The World Organisation Against Torture has asked concerned people to write to the authorities in Kenya urging them to act on an urgent basis and prevent any further attempts to take over the lands of the Chepkitale (Ogiek) people in Eastern Kenya. This follows recent attacks on the Ogiek. The Kenyan government, including local authorities, bear an obligation to prevent human rights violations and to intervene to protect against violence, said the organisation in a press release.

Analyses of the determinants of child labour have largely neglected the role of access to basic services. The availability of these services can affect the value of children’s time and, concomitantly, household decisions concerning how this time is allocated between school and work. Therefore, this paper investigates the link between child labour and water and electricity access in five countries, namely El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Morocco and Yemen.

Campaigners in Africa say governments, donor agencies and pharmaceutical firms must take action now to prevent a shortfall in malaria treatments. They fear targets for eradicating the disease set by governments and health agencies at a summit in Nigeria four years ago may not be met. The mosquito-born disease kills an estimated one million children a year.

The Movement for Delivery, an organisation dissatisfied with the pace of government delivery, was launched in 2000 in Limpopo Province to campaign for people’s constitutional rights to basic services like water, health, jobs, education, housing and electricity to be met by the South Africa government.

An in-depth study of privatised water services in Namibia says that while prepaid water systems are being marketed as the solution to bad debts and water conservation, they are in fact worsening the plight of the country's most vulnerable. Titled 'Water Privatisation in Namibia: Creating a New Apartheid?', the report released by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI), contends that the system is exposing thousands of the country's poor to preventable diseases and death.

Namibian farmers have reacted strongly to the government's suggestion that it might target farms with a record of poor labour relations for expropriation. In a statement sent to the Windhoek-based The Namibian daily newspaper on Monday, the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, while spelling out the criteria for expropriation, said that "aspects of eviction and dumping of labourers, though not a criterion to expropriate a farm", could be considered "because of the social aspect such action poses to the Namibian people".

A number of employees in Kenya’s export processing zones claim they have been threatened with dismissal should they continue associating with human rights groups that are championing better conditions for workers. However, certain companies in the zones also appear to have taken heed of the groups’ concerns. The employees who are alleging threats of dismissal work in textile firms. Their employers have reportedly complained of several contracts being cancelled by foreign buyers who were concerned about poor conditions in the export processing zones (EPZs).

At first glance Lupane seems no different from other rural districts in Zimbabwe. Its tranquillity, coupled with a canopy of luxuriant forest, gives no indication of the recurring droughts that plague the area. Situated 170 kilometres south-west of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, this is a place where appearance masks, rather than reflects, reality. Ironically, it is the district’s lesser revealed life and issues the media and politicians are now interested in. So too are observers and human rights officials, who have zoomed in on the district as the upcoming parliamentary by-election - scheduled for May 15-16 - draws near. The government of President Robert Mugabe is determined to win this one seat, after it lost all eight in the province to the opposition in the 2000 parliamentary elections.

A week of action is planned to target the 60th anniversary spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF - April 16-25 have been declared international days of action. Campaigners will highlight the impact of their policies, programmes and projects and continue to press for global justice.

Mention disputes over party funding, and the image that might first come to mind is that of Republicans and Democrats in the United States, trading allegations about reliance on special interest groups. However, the matter has also sparked controversy in South Africa recently, as parties prepared for the third democratic election. In fact, eyebrows were raised last month when former apartheid-era foes Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk teamed up with hats in hand to seek campaign funds for their respective parties. South Africa's government began funding political parties in 1998 by way of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). But state resources have proved inadequate, prompting the parties to solicit additional money from corporate and private sources.

A report funded by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has recommended the extension of universal education to O'Level to minimise the rate of school dropout and child labour. The research was conducted by the Makerere University Social Sciences Department and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

At the end of this month, on April 24-25, the IMF and World Bank will meet in Washington for their spring meetings. This event, together with other stories in the news, provides an excellent “hook” to get letters to the editor and/or op-eds published in your local newspaper or online publication about debt! Writing a letter to the editor is easy, and letters are an effective tool to reach people in your community as well as decision-makers with our message. Read on for tips on how to write a letter, sample letters and talking points on various topics, and other helpful information.

The aim of the 'Campaign for a Democratic Angola' - joining the hands of civil society and opposition - is to form a common front to push the government to improve democracy in Angola and to call on its leaders to announce a date for national elections. The organisers will launch the campaign in four of the country's 18 provinces in its first month (March) alone - Luanda, Cabinda, Huambo and Lunda-Sul. The campaign will be launched in up to a further four provinces between April and June 2004 and the ultimate aim is to make it nationwide. Organisers will hold a conference in April during which they plan to draw up a concrete agenda for the campaign's future activities. The hope is that pressure from the campaign will force the government to implement significant changes in Angola but organisers are also warning the country's leaders that they will be the ones left behind if they do not start to move quickly.

This 150th issue of Pambazuka News is dedicated to the international mobilisation on Remembering Rwanda. This marks the 10th anniversary of a human catastrophe of gigantic proportions that led to the massacre of nearly a million people in Rwanda in the space of a few months. It was an event that was made all the more shameful for the criminal negligence of the international community, in Africa and beyond, to intervene - despite their full knowledge of what was happening. 1994 marked a tragedy that unfolded in Rwanda whose repercussions continue to be felt throughout the Great Lakes Region.

The focus on Rwanda is important not only as an act of solidarity with the survivors of the genocide. It should also be a reminder of the unfolding tragedy in the Great Lakes, particularly in the DRC, when many millions more have been and are being massacred.

Rwanda has been, as Mahmood Mamdani says in 'When Victims Become Killers', the “epicentre of the wider crisis in the African Great Lakes. Tied together by the thread of a common colonial legacy - one that politicized indigeneity as a basis for rights - the region has little choice but to address the Rwandan dilemma, if only to address its own dilemma. ... [This] will require a regional approach through a regional agenda that approaches the centre as firefighters would approach the heart of a raging fire, from outside in.”

With the recent establishment of the Pan African Parliament there exists the potential mechanism for fighting the raging fires that consume both DRC and Burundi. But will there be a sufficient political will to engage?

This issue of Pambazuka News takes a different format from usual. We have a series of editorials from a number of international experts and activists, and provide resource materials for those wishing to learn more about Rwanda and what is being done for the anniversary of the genocide being commemorated this month.

Namibia is one of the first countries in the world to form a national coalition on the UN Literacy Decade. During a conference earlier this month, some 100 people representing various stakeholders in literacy came together to celebrate the launch of the Literacy Decade in the country. Representatives from Botswana and Cuba also attended the conference to share their experiences. The conference was organized by UNESCO Windhoek in collaboration with the Namibian Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture.

As the date of South Africa's general election grows closer, the gloves are coming off in campaigning amongst political parties - even though the outcome of the poll is expected to hold few surprises. On April 14, the country will vote to elect a new president and parliament. This will be the third democratic election held in South Africa - and one that has gained special significance from the fact that it coincides with the demise of apartheid a decade ago.

Nigeria’s northern Zamfara State ended its boycott of a global polio immunisation programme, amid reports of new cases of the crippling disease in previously polio-free zones. Nigerian state radio announced on Saturday that the overwhelmingly Muslim state sent its volunteers for training ahead of a new national round of immunisation beginning on Monday.

The new US AIDS Czar is holding a meeting in Botswana in a few days to create a policy document that will call into question the proven quality of generic medications approved by the WHO's Drug Prequalification Program. This document will be used to pressure other nations to forgo generics. It will also be used by the US as a policy floor for its own bilateral programs. Click on the link to read a protest letter against this process.

More than 100 million children around the world are missing out on an education. During Action Week 2004, a worldwide movement of children and adults will speak out in a global effort to increase support for every child’s right to an education.

One of the hottest topics at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) - Geneva, March 15 to April 23 - will undoubtedly be the future of the proposed Norms on Business and Human Rights. Approved last August by a UNHCR Sub-Commission of human rights experts, the Norms make the human rights obligations of transnational corporations explicit and suggest further steps towards corporate accountability. Corporate lobby groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have launched a fierce counter-campaign aiming to kill off the proposal, with self-proclaimed Corporate Social Responsibility champion Shell in a leading role.