Richard Adjei-Poku, Field Officer of Kenyasi-based non-governmental organisation Guards of the Earth and the Vulnerable, has shed more light on the drowning in a dam created by Newmont, a gold mining company, operating in the Kenyasi area, in the Brong Ahafo region. He was speaking to newsmen at a press conference facilitated by Third World Network Africa on 21 October. He maintained how two of the villagers, in their attempt to cross a so-called bridge, became victims of the negligence of Newmont Gold Ghana Limited, which is the world's largest gold-producer.

Human Rights. Accountability. Democratic values. These are not concepts that most people would match with their local police force. As a new report from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) notes, Africa includes good cops and bad cops: good policing that upholds the human rights of the citizens; and bad policing where the police act as violent oppressors controlled by the political elite. The report ‘Police Accountability: Too Important to Neglect, Too Urgent to Delay’ provides an overview of accountability arrangements, highlights good practice, and gives recommendations for reform to assist governments, police officials, and civil society in developing and strengthening effective accountability regimes as part of the move towards truly democratic policing. Pambazuka News sent some questions to CHRI about the state of policing in Africa.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What are some of the policing problems related to human rights that are common to Africa?

CHRI: The violation of civil liberties by police, particularly rights of due process and disobedience to procedural law, is a glaring problem that seriously affects human rights and undermines the rule of law. This includes detaining people without reasonable cause, or for longer than permissible without bringing them before the appropriate authority, or carrying out arrests without warrants, illegal searches and seizures, or denying those arrested access to legal counsel.

Torture by police continues despite international and domestic laws and governments' promises, and hinges on impunity for those perpetuating it. Alarmingly, the demographic of people being tortured and/or illegally detained in Commonwealth countries, including Africa, by the police is very wide and speaks to governments' suppression of dissent as much as violation of law and human rights, as it can include suspected terrorists, but also armed insurgents, legitimate political opponents, government critics, suspected criminals, homosexuals, religious/racial minorities, suspected rebels/insurgents, human rights defenders, foreigners, to name a few.

Human rights are most seriously affected when the police act on illegitimate orders, or in some cases arbitrarily, to curb rights and freedoms.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What could be defined as effective and legitimate policing?

CHRI: CHRI is committed to promoting a model of democratic policing in which the police are:
- subject to the rule of law and responsible to protect human rights;
- accountable to a variety of institutions;
- transparent about policies, decisions and actions taken in most spheres of their work;
- responsive to the people they serve; and
- representative of the people they serve.

This is the model of effective and legitimate policing that democracy demands and governments are duty bound to provide.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is the effect of bad policing on democratic governance?

CHRI: Bad policing means the public is not getting the service it deserves from a public agency, and the police are not doing their duty. More broadly, bad policing usually means the public does not trust its police, fueling a feeling of vulnerability and lawlessness. The effect of all this is that it moves people further away from their governments and makes governance less democratic.

Bad policing and impunity persist not by accident, but by design. If people do not feel assured of state protection from crime, if people are being tortured by the police for political ends, if the people feel the police, or even worse the entire criminal justice system, is controlled by government - these are sure signs that the system of checks and balances which is so critical to democratic governance is failing. Bad policing can also affect the functioning of the criminal justice system as a whole. If the police are not carrying out their investigative and law enforcement duties lawfully, this can influence the quality of evidence presented in court and have serious consequences in terms of "fair trial" guarantees.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What are the gender implications of bad policing?

CHRI: Crimes against women abound across the Commonwealth but are often met with a very poor response by the police, with stereotypes and traditionalist attitudes prejudicing the way a predominantly male bastion handles women's cases. Rape, domestic violence and trafficking are usually under-policed - this happens because of lack of domestic legal protection, stigma in reporting, but also because of the unsympathetic response of law enforcement agencies towards victims. Women may trust the police less than men, and in many Commonwealth countries, women fear the police. This is unjustifiable when seen against the volume of crimes committed against women all across the Commonwealth, and the special attention women need from the police.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What are some of the international laws and protocols signed up to by African countries that govern policing and to what extent do these govern policing and provide a mechanism for redress?

CHRI: This is discussed in more detail in chapter 3 of the report, but for a quick overview:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the seminal human rights document that all Commonwealth countries have agreed to, enshrines fundamental human rights for all. Police organisations are expected to know and enforce the UDHR and uphold, defend and protect people's civil and political rights, as well as foster an environment that will promote their economic, social and cultural rights.

The human rights standards laid down in the UDHR have been refined and re-stated in legally binding treaties that guarantee civil and political rights, rights against racial discrimination, women's rights, children's rights, and rights against torture, among others.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) contain special provisions regarding policing, and together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW), form the seven core UN human rights treaties.

Importantly, some of the treaty committees accept complaints from individuals whose rights have been violated which could lead to redress - these include the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

The 1990 UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the 1979 UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials were both adopted by UN General Assembly resolutions, and do not have the same binding status of international conventions and treaties. Nevertheless, they are seminal for the police and are designed to guide domestic legal and policy formulation, with the Code of Conduct setting out basic standards for policing agencies, and the Basic Principles providing a series of human rights standards regarding the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials.

In Africa specifically, The African Charter on Human and People's Rights or Banjul Charter was adopted by the members of the former Organisation of African Unity - OAU (now the African Union) in 1981. In the Commonwealth context, it is the youngest of the regional mechanisms and also the most widely accepted of the regional charters, with 53 ratifications or accessions. All African country members of the Commonwealth are part of the regional Charter. The African Commission on Human and People's Rights is the institution created under the Charter to promote and protect human rights in Africa and interpret the Banjul Charter when required by the states or institutions of the African Union. The Commission has procedures in place to receive complaints from states and individuals.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Briefly, what reforms are needed and what would be the key aspects of a democratic police organisation?

CHRI: Reforming police organisations across the Commonwealth requires changing and refining laws to reflect the rights-based approach, putting in place innovative institutional mechanisms that can ensure independent oversight of the police, and altering the culture within police organisations by properly implementing disciplinary and ethical standards. As well, the traditional oversight of the police by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government must be strengthened.

Democratic policing is applicable to any context in the Commonwealth, rich or poor, large or small, diverse or homogenous. In a nutshell, a democratic police organisation is one that:
- Is accountable to the law, and not a law unto itself;
- Is accountable to democratic government structures and the community;
- Is transparent in its activities;
- Gives top operational priority to protecting the safety and rights of individuals;
- Protects human rights;
- Provides professional services;
- Is representative of the communities it serves.

A key feature of democratic policing is that the police are formally held to account, in a variety of ways, for their performance as much as for any wrongdoing. Police officers found guilty must be made to bear the consequences.

* These questions were answered by Devika Prasad, a Research Assistant to the Access to Justice Unit. The report and executive summary can be downloaded from the CHRI website:
www.humanrightsinitiative.org or the link could be viewed at http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/chogm/chogm_2005/defa…

* Please send comments to [email protected]

The Middle East and North Africa are perfectly placed to play a leading role in the lucrative future solar power industry, says a report released last week (7 October). The report, by Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Power Industry Association and the International Energy Agency’s Solar PACES programme, says that by 2025, the industry will attract nearly US$20 billion a year in investment, employ 54 000 people, and have avoided the emission of 362 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere – roughly what Japan emits each year.

Policies for developing African science must consider the continent's lack of capacity to face the threat of bioterrorism, say delegates at a meeting in Uganda. The meeting, which ended on 1 October, focused on the policy implications of using science to eradicate diseases while simultaneously controlling access to disease causing organisms to prevent bioterrorism. Delegates called for strict measures to be formulated to guard against the misuse of biology, and warned that failure to address concerns over biological weapons could undermine efforts to develop and instill confidence in science.

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and regional and international financiers will be meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa in November this year to facilitate funding for potentially viable electricity projects in the SADC region. Energy ministers and investors took this resolution at the end of the three-day SADC Regional Electricity Investment Conference that took place the week of October 17 in Windhoek.

Lesotho's vast, controversial highlands water transfer scheme to South Africa took a step forward on Sept. 22 when ministers from both governments ratified the appointment of consultants to plan the next phase. While people displaced by the first phase agitate for compensation in the Lesotho capital, Maseru, the plan is facing tough competition from other water resources in South Africa. The phase two plan calls for the new 155-m-high Mashai dam and upgrading of the first phase Muela hydropower plant. And it includes 101 kilometers of new transfer tunnels to the Vaal River. But now that the demand for electricity is on the rise again, the next phase could be changed to emphasize generating capacity, says Peter Pyke, chief engineer in charge of analyzing options at South Africa's Dept. of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) in Pretoria.

The Chevron oil company has reopened two oil stations in Nigeria's Niger Delta region under army protection. They were closed last week after attempts by a local militia group to sabotage oil facilities. The Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force had issued the threats in protest at the detention on Tuesday of their leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

South African society has changed from a predominantly rural society to an urban one. Thus the need to change and rethink the approach to land reform. The Centre for Development and Enterprise did a three year study and review of the South African land reform programme and makes a few suggestions on what new land reform policies should consist of.

In September, while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund prepared for meetings in Washington, 500 people marched in Maseru, Lesotho to protest the effect of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) on their livelihoods. One of the World Bank’s biggest projects in Africa, the LHWP pipes scarce water to South Africa and has been touted as a major development boost for the tiny mountain kingdom. But while South Africa benefits from the water, the project has been dogged by controversy, including the displacement of thousands of people. Now there is the possibility that new phases of the dam development could cause further hardship. Pambazuka News interviewed Jacob Lenka of the Lesotho NGO Transformation Resource Centre, which works with affected communities to enable them to express their needs and monitors the resettlement process.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What exactly is the plight of those people who have been displaced by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP)? How many people are involved?

JACOB LENKA: The plight of the Lesotho communities affected by LHWP is that they were not sufficiently consulted when the Project began. Of critical importance is that the communities were not compensated with land for land, they only received cash compensation. These communities are used to production from the soil. They were not again told about their rights vis-a-vis the Project; their right to water and development. The phase 1A has affected about 27,000 people while phase1B has displaced about 370 households, excluding those other people who have been affected in different ways than by displacement.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Apparently part of the development treaty was that people displaced by the project should be taken care of and that "the standard of living of all people affected by the implementation of Phase 1B should not be compromised and where possible improved'”. Why hasn't this been met? Who is responsible for the failure?

JACOB LENKA: Yes, the following articles within the Treaty talk about the improved standard of life for the affected: article 7(para.18); article 15 and LHDA order of 1986, section 44(2). Yes, the communities have been compensated for the property lost to the project, but as said above compensation was not sufficient. The have not been compensated with land, and they do not have rights to water and development, at least, these communities have not been made aware of these rights. After resettlement they can no longer send their children to school; they cannot feed and send their children to clinics; they were able to do these things before resettlement. This is real poverty and disempowerment. They also have not been trained and provided with sustainable training that would help them beyond compensation. The compensation that comes to them often comes late.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is public sentiment in Lesotho about the LHWP? How do people feel about water being sold to South Africa while they suffer from drought and food shortages? And what is the level of awareness about those who have been displaced and their plight?

JACOB LENKA: Many people here are farmers. They will certainly want to have water for food production as well as water for drinking. Studies show that Lesotho will be water stressed in the next 25 years. Communities want water for irrigation. They want phase 2 to include component of development through water on the Lesotho side.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: More dams are going to be built as part of the project. What is the anticipated effect of any new dams on resident communities?

JACOB LENKA: The level of awareness amongst the affected communities is high. They have already formed their own civic organization; it is called Survivors of Lesotho Dams (SOLD). However, this level of consciousness does not translate into stoppage of the building of more them in Lesotho. The advice of the communities already affected to those who would be affected by phase 2 is that the latter should demand all compensation and resettlement packages before work starts, because once the work has started, the many promises are lost; the authorities often renege on these promises.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What lessons does the Lesotho Highlands Water Project hold for the rest of Africa?

JACOB LENKA: TRC is working on a booklet with partners. The booklet will reflect the experiences of TRC field workers as they were monitoring the Project. These experiences will be lessons for affected communities world-wide, the dam financiers and the NGOs. One lesson that Lesotho has stolen the show about is the prosecution of international companies that were involved in corruption in the Lesotho dams. Perhaps this will be a lesson for Africa in terms of what a small state can do to the giants.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to [email protected]

More than 20 wildlife groups have urged Kenya's president to reverse a decision made the week of October 3 to downgrade Amboseli National Park to a game reserve. This means control of the Rift Valley wildlife haven will move from the Kenya Wildlife Service to a local authority, run by the area's Maasai community. Opponents of the change say it is an attempt to win Maasai votes ahead of next month's constitution referendum. But supporters say the Maasai will now benefit from Amboseli's revenue.

Corruption is costing Africa's oil industry billions of dollars annually, says Peter Eigen, founder and chairperson of Transparency International (TI) - a non-governmental group based in Berlin that monitors and fights graft. Oil-rich Angola, Chad, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan all fared poorly on TI's corruption perceptions index for last year. This annual rating ranks various states according on the extent to which graft is viewed as having taken hold there.

As the world's financial leaders gathered in Washington for the annual meetings of the World Bank (Sept. 24-25), help for Africa was high on the agenda. But the Bank's biggest dam project in Africa, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) – sold as a way of pulling Lesotho out of poverty while supplying water to South Africa – is, according to the Bank itself, failing those who sacrificed everything for the project. Poverty is increasing in communities directly affected by the scheme's dams, and project-affected people are resorting to marching in the streets of Lesotho's capital to call attention to their plight.

The Government has handed back Amboseli National Park to the Maasai in what appears to be a move to woo the community into the Banana camp before the November 21 referendum. President Kibaki on Thursday directed that a legal notice be issued to ensure the park was returned to the community as trust land. Through a special gazette notice issued on the same day by Tourism and Wildlife minister Morris Dzoro, the park now becomes a national reserve and will be run by Olkejuado County Council.

African scientists have formed a network to give them a unified voice on policies touching on global environmental change affecting the continent. The African Network for Global Environment Change was established during a meeting in Nairobi at the weekend. Professor Eric Odada, of the University of Nairobi, told the participants that Africa lacks long-term and stable intergovernmental support for research into global environmental change.

Corruption is costing Africa's oil industry billions of dollars annually says Peter Eigen, founder and chairman of Transparency International (TI) -- a non-governmental group based in Berlin which monitors and fights graft. He made the comment to journalists Friday at a gathering organised by TI South Africa in the commercial capital of Johannesburg. Eigen was in the country to attend the 18th World Petroleum Congress, a five-day meeting held in Johannesburg which attracted more than 4,000 delegates. Oil-rich Angola, Chad, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan all fared poorly on TI's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2004. This annual rating ranks various states according on the extent to which graft is viewed as having taken hold there.

Yellow flames from oil rigs light up the night sky, helping Richard Vuadi guides his boat as he sets out to cast his nets along the Democratic Republic of Congo's coast. Oil rigs that dot the horizon have polluted the water, so much that fishermen say they pose health risks. "We have no choice, our families must eat," says Vuadi, a 50-year old fisherman, as he steps out of his dugout canoe in the morning with a bucketful of fish that he caught overnight. He says many of the fish are contaminated.

The Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) reports that the District of Apac is typical of most of Northern Uganda, almost completely un-industrialised with few urban centres of any size. In a report, 'Land Rights: Where we are and where we need to go' LEMU states that the population is rural and depends entirely on agriculture for its livelihoods. Mechanisation is rare, so the only productive assets which most households own are land, a few hand tools and livestock.This is described as 'traditional' and has in recent years seen changes. The report reviews the situation of land rights in the Apac District and looks at opportunities for land rights protection work. It examines the 1998 Land Act and its implementation in practice and finds that the protection clauses for women are proving ineffective.

Seventeen employees of Zimbabwe's state-run oil procurement company have been suspended following investigations into the theft of tens of thousands of litres of fuel, the Sunday Mail has reported. The state-run newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said 38 000 litres of petrol and diesel had disappeared on one day recently and that millions of litres could have been stolen since the beginning of the year. The oil depot has had to cancel night shifts in an attempt to prevent theft. The stolen fuel had supplied the black market, where it sold for prices way above those set by the government, the newspaper said. It had also been smuggled into neighbouring countries

Rising temperatures in the Sahara desert could reduce drought in the Sahel region immediately south of it, say researchers. The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters this month (10 September), add to a growing body of research on how climate change might affect the continent. Reindert Haarsma and colleagues of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute used a computer model to predict the effects of rising temperatures on rainfall over Africa. They say their study is the first to consider the roles of both land and sea surface temperatures. The model suggests that if emissions of greenhouse gases are not reduced, higher temperatures over the Sahara would cause 1-2 millimetres of extra daily rainfall in the Sahel by 2080 during the months from July to September.

More work is needed urgently to prevent potentially fatal releases of gas from two lakes in Cameroon, scientists say. Lakes Nyos and Monoun contain high concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide. In the 1980s, thousands died when the gas was suddenly released. Pipes have been installed to remove CO2 from the bottom of the lakes, but new research shows they are not enough. Scientists warn more pipes must be put in place to avert the danger of further catastrophic releases of gas. "With one pipe in each lake, we are currently removing more gas than comes in each year," said George Kling, from the University of Michigan, US.