Dear Readers and Contributors

Pambazuka News Team takes its annual break from 17-31 August 2015.

We would like to thank you most sincerely for your continued support that enables us to carry insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses, making Pambazuka News one of the largest and most influential web-based forums for social justice in the Pan-African world.

EDITORS

The proposed law contravenes provisions of the constitution that require public participation in national affairs, a culture of openness and subordination of the military to civilian oversight.

July 22, 2015 is President Yahya Jammeh’s twenty-first anniversary in power. To mark this day, the numerous Gambians murdered under the Jammeh regime are crying out for justice in a joint letter to West Africa’s King of Impunity. These victims, who are tired of waiting for justice, have expressed their suffering in the absence of accountability for The Gambia’s violations of human rights, including freedom of expression and press freedom.

There is a fund to re-build a hospital in the Gaza strip, damaged in last year's brutal attacks by Israel.

Please click to donate.

As was widely feared, the contentious protocol on seed was adopted at the regional meeting in Arusha, Tanzania. The protocol’s underlying imperatives are to increase corporate seed imports, reduce breeding activity at the national level, and facilitate the monopoly by foreign companies of local seed systems and the disruption of traditional farming systems.

The report of the taskforce on Kenya's Public Benefits Organizations Act 2013 has been released and can be found in the NGO Coordination Board website on this .

Civil society organizations state that the new BRICS bank should support inclusive, accessible, participative development that is driven by communities, addresses poverty and inequality, removes barriers to access and opportunity, and respects human rights, local cultures, and the environment.

Global Campaign On Military Spending, GCOMS-Nigeria, welcomes the decision of the President Muhammad Buhari government to sack the country's Service Chiefs.

Extra-judicial killings, disappearances and politically motivated detentions are being used by the Jubilee regime in Kenya to instil fear and frustrate human rights defenders and social justice activists.

Nominations for the 2015 Drivers of Change Awards are now open! Nominate individuals, businesses, civil society organisations and government agencies that are making a real impact to end poverty.

Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network (PAHRD–Net) has opened a call for nominations for the 2nd Edition of human rights defenders awards. The awards will honor exceptional individuals who peacefully promote and protect universally recognized rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

World’s largest palm oil trading company, Wilmar International Ltd., under scrutiny as communities in Borneo, Sumatra, Uganda and accuse its suppliers of harassment, deception and rights abuses.

This prestigous degree is presented by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria in partnership with 13 leading African universities.

APPLY ONLINE:
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/llm-mphil-online-application-2015.html

Social justice activist organisation Amandla.Mobi and Gun Free South Africa are deeply disappointed that the Farlam Commission of Enquiry’s report into the 2012 Marikana massacre makes no recommendation to prohibit R-5 rifles – the assault weapon used by police to kill 34 miners – in Public Order Policing.

The first Freeman lecture will be held on 31 July 2015 in India. This year’s theme is “Chris Freeman's Enduring Contributions to the Economics of Innovation.”

This Declaration contains some of the salient ideas from delegates who hailed from across the continent, as well as from the rest of the world, to articulate what is required for the creation of a united, liberated, renascent and prosperous Africa.

Despite having clear policies to protect whistleblowers, the UN’s internal system of justice hardly implements those policies. Some whistleblowers have been fired or demoted; others have been subjected to subtle forms of abuse like non-renewal of contracts or sudden transfer to distant duty stations. Many others have been forced to leave the world body to save their livelihoods, health and reputations.

More than 130 civil society organisations have written to the African Union urging the continental body to call upon the South African government to take concrete steps to end attacks against foreigners, prosecute perpetrators and protect migrants and refugees living in the country from violations of their human rights.

The University of Ghana School of Law, in collaboration with the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program and Open Society Initiative for West Africa, is inviting applications for its intensive 6-day 2nd West Africa Executive Course on Human Rights and Drug Policy to be held at the University of Ghana, Legon between July 27 and 1 August, 2015.

The New York City Bar’s Committee on African Affairs cordially invites you to a panel on:

CONFLICT MINERALS and HUMAN RIGHTS:
The Dodd-Frank Act’s Reforms and Reporting Requirements

Tuesday, June 16, 2015 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. at the House of the Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)

Conflict minerals in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) fuel conflict and finance armed groups committing horrendous human rights abuses. To halt this situation, Congress passed Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act requiring the SEC to adopt rules requiring publicly traded companies to disclose whether “conflict minerals” used in their products come from the DRC or an adjoining country.

If such minerals originate in the covered countries, companies must submit to the SEC an annual report describing the source and chain of custody of their “conflict minerals” (defined in the Act as columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite, gold, wolframite, or their derivatives (tin, tungsten, and tantalum)). The second annual reporting date is on June 1, 2015

The panelists will discuss the effectiveness of the legislation, the reporting required by it, and the Court of Appeals’ decision on First Amendment grounds in the litigation that upheld most of the SEC’s conflict minerals rule.

SPEAKERS

HOLLY DRANGINIS, ESQ., Policy Analyst for the Enough Project, focused on the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
MICHAEL LITTENBERG, ESQ., a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel, where he advises on the Conflict Minerals Rule and oversees SRZ’s Conflict Minerals Resource Center; and
ZORKA MILIN, ESQ., Senior Legal Adviser, Global Witness.
MODERATOR: ELIZABETH BARAD, ESQ., International Law and Gender Consultant

Co-sponsored by: Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, (Alexander Papachristou, Executive Director); Securities Regulation Committee, (Sandra Flow, Chair); Financial Reporting Committee, (Michael Young, Chair); and International Human Rights Committee, (Elisabeth Wickeri, Chair).

The program is free and open to the public.

Please RSVP to [email][email protected]