Arcadia Foundation

South Africa’s ruling ANC Party may be planning to enforce a massive Zimbabwe-styled land grab led by Julius Malema’s Youth League Movement, beginning right after the Fifa 2010 World Cup Games. Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF and War Veterans have been reportedly providing crucial support for the effort.

The Zimbabwe Mail report comes  heightened tensions surrounding ANCYL leader Julius Malema’s repeated singing of the old ANC battle song, “Kill the Boer.” It is Malema who is setting up meetings between key ANC and Zimbabwe officials to organize logistical and mobilization plans for sporadic land invasions across South Africa. He also discussed and shared ideas on “youth empowerment and revolutionary tactics” with Zim officials.

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According to the AFP, members of a Ugandan parliamentary panel stated on Friday that, while backing for Uganda’s controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 still exists, support has wained and focus has turned elsewhere to matters of economic and electoral reform. Also indicated was the fact that no date has been set for when the bill should go before Uganda’s lawmakers for a formal vote, and nor will it be in the near future.

A Ugandan parliamentary panel added that there is little backing for the country’s widely-condemned anti-gay bill and no timetable had been set for its debate.

“I think it is useless and will not achieve what it intends to achieve,” said Alex Ndeezi, a member of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee tasked with reviewing the bill before it can be presented to the house.

The panel’s chairman Stephen Tashyoba said the draft law was not a priority.

“As far as I am concerned, we really have more urgent matters to discuss like electoral reforms, which are already behind schedule,” he said.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda and offenders can be jailed for life.

The following retrospective has been brought to us from Arcadia Foundation Vice President Robert Carmona-Borjas. It is truly a robust yet insightful report on a tragic situation emanating from Latin America.

Human rights in Venezuela are at a critical impasse. Political discrimination, the lack of independence in judicial power, the attacks to freedom of expression all demonstrate a crisis more serious than Venezuelan history has experiences regarding a fundamental element of its democracy.

The first observation that one must make when examining the political reality and the state of human rights in the country is the clear and present distance of the government from democracy. A distance that is demonstrated by the concentration of powers in the executive, the integral domination of the national institutions, all to the service of a government who represents a consistent political tendency which has faced international scrutiny.

The declarations of Ministers, the Members of the Assembly and representatives of the citizenry, in particular the Ombudsman, showcase a submission to these institutions, supposedly independent, originally conceived for the defense of the interests of the citizens and the nation. The absolute lack of independence between the executive and the judicial system is perhaps the most serious atrocity to human rights that the bolivariano regime shows.

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For almost a decade, the US, EU, UK, Canada and Australia have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, for a continued lack of democratic progression occurring from the former breadbasket of Africa.

Only recently have we seen the beginnings of a sustainable institutional infrastructure, ushered in by Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. On April 21 Mr. Tsvangirai, will travel to Brussels to ask the EU to lift the sanctions it has imposed on his country. With the end of 2009 bringing a true arrest to cholera (below the international threshold), with the shrewd workings of Finance Minister and MDC representative Mr. Biti bringing hyperinflation to a near-close, if the west is indeed concerned with supporting continued democracy in Zimbabwe, it must heed Tsvangirai’s request.

Co-founder of Urtak.com and Guardian opinion editorial columnist Marc Lizoain has written a unique and compelling argument for the lifting of these sanctions, one certainly worthy of publication on our site. I encourage you to read what we’ve excerpted below and to comment accordingly. Dialogue on this controversial initiative would be greatly appreciated. Read Full Paper

The announcement from Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng that he is to retire from activism have many both domestically and from human rights groups internationally fearing he is quietly under immense pressure from the authorities to give up his career.

Gao disappeared in January 2009, when he was taken into police custody. For more than a year, his family and associates had no idea of where he was. This week, he unexpectedly returned to his home in Beijing, where he spoke with journalists. Though most of the mystery surrounding human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s disappearance has now been solved with his return to Beijing, doubts about his well-being persist.

It is dishearteningly controversial to hear Gao state he will give up political activism and championing the rights of China’s disadvantaged groups. However, many feel for his plight and understand that he is lucky to be alive; the clear message Chinese authorities sent to him over a year ago may have deterred his adamancy for political reform.

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Arcadia Foundation President and former Chief Mediator between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army, Betty Bigombe has been awarded the Geuzen Medal for 2010 for her efforts to end the war in northern Uganda.

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Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress (ANC) took more steps today to separate themselves from the stagnant leadership of once-President Thobo Mbeki by today announcing that the ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) expression of support for Zanu-PF undermines South Africa’s mediation efforts in Zimbabwe.

The party is seeking an “urgent meeting” with its youth movement to discuss the matter.

“The ANC would also like to strongly disagree and distance itself from utterances by the ANCYL at its press conference yesterday [Thursday] that it will support President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF to win the forthcoming general elections in Zimbabwe,” ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.

“The ANC, together with its government, would like to see all political parties in Zimbabwe [the two MDCs and Zanu-PF] implementing the spirit and the letter of the global political agreement. It is therefore our view that the ANCYL’s expression of support for one party in Zimbabwe goes against our country and President [Jacob] Zuma’s mediation efforts in that country.“

Clearly Youth league leader Julius Malema does not speak for South Africa, yet he has repeatedly made attempts to downplay the struggling Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe and appease current President Robert Mugabe. One might suggest their kinship is based on their mutual agreement that the indigenization laws which have in turn paralyzed Zimbabwe’s growth are in it’s best interest.

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The Arcadia Foundation strives to promote democracy around the world through a variety of innovative methods. One of the ways we raise awareness to fundamental pillars of democracy on a global scale is to educate audiences about their human rights, often in infrastructure-developing countries, through a series of Foundation-hosted panels and workshops. We are proud to announce we, in conjunction with the OAS, will be hosting the first of many ‘International Law of Human Rights‘ Summits in Panama.

At the summit, an Organization of American States (OAS) Representative to Panama, the Honduran National Commissioner of Human Rights, Ombudsman to Panama and the Dean of the University of Panama will be participating in a series of speeches and events promoting the value in adhering to international law, protecting human rights, the geopolitical ramifications of not doing so, and educating Panamanian citizens as to what they are entitled to under these laws. Access to education is a pillar of democracy too, after all.

More than a hundred British Members of Parliament have condemned Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which could equate to the death penalty for those Ugandans who engage in homosexual acts.

The 118 MPs have signed what is known as an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the UK Parliament, urging the scrapping of the Bill.

The EDM, drafted by east London Labour MP Harry Cohen and gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, urges the Ugandan government to “uphold international humanitarian law by abandoning the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, decriminalising same-sex acts between consenting adults in private, and outlawing discrimination against gay people”.

The controversy has been staggering. Many believe an evangelical sect’s venture in to Kampala in late November 2009 initially sparked the legislation behind the bill. Since then, it has drawn international criticism and even Ugandan President Museveni has warned of potential sanctions in trade policies stemming from its passing. Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of the Bill, then notoriously aired an explicit slideshow to several hundred people during a church service in Kampala in February, many of whom were children, in an effort to ‘educate people about what homosexuals do‘.

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South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) with many believing Jacob Zuma himself, told members to refrain from singing the anti-apartheid struggle song “Shoot the Boer“.

It comes amid rising racial tensions following the weekend murder of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

His supporters have blamed ANC youth leader Julius Malema for inflaming the situation by singing the song. The Arcadia Foundation most recently documented Malema’s venture in to Zimbabwe where he met a leader who doesn’t seem to understand the ramifications of ethnic disputes on foreign investment, Robert Mugabe.

The ANC’s Gwede Mantashe said the death had no political motive but the song had contributed to racial polarisation.

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