Somali opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Photo/FILE�

Harare (Zimbabwe) – The making of a new constitution is slowly turning into one big fight. That our country needs to revitalise itself is in no doubt, and the fact that it needs a constitutional overhaul is also a well known fact.

But the road to constitutional reform is full of landmines, and more will be planted if threats by the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions are to be taken seriously.

Political analysts fear that if the country does not overhaul its constitution to suit its 21st century needs then the next elections in two years time, especially for the Presidency, will still divide the country.

NCA chairperson Dr Lovemore Madhuku argues that since Independence every modification to the constitution has been selfishly driven by ZANU PF with dire consequences for the general populace, as it has been aimed at consolidating power in one individual and his henchmen.

The 2000 attempt to come up with an overhauled constitution ended up in a no vote which some analysts say gave Robert Mugabe the licence to rig the 2002, 2005 and 2008 elections. This year has been promised to be the year of a new constitution. But our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us that another round of constitution making in the country does not promise much hope.

‘Madhuku and lately the ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo are saying the politicians can never be trusted. They have shown propensity to gag the media and gross mismanagement of funds, so they cannot be trusted to move the country forward,’ Muchemwa said.

However, supporters of the inclusive government, including those who are pro-MDC claim there are two groups that are against the current constitutional review in the country. They are the pro-democracy activists under the umbrella of the civil society, and a group that consists of human rights and constitutional lawyers.

The ZCTU on Tuesday called for an independent commission to lead the drafting of a new constitution for the country, rejecting plans by the government for Parliament to spearhead the writing of the governance charter.

Matombo told journalists in Harare that ZCTU ‘could not trust politicians with the writing of the new constitution,’ and vowed to mobilise workers to reject any proposed new constitution drafted by Parliament in a referendum scheduled for next year.

The Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo has appointed a 25-member committee of legislators drawn from ZANU PF and the two formations of the MDC that will oversee the drafting of the country’s new constitution.

While the inclusive government has said the process will lead to measures that would help build consensus and further dialogue in adopting the new constitution, the NCA, the ZCTU and student bodies argue that issues of national importance will be lost in the corridors of power if parliament controls the process.

But Moyo reiterated that parliament will drive the writing of the new constitution over the next 18 months as outlined under the power-sharing agreement signed by the three main political parties last year. The Speaker added that apart from lawmakers, contributors drawn from groups including business, students, rights organisations, churches, the media, women’s groups, labour and farming will assist the parliamentary-select committee. But the committee will still have the final say in the drafting of the new constitution.

The draft constitution would be put before the electorate in a referendum expected in July next year and if approved by Zimbabweans will then be brought before Parliament for enactment. Once a new constitution is in place the power-sharing government is expected to then call fresh parliamentary, presidential and local government elections.

source.SW Radio Africa (UK/Zimbabwe), by Tichaona Sibanda

Freetown (Sierra Leone) – Director of Amnesty International, Brima Sheriff has stated that President Koroma should demonstrate leadership and abide by international and national obligations by abolishing the death penalty in Sierra Leone.

He further said that he should make history in the country by commuting the sentences of all those currently on death row, adding that this would also demonstrate that he was abiding to the African Commission’s resolution on moratorium as one of the vice chairmen of the union.

Sheriff said that there were twelve people including three women on the death row at the country’s maximum prisons on Pademba Road in Freetown.

He called on President Ernest Bai Koroma to use his constitutional power provided for by article 63 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone on the 48th Independence Day to commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment, especially regarding three women currently on death row.

The director said they were calling on the government to join the world towards abolishing death penalty and removing capital punishments from its national legislation.

He disclosed that in 2005 the Sierra Leone truth and reconciliation commission, TRC report found out that the continued existence of death penalty on the country’s statutes book would be an affront to civilized society based on the right to life.

“It made the abolition of the death penalty an imperative recommendation of the report requiring that the government implement it without delay,” the release stated.

Brima Sheriff observed that the government was under a legal obligation to implement all the recommendations of the TRC report beginning with the imperative ones.

He said Sierra Leone was a state party to the African Chapter on Human and People’s Rights, adding that in November 28, 2008, the African Commission on Human and People’s Right at its 44th ordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria adopted a resolution calling on state parties to the African Charter to observe a memorandum on the death penalty.

He noted that pending steps towards total abolition of the death penalty, Sierra Leone must ensure that in those cases, the most rigorous internationally recognized standards for fair trial are respected, and provisions in legislation providing for mandatory death sentences be removed.

Unfortunately, the president could not, in his address to the nation, mention anything about the death penalty apparently because the call to do so on the country’s Independence Day came rather late. However, he did commit himself to fighting injustice against women.

“We are resolute in fighting injustice particularly against women and we have demonstrated affirmative action by appointing a woman as Chief Justice…Our system of justice is improving, that is why we have just successfully prosecuted criminals who landed large quantities of cocaine in our country.

source.Concord Times (Sierra Leone)

Freetown (Sierra Leone) – On April 8, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone passed sentences on three former commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), bringing to an end the trials of militia leaders deemed responsible for atrocities committed during the country’s bloody civil war, fought from 1991 to 2002.

Issa Sesay, the interim leader of the RUF after the death of its founder Foday Sankoh, field commander Morris Kallon and chief of security Augustine Gbao were found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law. The three were slammed with a total of 117 years in prison.

In 2008, members of the two other factions involved in the conflict were tried on similar charges. Three leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and two from the pro-government Civil Defence Force (CDF) were all found guilty and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. The court was established in 2003, following an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations, to try “those bearing the greatest responsibility” for horrific crimes committed during the conflict.These crimes included murder, rape, sexual enslavement, conscription of children into armed groups, amputations and burning and looting.

“The people of Sierra Leone can now move forward with their lives and put behind them this dark chapter. They now feel a sense of justice and those who think they can get away with impunity must think twice,” commented Herman von Habel, the registrar of the Special Court.

The court may have sent the war criminals to jail but for their victims, the agony still remains.

Fatmata Kamara, had both her legs chopped off by rebel fighters when they invaded the capital Freetown, in January 1999. Ten years after that ghastly incident, she has been permanently condemned to begging for alms on the city’s streets. She is supported by her two children, aged 16 and 14, who push her in a wheel chair. Before her amputation, she was a hair-dresser and owned a salon downtown.

“I still remember that fateful day when RUF fighters invaded Kissy [an eastern suburb of the city] and slashed my two legs using blunt matchetes and axes. It was a painful and traumatic experience. To date, I still feel the recurring pain and agony,” Kamara told IPS. She is one of hundreds who suffered mutilation of body parts. Thousands more lost their lives and property.

At the end of the war, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] was set up to document a proper historic record of the war, why and how it happened and how to prevent its re-occurrence. The commission recommended national reconciliation and war victims were encouraged to forgive the perpetrators. However, even after the handing down of sentences, many victims are still bitter. They claim that the ex-combatants have been rehabilitated and given skills training and cash incentives as part of the reconciliation process, while they the victims have been left on their own, languishing in abject poverty.

“I can forgive but not forget. The scars are all over me – an amputated arm and lacerations on my body. And, when I see those who did this to me, moving freely about, my heart races back and I feel even bitter,” Jabati Mambu, who plays soccer for the National Amputee team as a way of rebuilding his life, told IPS.

He thinks the sentencing of eight militia commanders, is not enough to restore the dignity of victims, or even make them feel justice. Thousands of ex-combatants roam the streets, with some having been integrated into the national security services. The victims are living as destitutes. “It makes no sense to me spending millions of US dollars on the prosecution of eight men, at the Special Court, while we the victims live in squalor. This is unfair.”

The court’s success at ending impunity and preventing a slip into anarchy, has been strongly challenged by analysts here. The historical conditions that triggered the conflict, in the first place, are very much prevalent today: mass poverty, youth unemployment, regional and tribal divide and pervasive corruption.

Political commentator Joseph Taylor says the fundamental causes of social unrest must first be addressed. “I think the authorities have to improve on governance, end corruption, provide jobs for the youths and deliver social services if we are not to once again revert to conflict.”

Another contentious issue has been the question of where the convicted war criminals will serve their sentences. Both the Sierra Leonean authorities and their counterparts in the Special Court, say the country’s prisons do not meet the requisite international standards, to keep the convicts. The special court has therefore concluded an agreement with Rwanda to take the prisoners, but the convicts and their counsels insist this is unacceptable.

The defence team for the RUF prisoners says it will appeal this at the appeals chamber of the special court. Its argument is that this would violate the rights of its clients and isolate them from meeting their families, friends and loved ones. Victims want the prisoners must serve out their sentences here in Sierra Leone, the scene of the crimes. They say the prisoners must serve their sentences in Sierra Leone because taking them away would deprive victims of the satisfaction of seeing their tormentors being punished.

With the trials of the ex-Sierra Leonean militia commanders closed, the Special Court now has only one major case that it is dealing with, that of the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor. Mr Taylor is facing an 11-count indictment, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, at the Hague. His trial was moved from Sierra Leone because it was feared such an exercise would plunge the region into further chaos and war.

The ex-Liberian leader is accused of having provided military support, for RUF rebels fighting in Sierra Leone, in exchange for diamonds. Taylor has denied the charges. The mandate of the court ends in 2010, but it has since been complaining of a shortfall in its budget, to continue the Taylor trial. Its registry announced recently it has secured some funding from contributing countries that would keep it going till end of June, but that more is still needed.

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source.Inter Press Service (IPS), by Lansana Fofana

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Six Nepali women die every day due to complications resulting from pregnancy or childbirth

A top priority is the maternal mortality ratio (MMR), which Nepal’s government hopes to reduce to 134 women per 100,000 live births from its current level of 281 per 100,000 live births, according to the government’s Demographic Health Survey 2006.

Put another way, this means one woman is dying every four hours (six women a day) due to pregnancy-related complications.

It will be a big challenge for Nepal to really achieve the maternal health goal, said reproductive health expert, Ava Darshan Shrestha, vice-president of the Safe Motherhood Network Federation (SMNF).

Skilled birth attendants are not present at nearly 81 percent of deliveries, something that is putting thousands of women at risk, according to SMNF.

There is a severe shortage of maternal health services, especially in the hills, where most of the maternal deaths occur.

In rural areas, most women need to walk for hours. If they travel by bus it’s just as bad because the roads are so rough that women in labour end up in a serious condition even before reaching hospital,” said Sabitri Chettri, a female community health volunteer.

Weak administrative, technical and logistical capacity, inadequate investment and lack of skilled health personnel further hamper effective health services, according to UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children – 2009 report.

Impact on other MDGs

Experts are concerned that failure to achieve the MMR goal will also adversely affect other MDGs.

Unless you reduce the MMR, it will be difficult to achieve other MDGs, including a reduction in child mortality [goal 4], as well as gender equality and empowerment [goal 3], Saramma Mathai, a maternal health expert with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in Bangkok, told IRIN. We know that unless a mother survives [childbirth], the risk of death of a newborn is much higher, she said.

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Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Access to healthcare in Nepal’s remote areas remains a key challenge

Without a mother, a child’s nutrition is going to suffer. And women contribute a lot to the economy, both in terms of working at home and contributing to the economy, said Mathai.

Local health experts told IRIN the health of mothers and newborns was closely linked, and preventing deaths required implementing measures like antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, access to emergency obstetric care, adequate nutrition, post-partum care, newborn care and education to improve health, infant feeding and care, and ensuring good hygiene behaviours.

To be truly effective and sustainable, however, these interventions must take place within a development framework that strives to strengthen and integrate programmes with health systems, and an environment supportive of women’s rights, said the State of the World’s Children 2009 report.

New government programme

The Ministry of Health and Population, with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), has started Ama Surakchhya Karyakram, a national programme offering free childbirth and travel costs to women who come and deliver at a maternal health facility.

The programme is available in all government hospitals and health centres.

This programme is aimed at improving maternal health and newborn survival, and we are committed to its effective implementation,” said senior government official Girija Mani Pokhrel.

We need to remember that Nepal is the 14th poorest nation in the world, Sushil Baral, DFID maternal health adviser in Kathmandu, told IRIN, adding that the programme was a bold initiative.

nn/ds/cb source.www.irinnews.org