Thanks Mary Ndlovu for such a . I would like to add a third false assumption to the two you have stated- the delusion that Tsvangirai’s election will be “finishing the task of liberation” of Zimbabweans.

Truly finishing the task of liberation will be liberating Zimbabwe from the illegitimate Mugabe regime, from the obnoxious interventions (and sanctions) of the West, and from those who operate as agents of western imperialism. It will be when Zimbabweans are finally able to form an independent and legitimate movement/government that is driven and controlled by the people. We may all have opinions as non-Zimbabweans, but our ultimate responsibility is our unconditional solidarity with Zimbabweans. They have the ultimate say and choice.

And that is why no one (especially not Mugabe) should be allowed to deny Zimbabweans the right and the opportunity to make that choice. The terror, burning, rape, systematic violation of basic rights and killings must stop. We must continue to urge our leaders to break their silence and false solidarity with Mugabe. We must continue to expose and resist those who want to take advantage of the crisis and impose their agenda over the wills of Zimbabweans.

And we must continue to support our brothers and sisters who are at the frontline of the struggle for freedom in Zimbabwe. It will be sad if SADC and the AU fail to take advantage of Tsvangirai’s offer for a Transitional Authority. They can if they choose to. They should at least try. But we can no longer tolerate their inaction on Zimbabwe. In solidarity.

Submissions are welcome for the Global Development Network’s annual competition for the Most Innovative Development Project, which carries prizes in cash and travel. The finalists will present their proposals at GDN’s Annual Global Development Conference inKuwait city, Kuwait in January 2009. Submissions are accepted for an ongoing development project implemented in a developing or transition country. Criteria include the degree of innovation and the potential for broad application of the project in other countries.

The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, OxfordUniversity is pleased to announce the second edition of the Monroe E Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition. The goal of this competition is to encourage interest in international standards of protection of media freedom and to encourage interest in media defence work among students worldwide. The case is scheduled to be announced in September 2008, and the finals of the competition will take place inOxford in March 2009.

Close to three million Ugandan minors risked forced labour either by parents or poor economic living conditions, Uganda's Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Syda Bbumba, revealed. Minister Bbumba said the revelations were contained in the recent study conducted in the country. Most of Uganda's child labour victims fall between 5 and 17 years.

CHIPAWO Media is the only media house in Zimbabwe that produces television for
and with the Deaf in Sign Language. This grew out of the arts education and performance work that CHIPAWO began doing with Emerald Hill School for the Deaf, in Harare, back in 1994, supported by World University Service (WUS) Canada.

The 1st Annual Conference of the Working Class and Trade Union Studies Association of Nigeria (WCTUSAN) was convened and held at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan on 30 - 31st May 2008. Participants were drawn from the trade unions, academics, labour NGO’s, youths and students from different geo-political zones of Nigeria. The Key- note Address on the theme: ‘Towards A Liberating Self-understanding of The Working Class By The Working Class: The Case of Industrial Relations’ was delivered by the socialist former National President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Festus Iyayi.

The United Nations is urging improved access to education as the right response to address the plight of the estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 worldwide who are involved in child labour. “Despite global progress in many areas, it is unacceptable that so many children must still work for their survival and that of their families,” Juan Somavia, Director-General of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), said on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour.

On 31st May, 2008 Kenyans under the umbrella of Bunge La Mwananchi and Starehe Social Forum got together in a solidarity march for the poor to dramatise the frustrations of the urban poor occasioned by the unchecked rising food prices.

Frustrated by the lack of mainstream media attention, international human rights organizations are using the internet to maintain focus on the conflict in Darfur. ‘When the plane came I was five months pregnant. I lost my baby because of the bombing. When the plane bombed I was outside the house, I saw that my husband was inside. I ran to the house. The smoke from the bomb made me cough, then I lost blood and my child. My body still hurts and my stomach is still big despite the fact that I lost the baby.’

During the French environment minister's recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congolese civil society organizations released a statement drawing attention to the alarming situation in the Congo forests and the destructive activities of logging companies.

We, Namibian civil society actors, congratulate and credit you on your role in not allowing and or preventing the Chinese ship, the "An Yue Jiang", from delivering its lethal cargo intended for Zimbabwe via Namibian territory. This is a significant achievement. Had this transfer gone ahead, it risked exacerbating an already volatile situation in that SADC country.

The work of Ujamaa Center responds directly to the continuing exploitation and exclusion of coastal peoples by examining the inefficient and unsustainable exploitation of assets that should properly be owned and controlled by indigenous peoples. Through community mobilisers (CMs) recruited from and based in communities, it is possible to challenge the political construction that sustains inequality and give new meaning to ecology, politics, knowledge and democracy.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) 1st Vice-President, Ms Lucia Gladys Matibenga has been elected into the Governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at the ongoing ILO Annual Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ms Matibenga was elected on 2 June 2008, after receiving 107 votes from the delegates.

On May 24th and 25th 2008, the Centre for Citizens Participation in the African Union (CCP-AU) in collaboration the Egyptian Business Women Association (EBWA), Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), Fahamu, Federation Internationale des Droits de l”Homme (FIDH) and Oxfam Liaison Office with the African Union, organized a training workshop for Egyptian and other North African CSOs on the African Union under the title “Understanding the African Union and Seizing Opportunities for Change” in Cairo, Egypt.

The ANC Youth League, AZAYO, IFPYB, DA Youth, other Faith-Based Youth Organisations, Personalities and the Business Sector today launched a Youth Front Against Xenophobia through a campaign dubbed "South Africa We are listening, Africa we are sorry".

It is full utopia to pretend, that there is a poor "people" kind of solidarity; see .

South Africans living in Townships are more close to Mugabe and Zanu-Pf than Tsvangarai and MDC. Nobody can expect social equity in SA as a miracle,it will take time. The Land issue can and will lead a nightmare, if nothing si done. Who talks about lost jobs in South African industrie like in the cande fruit industrie in Cape Province? Who blames the EU for destroying this industrie?

I'm living in a country (Germany), where you have 2% foreigners and no single Black, living in some laender and counties, where xenophobia is extreme (Die Zeit, Nr. 20, 2008, Dossier: pp. 15-20. Mai 8, 2008.) People say "foreigners are taking our jobs, misusing our social facilities etc" and in differents local and regional elections the right wings partis are use to make 12%.

Everyday in Germany, foreigners are beaten somewhere. Many foreigners habe been lunched to death (even in the presence of police officers), houses with foreigners sleeping or living in are use to be put in fire and many Africans haven been burned to death (see

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

Emma Njoki Wamai reflects on the 2007 I6 Days of Activism Campaign and notes the positive impact on Sauti Ya Wanawake (The Voice of Women) such as strengthening the organization's relationship with the provincial administration. This has led to police and the chiefs’ working together with SYW on cases of sexual and gender based violence.

The Sauti Ya Wanawake[1] grassroots women’s movement members recount their experiences with sexual and gender based violence with an uncomfortable familiarity. In the dusty and desolate sisal plantations, national parks and the savanna grasslands in Taveta, Taita and Kinango districts in the Kenyan Coast, everyday women and children are sexually abused at an alarming rate.

In Taita, Taveta, Kwale and Kinango Districts in Kenya, sexual and gender based violence has been rampant for a long time due to retrogressive cultural practices and poverty which deprives the most vulnerable people, mostly women and children their human rights. In 2007 alone, 62 girls and women and 2 boys were defiled and raped (Children’s Department, Taita Taveta District). According to the Children’s Officer and the Sauti ya Wanawake movement[2] in the region, reported rape and defilement of children is excercabeted in the district by the complacent culture of wazee wa vigogoni[3] laxity of provincial administration, entry of illicit drugs and brews from neighbouring Tanzania. Of these 62, only 20 cases were taken to court. It is notable that these were reported cases and many other cases especially where women were violated, were not reported to the police since the perpetrators are normally relatives and fear of castigation by the community.

Coincidentally, the theme of the 2007 16 days of activism campaign, ‘Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence against Women’ could not have been more appropriate to the sisters and mothers of Taita Taveta who have watched helplessly as their children’s childhood is hurriedly ended by lurking man made beasts.

Inspired by the need to end violence against women in their communities, they sought partnership with like minded organizations such as the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) ,a non governmental organization whose vision is promoting and protecting human rights and the Canadian International Development Agency Gender Equity Support Project (CIDA-GESP) to mainstream strategic and practical gender issues in the existing pre election promises by aspiring candidates and to raise awareness on legal forms of redress such as the New Sexual Offences Act through dialogue forums and community radio stations. They also trained local village elders, local provincial administration, religious leaders, youth and women on the effects of violence against women and erected 4 information billboards in remote villages offering community members safe spaces to deposit information on violence against women and children.

Mama Dorcas Jibran, the coordinator of the Sauti Ya Wanawake says that the impact of the 16days of Activism 2007 is profound on the safety of women and children in the three districts barely 3 months later. Mama Dorcas shared these achievements of the 2007, 16 days of Activism campaign which include;

- Sustainable Partnerships. This project has strengthened Sauti ya Wanawake’s relationship with the provincial administration and as a result, Sauti ya Wanawake, police and the chiefs’ work together on cases of sexual and gender based violence. The Divisional Officer’s office (DO) has been facilitating Sauti ya Wanawake to visit remote places incase of an alarm and they have also been making follow-ups together. Mama Dorcas is currently working with the chiefs and the Councilors to establish modalities of setting up information boxes in every location.

- The grassroot women’s movement now has the capacity to articulate issues and the village representatives are called upon to advice on gender issues in churches and local development committees. For example, Mama Dorcas and Mama Emma Mailus are normally called upon by their local police posts to advice and train the police when a sex offender is arrested.

- Lastly, Sauti Ya Wanawake and the residents of Taita, Taveta and Kinango have benefited from the information billboards which are positioned in every constituency. Mama Docras Jibran has already received five cases on violence against women and children and succession issues from women and she has referred the individuals for further support to Police and the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Mombassa Office.

There is need for the Africa Union Members states to fully domesticate the numerous instruments and regional charters that recognize the hardships women like Mama Dorcas face.

The Convention on Elimination against All forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) is one such instrument. The African Women’s Protocol of the African peoples Human Rights Charter is another that criminalizes any violence committed against women.

The time is now!

*Emma Njoki Wamai is a Programme Associate in the Kenya Human Rights Commission

**Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

For further notes, please follow this link:

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Nairobi, Kenya
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As women and men in the Caribbean Region, in the wider diaspora, and in many parts of the world, we are writing to urge you to make resources available without delay for the search for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, and to do everything in your power to secure his safe return to his family and community. As you may know, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, the internationally respected Haitian human rights activist who is well loved by his family and community, has been missing in Haiti since the evening of August 12.