No Rest for Cyber Activists

Audience at the Social Media and Human Rights Conference in Florence, Italy. Credit: Susan Dabbous/IPS

By Susan Dabbous

FLORENCE, Jun 20 2012 (IPS) - One and a half years since the beginning of the Arab Spring, activists who guided their fellow citizens through the relatively unchartered terrain of social media activism feel their fight for human rights, democracy and transparency is only just beginning.

2012 Shaping Up as Worst Year Ever for Journalists

By Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jun 25 2012 (IPS) - It’s the type of honour roll that journalists would prefer not to be on.

But as an emotional Allison Bethel-McKenzie read out the names of the 72 journalists who have made that grim list so far this year, even Trinidad and Tobago’s president, George Maxwell Richards, was moved to plead for “some form of internationally recognised immunity” to lessen the risks to journalists while doing their jobs.

“From Somalia to Syria, the Philippines to Mexico and Iraq to Pakistan, reporters are being brutally targeted for death in unparalleled numbers,” Bethel-McKenzie, executive director of the International Press Institute (IPI), told the Austria-based organisation’s 61st World Congress here.

President Richards, in his address to the opening ceremony Sunday, acknowledged that while the media plays a critical public role, “the risks for media personnel are ever increasing, as they are for diplomats, in a changing world environment which does not guarantee safety.

Ethiopia: Conviction of journalist on terror charges is a miscarriage of justice

Addis Ababa 27.6.12: ARTICLE 19 is saddened by the conviction of 24 Ethiopians, including Eskinder Nega, a prominent journalist and blogger, who had been charged with conspiring with rebels to overthrow the government.

Nega along with 23 others including opposition politician Andulalem Arage were charged last year, most of them in absentia, under the anti-terrorism law with six counts including conspiracy to dismantle the constitutional order, recruitment and training for terror acts and aiding Ethiopia’s arch foe, Eritrea as well as belonging to a terrorism group, ‘Ginbo 7’ that aimed at disrupting security.

GIABA organizes sensitization seminar on AML/CFT for Journalists

The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) will hold a sensitization seminar on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (CFT) for journalists from English-speaking countries of West Africa between Thursday 28 June and Friday 29 June, 2012 in Banjul, The Gambia.

The objectives of the seminar are to (i) expose journalists to the knowledge of AML/CFT framework; (ii) to assist participants to produce reports and articles/features of quality on AML/CFT issues; and (iii) improve the network of journalists who will assist GIABA in disseminating information on the AML/CFT systems in West Africa.

Specifically, the seminar is to build strong alliance with the media for effective dissemination of AML/CFT messages and to improve the network among journalists in promoting the implementation of effective AML/CFT regimes in the region.

Sustainable development needs innovative financing and private sector support, experts say

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, June 19, 2012/ -- Innovative sources of finance and resources from the private sector are key to achieving sustainable development in Africa, African leaders and world experts said yesterday at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro.

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/african-development-bank.jpg

Speaking at high level panel on “Financing Sustainable Development in Africa”, African states and their partners discussed resource mobilization for sustainable development – both domestically and internationally.

The panel, representing a number of partners such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) (http://www.afdb.org), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the Ivoirian ministry of Economy and Finance and the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry also addressed the divide between the managers of money (international finance institutions – development banks, donors etc.) and facilitators of development (e.g. NGOs, CSOs).

Gambia's Fatou Bensouda sworn in as ICC prosecutor

 

Fatou Bensouda has spent the past eight years serving as Luis Moreno-Ocampo's deputy

Fatou Bensouda, a former Gambian justice minister, has been sworn in as the International Criminal Court's new chief prosecutor in The Hague.

She becomes the first African to hold the post.

Today’s World Environment Day – Can tourism in wetlands be sustainable?

PRESS RELEASE


Dear All,

On the occasion of World Environment Day (WED), the Ramsar Secretariat takes this opportunity to address sustainable tourism activities in wetlands and how this relates to this year’s WED theme on “Green Economy”. The UN Environment Programme defines the Green Economy as “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”. With their natural beauty and biodiversity wetlands make ideal locations for tourism and the income generated for national and local economies in and around wetlands can be substantial. There is consequently a clear relevance of sustainable wetland tourism in poverty eradication strategies and policies and as a potential contributor to a Green Economy.

DECLARATION OF FARMERS ORGANIZATIONS AT THE NATIONAL FARMERS CONFERENCE AT JANJANBUREH, CENTRAL RIVER REGION

DECLARATION OF FARMERS ORGANIZATIONS

AT THE

NATIONAL FARMERS CONFERENCE

JANJANBUREH, CENTRAL RIVER REGION

30 MAY 2012

PREAMBLE

WE THE FARMERS ORGANIZATIONS of the Republic of the Gambia, meeting here in Janjabureh, in the Central Region of the country in a National Farmers Conference from 29 – 30 May 2012, and with the full mandate of all the registered Organizations in the country, including the present Apex bodies of these organizations:

RECOGNIZING the high importance of farmers organizations in the economy of the country in general, and the Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR)  sector in particular, essentially as potential tools with which to facilitate the organization of farmers into entities, forge partnerships with sources of support, provide platforms for dialogues with Government and Development Partners, through which they could effectively obtain advantages from advocacy, negotiations, mobilization of resources, communication, securing cost effective goods and services that will enhance their enterprises and achieve the best of options for themselves and their connections;

JANJANBUREH DECLARATION BY FARMERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA

JANJANBUREH DECLARATION

BY  

FARMERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA

AT THE

NATIONAL FARMERS CONFERENCE

JANJANBUREH 29-30 MAY 2012

PREAMBLE

We the Farmers of the Republic of the Gambia, meeting here in Janjanbureh, in the Central River Region of the country from 29 – 30 May 2012, and with the full mandate of all the farmers of each of the Regions of the Gambia, namely: West Coast Region, North Bank Region, Central River Region both North and South, Lower River Region, Upper River Region;

HAVING regard to the great and bold initiative taken by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, under the most distinguished leadership of His Excellency the President of The Republic Cheikh, Prof, Dr. Alhaji Yahya A J J Jammeh, specifically to set in train a process of establishing the highest national platform for dialogue between farmers and the Government, farmers and Development Partners, farmers and their institutions;