduce poverty, and protection of workers' rights.
The Tanzanian economy performed better in 2002 than in previous years, with growth reaching nearly five per cent, inflation falling from five to 4.5 per cent from July to November 2002, and most large industries announcing increased profits.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed concern over Nigeria's macroeconomic imbalances which it said remained large and persistent while poverty and social indicators are declining. The Fund also insisted that Nigerian economy shrank by 0.9 per cent in 2002.
Academic discourse and development policy debates have grappled with the contentious issue of the state-market interactions in Africa’s development agenda and process, particularly since the 1960s independence era. At the heart of this debate has been the contestation over agency for development: what is the key locomotive or engine of development? This article revisits this debate and critically interrogates the extent to which the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) presents a new paradigm in development thinking in the African continent.
French President Jacques Chirac has announced “a summit of reconciliation for the Côte d'Ivoire” in Paris later this month, with the participation of African leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The announcement comes after France finds itself drawn more and more into the civil war raging in the Côte d'Ivoire. France has sent more than 2,000 soldiers to the Côte d'Ivoire since a civil war began September 19. Its military presence has been raised from 600 to about 3,000 soldiers.
Swaziland's labour unions are once again taking the lead in the pro-democracy movement that seeks to transform King Mswati from sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch into a constitutional monarch within the democratic framework of an elected government.
Kenya's new government began offering free primary-school education Monday, making good on a campaign pledge, but many parents were left angry and confused as schools seemed unable to handle the influx of children.
Police fired tear gas and charged crowds with batons to quell rioting in a food line in western Zimbabwe, witnesses and the state-run media said Saturday. The clash involving hundreds of people waiting in the line was the most serious violence since severe food shortages hit the troubled country in recent months.
Nigeria's anti-corruption commission has a tough job - the country is ranked the second most corrupt in the world according to Transparency International. The commission to fight corruption was one of the bodies set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo soon after he came into office in 1999. But in all that time, its work has led to the conviction of just one public official.
Rebel groups have started withdrawing from a disputed town in northeastern Congo, a U.N. official said Wednesday, but more than 80,000 displaced people are hiding in nearby jungles and need urgent international aid.
Malawi's finance minister is expected to come under investigation for his involvement in the controversial sale of the country's strategic maize reserves just months before widespread crop failure, officials told IRIN on Monday.
"Angola's history has been one of human rights abuses. Combatants on both sides used these violations to gain advantage on the battlefield," says Alex Vines of the New York-based organisation, Human Rights Watch. But many of the violations committed over the past 40 years had nothing to do with the war. There are now growing demands for the perpetrators of human rights abuses to be brought to justice.
Africa’s largest-ever scientific study of how the continent is gradually splitting apart was unveiled on Thursday. Experts from around the world have gathered in Addis Ababa for the international project which will reveal how Africa is breaking up along the East African Rift Valley.
An international journalist arrested on Monday in southwestern Cote d'Ivoire has been released after hours of questioning, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) reported on Tuesday.
Anne Boher, a French journalist with Reuters News Agency, was arrested in the port city of San Pedro and driven to Abidjan for questioning, according to state-owned Radio Cote d'Ivoire, which accused her of being a "spy" for the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI).
This week a lot of noise will be made regarding the nomination of incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria as the candidate for the People’s Democratic Party heading into upcoming elections. More than a few people will regard the convention just held as some sort of sign that democracy is on the march in Nigeria. The truth is very different. Functional democracy is in a fragile state and being suffocated by corruption, political violence and silence in the face of quite unacceptable practices on the part of government.
The upcoming Nigerian elections are being conducted by a body whose commissioners are appointed solely by the sitting President, who has gone out of his way to appoint associates and ‘party hacks’. Local government elections are actually under the thumb of the state governor who also has exclusive power to appoint a state commission. The control of the electoral commissions is just one element of a political system that has a long way to go before it can be recognised as anything like a democratic system in which individuals are confident that they can freely participate in elections where their votes will be properly counted.
I could go on at length about corruption of the current political process, and about how it starts from the very first stages of the election cycle and culminates in an election that is reduced to a meaningless charade. However for the balance of this editorial I would like to emphasise the role of the international community and the extent to which it legitimises regimes like those found in Nigeria.
Over the last four years the Nigerian government has wasted a great deal of goodwill both domestically and internationally. At the international and local level there has been a response that resonates desperation: that any civilian regime is better than a return to military rule. Unfortunately this is only partly true. In the last four years Human Rights Watch and others have chronicled human rights violations and mass killings, including several by government, which would have brought immediate sanctions against a military regime.
There is a crucial need for the international community to recognise that political elites, dressed in the garb of sham democracies, can be every bit as violent as the harshest of military regimes. For people from NGOs who have traditionally resisted government repression and are now encouraging political participation the risks of violence are real and ever-present. There have already been a number of political killings. The unfortunate reality is that as we struggle to bring forward genuine elections we face the risk of many more casualties, primarily at the hands of political thugs used with no fear of accountability by political incumbents.
If Nigeria is not subjected to intense pressure, both internally and externally, to allow the development of the fundamentals of democracy, then those of us in ‘civil society’ face a bleak future. While the belated registration of new political parties, after inexcusable delays which have wrecked their chances of normal development ahead of upcoming elections, is a step forward, the reform of Nigeria’s electoral laws and practices is a fundamental pre-requisite before Nigeria is even recognised as a democracy.
Nigeria is not alone in Africa in practising appalling shams of democracy. One of the reasons for some peculiar stances taken by ‘African leaders’ is that in too many countries we are ruled by elites who have no regard for the grassroots members of their society. Often civil society in the form of NGOs are pursuing quite different agendas to those of our so-called leaders. Some of the positions we are forced into are quite different to those that are assumed by international NGOs, who have sometimes neglected the question of legitimacy of many African governments. For example, my own experience is that there is considerable sympathy amongst NGOs in different countries for the firmest conditionality for governments seeking fresh loans to prop up corrupt regimes on various pre-texts.
Our appeal to the international community is based on the fact that Nigeria has repeatedly said the international community is welcome to observe how far it has progressed on the democratic path. This opportunity should be taken, but pursued vigorously in a manner where the international community seriously considers whether the fundamentals have changed in Nigeria and communicates exactly how far we have to go for the Nigerian government to achieve international respectability.
* Ledum Mitee is the President of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), an NGO which has been campaigning for the environmental and human rights of the Ogoni people since 1990. [email][email protected]
Ph (+234) 84 233 907
* Send your comments for publication in the Letters and Comments section of Pambazuka News to [email protected]
Links
* Nigerian president fights for survival
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,869158,00.html
* "I'm sorry," says Obasanjo for civilian massacre
South Africa, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are some of the countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that recorded momentous events and experienced diverse and chronic problems in 2002. Here is a brief look at some of the news that featured prominently...
World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks held late last year failed to resolve the issue of access to generic medicines in developing countries after the United States blocked an agreement on granting easier access to the drugs. "Its a tragedy that there is no solution after one year of talks ... millions of people have died from [infectious] diseases this year. The rich countries don't realise how much this has affected poor countries," head of international affairs for treatment lobby group Act-Up Paris, Gaëlle Krikorian, told PlusNews.
A new international coalition - the International HIV Treatment Access Coalition (ITAC) - has been launched to boost efforts to provide access to antiretroviral drugs to the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries who need them. According to WHO/UNAIDS estimates presented in a report launched by the Coalition, millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries face death within the coming years unless they can access these life-saving medicines.
Fraud-related cases in the Eastern Cape could soon be dealt with speedily after the Scorpions announced the establishment of a special corruption court in King William's Town. Scorpions representative Sipho Ngwema announced the establishment of the special court on Wednesday, after four former government officials were arrested by the anti-corruption task team on charges of defrauding the Social Development Department of over R5,8-million.
Seven senior government officials have been charged with the theft of public funds, say Zambian police. Those charged include Treasury Secretary David Diangamo and a former official of the state-owned Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) Samuel Musonda.
Vote for one of two nominees from Africa for Labour Web Site of the Year 2002. The two web sites are:
* South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU);
* The Worker, Zimbabwe.
To cast your vote for either of these web sites, developed by SANGONeT, visit http://www.labourstart.org/lwsoty/ballot.shtml
and vote for either entry no 28 (SADTU) or entry no 54 (The Worker). Voting closes 15 January.
South Africa had become part of the Zimbabwe problem and its actions were worsening the crisis, said MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai in a meeting with MDC members of parliament in December. Tsvangarai said Pretoria's policy had cast "serious doubt" on the role of President Thabo Mbeki as an "honest broker" in the rapidly deteriorating situation and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. "Pretoria is free to pursue its own agenda. But it must realise that Zimbabweans can never be fooled anymore. Open expressions of solidarity with Zanu PF and Mugabe will never resolve the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe today," he said. In the same speech, Tsvangarai said a cabal within Zanu PF was working with some businessmen, and had "hatched a plan to protect Mugabe and his regime, for political convenience, through a further militarisation of Zimbabwe". Read the full speech by clicking on the link below.
The pro-presidential coalition in Djibouti has taken all 65 seats in the national assembly, following the country's first full multi-party elections held last week, according to official results. The announcement, reported by the Djibouti news agency, was made by the country's Interior Minister, Abdulkader Doualeh Wais, last Saturday.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 93: Moçambique: RENAMO insiste emgovernar 6 províncias | Crise política agudiza-se no Brasil
PAMBAZUKA NEWS EDIÇÃO EM PORTUGUÊS 93: Moçambique: RENAMO insiste emgovernar 6 províncias | Crise política agudiza-se no Brasil
This report advocates a rights-based approach to land through advocacy and representation of the poor in land management, and considers how land policies can contribute to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
The disregard for the rights of women and girls by the king of Swaziland - where the King can abduct legal minors with a view to taking them as wives - is tied to a deeper disregard for the human rights of Swazi citizens.
More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas and by 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow by three billion people. Almost all of this growth will take place in developing countries, and within those countries, in cities and towns—more than doubling the urban population today.
Most mother-to-child transmission prevention efforts have focused on the potential danger of HIV infection to the fetus, not the mother. "HIV-infected pregnant women have received a great deal of attention," reads a report from the Aids Office of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, but this has mostly been focused on their role in preventing transmission to their offspring. Less attention has been given to these women as women.
South Africa is now eight years into its inclusive democracy. The overall direction and success of this democratic experiment can be judged with various types of evidence. This report focuses on one type - the opinions of South African citizens about the overall direction of their new democracy. “We believe that the views of ordinary citizens, as the ultimate consumers of what democratic governments supply, can offer perhaps the most conclusive assessment of the quality of democratic governance,” says Idasa.
About 200 teachers in Namibia quit the profession this year alone citing poor salaries and overall deteriorating conditions of service in education, the Teachers' Union of Namibia says.
The African Youth eConference on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held online at www.yahoogrups.com/group/wsisyouthafrica between the 20th and 30th of November 2002. It was co-ordinated by Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and ninety-six (96) young Africans from over 13 countries (from Western, Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern Africa) participated in the eConference which sought to strengthen the role of African Youths in the WSIS processes, and the eventual action plans that will be drawn. Read the statement from the conference at the link below.
Access to affordable generic medicines is essential to enable African and other developing countries to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria, tuberculosis, and other urgent health needs. Yet in talks in Geneva rich countries, led by the USA, have blocked implementation of last year's Doha Declaration that public health needs take priority over restrictive patent legislation. In Nigeria, meanwhile, health activists succeeded in revising draft legislation to protect the right to affordable medicine. These trade issues are cloaked in complex language, but their outcome is a matter of life and death. This posting from Africa Action contains several of the more readable articles on the subject as well as links to additional resources.
Rebel authorities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should immediately lift the ban on Radio Maendeleo, an independent radio station, Human Rights Watch says.
This handbook, downloadable in three parts, aims to provide practical, experience-based advice and examples for people and organisations working to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment. The book explores care and treatment, providing an introduction to links between treatment and prevention and barriers to access to treatment. It discusses both the practical and ethical factors involved with treatment work, including a factsheet on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, choosing, sourcing and supplying them.
Train IRC staff in human rights, IDP and refugee protection concepts; Monitor protection concerns among IRC beneficiaries, including ethnic discrimination, diversion of relief supplies, lack of access to land, sexual violence, and separation of family members; Collect information relating to protection problems; Ensure that protection and the promotion of human rights is better incorporated into IRC projects through contributing to program design, monitoring and evaluation.
As Social Protection Manager, you will be responsible for the management and development of SC UK's social protection work in Rwanda. This includes taking a strategic position on the development and management of social protection programmes, effective management of both financial and human resources and representing SCUK in Rwanda to the government, partner agencies and other outside bodies including the media, and the public.
We organise work camp projects successfully with both international and local volunteers in any community in the volta region of Ghana. The project is run to help the community in building school, health posts and clinics. This project will need both local and international volunteers to help finish the work we have already started in the volta region of Ghana.
Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh has said that he did not take any bribe from Emmanuel Katto in order to help the businessman win a government contract to supply MI-24 helicopter gun-ships.
Senegal is one of several heavily indebted poor countries facing years of delays in debt relief for failing to comply adequately with IMF structural adjustment programs. The privatization of groundnut (peanut and other crops) agriculture is part of the restructuring required by the IMF and World Bank. Other countries stalled in their debt relief programs because of structural adjustment conditions include Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, SaoTomé & Principe, Honduras and Nicaragua. Over the past year almost half of the twenty countries in the IMF/World Bank debt relief program, the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative, have been stalled completely.
The world "has still not grasped" the full "devastation" and threat of HIV/AIDS, which has killed 24 million people worldwide and is "still nowhere near its peak," Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said last Friday.
President Thabo Mbeki has said that South Africa still has a long way to go if it is to create a non-racial society. The bulk of the economy, including the land, remains predominantly white-owned, nine years after the end of apartheid, he said in an opening speech to the African National Congress convention.
We enter the festive season as a nation in despair. Traditionally the season is a period enabling us to share gifts, express our love, facilitate family reunions and, above all, remember the birth of Christ. The year 2002 has been the most difficult one for the majority. After the stolen election in March, we were thrust into darkness. We were disabled by the scale of the theft of our voice.
Chinese-American company UTStarcom has been steadily promoting the use of its wireless mobile product on the PHS standard on the continent. In terms of cost to the user, it falls somewhere between GSM and fixed line but is cheaper to set up.
The people of Madagascar are voting for the first time since the disputed elections almost a year ago that threw the island into political turmoil. The election is for candidates to Madagascar's parliament - but it is being seen as a crucial test of popularity and legitimacy for President Ravalomanana.
President Thabo Mbeki's SABC 2 interview last Thursday sounded like a highly over-rated Hallmark card. Key questions could have made this otherwise interesting interview more relevant to issues confronting the country, argues Mohau Pheko.
Libya firmly denied last Saturday that its troops have entered the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in support of rebel groups, following a protest by the DRC to the UN Security Council.