The website is dedicated to the declaration launched on 1 November 2010 by South African Artists Against Apartheid. You can follow the campaigns and events initiated by South African Artists Against Apartheid on this website, as well as recent news relating to international cultural boycott activities.

A new collection of stories, research and good practice is showing how African climate and poverty activists are leading the global fight for climate justice - finding creative, inspired ways of using life-saving knowledge networks to share climate change and poverty research. But their voices are often ignored by African governments when it comes to policy, and funding for African-led research and knowledge sharing is not seen as a priority. 'New voices, different perspectives' is a pioneering pan-African ‘encyclopaedia’ of the brightest and best ideas in climate change adaptation. It’s the result of a collaboration between over 200 of the continent’s leading development researchers, community activists, NGOs, climate scientists and international donors at the AfricaAdapt Climate Change Symposium held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 'New voices, different perspectives' offers a stark message to African politicians in the run up to the UN climate negotiations to be held in Durban, South Africa, this December: African governments can only lead the global fight for climate justice if they start to seriously value indigenous knowledge, community-led responses and African-led research. Apart from the publication, a video animation can be watched at:

The Kenyan government is taking steps to incorporate screening for cervical cancer - one of the biggest killers of women of child-bearing age - into HIV care, but health workers say low awareness means the uptake of this vital service is low. Studies show that HIV infection increases women's risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, a leading cause of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening is included as part of routine care for HIV-positive women under the country's national guidelines for HIV care. However, screening levels remain low; according to the UN World Health Organisation, just 3.2 per cent of Kenyan women aged 18-69 are screened for cervical cancer every three years, compared with 70 per cent of women in the developed world.

In its on-going efforts to provide support and assistance to the long-suffering people of Palestine, the South African Relief Agency (S.A.R.A) in conjunction with communities and other organisations has embarked on another humanitarian relief mission to Gaza. The mission is scheduled to depart from Durban and will travel overland through Africa to Gaza. The primary objective of the mission is to answer the call of the Palestinian people to conscientise the African continent and to break the immoral and illegal siege of Gaza and show solidarity with the beleaguered people in Occupied Palestine.

More details are available from the website.

Following years of discussion, representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are now testing joint disaster responses in light of increased flooding and more severe droughts in West Africa over the past decade, according to the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD). 'Major efforts' are under way for 'south-south cooperation between member states', according to Andrea Diop, disaster focal point at ECOWAS, including setting up an Emergency Flood Fund for disaster response which individual countries can tap into; a natural disaster reduction task force; and an Emergency Response team.

Kenya has launched an Open Data portal, the first African country to make government data accessible to the ordinary citizen on an Internet-based platform. The portal will allow users to compare information at national, province and county levels. Users will also create maps and other visualisations and directly download data on their computer or mobile phone.

AIDS drugs designed to treat HIV can also be used to reduce dramatically the risk of infection among heterosexual couples, two studies conducted in Africa have shown for the first time. The findings add to growing evidence that the type of medicines prescribed since the mid-1990s to treat people who are already sick may also hold the key to slowing or even halting the spread of the disease. The research involving couples in Kenya, Uganda and Botswana found that daily Aids drugs reduced infection rates by an average of at least 62 per cent when compared with a placebo.

On 9 July 2011 the world witnessed the birth of a nation - South Sudan, Africa’s 54th country. In an interview with UN Women, South Sudan’s Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Agnes Lasuba weighs in on the country’s independence and what it means for women. 'The women of South Sudan played various roles to achieve independence. During war they picked up arms. Others were mobilisers and others were taking care of the wounded, the sick and the elderly. And others were yearning for peace and they took it upon themselves to lobby other people and other countries, so that there could be peace for them and for their children,' says Lasuba in the interview.

As parts of the Horn of Africa experience their driest periods in 60 years, pushing the numbers needing aid to beyond 10 million, some have been quick to blame climate change. But no single event can be attributed to climate change, which involves long-term (decades or longer) trends in climate variability. There is, however, consensus in attributing the drought to the particularly strong La Niña event. The impact of climate change on the intensity and frequency of La Niña and El Niño in future is a big unknown. Philip Thornton, a senior scientist who works part-time with the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the University of Edinburgh-based Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, told IRIN via email that projections of the climate-change impact in East Africa were 'a problem' as the authoritative Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report 'indicated that there was good consensus among the climate models that rainfall was likely to increase during the current century'.

'The NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security is alarmed at the latest reports by its member organisations and the United Nations of mass rape and other crimes against civilians perpetrated in the Fizi area of South Kivu by troops of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The NGO Working Group urges the Government of the DRC, the United Nations and Member States to heed the voices of Congolese women, who have repeatedly stressed that such attacks stem from the persistent failure of the DRC authorities to advance equality for women and ensure justice for survivors.'

AfriMAP invites submissions of papers on the impact of the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya on governance in sub-Saharan Africa. Our objective is to encourage and promote new thinking and debate on issues that AfriMAP is exploring through its research. We are particularly keen to encourage submissions based on primary sources, personal research and innovative thinking.

THE REVOLUTIONS FROM TUNIS TO OUAGADOUGOU: OR IS IT THE RESPONSE OF AFRICAN MASSES TO 'THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE'? (TINA)
Guy Marious Sagna

According to Jan Tibergen, '908 years is enough' to see the 'remedies' of the World Bank aimed at curing our countries of their social evils under structural adjustment. '908 years' is the response in 2011 of African masses from Tunis to Ouagadougou via Cairo – 'it is more than we can wait for. It is too much!'

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FACED WITH THE CHALLENGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC JOKE: INVENTING THE DEMOCRACY OF TOMORROW
Samir Amin

In the wake of what he terms a 'democratic joke', Samir Amin raises a crucial question: ' Give up on elections?' The answer is no, but this begs for a new interrogation: 'How to associate new, rich and inventive forms of democratisation, which enable the making of an election a practice other than that conceived by conservative forces?' Such is the challenge, according to Amin.

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FORMER MOROCCAN POLITICAL PRISONERS CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE
Naridah Khalid

Former Moroccan political prisoners are taking the European Union to task, which recently granted their country an 'advanced status' without actually respecting the criteria on human rights necessary for this status. In this letter the former political prisoners explain how they continue their struggle for their social rehabilitation after years of detention and torture.

Organisations are invited to sign an open letter calling on the United Nations and Member States to advance the human right to water and sanitation, including by taking a stand against the abuses of transnational corporations and safeguarding themselves from corporate influence.

The rights of access to information, public participation, and access to justice are essential to sustainable development. The 1992 Rio Declaration provided for these rights in Principle 10 and Agenda 21 moved them into reality in many countries. Now renewed commitment is needed for the full implementation of the rights in all countries. The Rio 2012 Summit provides an opportunity for governments to transform Principle 10 from aspirational goals into actionable rights. Governments and civil society should use the opportunity to commit together in adopting, implementing, and exercising these rights in support of sustainable development.

While in New York to celebrate the launch of UN Women's flagship biennium publication, 'Progress of the World's Women: In Pursuit of Justice', Botswana's Unity Dow sat down with IPS to discuss the United Nations' newest entity, its landmark report, and the road ahead for women. Dow is a lawyer, human rights activist, and formerly Botswana's first female judge. She has studied both within Africa and abroad, and has authoured five books. She is serving her second term as commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists, and is chairperson of their Executive Committee.

Cameroon has opened its first landfill gas recovery plant, which aims to reduce methane emissions from waste and earn the country emissions reduction credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism. The plant will trap methane generated by decaying household waste at the Nkolfoulou waste disposal site, on the outskirts of the capital, Yaounde. The gas will be stored in wells and burned off, releasing carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes substantially less to climate change per volume released than methane.

A new report from the Global Campaign for Education shows that millions of girls are being forced out of school because of poverty, child labour, early child marriage, the threat of sexual violence, inadequate and poor-quality schools. The report examines 80 poor countries in terms of the gains they have made in girls’ education. The report shows that the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria and Pakistan are among those countries failing to respect the rights of girls to an education.

In May, Decree No. 2011-41 was promulgated in Tunisia relating to administrative documents held or produced by public authorities. In its comment on the Decree, Article 19 notes that the exceptions to the right to information outlined in the Decree should be amended in order to comply with international standards. 'According to international law in this area, information should never be withheld unless it affects a legitimate interest protected by law, release of the information would cause actual harm to that interest and this harm would be greater than the harm caused to the public interest by non-disclosure. The provisions of the Decree on exceptions (Articles 16 to 18) should be replaced by a
single provision clearly laying down this three-part test.'

The Somalia Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) estimates that 2.85 million people - a third of the population - are now in humanitarian crisis and in need of urgent assistance, an increase of 42.5 per cent over the figure in December 2010. 'We are no longer on the verge of a humanitarian disaster; we are in the middle of it now,' Isaq Ahmed, the chairman of the Mubarak Relief and Development Organisation, a local NGO working in the south of the country, told IRIN on June 28. 'It is happening and no one is helping.'

In two new reports 'What has Tax got to do with Development: A critical look at Mozambique's Tax System' and 'What has Tax got to do with Development: A Critical look at Zimbabwe’s Tax System', AFRODAD analyses the role played by taxation in the development of the two countries. The link between development and taxation has come up in various fora as development practitioners and activists discussed methods of mobilisation of domestic resources for financing development in the South. The reports reveal that mobilising domestic resources as a means to financing development has become an important development issue, a shift from the past emphasis on financing development from aid and external borrowing.