HUMAN RIGHTS - The African Mirror

Jan

2021

Laws to leaders: three aims for the anti-slavery movement in 2021

WITH less than a decade for the world to meet a United Nations target of ending modern slavery, experts say gains in tackling human trafficking risk being undone by the COVID-19 pandemic. About 40 million people globally are estimated to be enslaved - in forced labour and forced marriages - in a trade worth an estimated $150 billion a year to human traffickers, according to the U.N. International Labour Organization (ILO). Ending modern slavery by 2030 was one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. But the fallout from coronavirus - from lockdowns…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian rights body says security forces killed at least 76 in summer unrest after musician’s killing

HUMAN RIGHTS

ETHIOPIA’S state-appointed human rights commission says security forces killed at least 76 people and wounded nearly 200 during violent unrest in June and July that followed the killing of a popular singer. The commission also detailed brutality by civilians involved in the clashes, saying some attackers beheaded and tortured people after dragging them from their homes and using ethnic slurs. The "widespread and systematic attack" on civilians by attackers constituted crimes against humanity, the commission said. Its report on the violence, some of the worst in Ethiopia since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018, said a total of…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 spurs calls to boost protections for millions of homeworkers

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMMA BATHA THE dramatic global shift to remote working during COVID-19 lockdowns has underscored an urgent need for greater protections for homeworkers, many of whom are paid far less than those employed outside the home, the United Nations has said. About 7.9% of workers - 260 million people - were home-based before the pandemic, but this figure has more than doubled, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). "Homeworkers have been invisible for too long. But the explosion in home working during the pandemic has highlighted the poor working conditions experienced by millions worldwide," ILO economist Janine Berg told the…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia: A partial view of the humanitarian fallout emerges in Tigray

HUMAN RIGHTS

BEN PARKER FOOD shortages, widespread looting, and sexual violence were among the findings in the first on-the-ground look at the situation in Tigray by UN and Ethiopian officials. A report released last week by the UN's emergency aid department, OCHA, outlines an emerging humanitarian situation, with more than two million people in need of assistance due to recent fighting between federal government forces and troops loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Overall access to the region and communications have been constrained by the central government, making first-hand assessments difficult. Speaking in Geneva on 6 January, at an online briefing hosted by…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Nigeria’s slave descendants hope race protests help end discrimination

HUMAN RIGHTS

ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI WHEN Barack Obama was elected the first Black U.S. president in 2008, Anthony Uzoije noticed less contempt towards descendants of slaves like him in his south-eastern Nigeria community. Uzoije, from Ogbaru in Anambra state, now hopes Black Lives Matter protests globally will inspire similar change for him and the Igbo people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa and principal group enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of Igbos - amounting to many millions of people - are descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination, which has…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

S. African activists hail ruling to protect poor residents from police raids

HUMAN RIGHTS

KIM HARRISBERG SOUTH African campaigners have welcomed a court ruling that will make it harder for police to raid poor city dwellers' homes, following recent protests over operations to enforce the coronavirus lockdown. The Johannesburg High Court ruling, which effectively bans police from raiding homes without a warrant, came after a series of often-violent raids on "hijacked buildings" - properties illegally seized by rogue landlords and rented to low-income tenants. "This is a major step in the right direction in making sure that all are equal before law, not just those living in affluent suburbs," said Khululiwe Bhengu from the…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus puts millions more at risk of child marriage and FGM

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMMA BATHA The coronavirus pandemic is reversing progress on ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), jeopardising the futures of millions of girls, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday. "The pandemic both makes our job harder and more urgent as so many more girls are now at risk," said Natalia Kanem, head of the United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA. An additional 13 million girls could be married off and two million more could undergo FGM in the next decade, beyond what would have been expected, as COVID-19 disrupts global efforts to end both practices, UNFPA…

Jun

2020

By The African Mirror

Footballer’s crusade exposes long plight of Black migrants in Spain

HUMAN RIGHTS

SOPHIE DAVIES A PROFESSIONAL footballer's campaign to provide shelter for homeless African fruit-pickers has exposed the decades-long plight of Black migrant farmworkers in Spain, according to human rights activists. Monaco winger Keita Balde, born in Spain to Senegalese parents, started paying for food and hotel rooms for about 80 seasonal workers this month on hearing about them sleeping rough in Catalonia, the wealthy northeastern region where he grew up. Balde, 25, said in an Instagram livestream "nobody deserves that kind of indifference in their lives. It is very ugly". Yet seasonal migrant workers sleeping rough is nothing new, with thousands…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Radio in Mali can empower women by remembering they are part of a social web

HUMAN RIGHTS

THE Malian politician, writer and women’s activist Aoua Kéita once argued that “The evolution of a country depends on the place that women occupy in the public space of that country.” Today, Malian women face multiple and intersecting barriers that prevent them from realising this vision. EMMA HEYWOOD, Lecturer and Researcher, University of Sheffield In a country with discriminatory laws, extensive polygamy and gender-based violence, and where husbands are often the sole decision-makers, Malian women live in an oppressive culture amid widespread poverty. To ease financial burdens, many Malian girls are forced to marry as children so their families can…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

How the aid sector marginalises women refugees

HUMAN RIGHTS

SHIMA BAHRE I am a woman, a refugee from Darfur, and the co-founder of an organisation committed to supporting other Sudanese refugee women in Kampala, Uganda. I have heard about the localisation process in humanitarian aid, but I do not feel its effect. What I do feel, and experience on a daily basis, are the numerous ways women – especially refugee women – are discriminated against in the humanitarian system. My experiences have taught me that, wherever we go, women need to stand up for ourselves and take leadership because no one understands the issues women from war zones face…