There was little to no coverage of HIV/AIDS related issues in the Zimbabwe mainstream print media in the week under review. Perhaps the most significant report appeared in The Chronicle (6/7) in which journalists were urged to report HIV/AIDS in a compassionate manner. However, this was just another workshop and/or event report. The article quoted a research and communication expert who noted that journalists tend to dwell on stories highlighting shocking death and infection statistics devoid of a human and social face.

COSATU takes serious exception to the behaviour of the Zimbabwe police in arresting and questioning the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Wellington Chibebe. We note with utter dismay this unbecoming conduct by the security forces and believe that the police are attempting to intimidate the Secretary General.

At the twenty-first session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, held in Nairobi from 5 to 9 February 2001, the Council adopted decision 21/21 entitled
"International environmental governance", in which it outlined a process for the review of the current state of international environmental governance and the submission of the results of the review to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, to be held in Johannesburg in 2002. The Civil Society Consultations on International Environmental Governance were held on 22 and 23 May 2001 at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi in order to enable representatives of civil society organizations to give their views on international environmental governance. If you are interested in receiving the report on the civil society consultation on international enviromental government, please email Dorothy Kello at Wougnet.

The MDC is contesting the outcome of last June’s parliamentary elections in many constituencies that resulted in the victory of the ZANU (PF) candidate. Human rights abuses have been reported in all cases that have appeared before the High Court. The violence, which has mainly implicated ZANU (PF) supporters, but has also implicated some MDC supporters, is being used as a tool to intimidate people who had testified at the High Court. The intimidation continues to instill such fear that witnesses consider not testifying and in some cases have to be subpoenaed.

One of the last pristine rainforests in Africa will not be logged by a German timber company. Known as the Goualogo Triangle, the 100 square mile forest in the Republic of Congo contains some of the highest densities of gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants in central Africa.

An annual summit of African leaders expunged criticism of Britain's policy over Zimbabwe from its final declaration yesterday in a face-saving move that also served to humiliate President Robert Mugabe.

A South African land protest which raised fears of Zimbabwe-style chaos has been halted peacefully by bailiffs who tore down newly built shacks with crowbars. But with hundreds of families claiming to have been homeless in sub-zero temperatures, the African National Congress government faced new accusations that it was neglecting the poor.

It was about time South Africa and the rest of the world moved beyond understanding the problems affecting refugees and started helping to solve them, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Thursday. He was speaking at a conference in Pretoria to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention governing the status of refugees.

This new, free, 24 page publication, provides an introduction to the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention no 182, and explains its significance for Civil Society Organisations, in terms of the new opportunities it creates for them. The brochure is intended for use by broad human rights groups, trade unions, local government and professional bodies such as the police, lawyers and teachers. The brochure is informative, yet clear and easy to read. Published in English, French, Arabic and Spanish, it is intended to reach a wide audience and to provide practical measures to tackle the worst forms ofchild labour. The brochure can be downloaded in each language from Anti-Slavery's website or hard copies are available free from Pins Brown.

Winrock International: Maggie Range with Phoebe Omondi. Inspiring and empowering, this richly-illustrated training package includes a trainer’s manual and a free-standing pocket folder with a lively Participants’ Action Workbook, ready for easy photocopying, and a set of quotations, ready for posting. It is designed to train women leaders––individually and as a group––to move forward in their own professional development, build bridges with men, plan future gender activities and act as advocates for other women.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has agreed on the first global principles for the safety assessment of genetically modified foods, on maximum levels of certain food toxins, and on guidelines for organic livestock production, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a joint statement today.

Speaking at an OAU "working breakfast" meeting with other heads of state, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi "called on" African leaders to develop and implement joint initiatives for fighting the continent's HIV/AIDS pandemic. Because HIV/AIDS knows "no regional boundaries," the need for such regional anti-AIDS efforts are "urgent," he said.

The Roman Catholic Church in southern Africa is "consider[ing]" supporting condom use as a method to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region, Britain's Daily Telegraph reports. The church's "fundamental principle of the sanctity of life" forbids the use of condoms. But Bishop Kevin Dowling of South Africa stated in a policy paper that the church should "reconside[r]" this view.

Health centres in Democratic Republic of the Congo are being urged by a United Nations agency mission to shift their priorities to preventative
medicine and focus on the country's main killer diseases in a bid to reverse spiralling mortality rates.

Disarmament of ex-fighters from Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front is raising hopes that children forced into service with the anti-government group will finally win their freedom.

In a direct challenge to the world's pharmaceutical industry, the authors of a new UN report call on developing countries to strengthen their national laws in order to enable local production of cheaper, lifesaving AIDS drugs AIDS. Such an option can be pursued legitimately under compulsory licensing, a principle in international commerce that permits countries to "use patents without permission of the patent holder in return for a reasonable royalty on sale," says the Human Development Report 2001, released Tuesday by the UN Development Programme.

The number of countries facing "exceptional food emergencies" in East Africa has shrunk due to heavier rainfall, said the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation last week.

A Japanese education grant to provide schooling for Tanzanian children forced to work due to poor economic conditions, has been lying idle for nearly a year now.

When it comes to the selection of courses for your children, let their teachers guide you. They have the ability to judge the performance of students and help them select courses that would suit their individual needs, Ghana's top psychiatrist has advised parents.

The United Nations made a new bid for relevance with its recent Special Session on AIDS, but the trend of neglect by the press that Danny Schechter spotted last year hasn't disappeared.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has brought charges of criminal defamation against journalist Nnamdi Onyenua, report the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Onyenua, editor of the weekly, Lagos-based magazine "Glamour Trends", was arrested on 8 June. The charges resulted from an article entitled "Secrets Behind Obasanjo's Trips" that appeared in the magazine's 6 June edition.

This manual has been written primarily for AI campaigners yet is also useful for all those other human rights organisations. The book has been divided up into self-contained sections, making it easier to use and enable activists to photocopy or refer to particular sections as the need arises. It is relevant for newcomers to campaigning as well as veterans. Many of the guiding principles are probably universally applicable.

A monthly newsletter with information on travelling in Africa. In July's edition: The SOlar Eclipse. It was a perfect day for the 21st June 2001 eclipse, there was a clear view of the sky and the thousands of people watching were not disappointed. We have updated our eclipse information and have included travelogues, news stories and photographs of the recent eclipse in our 2001 section.

Over the past 300 years, humans have dramatically transformed the land surface of the Earth, changing vegetation, reshaping hills and valleys, and altering the course of rivers. In doing so, they have set in motion a scenario of global environmental change with impacts that promise to be at least as severe as global climate change, scientists reported today at a meeting in Amsterdam.

In a letter sent to today to Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed deep concern about the murder of Alegria Gustavo, a journalist for the local branch of Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA) in the central province of Huambo.

The Ugandan government is planning to establish an HIV/AIDS centre in each district referral hospital where patients will be able to get access to antiretroviral drugs used to treat the disease, according to the official 'New Vision' newspaper.

The Foundation Center's mission is to support and improve institutional philanthropy by promoting public understanding of the field and helping grantseekers succeed.

The women writers of Nigeria (WRITA) has taken the lead in immortalising the late Prof. Zulu Sofola, who died in 1995 by instituting a literary prize in her honour. Max Amuchie and Tunde Okoli look at her place in Nigerian literature.

Let me begin my presentation with a very provocative quote from an Ugandan political economist: "Anybody with any degree of intellectual integrity would see that globalisation of Africa --- or the integration of Africa into the global economy from the days of slavery to the contemporary period of capital-led integration – has on balance of costs and benefits been a disaster for Africa, both in human terms and in terms of the damage to Afirca’s natural environment. There is scarcely anybody in Africa who would talk of the last 300 years, including the last 40 years since the first African country gained independence, in language flattering either to colonialism or to governments that have taken over power since political independence."

As part of a major crackdown on corruption, the Ethiopian government has launched a nationwide survey to canvass people's views on the subject.

In a court ruling on Wednesday last week, which has gone largely unnoticed, the status of Zimbabwe’s land grabs was finally made clear – they are illegal and cannot proceed legally until the rule of law is re-established.

This article on TechSoup contains some good advice about adding a 'mail this web page to a friend' feature to your web site. It includes advice about formatting and user friendliness. If you are involved in the web coding for your organisation, take a look at these tips.

An objective of the World Movement is to utilize technology enabling democrats to share their knowledge and experiences and to build networks of mutual solidarity. DemocracyNews serves as a primary means to achieve these goals.

ALTHOUGH its prosperity depends on a worldwide network of trade, finance and technology, the United States currently treats the rest of the world, and especially the developing world, as if it barely exists.

Tomorrow is the launch of the Digital Opportunity Initiative, a partnership between the UNDP, the Markle Foundation and private sector consultancy Accenture. This week we interview Accenture's International Chair Vernon Ellis who is also the UK's private sector representative on the G8 Dot Force whose work will shortly conclude.

Communities' clashes in Delta State, Nigeria, sparked off by the activities of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), has claimed about 15 lives in the area.

Echoes of Africa launched on 15 July 2001 - a new monthly online magazine with stories, images and educational fun from all over Africa. The debut issue went out to nearly 2000 subscribers, and is now online.

The UNDP's complete report on human development and how technology can play a role in accelerating it is available. The report can be downloaded chapter by chapter, or in one big file. The report contains chapters such as 'Managing the risks of technological change' and 'Global Initiatives to create technologies for human development'. It also features interesting examples and case studies of the development and application of new technologies in developing countries.

Although southern African countries have agreed on a comprehensive protocol on controlling the flow of small arms in the region, its implementation could be far more problematic, security analysts told IRIN.

President Pierre Buyoya, who returned to Burundi on Thursday, said the decision to appoint him as first leader of the transition was an "important step towards implementation of the peace agreement". Speaking on arrival from the OAU summit in Lusaka, he said the decision had been made by the peace mediator Nelson Mandela after extensive consultations with regional heads of state and the signatories of the Arusha peace accord.

Civilian deaths resulting from fighting between Ugandan government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of the country have increased in recent months, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Rwanda has hailed the arrest of more genocide suspects in three European countries. On Thursday, three suspects - including a former minister - were arrested in Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Rwandan Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo called on the entire world to cooperate with the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported.

The presence of land mines and absence of basic services continue to prevent the successful return of internally displaced people (IDPs) to their homes in war-affected areas of Eritrea. The Information Coordination Centre (ICC - a joint UN/Eritrean Refugee and Rehabilitation Commission - ERREC - body) said in its July update that ERREC had repatriated 106,446 IDPs from 10 IDP camps in the Debub Region to their home villages, but that some 13,000 IDPs who had been unable to return had been moved to six newly established temporary IDP camps around Tsorona and Senafe, southern Eritrea.

The United Nations Security Council has called on Somali factions to lay down their weapons and engage in peaceful dialogue with the Transitional National Government (TNG), the current Council President, Ambassador Wang Yingfan of China, said on 11 July.

Mali became the first country to sign a legally binding international pact to control the proliferation of small arms, the UN reported in New York on Wednesday.

"This historic effort will require leadership, courage and willingness to depart from the ways of the past, if it is to do for Africa what the European Union has done for Europe". Those are the words of Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, himself an African from Ghana. He was speaking about the newly-created African Union (AU) which is to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

In embracing the potential of technology in developing countries, The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2001, published this week, has controversially backed the role of genetically modified food crops as a way to alleviate the hunger and poverty of millions in the developing world. GM crops, the report says, can increase yields, significantly reduce the malnutrition that affects 800 million people worldwide, and will be especially valuable to poor farmers working marginal land in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report points to newly developed strains of rice as evidence for such optimism. GM strains of rice have 50% higher yields, mature earlier, are richer in protein and are far more drought and disease resistant than traditional crops. It says there is an urgent need to develop this kind of technology, and to produce genetically modified varieties of millet, sorghum and cassava – the staple diets of millions. Instead of such technology concentrating on the needs of the developed world, the report urges there should be “greater public investment in GM research and development to ensure it meets the needs of the poor”.

The optimism the report displays over the potential of GM crops is not widely shared in the NGO community. The report has been slated by nearly 300 organisations around the world, including Oxfam, Greenpeace International, Actionaid and the Intermediate Technology Development Group, who have called its conclusions simplistic, and have accused the UN of uncritical acceptance of the agenda of the biotechnology industry. These organisations point out that there is a very real concern that in developing GM technology, large companies like Monsanto will effectively control the entire food production chain ‘from farm to fork’, and that poor farmers will become locked into a technology that they can neither afford nor control. This ‘industrialisation’ of agriculture in the developing world will effectively force huge numbers of people off the land into cities, where they are unlikely to have the skills to survive. This exact scenario is currently being touted by the state of Andhra Pradesh in India: the so-called Vision 2020 scheme. GM may offer a huge boost for both biotech companies and for the food export industry of Andhra Pradesh, but it will be of no benefit whatsoever for those forced to the cities in the search for work. Such a scenario will presumably become commonplace in other parts of the developing world if unfettered use of GM technology is allowed to go ahead.

Many commentators also make clear that many hungry people in the world live in countries with food surpluses. The widely touted benefits of GM rice for boosting vitamin A levels, for example, fail to make clear that vitamin A levels are only down among many populations because of the effects of the ‘Green Revolution’ which forced such communities to shift from growing a wide range of diverse crops, towards monoculture production geared towards a commercial market, resulting in a less nutritious diet for themselves and their families. Thus, land and food supply reforms, they argue, and 'traditional' technologies such as seed saving, manuring, intercropping and breeding techniques could in fact raise sustainable productivity to levels far higher than those achievable through the use of GM crops.

Real fears also remain about the effects of GM crops on the environment. While their modified status may mean a reduced need for pesticides and herbicides, their very resistance to pests means there is a greater chance of GM crops dominating the surrounding landscape, forcing out other plants and species, and thus exacerbating the critical threat to biodiversity the planet already faces.

Above all, it seems unclear whether the UNDP has actually listened to what kind of technology farmers in the developing world themselves say they want. As Andrew Scott from ITDG puts it, "This means starting with poor people and what they want technology to do for them - not starting with technologies and 'applying' them to poverty. We have to enable poor women and men to make their own choices about whether they want to surf the information superhighway…or would they prefer to build better homes, have access to electricity, transport or a sustainable food supply? We need to know which works best for them…a better hoe, a plough or rice grinder…or GMOs? What we need is new thinking about all technologies which are of use to poor people".

A "citizen’s jury" of small farmers across Andhra Pradesh has unanimously rejected the introduction of the Vision 2020 scheme, saying they want control over their own land and forests. Traditional agricultural practices in Africa also give people control over their own resources and are directly linked to the level of ‘social capital’ or empowerment they have in their communities. The real issue over GM technology is who gets to control the production of the world’s food: if GM is introduced, food production, and all that goes with it, is unlikely to remain in the hands of local farmers. In naively embracing GM, the UNDP, unfortunately, seems to have completely failed to have understood or to have addressed this fundamental issue.

Further reading:

Human Development Report 2001, UN Development Programme:

Guardian GM debate including coverage of Vision 2020:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/gmdebate
Greenpeace hits UNDP report for blind biotech bias:
http://www.greenpeace.org/
ITDG: Which technologies most benefit poor women and men?
http://www.itdg.org/home.html
Women are central to the agri-biotech debate in Africa:
http://www.womenspress.com/newspaper/2001/17-5afri.html
FoE: ‘Golden Rice’ and Vitamin A Deficiency
http://www.foe.org/safefood/rice.html
ActionAid: campaigns on food, patents and development:
http://www.actionaid.org/campaigns/index.html

The UNDP has declared South Africa 39th in their list of hubs of technological development over the globe. The importance of being able to skip over certain developmental stages was emphasised by Rob Adam of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. However, he also emphasised that the government needs to be aware of the potential of technology as a tool for devvelopment. In addition, the importance of encouraging tertiary studies in technical and technological fields is urgent.

Does a scientist - or anybody else, for that matter - have the right to patent the ability to make, sell and use a gene or genetic discoveries? This article in Scientific American discusses this issue in an interview with John J Doll, Director of Biotechnology at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The article is brief and outlines the basics of what genetic patenting is all about.