HUMAN RIGHTS - The African Mirror

Feb

06

2021

COVID-19 creates ‘fertile ground’ for genital cutting in Africa

HUMAN RIGHTS

WHEN Margaret heard the family making plans for her genital cutting ceremony last August, the 15-year-old Kenyan schoolgirl knew there was no room for negotiation. Her school in rural, western Kenya had been closed for five months due to the pandemic, and with no certainty when classes would resume, Margaret's parents decided she should wed. "They wanted me to be cut so I could be married and they would get dowry," Margaret told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from a temporary foster home in West Pokot county, which borders Uganda. "They didn't listen when I told them I wanted…

Feb

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Race against time to help thousands of Central African refugees

HUMAN RIGHTS

TWICE in his long life, 74-year-old Joseph had to flee conflict in the Central African Republic. When violence erupted ahead of the country's elections in December, he knew it would be a third. "There was war, so we had to flee. It is the third time I am fleeing my country. I am tired. At my age, you can imagine that I am not only tired but I feel despair and anguish," says Joseph wearily. He had previously fled his hometown of Bangassou, some 700 kilometres from the capital Bangui, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2013.…

Aug

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Violence against children carries a huge cost for Africa: governments need to act urgently

HUMAN RIGHTS

EVERY day, millions of children experience violence in one form or another. It is a global problem that cuts across colour, class, educational status, income, ethnicity and origin. RONGEDZAYI FAMBASAYI, Doctoral Researcher: Faculty of Law, North-West University It has immediate, long term and irreparable impacts on the life, survival, physical and psychosocial development and well-being of children. Violence against children also has financial implications for families and the state. The scale of violence against children, including recent forms such as cyberbullying and online abuse, is worrying. The impact of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and closure of schools has also exposed children…

Feb

12

2021

By The African Mirror

For Valentine’s Day, Traceable, Transparent Jewelry Supply Chains

HUMAN RIGHTS

Jewellery and watch companies should improve efforts to ensure that human rights are respected in their global supply chains, Human Rights Watch said today ahead of Valentine’s Day on February 14, 2021.Human Rights Watch issued “20 Questions Company Officials Should Ask to Guide Action,” which jewellers and other industry experts can use as a starting point to understand a jewellery company’s sourcing practices and respect for human rights. The questions deal with a company’s transparency, traceability, and steps to identify and respond to human rights risks in their global supply chain, including at mines of origin. A recent Human Rights Watch report and…

Feb

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Mali fails to face up to the persistence of slavery

HUMAN RIGHTS

THE internal African slave trade was officially abolished in colonial Mali in 1905. But a form of slavery – called “descent-based slavery” – continues today. This is when “slave status” is ascribed to a person, based on their ancestors having allegedly been enslaved by elite slave-owning families. MARIE RODET, Reader in the History of Africa, SOAS, University of London BAKARY CAMARA, Professeur Titulaire Agrégé des facultés de droit et Doyen de la Faculté de Droit Public, Université des sciences juridiques et politiques de Bamako LOTTE PELCKMANS, Associate Professor, Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen The practice is most…

Jul

27

2021

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE: Sex-for-food aid claimed by women in Burkina Faso

HUMAN RIGHTS

SAM MEDNICK THE women were able to escape deadly attacks by Islamist militants that have triggered one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement crises. But their ordeal, they said, didn’t end there: In places of supposed refuge, local men demanded sex from them in exchange for humanitarian assistance. Eight displaced women living in Burkina Faso’s northern town of Kaya told The New Humanitarian they were approached for sex by local men – some of the community leaders – who said they were registering people in need of food aid. Most incidents took place over the past 15 months, the women said…

Jul

24

2021

By The African Mirror

Aid neutrality under fire in Ethiopia’s widening conflict

HUMAN RIGHTS

PHILIP KLEINFELD ETHIOPIAN government accusations that aid agencies are supporting rebel forces in Tigray have left international relief organisations concerned for the security of frontline staff, even as conflict escalates and hundreds of thousands of people face famine. In a statement last week, Ethiopian foreign affairs official Redwan Hussein accused aid organisations of delivering weapons and equipment to rebel groups, and said unnamed UN agencies were “fabricating facts and figures” in a campaign aimed at “disrespecting and defaming Ethiopia”. He also threatened to expel staff members of the agencies. The conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has uprooted about two million people,…

Feb

26

2021

By The African Mirror

Anger, fear runs deep after months of ethnic violence in western Ethiopia

HUMAN RIGHTS

MARIA GERTH-NICULESCU A series of government-sponsored community reconciliation efforts in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz region has failed to curb months of ethnic conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives and left more than 100,000 people displaced. The peace forums are aimed at bridging community divides, but disputes over land ownership and a lack of accounting for brutal tit-for-tat massacres continue to fuel anger in a region long troubled by deep undercurrents of ethno-nationalism. The reconciliation drives, involving elders and religious leaders, have been held in a number of wards around Gelgel Beles – the capital of the Metekel Zone, the area hardest hit…

Jul

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Former UN rights boss to head probe into Israel, Hamas alleged crimes

HUMAN RIGHTS

FORMER United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay will head an international commission of inquiry into alleged crimes committed during the latest conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council has announced. The council agreed in late May to launch the investigation with a broad mandate to probe all alleged violations, not just in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but also in Israel during hostilities that were halted by a May 21 ceasefire. Outgoing U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay talks during an interview to Reuters in her office in Geneva August…

Feb

24

2021

By The African Mirror

The longshot bid to end rampant banditry in Nigeria’s northwest

HUMAN RIGHTS

OBI ANYADIKE THE scale of Boko Haram's insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has long been clear. But it took the abduction last month of more than 340 schoolboys for many people – even within Nigeria – to appreciate just how bad the insecurity has become in the country’s neglected northwest. The abductors pulled up on motorbikes at the all-boys secondary school in Kankara, in Katsina State, spent an hour rounding up the students who didn’t manage to bolt, and then marched them into Rugu forest in neighbouring Zamfara State. In a video message, the kidnappers said they were Boko Haram, a claim endorsed by…