A spectre looms over Nigeria’s democracy. It is the political instrumentalisation of security agencies to carry out the regime’s agenda. It is the frightening use and abuse of security agencies and executive bodies to intimidate, silence, cow, harass and demonize real and perceived opposition to the present administration.

Angola on Tuesday (October 3) launched a voter-education programme ahead of its first post-war polls due next year with the prime minister warning against foreigners being registered for the key election. "We have to be careful that those who do not fulfil the conditions required by law to vote are not registered," Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias Dos Santos said, kicking off the campaign in the oil-rich nation.

MS-TCDC is a Training Centre for Development Cooperation in Eastern and Southern Africa. We are situated close to Arusha in Northern Tanzania. Throughout the year different courses and workshops run concurrently in a lively international atmosphere promoting sharing of experience and cross cultural discussions.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Survival International today called on the UN General Assembly to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, at its current session in New York. Representatives of indigenous peoples across the world, Survival and many other NGOs, lobbied over the past two decades for the text of the Declaration to be finalized.

The EISA Observer Mission to the Zambian Tripartite Elections has made its assessment of the poll and its preliminary findings and recommendations are presented in this interim statement. Our observations and views regarding the electoral process in Zambia are based on the guidelines enshrined in the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region (PEMMO).

Presidential incumbent Levy Mwanawasa is to be sworn in on Tuesday (October 3) after winning a second and final term in office with 42 percent of the vote, with his nearest rival conceding defeat and calling for an end to election protests.

Following the civil war in Mozambique a very effective programme was started in which people with weapons could negotiate to exchange their weapons for an item which they themselves nominated and which would enable them to earn a living, for example, a plough, a sewing machine, a bicycle, a typewriter. In some cases a community that had a cache of hidden weapons would hand them over in exchange for a water pump or solar electricity generator for the community.

In this way people were not simply giving up what little they had but were getting something concrete in exchange.

The weapons were collected and cut up by a group of artists who then made the pieces of guns into artworks that are now sold and exhibited throughout the world. One work, "The Throne of Weapons" was bought by the British Museum who also commissioned "The Tree of Life" as part of their 2005 Africa show. Other methods of destroying the guns could be melting and reuse in equipment such as carts and ploughs.

It might be useful for people in Sierra Leone to contact the Mozambicans. See

Welcome to this week's Pan African Podcast where Tajudeen Adbul-Raheem poses the question: With the world economy rigged in favour of rich nations can Africa deliver on the Millennium Development Goals?

See the for more details.

Press Release

Pambazuka News: Audio and video now available

Pambazuka News readers can now not only read about what’s going on in Africa, but also listen to the voices of Africa, with this week’s release of the first in a series of regular audio offerings.

Fahamu, the producers of Pambazuka News, are introducing the new feature as the first step to incorporating regular multimedia content on the Pambazuka News site, which will also include video through a partnership with Raised Voices, a collection of online testimonies of people from the global South.

The recordings, available as a podcast – the term used for a series of multimedia files distributed over the internet, will consist of interviews, readings and personal stories.

Firoze Manji, Fahamu Director, said: “We are launching this podcast because there has been an astounding growth in the distribution of multimedia files over the internet, but to a large extent the voice of Africa is missing from this dialogue. We believe it is important for these voices to be heard.”

This week’s launch consists of two episodes, now available from the Pambazuka News website at

The first episode consists of an interview with Sizani Ngubane of the Rural Women’s Movement in South Africa. The RWM represents 500 grassroots women’s organisations in Kwa-Zulu Natal that fight against the abuse of women and land evictions. In the interview, Ngubane talks about women in the new South Africa and how their rights have been eroded by unpopular economic policies.

The second release is a recording of Pan-African Movement Director Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem giving his views on the Millennium Development Goals. Abdul-Raheem has been a regular Pambazuka News columnist for the last few years and this is the first time his columns have been recorded live. Tajudeen poses the question: With the world economy rigged in favour of the rich nations, can Africa deliver on the MDGs?

The Raised Voices Link

Raised Voices is a sister project of Pambazuka News. It is a set of filmed testimonies from people in the global South and marginalised communities in the North talking about the social and environmental justice issues that affect them.

It's a unique set of statements coming directly from the people most impacted by issues such as land rights, climate change, oil exploitation, neoliberalism and more. These are the people most affected but least heard in decision-making. Raised Voices seeks to promote these voices injecting them into the public sphere where they can take their rightful place in directing discussion and shaping debate.

A selection of these testimonies will be available from the Pambazuka News website and are available in full from http://www.raisedvoices.net/

Listening Online

People wishing to listen to the episodes can do so from the Pambazuka News website using any MP3 software (such as QuickTime), or can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or other software.

The introduction of the feature is an experiment and as we are aware that many people may not be familiar with listening online, we have developed a Frequently Asked Question page at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/broadcasts/faqs.php

Here you can find answers to the questions:

- What is a podcast?
- Can I listen to the broadcasts without subscribing to the podcast?
- How can I subscribe to Pambazuka podcasts?
- Can I broadcast the Pambazuka podcasts on my radio station?
- The podcast sounds muffled – why is this?
- Can I copy the Pambazuka podcasts?

Contact [email][email protected] for more information or if you have technical problems.

Calling All Podcasters and Filmmakers in Africa

Have you got audio or video on social justice issues that you want to reach a wider audience? Would you like to make podcasts and film but don't know where to start? Do you work in community radio or TV and want to get your work on the internet or are you looking for exciting programming from other sources? Get in touch with Pambazuka News and we can provide material, promote your work and in some cases help you to produce it.

Your work can be linked from our website and mentioned in our roundup of African multimedia. You could also create films and audio for the Pambazuka multimedia project. We're particularly interested in hearing from people who are non-professionals as we want to support media from the grassroots whose messages and voices are not being heard. Pambazuka News is also developing a set of resources for beginners to help you get started and techniques to make film and podcasts accessible for all parts of the community to learn to use. So if you're interested get in touch with our multimedia coordinator Heidi Bachram at [email][email protected] for more information.

Heidi Bachram
Fahamu multimedia coordinator
[email][email protected]

iTunes® and QuickTime® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

The production of the podcasts has been supported by a grant from HIVOS Netherlands.

Ever heard of street soccer activism? In Zimbabwe, the Uhuru Collective is using soccer to fight for social justice, mobilizing residents and encouraging them to challenge their local council on rates fees.

The full story is featured on the website a Zimbabwean portal on civil society, but it’s not only the use of street soccer for activism that is interesting, but the way in which Kubatana have integrated short audio recordings into the story. The result is not only a web-based story that provides context and background, but through the power of voice conveys the story first hand through those involved.

And so you can listen to Sam Farai Monro, the co-ordinator of the Uhuru Collective, talk about what they aim to achieve through soccer activism, how commentators at the matches highlight important social concerns, and why unfair social delivery needs to be challenged.

The spoken word is not new to storytelling or information dissemination, with radio being popular worldwide. But while the potential for distributing audio via the internet is a possibility that has existed since the first websites, it has only recently become more feasible due to developments that allow easy production and distribution.

Portable recording devices allow anyone to produce high quality sound. Easy editing and mixing – previously the domain of professional sound buffs – is made possible through software packages. Giant steps taken in the ease with which one can create a personal website and upload written, audio or video content makes it possible for anyone to be heard – theoretically speaking at least.

As a result mega-industries have sprung up and there are a growing number of internet search engines that specialize specifically in audio or video files. Even giants like Google =http://video.google.com/ have been forced to add video search functionality and hosting to their services.

The new craze has given rise to its own terminology - podcasting. As defined by Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, “Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video programs, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term podcast, like 'radio', can mean both the content and the method of delivery.”

Sadly, if you type Africa into any of the search engines listing podcasts, the returns are not very satisfactory. In Africa, low internet access and high access costs mean that in large parts even downloading email can be a problem and that’s if you even have access to a computer. Listening to audio distributed through the internet is a rarity. The podcast trend is driven by North American and Western European interest and voices.

This is not to say that it doesn’t have potential for Africa. The medium has the ability for people to get their voices heard without having to navigate the complex gate-keeping of mainstream media; it has the power to reach a global audience; and it has potential for networking and activism. Africa has made some strides in internet access and many countries are now rolling out broadband internet access – the real sweetener when it comes to internet audio and video.

Distribution of audio via the internet in Africa is in its infancy, but with growing number of broadband users and Africa’s huge Diaspora population the audience is out there. It remains to be seen whether all the factors needed for the growth of the technology will eventually lead to a culture of listening online.

If you want to start listening, here are some starting points. Broadcasting weekly out of Berkeley, California, is Walter Turner’s Africa Today programme (http://www.kpfa.org/1pro_bio/1b_afric.htm). One of his more interesting recent interviews is with the journalist Gary Younge, who is the correspondent for the London Guardian in the United States. You can hear Younge talking about his latest book ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’, being black in Britain, international solidarity and the oddness of living in America. “You see people walking around with cellphones and yet you still get the feeling that they think the world is flat,” Younge tells Turner.

Check out Indymedia South Africa http://southafrica.indymedia.org/ for audio and video content on what South Africa’s social movements are up to. The latest video content from the site is about a march to the Israeli embassy to protest against the recent war between Israel and Lebanon. The video shows the march with clips from speakers Sallim Vally from the Palestine Solidarity Committee and Willie Madisha of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Also on the site are a series of audio files discussing the World Social Forum’s Bamako appeal, including an interesting speech from Samir Amin.

Further offerings can be found on the website of One World Radio Africa =http://radioafrica.oneworld.net/, which has a series of regularly updated files, the latest being a discussion on climate change. Democracy Radio =http://www.idasa.org.za, on the website of South Africa’s Idasa, includes a series of recordings on child poverty in South Africa, political party funding and the struggle for women’s rights. These recordings are dated from 2004/05 but are still worth a visit.

Africa Files produces a regular podcast called ‘Africa Files: The Pulse’, with Silence Genti as the host. You can access the programme by visiting

FEATURE:
- Pambazuka News releases audio and video content
- Lansana Gberie reviews Sierra Leone's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Ghana must go a step further and adopt measures to protect children from abuse through advocacy, community action and awareness of children’s rights, writes Afua Twum-Danso
- Mohammed T. Yusuf argues that so far, both the government and the LRA have adhered to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.
- Last year th ICC issued warrants of arrest for Kony and four other Lord’s Resistance Army commanders. Now, a year on, it finds itself at odds with Uganda's government. Joseph Yav Katshung reports.
- Listening online: the what and the where
LETTERS: Religion and Children in Armed Conflict
PAN AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen admonishes those who may be reluctant to celebrate Winnie Mandela's 70th birthday (and we celebrate Taju delivering on time for a change!)
BLOGGING AFRICA: This week, Sokari Ekine focuses on West African blogs.
BOOKS: African Languages Refuse to Die: A review of Ngugi wa Thiong’s lecture.
PODCASTS:
- Women's rights in rural South Africa
- Can African deliver on the Millennium Development Goals?
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Links to news on Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe
HUMAN RIGHTS: In Africa 171 Million Children are Victims of Child Labour
WOMEN AND GENDER: Health Ministers Adopt Measures To Curb Maternal Death
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Kenya Braces For Influx of Somali Refugees as Violence Escalates
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Elected Parliament Inaugurated in the DRC
DEVELOPMENT: AID Should Be Channelled Through Special Fund
CORRUPTION: CAGE Asks ICPC To Investigate PTDF Fraud
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: In Zimbabwe It is Reported that There is HIV Prevalence Decline
EDUCATION: MAKERERE is Still a Reputable University
RACISM & XENOPHOBIA: Groundbreaking Lawsuit Challenges Racial Profiling by Police
ENVIRONMENT: The World’s ‘Septic Tank’
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Defiant Farmers To ‘Face The Music’
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: No End In Sight For Abuse Of Press Freedom
DIASPORA: White Race Riots of 1906
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Highway To Freedom
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

The Lord’s Resistance Army continues to demand that the indictments by the International Criminal Court against its leaders should be dropped. The Hague-based court had indicted Kony, Otti and fellow commanders Dominic Ongwen, Okot Odhiambo and Raska Lukwiya on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to IRIN news, last week Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the indictments should not be rescinded until the rebel leaders signed a peace deal. Joseph Yav Katshung argues that “…Not everybody welcomed these arrest warrants. On the one hand, proponents of prosecution argue that individuals who commit crimes against humanity should be punished for the sake of justice. They say that it would be unprincipled - as well as sending a dangerous message worldwide - for the prosecutor to submit to the demands of armed thugs who have been maiming, raping and killing with impunity. On the other hand, opponents of prosecution argue that the ICC should give peace a chance, as it is more important to save civilians than to judge perpetrators.”

Very often, when a country wishes to move from war to peace, various options may be tried, including trials in an international or national court of law as well as other non-punitive approaches with various names. In recent years, there has been a growing demand around the world for transitional justice mechanisms, such as truth commissions. Tina Rosenberg suggests that “…a country’s decisions about how to deal with its past should depend on many things: the type of war endured, the type of crimes committed, the level of societal complicity, the nation’s political culture and history, the conditions necessary for war to reoccur, the abruptness of the transition, and the new democratic government’s power and resources.” [1]One may add national “interests”.

Last year in October the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants of arrest for Kony and four other Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders - Vincent Otti, Raska Lukwiya, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odhiambo - accusing them of carrying out massacres, mutilating their victims and kidnapping thousands of children to be used as fighters and sex slaves. Now, a year on, it finds itself at odds with Uganda's government, which first referred the case to it, but is now offering the rebels amnesty and protection if talks succeed. [2] This paper examines this dispute and seeks to locate the debate about peace and justice in Northern Uganda.

Defining Justice

Defining justice is a difficult task. Is it justice in the narrow sense of criminal justice, or justice in the broader, restorative, sense? Talking about “justice”, one should note that it is a flexible concept. Justice in situations of transition is not self-defining. It is about what is required and what is possible in a given situation. There are different kinds of justice: retributive justice, deterrent justice, compensatory justice, rehabilitative justice, exonerative justice and restorative justice. [3] Each has a time and a place in a given situation and no one model of justice covers all needs.

Mato Oput as Restorative Justice

It is important to note that restorative justice views crime essentially as a violation of people and relationships between people. Its primary objective is to correct such violations and to restore relationships. As such, it necessarily involves victims and survivors, perpetrators and the community, in the quest for a level of justice that promotes repair, trust building and reconciliation. It draws attention to the need to create a milieu within which all those implicated in crime come to realise the need to uphold the principles of the law, co-operating in an endeavour to discern the best way to achieve this. [4] In other words, restorative justice is concerned with resolving crime and conflicts. It focuses upon the end result (harmonious community relations) and it is characterised by community participation that involves both the victim and the perpetrator, with a view to restoring rights that have been abused.

In fact, Mato Oput, which in the Acholi language literally means "to drink a bitter potion made from the leaves of the ‘oput’ tree" is one of the mechanisms for forgiveness and reconciliation among the Acholi people in Northern Uganda. The drinking of this bitter herb means that the two conflicting parties accept the bitterness of the past and promise never to taste such bitterness again. The payment of compensation follows the ceremony. The victim or his/her family is compensated for the harm done, for example, in the form of cows or cash. Is such kind of compensation is enough to satisfy people? It is believed by many Acholi that Mato Oput "can bring true healing in a way that formal justice system cannot.” [5] It doesn't aim at establishing whether an individual is guilty or not, rather it seeks to restore marred social harmony in the affected community.

The question of using Mato Oput for gross violations of human rights: The Kony’s Case

The referral of the Northern Uganda conflict to the ICC in December 2003 and the subsequent issue of warrants of arrest for Joseph Kony and other four high-ranking LRA commanders, [6] have sparked considerable controversy in Uganda and in the international sphere.

Not everybody welcomed these arrest warrants. On the one hand, proponents of prosecution argue that individuals who commit crimes against humanity should be punished for the sake of justice. They say that it would be unprincipled - as well a dangerous message worldwide - for the prosecutor to submit to the demands of armed thugs who have been maiming, raping and killing with impunity. On the other hand, opponents of prosecution argue that the ICC should give peace a chance, as it is more important to save civilians than to judge perpetrators.

Moreover, withdrawal by the ICC would not mean the end of accountability, they argue, but the beginning of indigenous justice processes. This group prefers traditional justice to the ICC, and argues that modern justice will have a negative impact on the peace process in Northern Uganda. For them, the arrest warrants would make further peace negotiations impossible.

This is a typical case of balancing peace and justice as the trend in Uganda now, is how to use the traditional form of justice named Mato Oput instead of the ICC. Barney Afako (2002) states that:

“The unacceptably high costs of civil war have caused Ugandans to re-assess approaches to resolving conflict. Among the Acholi of northern Uganda, the bitter experience of unending conflict has generated a remarkable commitment to reconciliation and a peaceful settlement of the conflict rather than calling for retribution against the perpetrators of serious abuses… This call for amnesty was underpinned by their faith in the capacity of the community and cultural institutions to manage effective reconciliation even against the background of serious offences.

Many conflicts yield meaningful distinctions between victims and perpetrators. Yet the majority of Acholi recognize that most combatants in the LRA were forcibly abducted and have themselves been victims. This generates the realization that anyone could be subjected to the conditions that produced the perpetrators of the crimes experienced in the conflict. Combined with a profound weariness with the war and the suffering it has caused, this creates a moral empathy with the perpetrators and an acknowledgement that the formal justice system is not sufficiently nuanced to make the necessary distinctions between legal and moral guilt. As a result, most Acholi have decided to promote reconciliation through traditional mechanisms, rather than a retributive understanding of justice, to create conditions to end the war and reintegrate the community.” [7]

However, there are always tensions between the requirements of the criminal justice system and those of non-punitive approaches to gross and systematic human rights violations. Therefore, one could ask if the Mato Oput is an attempt by Uganda to justify or disguise impunity? Answering to this question one should test if this Mato Oput mechanism implies good faith.

That is true because restorative justice employs integral responses that focus upon redressing the harm to the victims, holding perpetrators accountable for their actions and engaging the community in a conflict resolution process. It is highly participative, is forward-looking and is based on values of respect for all participants and community empowerment. Is the Mato Oput designed to generate more truth, more justice, reparations, and genuine institutional reform? If the objective is to evade the State and society’s legal, ethical and political obligations to their people, it should be rejected. If not, someone could say that the purpose of this Mato Oput mechanism is just to shield some perpetrators (Kony and others). In this hypothesis, the process will violate international law and will not be in the interest of justice (society as a whole).

Therefore, the answer should be found in the design of the process itself, but also in the degree of participation, consultation, and transparency that surrounds this Mato Oput mechanism.

How to conclude?

We conclude with a quote from Juan Mendez that “We need to be careful to counter attempts to disguise impunity with fanciful adjectives. ‘Restorative justice,’ for example, is a concept that in its proper setting is valuable and does have its place in a transitional justice policy. [8] Often, however, the term ‘restorative justice’ is used to advocate some alternative to criminal justice, to honest truth telling and full investigation of abuses. When used in such a way it is no more than an attempt to justify or disguise impunity.” [9]

Suffice it to say that the paradox between peace and justice is an open question that we should all try to answer.

* Yav Katshung Joseph is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo and an Advocate at the Lubumbashi Bar Association. He is the Executive Director of CERDH, and Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace, Conflict Resolution and Good governance. He has published numerous articles on human rights, law and transitional justice in scholarly journals. For contact: [email][email protected] or [email][email protected] Cell: +27724342896

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

[1] Tina Rosenberg, “Afterword: Confronting the Painful Past”, in Martin Meredith, Coming to Terms:South Africa’s Search for Truth, 1999, p 328

[2] The ICC has insisted that Kony and four other LRA leaders must face justice, but the Ugandan government says it will convince the Hague-based court to lift the indictment… See UGANDA: Balancing forgiveness with justice. At: http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/admin/Information/543/Roco%20Wat%20I%20Acoli-20051.pdf
[6] See The International Criminal Court, "Warrant of Arrest Unsealed Against Five LRA Commanders," ICC-20051014-110-En, 14 October 2005, available:http://www.icccpi.int/pressrelease_details&id=114&l=en.html
They are accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda since July 2002

[7] Barney Afako, Reconciliation and justice: ‘Mato oput’ and the Amnesty Act (2002), at: http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/northern-uganda/reconciliation-justice.php

[8] Miriam J. Aukerman, “Extraordinary Evil, Ordinary Crime: A Framework for Understanding Transitional Justice,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002): 39-97; Pablo de Greiff, “The Role of Apologies in National Reconciliation Processes: On Making Trustworthy Institutions Trusted,” in The Age of Apologies, Mark Gibney and Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, eds. (forthcoming).

[9] Juan E. Méndez, “How to Take Forward a Transitional Justice and Human Security Agenda: Policy Implications for the International Community”, Cape Town, April 1, 2005

Like many other countries, Ghana, has taken the necessary steps to protect children from abuse and exploitation by ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 5th February 1990, just three months after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. In spite of this, the reality of children’s lives remains in stark opposition to the picture the legislation sought to draw. Afua Twum-Danso argues that Ghana must go a step further and adopt measures to protect children from abuse through advocacy, community action and awareness of children’s rights.

Ghanaians are fond of joking that their government is always one of the first, if not the first, to ratify international conventions, protocols and agreements. Therefore, they merely raise an eyebrow at the fact that the Government of Ghana was the first State Party to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 5th February 1990, just three months after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. To comply with this, the government reviewed its policies and domestic legislation quite rapidly compared with many other African countries.

The Children’s Act: In Focus

The Children’s Act led many to hope that there would be a turning point in the progress of children’s rights and welfare in the country. Yet, the yawning gap between policy and actions on the ground continues to widen. The Act, in and of itself, is a good comprehensive piece of legislation – one that, ironically, some countries look to as a best practice. Its provisions cover the protection of all children below the age of 18 in all aspects of their life.

The first part of the Act outlines the basic rights of the child, which are all in accordance with the CRC principles. These include the right to grow up with parents (unless it is not in the best interests of the child), the duties and responsibilities of parents towards a child, the right to parental property, the right to education and well being, right to social activity, right to be able to express an opinion and participate in decisions affecting his/her well-being and the right to protection from exploitative labour and torture.

Any contravention of this part of the Children’s Act is liable to a fine of not more than 5 million cedis or a term of imprisonment not beyond one year or both. Included in the second part of this section is the definition of what is meant by a child ‘in need of care and protection’, which covers children who are orphans, neglected or ill-treated, destitute, under the care of parents or guardians who are unfit to take care of the child or who is wandering and has no home and no visible means of subsistence. The second part outlines measures for the establishment and operations of Child Panels and Family Tribunals. The third part focuses on issues relating to parentage, custody, access and maintenance. The fourth part deals with adoption, and interestingly, fosterage, which for the first time is regulated. The fifth part provides some guidelines concerning child labour and apprenticeships.

The Children’s Act Viz A Viz Children’s Lives: A Stark Contrast

Despite the comprehensive nature of the Act, the reality of children’s lives eight years after its passage remains in stark opposition to the picture the legislation sought to draw. Highlighted below are a few examples of the situation of children viz à viz certain provisions of the Act.

- Although the Act stipulates that the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) is to be responsible for children ‘in need of care and protection’, thousands of children who are neglected, ill-treated, abandoned, orphaned and resort to begging on the streets remain outside the reach of DSW, mainly because people – be it children or adults – are still not reporting cases sufficiently and DSW does not have the resources or capacity to go in search of cases. Although in some cases, people rely on the extended family support system to look after such children, many people do not know to whom they must report cases. As a social worker based in one of the local DSW offices in Accra told me, ‘many people go to WAJU to report cases and then have to be referred back to us’.

- The Act clearly states that every child has ‘the right to education and well-being’. The introduction of the FCUBE (Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education) in 2005 illustrates the efforts of the government to enforce this aspect of the Act. However, many parents and children still do not know about the FCUBE and those who do, complain because they still need to provide for textbooks, shoes, uniforms, exam and printing fees etc, which costs more than the 30,000-cedi school fees that the government has taken upon itself to pay. Although substantial numbers of parents appreciate that they cannot expect the government to provide everything, they still maintain that this new deal leaves them bearing the greater weight of the financial costs of schooling, something which many cannot afford. Thus, for the poorest of the poor, the provisions of the FCUBE are not enough, meaning that a large proportion of children remain out of school and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

- The Children’s Act further stipulates that every parent has rights and responsibilities whether imposed by law or otherwise towards his child, which includes the duty to protect the child from neglect, discrimination, violence, abuse and exposure to physical and moral hazards and oppression. Although it is the belief of this writer that most Ghanaian parents want the best for their children and strive to obtain this – albeit sometimes in misguided ways – incidences of parental neglect are increasing. In interviews with over 200 children in Accra, one thing that they pointed to over and over again was the need for parents to show love to their children and pay them attention. In children’s minds, once a child has parental love and attention all else will follow, including food, shelter, medical attention, clothes and education.

The sexual abuse of children also seems to be increasing in our society – or maybe is the real increase is in reported cases of sexual abuse. In early February 2006 a 7-year-old girl in the Ashanti region of Ghana was raped? by her grandfather, a man in his late 60s, and later tested HIV positive. Approximately a week later the media reported that a 4-year-old girl had been raped? by an 81 year old man. These are just a couple of cases in a long series of abuses against children that have been reported to the police.

- The Act also stipulates that although children may be employed from the age of 15 and engage in light work from the age of 13 years (i.e. work that does not conflict with a child’s attendance at school and is not harmful to the health or development of the child), hazardous work should only be undertaken by those who are 18 years and over. This includes mining, porterage of heavy loads (i.e. kaya work), going to sea or fishing, mining and quarrying, working in manufacturing industries where chemicals are produced or used, places where machines are used, places such as bars, hotels and places of entertainment where a person may be exposed to immoral behaviour.

However, one does not need to go far to find evidence of children engaged in such work. Kayayes and kayahii (truck-pushers) can be identified at any urban market, sometimes carrying loads for those who are supposed to protect them: police officers. In the coastal areas of the Greater Accra and Central regions the use of children in fishing remains a big phenomenon. Here, people do not understand why their male children should not participate in a tradition that has been in their families for generations. This is particularly evident in Ga Mashie where fishermen are seen as warriors – a status that understandably all fathers want to pass on to their sons.

All the children that were interviewed by this writer were easily and very quickly able to identify places where children are engaged in mining and quarrying. Children could be found breaking stones at places such as Achimota and Kasoa. With regards to mining, they mentioned Boduase, Obuase and Prestea. That children are engaged in these hazardous occupations in their thousands is not hidden. In fact, you would have to be blind to miss it. Even then I wonder. Though any person who contravenes this section of the Children’s Act commits an offence and is liable to a fine of up to 10 million cedis or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, these phenomena continue unabated.

Sensitisation of Communities

The reasons behind the limited implementation of the Children’s Act and hence the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are a mixture of lack of political will, lack of awareness and public dissemination and lack of resources. Research has proven that lack of awareness and understanding of the concept of children’s rights and the CRC are directly linked to the lack of political will, which, in turn reinforces the lack of resources available to ensure the implementation of children’s rights.

Despite the centrality of public awareness of children’s rights to the implementation of the CRC and domestic legislation, most members of the public and even policy-making bodies do not know about these legal instruments. In cases where they do have knowledge of them, they do not know much about them and their contents. In fact, there are some MPs who do not even know what is in the Children’s Act, which was enacted in 1998 and which many of them voted into passage. One Assemblyman from a community within the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) desperately crying out for children’s rights related interventions, confided in me that he had not read the Children’s Act and thus, did not know what it contained.

Not only do the majority of Ghanaians not know of or have very little knowledge of the Act, but also there seems to be a great deal of confusion surrounding the very concept of children’s rights. Many believe that it means children’s rights to empowerment only and thus they reject the idea sometimes quite angrily, as it attacks the very premise on which Ghanaian cultural values are based.

In one example, a senior community leader who is very well educated, possibly abroad, said to the writer, ‘Children’s rights? We have enough problems with children here without giving them their rights’. Instead, according to him, what the community needs is to focus on providing education, clothes and food for children - not rights. And this is where the problem lies.

Rights, in the eyes of many, are linked to the empowerment of children, whereas education, food and clothing are seen as basic needs that the community must provide for children. That these are also rights is not always clear. Thus, there needs to be clarification of what is meant by children’s rights and an explanation that it could range from basic needs such as food, clothes and education to more lofty ideas like asking children for their opinion and involving them in decision making.

Child Panels

The centrality of sensitising communities about the Children’s Act notwithstanding, it is important to consider another scenario where people know the provisions of the Act and still fail to report cases of abuse and exploitation. This could be because they fear the exorbitant financial fees that go along with the bureaucracy, long waiting periods and numerous adjournments that currently make up the Ghanaian judicial process. Added to this is the fear of being ostracised from the community in cases where the abuse was perpetrated by a fellow member of the community.

Therefore, an approach which takes into consideration the traditional arbitration process whereby all interested parties to a case are brought together to discuss the issue in informal surroundings with elders from that community as arbitrators, would be a vital asset to the modern legal framework. That the Children’s Act (Act 560) makes provisions for the establishment of Child Panels at the community level is an acknowledgement of the need for a more communal and traditional approach to complement the formal judicial system.

The Child Panel provision of the Children’s Act (Act 560) addresses the establishment of a quasi-judicial body that is charged with mediating minor civil and criminal matters at the community level. It is based on the belief that many families and communities would rather seek their own way to resolve problems than engage in a costly and lengthy judicial process. It is also the only legal structure at the community level charged with the socio-legal protection of children.

Therefore, it has the potential, when fully operationalised, to absorb not only the civil issues pertaining to non-maintenance of children, child labour, parental neglect or maltreatment, truancy/failure to send a child to school, but also minor crimes committed by children such as petty theft. Child Panels also have the capacity to engage in sensitization activities relating to children’s rights, facilitate counselling support for child victims of abuse where necessary, and facilitate reconciliation between a child offender and his/her victim. By dealing with minor offences committed by children, Child Panels can assure justice is meted out to the child without recourse to the main justice system which tends to be expensive and time consuming.

The benefits to the child and the wider society are evident. Firstly, it exposes children to non-violent ways of resolving conflicts. Secondly, as the deliberations of the Child Panel and its settings are informal, it is less intimidating for children and thus more child-friendly. Thirdly, the fact that Child Panels send out invitations to attend a session instead of issuing subpoenas or warrants and the fact that it makes proposals instead of judgments ensures that parties with a vested interest will be less apprehensive of attending a session of the panel.

Finally, its approach is participatory, not only because it allows children to participate effectively in matters that affect them, but also because it asks the interested parties if they have any proposal for the settlement of the matter.

Wider societal benefits include reducing the burden on the judicial system, which is already seriously overloaded. According to DOVISSU, between January and June 2005 it handled 7150 non-criminal cases in Accra alone, which the Child Panel system could have effectively managed if it was already in operation. This would allow DOVISSU and the judicial system to focus on more serious cases such as murder, armed robbery, rape, defilement, drug and people smuggling/trafficking, which appear to be on the increase. Moreover, as Child Panels undertake mediation and restitution functions at the family and community levels, the situation whereby children are put through the formal justice system can be avoided.

Therefore, they offer alternatives to prison for children who have committed minor crimes for which a prison sentence would be too harsh and only turn the child into a hardened criminal instead of a rehabilitated, responsible member of society. Finally, the nature of Child Panels will encourage more people to report crimes and civil matters and thereby allow the country to address some of the key problems facing children in Ghana today: parental neglect and non-maintenance, the exploitation of children’s labour and failure to send children, especially girl-children, to school.

• This article was written by Afua Twum-Danso, the Child Rights Programme Manager at the Centre for Community Development Initiatives (CCDI), an NGO based in the UK. For further information on CCDI and its work on children’s rights, please contact: [email][email protected]
• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

12 September is a special day for all people across the world who believe in Black Consciousness and the concept of Ubuntu. This is the day when Africa lost one of its gallant sons of the soil, Steve Biko, who died in 1977 in a South African prison from ‘brain damage’. The truth of the matter is that his death emanated from continuous torture exerted on him by the South African apartheid government. As a young black African woman living in a society where freedom of expression and association is violated by the government of the day, Steve Biko has become my source of inspiration as a young man in his 30s, who was willing to sacrifice his own life for the freedom of the black people of South Africa.

When it comes to Steve Biko’s legacy within the Zimbabwean crisis, I personally believe that civil society in Zimbabwe should always mark this day, the 12th of September, as an important date in the history of Southern Africa. Young people should take up the challenge to emulate Steve Biko and his beliefs, for they can learn a lot from what he stood for, that is equality, freedom, respect for human life, and being proud to be a black person. Civil society and academics should organize public seminars and workshops on the life and history of Steve Biko on such occasions, so that people will not forget his dream and vision for a better Africa.

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of his death and I do hope that progressive movements in South Africa, Zimbabwe and the region as a whole will meet, reflect, share experiences, and take stock of what has been taking place in the region since Steve Biko’s death. Steve Biko made me realize the importance of being black and being proud to be a black African woman. Such ideals should be advocated for in our society, especially where the local and international media makes people believe that having a slim modeled body and straightened hair makes a person beautiful. This has led to many young people becoming disorientated and disrespecting the African way of life and its beauty. I do believe that the beauty of any person comes from within and not outside .I guess that’s what defines a human being at the end of the day!!

Viva Steve Biko, Viva!!
Amandla, people of Africa, amandla!!

Over the next few weeks the blog roundup will have more of a regional focus. This week the focus is on West Africa.

‘Under the Acacias’ - (http://www.voiceinthedesert.org.uk/keith/archives/2006/09/update_and_ph…) is a blog by Keith Smith, a missionary worker in Burkina Faso who has been blogging for two years. This week Keith posts on the floods that have engulfed Gorom Gorom, on the edge of the Sahel. About 8000 people in the region have lost their homes. Keith explains:

“The disaster struck following a large rain, when 136cm (5.5")of rain fell (nearly half the normal year's rainfall) in 6 hours. A dam broke about 5 miles away, and a tide of water waist-high swept through the region. Several nearby villages were completely destroyed, as well as about half of the houses in Gorom-Gorom. Most houses are built of mud, and would have been simply washed away by the onslaught of water.”

The floods in the region from Burkina Faso through Nigeria and Niger have so far left up to 26000 people homeless. Keith’s blog provides information on short and long-term needs and photos of the disaster.

Cameroonian blog, 'Scribbles from the Den' - Scribbles from the Den (http://www.dibussi.com/2006/09/save_my_wife_2_.html) reports on a horrendous story from the New York Times of Prudence, a young woman who died in childbirth. Like so many women in the global south, Prudence died not from pregnancy but rather from general neglect of the very poor and a failure to provide even basic health care.

“Prudence, 24, was from a small village and already had three small children. As she was in labor to deliver her fourth, an untrained midwife didn’t realize she had a cervical blockage and sat on Prudence’s stomach to force the baby out — but instead her uterus ruptured and the fetus died.

"Prudence’s family carried her to the hospital on a motorcycle, but once she was there the doctor, Pascal Pipi, demanded $100 for a Caesarian to remove the fetus. The fetus was decomposing inside her, and an infection was raging in her abdomen — but her family had total savings of only $20, so she lay down in the maternity ward and began to die.”

The report also includes a video of Prudence’s last hours which, although I have not seen, I find offensive and unnecessary.

Gambian blog – 'Home of the Mandinmores' - Home of Mandinmores (http://gambian.blogspot.com/2006/09/yahya-jammeh-is-winner.html) reports on the Gambian elections won by incumbent Yahya Jammeh. Despite the huge margin of his victory, Mandinmores still believes that the people of Gambia will hold him to account should he fail to live up to expectations.

“The results were nothing political observer ever envisioned. Most Gambian political observers expect the incumbent to win especially after the opposition split, but the margin of victory that emerge from yesterdays poll has caught everyone by surprise. However unless someone can prove electoral mischief, I will venture to say that the Gambian people have spoken. They prefer the status quo to change. I don't agree with the decision, but I respect it. They are the masters of their country's destiny and have decreed with yesterdays vote that they like it the way it is. 65% is not a narrow margin. It is a whipping. Does this mean folks like yours truly will cut Yahya a slack when he trample on the rights of the citizenry....don't even think about it. He has a constitutional mandate to rule and we have a constitutional right to criticize his excesses.”

Senegalese blog, 'SEMEtt l’etincelle' - Semett (http://semet.blogspot.com/2006/09/france-ou-senegal-entre-immigration.h…) comments on the visit to Senegal by France’s right wing Minister of the Interior and Presidential hopeful. The purpose of the visit was to sign an agreement with Senegal for selective recruitment of professionals. SEMEtt describes this as a new form of slavery at a time when the African population in France are subjected to marginalization in the French suburbs (translated from French)

Nigerian Literary blogger, 'Wordsbody' – a href="http://wordsbody.blogspot.com/2006/09/ifowodo-jazzhole.html">WordsBody (http://wordsbody.blogspot.com/2006/09/ifowodo-jazzhole.html) has a short piece on Nigerian poet, Ogaga Ifowodo who is based in the US.

“Ifowodo is the author of 3 poetry collections: Homelands and other Poems (1998), Madiba (Solitude, 1999) and The Oil Lamp (Africa World Press, 2005). The Oil Lamp is a volume of poems on one theme only - environmental degradation in the Niger Delta.”

'Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen' - Freshly arrived denizen (http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/09/re-on-us-rappers-and-water…) takes issue with the UN’s appointment of African American rapper, Jay-Z as Water ambassador and his forthcoming trip to Ghana.

“With the hype of Jay-Z coming to Ghana in October, worth reminding you of his connection to sweatshops, which he appears clueless over.”

On the water privatization issue, Jay-Z is quoted as saying "that's just bureaucracy, I don't have any expertise in that," adding that he's about raising awareness. Later he praised Coca-Cola for giving money for play pumps.

'Black Looks' - Black Looks ("http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/09/we_dont_want_a_real_black_woman_-_i_m…) points to an article in the Guardian on the "black facing" of yet another white female celebrity - this time Kate Moss, in the UK Independent newspaper special on Africa.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

As Congo waits for the final leg of its presidential elections, new lessons have been learnt about how a partisan press can be detrimental to peaceful electioneering. Indeed, the Congo elections have given new insight into what happens in an environment where most of the media outlets are owned by players in the same elections.

Campaign for Accountable Governance through Elections, (CAGE) has urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to urgently investigate the ‘disappearance’ of $500million from the coffers of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and publish the outcome of such investigation.

Senior aides to the two candidates running for president in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed to make Kinshasa a weapons-free zone to ensure that the fighting that followed the first-round results in August is not repeated.

Reacting to today's (September 21) news that the Sudanese government has agreed to an extension of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan, Amnesty International said that today's development is a first step towards the protection of civilians in Darfur but must be followed by the deployment of UN peacekeepers.

In this policy overview produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre, the authors propose that greater public awareness and concern about development issues could put MDG-related issues on domestic political agendas and thereby protect official development assistance (ODA) commitments.