TransAfrica Forum
April 14, 2008
On March 29 the people of Zimbabwe cast their votes for President, Parliament, and local representatives. To date, the results of the Presidential election have not been announced, leading to widespread accusations of vote manipulation. Charges of intimidation and the threat of violence grow daily, while the population suffers from spiraling inflation, commodity shortages, and joblessness. Ultimately, the people of Zimbabwe will determine their leaders, but as concerned citizens we can send a message to the Government of Zimbabwe, the African Union and to the nations of Southern Africa that we stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and that we support their struggle for human rights and justice.
The following Message of Solidarity includes the points outlined in such popular documents as The Zimbabwe We Want, the People’s Convention (February 2008), as well as the platforms of human rights and justice groups in Zimbabwe. We invite you to add your name to the following message. Read More
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Mar 20, 2008 (080320)
Editor’s Note: “The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation between the political parties provides Kenya’s leaders with a historic opportunity to step back from the brink and to reform and establish institutions that can help build long-term stability. … However, challenges remain in ensuring that the institutions created actually deliver accountability for recent and previous violence, correct injustices ignored by previous administrations, and tackle the systemic failure of governance that gave rise to the recent crisis.” - Human Rights Watch
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the press release and summary of the new report on Kenya from Human Rights Watch: “Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance.” The full report is available on the Human Rights Watch website (http://www.hrw.org).
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Kenya and related background and links, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/kenya.php
Africa Action
March 12, 2008
Dear Friend,
Take Action! Call or Write to Oppose Increasing Militarization of Aid to Africa
Tomorrow, AFRICOM will be featured during a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, giving us an opening to resist the new U.S. military command in Africa. Please take a moment to pick up the phone and call your Senator or send an email registering your opposition to AFRICOM.
Africa Action has been working with a coalition of organizations including our long-time allies TransAfrica Forum, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Hip Hop Caucus, Africa Faith and Justice Network and others to challenge the Pentagon’s new military command for Africa, AFRICOM. [Read the rest]
Africa Action
March 12, 2008
A Key Moment to Act
Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!
Write your Senator Now!
Dear Friend,
On Thursday, March 13th the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will sit to mark up the most important bill in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Africa Action encourages you to immediately write to your Senator to urge them to support a bill that will make U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy more effective and ensure true U.S. global leadership in the fight against the pandemic.
Last Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr (D-DE) and Ranking Member Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) introduced the bill S 2731, officially known as the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” This legislation is not only a huge leap forward from Bush’s unproductive policy, which for the past five years severely limited the U.S. response to global AIDS, but it is also a clear testimony that popular pressure works in shaping U.S. policy. [Read the rest]
African Law Student Association, Columbia University and the Center for African Education, Teachers College, Columbia University present the symposium Critical Connections: Law, Education, Scholarship & Practice: Re-imagining Africa(ns) in light of Global Emigration & Neocolonialism.
Critical Connections is a one-day symposium created in collaboration between the Center for African Education, Teachers College and the African Law Student Association of Columbia Law School. The purpose of this symposium is to promote interdisciplinary engagement with the legal, educational, scholarly and practice-based issues affecting the African continent. This year we are paying particular attention to the effect of neo-colonialist policies on the emigration of African peoples on the continent and around the world. Specifically of interest are the connections between such policies and questions of discriminatory immigration laws and trade policies; the movement of refugee populations; xenophobia both in and out of the continent; the development of new legal norms reflecting African cultures and identities; education; the shifting of identities across generations and borders; and the health and well-being of Africans throughout the world.
The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century
October 23-24, 2008 Botswana
A Project of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School The sponsoring organization of African Customary Law Revisited: The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century invites submissions and participant nominations for a collaborative exchange and discussion at a two-day conference to take place on October 23-24, 2008 in Botswana. The conference working language will be English. The conference will include
paper presentations on topics detailed below and will also include working group discussions with a broad range of stakeholders, including, for example, traditional leaders, members of the judiciary, representatives of non-governmental organizations and other interested persons, on topics related to customary law.
Africa Action
February 28, 2008
Leap Into Action TODAY and TOMORROW - February 28th and 29th — to support the Jubilee Act! Africa Action joins Jubilee USA to encourage you to use your “extra” day this Leap Year to call your member of Congress and urge them to support the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634/S2166). You can reach the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. The Jubilee Act promise to unshackle a lot of poor countries from the chocking york of debt and create opportunities for development and poverty eradication.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
February 15, 2008
Though you might not know it for the lack of media coverage, George Bush is embarking on a tour of Africa on February 15th. The White House is building up the trip with talk of human rights, humanitarian issues, democratic reform and other good stuff. But some Africa watchers say the warm and fuzzy rhetoric conceals less compassionate motives, like the U.S.’s militarization of the continent. We’ll talk with Gerald LeMelle of Africa Action about U.S. intentions in Africa.
By Daniel Volman
January 5, 2008
Now that President George Bush’s special envoy to the Kenyan crisis, Jendayi Fraser (US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs) has admitted that the elections in Kenya were seriously flawed (a polite way of saying they are fraudulent) and ordered President Mwai Kibaki to meet the opposition leader, Raile Odinga, it is easy to forget that the United States Ambassador in Kenya only weeks ago declared the elections free and fair.
But neither position is contradictory as the US is heavily invested in stability in Kenya.
Kenya has long been a key military partner of the United States and a major African recipient of U.S. military assistance.
The Pentagon gave Kenya $1.6 million worth of weaponry and other military assistance in 2006 and an estimated $2.5 million in 2007 through its Foreign Military Sales Program. In 2008 the Bush Administration expects to provide Kenya with $800,000 in Foreign Military Financing Program funds to pay for further arms purchases. Kenya has also been permitted to make large arms deals directly with private American arms producers through the State Department’s Direct Commercial Sales Program. Kenya took deliver of $1.9 million worth of arms this way in 2005, got an estimated $867,000 worth in 2007, and is expected to receive another $3.1 million worth this year. [more]
