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Liberia's Central Bank 'acted unilaterally and unlawfully'

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 20:43
It circulated three times the amount of banknotes it had been authorised to do, an investigation finds.
Categories: Africa

Mozambique files case against Credit Suisse

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 19:39
The Swiss bank has not commented on its role in what has become known as the "tuna bond" loan scandal.
Categories: Africa

South Africa 'resurrection' pastor challenged to raise Mandela

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 17:57
A rival preacher challenges a South African pastor who was mocked for staging a bogus resurrection.
Categories: Africa

Mount Kenya wildfire: Marijuana farmers blamed

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 15:32
A large fire blazing in Mount Kenya is blamed on farmers clearing an area to plant marijuana.
Categories: Africa

Senegal election: President Macky Sall wins second term

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 15:04
The president wins 58% of the vote in an election in which two leading candidates were excluded.
Categories: Africa

Francisca Ordega: Nigerian seals China switch

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 14:45
Nigeria international Francisca Ordega becomes the latest African to move to the Chinese Women's Super League after signing for Shanghai W.F.C.
Categories: Africa

Senegal coach Aliou Cisse opts for youth in latest squad

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 13:32
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse hands debut squad call-ups to four players ahead of the Nations Cup qualifier against Madagascar and the friendly with Mali.
Categories: Africa

Boniface Mwamelo: Former Zambia FA official will appeal Fifa ban

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 12:43
Former Zambia Football Association official Boniface Mwamelo confirms he intends to appeal his life ban imposed by Fifa on Wednesday.
Categories: Africa

Cairo station fire: Train driver 'left brakes off'

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 12:35
Prosecutors say the driver left the train to argue with a colleague, but he blames corroded brakes.
Categories: Africa

Slavery is Not a Thing of the Past, It Still Exists Today Affecting Millions

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 12:20

Hassan Hussein, a refugee from Syria, pleads with police to allow his family into a registration centre for migrants and refugees in Preševo, southern Serbia. Credit: Sam Tarling/Oxfam

By Shannon Scribner
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 2019 (IPS)

While natural hazards like hurricanes, exacerbated by climate change, are causing people to migrate, it’s conflict, violence and persecution that have forced more than 68.5 million people from their homes today, exposing them to higher risks and increased vulnerability, especially women and children.

Vulnerable people on the move face massive risks and uncertainty to find safety and opportunity for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, in many cases they are taken advantage of and their rights ignored, forced to work in terrible conditions for little, or in some cases, no money.

Elsewhere, 120,000 people crossed the Central Mediterranean in 2017 – the migrant route with most deaths recorded in the world, and nearly 2,900 migrants recorded killed or missing on that route in the same year.

Most of them traveled on smugglers’ boats departing from Libya, Tunisia or Egypt, risking their lives in search of safety and opportunity in Italy and beyond.

The reality of the harrowing journey in search of safety in Europe came into sharp focus when three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s [initially reported as Aylan Kurdi] image made headlines when he drowned in the Mediterranean after fleeing Syria with his family.

Recently, a little refugee boy from Mali also drowned in the Mediterranean. In preparation for the ill-fated trip, he had stitched a school report to his clothes to show European authorities what a good student he was.

In the Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, thousands of Central Americans are arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border, fleeing domestic and gang violence, state corruption and impunity, climate induced droughts, and economic hardship in their home countries.

We see women bearing the brunt of violence and poverty with high levels of sexual and gender-based violence, and alarming levels of femicide. It is not uncommon for a girl and her family to be targeted and even killed by gangs if she refuses to become a gang member’s sex slave.

And once at the border, children have died due to the difficult journey they are taking and as a result of medical care not being available on time.

In the US, there are countless examples of workers being exploited, many of whom are migrants. Oxfam published a report detailing how the poultry industry exploits vulnerable people who have few other options to take on the most dangerous and thankless jobs in the poultry plants.

Because of their precarious situations, most workers are afraid to speak out or do anything that might jeopardize their jobs. Oxfam reported that some workers were forced to wear adult diapers because they did not have adequate bathroom breaks.

As part of Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign, Oxfam has also worked with laborers in Southeast Asia and elsewhere for more rights and protections. In the seafood industry, workers find themselves in conditions akin to modern slavery.

Female migrant workers especially, who perform jobs like peeling the shrimps for cheap shrimp cocktail you can buy at your grocery store, are often subjected to illegal recruitment and have their travel documents and wages confiscated.

The UN and the international community do acknowledge the plight of modern slavery and the challenges migrant workers face around the world, but more needs to be done.

Unfortunately, instead of helping address and resolve the displacement crisis with thoughtful, humane policies, and a genuine sense of shared responsibility,too many leaders are using scare tactics and depicting migrants and refugees as violent criminals and terrorists, when they are in fact the ones fleeing violence and also have much to offer to their new communities.

These leaders around the globe are doing this with a blatant disregard for international humanitarian law, human rights and global norms that are meant to protect the most vulnerable amongst us.

This was demonstrated in the Trump Administration’s inhumane policies separating children from their families and in trying to deny women who are victims of domestic violence from seeking asylum in the United States.

There has been some progress to help migrants and refugees from the UN. In 2016, President Obama hosted a UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants. The Summit led to countries committing to a $4.5 billion increase in global humanitarian funding. Following the Summit at the UN General Assembly, 193 UN member states agreed to coordinate and cooperate to improve the global response to the migration crisis.

They agreed to do such things as ease pressures on countries that host most refugees, like Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. They committed to building refugees’ self-reliance through access to education and livelihoods, expanding access to resettlement and other complementary pathways, and fostering conditions for refugees to voluntarily return home.

They also agreed to start working on a Global Compact for Refugees and a Global Compact for Migration that was recently endorsed at the end of last year.

The compacts include such things as recognition of the need for meaningful participation by refugees and host communities in decision making and commitments to uphold the human rights of all migrants regardless of status.

On the downside, the compacts aren’t binding so there is no way to legally hold endorsers accountable. And, the United States retreated from its leadership role in protecting refugees and withdrew from the Global Compact on Migration.

Overall, the mass migration taking place globally presents opportunities but also huge risks for those who aren’t protected along the way or when they arrive.

Many think of slavery as a thing of the past, but it still exists today, affecting millions around the world, as people make desperate decisions for a better life.

We need more protections and more implementation of the systems we have in place to achieve a more safe and just world for everyone.

The post Slavery is Not a Thing of the Past, It Still Exists Today Affecting Millions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Shannon Scribner is Associate Director of Humanitarian Programs and Policy at Oxfam America

The post Slavery is Not a Thing of the Past, It Still Exists Today Affecting Millions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

UK row over 'white saviour complex'

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 12:15
The journalist asks if David Lammy's issue with her Comic Relief posts is "because she is white".
Categories: Africa

Mauritius Scores Win over Britain in Diego Garcia Decolonisation

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 11:44

Diego Garcia island, which hosts a United States military base in the Indian Ocean. (Photo: NASA)

By Arul Louis
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 2019 (IPS)

Mauritius has scored a victory over Britain at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case involving the decolonisation of the strategically important island of Diego Garcia that is home to a United States military base.

The ICJ said on Monday that Britain must give up to Mauritius control of the Chagos Archipelago where the Indian Ocean military base is located on the Diego Garcia island.

The opinion issued in The Hague by the court’s majority that included Judge Dalveer Bhandari of India said that the decolonisation of Mauritius “was not lawfully completed” when it attained independence because Britain carved away the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius and retained control of it.

The opinion handed down by the majority of 13 judges said Britain “is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”

The sole dissenter was American Judge Joan E. Donoghue. Britain is not represented on the bench after it withdrew the nomination of Judge Christopher Greenwood for re-election in 2017 when he could not get a majority of the votes in the General Assembly against Bhandari.

The court gave the opinion, which is non-binding, at the request the United Nations General Assembly made in a 2017 resolution.

Vehemently opposed by the US and Britain, the resolution received the vote of 94 countries while 15 voted against it and 65 abstained.

Britain has opposed the referral to the court saying it was a bilateral matter with Mauritius and indicated it would reject it.

There is unlikely to be any challenges to the US Diego Garcia base from Mauritius, either.

“We are not asking for the dismantling of the base”, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth Mauritian said after the ICJ opinion, according the Mauritian newspaper L’Express.

It reported that he did not want to reveal the next step that his country was going to take but said he wanted Britain “to recognise the unity of Mauritius”.

Britain cut off the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 before granting it independence in 1968.

The people living on Diego Garcia were forcibly removed from there by the colonial administration and it was leased to the US, which set up its strategic Indian Ocean military base on the island.

About 50 countries gave the court written statements, some against Britain and other in support of it.

Vishnu Dutt Sharma, the Legal Adviser of the External Affairs Ministry submitted India’s statement that said that the process of decolonisation was not completed because Britain had not complied with UN resolutions for it.

In the 1970s and 1980s India had vehemently opposed the US base in Diego Garcia.

Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called the base 2,000 kilometres from India as a threat to India.

Since then the strategic environment and India’s interests have changed due the rise of China and the threats to navigation from piracy. India is now developing close defence ties with the US and toned down its rhetoric.

When the resolution to refer matter to the court was taken up at the UN in 2017, India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said that while supporting the position of Mauritius as “a matter of principle” to uphold the process of decolonisation and the respect for sovereignty of nations, “India shares with the international community, security concerns relating to the Indian Ocean”.

The post Mauritius Scores Win over Britain in Diego Garcia Decolonisation appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

“A Year of Shame” for Middle East and North Africa

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 11:36

In a new report, Amnesty International reviewed the state of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and found a bleak landscape of repression. UN Photo/Iason Foounten

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 28 2019 (IPS)

Human rights violations are at an all-time high in the Middle East and North Africa, and global indifference is only making it worse.

In a new report, Amnesty International reviewed the state of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and found a bleak landscape of repression.

“Across MENA throughout 2018, thousands of dissidents and peaceful critics have been victims of shameless government violations on a shocking scale, amid deafening silence from the international community,” said Amnesty International’s Regional Director for MENA Heba Morayef.

“The international community’s chilling complacency…has emboldened governments to commit appalling violations during 2018 by giving them the sense that they need never fear facing justice,” Amnesty International added.

Since crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman took power, Saudi Arabia has seen mass detention of government critics and human rights defenders (HRDs).

By the end of 2018, all Saudi Arabian HRDs were in detention or serving prison terms, or had been forced to flee the country, Amnesty International found.

In February, Issa al-Nukheifi and Essam Koshak were sentenced to six and four years in prison respectively for their twitter posts criticising authorities and calling for human rights reforms.

The government also launched a wave of arrests targeting many prominent women’s human rights defenders including Loujain al-Hathloul and Aziza al-Yousef who campaigned against the ban on women driving and the male guardianship system.

Others even faced death for their work including Jamal Khashoggi whose brutal death prompted a global outcry.

Human rights violations committed by Saudi Arabia also extends past their borders to Yemen where the coalition forces indiscriminately target civilian areas, committing serious violations of international human rights law.

In one case, the Saudi Arabia coalition attacked a bus in Sa’da governorate, killing 29 children and injuring 30 others.

Despite the many violations in international law and human rights, the United States, United Kingdom, and France continue to export weapons, enabling the Middle Eastern nation to commit even more violations.

While some countries such as Denmark and Finland suspended their arms sales, the action was only prompted by the killing of Khashoggi which still has not resulted in justice.

“Time and again, allies of governments in the region have put lucrative business deals, security co-operation or billions of dollars’ wroth of arms sales before human rights, fueling abuses and creating a climate where MENA governments feel ‘untouchable’ and above the law,” said Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for MENA Philip Luther.

“It’s time the world followed in the footsteps of states such as Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway which have announced suspensions…sending a clear message that flouting human rights has clear consequences,” he added.

Similarly, France and the U.S. continue to supply Egypt with weapons which have been used in the country’s widespread repression and crackdown on human rights.

According to Amnesty International, Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily arrested at least 113 people for peacefully expressing critical opinions, making it the most dangerous time and place in the country’s recent history.

Among those arrested were many senior political figures including the military’s former chief of staff Sami Anan who was arrested after he announced his candidacy in the presidential elections.

After speaking out against sexual harassment on social media, HRD Amal Fathy was sentenced to two years in prison and faces further charges including “membership of a terrorist group.”

Some have also been subject to enforced disappearances.

Human rights lawyers Ezzat Ghoniem and Azzoz Mahgoub were detained in March for their role in supporting families of forcibly disappeared individuals.

Though they were released six months later, they were forcibly disappeared and did not resurface until February when Ghoniem was brought to court wearing the same clothes he had on in trial in September. He told the court that he was kept in a hidden place and prevented from contacting his lawyers and family.

Amnesty International highlighted the need for international accountability and an end to human rights violations.

“For too long, the lack of international pressure to ensure that warring parties committing war crimes and other violations of international law are held to account has allowed perpetrators of atrocities across MENA to escape unpunished,” Luther said.

“Accountability is essential—not only to secure justice for victims of these crimes, but to help prevent an endless cycle of violations and yet more victims,” he added.

There have been some limited positive developments including the a lift on the ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia but more needs to be done, said Morayef.

“These improvements are a tribute to courageous human rights defenders across MENA and serve as a reminder to those who regularly risk their freedom to stand up against tyranny and speak truth to power that they are planting true seeds of change for the years to come,” she continued.

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The post “A Year of Shame” for Middle East and North Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Senegal: The life of a 17-year-old in Dakar

BBC Africa - Thu, 02/28/2019 - 08:50
We spend a day with Abdoulaye as he shows us what it's like being 17 in Dakar.
Categories: Africa

Ethiopia PM Abiy Ahmed to host a fundraising dinner

BBC Africa - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 23:50
The event is part of an effort to raise $1bn for infrastructure projects in the capital Addis Ababa.
Categories: Africa

Bangladesh Needs Intensive Surveys to Gauge Potential of Its ‘Blue Economy’

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 20:53

This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

By Muhammad Syfullah
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 27 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(UNB/IPS) – Bangladesh needs intensive surveys in the Bay of Bengal, complemented by proper interpretation of the findings and appropriate research to gauge the potential of its ‘blue economy’ as the country largely depends on the stocks of living and non-living marine resources falling within its Exclusive Economic Zone, experts said.

In case of marine fisheries, they stressed the need for effective management to ensure the sustainability of marine fisheries resources by avoiding overfishing and fishing during breeding period, otherwise fish stock might severely decline here like the Gulf of Thailand.

The newly formed Awami League government also pledged in its 2018 election manifesto that oil and gas exploration will be intensified as part of its plans for ensuring optimum utilisation of the blue economy or marine resources.

In 2016, Bangladesh procured a research vessel, equipped with the latest technology for fisheries and other oceanographic research, from Malaysia to assess the country’s marine living resources, having obtained a vast tract of the northern Indian Ocean following the disposal of longstanding disputes with two neighboring countries.

The 37.8-meter-long multipurpose research vessel started its assessment in the Bay in November, 2016.

Though the survey vessel has so far completed 16 cruises, it will take more time to gain a complete picture of fisheries resources in Bangladeshi waters in the Bay of Bengal.

Prof Sayedur Rahman Chowdhury of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at Chittagong University said the fisheries resources in the Bay of Bengal have long been showing several indications of decline for lack of effective fisheries management in the past decades, particularly resulting in overfishing.

He said different data indicate that many large fish species like Lakkha (Indian Salmon) and Coral fish, which were available in past years, are hardly found in the country’s waters now.

“If this trend continues, the marine areas are likely to be turned into an almost barren zone for fish within 10 years or so. So, immediate measures are required for effective fisheries management,” he said adding that the Gulf of Thailand had lost all its fish in the space of just 40 years.

Prof Chowdhury said Bangladesh may focus on producing highly skilled maritime human resources, including marine engineers, navigators and in other highly technical trades, targeting the international employment market to boost remittances.

Besides, a lot of foreign currency goes outside the country against container transports as more than 90 percent carriers used in this sector are owned by foreign companies.

Prof Chowdhury said the sheer size of the fishing fleet consisting of more than 50,000 boats and some 270 industrial trawlers, is possibly contributing to the long-term overfishing in Bangladeshi waters.

He said Bangladesh should concentrate more on tapping marine fish as there is a better potential of sustained supply of fish, if managed properly, than that of other mineral resources—petroleum and non-petroleum ones—in the Bay of Bengal, which will eventually dry up no matter how carefully we extract those resources.

Dr Kawser Ahmed, a professor at the Oceanography Department of Dhaka University, said Bangladesh is yet to fix the level of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of marine fisheries resources.

“We need proper coastal and ocean governance for the sustainability of marine resources,” he said adding that overfishing is dangerous for the sustainability of marine fisheries as the fish productivity is comparatively low in the northern Bay of Bengal. The coast is also being used indiscriminately, he added.

Mentioning that there are now 16-18 ministries related to the blue economy, he said Bangladesh needs to form a separate ocean or marine resources ministry and bring all wings and cells of the ministries under it for unlocking the potential of the blue economy.

Prof Kawser emphasised procurement of an oil-gas survey vessel to explore hydrocarbon deposits in the Bay of Bengal saying that it will be cost effective alongside helping create skilled manpower by facilitating students to conduct research in this area.

Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Md Raisul Alam Mondal said they have taken various initiatives to enhance harvesting fisheries in a sustainable way for implementing the government’s plan.

The initiatives include installation of effective communication tools to communicate with sea fishing vessels, ensuring fishing monitoring system and purchasing longline fishing boats and purse seine fishing boats for enhancing the harvesting capacity of the private sector.

Purse-seine fishing in open water is generally considered to be an efficient form of fishing. It has no contact with the seabed and can have low levels of bycatch (accidental catch of unwanted species).

The secretary said the contribution of marine fish in the country’s total fish production is now around 9-10 percent, which needs to be increased.

The survey vessel, purchased from Malaysia, in its 16 cruises so far detected 300-350 fish species in the Bay of Bengal. But more time is needed to get a complete picture of the stock of marine fisheries resources there, he said.

Secretary Mondal said it is important to know the breeding period of each fish species for the sake of sustainable fishing in the sea. Now the government keeps fishing banned for 65 specific days every year in Bangladesh’s exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh won a total of 131,098 square kilometers of sea areas –111,631sq km against Myanmar in 2012 and 19,467sq km against India in 2014 — following the disposal of longstanding disputes with the two neighbouring countries — India and Myanmar — by two international courts.

The post Bangladesh Needs Intensive Surveys to Gauge Potential of Its ‘Blue Economy’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

The post Bangladesh Needs Intensive Surveys to Gauge Potential of Its ‘Blue Economy’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

First women's team for Mauritania after Nations Cup success

BBC Africa - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 20:36
Mauritania pledges to develop women's football after seeing its men's team qualify for the Nations Cup for the first time.
Categories: Africa

What we've learnt from the Nigerian election

BBC Africa - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 20:32
Five lessons from a controversial election.
Categories: Africa

Ivory Coast's Cheick Doukoure a doubt for Nations Cup

BBC Africa - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 20:08
Ivory Coast and Levante midfielder Cheick Doukoure is a major doubt for June's Africa Cup of Nations after suffering a knee ligament injury on Sunday.
Categories: Africa

Muslim women between stereotypes and reality: an objective narrative

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 02/27/2019 - 15:03

By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Feb 27 2019 (IPS-Partners)

On the occasion of the launch of two new publications on topics related to women’s rights and gender equality, and in order to mark International Women’s Day, the Geneva Centre will organize a panel discussion and book presentation. The discussion will expand on the themes of the two publication, namely the status of women’s rights and gender equality in the Arab region, but also more generally, across the world, and the history and the true symbolism of the headscarf in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the stereotypes and controversy surrounding this topic, and the recent developments in Western societies with regard to the headscarf.

Moderator and Opening remarks
Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.

Speakers

    • HE Ms Nassima Baghli, Ambassador, Permanent Observer of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva;
    • Dr. Elisa Banfi, Research Assistant at the Institute of Citizenship Studies (ICite) at the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva;
    • Dr. Amir Dziri, Director of the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

For further information on the event, please see the attached concept note.

Register by email: info@gchragd.org

The post Muslim women between stereotypes and reality: an objective narrative appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Debate and Book Presentation

The post Muslim women between stereotypes and reality: an objective narrative appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

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