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Africa bags early spoils at Dubai climate talks

Africa bags early spoils at Dubai climate talks

AFTER securing the landmark climate damage compensation deal at COP27, Africa's push for the Loss and Damage Fund gets a major shot in the arm at this year's climate summit, after states committed millions to activate it The Fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to countries at extreme risk from climate change, to support mitigation and recovery, was established after intense negotiations at COP27. A synchronised diplomatic offensive by African states had resulted in the historic deal to set up a kitty compensating states with historically low carbon emission levels for the impacts of climate change. Those include rising…
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Dispossessed Kenyans demand compensation ahead of King Charles’ visit

Dispossessed Kenyans demand compensation ahead of King Charles’ visit

WHEN the then-Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, Kibore Cheruiyot Ngasura was among a group of young men chosen to sing for her at an event near Lake Victoria. The men planned to use the occasion to petition Elizabeth to relocate their parents from a detention camp in the barren, mosquito-infested town of Gwassi, where members of the Talai clan had been held for nearly two decades on suspicion of fomenting resistance to British colonial rule. The event never happened. Before Elizabeth could make it to Lake Victoria, word came that her father, King George VI, had died. The new…
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COP27 key outcomes: progress on compensation for developing countries, but more needed on climate justice and equity

COP27 key outcomes: progress on compensation for developing countries, but more needed on climate justice and equity

THERE were high expectations for COP27, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP conferences broadly provide a platform for the negotiation of international climate change agreements. This was to be the first COP held in Africa since 2016. It was also framed as the implementation of COP, which would lead to action. Authors IMRAAN VALODIA, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand JULIA TAYLOR, Researcher: Climate and Inequality, University of the Witwatersrand COP27 was expected to make progress on “loss and damage”.…
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Jamaica plans to seek reparations from Britain over slavery

Jamaica plans to seek reparations from Britain over slavery

KATE CHAPPELL JAMAICA plans to ask Britain for compensation for the Atlantic slave trade in the former British colony, a senior government official said, under a petition that could seek billions of pounds in reparations. Jamaica was a centre of the slave trade, with the Spanish, then the British, forcibly transporting Africans to work on plantations of sugar cane, bananas and other crops that created fortunes for many of their owners. "We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages…
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Netherlands offers compensation to children of executed Indonesians

Netherlands offers compensation to children of executed Indonesians

THE Dutch government has offered compensation to the children of Indonesians who were executed by Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian war of independence between 1945 and 1950. In a settlement meant to end lengthy court battles, the government promised 5,000 euros ($5,890) to everyone with a credible claim to their father's execution during the conflict. The war of independence started after the end of World War Two in 1945 and ended in December 1949, when the Netherlands recognised the independence of its former colony. During the conflict, Dutch soldiers executed opponents without any form of trial and tortured prisoners during…
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Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers

Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers

ZIMBABWE agreed on Wednesday to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was expropriated by the government to resettle black families, moving a step closer to resolving one the most divisive policies of the Robert Mugabe era. But the southern African nation does not have the money and will issue long term bonds and jointly approach international donors with the farmers to raise funding, according to the compensation agreement. Two decades ago Mugabe's government carried out at times violent evictions of 4,500 white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300,000 Black families, arguing it was redressing…
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