Africa
Use of Children as Soldiers
Key Points
Security Assistance After September 11
Global Public Health: Access to Essential Medicines
Key Points
Strategies for Social Justice Movements from Southern Africa to the United States
The community of several thousand South African activists from whom I learn most–a group quite consciously pro-globalization-of-people and anti-globalization-of-capital–takes pride in the give-and-take lessons of international protest, solidarity, and local self-reliance gleaned during these past five years. But a Seattle-type epiphany occurred in this region long before December 1999–and long before South African President Thabo Mbeki began confusing matters with his own rhetorical assault on “global apartheid” the same year.
Africa Policy Outlook 2005
There are some people in the world’s wealthy countries who forecast that 2005 will be a decisive year for Africa.
Eritrea/Ethiopia War Looms
The latest State Department call for progress in the stalled Ethiopia-Eritrea peace accord–issued this week and coming on the heels of similar expressions of concern by European diplomats last week–is welcome news for those fearing the renewal of war. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Why NEPAD and African Politics Don’t Mix
It is now over two years since the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was launched in Abuja, Nigeria and perhaps time to review the progress that this project for supporting development in Africa has made. Stripped to its bare bones, the NEPAD is a "partnership" with the developed world whereby African countries will set up and police standards of good government across the continent–whilst respecting human rights and advancing democracy–in return for increased aid flows, private investment, and a lowering of obstacles to trade by the West. An extra inflow of U.S.$64 billion from the developed world has been touted as the "reward" for following approved policies on governance and economics.
Bush’s AIDS Relief Plan Will Delay Drugs, Reward Big Pharma
Africa and AIDS activists say the Bush Administration’s pledge to expedite its approval process for low-cost, generic anti-retroviral drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will really slow delivery of drugs to those suffering while undermining the authority of the United Nations and World Health Organization.
Human Rights Groups Call on the U.S to Lead Troops Into Sudan’s Darfur and End Genocide
A range of U.S.-based advocacy groups, such as Africa Action and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United Nations, are calling for international intervention to stop “ethnic cleansing” in western Sudan. U.S. groups are calling for the Bush administration to demonstrate leadership on the issue.