The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including December 1, which is World AIDS Day.

"HIV/AIDS treatment including anti-retroviral therapy is increasingly available throughout the developing world. However, the drugs and associated laboratory tests are rarely provided for free. Most people living with HIV will die simply because they cannot afford the contribution which is sought from them. We believe that, for human rights, public health and economic reasons, there should be free access for all to a comprehensive minimum medical package, including ARVs."

"Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts, images, audio, and video. On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace, at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities. Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. In response, people all over the world have been endorsing a declaration against the seizures." You can sign this declaration by visiting the website available through the URL provided.

Global free expression group Article 19 and the human rights organization Fahamu invite applications for a distance learning course on Campaigning for Access to Information to be held from 15 November 2004 until 15 December 2004.

Combining the freedom of information campaigning expertise of Article 19 with the extensive distance learning experience of Fahamu, this course is meant for people and organizations from a broad spectrum of areas in Africa who have an interest in the issue of access to information. This includes but is not limited to: trade unions, residents' organisations, environmental groups, women's groups, development organisations, human rights organisations and many others.

This course looks at why access to information is important, what an access to information law should contain, and how to set about campaigning for one.

While several countries in Southern Africa have draft laws to access to information in place, South Africa is the only country in the region that has a proper access to information law. But even when a law or a draft law is in place, it is important to have the ability to critique the laws in order to make sure that they have included the best provisions possible. And then it is crucial to ensure that the law is implemented properly.

This distance course lasts for seven weeks. Six weeks are spent working through a specially designed interactive CDROM, completing exercises and discussing the issues by email with others who are doing the course. The final week is devoted to an assignment that will involve designing a campaign plan for access to information in your country. This not only entails considering campaigning strategy and tactics, but also the substantive access to information issues that you are likely to encounter in your own country. It is intended that the product of this assignment will be something that you and your organisation can use in the future to help guide your campaigning work. You will be guided throughout the course by an online course tutor.

There are 15 fully sponsored places available on this course. Every participant who successfully completes this course will be awarded a certificate from Article 19 and Fahamu.

Applicants should send a one page summary CV, with a letter of 500 words explaining why they should be selected for this course. Applications should be sent to [email protected]
For further information (including course dates, fees and registration forms please contact:

Hilary Isaac in Oxford, UK on
TEL: +44-(0)845 456 2442
FAX: +44-(0)845-456-2443
EMAIL: [email protected]
or call Camille Downes in Durban, South Africa on:
TEL: +27-(0)31-2071144/8360
FAX: +27-31-2078403
You can also download and complete an application from the Fahamu website at: http://www.fahamu.org/courses.php

* Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) is committed to serving the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights. Fahamu has extensive experience in distance learning for human rights organisations.

* Article 19 (www.article19.org/) works worldwide to combat censorship by promoting freedom of expression and access to official information.

Leading environmental and development organisations have joined forces to demand action on climate change. The groups say that unless action is taken, the UN millennium development goals - which aim to half global poverty by 2015 - will be impossible to achieve, and that human development achievements could even be reversed. The alliance - which includes Oxfam, Christian Aid, ActionAid, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and 15 other organisations - launched a report 20 October in London outlining the steps it says must be taken.

The African Dreams essay competition was launched jointly by People's Health Movement Africa (PHM-Africa) and Italian NGO AIFO and carries a cash prize of 500 Euros each to the three best entries. Since lots of people have written to say that they have found out about the competition very late, it has been decided to extend the last date for entries to this competition to 15 January 2005 to allow wider participation. Full details about participating in the competition are available at http://www.aifo.it/english/resources/announcements.htm

bilaterals.org is a collective effort to share information and stimulate cooperation against bilateral trade and investment agreements that are opening countries to the deepest forms of penetration by transnational corporations. Visit their website to find out more information.

MISA-SA is seeking to employ an Information and Advocacy Officer. The incumbent has to manage the Freedom of Expression and Right to Information Programme.

A coalition of debt campaigners has welcomed a decision by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cancel half of Madagascar's debt, but has called for a total write-off of the money owed to the two financial institutions. "The problem is Madagascar is still too poor to service the rest of its debt. We have been calling for full debt cancellation of all the poor countries which fall under the HIPC [Heavily Indebted Poor countries] initiative," Ashok Sinha, coordinator of the UK-based Jubilee Debt Campaign told IRIN.

Editors and managers of top media organizations across Nigeria have committed themselves to supporting the national response to the HIV/AIDS challenge in the country. Face to face to with the reality of HIV/AIDS like never before, the gatekeepers of the media saw the epidemic at personal levels. As a group, the media managers committed their organization - the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) - to deploying their skills and influence to the anti-AIDS campaign.

Civil society "disappointed" with IMF's weak response to Global Campaign for Education report "Undervaluing Teachers: IMF policies squeeze Zambia's education system". The IMF's response asserts that they have placed no explicit limits placed on hiring of teachers or health workers. The Managing Director of the IMF, when asked by a journalist [Lucia Fry] on Saturday about the teacher shortage crisis in Zambia, admitted that he was not aware of the situation. But even a Zambian child could explain the problem. No teacher means no learning means no hope. Will they ever learn?

A new web site for the global Campaign to End Fistula, a tragic childbirth injury that affects at least 2 million women in developing countries, was launched today. Features include a three-minute web film, an interactive map highlighting Campaign progress, a photo gallery and testimonies of fistula patients and the doctors who care for them. The Campaign was launched by UNFPA in 2003 in response to emerging evidence of the devastating impact obstetric fistula has on women's lives.

The UK government is giving away millions of pounds from the UK aid budget to privatisation consultants engaged to 'advise' developing countries on handing over their public services to the private sector, according to a new report from anti-poverty charity War on Want. The report - Profiting from Poverty: Privatisation consultants, DFID and public services - reveals how consultancy firms such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu have all won vast sums in 'aid-funded business' to direct the privatisation of water, rail, electricity and postal services in developing countries. Since 1997, the Department for International Development (DFID) has also paid over £34 million from the aid budget to Thatcherite think-tank the Adam Smith Institute. STOP PRESS: In response to the campaign by War on Want and other organisations, the UK government has just announced a public consultation on its policy of requiring developing countries to privatise their public services in return for UK aid. The consultation into aid conditionality is being run by the Department for International Development (DFID), and members of the public are invited to send in their responses by 30 November 2004. War on Want is calling on its supporters, partners and allies to respond to the consultation with a simple message: that UK aid must no longer be made conditional upon privatisation, trade liberalisation or any other macroeconomic conditions. More details on DFID website: www.dfid.gov.uk/consultations/

Scarcely after about 700 delegates gathered in Kenya last month to discuss ways of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa, a court case in Burkina Faso provided a striking illustration of the gulf between activism and reality in the matter of FGM. On Sep. 21, Adama Barry was sentenced to a maximum jail term of three years for having mutilated sixteen girls on Aug. 15 (FGM is banned in Burkina Faso). Prior to the trial, she had received four other prison sentences of between four and six months for carrying out circumcisions.

An international workshop on the Campaign for 1 Million PCs for African Schools is to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa on 13 and 14 October 2004. The International Workshop was called to discuss a full end-to-end implementation plan for the Campaign, including how best to source PCs, build capacity, establish targeted refurbishment centers as education solution providers and dispose of end-of-life PCs in environmentally-responsible ways.

Unless the IFIs (World Bank and International Monetary Fund) reposition themselves to work more in concert with other international organisations - particularly the International Labour Organisation and other UN bodies - and drop their unswerving support for market liberalisation and labour market flexibility, current attempts to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals will fail, said the international trade union movement.

Desert locust control operations have been expanded in West Africa, but countries are still facing serious shortages of pesticides and aircraft, FAO said today. Donor funding has significantly increased since Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf called on donors two weeks ago to respond urgently to FAO's appeal. FAO has now $14.7 million in cash, with a further $40 million of pledged contributions. Around $12 million have been promised by donors but are awaiting confirmation. The UN agency is providing around $6 million from its own resources.

If you're aged between 15 and 34 - and feel that you have any thing to say about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls using a microphone or a camera - this is the perfect opportunity to show your potential. The global competition is for young people to submit audio or video public service announcements (PSAs) that convey the messages of MTV's award winning HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, Staying Alive (www.staying-alive.org). Deadline: 11 November, 2004. VIDEO entries go to: http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?article=33 AUDIO entries go to: http://aidsradio.oneworld.net/section/aidsradio/wad2004

The African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), in conjunction with other civil society organisations and concerned parties, is convening an indaba of experts in Lusaka, Zambia on 29 and 30 September, 2004, to deliberate on a campaign for the establishment of a Fair and Transparent Arbitration on African debt.

Organisation Development and Community Management Trust (ODCMT), a grassroots non-governmental organisation has launched a local campaign on cotton trade in Zambia.

The campaign aims at petitioning the Zambian leadership and corporate companies to increase the price of cotton paid to small-scale producers.

It urges for the protection of the health of producers in the use of toxic pesticides and further calls for promotion of socially ethical and environmentally sound practices in investment ventures for sustainable development.

The ODCMT is building on its experience in its participation in a global trade campaign running up to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting held in Cancun, Mexico.

Its campaign in Zambia resulted in the a massive mobilisation of over 750 000 people, in six months, who joined 4 million others around the globe to petition the world’s most powerful leaders to make trade work for the poor at the last WTO summit.

The Cotton Trade Campaign in Zambia will involve the mobilisation of one million people leading up to the Global Week of Action on trade falling next year between 10-16 April 2005. This global initiative is being spearheaded by the Trade Justice Movement worldwide to eliminate poverty.

The ODCMT’s Campaign and Advocacy programme is being supported by Hivos’ Southern Africa regional office based in Harare. Hivos is an international non-governmental organisation whose headquarters is based in the Netherlands.