Prosecution has demanded heavy jail sentences for former bosses of the oil giant Elf Aquitaine over their dealings in Africa. Prosecutor Catherine Pignon asked a Paris court to sentence André Tarallo, formerly the company's top manager for Africa affairs, to eight years imprisonment and to impose a fine of 5.8 million dollars. This is the first move by the prosecution against the top bosses of the company. Tarallo, 76, who came to be known as Elf Aquitaine's 'Monsieur Africa', managed the company's business in Africa for 20 years from the late seventies.

Recent years have witnessed a growing international consensus on the illegality and immorality of recruiting and using children as soldiers. Child protection advocates have worked to strengthen international legal standards, based on an underlying assumption that a child-oriented body of international law will help to counter the culture of impunity surrounding crimes against children. However, international law is not enough; more effective implementation is required to end child soldiering.

International legal standards and child soldiering

The prohibition on all recruitment of children under the age of 15 into both armed forces and armed groups has acquired a customary international law status. It is therefore binding on all armed forces and armed groups regardless of whether the State is a party to specific international treaties, or even if there is no State.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) allows for prosecution of those who recruit and use child soldiers. The Statute defines as a war crime the recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 15 by any armed force or armed group, in both international and non-international armed conflicts. Moreover, it includes sexual slavery as a crime against humanity. This is important as some child soldiers are also forcibly held and used as sex slaves. The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed after the entry into force of the Rome Statute, on the territory of, and by nationals of, all State parties.

There is increasing international consensus on the prohibition of conscription or forced recruitment of children under 18. This higher standard is embodied in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (Optional Protocol), the International Labour Organisation Convention 182 (ILO 182) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).

Challenges to implementation

While these legal developments do set important standards of child protection, too often they do not effectively prevent child soldiering, because of inadequate implementation. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, all parties to the conflict continue to recruit and use children, some as young as nine, despite a prohibition on under-18 recruitment. What steps can be taken to prevent continued child soldiering in violation of international law?

1. Knowledge of children's rights and/or capacity to assert them

Where children, families and communities are unaware of children's rights, they are not empowered to resist child recruitment. Sensitization and public education are important advocacy and prevention tools. Moreover, child rights training sessions with governments and armed groups will help them to understand their commitments, translating legal treaty provisions into practical terms.

However, social awareness is not enough. Efforts must also be made to address “push” factors for child soldiering, rooted in poverty, militarisation of society and break-down of social structures. These issues go beyond a narrow focus on the legal abolition of child soldiering, to broader development and peace building efforts.

2. Monitoring and reporting

Child recruiters more readily violate international law if they feel they act outside public scrutiny. In response, several initiatives have been undertaken recently to gather data on the recruitment and use of children. Monitoring and reporting are inherently difficult, because of political sensitivities, limited access to affected populations and generalised break-down in infrastructure due to war. While precise figures are often difficult to obtain, trends and patterns can highlight problems and motivate appropriate actions for redress.

In November 2002, the Secretary General produced a list of parties to armed conflict on the Security Council agenda that continue to recruit and use children as soldiers in violation of international obligations. Based on the provisions of Security Council Resolution 1379, the list was limited, but a significant precedent in publicly “naming and shaming” child recruiters. Subsequently, Security Council Resolution 1460 called for on-going monitoring of parties on the list and other groups of concern, as well as proposals for more effective monitoring and reporting within the UN system.

The impact of the weight of national and international public opinion on recruitment behaviour will vary from group to group. At the governmental level, regimes that are heavily dependent on international aid and/or domestic support will likely be more concerned with tarnishing their image, while “rogue states” and strong, repressive regimes may be less susceptible to public pressure. Similarly, non-state armed groups tend to react to public scrutiny of their actions in a way that reflects their ultimate aims. For example, the Rassemblement pour la démocratie-Goma (RCD-Goma) perceives itself as the legitimate authority in eastern DRC. As a “government in waiting”, the RCD-Goma has publicly stated on numerous occasions its intention not to recruit child soldiers, and to cooperate with international agencies in demobilising some child soldiers within its ranks. On the other hand, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army is intent on fulfilling its interpretation of a higher spiritual calling; therefore, it is less concerned with international and domestic public opinion and regularly commits atrocities against civilian populations, including the abduction and brutalisation of children for military purposes.

3. Accountability

Unless the international community acts upon information obtained through monitoring and reporting, child recruiters will be tempted to limit actions to public relations exercises, without effectively changing the situation on the ground. In the DRC, for example, the government demobilised less than 200 child soldiers in a high profile ceremony, but kept thousands more children within its ranks. The RCD-Goma has tracked demobilised children, re-recruiting them once they have left the safety of rehabilitation centres.

Where clear evidence of child soldiering exists, it is important that perpetrators are brought to account. In Resolution 1460, the UN Security Council endorsed the Secretary General's call for an “era of application” and expressed its intention to “enter into dialogue” with parties guilty of child soldiering “in order to develop clear and time bound actions to end this practice”.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone has set an important precedent by indicting several men accused of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years into their groups or using them to participate in hostilities, enslavement, pillage, intentionally directing attacks against humanitarian personnel or peacekeepers, unlawful killings, abductions and hostage-taking. Members of the international community have also called for leaders of groups that recruit and use children in the DRC to be declared war criminals and prosecuted by the ICC.

In formal judicial processes, prosecutors only have the capacity to bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes. It is therefore important that crimes against children are also mainstreamed in parallel reconciliation processes. Truth Commissions in South Africa and Sierra Leone, for example, have specifically addressed violence against and by children. Traditional justice processes, based at the community level within the socio-political sphere governed by village elders and chiefs, should also be conducted in a child-sensitive way. Moreover, traditional cleansing and healing ceremonies in Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda have allowed some communities to recognise and assuage the guilt that child soldiers carry.

In all accountability processes, appropriate and meaningful child participation should be incorporated. This requires careful reflection on the ways in which children have been involved in, and impacted by, conflict. The best interests of the child should be the guiding principle in discussions surrounding juvenile justice for child soldiers accused of war crimes, and participation of child witnesses in formal judicial processes.

Conclusion

Increasing international momentum has led to the criminalization of the recruitment and use of children as soldiers. This legal progress must be matched by practical implementation. This is a multi-step process involving increased community sensitization and public awareness; adequate monitoring and reporting; and accountability processes for child recruiters. The increasingly robust body of international law prohibiting child soldiers is an accomplishment, but not an end in itself. More must be done to translate this rhetoric into reality.

* Christina Clark is Programme Officer for Africa at the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. This editorial is written in her personal capacity and should not be attributed to the Coalition or its members.

* Please send comments to

* An estimated 1.2 million children - both boys and girls - are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work. World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 aims to focus attention on trafficking in children to prevent and stop the practice. Visit http://www.ilo.int/public/english/bureau/inf/events/cl2003/index.htm for more information.

* In Soweto South Africa, thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976 to protest against apartheid education policies. Hundreds were shot down. In the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched, the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organisation of African Unity. The Day also draws attention to the lives of African children today. To find out more about this year's Day of the African Child visit http://www.unicef.org/noteworthy/day-african-child/

Policy-makers and donors should seize the opportunities new ICTs provide to reduce the amount of public information that is under-utilised or captured by local elites while avoiding the temptation to pursue ‘one-size-fits-all’ ICT applications. They should also realise that the rural poor need to be able to operate in increasingly sophisticated input and output markets: ICTs can improve inadequate extension services and ensure farmers have access to reliable information about agricultural technologies and markets. This is according to an Overseas Development Institute (ODI) paper that examines the untapped potential of ICTs to free up public information resources to stimulate rural development and more efficient markets and institutions.

The retired major-general with a mission to fight the corruption in Nigeria's public life works from an office in the back yard of a small poultry business in the sprawling outskirts of Lagos. Bearded, wearing a grey singlet and jeans, he cuts an unusual figure for a former top-brass officer. Ishola Williams heads the Nigerian branch of Transparency International, the anti-corruption lobbying organisation whose last ranking classed Nigeria as the world's second most corrupt nation, after Bangladesh. He sees in Nigeria a whole political system that has successfully resisted attempts to change its habits.

Amid a torrent of claims and counter-claims about the pros and cons of globalization, this book takes a critical look at the actors, institutions and processes that mediate the relationship between the forces of globalisation and the poverty experienced by the majority of the world's people. The chapters in this important book clearly demonstrate that globalisation is a process with repercussions that extend far beyond the power centres of the North where global economic policies are formulated. The book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and activists in development.

Corporations are the dominant force in modern life, surpassing even church and state. The largest are richer than entire nations, and courts have given these entities more rights than people. Where did this powerful institution come from? How did it get so much power? In Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy, author Ted Nace probes the roots of corporate power, finding answers in surprising places.

The political opposition and social forces that seek change face "serious constraints" due to the prevailing and absolute disrespect for the basic rules of democracy, concluded a recent meeting of civil society and opposition leaders. Among the constraints highlighted was the absolute party control of state institutions and the media.

Former president Frederick Chiluba faces another arrest over alleged abuse of the Zamtrop account. According to sources, Chiluba, former Ambassador to the United States Atan Shansonga, former finance permanent secretary Stella Chibanda, former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu and former Ministry of Finance chief economist Bede Mphande were listed for re-arrest on fresh charges related to the Zamtrop account.

Your 'THE CHALLENGES BEFORE AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN UNION' raises vital issues that black people inside and outside the United Kingdom should not only consider but also become active on. Although I agree with the demand to free imprisoned journalists in Africa, I have a problem with 'freedom of expression' in Africa. You don't focus on Zimbabwe, but the Western media has. Yet I fully support the Zimbabwean government in illegally expelling Andrew Meldrum. Meldrum was a propagandist for the MDC whose leadership are treacherous. (I am doing a study of a sample of Meldrum's work precisely to show the extent to which Meldrum operated as a public relations officer or a journalist.) It is not unknown that Western governments will financially support news media to undermine a government that is representing its people. Propaganda is an important tool used to deny human rights to people in the South. If I were in Zimbabwe, I would certainly advocate legislation that curbs media propaganda. Any campaign about media in Africa has to address this problem as well as the well-known issue of dictators harassing reporters who offer legitimate criticism of them. There needs to be a charter for journalism that African heads of state should sign. A lot of thinking needs to be done to spell out what the charter says. It should support reports about human rights and good governance. It should also allow for reports about foreign involvement and interference in Africa. It should report on the actions of the IMF and World Bank. I hope your campaign isn't used to attack Zimbabwe.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is not just about imports and exports of goods, but increasingly is encroaching on people's democratic control over and access to resources and on governments' abilities to regulate social and economic policies and formulate human development. Civil society groups from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, Canada and New Zealand met in Nairobi from 27 29 May 2003 to study, analyse and exchange views on the impact of neo-liberal globalisation specially on the south manifesting itself in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the forthcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun. The GATS represents a powerful and totally unacceptable instrument that limits policy space and restricts popular access to services which are essential to people's livelihoods and economic development, a statement on the meeting said.

The rate of malnutrition in Eritrea, now in the fourth year of the worst drought in a decade, is rising to alarming levels, with more than 1 in 5 children not getting enough to eat, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says. According to the agency, 21. 7 per cent of children are suffering from malnutrition; normally, a hunger rate of just 13 to 14 per cent is considered alarming.

Anti-corruption police are investigating the loss of more than 36m shillings (approximately 450,000 US dollars) from the Attorney-General's chambers. This is part of a wider inquiry on corruption in the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ministry.

This week, while African leaders persuaded the G8 heads in Evian to listen to the views of African heads of state on their own development path, the Zimbabwe regime used military force to suppress the views of its people.

The five African leaders argued for a new attitude towards Africa, based not on aid, but on respect for African approaches to solving economic and social problems. While there is debate on the paths being put forward, the idea that powerful nations stop unilaterally restructuring the world to suit their own goals, at the cost of poverty and decline in the south is not in dispute.

This makes the Zimbabwe regime’s efforts to unilaterally restructure economic and political life to secure its own political survival at the cost of a nation’s economic misery and fundamental rights a problem for the continent as a whole. It fundamentally undermines a central African position in global engagement.

Zimbabwe is currently in a freefall to economic collapse. Unemployment has soared, rural production declined, productive land is underutilized, and essential supplies sold at unaffordable prices in the parallel market. Once vibrant production and service sectors have collapsed.

While the long term imbalances of an inequitable colonial economy are not in dispute, the flight of capital, the exile of millions of young Zimbabweans, destructive engagement with the international community, growth of hunger, acute collapse of production and growth in speculation traces back to the policies of the current regime, and its unwillingness to listen to national voices other than its own.

The massive desire for a new people driven constitution has been shelved, and efforts to revive it are met with brutal suppression. Electoral processes have been undermined by violence and suppression of basic electoral rights, culminating in a 2002 presidential election that Southern African Development Community (SADC) parliamentarians said did not met regional standards. People’s efforts to gather within civil society to defend labour rights, to be informed through national media, to join political parties of their choice or to freely chose elected leaders have culminated in arrests, assault, torture and starvation, reinforced by a violent extra legal partisan militia. Frustration over political exclusion, economic decline and rights abuses have led to an increasing level of non-violent social action in 2003, including labour strikes and national stayaways. These too have been met with arrest of civil and political leaders and assault of citizens. Southern African leaders calling for Zimbabwean people’s rights to peacefully protest have been ignored.

In May heads of state from the region travelled to Harare in an effort to broker dialogue. While the need for dialogue was publicly endorsed by both ZanuPF and MDC, there appeared to be no sign of urgency or initiative from the regime to take dialogue forward, nor to resolve the economic crisis. Instead dialogue was tactically blocked by ZanuPF demands that a central agenda issue– that of legitimacy – be dropped.

Angered by poverty, confronted by lack of constructive leadership in the regime, disillusioned by lack of decisive action from regional leaders, ordinary people have now pushed for their own right to act. In a week of collective action from 2 to 6 June 2003 in Zimbabwe, there was an almost complete shutdown of workplaces and stayaway of workers. Thousands of people tried to hold peaceful marches in different parts of the country but were forced back by police, army and armed militias using teargas and live ammunition. People were indiscriminately assaulted with batons and whips, some within their homes. Unarmed youth were forced back using dogs, helicopters with tear gas, water cannons and weapons. By midweek over 300 people were reported to have been arrested, including the MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Secretary-General, Welshman Ncube, the Mayor of Bulawayo, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, numerous city councilors, MDC officials and Members of Parliament. A number of cases have been reported of people still missing after being detained by security forces. The major cities of the country have been put under siege through army, militia and police assault and violence to hold people within their areas.

This stand off between ordinary people and the crackdown on democratic rights by security and army operatives in the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other parts of Zimbabwe is not simply an abuse of the democratic right to peaceful protest, it is a symbol of the crisis that Zimbabwe has reached. Will Africans vacillate over political uncertainty while ordinary people are abused by military power? The UN Secretary General, an African, urged the MDC to ensure their action was peaceful and lawful, and urged the Zimbabwe government to respect basic principles of freedom of expression and assembly and the human rights of those participating in the mass action. African American Organisations in the US from trade union, African solidarity, church and civil society, coming from a tradition of progressive solidarity with struggles for decolonization and against apartheid, condemned the ‘police brutality and excessive force’ being used. “Such trends in the abuse of human rights are not only unacceptable, they are threats to your country’s stability and they are undermining the economic and political development your people desire and deserve.”

These and other voices are adding to the internal pressure calling for those holding political power to realize that constituent power, not military power, should determine our future in Africa. In the stand off between unarmed people exercising rights to freedom of expression and assembly and armed and violent repression by security forces, it is the hand that holds the ballot and not the gun that fires the bullet that is the basis for our sovereignty.

The bloodshed and abuse of people’s rights in Zimbabwe blots the conscience of the continent. If you agree, petition your media, political leadership, SADC and African Union (AU) leadership condemning the current flagrant abuse of people’s democratic rights in Zimbabwe and calling for:
* An end to the police and military siege of Zimbabwe’s communities;
* Disbanding of militia and an end to police brutality and use of excessive force to repress citizens;
* Recognition of the right to peaceful, non violent collective action;
* An end to political repression and release of political prisoners in Zimbabwe; and
* Immediate and unconditional dialogue between MDC and ZanuPF.

FOUR DAYS OF PROTEST: MONDAY TO THURSDAY

MONDAY:
* Cops shoot live rounds to disperse protestors

Zimbabwean police fired teargas and shot live rounds in the air to disperse several hundred protesters marching towards downtown Harare from the nearby township of Highfield, witnesses said.
* Demonstrators killed, report says
id=15521
"Zimbabwe must be seen as a test case for Africa, for the resolve of leaders and peoples to deal with a rogue and illegitimate regime. We in MDC recognise and affirm that violence does not resolve such a crisis, and we will not use the same tools that are used by the repressor." - Morgan Tsvangirai, in an interview with Zimwatch.
* MDC response to protest ban

Zimbabwean police fired tear gas and warning shots at demonstrators in one Harare township on Monday, the first day of a week of opposition protests against President Robert Mugabe, witnesses said.
* Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai released
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306030881.html
AT least 115 people were arrested yesterday as security forces swooped on demonstrators and officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a move to crush anti-government protests that are expected to end on Friday.
* G8 concerned about Zimbabwe
* Letter to Mugabe condemns repression
id=15431
MDC members arrested in Masvingo, including the member of parliament for Masvingo Central, Silas Mangono, were denied food while being detained, the MDC reported.

WEDNESDAY:
* Anonymous report on violence in Harare
* Arrests continue as Tsvangirai fights ban order
* Councillor assaulted in his home

Zimbabwe's anti-government strike kept the country at a standstill for the second day yesterday with fewer reports of public demonstrations in the face of a massive show of force by army and police.
* Police beat patients in Harare
Zimbabwean police raided a private Harare hospital, the third day of a week-long national strike, beating and arresting several patients, according to doctors.
* Opposition claims success

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it fears violence after information that Mugabe had ordered soldiers to move from door to door in overcrowded townships and beat anyone who failed to report for work
* Human Rights Activist Arrested

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed last night that one of its officials in Harare, Tichaona Kaguru, had died after being allegedly abducted and tortured by government security agents in a crackdown on opposition supporters.
* Protests and Arrests: Crisis Information Updates
http://www.zvakwana.org
Remember that in high density areas running battles continue to occur between pro-democracy activists and the repressive state authorities. Brave Zimbabweans have, throughout this week, taken on the might of the illegitimate regime. Visit the Zvakwana newsletter for the latest news.

“The outcome of the 2003 Summit of the G8 reveals that the political will of the eight most powerful nations to meet their obligations to Africa has simply dried up. 2001 saw the G8 summit heavy on rhetoric, 2002 saw the release of a G8 Africa Action Plan, but the outcome of the 2003 Summit has been stunning on its failure to make progress on the debt, health, trade and agriculture issues. Quite apart from the obligations of the G8 to Africa or the meeting of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, the G8 has failed to match the progress reached by the African Union over the last year.” Click on the link below for the full statement on how Africa didn't benefit from the G8 meeting. Read the 'Development' section of Pambazuka News for more news and commentary on Africa and the G8 meeting.

Attention all NGOs and CBOs! Come and join us at SANGONeT on Wednesday 25 June, 1pm to 4pm, for Thusanang's first focus group discussion. During this discussion: the Thusanang team will give you a detailed tour of the Thusanang portal, including a sneak preview of our Grantmaker Database; the Thusanang team wants to hear what you think of our services so far. Give us feedback, good or bad; and have your say: what should we focus on in future? What are the main challenges for your organisation when it comes to funding and fundraising?

The main concern of the Nigerian government was not to run the most open election possible, but rather to remain in power by whatever means possible, according to the conclusion of an analysis of the recent elections by the Centre for Democracy and Development. However, the CDD said: "Despite all the discrepancies and malpractice recorded, we can still suggest that the election was not an invalid episode, even though it was far from free and fair."

The federal government has mobilised six of its agencies to fight money laundering, according to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chief Joseph Sanusi. Sanusi said the Nigerian National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are to cooperate with the newly constituted Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in helping the Nigeria Police fight the problem.

Rwandans voted overwhelmingly in favour of their country's draft constitution that will advance democracy and curb ethnic extremism which claimed nearly one million lives in the 1994 genocide. Ninety-three per cent of the people who voted in the May 26 referendum assented to the draft, according to results released last week by Electoral Commission chairman, Dr Karangwa Chrysologe.

International agency Oxfam has declared the Evian G8 summit a wash-out. Development campaigners said they felt let down by the G8’s failure to deliver on its promises to Africa. The leaders’ meeting failed to tackle Africa’s pressing problems like US and EU dumping of subsidized farm produce which is destroying the livelihoods of millions of African farmers, said Oxfam.

I am a Johannesburg-based foreign correspondent writing for various English, Scottish and Japanese publications. I am currently running through Pambazuka newsletters for a series of development articles I am planning, and I am struck yet again that - although, inevitably, I do not agree with some of the opinions expressed and analyses offered - yours is a fantastic and invaluable service. Keep up the good work.