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The challenges before Africa and the African Union
Centre for
Research, Education & Development of Freedom of Expression and
Associated Rights (CREDO) and FAHAMU
by Rotimi Sankore and Firoze Manji
May 29, 2003
http://www.pambazuka.org/newsletter.php?id=15362
View
the text of the petition
The challenges
facing the African continent are enormous. On every front: economic
and industrial development; scientific and technological know how;
electrification; agriculture; education; healthcare; housing; telecommunications;
transport; peace and stability; institutional respect for social,
economic, political and human rights, and all other indices of modern
society the continent is yet to fulfil its potential. The reasons
for this have been articulated extensively – four hundred years
of vicious slavery and colonisation including the murder of millions
of Africans in their prime, decades of military coups and dictatorships
of all sorts backed by both ‘eastern and western bloc’ countries
in the cold war battle for strategic interests and resources etc.
These are terrible events, which would have undermined the development
of any continent
Nevertheless, present day African governments are still failing
in their duty to break the shackles imposed on their countries by
the injustices of the past and guide their countries into the 21st
century.
On the 25th of May the African Union celebrated the 40th anniversary
of Africa Liberation Day and the formation of the Organisation of
African Unity. The 26th of May was also the second anniversary of
the formal creation of the African Union. In his anniversary message,
the current Chair of the Union President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa
saluted "the distinguished leaders of the continental struggle
such as Kwame Nkrumah, Gamel Abdel Nasser, Haille Selassie, Mmandi
Azikiwe, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Kenneth Kaunda, Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere, Augostino Neto, Samora Machel, Amilcar Cabral, Albert Luthuli,
Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and many others"
and their "Pan-Africanist vision of a Union of African States
sharing common aims of multicultural unity, socio-economic and political
co-operation and development, the promotion of human rights, the
protection of human rights and freedoms, the promotion of peace
and stability and the removal of the remaining yokes of colonialism
and apartheid on the continent."
He also acknowledged that "there are new issues on our agenda
today such as democracy, peace and stability, human security, good
economic governance as well as sustainable development, human rights,
health, gender equality, information and computer technology, integrated
regional development, cultural and heritage preservation and promotion."
More importantly, he admitted that "The international community
is eager to see whether we will be able to live up to the conditions
that we have set ourselves in NEPAD and its African Peer Review
Mechanism (APRM) in which we have designed measures to assist states
where capacity gaps exist and to set benchmarks of excellence for
a vibrant and progressive Africa." "We, in Africa,"
he said "are optimistic that a new dawn is breaking and that
prosperity, peace and human security will be a reality rather than
a figment of our imagination."
But rather disappointingly, the first tasks that African Union has
set for itself do not take account of President Mbeki’s fine words.
Instead, the Executive Council meeting of the AU attended by Foreign
Ministers of all 53 member-states of the African Union met last
week to "consider issues" relating to the implementation
of decisions taken by Heads of State and Government during the launch
of the African Union" regarding: "Common African Defence
and Security Policy; the new structure of the Commission; progress
report on the election of the AU Commissioners; scale of assessment
for member-states; and the link between the AU and the African Diaspora."
This distinguished gathering of Ministers did not think it necessary
to respond to the urgent issues such as warnings by the World Food
Programme of looming food shortages and famine in several African
countries including Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Somalia,
Sudan, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where various estimates
of between thirty million to forty million people are at risk of
starvation.
By no coincidence, the governments of these countries have been
identified by several international and African press freedom and
freedom of expression organisations as suppressing press freedom
and freedom of expression. In almost all cases, the rights to association,
assembly and political participation have also been curtailed.
There also seems to be no collective awareness of other grim facts
and statistics hanging like a sword of Damocles over of millions
of Africans:
- Of the ten
countries in the world spending the least on healthcare, only
one [Tajikistan] is not African. Liberia, Burundi, Somalia, Niger,
Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Central African Republic and
Chad top this list.
- Of the ten
most undernourished nations in the world only three Afghanistan,
North Korea and Haiti are not African. The other seven are Somalia,
Burundi, Eritrea, Dem Republic of Congo, Liberia and Niger.
- The ten countries
in the world with the highest death rate, and lowest life expectancy
are all African: Botswana; Mozambique;’ Zimbabwe; Swaziland; Angola;
Namibia; Malawi; Niger; Zambia; and Rwanda make up the first list
with Sierra Leone, Burundi, Djibouti, swapping places with Angola,
Namibia and Zimbabwe on the second list.
- Of the ten
countries in the world with the youngest populations [normally
characterised by high death rates and high birth rates] nine are
African: Uganda; Dem Rep of Congo; Chad; Niger; Sao Tome and Principe;
Ethiopia; Burkina Faso; Mali and Benin.
- Of the ten
most corrupt countries in the world, five Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon,
Kenya and Tanzania, are African.
- The ten countries
in the world that are worst for education are all African: Niger;
Burkina Faso; sierra Leone; Guinea; Ethiopia; Angola; Mali; Mozambique;
Senegal; Burundi and Guinea Bissau.
- Not surprisingly,
eight of the ten countries on the planet with the highest rates
of illiteracy are African: Niger, Burkina Faso; Gambia; Ethiopia;
Senegal; Mali; Mauritania and Sierra Leone [the other two being
Afghanistan and Haiti]
- Yet, Africa
seems to be heading full steam towards a housing catastrophe with
ten of the fastest growing countries in the world being African:
Niger; Somalia; Angola; Uganda: Liberia; Burkina Faso; Mali; Ethiopia
and Dem Republic of Congo.
It is therefore
no surprise, that malaria, HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality are estimated
to kill one million per year [or 2800 per day in Africa], an estimated
two million per year, and forty percent of an estimated annual world
total of 585,000 women year respectively. Add to these the numerous
ongoing conflicts claiming hundreds of thousands of lives every
year (estimnated at more than 3 million in DRC alone over the last
three years) and it will be no exaggeration to say that Africa may
well descend into a wasteland of conflict, disease and poverty if
the trend is not revered over the next few decades. But 2020 or
2040 this is not so far away. It was only ‘yesterday’ that the 1970s
and 1980s targets for ‘everything for all’ by the year 2000 were
set without any clear arrangement to achieve these targets, and
today it is 2003.
The ongoing SARS epidemic is yet to take a thousand lives globally
but was placed at the fore of a recent meeting of Asian countries.
The Canadian authorities were reported on the 29th of May to have
decided to quarantine 5000 persons at risk from the SARS virus.
Yet the AU does not think the healthcare crisis facing Africa deserves
to be fast tracked to the fore of its Agenda. The right to life
is after all the most important of all. To describe the African
healthcare crisis as a result of criminal negligence will not be
an exaggeration.
To anyone familiar with the political and economic history of Africa,
the surprise is not that these statistics exist. The surprise is
that there is no cohesive plan to reverse the trend.
The task to rebuild the continent must therefore begin immediately.
Improved education, healthcare, dealing urgently with the tragedy
of HIV/AIDS, agriculture, scientific and technological development,
housing, conflict resolution, peace and stability, and so forth
must be accelerated to the fore of the AU’s agenda. Unfortunately,
this seems unlikely to happen unless African civil society makes
every effort to ensure it is done.
But before any of these can happen, freedom of expression and freedom
of association needs to be institutionalised. Nothing can happen
without these. Only last week we witnessed the absurdity of a Moroccan
editor being sentenced to four years in jail for publishing a satirical
weekly which ‘insulted the King of Morocco.’ Such absurdities belong
in the feudal past of humanity and have no place in the modern world.
Yet Morocco is not alone. Eritrea one of the first few countries
to sign the constitutive Act of the African Union has imprisoned
18 editors and journalists and banned the entire private media.
In July, 53 African heads of state will gather in Maputo for a meeting
of the African Union. At least two thirds of them possess a plethora
of anti media and anti freedom of expression laws in the armouries
employed to stifle debate and alternative opinion.
Last week, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Africa Liberation
Day, CREDO wrote to President Mbeki asking him to "call on
fellow African leaders to release all incarcerated journalists,
repeal all anti media and anti free-expression laws and legislation
in their countries and end the persecution of journalists, civil
society and peaceful democratic opposition." The letter also
urged him to "act speedily and decisively on these issues and
to ensure they are firmly on the agenda of the 2nd Ordinary Session
of the Assembly of the African Union planned for Maputo, Mozambique
in July 2003." The letter stressed that "an end to the
suppression of press freedom, freedom of expression and the rights
to assembly, association and political participation will be a first
and crucial step" towards solving the problems facing Africa.
In order to ensure that these issues are placed on the agenda of
the AU, CREDO in collaboration with FAHAMU, is today launching a
forty-day campaign in PAMBAZUKA NEWS aimed at presenting a petition
to the African Union assembly of Heads of state in Maputo [see link
below]. The petition calls for among other things, the release of
all journalists incarcerated in all African countries and an end
to the suppression of press freedom and freedom of expression. We
urge you to support the campaign.
Rotimi Sankore is Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression
and Associated Rights an NGO focussing on rights issues in Africa.
He is Contributing Editor of Pambazuka News. Firoze Manji is Director
of Fahamu.
Organisations and persons wishing to sign this petition should send
their name, name of organisation and country to info@credonet.org
and editor@pambazuka.org
with the title Africa Union Campaign to media freedom and freedom
of expression. Please state clearly if you are signing in your personal
capacity or on behalf of your organisation.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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