EU ENVOY: West Africa could be next ‘emerging region’

Of recent, there have been reports of booming economies in Africa, but analysts said economic growth is usually not visibly trickled down to the poor citizens of the continent. (Photo Credit: Forum de Banjul).

Rights groups condemn plans for immunity of African leaders

A general view shows delegates attending the 50th African Union Anniversary Summit in Addis Ababa on May 25, 2013 (Photo Credit: Press TV).

African leaders through their justice ministers and attorney generals are creeping their feet towards considering a draft protocol that would give leaders immunity on grave crimes against humanity.

These justice ministers and attorney generals of the AU are scheduled to meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 15-16 to consider a draft protocol to expand the authority of the African Court on Justice and Human Rights to include criminal jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Also, a proposal providing immunity for heads of state and senior government officials from prosecution for such crimes is being considered as part of the amended protocol.

But African human rights organisations from 19 countries and a host of international human rights organisations working in Africa have said the plan to give immunity to sitting government leaders before the Court would be a major setback for justice for grave crimes.

They said the plan would also harm the regional court in a letter to African governments on Monday. 

BAJ coordinator attends Kenya climate change training

BAJ Coordinator, Abdou Rahman Sallah (Photo: Mansa Banko)

The national coordinator of Biodiversity Action Journalists (BAJ Gambia), Abdou Rahman Sallah, left for Kenya on January 25 to take part in a two weeks training on Climate Change.

Mr Sallah, an environmental journalist, selected from a pool of applicants by the organisers, the Kenya-based Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) to partake  in the January 28–February 14 climate change course.

The two weeks intensive course is facilitate by myclimate, a Swiss non-profit foundation together with ACTIS, a spin-off organisation of ETH Zürich, in cooperation with UNEP, and the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) – an environmental research partnership between the ETH Zürich, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Tokyo (UT) and the Chalmers Technical University in Göteborg, Sweden.