human rights - The African Mirror

Apr

2023

The new scramble for Africa: What it means for Africa’s human rights record

MXOLISI NCUBE THE Russia-Ukraine war has widened the rift between the entrenched West and the emerging East and - as collateral damage - Africa’s already sordid human rights record will regress further. According to Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, eight African states rank among the world’s 15 countries with the worst human rights and rule of law records as of 2022. Of course, such ratings are sometimes controversial, subjective and drafted with certain agendas in mind, but even that is on its own a strong indicator of how ordinary Africans are set to continue bearing the…

Apr

2023

By DOROTHY MABELEBELE

‘Big Brother SA, Africa needs you’

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

“WATER, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” This line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” comes to mind in this human rights month. A tidal wave of speeches about civil liberties and democracy were being made but they slip inexorably backwards and provided no succour to ordinary Africans. The sorry state of human rights in Africa was captured in a seminar held in Johannesburg recently. It was preceded by an address on the issue by South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa at a Human Rights Day event, a U.S. State Department report citing human rights…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

French court to rule on landmark TotalEnergies Uganda case

NEWS

AMERICA HERNANDEZ A French court could order oil major TotalEnergies to halt the development of an east Africa pipeline in a landmark case based on legislation that makes big companies liable for risks to the environment and human rights. The Paris civil court will rule on a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth France and five other French and Ugandan activist groups accusing TotalEnergies of expropriating land from more than 100,000 people without sufficient compensation and drilling on a natural park with endangered species. TotalEnergies has argued that its vigilance, compensation and relocalisation plans are fair and legal and that…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

UN rights office seeks to stay put in Uganda after being told to go

NEWS

THE UN rights office said it was in discussion with Uganda over how to continue its work in the country after the government said it had to leave, a move activists say highlights the country's deteriorating record on civil liberties. The office was set up in 2006 and has brought to light widespread rights violations by security personnel including torture, illegal detentions and failure by the state to prosecute offenders. Uganda told the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) last week that it would not renew the mandate of its office, effectively expelling the rights monitors. "We…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Blinken says U.S. will continue to encourage Egypt to take action on human rights

NEWS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said human rights were a top item on the agenda in talks with Egypt's president and foreign minister during a visit to Cairo. Blinken said the United States would continue to encourage Egypt to take further actions on human rights, including releasing more political prisoners and reforming pre-trial detention. During a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Blinken also said holding elections in Libya this year was the only viable path to a durable solution in the country. Thomson Reuters Foundation

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Christian nationalism poses a threat to human rights in Ghana

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

GHANA is a religious country. According to the 2021 census, about 71% of the population is Christian and 18% Muslim. Followers of indigenous or animistic religious beliefs make up another 5%, and 6% are members of other religious groups or don’t have religious beliefs. Many Ghanaians regard Ghana as a “nation of Christians.” The New Patriotic Party’s electoral slogan in 2016 and 2020 was: “For the battle is the Lord’s.” These are words David is said to have uttered when confronting Goliath in their biblical combat. The party’s electoral slogan referenced the Christian god and implied the party was fighting…

Dec

2021

By The African Mirror

Hamilton speaks out on human rights in Saudi

SPORT

ALAN BALDWIN SEVEN-TIMES Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton expressed concern about human rights in Saudi Arabia and indicated he did not feel comfortable about having to race in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is hosting a grand prix for the first time this weekend, a night race around a street circuit in Jeddah, with rights groups accusing the country of using the event to deflect scrutiny from abuses. Hamilton, the sport's most successful driver, said he had received a warm welcome on arrival but felt "duty-bound" to speak out. The Briton, who has used his platform to campaign for diversity…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Taliban breaking promises including over women, says U.N.

WORLD

EMMA FARGE AFGHANISTAN’S Taliban rulers have contradicted public promises on rights including by ordering women to stay at home, blocking teenage girls from school and holding house-to-house searches for former foes, according to a senior United Nations official. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Afghanistan was in a "new and perilous phase" since the militant Islamist group seized power last month, with many women and members of ethnic and religious communities deeply worried. "In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women's rights, over the past three weeks, women have instead been progressively excluded from the public…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Hunted by the men they jailed, Afghanistan’s women judges seek escape

WORLD

STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG SAFE in Europe after escaping from Kabul, an Afghan woman judge describes how she was hunted by men she had once jailed, now freed by the Taliban fighters who took over the country. "Four or five Taliban members came and asked people in my house: 'Where is this woman judge?' These were people who I had put in jail," she told Reuters in an interview from an undisclosed location, asking not to be identified. Afghanistan has around 250 women judges. A few were able to flee in recent weeks, but most were left behind and are…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Sex testing at the Olympics should be abolished once and for all

SPORT

LIKE the proverbial whack-a-mole, the Olympic sex test keeps coming back — with disastrous effects for women athletes across the globe — no matter how many times athletes and human rights’ advocates think they have abolished it. BRUCE KIDD, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto The test was introduced in the 1930s to weed out “abnormal women athletes” from the Olympics. The first test was a physical examination. During the 1960s, when women began to object to the test’s “nude parades,” the official response was not abolition, but replacement by chromosome analysis. Feminists, athletes, geneticists, ethicists,…