Obama's trip to Africa: Missed opportunity before it even began
This week, President Obama will embark on his fourth visit to Africa. In many respects, this is a historic trip. He will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Ethiopia, as well as the African Union headquarters, and this is his first visit to Kenya during his presidency. Unfortunately, it appears this trip will be rife with missed opportunities.
Obama's limited time in Africa means he will miss the chance to hear from U.S. partners who are implementing USAID-funded global health programs, including providers delivering quality care to millions in need. He will not hear directly from them about their funding needs or how U.S. policy restrictions needlessly prohibit access to information and care. He will miss the opportunity to hear from the very people—the women, men, and youth—who depend on these programs for access to vital services, including contraceptive services. He will not hear, in some instances, how U.S. policy stands between them and essential, often life-saving, medical care. The stakes are too high for the president to miss these opportunities because access to sexual and reproductive healthcare is not a luxury—it is a human right.
WHO to Test New Malaria Vaccine for Use in Africa
GENEVA—
The World Health Organization reported the agency would begin testing a promising malaria vaccine in October to see if it should be used in African countries affected by the parasitic disease.
WHO said it would issue its recommendations in November.
It called the development of this possible vaccine a major milestone, noting this is the first time that a malaria vaccine has been reviewed by a regulatory authority.
On Friday, the European Medicines Agency issued a positive assessment of the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine called Mosquirix, essentially giving the WHO the green light to review the product for its use in Africa.
http://www.voanews.com/content/european-agency-oks-malaria-vaccine-possible-licensing/2876702.html
Merck, UNESCO, Cambridge University combines to build research capacity in Africa
Merck, the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in partnership with UNESCO , Cambridge University and University of Rome plan to conduct UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit – MARS which will be held on the 19th and 20th of October in Switzerland.
The UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit- MARS aims to bring together researchers from across Africa to discuss the generation, sharing and dissemination of research data and to prepare for the road ahead in Africa's development as an international hub for research excellence and scientific innovation.
UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit – MARS 2015 will have scientific support from UNESCO (United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization), the University of Cambridge, UK, and University of Rome, Italy.
African researchers specialized in HIV and Ebola are encouraged to apply and submit abstracts about their latest research with regards to HIV and Ebola to be eligible to sponsorship to attend the summit and to win on e of the Summit- MARS awards.
Ethiopia visit to focus on human rights
US President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One for travel to Kenya and Ethiopia from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Addis Ababa - As US president Barrack Obama makes his third official trip to the African continent, the issues of democracy, human rights and economy are set to dominate his agenda for his visit of Ethiopia.
Obama will make a visit to Kenya, the land of his father, this weekend and is expected to touch down in Ethiopia on Monday as part of a two-nation tour of the African continent.
His visit to Ethiopia has been dogged with controversy as editorials in leading US newspapers, statements from human rights organisations and dissident groups based in US have been highly critical of the trip.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/ethiopia-visit-to-focus-on-human-rights-1.1890532#.VbKQ7_lViko
Obama's Africa Visit Troubles Human Rights Groups
WASHINGTON | President Barack Obama's trip to Kenya and Ethiopia is drawing fresh criticism that the two countries are heavy-handed on human rights and basic democratic freedoms.
Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Kenya, his ancestral homeland, when he arrives Friday to attend a business summit and meetings with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Obama will become the first U.S. president to travel to Ethiopia when he lands there Sunday to confer with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and to address the African Union, which is headquartered there.
"While both countries face real security threats, we are concerned by the way in which each government has responded, often with abusive security measures and increased efforts to stifle civil society and the media," Human Rights Watch and other advocacy organizations and analysts said in a letter to Obama. "Many of these initiatives undermine core human rights protections and the rule of law and are also counterproductive when it comes to reducing insecurity."
Nigerian President Blames US Human Rights Law for 'Aiding and Abetting' Boko Haram
As he concluded his first visit to the United States as Nigeria's president, Muhammadu Buhari used an appearance on the last day of his tour to slam a major American human rights law for hamstringing his government's fight against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram — suggesting in effect that the law benefited the terrorist insurgency. Buhari's meetings earlier this week with US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry garnered headlines, but the remarks he delivered on Wednesday at an event sponsored by the US Institute for Peace (USIP) provided a controversial twist. He focused on a range of issues, particularly his nation's national security. "We are confident that we will defeat terrorism in our country and region, because we have the will to win this fight," said the 72-year-old leader, who took office in May after becoming the first opposition candidate in the country's history to beat out an incumbent in a democratic election.
Chad trial is a warning for Africa's tyrants
Former Chadian leader Hissène Habré went on trial in Senegal this week, accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed during his brutal eight-year rule from 1982 to 1990.
The opening of the case on Monday at the Palais de Justice in Dakar represented a historic step for African justice: it is the first time that the courts of one country on the continent have prosecuted the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes. It will also be the first universal jurisdiction case to proceed to trial in Africa.
The trial was adjourned until September so that court-appointed lawyers can prepare his defence to the charges.
"Finally, finally, the men who brutalised us and then laughed in our faces for decades have got their comeuppance," said Clément Abaifouta, the president of the Chadian Association of Victims of the Crimes of Hissène Habré.
Victims' groups began a long battle for justice almost 25 years ago, a tortuous journey that experienced several failed attempts to prosecute Habré in Belgium and Senegal, where he fled after being toppled in a coup led by Idriss Déby Itno – Chad's current president – in 1990.
Habré (72) is accused of having presided over a network of secret police, known as the Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité (DDS), which was responsible for thousands of executions, enforced disappearances, torture and arrests.
http://mg.co.za/article/2015-07-23-chad-trial-is-a-warning-for-africas-tyrants/
EU-ACP relations and a move 'beyond aid'
In Brussels, Belgium, the 79 countries that make up the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States have embarked on a strategic review aimed at "repositioning" the group within the global arena and readying itself for negotiations on its future relationship with the EU.
Details regarding the timing of negotiations remain unclear, but a group of "eminent persons" has been tasked with steering the issue through a series of internal consultations. Devex has learned that an ACP position paper is in the works.
The next five years will be crucial for the future of the European Union's development cooperation with ACP countries with the the Cotonou agreement — which sets out the details of the EU-ACP partnership — due to expire in 2020.
According to ACP Secretary-General Patrick Ignatius Gomes, appointed in December 2014, the lead-up to negotiations is characterized as a period of "deep reflection," aimed at ensuring a "much more mature relationship with Europe that is not at all aid dependent. ... We want to let aid be pushed into the background," he told Devex in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome, Italy.
https://www.devex.com/news/eu-acp-relations-and-a-move-beyond-aid-86576
Posted by: Africa Realities <africarealities@gmail.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
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When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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