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Up in arms over the Egyptian President's state visit to France, around 20 protesters gathered outside the Paris National Assembly late on Monday, shouting "down with dictatorship".
The demonstration outside the parliament painted a very different picture to earlier in the day when France welcomed President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with a cavalry parade through Paris.
Before the three-day visit, rights groups accused France of indulging President al-Sisi's "brutal repression of any form of dissent".
"We've come across a President of the Republic who welcomes the butcher of Cairo, the butcher of Egypt, in great pomp, on a state visit, with the Republican Guard," said François de Roche, chief of the NGO Justice and Rights Without Borders.
"We have fallen on our heads. This is unacceptable. France, the country of Human Rights, cannot accept this."
But French President Emmanuel Macron refrained from direct criticism of former army general Sisi, who has cracked down on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, as well as on leftists and liberals.
Macron told a joint press conference with Sisi that he would not condition the sale of weapons to Egypt and trade ties on human rights as he did not want to weaken Cairo’s ability to counter-terrorism in the region.
"I think it is more effective to have a policy of dialogue than a policy of boycott which would reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism and for regional stability," he said.
To force the issue of human rights would be both "ineffective on the subject of human rights and counter-productive in the fight against terrorism, that's why I won't do it," he added
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
Corrine Brown, now in her eighth term in office, is a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She represents Florida’s Third Congressional District which includes Jacksonville and the surrounding area. Brown was born on November 11, 1946 in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up there. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University and an M.A. from the University of Florida in 1971. Before entering Congress, Brown owned a travel agency, taught at several Florida colleges, and worked as a counselor at Florida Community College (1977-1992).
In 1983 Brown was elected to the Florida State House of Representatives. She held this position until 1992, when she ran and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Corrine Brown is a member of numerous committees and caucuses. She belongs to the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Subcommittee on Aviation, the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, and is Chair of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials. She is also the Second Vice Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and is a member of the Aerospace, Women’s Issues, Diabetes, Human Rights, Missing and Exploited Children, Native American, and Progressive Congressional Caucuses.
Brown is focused on economic development, directing her activities particularly towards bringing new jobs into the Third Congressional District. She obtained federal funding for a new courthouse in Jacksonville and obtained a 57% increase in federal transportation funding for the state of Florida – approximately $60 billion. Brown focuses on improving health care for veterans as well as the National Veteran’s Cemetery System.
Brown has received awards from the National Parks and Conservation Association, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and the Florida Public Interest Research Group for her environmental work, which includes preventing oil from being drilled off the coasts
The Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Justice on June 27 defended before the Committee on Constitutional Laws major changes undertaken to better empower the Commission.
In order to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights in Cameroon, bill (No 1055/PJL/AN) relating to the establishment, organisation and functioning of the Cameroon Human Rights Commission has been tabled in plenary and defended before the Committee on Constitutional Laws at the National Assembly by the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Justice Jean de Dieu Momo.
Abbreviated \"the Commission,\" the Minister Delegate presented the major changes the reformed structure will witness given it is a modification to the existing National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms.
Going by the explanations of Minister Jean de Dieu Momo, the Commission shall be an independent institution for consultation, monitoring, evaluation, dialogue, conciliation and deliberation in the promotion and protection of human rights and shall also serve as a National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NMPT) in all places of detention.
Minister Jean de Dieu Momo said the intention of the bill is to improve the human rights culture in Cameroon and prevent
Human rights groups in the Western region want suicide decriminalised as part of efforts to address mental health issues and assist those affected.
Members of the Tinada Youth Organisation, Nyarwek, Gender Dialogues and Trans Alliance met in Kisumu to discuss mental health issues and stigma and its effects during the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia marked on May 17.
Tinada programmes coordinator Mike Wanjengu said decriminalising suicide will be the first step towards reducing cases of mental illnesses.
In case it is a failed suicide attempt, the person will be in trouble with the law yet the cause of the problem is not addressed,” he said.
Ms Caroline Rucah, the head of programmes at Nyarwek, urged the government to spearhead a multisectoral approach to respond to the mental health challenges in the country.
It offers a set of plans, evaluation criteria and practical options to media professionals that can be used to develop critical analysis of war journalism, all derived from, or at least attentive to, proposals on conflict, violence and peace.
In a 2010 book, Reports on Conflicts: New Directions in Peace Journalism, Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung present case studies of media coverage in Korea, Yugoslavia and during the Gulf War.
\"The media can be an 'instrument' of conflict resolution when the information they present is reliable, respect human rights, and represent various viewpoints,\" argues Ross Howard, whose two books, An operational Framework for Media and Peace (2002) and Conflict-Sensitive Journalism ( 2003), have been influential.
The general aim of peace building through peace journalism is therefore to prevent the eruption of violence in conflict, or to transform armed conflict or crisis in the long term into peaceful and constructive forms of dispute resolution.
Contrary to such a stance, peace journalism does not hold a hawkish discourse, not in designating an enemy to kill, or in legitimising conflicts, but in acting upstream to avoid a risk system often resulting from the combination of four factors highlighted by Philippe Hugon (2006; 35):
- Structural: linked to underdevelopment, characterised by the vulnerability and exposure to risk of populations with low resilience due to insufficient availability, market failures, absence of rights and capacities or dysfunctions in the allocation of resources;
- Cyclical, exogenous and endogenous shocks: linked to sudden and unexpected events leading to a strong disturbance of the system and to an unregulated propagation;
- At an institutional and political level: characterised by absences or shortcomings in prevention (monitoring cells, alert systems) and regulation, by instrumentalisation (unemployed young people, religious, politics, or ethnicity);
- Informational: the paroxysmal crisis always responds to a lack of information and to propaganda carried by the political powers and the media.
U.N. agencies are warning migrants and refugees crossing the central Mediterranean Sea risk losing their lives if European nations continue to prevent search and rescue vessels from saving those in distress.
The U.N. human rights office expresses alarm at recent reports of rescue boats failing to assist migrants in trouble on the central Mediterranean Sea, considered to be one of the deadliest migration routes in the world.
The agency deplores the coordinated pushback of migrant boats by nations and by hard-nosed policies by some European countries intent on preventing private humanitarian search and rescue vessels from supporting migrants in distress.
Colville says his agency is concerned about the many refugees and migrants who are being returned to Libya after they are rescued at sea.
U.N. agencies are calling for the release of all refugees and migrants in Libyan detention facilities.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he can understand why Muslims were shocked by caricatures depicting the prophet Muhammad.
But in an interview with Al Jazeera broadcast on Saturday, he said he could never accept the issue being used to justify violence.
\"I understand and respect that we can be shocked by these caricatures,\" Macron said.
\"I will never accept that we can justify physical violence for these caricatures and I will always defend in my country the freedom to say, to write, to think, to draw.\"
Tensions flared with some Muslim majority countries who have held anti-Macron protests and called for a boycott of French products after he publically promised France would not “renounce the caricatures”.
Macron made the comments following the October 16 murder of French school teacher Samuel Paty, who was killed after he showed his class drawings of the prophet during a debate on free speech.
France was also shaken on Thursday by a deadly knife attack on a church in Nice, the third suspected Islamist attack in the country in little more than a month.
The country has raised its national security alert to the highest level and security has increased at places of worship and schools.
'No problem with Islam'
Macron tried to reach out to Muslims, telling the Qatar-based channel: “I understand the feelings that this arouses, I respect them.\"
\"But I want you to understand the role that I have. My role is to calm things down, as I am doing here, but at the same time it is to protect these rights.”
The president also slammed “distortions” from political and religious leaders and the media over the depictions of the prophet, saying too often people were led to believe that they were created by the French state.
\"Everywhere these last weeks in the Muslim world, we have tried to aggregate the two, by distorting my remarks, by telling lies, by saying the President of the French Republic and thus France, they have a problem with Islam.
\"No, we have no problem with Islam. None,\" he said.
He also denounced calls for a boycott of French goods, saying it was “unworthy” and “unacceptable”.
The Coronavirus crisis has created a welcome opportunity for us to reassess the relationship between China and Africa on several levels - trade, supply chains, excessive borrowing and predatory lending, racism towards Africans.
Its $300 billion in trade with Africa is threatened, and more important, African countries can't pay their $200 billion in debt to China and are asking for debt forgiveness.
Not least important, China offers a classic lesson in the importance and potency of a coherent worldview backed by masterful strategy, which is what my book Emerging Africa recommends to African leaders and peoples.
Third, with China's capitalist economic transformation started in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping, it's influence in Africa is now driven more by the need for raw materials and energy to support its economy than was the case in the socialist past when it was more about \"solidarity\".
China's vastly expanded foray into Africa over the past two decades is part of a worldview of global expansion and economic dominance.
The United Nations has hailed the arrest of a wanted Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga, who appeared before a Paris court under heavy police protection on Tuesday.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she hoped Kabuga’s arrest would encourage other states to hunt down other top genocide suspects still at large.
Rights and genocide survivor groups have likewise hailed Kabuga’s unexpected arrest.
Lawyer Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights, said it’s in France’s interest to ensure Kabuga is tried as soon as possible, given the years gone by and his advanced age.
For the first time in April, France officially commemorated the Rwandan genocide that took place 26 years ago.
You have been at the heart of government virtually all your political career, enjoying State power and its largess.
We held meetings with the President in Mombasa, at State House, and other places where I strongly defended the Senate and devolution.
It is not a befitting image, because our proverbial sun is the Constitution.
But, well, you know they are people of different backgrounds and are unique in their own ways.
Going forward, the next President of Kenya, be they Ruto or someone else, will have to deal with the adverse effects of Covid -19.
[Nyasa Times] Israel has told Malawi to confront Iran for allegedly sponsoring terrorists who attack the Jewish state, according to the Times of Israel.
While this legal process unfolds, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) estimated that as many as 95 percent Black-owned businesses stood no chance of securing a program loan.
“This bill distributes most of the funding again to large banks that prioritized wealthier businesses over small ones,” said Ashley Harrington, Federal Advocacy Director with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).
“Businesses of color were locked out of round one of the SBA PPP, and this Congress proposal fails to assure that they will have fair access to the new $60 billion small business appropriation.
“While it is a good and necessary change to include set-asides for community banks to reach more businesses and rural areas, the bill fails to dedicate targeted funds for use by minority depository institutions (MDIs), and community development financial institutions (CDFIs),” added Harrington.
• Dedicate 20 percent of all new funding to businesses of color;
• At least $25 billion in funding for MDIs and CDFIs;
• Provide an alternative PPP loan of up to a $100,000 that can be forgiven and better fits the needs of very small businesses;
• Adjust program rules to serve more small businesses and ensure equity and transparency by requiring all lenders to provide both borrower demographics and loan amounts;
• Expand outreach and enrollment assistant through community development corporations and community-based organizations.
Nine people, including one police officer, have died in the West African state of Guinea, the security ministry said Wednesday, following days of unrest after a tense weekend presidential election.
In a statement, the ministry pointed to shootings and stabbings in the capital Conakry and elsewhere in the country since Sunday's presidential vote.
\"This strategy of chaos (was) orchestrated to jeopardise the elections of October 18, \" the ministry said, adding that many people had been injured and property was damaged.
Clashes were ongoing in Conakry on Wednesday, where a security officer, Mamadou Keganan Doumbouya, told the press that at least three people had died.
And a local doctor, who declined to be named, said he had received two dead bodies, and nine injured people, at his clinic.
The violence follows the high-stakes election in which President Alpha Conde ran for a third term in a controversial bid that had already sparked mass protests.
With tensions already running high, Guinea's main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Monday declared victory in the election -- before the announcement of the official results, which are expected this week.
Opposition supporters are deeply suspicious about the fairness of the poll, although the government insists that it was fair.
Much of the tension in Guinea centres on Conde's candidacy.
In March, the 82-year-old president pushed through a new constitution which he argued would modernise the country. It also allowed him to bypass a two-term limit for presidents, however.
Security forces repressed mass protests against the move from October last year, killing dozens of people.
On Wednesday, plumes of black smoke rose over an opposition stronghold in the capital Conakry, where protesters erected barricades and lit fires, an AFP journalist saw.
Youths in alleyways also hurled stones at police officers stationed along a main artery who fired back tear gas canisters.
The security ministry stated that \"a police officer was lynched to death\" in a Conakry suburb, without specifying when the attack occurred.
In a social media post earlier on Wednesday, Conde appealed for \"calm and serenity while awaiting the outcome of the electoral process\".
- Clashes and barricades -
Ten candidates are in the race besides alongside frontrunners Conde and Diallo, old political rivals who traded barbs in a bitter campaign.
Despite fears of violence after the pre-vote clashes, polling day was mostly calm.
Then Diallo's self-proclaimed election victory ratcheted up tensions, and celebrations by his supporters descended into violent clashes with security forces on Monday.
The opposition politician said that security forces killed three youngsters that night, although AFP was unable to confirm the details.
Security forces also barricaded Diallo inside his house, the politician said on Tuesday.
Monitors from the African Union and the 15-nation West African bloc ECOWAS both said that Guinea's election was mostly fair, despite insistence from Diallo's camp tha
[263Chat] Jailed freelance journalist, Hopewell Chin'ono, will, through his lawyers, make a fresh freedom bid from at the High Court following his bail denial by the Harare Magistrate, Marehwanazvo Gofa Court last week.
