Commonwealth Human Rights weekly update (02/07 - 08/07/2011)

Horn, East and Central Africa

Monday 04/07: Aid agencies launch multi-million pound appeals to address food crisis

Aid agencies launched huge appeals this week in order to tackle the impending humanitarian emergency in east Africa, where severe drought and high food prices have left 10 million people needing help.

The drought in some pastoralist regions of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda comes as a result of the second failed rainy season in the last year. The drought has destroyed livestock, which at a time where cereal prices are soaring has caused hunger levels to increase sharply.

Almost a thousand Somalis refugees per day continue to cross across the Kenyan border to Dadaab, already the largest refugee settlement in the world, as covered in a previous post.  The greatest proportion of people in need are located in Kenya’s northern regions, where cereal prices have risen sharply in recent times. This is partly due to an increase in the global price, however a shortage of the maize has also been attributed to poor planning by the government, who claimed to have a surplus earlier in the year, before declaring a national disaster in May. There have also been allegations that politically connected Kenyans have sold maize meant for domestic consumption to neighbouring countries.

Sub-saharan Africa

Thursday 07/07/2011: Sub-saharan Africa on route to achieve MDG2

Sub-saharan Africa has been recognised as having up the best record for improvement in primary school enrolment, according the UN's annual report card of regional progress towards the eight MDGs.

The report highlighted that the world is far from achieving universal primary education. However Burundi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Togo and Tanzania are among the countries that have achieved, or are nearing the goal of universal primary education. The abolition of school fees has contributed to progress in many of these countries, the UN said.

To achieve universal primary education, children must complete a full cycle of primary schooling. Currently, 87 out of 100 children in poor countries complete primary education.

Swaziland

Monday 04/07: Aid agencies launch multi-million pound appeals to address food crisis

The Commonwealth Secretariat is continuing to help Swaziland in advance of the country’s first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) human rights evaluation through a series of workshops for civil society organisations.

The UPR is a four yearly review of the human rights records of all 192 member states of the Commonwealth.  Swaziland is due to present its report to the Human Rights Council this month, and answer questions on it in October.

Karen McKenzie, Human rights adviser with HRU stated ‘engagement was contructive around a number of the burning human rights issues confronting government currently – some of these issues have been pending for a while.’ CHRI has covered Swaziland’s human rights record in previous posts and official statements.

African Commonwealth Human Rights Weekly Update (16/04 - 22/04/2011)

Mauritius

Monday 18/04: Universal Periodic Review: Mauritius hosted a two-day seminar on the Universal Periodic Review. The event was attended by representatives of the seven African Commonwealth countries who are up for periodic review in the coming two tears (Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia). The seminar aimed to strengthen the ability of the states to implement the recommendations they received from the UN Human Rights Council when they were last under review in 2008 and 2009.

The UPR sets out to review the human rights situation in all 192 UN member states every four years. In the process each national government reports to the UN Human Rights Council on the activities they have undertaken to uphold human rights. After consideration of the report, the UNHCR draws up a list of suggestions which are then discussed with the national government to bring together an action plan for the next four years.

Nigeria

Monday 18/04: Election Results: As it had done in the National Assembly Elections, The Commonwealth declared itself happy with the conduct of the Nigerian presidential elections. Speaking for the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Botswana President Festus Mogae said, "The April 2011 elections marked a genuine celebration of democracy in Africa’s most populous country and a key member of the Commonwealth...Previously held notions that Nigeria can only hold flawed elections are now being discarded and this country can now shake off that stigma and redeem its image.”

Meanwhile, areas in the north of the country witnessed some of the worst post electoral violence in recent memory. The Civil Rights Congress claim that more than 500 people have died since the presidential elections on Saturday the 16^th of April. The violence came after it became clear that Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, had defeated a Muslim candidate from the mostly Islamic north.

Uganda

Friday 22/04: Arbitrary Arrests: Kizza Besigye, the leader of the Forum for Democratic change, Uganda’s principle opposition party, spent Easter in jail after being arrested for the third time. He was held by Ugandan police for holding another walk to work-protest in Kampala. Besigye was charged for unlawful assembly and will appear in country on the 27^th of April.

In the town of Masaka one child was killed and two protesters injured by bullets during protests on Thursday. These two incidents are part of ongoing unrest about rising prices and police handling of protests.

Since the conclusion of the February 2011 general elections, the Ugandan police have maintained a blanket ban against all forms of public assemblies and demonstrations. This ban has been imposed on the pretext of ensuring public security. This blanket ban is in violation to the right to freedom of expression guaranteed in Uganda’s Constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.