Senegal: consultations on reforms in the justice sector

AfriMAP and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) held a two day consultation workshop in early December on the issues of justice sector reform in Senegal.  Participants included representatives of the ministry of justice, the Senegal Bar association, senior court judges, civil society organizations, law professors and legal students. The AfriMAP report of November 2008, entitled- Senegal: Justice Sector and Rule of Law formed the basis for the discussions. Participants discussed key findings and recommendations of the publication and representatives of the ministry of justice informed the workshop about recent efforts towards reforms. Strong consensus was built around the need for stronger independence of the judiciary, overhaul of the penal code and the code of penal procedure to incorporate more safeguards of fair trial. There are signs that Senegal has shown political will and commitment to reforms within the sector, demonstrated by the recent creation by the Minister of Justice of two reform committees working on the overhaul of the judges’ status and the criminal justice respectively. There was agreement that recommendations from the workshop will feed into these and other such reform initiatives which will be more inclusive than they have been in the past. A senior legal advisor to the President also attended the workshop. 

Zimbabwe: launching of new study on Public Broadcasting in Africa

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai, launched AfriMAP’s report on Public Broadcasting in Zimbawe on 18 November 2009 in Harare.  The Prime Minister stated that both he and President Mugabe have agreed on the media reforms set out in the constitutional review process, under the Global Political Agreement that brought about the national unity government, and that Zimbabwe Media Commission would be fully functional before the end of 2009.  This commitment was a major recommendation in the report, which was authored by Dr. Sarah Chiumbu -- lecturer at Wits University in South Africa, and edited by Jeanette Minnie and Hendrik Bussiek regional editor and – editor-in-chief.  The report also stated that democracy in Zimbabwe will be severely stifled if laws of media regulation are not urgently addressed.  It enjoins the leaders at state level, as well as in the parliament to take advantage of the constitutional review process and throw out AIPPA, Zimbabwe Media Commission, Public Order and the Security Act (POSA).  It also calls for the strengthening of the Voluntary Media Council, which is supposed to represent all media.  These reforms, the report states, will demonstrate Zimbabwe’s commitment to embracing a democratic and development agenda, something that the South African Development Community (SADC) and the world anticipate with great expectation and hope.

The launching was attended by civil society representatives, academics, think tanks and media organizations, practitioners and operators, government regulators and high level government officials as well as members of the diplomatic and consular corps.  

AfriMAP’s project on broadcast media reform focuses on 11 (Benin; Cameroon; Kenya; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; South Africa; Uganda and Zambia) African countries of which, Zimbabwe, was the first to launch its findings. The report sets as its premise that development and democracy cannot thrive without open and free public spaces, thus giving room for participation and divergent views to spread to a wider public. 

DRC: Meeting with the US Ambassador at-large for war crimes

On November 12, 2009 Roger Mvita, AfriMAP coordinator in the DRC office of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), met with Ambassador Stephen Rapp, in charge of war crimes in the Obama Administration who was visiting the DRC to discuss support to the country’s justice sector reform. The meeting discussed the Congolese justice system’s capacity to prosecute war crimes and gender based crimes and other specific and related issues, including findings from the AfriMAP report on the Congolese military justice, the technical and financial support AfriMAP and OSISA provided to the Permanent Commission on Congolese Law Reform (CPRDC) for the drafting of two bills on military justice. Roger also discussed the outcomes of an OSISA-AfriMAP organized public meeting of 8-9 October 2009 at which Congolese participants felt the international community should focus its support on the ongoing comprehensive reform of the justice system rather than supporting piece meal reforms such as mixed chambers.  

Kenya: Democracy and Political Participation

AfriMAP and the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) organized a joint validation workshop on 9 November 2009 during which Kenyans were called upon to address the issue of ethnicity as a root cause of conflicts and poor governance performance in the country.  Participants were discussing early findings of the upcoming AfriMAP report on Democracy and Political Participation in Kenya. According to a draft discussion paper presented at the workshop, peace can only be achieved and sustained, if comprehensive reforms are adopted under the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Accord. 

The document, which was authored by Professor Karuti Kanyinga, senior researcher at the University of Nairobi, made for 10 primary recommendations aimed at both the Government of National Unity and the Committee of Experts on the constitution review process.  The report also pointed to urgent issues to be addressed, some of which included:  overhauling of the Kenyan electoral system, enactment of laws and implementation of policies promoting issues based politics, prioritizing negotiations between politicians to achieve speedy consensus on system of government that is representative of all Kenyans.  All of these are aimed at diminishing ethnic cleavages, bias and violence.   

The keynote speaker was OSI President Aryeh Neier. Other panelists included: Atsango Chesoni, Vice chairperson of the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review team; Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and member of the AfriMAP advisory committee; Rev. Canon Peter Karanja, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Kenya; Hon. Abdi Kadir Mohamed, member of Parliament and chair of the Departmental committee on Justice and Legal Affairs.  The meeting was attended by faith based organizations, media, members of parliament, diplomatic corps and development agencies.

 Launch of two major publications on citizenship in Africa

Two new books on citizenship in Africa were officially launched in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on 20 October 2009, by Professor Tarsis Kabwegyere, Ugandan Minister of Disaster Preparedness. Struggles for Citizenship in Africa is published by Zed Books in its African Arguments Series and consists of case studies of citizenship discrimination in Africa, including descriptions of the crises in DR Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Kenya, and elsewhere. The book, authored by AfriMAP’s Senior Programme Adviser Bronwen Manby, documents the crises of statelessness on the African continent.  It observes that lack of citizenship is a major cause of conflict in Africa and draws special focus on these challenges for action by African countries.  Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study is published by the Open Society Institute, and is a monograph based on detailed comparisons of the citizenship laws of all 53 African countries.  The report makes 66 recommendations, developed after a process of extensive consultation with experts in the field, for reform of citizenship laws and for eventual incorporation in a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the right to a nationality.  Among the key recommendations are the guarantee of a right to nationality, an end to discrimination on  the basis of gender or ethnicity, due process in relation to grant and deprivation of nationality, and an expansion of the right to dual nationality.  The report brings to light critical situations whereby the laws at least half a dozen African countries, including Uganda, DRCongo, Liberia, Malawi and Sierra Leone, restrict nationality from birth to members of certain ethnic groups.  It also documents discrimination based on gender, whereby more than half of the African countries refuse the right of women to pass citizenship to their spouse or their own children. 

Prior to the Kampala event, there was a launch event in London, United Kingdom in collaboration with Zed Books and the Royal African Society.   Citizenship in Africa is also featured in discussions on the African Arguments website -- to which readers of this newsletter are invited to contribute.

OSI’s Justice Initiative together with International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) and Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI) collaborated in the Kampala launch event and in the organization of a preceding two day workshop on the African Union mechanisms and protection of refugee, IDP and citizenship rights. The workshop and launch were held in the margins of the AU special summit on Refugees, Returnees and IDPs, and participants discussed the lack of a right to nationality as both a cause and a consequence of forced displacement in Africa.  The session also recognized that effective citizenship is a doorway to accessing other rights, including for refugees and the displaced. Thus, it was noted that the right to nationality needed to be promoted as a mechanism both to prevent and to respond to displacement on the continent. The communiqué of the meeting, which made recommendations to heads of state attending the AU special summit, is available on the AfriMAP website.

AfriMAP’s advocacy officer Jeggan Grey-Johnson also addressed the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Pan African Parliament on the right to a nationality. The Pan African Parliamentarians expressed concern over the crisis of millions of children at risk of statelessness, due to the failure of states to recognize and ensure a right to citizenship at birth. 

Upcoming Events 2010:

14 January-       CCP-AU meeting on the ICC and African Court Jurisdiction

25 January-       AU Summit: Information and Communication Technologies in Africa 

End of January: Midterm review of the study of Elections Management Bodies in West Africa

Announcements:

AfriMAP will close its offices for the Christmas and New Year holidays from 11 December 2009 to 4 January 2010.  We wish everyone a prosperous New Year.