Indigenous and tribal children are identified as a group at particular risk of ending up in child labour, according to a recent working paper from the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). Current child labour and education initiatives tend to “forget” indigenous concerns and priorities unless safeguard mechanisms are included to ensure indigenous-driven decision-making. Some education programmes may even enhance vulnerability rather than prevent or eliminate child labour. The author argues for a rights-based approach, which emphasizes the right of indigenous and tribal peoples to determine appropriate development and education solutions.

Burundi's Ministry of Health launched last Thursday a vaccination campaign against hepatitis B and meningitis, targeting a total of 275,662 babies aged up to 11 months. "The objective is to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with chronic infections of the hepatitis B virus, including cirrhosis and other complicated diseases such as meningitis related to haemophilic influenza type B," Dr Jean Kamana, the minister of health, said when he launched the free-of-charge campaign in the capital, Bujumbura.

Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, promotes - through advocacy, coalition building, research, publications and information sharing - respect for good governance in Nigeria. IAP produces a monthly electronic journal and you can contact [email protected] if you are interested in subscribing.

Activists and organisations in South Africa, namely the Freedom of Expression Institute, Ebrahim Harvey (a researcher and activist), the South African History Archive, SEATINI and the Anti-Privatisation Forum along with others, are instituting action in court against Johannesburg Water regarding access to information on water services. The purpose of the case is to ensure that citizens have adequate and appropriate access to information regarding the provision of water to the citizens of Johannesburg. The current case is the first in a series of actions against the state challenging the motivations behind the privatisation of services and whether this policy can address the needs of the black people of South Africa. Information and assistance is required. Click on the link below for the email addresses of those you can contact.

African leaders have declared 12 December to be the International Day of Digital Solidarity as a tribute to the consensus reached by world leaders to adopt the Digital Solidarity Agenda and the Digital Solidarity Fund in the two documents of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS).

For many, the start of a New Year is a time to make personal resolutions for the future. Your Resolution for the World can start now. Send five friends an e-card, and BidClix, a NetAid partner, will donate US$1 on your behalf to a NetAid World Schoolhouse project in Zimbabwe. This project is ensuring that girls, many of them AIDS-affected, can fulfill their right to an education - the key to ending poverty.

Civil disobedience is the deliberate, discriminate, violation of law for a vital social purpose. It becomes not only justifiable but necessary when a fundamental human right is at stake, and when legal channels are inadequate for securing that right. It may take the form of violating an obnoxious law, protesting an unjust condition, or symbolically enacting a desirable law or condition. It may or may not eventually be held legal, because of constitutional law or international law, but its aim is always to close the gap between law and justice, as an infinite process in the development of democracy.

At the official launch of a national campaign to end child sexual exploitation in Madagascar, UNICEF and International Labour Organisation (ILO) presented the resumes of three studies that highlighted the sexual exploitation of children in Madagascar. According to the UNICEF-sponsored study, between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of all sex workers in two of country's main cities, Nosy Be and Tamatave, were children under the age of 18.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday launched a national campaign to promote education of all girls. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, speaking at the "All Girls to School" campaign launch in the capital, Kinshasa, underlined the importance of educating children, especially girls, to national development.

"A few weeks ago the government revealed its operational ARV treatment plan. Now we celebrate five years of constant struggle with the announcement of a great victory for people living with HIV/AIDS and for public health - a momentous settlement agreement reached at the South African Competition Commission between pharmaceutical companies and AIDS activists. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), COSATU, CEPPWAWU, the AIDS Consortium, four people living with HIV/AIDS and four health-care workers have entered into settlement agreements with pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI). In signing these agreements, AIDS activists have now concluded their complaint against GSK and BI. The terms of the agreements go well beyond what could conceivably have been won by pursuing the prosecution of the complaint under the Competition Act."
Background Link:
Companies To Allow Generic HIV/AIDS Drugs In South Africa

State and national leaders of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the 19 northern states have signed on to the campaign against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, courtesy of a media training programme recently concluded in the ancient city of Kaduna. At the end of a four-day workshop attended by chairmen and secretaries of the union from 16 northern states, the union executives committed themselves to forming action committees on HIV/AIDS in their respective states.

As world leaders converged recently in Mexico to sign the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, urged the federal government to sign and ratify this global instrument and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. The final text of the UN Convention was recently agreed by state delegates, while African Heads of State adopted the AU Convention last July in Maputo, Mozambique at their 2003 Summit.

Africans must become more active in campaigning for HIV/AIDS treatment initiatives in their communities. This was the key message emerging at a special discussion forum with Zackie Achmat, co-chair of the Treatment Action campaign, in Harare, Zimbabwe on Thursday, December 4, 2003. SAfAIDS (Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service) and HIVOS hosted the forum. The meeting was intended to be an opportunity for Zimbabweans to learn more about South Africa’s experiences in the treatment campaign and explore practicable solutions for the Zimbabwean situation.

The United Nations was due to torch a ceremonial pyre of surrendered weapons to light a fire under the peace process in war-torn Liberia, but 14 years of bloodshed may not be reduced to ashes so easily. With the 50 million-dollar (42 million-euro) disarmament program the UN Mission to Liberia (UNMIL) hopes not only to convince an estimated 50,000 combatants to relinquish their weapons but also to reintegrate them in a civilian society battered by two back-to-back civil wars since 1989.

The present model of globalisation is not working for Africa and international policies must change to put jobs at the centre of the development debate in an employment-centred approach to alleviating the continent's chronic poverty, the head of the United Nations labour agency says. "The extensive policy advice given to Africa needs a reality check - a wake-up call," International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia told the agency's Tenth African Regional Meeting at its opening session in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The Advocacy Director will work with Africa Division staff to design and implement strategies to promote and protect human rights in Africa. Principal advocacy targets include African governments, institutions, or actors, and influential governments and international actors such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, and others.

To send a message to the US Presidential candidates urging them to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS, visit the web site provided.

This 12-week course intended for staff members of human rights and/or social justice organisations aims to provide participants with a range of human rights advocacy methods and critical concepts as a means for them to reflect on and deepen their own work. The course will look at the theoretical foundations and critical issues of human rights advocacy, elements of advocacy planning, and strategies for action.

The City of Dakar in partnership with the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) International are organising a march in Dakar, Senegal as a prelude to the 6th International Home and Community Care Conference for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS. In honour of the World AIDS Campaign 2003, the march will focus on raising awareness about stigma and discrimination, which are often the principle obstacles to the provision of care and to preventing the spread of HIV.

test