The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for Human Rights is inviting submissions for nominations for the 2004 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. The RFK Human Rights Award was established in 1984 to honour creative individuals who are engaged in strategic and nonviolent efforts to overcome serious human rights violations, often at great personal risk.

"We, the undersigned representatives of Civil Society wish to express our support for the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to Human Rights (hereafter also: UN Human Rights Norms for Business or UN Norms). In our view, the UN Human Rights Norms for Business represent a major step forward in the process of establishing a common global framework for understanding the responsibilities of business enterprises with regard to human rights."

Research on the health hazards and environmental pollution of vanadium mining in South Africa will be presented on March 25 by a team who travelled to the small mining town of Brits, north of Johannesburg, in 2003 to study the dangers of this practice. The trip was spearheaded by Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a Barnard alumna, who was the whistle-blower on the dangers of vanadium mining while serving on the Gore Mbeki Commission, which provided U.S. assistance to the then-new South African government, headed by President Nelson Mandela.

Why is sexual violence so prevalent in Africa's schools? Why is predatory aggressive masculinity condoned? What are the links between abuse in schools, lack of information and poverty? How should schools tackle abuse and intimidation of female students?

Is there any prospect of achieving one of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - getting equal numbers of girls and boys into school by 2005? Could educating girls be the key to ending world poverty? What must be done to achieve universal primary education (UPE) by 2015?

"Since Africa’s history of unequal relations with the developed world in the last three centuries or so is such that it has largely become a non-autonomous actor without the capacity to decide its own fate and future, NEPAD - by being essentially a-historical does not constitute an adequate response to the continent’s underdevelopment. It needs to be replaced by a more African-centred economic action plan that takes the continents history into account." This the central argument of this article from Africa Studies Quarterly, reproduced on the website of University of Natal's Centre for Civil Society.

Education is often put forward as a panacea, and few would contest its importance in shaping citizens to play an effective part in their societies. But education, says researcher Sobhi Tawil of UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education, is also “an inherently ideological instrument that is related to political violence in both intended and unintended ways.” A group of experts from seven countries that have experienced decades of violent conflict share their experiences and work for change in the latest issue of UNESCO's new Courier.

The context within which we practice philanthropy has changed dramatically — the world of even 15 years ago is gone. As recently as the 1980's, the world's economic systems were fairly clear: nation states controlled their borders and most businesses operated within those borders, importing or exporting from them. International institutions, created almost exclusively after WWII, mediated between nation states, helping diffuse tensions on everything from monetary policy to movements of refugees. That was the context in which philanthropies operated. It was difficult, but orderly. Three new forces have disturbed the old world we lived and acted within: global economics, access to information and the role of the United States as the sole superpower.

This final report of the ILO’s World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization suggests how the potential of globalisation can be better harnessed to address the needs, concerns and aspirations of more people in the world. The report argues that globalisation can be a process with a strong social dimension based on universally shared values and respect for human rights and individual dignity. It can also be fair, inclusive, democratically governed, and should provide opportunities and tangible benefits for all countries and people.

This paper argues that the government of the United States is contravening its commitment under the "Doha Declaration" of 2001by using technical assistance, bilateral and regional trade agreements, and the threat of trade sanctions to ratchet up patent protection in developing countries. The paper states that the U.S. is pressuring developing countries to implement patent laws which go beyond TRIPS obligations and do not take advantage of its public-health safeguards in order to benefit the influential U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

With fist in the air, Virginia Setshedi shouts “Amandla!” The crowd gathered in a University of Alberta classroom raises fists in the air and responds “Awethu!” – “Power to the People,” the cry of South Africa’s liberation movement. But this cry is in opposition to a new form of oppression – privatization. Virginia Setshedi, a founding member of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee in South Africa, and Rudolf Amenga-Etego, the national campaign coordinator of the Coalition Against the Privatization of Water in Ghana, visited Edmonton as part of a cross-Canada speaking tour organized by the Halifax Initiative. Setshedi and Amenga-Etego spoke of the detrimental effects of the privatization of electricity and water services and other neoliberal policies foisted on poor countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The recent announcement by the Namibian government that it will begin to expropriate agricultural land held under freehold title for redistribution has grabbed the headlines. For many landowners and investors, this statement conjured up images of Zimbabwe-style land occupations. Reactions in Namibia have varied from expressions of shock by the Namibia Agriculture Union to praise from trade unions and the Council of Churches. The predominantly white Republican Party, formerly part of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, has described the intention to expropriate freehold agricultural land as “responsible, fair and reassuring”. To call the government’s announcement a “land grab” is an overreaction, argues this commentary published in South Africa's This Day newspaper.

This is a lucid analysis of neoliberal economics as formulated by the World Bank and IMF and imposed on Africa and South Africa in particular. It shows the economic and human damage wrought by these policies, and how they have displaced the originally radical and pro-people orientation of the ruling African National Congress. The leadership's change of heart has cost the South African people a million jobs, stymied their hopes of sustainable access to housing, water, electricity, health and education, dramatically worsened income inequality, and opened up a dangerous gulf of disillusion between voters and government.

Refurbishing an old computer can often be a better option than throwing it away, argues Tony Roberts of the charity Computer Aid. Recycling of electrical goods has become headline news in recent months as the UK consultation on the forthcoming EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive hots up. Research carried out previously by UN researcher Eric Williams proves empirically that re-use is better for the environment than recycling.

Of 680 million primary school age children, 115 million do not attend school, while half of those who start primary school finish it, except in sub-Saharan Africa where two out of three do not. This is according to a report from the Basic Education Coalition that portrays the state of basic education in the world and presents data to show the multifaceted benefits that basic education brings to a nation.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has considered the periodic reports of Libya on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Presenting the reports was a representative from the United Nations Department in the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaisons and International Cooperation in Libya, who said that Libya had been a pioneer in the fight against all forms of discrimination. In the course of the discussion, which was held over two meetings, the issues of the Berber population in Libya, migrant workers and Libya’s assertion that no racial discrimination existed in the country were addressed, among other subjects.

The dimensions of peace operations in the post-Cold War era have tended to reflect comprehensive attempts at settling conflicts rather than simply policing ceasefires. As a result, international humanitarian NGOs and multinational military forces are increasingly working together in the same theatre of operations than ever before due to a strong demand for coherence of approach. This article examines the various factors impeding effective NGO-military cooperation, and offers suggestions for improvement of the relationship. It argues that given the complex nature of contemporary conflict management and resolution, involving military and non-military activities, only a well-planned and coordinated combination of civilian and military measures can create the conditions for durability of peace in divided societies.

Rich countries - working through international institutions like the World Bank - rarely help poor countries modernize and strengthen public services. But they often push them to privatize and commercialize public services, a move that they themselves would never make. Leading the tide of globalization, international financial institutions are aggressively and undemocratically promoting an ideological agenda of privatization and commercialization. “The IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation care about dismantling the state,” says Nancy Alexander, director of the Citizens’ Network on Essential Services (CNES), a research and advocacy group. International financial institutions claim that such reforms help reduce poverty, but they often simply are promoting the interests of multinational corporations in water, energy, telecommunications and other industries, says this article in the publication In These Times.

More than sixteen months after the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. announced that it would reduce the price of its first-line AIDS drug Stocrin (efavirenz, EFV) to less than $1 per day in developing countries, the offer has failed to materialize, according to the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). EFV is among the antiretrovirals recommended by the World Health Organisation for first-line treatment, and is a critical component of antiretroviral combination therapy, particularly for patients co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis (TB).

Girls have been part of government militia or opposition fighting forces in more than 50 countries over recent years, a Canadian human rights organisation has said in a new report. The organisation, Rights and Democracy, said many of the girls had taken part in armed conflict, were abducted or had to join to survive. The report, called Where are the Girls, focuses on northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique.