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On the side-lines of the 2019 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, CNBC Africa’s Esther Awoniyi spoke to Oluyemisi Adefunke Bamgbose, a Professor of Law at the University of Ibadan on the depth of human rights education in Nigeria.

Advancing human rights education in Nigeria

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CNBC Africa&#8217;s Esther Awoniyi spoke to Anne-Béatrice Bullinger, Deputy Head of Mission at Embassy of Switzerland (MES) in Nigeria on the voluntary principles initiative aimed at protecting the human rights of business communities. Anne-Béatrice Bullinger joins CNBC Africa for more.

NBA Conference: Béatrice Bullinger on minimising Human Rights abuse in extractive communities

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 The Central Bank of Kenya has financial inclusion in its stewardship of the financial system.
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/danny-bradlow-168878">Danny Bradlow</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-pretoria-1645">University of Pretoria</a>

Many central banks are rethinking their approach to the environmental and social impact of their operations. This is because their decisions can affect access to housing, healthcare, education, work, to adequate food and water and the security of their pensions.

For example, 36 central banks and banking supervisors, participate in the central bank and supervisors <a href="https://www.banque-france.fr/en/financial-stability/international-role/network-greening-financial-system">network</a> for greening the financial system. The list of central banks includes Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany and Mexico. 

The network’s focus is on climate change. But this pushes them to pay more attention to other environmental and social considerations. 

The precise mandates of central banks vary. But one thing they all have in common is responsibility for maintaining price stability. Their primary policy tools for achieving this objective are interest rates, the capital and reserve requirements for banks, and trading debt instruments in financial markets.

Central banks also act as a lender of last resort to the banking system or more generally to the financial sector. They regulate and supervise the activities of banks and other financial institutions. They manage the country’s payment system, maintain financial stability and manage the country’s foreign exchange reserves. In some countries, the central bank can be given additional responsibilities such as promoting development finance or financial inclusion.

To fully understand the risk that climate poses to price and financial stability, central banks need to consider how changing weather patterns will affect a number of variables. These include food production, migration patterns, and people’s access to food, water, housing, and jobs, and how these, in turn, influence aggregate demand, credit allocation, inflation and government deficits.

In other words, as I explain <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/why-central-banks-need-take-human-rights-more-seriously/">in more detail in this article</a>, central bankers are being inexorably pushed to reconsider the relationship between central banking and human rights.

<h2>The connections</h2>

The mandates, powers, and governance arrangements of all central banks are established by law. They must comply with all the applicable law including the constitutional and international legal obligations of their home states. In principle this means that central banks are bound by the international human rights commitments of their sovereigns.

Historically, central banks have been able to avoid dealing with human rights issues. This is because the political leadership determines the price stability goal for the economy and then lets the central bank decide how to meet this inflation objective.

This arrangement suggests that the central bank’s independence is limited to the technical issues relevant to achieving the goal set by the government. In addition, it assumes, at least implicitly, that the social and environmental implications of the country’s monetary and financial goals are the government’s responsibility.

However, in reality central banking is not a purely technical function. For example, the social and environmental impact of its decision to change interest rates will vary depending on how it implements the decision. If the central bank decides to change interest rates through open market operations the social and environmental impacts will depend on which instruments it chooses to trade – and in what proportions. On the other hand, these affects will depend on the decisions of banks if it implements the decision by changing the reserve requirements or the interest rate it charges banks for short term loans.

There are some noteworthy examples. The central banks of <a href="https://www.centralbank.go.ke/bank-supervision/">Kenya</a>, the Netherlands and the <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/">Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco</a> consider factors such as community development and financial inclusion in their stewardship of their financial systems. And the Dutch central bank now has a mandate to include <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/from-mission-to-supervision-putting-sustainable-prosperity-on-the-agenda-of-the-dutch-central-bank/">sustainability</a> in its decision making. The <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-17/with-climate-losses-rising-central-banks-push-greener-finance">Chinese central bank</a> has been authorised to take climate considerations into account in its monetary decisions.

Central bank operations, therefore, cannot avoid affecting human rights. 

<h2>The human rights responsibilities</h2>

The unavoidable impact of central banking operations on human rights means that central banks have to develop a better understanding of their human rights responsibilities. The applicable law is the starting point. But the relevant law and jurisprudence is unlikely to provide detailed guidance on how central banks should interpret and implement their human rights responsibilities.

A good reference tool for the central bank is the <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/un-guiding-principles">UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights</a>. These principles stipulate that all businesses should have a human rights policy. The policy should be publicly available and should be applicable to all the business’s operations and decision-making. 

The Principles also state that businesses should conduct adequate human rights due diligence before and during their decision making and implementation process. This requirement means that they should conduct human rights impact assessments of their proposed operations. They should also take steps to avoid or mitigate the identified adverse human rights impacts.

Central banks will face particular challenges in meeting their human rights responsibilities. Their instrument independence means that their human rights policy will need to be respectful of the central bank’s independence and its mandate. 

At the same time, the central bank needs to be cognisant of the fact that its human rights policy may have implications for other state entities and for the country’s political leadership. These considerations complicate but do not render impossible the task of drafting a central bank human rights policy.

Their ability to conduct detailed human rights impact assessments will be complicated by the relative speed and discretion with which they must often operate. This does not, however, make it impossible for them to assess their impact on human rights. Instead, it suggests that central banks need to develop and maintain a sufficiently detailed general and ongoing understanding of the actual impact of their operations on human rights. This is so that they can make informed judgements about the likely effects of their proposed monetary decisions on specific communities.

This disaggregated approach should provide central banks with a detailed and nuanced understanding of how their policies actually affect different sub-groups of their society. By doing this it should enable central banks to determine the true costs and benefits of their policies and actions. This should improve their decision-making.

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

This analysis demonstrates three key points. First, it is becoming untenable for central banks to avoid incorporating their human rights impacts into their decision-making and operations. Second, a human rights approach offers central banks a new tool for understanding the true costs and benefits of their operations. Third, central banks can meet their human rights responsibilities without compromising the independence they need to meet their monetary and financial responsibilities.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120192/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/danny-bradlow-168878">Danny Bradlow</a>, SARCHI Professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-pretoria-1645">University of Pretoria</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-central-banks-need-to-take-human-rights-more-seriously-120192">original article</a>.

Central banks need to take human rights more seriously, here’s why

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The recent high risk security incidents that have occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe have seen the government temporarily shutting down the internet. Social media and cell phone reception had not been working during a critical time of political and economic turmoil in each of these countries. CNBC Africa is joined by Michael Power, Director of ALT Advisory for more on the legality of internet shut downs.

Internet shutdowns violate human rights, says ALT Advisory’s Michael Power

By Jared Jeffery, Political Analyst at NKC African Economics
On Monday, November 5, the European Union (EU) recalled its ambassador to Tanzania, Roeland Van de Geer, because of the worsening human rights situation. This comes after Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda said that he would set up a squad to hunt down and arrest gay people.
The Tanzanian ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement on Sunday, November 4, distancing itself from the commissioner’s plan, saying it was his “opinion” and not the state’s position. The ministry said the government would respect human rights.
As there has been no news of Mr Makonda’s squad, it must be assumed that his plan has been blocked. However, The Guardian quoted an activist on Monday saying that houses were being raided and potentially targeted people were leaving the city for safety.
Mr Makonda’s public weeping at the Efatha Church on Sunday can perhaps be interpreted as an attempt to garner public sympathy before the fallout.
Regional commissioners are appointed by the president, and past controversies surrounding Mr Makonda – which he surprisingly survived – have created the impression that he is one of President John Magufuli’s closest allies and enjoys special protection.
For example, in March 2017 Mr Makonda stormed into the offices of Clouds FM Media Group with six armed men to insist they air a video alleging a popular pastor had had an affair; soon thereafter, Mr Magufuli fired not Mr Makonda but the information minister for launching an investigation into the incident.
&#8220;I, as president, don&#8217;t let anyone tell me what to do. I decide who should be where. So you Makonda, do your job and ignore the rest,&#8221; was the president’s answer to criticism.
More recently, there was controversy this year over a shipment of furniture the commissioner tried to import without paying taxes. He said that the 20 containers with furniture allegedly for teachers’ offices were aid from Tanzanians in the US, according to local newspaper The Citizen. This time, however, Mr Magufuli did not back up his ally.
The president in August called on Mr Makonda to pay the tax on the furniture and implied in his comments on the matter that the commissioner was being deceitful: “What if they come from your friends and you have imported them for your business interest but you use teachers as a scapegoat? Even the beneficiary schools are not mentioned, what does that mean? It means you want to use teachers to import furniture. What if they end up in some shopping mall somewhere?” he is quoted saying.
That he did not fire Mr Makonda for his pet peeve – the misuse of government office – speaks to the importance of the relationship and also shows that Mr Magufuli’s principles are more flexible than popularly believed.
It will be interesting to see how the president reacts this time seeing as the controversy over his favoured commissioner has gone international.
He will not want to be seen to be bowing to international pressure, and he seemingly does not have an issue with Mr Makonda’s stance on homosexuality – repression of LGBT+ groups has only increased under Mr Magufuli.
The EU will want to see some assurance that the government meant what it said in its statement about human rights and dismissing Mr Makonda appears to be the minimum gesture on this front.
Pressure from the EU to respect rights is potentially a positive development, but it would need to be wider than the focus on LGBT+ rights to have an effect.
The political environment in Tanzania has deteriorated significantly over the past three years with leaders of opposition parties routinely arrested (Zitto Kabwe of the Alliance for Change and Transparency-Wazalendo just last week), media freedoms curtailed, and protests effectively banned.
In short, there is little opportunity for local actors to have an effect. Pressure from liberal countries could help open the political space once again or it could drive Tanzania closer to China (which does not put conditions on assistance) and cause Mr Magufuli’s administration to become even more repressive.

OpEd: What you need to know about Tanzania’s homosexual crackdown fallout

Girls are least likely to be in school in South Sudan, with nearly three-quarters of school-age girls out of the classroom, followed by Central African Republic, Niger and Afghanistan, all countries hit by conflict, a report said on Tuesday.
Nine of the top 10 countries where girls fail to get a education are in Africa, while other crisis crippled countries, including Somalia and Syria, failed to make the list due to insufficient data.
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“Over 130 million girls are still out of school &#8211; that’s over 130 million potential engineers, entrepreneurs, teachers and politicians whose leadership the world is missing out on,” said Gayle Smith, president of the ONE Campaign that published the index ahead of the International Day of the Girl.
“It’s a global crisis that perpetuates poverty.”
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In South Sudan, 73 percent of girls aged 6 to 11 are not in school, in the Central African Republic there is only one teacher for every 80 students and in Niger only 17 percent of girls and women are literate, the report found.
“This index shines a necessary spotlight on the barriers that girls face to accessing a quality education in Africa,” said Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, CEO of children’s humanitarian organization, Plan International.
“The quality of a country’s education is linked to the resources governments invest in it,” said Albrectsen, who called for the closing of the education funding gap and addressing the barriers preventing girls from going to school.
The report found exceptions, however, such as Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, that outperformed 18 wealthier countries when it came to girls’ education.
Thousands of girls are kept from school due to poverty, early marriage, dangers in traveling to class and having too many chores at home, according to the United Nations’ children’s organization, UNICEF.
In Ethiopia, two in every five girls marry before their eighteenth birthday while just one percent of girls in Burkina Faso complete secondary school, according to the report.
Attitudes towards education for girls are starting to change across Africa &#8211; as more parents see sending their daughters to school not only as a chance to improve their futures, but also to boost the family’s fortunes, experts say.
But generations of women have been left behind, with women accounting for almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults.
“Extreme poverty and gender inequity drive the injustice that not only keeps girls out of school, but forces them into child marriages,” said Fiona Mavhinga, a lawyer and one of the first girls in Zimbabwe supported by international educational charity Camfed to go to university.
Without an education young woman are “locked away from a better future,” she said.
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Reporting by Adela Suliman; editing by Ros Russell.
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Going to school? Unlikely if you’re a girl in South Sudan, report says

By: Mary-Jean Nleya *
The 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) kicked off today at the UN Headquarters in New York City. A lot of world and international issues are on the table for debate, discussion, and clarification.
The leader of the free world, President Donald Trump, is set to take the world stage on Tuesday, September 19th – and the international community awaits to hear the clarification over some of the rhetoric he conveyed, both pre-and post his presidency, concerning the UN.
Among the other international issues to be addressed, is around the human rights concerns over the Rohingya crises in Myanmar. Many local and youth-focused issues are also sure to be given due regard.
On the morning of Saturday, September 16th 2017, two Nigeria youths were interviewed in the community of Agodo in Lagos. The purpose of the interview was to put a human face on the youth unemployment statistics, as well as to get a grassroots understanding of the circumstances that the youth face and their views on what they expect from the meeting of world leaders, one of whom will be their own country’s president, at the UN. Below is an excerpt from the interview – condensed for clarity.
Q: What is your name and how old are you?
Aanuoluwapo: My name is Aanuoluwapo. I am 28 years old.
Efemena: I am Efemena and I am 26 years old.
Q: What is your educational level and are you currently employed?
Aanuoluwapo: I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and I am unemployed. It has been difficult to get a permanent job after graduating.
Efemena: I have a BSc in Mathematics from Covenant University in Ogun State. I am looking for a job. To keep myself busy, I teach secondary school students Math. It is part-time and temporary. They pay me some little money; it is too small to even sustain me.
Q: Have you made attempts to secure a job? If so, at what kind of companies? And if not, why?
Aanuoluwapo: I have tried everything. I see job postings online – I visit online job seeking sites. I apply. They call me for interviews, but when you get to the interviews – you see that the employers are looking for just one person and there are thousands of applicants who pitch up. I apply to both big and small companies – but it is the same: there are just too few jobs available for the number of graduates and applicants – unemployment levels are high in this country. I applied for a training programme at Shell; I did not get it.
Efemena: I want to be a teacher. I have applied for jobs, even at the school I am doing part-time teaching at, they don’t have a permanent opening where they can place me. That is why they can only allow me to teach part-time for small money.
Q: Aanu, what do you do to sustain yourself and keep yourself busy?
Aanuoluwapo: I am an IT person – so I look for small IT business opportunities – like to design logos for people. This is just to sustain myself.
Q: Is it like a business?
Aanuoluwapo: No. It’s not a business – it is just what I do sometimes to sustain myself. It will be difficult to do logo designing as a business because I will be competing with big established companies. To get a big hit is hard in IT.
Q: Aanu, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was in Nigeria in September last year [2016] to offer support to Nigeria’s youth in IT. What did him coming to Nigeria do for you and others like you? And in what ways can practical and relevant support be offered for people like you?
Aanuoluwapo: Mark Zuckerberg came here to Nigeria to try and close the bridge. He signed some contracts and if something comes out of those contracts that he signed – Nigerian youth will somehow gain from it. As for me and what I gained, all I can say is that he came and he went. It was inspiring to learn that there are some Nigerian programmers employed by Facebook and that some of his senior staff in Facebook are Nigerian.
Q: Efemena, are you entrepreneurial?
Efemena: Anyone can be entrepreneurial. You don’t need education to be entrepreneurial. But I don’t want to start my own business. I want to continue with teaching – it is only that the pay is small, but I like to teach – I want to teach Mathematics.
Q: But with no jobs currently available what are your immediate plans?
Efemena: I hope to get funding to enroll for a Master’s degree and continue to look for a permanent job.
Q: What are your views on continuing education – do you know of any free online courses, e.g. EdX and others? Are these kinds of online programmes and tools even relevant and helpful for you?
Aanuoluwapo: I have enrolled for one online course on Alison.com. The only thing these online courses can do is put someone at some kind of competitive-edge because they are knowledge-based.
Efemena: I registered for EdX to get tutorials. Online courses can only educate – maybe it is helpful in that way. But it is not helpful to get a person a job.
Q: Do you think the government is doing enough to offer young unemployed Nigerians support?
Aanuoluwapo: The Nigerian government is doing the bit that they could. There are unemployment schemes, they also offer graduates short-term loans.
Q: Have you applied for any of the government-offered programmes?
Aanuoluwapo: Yes. I have applied for the schemes. The process ended last month.
Efemena: All I can say is that the government can do much more.
Q: Next week the United Nations will have its 72nd General Assembly. What can you say about these kinds of gatherings by world leaders including the leader of your own nation, Nigeria? What is your message to them?
Aanuoluwapo: The UN is involved in youth empowerment initiatives and I appreciate those initiatives as a Nigerian youth.
Efemena: The UN should assist the Nigerian government in getting ways to create employment opportunities in this country.
Q: Any final words?
Aanuoluwapo: I am not discouraged. This phase is something for me to face and go through.
Efemena: I just have to keep pressing and I hope to one day inspire my students in the classroom.
The interview is a snapshot of the views of some Nigerian youth, who form part of the youth on the continent of Africa – the young continent. While the interviewed youth are hopeful and are taking positive strides to alleviate the discomfort of their current social and economic situation; some youth engage themselves in illicit activities and vices.
With the automation of different industries and the current employment deficit, one wonders whether today’s youth are being prepared for the jobs of the future and what can be done about it. These are some of the issues that require attention today and there is no better time to highlight this, than on the heels of the official commencement of the 72nd UNGA.
As leaders of different countries and organizations convene in New York City, let us ask the right questions and pay attention to the challenges of today to ensure that in 2030 no one is left behind.
&nbsp;
* Mary-Jean Nleya is the founder and editor of <a href="http://www.theglobalcommunique.com/">The Global Communiqué</a>. Mary-Jean is attending the SDG Media Zone at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City and will be covering the event.

Grassroots reporting on youth issues on the eve of the 72nd UNGA

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Over the years, the rule of law has been seen as an enabler to sustainable development. CNBC Africa spoke to Kirsty Brimelow QC, Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales.

Building institutions for human rights in Africa

Stephanie Nebehay &amp; Aaron Ross | GENEVA
The top U.N. human rights official called on Friday for an international investigation into massacres and other crimes committed in Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s Kasai region where at least 42 mass graves have been found.
The call sets up the possibility of a diplomatic confrontation between the United Nations and the government of President Joseph Kabila.
The government had said it would accept U.N. technical assistance but wanted to retain control of the inquiry in response to a Thursday deadline by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra&#8217;ad al-Hussein for Congo to agree to a joint probe.
But in his statement on Friday, Zeid said the government &#8220;response to date falls short&#8221; and urged the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is holding a session until June 23, to act.
Government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters the government was not willing to go beyond its previous offer to run the investigation itself and accept U.N. technical help.
Hundreds have been killed and 1.3 million displaced in central Congo since last August in fighting between a militia and government forces. Violence has risen nationally since Kabila decided to stay in power beyond the December 2016 end of his mandate.
<blockquote>&#8220;The international community is throwing its weight behind ensuring that the endemic impunity in the DRC is brought to an end,&#8221; Zeid said.</blockquote>
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Aaron Ross in Kinshasa; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

UN rights chief seeks international inquiry into Congo massacres

The recent protests over housing shortages in Gauteng, South Africa’s richest province and economic hub, have put the spotlight on the problem and the role of the government in providing it.
Housing is a contentious political issue in the country. Strict social engineering during apartheid meant that black people were disadvantaged. Cities were racially divided, and the black population forced to live far from places of economic activity and without public amenities.
When it came into power in 1994 the new government tried to address these issues through various strategies, initially focusing on building houses, then attempting to shift the focus from “housing” to “human settlements”. A new plan was announced in 2004, designed to address problems arising from the policies of the first ten years of democracy.
But problems have persisted, leading to protests across the country. This article focuses on Gauteng where the housing backlog is big and tensions have been running high.
Gauteng has a backlog of a million houses. The problem has been exacerbated by budget cuts. In addition, it is said that more than 100 000 people move to Johannesburg a year, making it impossible to address the scale of demand.
Recent events seem to imply that the government may be resorting to short-term measures to pacify anger and protest. But a major overhaul of housing policy is what’s actually needed.
The government’s response to housing protests
Pinning down the exact size of the housing backlog is difficult. What’s clear is that the government’s ability to deliver has declined. Protesters point out that they have been on housing waiting lists for many years. Extreme frustration has given rise to violent protests which have been growing in intensity.
People are unhappy with unclear time frames about when developments will take place. Tired of empty promises, they now want “time lines and commitments”.
The Gauteng government initially responded by outlining the projects it was planning. But these longer term visions are starting to give way to unrealistic promises being made at community meetings. These include plans to initiate land distribution and housing projects as soon as next month.
The danger is that government runs the risk of deviating from designing innovative, lasting solutions. Despite claiming that it’s committed to changing the way in which it manages demand; the more vocal residents are, the more the pressure piles up to continue providing houses in the same way.
This further delays the need to shift its focus from greenfields, peripheral locations to “corridors” that connect different parts of the disjointed city.
Successes and failures
South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution emphasised the right of everyone to adequate housing. This has been reaffirmed in subsequent Constitutional Court judgements, such as the celebrated Grootboom Case of 2000.
The housing programme is based on the Reconstruction and Development Programme of 1994. “RDP” houses became a colloquial term for free houses provided by the government under a subsidy programme.
South Africa’s mass housing programme has been hugely successful in terms of the number of houses built: nearly four million “housing opportunities” – serviced stands, houses or social housing units – have been built since democracy in 1994.
Yet the supply of houses has not been able to keep up with the increase in demand in urban areas.
And the government’s approach has given rise to rows upon rows of “one-size-fits all” houses located at the periphery of cities, far from work opportunities and services, reinforcing apartheid’s spatial patterns.
While it’s acknowledged that the country must think beyond free houses, and that sustainable human settlements must include socio-cultural amenities and jobs, not much has been done to make this a reality.
Government is fully aware of this challenge. According to Paul Mashatile, the minister in charge of housing for Gauteng:
RDP houses used to be built far away from anything. Today we are bringing RDP, bonded houses and rental stock together. We want poor people to live in the same space as everyone else. 
In a bid to achieve this objective, and to increase the supply of houses, two years ago the government announced a programme to deliver mega housing projects. These and other government plans will, over the next few years, see people being housed in new developments.
But corridor developments and mega projects bring new layers of complexity. Can these be managed? Can demand be addressed and anger reduced? Can this be done fast enough?
Time for change
Models of delivery can’t continue to depend on the government. Instead, it should see its role as facilitating a diverse and multifaceted approach to ensure the involvement of many role players. This would result in different types of housing products and housing delivery methods that are less reliant on subsidies.
There are potential solutions that the government could pursue. These include:
Rethinking government’s role as the sole funder. Diverse funding streams and the involvement of a range of stakeholders would allow for low cost and affordable housing to be an integral part of all city developments in well located, mixed income, mixed function, mixed community settings.
There should be a shift away from ownership and more focus on rental options. Private developers must be supported to operate in the field.
Delivery needs to be quick and efficient with minimal bureaucracy and delay, and must acknowledge the social as well as the technical aspects of housing.
Policymakers must revisit the questions of who should be targeted, what housing products should be delivered and how they should be delivered. For example, there needs to be a shift away from individual subsidies and products to collective models of housing.
There has been surprisingly little innovation in the field of housing. It’s time for that to change, before it’s too late.

Op-Ed: South Africa urgently needs to rethink its approach to housing

Elias Biryabarema | KAMPALA
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered his security chiefs on Tuesday to stop torture by their personnel after media images of a detained politician with septic wounds on his body stirred public outrage.
Human rights activists said those images and other recent incidents where suspects have appeared in court with torture marks on their bodies point to escalating brutality and impunity on the part of Ugandan security personnel.
Pictures began circulating online and in local media last week of Geoffrey Byamukama, mayor of a small town in western Uganda, who was arrested last month on suspicion he participated in the murder of a senior police official in March. [
<blockquote>In a letter emailed to news media, Museveni told heads of the military, police and intelligence services that torture was &#8220;not consonant with logic &#8230; The use of torture is unnecessary and wrong and must not be used again&#8221;.</blockquote>
Opposition supporters and activists have long said they have been subjected to excessive force by Ugandan security services as a show of loyalty to Museveni, who has been in power since 1986 and is one of Africa&#8217;s longest serving rulers.
Security personnel often disperse opposition meetings and demonstrations with arrests, tear gas and beatings.
Critics say Museveni increasingly relies on brute force by security personnel to blunt growing opposition to his rule. Ugandan officials have denied such accusations.
Maria Burnett, associate director at Human Rights Watch&#8217;s Africa division, told Reuters that torture was pervasive in Uganda and &#8220;overlooked and ignored on a daily basis&#8221;.
She said Museveni&#8217;s directive was notable for lacking any call for investigations and accountability into past incidents of torture. &#8220;Without accountability, the government&#8217;s statements smack of public relations and not a fundamental commitment to root out this abusive practice.&#8221;
Ugandan law criminalises torture and police have pledged in the past to investigate and prosecute officers accused of engaging in it. But such prosecutions have been extremely rare.
In his letter, Museveni warned that torture posed &#8220;possible mistakes that may even interfere with the fight against crime&#8221;.
He said there was the risk of torture being used on entirely innocent people and of some detainees being forced into false confessions to escape their ordeal.
Museveni won re-election to his latest term last year but the vote lacked credibility and transparency, international monitors said. His main rival, Kizza Besigye, maintains he won the election but that Museveni stole his victory.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Heinrich)
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Uganda’s Museveni orders halt to torture by security personnel

The African Union (AU) is developing a policy designed to hold companies to account by setting down guidelines on how they should conduct business on the continent.
The aim of the policy is to implement a set of guiding principles drawn up by the United Nations. It will provide a roadmap for states, regional economic communities and regional institutions to regulate the impact of business activities on people. The policy also seeks to advance guidance for firms conducting activities in Africa.
The policy has been in the making since 2016 and still has to be adopted by an AU technical committee. Because it’s not a treaty it won’t be subject to ratification by all AU member states.
This “soft law” approach raises questions about whether the policy will ever be implemented. But the fact that the AU has developed one is a major step forward and could help African countries deal with some major rights issues including: land grabs and environmental pollution.
Land grabs
Africa’s agricultural sector has attracted significant investment. This has resulted in massive land acquisitions by local and foreign firms which has enabled them to engage in large scale production. But local agrarian populations have been dispossessed of their land with little to no consultation or adequate compensation.
Chinese businesses have become the face of the growing concern over land grabs on the continent. A 2014 report estimated that about 10 million hectares of agricultural land in Africa belonged to Chinese businesses. But the Chinese aren’t the only ones acquiring massive tracts of land on the continent.
In Tanzania for instance, Sweden-based Agro EcoEnergy acquired 20,000 hectares of land to establish a sugarcane plantation and an ethanol-production site. Local people in the Bagamoyo district in Dar es Salaam were deeply distressed by the acquisition.
Although local communities were consulted, they weren’t presented with any alternatives, particularly around the issue of compensation. Nor was the community given adequate information about the impact of the project.
Environmental pollution
Another major business and human rights challenge has been environmental pollution, particularly in the extractive industries. In many cases foreign-owned companies have been involved.
One of the biggest concerns involve oil spillages and gas flaring from business-related activities in Nigeria. For example, over 100 million barrels of oil was spilled in the Niger-Delta between the 1960s and 1997. In 2014 alone, Shell and ENI admitted to over 550 oil spills in the region.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that a cleanup process in the Niger Delta will take between 25 to 30 years.
And some estimates suggest that the impact of gas flaring has significantly reduced life expectancy in the region, from 70 years to about 45 years.
Key aspects of the policy framework
All this suggests that Africa needs to regulate business activities with human rights impacts.
The policy framework builds on the three key pillars of the United Nations guiding principles. These are the state’s duty to protect human rights, businesses’ responsibility to respect human rights, and access to remedies.
States need to ensure that business activities don’t negatively affect the livelihoods of local communities. Governments must therefore ensure agreements are drawn up with home states of multinationals and also with businesses to protect human rights.
For their part, businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights. As such, they are required to desist from activities that will have an adverse impact on human rights. To give effect to this responsibility, businesses are expected to develop human rights policies and make a commitment to implement them.
An example is the Coca-Cola Human Rights Policy. This sets out the company’s commitment to conduct due diligence and to address human rights failures if they occur.
Access to remedies talks to the issue of justice. This means that it has to be underpinned by judicial and nonjudicial, state-based and non-state-based measures to protect victims of business related human rights violations.
Businesses are also required to develop grievance procedures to ensure recourse for affected communities. A practical example of this is the grievance mechanism developed around the Trans Adriatic Pipeline which is being built to transport natural gas from the border of Greece and Turkey to southern Italy.
But it’s important that these procedures should not prejudice the rights of victims to seek justice from judicial systems.
Deepening respect for human rights
The AU’s policy is a right step towards ensuring business upholds human rights. But it’s only the start of a long journey towards deepening a culture of respect for human rights among businesses in Africa.
Only time will tell if the policy framework, once adopted, will in fact be used. But the mere fact that it’s being formulated shows resolve on the part of states to tackle key human rights issues related to business activities in Africa.
A number of key steps need to be taken if the policy is to become a reality.
First, sufficient resources must be made available to make sure its implemented by both states and regional bodies.
Secondly, states must drive policy implementation with the political will to regulate businesses within their territories.
And finally institutions must be strengthened at all levels of implementation including national, regional and continental levels.
But successful implementation won’t be achieved unless there’s cooperation between state institutions, businesses, local populations as well as civil society.

Why the African Union must press ahead with a business and human rights policy

Democratic Republic of Congo must investigate credible reports of atrocities including summary executions by the armed forces, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra&#8217;ad al Hussein said on Monday.
The U.N. human rights office has documented the killings of more than 280 people since July 2016 in a flare-up in violence in Kasai Central province, where Congolese forces have been battling an uprising by the Kamuina Nsapu militia.
&#8220;There are multiple, credible allegations of massive human rights violations in Kasai, Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental and Lomami provinces, amid a sharp deterioration in security situation there, including people being targeted by soldiers for their alleged affiliation with a local militia,” Zeid said in a statement.
&#8220;It is time to stop a blunt military response that does nothing to tackle the root causes of the conflict between the government and local militias but instead targets civilians on the basis of their presumed links to the militias,&#8221; he said.
The U.N. statement followed the emergence of a video at the weekend that appeared to show Congolese troops shooting dead members of the militia in the province.
The U.N. said its peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, was not in a position to verify the origin or authenticity of the video, which showed unarmed victims being shot at point blank range as they lay bleeding on the ground.
After initially promising an investigation, the government has dismissed the video as a &#8220;montage&#8221; created by political opponents based in Brussels.
On Monday, government spokesman Lambert Mende said it was up to foreign countries accusing the army of having committed exactions to prove their cases.
&#8220;The government calls on its partners to cease promoting condescending and/or deliberately malicious attitudes toward the institutions of DRC that work to consolidate the rule of law,&#8221; Mende said.
The United States, France and the European Union all called for an investigation on Monday, and Zeid added his voice, saying the government must launch an independent and transparent probe and hold those responsible to account.
 
(Reporting by Tom Miles and Aaron Ross; editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Toby Chopra)﻿
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DRC must investigate credible reports of atrocities – UN

At least two dozen people, most of them women, have been killed over the past week in ethnic violence between Bantus and Pygmies in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a U.N. human rights official said on Monday.
The Luba, a Bantu ethnic group, and the Twa, a Pygmy people who inhabit Central Africa&#8217;s Great Lakes region, have been in conflict since May 2013 in Congo&#8217;s Katanga region, known for its rich deposits of copper and other metals. 
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Clashes have been fuelled by social tensions between Bantu villagers and the Twa, a hunting and gathering people who have long been denied access to land and basic services. Attacks by militiamen from both groups have left hundreds dead.
José Maria Aranaz, head of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), said that at least 24 people, including 19 women, have been killed in Moba, a town located on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, since Jan. 11.
&#8220;A particularly worrying pattern we have documented is the way in which women have been targeted, both generally in the violence but also with sexual violence,&#8221; Aranaz told Reuters.
The UNJHRO has documented at least 158 deaths, 205 injuries and 50 rapes resulting from the ethnic violence since last July.
Nearly 200,000 people were forced to flee clashes during the same period, said Yvon Endoumou, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.﻿

At least two dozen dead in ethnic clashes in southeastern Congo

Zimbabwean human rights lawyers asked the High Court on Tuesday to strike down a decree by President Robert Mugabe allowing the introduction of &#8220;bond notes&#8221;, which have raised fears of a return to a local currency.
Mugabe used his presidential powers on Oct. 31 to amend the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, designating bond notes as legal tender that will be equivalent to the U.S. dollar.
Zimbabwe scrapped its own currency in 2009 after inflation hit 500 billion percent, wiping out savings.
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The central bank says bond notes are meant to ease crippling cash shortages, but this is stoking concerns it could open the door to rampant printing of cash, as happened in 2008.
In a court application, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights {ZLHR) asked the court to set aside Mugabe&#8217;s decree arguing that the veteran leader had no authority to do so.
ZLHR lawyer Dzimbahwe Chimbga said presidential powers were only used in emergencies and the bond notes law was not an emergency since the government first announced their introduction in May this year.
&#8220;He usurped the powers of parliament by making himself the lawmaker and in any event the Presidential Powers Act does not allow him to act in a manner that he did,&#8221; Chimbga said.
The High Court is expected to hear the case this week.
Zimbabwean banks are limiting daily withdrawals to between $40 and $100 due to cash shortages, which has also seen some firms struggle to repatriate dividends and pay foreign debts.
Memories are still fresh of the hyperinflation considered by the International Monetary Fund as the worst for any country not at war.
The crisis led to the release of the 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean dollar note &#8211; the single largest known bill to be printed by any central bank. Shoppers carried stacks of money in plastic bags as prices changed several times daily.
The introduction of the U.S. dollar as the official currency in 2009 halted the sky-high and accelerating inflation.﻿

Zimbabwean lawyers take Mugabe to court over bond notes

Human rights groups slammed the World Bank on Thursday over an internal report on Zimbabwe that suggested it would be a sign of &#8220;political development&#8221; for the country if its poor human rights record did not get any worse.
In the leaked July 27 document, seen by Reuters and reported by some African media, the Washington-based bank laid out a potential plan for clearing $1.88 billion of Zimbabwe&#8217;s arrears with the region&#8217;s big three multilateral lenders &#8211; the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB).
The report identified progress on Zimbabwe&#8217;s human rights record as a needed benchmark to justify re-engagement with the southern African country and bring it back into the international financial fold.
The bank believed Zimbabwe was committed to &#8220;major change&#8221;, with 92-year-old Robert Mugabe &#8211; Zimbabwe&#8217;s only leader since independence from Britain in 1980 &#8211; recognising the need for outside help to resuscitate a moribund economy, the report said.
But as a proposed indicator of &#8220;political development&#8221; away from &#8220;coercion&#8221; in the country, it said in a bullet point: &#8220;Number of alleged human rights violations level off or decline from 2014 average and/or no unwarranted arrest of key opposition leaders.&#8221;
Rights groups took exception to such a benchmark in a country where security forces are accused of routine abuses, ranging from harassment of opposition supporters and activists to beatings and forced disappearances.
&#8220;Reading this literally turned my stomach,&#8221; Todd Moss, the chief operating officer of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think-tank, wrote in a blog that also accused the World Bank of being too ready to believe the government&#8217;s rhetoric on reform.
&#8220;For the World Bank to move ahead with funding Zimbabwe based on this naive and deeply flawed analysis would be a colossal mistake,&#8221; he added.
The report also noted that &#8211; with the exception of disputed and bloody elections in 2008 &#8211; Zimbabwe&#8217;s politics were largely non-violent, due in large part to &#8220;strong coping mechanisms and a rigid security apparatus&#8221;.
&#8220;It is shocking to hear that the World Bank is considering a bailout package for Zimbabwe at a time when the human rights situation in the country is deteriorating as police use excessive force to crush numerous peaceful protests,&#8221; added Dewa Mavhinga, senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch in Johannesburg, adding that the bank risked &#8220;unwittingly funding abuse in Zimbabwe.&#8221;
In a statement issued in Washington, the World Bank distanced itself from the report.
&#8220;The Zimbabwe Turnaround Elibility Assessment Note that was leaked to some outlets is an unofficial draft document that has not been approved by the Bank,&#8221; the World Bank said.
The institution said it would only resume direct lending to Zimbabwe when the arrears were cleared. It said it was committed to helping Zimbabwe achieve its long-term development goals and cared &#8220;deeply about the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe.&#8221;
The report comes about a month after the World Bank approved new safeguards for people and the environment in its financing that have come under criticism from non-profit groups for creating &#8220;loopholes&#8221; with vague language and reliance on borrower country laws and standards.
DEBT RESTRUCTURING
One of Africa&#8217;s brightest prospects when it won independence, Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy has collapsed since 2000 after the expropriation of thousands of white-owned farms and disastrous hyperinflation.
Clearing the arrears is a pre-requisite for restructuring its $8.3 billion of foreign debt, or attracting investment to upgrade its creaking infrastructure and kick-start the economy.
The document said Harare would repay its $120 million of arrears to the IMF using its Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the Fund.
The outstanding amounts owed to the World Bank and AfDB &#8211; $1.156 billion and $601 million respectively &#8211; would be cleared via a mixture of short-term loans arranged by the Cairo-based Afreximbank and Lazard, a large U.S. investment bank, and the AfDB&#8217;s &#8216;Transitional Support Facility&#8217;.
It did not provide further details.
A spokesman for Afreximbank said this week the deal had not yet been finalised.
 
(Reporting by Ed Cropley in Johannesburg, additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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