Stiff-necked apartheid high priests had their problems but none of them contemplated the type of weird political culture the ANC and President Zuma are foisting on post-apartheid South Africa!

The conduct of embattled president of Nigeria’s senate, Bukola Saraki, is forcing some of his fans to question his innocence in the corruption case instituted against him.  

In recent years, over two dozen articles have appeared in African American and African media detailing deep-rooted institutional racism against Black workers at the World Bank. Conspicuously, the Western media has kept the issue out of its radar screen. But branding Africa as "a hopeless continent" comes naturally to the Western media pontiffs.

Today’s Angola proves the African proverb that all manner of knives are brought out the day an elephant is killed. Pity is that the party that should have all Angolans in attendance is for a select few. On the high table, surrounded by members of his family and a few cronies made up of generals and sundry leeches, is His Excellency President Eduardo dos Santos and his eldest daughter, Isabel.

Where rights are at stake, immediate action is required. Those who continue to uphold the existing, highly skewed international economic and financial order delay the realization of human rights by many decades, thereby becoming responsible for hundreds of millions of poverty-related deaths in the meantime.

In 22 years there has been no real transformation of the bedrock structures of colonialism. Under-developed rural areas administered by colonially transformed traditional leaders, aommodation of migrants in degrading urban hostels, rampant human rights violations, are some of the manifestations of this failure. South Africans must do more to realize the dream of democracy.

Lagos, 17th March 2016 - The rejection of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill (GEOP) by members of Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday the 15th of March 2016, did not come as a surprise, given the consistent indications of trivializing gender related issues observed in the present political dispensation in Nigeria which also has the lowest representation of women in key elective and appointive decision making positions since 2007. The Nigerian parliament as presently constituted has roughly 4% of female members of parliament. The overwhelming rejection of the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill by a male dominated legislature is a clear indication of why more women are needed in decision making positions in order to safeguard the erosion of their rights and welfare.

As Kenya prepares for its next general elections in 2017, the parallels to previous violent elections are staggering. The electoral commission and the courts have lost credibility in the eyes of the public. Already the country is polarized along ethnic lines. The ruling party insists it will win a second term. The opposition says there are rigging plans afoot and that it will not aept a fraudulent outcome or go to court to seek redress. The signs are ominous.

Women’s exclusion from public spaces, and particularly the political realm, is systematic. It is structural in nature and is intensified by attitudes, cultures, norms and practices that seek to explain rather than address their exclusion from positions of power.

With opposition candidates roughed up, arrested and held in house detention for fear they might ‘disrupt’ the electoral process, the man who once preached that staying too long in power would lead to corruption has been “re-elected” for an incredible fifht term to stretch his 30-year reign - and now himself lives under a cloud of corruption and abuse of power. What can Ugandans do?

The New York City Bar’s Committee on African Affairs and the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice cordially invite you to a presentation by REED BRODY, Esq., Counsel and Spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, who specializes in pursuing abusive leaders for atrocities and human rights violations.

Monday, April 11, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.

Fordham Law School, Classroom 3-02
140 West 62nd St., New York, NY (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)

Dubbed the "Dictator Hunter" in one of the four documentaries about him, Reed has worked since 1999 as counsel for the victims in the case of the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, who was finally tried in Senegal after a 25-year campaign to bring him to justice. The historic trial is the first time a deposed ruler has been tried by a court of a country other than his own for human rights violations. It also marks the first time that a trial in Africa has relied on the international law principle of universal jurisdiction a trial in Africa has relied on the international law principle of universal
jurisdiction which allows a court to hear a case concerning serious crimes committed by foreign actors against foreign victims.

Reed has also worked with the victims of Augusto Pinochet and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. He is the author of four Human Rights Watch reports on U.S. treatment of prisoners in the “war on terror”.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the NY City Bar’s Committee on African Affairs (co-Chairs, Elizabeth Barad and Jason Spears) and the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School (Executive Director, Elisabeth Wickeri) and co-sponsored by the NY City Bar’s Committees on International Human Rights (Chair, Anil Kalhan), and International Law (Chair. Caline Mouawad), Council on International Affairs (Chair, Martin Flaherty) and the Cyrus R.Vance Center
for International Justice (Alexander Papachristou, Exercutive Director).

Please R.S.V.P. to [email][email protected][/email]

One year after their arrest on March 15, 2015, three food, land, and human rights defenders continue to languish in an Ethiopian jail. After several court hearings, the prosecution has yet to present any evidence to support the spurious charge of “terrorism” under Ethiopia’s controversial counter-terrorism law. A March 1 hearing was once again adjourned and rescheduled for March 15, due to the failure of witnesses to appear in court.

By all aounts, Uganda’s elections last month were far from free and fair. Many people find it difficult to aept that the declaration of Museveni as winner reflected the will of the people. Irregularities were massive. Repression of the opposition was shocking – to the extent that leading Museveni opponent Kizza Besigye was placed under house arrest to prevent him from lodging a petition at the Supreme Court. It is not clear how the post-election period will unfold.

The US-NATO intervention was allegedly undertaken on humanitarian grounds, after reports of mass atrocities. But Hilary’s emails reveal that the chief concern was not about the security of the people. It was about the security of global banking, money and oil.

The drama surrounding Nigerian kid, Ese Oruru, is the result of failed parenting. The girl is not the last of her kind around even though many would wish her case was a bad dream that will soon go away. A bad dream, yes, but this one is not about to go away in a hurry.

Nkrumah wanted to industrialize Ghana within a generation, and everything was on course until the Americans and their British cousins used some disgruntled and self-serving Ghanaian soldiers to stage that terrible coup on 24 February 1966. It was a major setback, not only for Ghana but the whole of Africa!

Over the past few years, Russian authorities have been prioritizing media cooperation and the use of soft power to address the falling image of Russia among the political and business elites in Africa.

How the National Constitution treats minorities is a good test of a nation’s maturity. How government applies their rules is a good test of the state’s maturity.

Popular Kenyan politician Josiah Mwangi Kariuki is widely believed to have been assassinated by agents of the regime of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta, whose son, Uhuru, is now head of state. JM was a sharp critic of Kenyatta’s corrupt ethnic state. The truth about his murder – like several other political assassinations in Kenya – has never been fully known.

Kenya is now the third most corrupt country in the world, aording to a survey on prevalence of economic crimes released in Nairobi last week by audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Kenya only fared better than South Africa and France. The Jubilee government's numerous pledges to deal decisively with graft remain just that - pledges. Public despair is growing.