Today is International Refugee day. It’s a day when officials visit refugee camps and refugees are made to sing and dance and look happy. It’s a day when they are supposed to express their gratitude to those who give them assistance. But refugees don’t want help or handouts. They want justice, they want fairness. They…
(Regional Director, Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa) On April 22 a young woman in Sudan, Intisar Sharif Abdalla, was sentenced to death by stoning, accused of Zina (adultery). She is married and mother to three small children. Intisar was accused of having a relationship and getting pregnant by a man who wasn’t…
With somewhat predictable familiarity, we witness another round of violence and another round of displacement in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province. Make no mistake: what is happening in North Kivu has nothing to do with “tribalism”, or the idea that somehow Congo and the Congolese people are intrinsically violent – a racist…
Tomorrow, June 15, Madam Fatou Bensouda will be sworn in as the new prosecutor for the ICC taking over from Luis Moreno Ocampo whose term has ended. Mme Bensouda takes up this high profile position at a time when much controversy surrounds the ICC. Mr. Ocampo has had numerous run-ins with a number of governments…
Since the ICC Chief Prosecutor identified Uganda as a situation of concern in 2003, Uganda has become internationally recognised as a country in transition from conflict to peace. And the showpiece of that transition has been the issuing of arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and his senior commanders. The consequent flurry of activity by international…