HUMAN RIGHTS - The African Mirror

Oct

02

2020

Rugby saves school girls from child marriage in rural Zimbabwe

HUMAN RIGHTS

FARAI SHAWN MATIASHE WHEN the girls at Sahumani Secondary School in eastern Zimbabwe started playing rugby, they had to make do with the soccer pitch and the oversized football shirts used by the boys. Five years on, several have represented their country in the sport, and many more credit it with saving them from becoming child brides in a nation where early marriage remains common despite being outlawed in 2016. "I used to hate rugby. At the time I believed the sport was only for the elite and for men, not girls like me," said Catherine Muranganwa, 20, who has…

Nov

04

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenyan charities urge govt to quit U.S. -led anti-abortion pact

HUMAN RIGHTS

NITA BHALLA AN alliance of Kenyan charities urged the government to withdraw from a U.S.-led international accord that critics say aims to limit abortion access for millions of women and girls around the world. Thirty-three nations, including Kenya, signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD) - which was co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Egypt, Hungary and Indonesia - on October 22. The U.S. Department for Health says the GCD seeks better healthcare for women and the preservation of human life, while also strengthening the family as the foundational unit of society and protecting each nation's sovereignty. It should be…

Oct

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Malnutrition stalks Congo’s overcrowded prisons

HUMAN RIGHTS

ERIKAS MWISI KAMBALE FRIENDS of 18-year-old Muno Lembissa said he died in prison from sorrow. The jail's director said malnutrition contributed to his demise, because he did not have visitors to bring in meals to feed him. The teenager is one of dozens of inmates to die this year in the main prison in Bunia, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where, like the rest of the country, conditions are overcrowded and there is not enough food to go around. Lembissa had been convicted of rape and sentenced to a year in jail. "The sentence really upset him and as…

Oct

12

2020

By The African Mirror

How embroidery broke the silence around women’s apartheid trauma

HUMAN RIGHTS

PULENG SEGALO, Professor of Psychology, University of South Africa HOW do we speak trauma? We know from medicine that people embody trauma, beyond words. It shows up in our hearts and our blood pressure, our dreams and our nightmares; we pass it onto our children, and we work it through in arts, spirituality, counselling. My work has focused on a burning question in South Africa: how did women survive, care for others, and live through the many traumas of apartheid? I was interested in looking for ways to dismantle the polished narratives that circulate and are so often taken as…

Oct

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Inside Story: How we broke the Ebola sexual abuse scandal

HUMAN RIGHTS

PAISLEY DODDS EARLY last year during a trip to the Ebola outbreak zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we were tipped off that aid workers might be sexually abusing and exploiting women. “Oh, they love our ladies,” reporter Robert Flummerfelt was told in March 2019 at a bar in Butembo, one of two hubs for workers trying to contain the virus in Congo’s northeast. “They arrive in military convoys to take the sick for treatment, and they are always taking the women.” Even though the practice seemed well known, we were warned few women would talk. “The victims of…

Oct

09

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Treated like slaves’, African and Asian migrant workers bear brunt of Lebanon crisis

HUMAN RIGHTS

ALAA KANAAN CHANTING their national anthem in the departure hall of Beirut airport, a group of migrant workers prepared to return home and close a chapter on their time in Lebanon which drove some to despair. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which supports many domestic workers in Lebanon, says as many as 10,000 migrants have asked to be repatriated because their wages collapsed after the country plunged into a deep financial crisis a year ago. Many employers stopped paying salaries in dollars and some foreign workers said they were leaving with their wages unpaid. The numbers of those asking…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Why human rights should guide responses to the global pandemic

HUMAN RIGHTS

SANDRA LIEBENBERG, Distinguished Professor and H F Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law, Stellenbosch University THE coronavirus pandemic has killed over a million people globally and disrupted healthcare and political systems, economies, social bonds and religious practices. What can South Africa’s Bill of Rights and international human rights treaties contribute to coronavirus responses and recovery strategies in the country and globally? My central argument is that human rights provide tools to help states build fairer societies and economies. Such societies will be more resilient to future shocks. A human rights-based approach to the pandemic is based on values. It prioritises…

Nov

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Petra Diamonds investigates charges Tanzanian subsistence miners abused

HUMAN RIGHTS

PETRA Diamonds said it was investigating allegations by a British non-governmental organisation that subsistence miners who trespassed on the firm's Williamson mine in Tanzania were detained, beaten and shot at, killing at least seven of them. The RAID report, based on research conducted between September 2019 and November 2020, alleged that security contractors and security employees of Petra's subsidiary Williamson Diamonds Limited (WDL) used excessive force. Petra Diamonds told Reuters a specialist external adviser was conducting an investigation and said an external consultancy had been appointed to assess WDL's management of its security. "The board of Petra Diamonds finds the…

Nov

12

2020

By The African Mirror

From Asia to Africa, refugees hope Biden win could help rebuild lives

HUMAN RIGHTS

BEN LIY YI and NITA BHALLA JOE Biden's U.S. presidential election win has raised hopes of resettlement for refugees from Asia to Africa, many in countries where they are denied work and education and have no formal status. The United States has for years taken in tens of thousands of refugees who are unable to return home or make a new life in the country where they have sought asylum, under a process known as third-country resettlement. But admissions plunged under President Donald Trump from 85,000 in 2016, before he took office, to 30,000 last year, official data shows. Biden…

Nov

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Ethiopian girls trapped in sex trade as COVID-19 deepens desperation

HUMAN RIGHTS

EMELINE WUILBERCQ WHEN Selam fled her village aged 11 to avoid being wed to a much older man in northern Ethiopia, she was relieved and excited to forge a future on her own terms. But that hope was short-lived. Selam has spent the past three years in the sex trade in the northern city of Gondar, where officials and campaigners estimate hundreds of girls are victims of sexual exploitation and fear numbers are rising due to the coronavirus pandemic. Having dropped out of school at 11 and unable to afford to return home, Selam said she saw no way out…