<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="682" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49156" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/HR-Picture.jpg 1211w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Let’s fight COVID-19 together: a mural painted by community artists, supported by the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, to deliver information and messages on COVID-19 through artistic illustrations along some of the busiest streets around Maringo and Kibera, two informal settlements in Nairobi. Photo credit: Defenders Coalition. </figcaption></figure>



On 10 December every year, we celebrate Human Rights Day, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.&nbsp; The Universal Declaration guarantees a spectrum of human rights that belong to each of us equally, and unite us as a global community and upholds our humanity.



This year, 2020, has been one of unprecedented challenges and has underscored the need for renewed action to promote and protect human rights.&nbsp; The COVID-19 pandemic has tested societies across the globe, and set back human rights gains and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.&nbsp;



In Kenya, the multi-faceted impacts of the pandemic – on gender equality, health, education, livelihoods, rule of law and the economy – have tested efforts by the Government, United Nations, development partners and civil society to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, Vision 2030 and the Big 4 development agenda, and challenged us to ensure that we leave no one behind.



The crisis has hit the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest, and entrenched existing inequalities, discrimination and human rights challenges.&nbsp; Gender-based violence has skyrocketed; loss of employment and livelihoods have put further strain on families; the right to education is at risk for many children, particularly girls; and inequalities in access to water, adequate housing and health services have heightened vulnerabilities.



In this context, the theme of Human Rights Day 2020 is “Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights”, highlighting the need to build back better from the COVID-19 crisis by putting human rights at the heart of recovery efforts. &nbsp;This is a call to action and for unity of purpose to tackle discrimination, address inequalities, encourage participation and solidarity, and promote sustainable development for the benefit of all.



As the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, once remarked, “the pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world”. The crisis has exposed and exacerbated deep inequalities, entrenched discrimination and gaps in human rights protection.&nbsp; Only measures to close these gaps and advance human rights can ensure we fully recover and build back a world that is more resilient, just and sustainable.&nbsp;



COVID-19 has created an opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world – based on a “new social contract” that respects the rights and freedoms of all, and addresses the inequalities exposed by the pandemic.&nbsp; This “new social contract” – uniting Governments, the people, civil society and private sector – is the only way that we will meet the Sustainable Development Goals.



In this Decade of Action to deliver upon the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it is imperative to prioritise participation and inclusion, to ensure that we leave no one behind. &nbsp;Successful COVID-19 recovery efforts require the robust participation of civil society and inclusion of communities, to ensure the voices and priorities of the most affected, vulnerable and marginalised inform the recovery efforts.&nbsp; Public participation is a key tenet of the Constitution of Kenya, and has a key role to play in the COVID-19 recovery.



It is clear that this pandemic cannot be surmounted by a single actor.&nbsp; It is against this backdrop that the United Nations Country Team and the Government of Kenya, in line with the motto Umoja ni Nguvu (Unity is Strength), have identified strategic areas of cooperation and engagement under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, as well as the Socio-Economic Response Plan, that target COVID-19 recovery needs and continue the trajectory towards the Sustainable Development Goals.&nbsp; This is underpinned by a human rights-based approach that prioritises equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, and accountability.



The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that we are all in this together – and solidarity is the only way forward.&nbsp; Everyone has a role to play in building a better post-COVID world for present and future generations, and we must harness the active participation of communities, civil society, private sector, Government and the international community.&nbsp;



On this Human Rights Day, let us all commit to Stand Up for Human Rights to build back a more equal and sustainable society that advances the rights and freedoms of all.&nbsp; This unity of purpose will pave the way to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and delivering Kenya’s Vision 2030.



Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya. He has served in various parts of the world with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNOPS, UN Peacekeeping and the Red Cross Movement. He is an alumnus of Princeton University. Follow him on twitter-<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">@sidchat1</a>

Human rights must be at the heart of the COVID-19 recovery

Africa’s brave investigative journalist, Bob Rugurika, has no place to call home and is living in fear of arrest and his life. Rugurika’s crime was to do his job by exposing human rights violence in his country. He’s one of over 100 Burundian journalists living in exile.
“As an investigative journalist, when I decide to go on, I become very attached to a story. I am very attached to my cause, to my mission, and that is informed by our radio editorial philosophy, it is to promote accountability to the members of government. We want to create a country without violence. If we are in a country with violence encouraged by authorities, then we can’t say we are in a country, we are in a (war) jungle. If we give up, this world will deteriorate,” says Rugurika, the Managing Director of African Public Radio; banned, but operating on the web.
The steadfast radio journalist, who was this year’s winner of the Press Freedom Award at the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Awards, presented this year’s Carlos Cardoso memorial lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Cardoso was the slain Mozambican journalist who cut his teeth in social activism at the college in South Africa. Cardoso was a Wits student when the apartheid government deported him. Like Rugurika, Cardoso was also a thorn in the side of his corrupt government and was assassinated in 2000 when he was investigating a bank linked to the son of the president.
<div id="attachment_5511" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5511" class="size-medium wp-image-5511" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/000_Par8128400-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202" />BURUNDI-POLITICS-UNREST-RADIO</div>
“I grew in a weak society – Burundi. There were too many cases of human rights violations. There was a bad conception of power in the minds of the politicians and authorities. Then, I had a dream of becoming a lawyer or a policeman to reduce all those cases of injustice. But when I graduated in university I realized that those two sectors were the most corrupt in Burundi. Then I decided to join the African Public Radio – a voice-of-the-voiceless radio – we documented human rights violations against the members of the public,” says Rugurika.
Mathatha Tsedu, an adjunct professor at Wits and veteran journalist, said Burundian officials were at the university looking for Rugurika. They wanted him arrested because he is a fugitive in his country.
In January 2015, Rugurika was held for more than a month after he interviewed a former government soldier who was in hiding. The soldier was part of the paramilitary who were allegedly instructed by the government officials to murder three Italian nuns who worked in Burundi. Rugurika’s case caught the attention of the international civil community, and thousands of Burundians demanded his release. He was released in March.
Burundi was supposed to go the polls in 2015, but the government decided to use its paramilitary to threaten civilians who protested the decision to stall elections. The Italian nuns were witnesses and ready to testify, so the national intelligence decided to kill them, said Rugurika.
“Since 2010, they tried to corrupt several journalists. I am not accusing my colleagues. Some are victims of this corruption, they fear for their lives if they refuse to take the money. It was the same case with me&#8230; They told me I have two choices, either I take the money, or face jail, or be killed. I refused the money and risked being killed. Deep in my heart I decided to publish the reports (about the death of nuns). It was my contribution to show the world that we have a criminal government. I don’t have fear to state that,” he says.
“The government didn’t release me to give me my freedom, they planned to kill me. On 29 March (2015) three armed guys were sent to kill me in my home. Fortunately, they went to look for me in a neighbor’s home.”
Rugurika went into exile in neighboring Rwanda and later Brussels.
Rugurika says before the government started persecuting journalists, there were attempts to enforce a law for journalists to reveal sources, but Burundians fought against it. This failure led to the formation of Rema FM, a government propaganda radio station. All the independent media houses were banned and are under police surveillance.
It may be unsafe for journalists like Rugurika for some time yet.

‘They Planned  To Kill Me’

Isolated from the world and within their own state, this has been the plight of the Saharawi people living in the refugee camps of Western Algeria for the last 41 years. They face human rights injustice, but unlike other refugees, it is in their own land.
The Polisario movement, the voice of the Saharawi ethnic group, says the territory reported to be illegally occupied by Morocco, belongs to the Saharawi people.
For years following a guerrilla war, they have tried and failed to claim ownership of the land from the Moroccan government. Now, according to the United Nations, they live in mud brick houses and tents in the harsh desert conditions of Tindouf Province, Western Algeria.
They have been locked in an armed struggle for liberation.
At the forefront of the movement are the Saharawi women who have increased their traditional role in the fight not only to reclaim their territory but to also salvage their self-determination as a people.
According to Catherine Constantinides, a human rights activist and executive director of Miss Earth South Africa, the power structure is unlike any other on the globe, particularly in Muslim culture.
“Women have a strong hold in the camps; they double as caregivers as well as liberation fighters. They also invest heavily in themselves educating one another and learning various skills. They exert the power there and the men respect this because they hold the camps together.”
Constantinides, who has dedicated her efforts to bringing to the fore their plight, emphasizes the world cannot fathom the dire conditions faced by the Saharawi people “until you see it”.
“The Saharawi people have less than nothing,” she says.
On one of her many visits to the region, Constantinides witnessed the dehumanizing of the people as they received food packets dropped by aeroplanes and water delivered in trucks.
The men cannot provide for their families so their children look to the skies for scraps of food.
This is just one illustration of the gap between humanity and policy regulations that leaves the Saharawis perennially stateless.
Moreover, there are no adequate health facilities for them.
“Child mortality is at its highest in Tindouf as women are forced to give birth in their mud houses or tents,” explains Constantinides.
“It’s devastating because children bring that spark of hope within that unfortunate situation.”
United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has since visited the refugee camps in an effort to reignite negotiations in the region and to end the dispute and bring liberation to the Saharawi people. During his visit, he said he “would spare no effort towards a just and meaningful solution” for the people in Western Algeria.
These are the kind of efforts activists like Constantinides want to see in the fight against the apparent global neglect of refugees.
“We have to find better ways of dealing with the crisis.”
One example that Constantinides refers to is the naturalization process she witnessed earlier this year in Virginia, America, on the fourth of July.
“This was an example of how in time systems can work if applied to crises to give people dignity.”
“We have to bring the concept back of supporting each other instead of building walls,” she sighs.
Until such time, the Saharawi people will continue fighting for their statehood, led by the women who Constantinides says will never give up, come hell or high water.

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Refugees In Their Own Home

Nazreen Pandor marches to the beat of her own drum. A daughter of political activists in exile during South Africa’s apartheid days, she understood quite young that injustice was something to be fought out.
Over 20 years later, she has made it a crucial part of her life and career in an innovative way and in an unsuspecting place.
“I grew up knowing that I had a bigger purpose, it wasn’t just about me but it was about how I could contribute to society so even when I became a director at Mazars it wasn’t that I got this job, so let’s build but it was about how can I use this job to give a voice to other women in corporate South Africa,” she says.
For the past five years, Pandor has been a director at the Human Rights and Social Compliance division at Mazars, a global auditing and tax advisory. She began her career as a lawyer at boutique law firm Mallinicks, now known as Webber Wentzel, and was trained by one of South Africa’s leading public lawyers. She left that experience knowing her strength in the world.
“I step into the world knowing I’ve been trained by the best, so I should be the best,” she had told a South African magazine last year.
At the firm she has spearheaded two very important projects that echo her commitment to social change even within the corporate environment. One is the Mazars’ Women’s Forum, a place for women within the firm to meet, talk and network with each other. The forum hosts breakfasts in both Johannesburg and Cape Town quarterly. She says it provides an avenue for women, like herself, to find role models and mentors in a network they are already a part of.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29857 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_4125.jpg 767w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />
“I was lucky enough from a young age to have a number of role models and mentors who were saying to me, ‘you’ve got to network, you’ve got to network, you’ve got to network’ so it was something that was always ingrained in my mind.”
The other project is the ground-breaking Youth Employment Index which wants to involve the youth and various stakeholders as they deal with a daunting economic trend.
“It’s about creating decent employment. Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, not everyone is going to get out of school and have the idea to start something big. Some people will have to fall into blue collar and white collar employment, but how do we make sure that when our young people are coming into these places, we are stimulating the economy&#8230;”
As soon as we meet her, Pandor, calm and confident, radiates an assertive elegance in a sweeping green dress.
“I have my dresses made,” she says before we could ask about a stockist.
Pandor is a practising Muslim and has incorporated her faith into all aspects of her life and personal style. She never ignores a call to prayer and even excuses herself from meetings to pray. Her outfits match the aesthetic of the cutting edge Islamic fashion and her sheila, headscarf, is colour-coded and styled in line with the look of the day.
There are difficulties with keeping up with her faith and career in a very South African corporate environment but she feels it is her challenge to face.
“I’ve always found it very difficult. It’s almost like when I am wearing a scarf I’m forced to have a different persona and because I’m a very vocal person, people look at me [and think] ‘so she does have a voice’,” she says.
The scarf is a recent addition to Pandor’s wardrobe and a crucial step in her personal quest to live out her faith. However, her commitment to it, like her hybrid corporate-social projects,
is resolute.
“On days that I don’t wear my headscarf, I feel naked. And I was a girl who never thought about it twice, I was in my power suits and it was very different&#8230;”
It was a major adjustment in her life but it is all part and parcel of Pandor’s belief in leading by example. As her career and personal life show, she is a woman’s woman, the kind of person many young women will model themselves on without hesitation. She is inspiration that will be tried and tested.

IMG_4135

The Woman’s Woman

When her father first glimpsed her, he said, ‘Bogaletch’, meaning ‘flash of light’. And so it would be. In her relentless fight against female genital mutilation and gender-based violence, Ethiopian physician and human rights activist Bogaletch Gebre carries the torch for women around the world.
She was born in rural Ethiopia in the 1950s. It was a time when Ethiopian women had limited aspirations and their experiences were restricted to their villages. Like 125 million girls across 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Gebre went under the knife, not for medical reasons, but for the ancient practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Thirty million girls worldwide are at risk of being cut in the next decade. Gebre wants that number to be zero.
FGM is the cutting away of part or all of the external female genitalia. The procedure is usually performed on girls from infancy to the age of 15. The painful practice has no health benefits and can cause fatal infections. Gebre points out that FGM may also have long-term consequences, such as infertility, damage to adjacent organs and birth complications.
“Women should not be mutilated alive for the pleasure of men. Basically, there is no other reason [for FGM] but to control women’s sexuality. The FGM practice is to cut female genitalia; the inner labia, the outer labia, and then sew it together … And then you reopen that which you have sewn when she marries. And after she gives birth, let’s say she has multiple births, you sew her up like she is some kind of object, to reduce the size of her vaginal hole, because it is widened through her giving birth,” says Gebre.
When Gebre became the first girl from her village to attend school further than the fourth grade, later receiving a scholarship to study in Israel and the United States, she promised she would be back, and that she would make a difference.
During her studies, Gebre realized FGM had no cultural or religious roots.
“Culture, according to the United Nations, is man-made. It is not ethnic, it is tangible, nobody belongs to one culture… Whenever we talk about human rights issues in Africa, it’s always about culture, so culture is being used as a scapegoat. If it is not in our religion, if it is not in the Bible, if it is not in the Koran, why are we using this culture as our culture?”
When she returned to Ethiopia in 1997, Gebre co-founded KMG—Kembatti Mentti Gezzimma-Tope, which means ‘women of Kembatta working together’—with her younger sister, Fikirte. The non-profit organization promotes communication and dialogue between communities and their leaders.
“We brought together representatives of the community: the young, the old, the educated, religious leaders, even government officials and police. They sit and discuss together, learn about each other and analyze the problems in the community together. And find a way to solve it, to reach a consensus and create their own social contract to abide by,” she explains.
With funding from USAID, international organizations and embassies, KMG promotes women’s education and increased economic opportunities for women. The organization also focuses on demystifying taboos about HIV/Aids and other cultural practices, such as widow inheritance and bridal abduction. Seventy percent of KMG’s three million beneficiaries are women. A measure of the organization’s achievements is the change in mindset on FGM. In 1998, every single woman in Ethiopia’s Kembatta Tembaro region had undergone FGM. A decade later, 97% of people living in the area opposed the practice. But Gebre is not satisfied yet; at 74%, Ethiopia’s national prevalence remains high.
In May 2013, Gebre accepted the King Baudouin African Development Prize on behalf of KMG. The award, which is worth $200,000, provides recipients with a platform to address international aid agencies.
Despite everything she has achieved, Gebre remains humble, describing herself as an ordinary person who works for the betterment of humanity.
And her efforts appear to be bearing fruit. In December, the UN General Assembly called for the complete elimination of FGM. Around 1,775 African communities heeded the call and publicly declared their commitment to end the practice.  ,
When her father first glimpsed her, he said, ‘Bogaletch’, meaning ‘flash of light’. And so it would be. In her relentless fight against female genital mutilation and gender-based violence, Ethiopian physician and human rights activist Bogaletch Gebre carries the torch for women around the world.
She was born in rural Ethiopia in the 1950s. It was a time when Ethiopian women had limited aspirations and their experiences were restricted to their villages. Like 125 million girls across 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Gebre went under the knife, not for medical reasons, but for the ancient practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Thirty million girls worldwide are at risk of being cut in the next decade. Gebre wants that number to be zero.
FGM is the cutting away of part or all of the external female genitalia. The procedure is usually performed on girls from infancy to the age of 15. The painful practice has no health benefits and can cause fatal infections. Gebre points out that FGM may also have long-term consequences, such as infertility, damage to adjacent organs and birth complications.
“Women should not be mutilated alive for the pleasure of men. Basically, there is no other reason [for FGM] but to control women’s sexuality. The FGM practice is to cut female genitalia; the inner labia, the outer labia, and then sew it together … And then you reopen that which you have sewn when she marries. And after she gives birth, let’s say she has multiple births, you sew her up like she is some kind of object, to reduce the size of her vaginal hole, because it is widened through her giving birth,” says Gebre.
When Gebre became the first girl from her village to attend school further than the fourth grade, later receiving a scholarship to study in Israel and the United States, she promised she would be back, and that she would make a difference.
During her studies, Gebre realized FGM had no cultural or religious roots.
“Culture, according to the United Nations, is man-made. It is not ethnic, it is tangible, nobody belongs to one culture… Whenever we talk about human rights issues in Africa, it’s always about culture, so culture is being used as a scapegoat. If it is not in our religion, if it is not in the Bible, if it is not in the Koran, why are we using this culture as our culture?”
When she returned to Ethiopia in 1997, Gebre co-founded KMG—Kembatti Mentti Gezzimma-Tope, which means ‘women of Kembatta working together’—with her younger sister, Fikirte. The non-profit organization promotes communication and dialogue between communities and their leaders.
“We brought together representatives of the community: the young, the old, the educated, religious leaders, even government officials and police. They sit and discuss together, learn about each other and analyze the problems in the community together. And find a way to solve it, to reach a consensus and create their own social contract to abide by,” she explains.
With funding from USAID, international organizations and embassies, KMG promotes women’s education and increased economic opportunities for women. The organization also focuses on demystifying taboos about HIV/Aids and other cultural practices, such as widow inheritance and bridal abduction. Seventy percent of KMG’s three million beneficiaries are women. A measure of the organization’s achievements is the change in mindset on FGM. In 1998, every single woman in Ethiopia’s Kembatta Tembaro region had undergone FGM. A decade later, 97% of people living in the area opposed the practice. But Gebre is not satisfied yet; at 74%, Ethiopia’s national prevalence remains high.
In May 2013, Gebre accepted the King Baudouin African Development Prize on behalf of KMG. The award, which is worth $200,000, provides recipients with a platform to address international aid agencies.
Despite everything she has achieved, Gebre remains humble, describing herself as an ordinary person who works for the betterment of humanity.
And her efforts appear to be bearing fruit. In December, the UN General Assembly called for the complete elimination of FGM. Around 1,775 African communities heeded the call and publicly declared their commitment to end the practice.

Tag: Human rights

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Human rights must be at the heart of the COVID-19 recovery

‘They Planned To Kill Me’

Refugees In Their Own Home

The Woman’s Woman

Bogaletch Gebre: The Light Bearer