Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar 12, 2008

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Action Alert: Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!

Africa Action
March 12, 2008

A Key Moment to Act
Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!
Write your Senator Now!

Dear Friend,

On Thursday, March 13th the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will sit to mark up the most important bill in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Africa Action encourages you to immediately write to your Senator to urge them to support a bill that will make U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy more effective and ensure true U.S. global leadership in the fight against the pandemic.

Last Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr (D-DE) and Ranking Member Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) introduced the bill S 2731, officially known as the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” This legislation is not only a huge leap forward from Bush’s unproductive policy, which for the past five years severely limited the U.S. response to global AIDS, but it is also a clear testimony that popular pressure works in shaping U.S. policy.

While the current bill is a big improvement over the past 5 years of U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy, several areas still need our strong pushing in order to produce the best possible law. These include:

* Increasing the treatment target to 4 million individuals from the current 3 million;

* Increasing the total funding to $59 billion to meet the public health recommendation of $50 billion for HIV/AIDS programs alone and still include the necessary $4 billion and $5 billion for tuberculosis and malaria programs;

* Integrating HIV/AIDS and reproductive health/family planning programs so that women have easy access to effective HIV prevention services to prevent babies being born with HIV; and

* Removing the requirement that groups must have policies that oppose prostitution to be eligible for U.S. funding. While we do not support prostitution, it is important that our HIV/AIDS policy be comprehensive and reaches out even to prostitutes in order to most effectively prevent the spread of HIV.

The fight against HIV/AIDS remains the defining struggle of our time, as the pandemic claims more than two million lives a year, with more than three quarters of the victims in Africa. The devastating impact of the pandemic on families, communities and nations makes the disease the biggest global threat to human security and development. Only a concerted global effort will succeed in stopping this deadly scourge that has claimed more than 20 million lives globally in the last 3 decades.

As the richest nation in the world, the U.S. must play a leadership role in ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Africa, the hardest hit part of the world is incapacitated to deal with a crisis of this magnitude on its own because of the legacy of slavery, colonialism and current global trade policies and power relations that work together to impoverish and debilitate the African continent. As the chief beneficiary of some of the historical injustices that ruined Africa, the U.S. has not only a moral, but also a historical responsibility to support the African continent in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

It is the complacency of our leadership that resulted in HIV/AIDS blowing out of control to become the menace it is today. This is time to let our leaders know that we care about global HIV/AIDS, we care about the plight of humanity, we care about our Africa brothers and sisters, we care about our fellow Americans who falling victim to this pandemic AND WE DEMAND a bill from senate that will be effective in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Speak out now! – Be heard! – Write to your Senator now!

Sincerely;
Staff @ Africa Action

Mar 12, 2008

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Resistance to AFRICOM

Africa Action
March 12, 2008

Dear Friend,

Take Action! Call or Write to Oppose Increasing Militarization of Aid to Africa

Tomorrow, AFRICOM will be featured during a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, giving us an opening to resist the new U.S. military command in Africa. Please take a moment to pick up the phone and call your Senator or send an email registering your opposition to AFRICOM.

Africa Action has been working with a coalition of organizations including our long-time allies TransAfrica Forum, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Hip Hop Caucus, Africa Faith and Justice Network and others to challenge the Pentagon’s new military command for Africa, AFRICOM.

In our recent Africa Policy Outlook and AFRICOM statement we describe how this development manifests the increasing militarization of U.S. aid to Africa, going even so far as to place U.S. diplomacy and development initiatives under the auspices of the Department of Defense. You can read African voices on AFRICOM on our website. Africa Action has joined allies to launch the website ResistAFRICOM to enhance our campaigning efforts on this important issue and to serve as a central location for advocacy against AFRICOM. Today we invite you to take action – in concert with our allies – and call your Senator to register your opposition to AFRICOM.

President Bush created AFRICOM in 2007, but Congress still needs to fund it. We encourage you to get involved and to tell your member of Congress that you do not agree with the direction of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and that you would rather see taxpayer dollars go toward just security initiatives like ending HIV/AIDS, canceling Africa’s debt, or stopping genocide in Darfur.

You can call now at 202-224-3121 to get the Capitol Switchboard or you can click here and put in your zip code to find the direct number for your Senators, and then feel free to use the script below. Or you can email your representative below. A call will have more impact than an email – so if you can take the time, please make the call. If you are rushing today, and won’t have time to pick up the phone, please take this one-click action.

Thank you, for your commitment to justice and peace in Africa and for taking action on this critical issue.

Peace,

The Staff @ Africa Action

Script for AFRICOM Calls:

Hi, my name is __________ and I am calling to express my concerns regarding the new U.S. military command for Africa – AFRICOM. It is poorly structured and gives unprecedented power to the military. I want to ask ________(name of member of Congress)___________ to make every effort to create more Congressional oversight of the new command and to ensure that diplomatic and development efforts do not fall under the jurisdiction of the military. Thank you!

Mar 09, 2008

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Call for Papers: Critical Connections

African Law Student Association, Columbia University and the Center for African Education, Teachers College, Columbia University present the symposium

Critical Connections

Law, Education, Scholarship & Practice: Re-imagining Africa(ns) in light of Global Emigration & Neocolonialism

Critical Connections is a one-day symposium created in collaboration between the Center for African Education, Teachers College and the African Law Student Association of Columbia Law School. The purpose of this symposium is to promote interdisciplinary engagement with the legal, educational, scholarly and practice-based issues affecting the African continent. This year we are paying particular attention to the effect of neo-colonialist policies on the emigration of African peoples on the continent and around the world. Specifically of interest are the connections between such policies and questions of discriminatory immigration laws and trade policies; the movement of refugee populations; xenophobia both in and out of the continent; the development of new legal norms reflecting African cultures and identities; education; the shifting of identities across generations and borders; and the health and well-being of Africans throughout the world.

We invite papers from established graduate students, practitioners, and community-based organizations in a wide variety of disciplines, including education, law, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, African(a) studies, policy, literature, economics, international development and cultural studies. Individual papers, posters and complete panels will be considered. Panels are strongly encouraged that reflect the collaboration between scholars and practitioners.

Those interested in presenting at the symposium should submit a 250-word abstract and a CV by Friday, March 10, 2008 via email to: Mojoyin Onijala, Chair of the Columbia African Law Student Association or Ramatu Bangura, Graduate Assistant at the Center for African Education at criticalconnections@gmail.com. Abstracts can be sent via regular mail to the African Law Student Association, Columbia University, 435 West 116th St., New York, NY 10027-7297.

Critical Connections will be held at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York on April 24, 2008.

Mar 09, 2008

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Call for Papers: African Customary Law Revisited

The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century
October 23-24, 2008

New: Conference website: www.customarylawrevisited.com

A Project of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School The sponsoring organization of African Customary Law Revisited: The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century invites submissions and participant nominations for a collaborative exchange and discussion at a two-day conference to take place on October 23-24, 2008 in Botswana. The conference working language will be English. The conference will include paper presentations on topics detailed below and will also include working group discussions with a broad range of stakeholders, including, for example, traditional leaders, members of the judiciary, representatives of non-governmental organizations and other interested persons, on topics related to customary law.

Customary law, the traditional law indigenous to a region, continues to regulate many areas of people’s lives in Africa. For example, some African constitutions now enshrine the right to culture and oblige courts to apply customary law where applicable. Elsewhere, constitutional and statutory law have superseded most or all customary law. Yet, even in situations where constitutional law, statutory law and common law have largely superseded it, customary law may nevertheless govern in certain areas, such as family relations. For example, in many places, the requirements for marriage, the rights and duties of husbands and wives, the obligations toward and custody of children, the ownership of property acquired during marriage, and many other aspects of family life are governed by customary law. Moreover, even where conflicting constitutional or statutory law exists, lack of access to legal resources may mean that, as a practical matter, customary law still governs.

Finally, the persistence of longstanding expectations and social practices informed by customary law has given rise to many problems in enforcing contradictory statutory law.

Notwithstanding the significant role customary law continues to play in people’s lives, there has been a notable lack of research and formal scholarly exchange on the topic. As detailed further below, the African Customary Law Revisited conference will attempt to fill this gap by exploring the nature, substance and role of customary law in Africa in the 21st Century.

Transportation to the conference venue, lodging, meals and transportation at the venue will be subject to arrangement between the sponsoring organizations and the event participants.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Twenty papers will be selected for presentation at the conference by a Steering Committee comprised of members from the sponsoring organization. All proposals should include a project description and the applicant’s curriculum vitae. All proposals should be in English with project descriptions not to exceed 1000 words. As publication of selected papers in contemplated, submissions should describe work that has not been previously published.

Possible topics for consideration:
* What is customary law in the 21st Century
* How is customary law ascertained? What are the sources of customary
law? How is it generated? How does it change?
* The history of customary law; customary law and colonialism
* “Procedural” aspects of customary law / Venues to enforce customary law
* Traditional courts and other venues for decision
* The relationship between traditional courts or decision-makers and the
formal court system
* Evidentiary standards and methods of proving customary law
* Codification of customary law
* Substantive areas of customary law For example:
-Land tenure
-Family law
Environmental law
-Chieftancy
-Intellectual Property
-Criminal law
-Gender and customary law
-Customary law and international law

SUBMISSION DEADLINE MARCH 25, 2008. Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to leitnercenter@law.fordham.edu . Participants will be notified in April 2008 that their papers have been accepted for presentation at the
conference. The papers will be published together in a book after the conference and will be posted on this website. Publication is contingent on producing a final paper of publishable quality.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

The sponsoring organizations invite nominations of traditional leaders, members of the judiciary or other persons or organizations who may be interested in attending the conference to participate in the working group discussions and discussion of papers. Persons may self-nominate or nominate others with expertise in matters related to customary law.

Nominations should include:

* The title and address of person or organization nominated.

* An explanation of the reasons for the nomination (500-word limit)
including:

* What is the person or organization’s role with respect to customary
law? What is the basis for the person or organization’s expertise in
this area?

* Why, specifically, do you believe this person or organization should
be included in the conference?

* What areas or issues related to customary law would the person or organization be most interested in discussing?

* Submitter information: Your name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address.

NOMINATION DEADLINE MARCH 25, 2008. Proposals should be submitted by
e-mail to leitnercenter@law.fordham.edu
Nominated persons and
organizations who are accepted to participate in the conference will be
notified in April 2008.