The outreach effort described below in an International Criminal Court press release could be a good thing — if it has a positive impact. The question in my mind is whether the ICC has planned a way to assess what impact this radio program has? All too often in humanitarian initiatives, there is too little follow-up to see the results of money and time spent. That lack makes humanitarianism less effective than it could be. I’m hoping someone takes this up. Here’s the press release:

On Monday, 6 July 2009, the first radio outreach programme of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be launched in the Central African Republic. The series of radio programmes is part of a broad outreach campaign started in January 2009. It is designed to inform the Central African population about the role, mandate, operation and activities of the International Criminal Court.

The series, which is being broadcast only in Sango, is called “Understanding the International Criminal Court”. It is divided into 13 episodes and uses a questions and answers format. Mr Gervais Bodagay, ICC Outreach Assistant in Bangui, responds to the most frequently asked questions put to the Court’s staff.

During the 50 outreach sessions organised in the Central African capital between January and June 2009, staff of the Public Information and Documentation Section answered some 1000 questions put to it by the people of Bangui. The proposed series of radio programmes was designed and produced to respond to these questions.

The series will be broadcast in partnership with the following Central African radio stations: radio Centrafrique, radio Ndeke Luka, radio ICDI, radio Tropique, radio Néhémie, radio Voix de la Paix, radio ESCA, radio Linga and radio Notre-Dame. Radio Notre-Dame will also rely on its network of community radio stations within the country (radio Maria, radio Mambéré Kadeï, radio Maïgaro, radio Siriri and radio Bé Oko) to broadcast the series of outreach programmes.

Each partner radio station will broadcast the 13 episodes as follows:

• Episode 2 – Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court
  Week of 13 July to 19 July

• Episode 3 – How does the ICC operate?
  Week of 20 July to 26 July

• Episode 4 – Structure of the Court
  Week of 27 July to 2 August

• Episode 5 – Referrals, analyses and investigations

• Episode 6 – Issuance of an arrest warrant or summons to appear, and arrests

• Episode 7 – Confirmation of charges before trial
  Week of 17 August to 23 August

• Episode 8 – The trial
  Week of 24 August to 30 August

• Episode 9 – Judgment and sentencing

• Episode 10 – The rights of suspects

• Episode 11 – Victims before the ICC
  Week of 14 September to 20 September

• Episode 12 – Witnesses before the ICC
  Week of 21 September to 27 September

• Episode 13 – Current situations
  Week of 28 September to 4 October

The Public Information and Documentation Section of the International Criminal Court and its partners invite their listeners to tune in every week for three months to follow this first radio outreach campaign in Sango.

For additional information, please contact Fabienne Chassagneux, Field Outreach Co-ordinator, in Bangui, at + 236 75 76 36 09 or by emailing: InfoRCA@icc-cpi.int.

La Cour pénale internationale lance son premier programme radio de sensibilisation en sango en République centrafricaine

ICC-CPI-20090702-PR429

Ce programme, exclusivement en sango, est intitulé « Mieux comprendre la Cour pénale internationale » ; il est divisé en 13 épisodes et est organisé sous forme de questions-réponses. M. Gervais Bodagay, Assistant chargé de la sensibilisation pour la CPI à Bangui, répond aux questions les plus fréquemment posées aux fonctionnaires de la Cour.

Durant les 50 sessions de sensibilisation organisées dans la capitale centrafricaine entre janvier et juin 2009, le personnel de la section d’information du public a en effet répondu à quelques 1000 questions formulées par la population banguissoise. Le programme radio proposé a été conçu et réalisé pour répondre à ces interrogations.

Ce programme sera diffusé en partenariat avec les médias radiophoniques centrafricains : radio Centrafrique, radio Ndeke Luka, radio ICDI, radio Tropique, radio Néhémie, radio Voix de la Paix, radio ESCA, radio Linga et radio Notre-Dame. La radio Notre-Dame s’appuiera également sur son réseau de radios communautaires à l’intérieur du pays (radio Maria, radio Mambéré Kadeï, radio Maïgaro, radio Siriri, radio Bé Oko) pour diffuser ce programme de sensibilisation.

Chaque radio partenaire diffusera les 13 épisodes de la manière suivante :

• Episode 1- Brève introduction sur la Cour pénale internationale
  Semaine du 6 juillet au 12 juillet 2009 

• Episode 2 - Les crimes relevant de la compétence de la Cour
  Semaine du 13 juillet au 19 juillet

• Episode 3 - Comment la Cour fonctionne-t-elle?
  Semaine du 20 juillet au 26 juillet 

• Episode 4 - La Structure de la Cour
  Semaine du 27 juillet au 2 août 

• Episode 5 - Renvois, analyses et enquêtes
  Semaine du 3 août au 9 août

• Episode 6 – Délivrance de mandat d’arrêt ou de citation à comparaitre, et arrestations
  Semaine du 10 août au 16 août

• Episode 7 - La confirmation des charges avant le procès
  Semaine du 17 août au 23 août 

• Episode 8 - Le procès
  Semaine du 24 août au 30 août

• Episode 9 – Le jugement et les peines
  Semaine du 31 août au 6 septembre

• Episode 10 - Les droits des suspects
  Semaine du 7 septembre au 13 septembre

• Episode 11 - Les victimes devant la CPI
  Semaine du 14 septembre au 20 septembre

• Episode 12 - Les témoins devant la CPI
  Semaine du 21 septembre au 27 septembre

• Episode 13 - Les situations en cours
  Semaine du 28 septembre au 4 octobre

La Section d’Information du Public de la Cour Pénale Internationale, ainsi que ses partenaires, donne donc rendez-vous aux auditrices et auditeurs chaque semaine, durant trois mois, pour suivre ce premier programme radio de sensibilisation en sango.

Pour de plus amples informations, veuillez contacter Fabienne Chassagneux, Coordinatrice chargée de la sensibilisation sur le terrain, à Bangui, au + 236 75 76 36 09 ou par courriel à l’adresse suivante : InfoRCA@icc-cpi.int.

The story below about child soldiers just came in this morning from IRIN. The media and activists who care about this issue need to figure out a way to get the plight of child soldiers into the international consciousness to a degree that promotes real action. This story will probably get picked up in numerous publications around the world, yet I sadly predict it won’t make much of a dent. Educating people about a problem is only one, and an early one at that, stage of getting them to take action. They need to feel a mastery of the topic and be shown how their action can make a genuine difference. Child soldiering needs that kind of sustained attention and more.  Here’s the IRIN story:
 

New threats to children in conflict need new responses, UN says

DAKAR, 18 June 2009 (IRIN) - The changing nature of conflict, including the use of children in terrorist activity, poses new threats to children and international actors must do more to respond, says a 16 June report by the Office of the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy.

Children are increasingly being used as suicide bombers, being recruited into terrorist networks and being detained in relation to these activities, Coomaraswamy told IRIN.

“Armed conflicts today often feature small, ill-trained and lightly armed groups; benefit from the proliferation of small arms; can be fueled and prolonged through exploitation of natural resources and economic motivations; and often involve shifting landscapes of transnational organized crime or forms of terrorism,” says a 16 June communiqué accompanying the report.

“Civilians, especially children, are increasingly targeted and bear the brunt of consequences,” according to the communiqué.
 
The study is a follow-up to the groundbreaking 1996 Graça Machel report, which focused international attention on how conflict affects children.

Other threats on the increase are direct attacks on girls’ schools and female teachers, Coomaraswamy told IRIN.

“Actors in conflict must abide by international humanitarian and human rights laws, and must take special measures to protect children,” she said. “And children who are detained for their involvement in conflict must not be tried for war crimes, but be put through alternative [judicial] processes.”

Governments, international agencies and non-state actors have made some progress in the past 13 years, Coomaraswamy noted. They are now more aware of protection concerns for children in conflict, such as the recruitment of child soldiers, sexual violence and exploitation, forced displacement, killing and maiming, separation from families, child trafficking and illegal detention, the report says.

Legal frameworks have also been passed to protect children’s rights: the UN General Assembly passed the Optional Protocol for the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2000 and the UN Security Council in 2005 passed Resolution 1612 for monitoring and reporting child rights violations during armed conflict. International Criminal Court, national courts and international tribunals are increasingly addressing child protection in conflict.

But awareness, better mechanisms and legal tools do not necessarily translate into change on the ground, said Coomaraswamy.

“We have created international and national frameworks to protect children’s rights - now we need to implement them.”

Governments and child protection organizations should also place more focus on the often-overlooked ways that conflict ruins children’s lives, such as blocking them from attending school or eating nutritious food or accessing basic healthcare, she added.

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

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Another important IRIN piece in this morning on, as the story says, ”a vaccine for rotavirus - the leading cause of severe and often fatal diarrhoea and dehydration in under-five children.”  At the end of the story are links to IRIN, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, which is a U.N. humanitarian news service. If you’re interested in such issues, it’s worth subscribing to its email news alert service.

GLOBAL: WHO move boosts fight against fatal diarrhoea

DAKAR, 9 June 2009 (IRIN) - The World Health Organization has paved the way for children in Africa and Asia to be vaccinated against a diarrhoea-causing virus that kills some 500,000 children annually worldwide - 85 percent of them in African and Asian developing countries.

WHO has recommended that the vaccine for rotavirus - the leading cause of severe and often fatal diarrhoea and dehydration in under-five children - be included in national immunization programmes worldwide.

As of 2007 the organization had said more research was needed on the vaccine’s efficacy in developing countries with high child mortality; new data from clinical trials has led WHO to recommend global use of the vaccine, according to a 5 June communiqué.

The decision means poor countries in Asia and Africa can now apply for funding to include rotavirus vaccines in their national immunization programmes.

“This [vaccine] will significantly reduce mortality and morbidity of rotavirus disease,” Samba Ousmane Sow, associate professor of medicine at University of Maryland and coordinator of the Centre for Vaccine Development in Mali, told IRIN.

“For rotavirus, as with many infectious diseases, mortality is often a question of geography,” he said. “For the many people in rural Africa who cannot easily access medical care, the best and most practical solution [against this lethal illness] is to bring the vaccine to them.”

A child with rotavirus disease - which causes fever, vomiting and diarrhoea - can rapidly become dehydrated. Death from rotavirus is most common where there is no quick access to medical care, so vaccination is the most effective way to prevent severe cases and deaths, experts say.

Transmitted primarily by the faecal-oral route, the virus affects the vast majority of children globally before age three, according to WHO. The virus attacks the villi - tiny projections on the wall of the small intestine. Destruction of the affected cells reduces digestion and absorption of nutrients, resulting in diarrhoea with a loss of fluids.

The virus is resilient and traditional hygiene measures that might prevent other sanitation-related illnesses are not sufficient to limit its impact, according to PATH, an international health non-profit and one of the organizations conducting vaccine trials with WHO and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

http://www.path.org/  

 http://www.gavialliance.org/  

But given that there are many causes of diarrhoeal disease, the rotavirus vaccine must be part of a comprehensive control strategy, including improving water quality, hygiene and sanitation and providing oral rehydration solution and zinc supplements, WHO says in its communiqué.

 ”This [oral] vaccine, coupled with improvement of sanitation and hygiene, can shrink the gamut of diarrheoal diseases within a population,” George Armah, professor and rotavirus expert at Ghana’s Noguchi Memorial Insitute for Medical Research, told IRIN in the Senegalese capital Dakar, where he was attending a meeting of the West Africa rotavirus advisory group. “But we know that hygiene alone does not eliminate the rotavirus, hence the urgent need for this vaccine.”

 Armah noted that now governments will have to prepare an investment plan for including rotavirus vaccine in their immunization programmes. The GAVI Alliance uses a co-financing approach, in which countries procure some vaccines with non-GAVI funds; the intention is for countries to gradually increase their share of vaccines’ cost, making immunization programmes sustainable.

http://www.gavialliance.org/vision/policies/new_vaccines/cofinancing/index.php

http://m.irinnews.org© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: 

 http://www.irinnews.org[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: 

http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspxIRIN partners: Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UNEP and the IHC. More information: 

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Joaquim Alberto Chissano, former U.N. envoy to northern Uganda

It’s sad to see an apparatus of peacemaking, the office of the U.N. special envoy to northern Uganda, close. But why should the United Nations keep it open considering that Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, has proven himself - once again - to be an unreliable peace partner. The charade ought to end that Kony ever will sign a peace pact or turn himself in to any authority without intense pressure. His reluctance, however, does not mean the world should turn away and let the LRA terrorize civilians in the Deomcratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan, or anywhere else. What a monumental failure of regional and international authority that would be.

Here’s the story, from the Chinese Xiunha news agency:

  
UN quits special envoy for LRA amid chorus for Ugandan rebel leader’s arrest

By Lucy-Claire Saunders

    UNITED NATIONS, June 3 (Xinhua) — With the collapse of peace talks last year between the Kampala government and Joseph Kony’s northern Ugandan rebel forces, the United Nations will suspended its special envoy for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) at the end of the month, according to a letter addressed to the president of the UN Security Council made public here on Wednesday.

    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will suspend special envoy Joaquim Alberto Chissano’s assignment and close his office in Kampala on June 30, six months earlier than the Security Council originally mandated in December 2008.

    ”Due to the failure of LRA leader Joseph Kony to honor his commitments, the delegation of the government of Uganda and the LRA representatives are yet to sign the final peace agreement they initialed,” said the May 26 letter. “The onus now lies firmly with Mr. Kony to take the last step for peace and sign the final peace agreements.”

    In 2006, Chissano was tasked with facilitating the Juba peace negotiations between the governments of Southern Sudan, Uganda and representatives of the sectarian guerrilla army, LRA. While progress was made in establishing a ceasefire, facilitating disarmament, and creating monitoring mechanisms, many of the initiatives undertaken were short lived.

    In November, while peace negotiations were still underway, Konyordered his forces to conduct a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), enabling the LRA to take control over large swaths of land.

    ”It’s become very clear over the past six months that LRA leader Joseph Kony has pretty emphatically withdrawn from the Jubapeace process and has given no indication that he intends to engage in good faith in the peace negotiations,” senior policy analyst Paul Ronan of the advocacy group Resolve Uganda told Xinhua in an interview. “I would guess that the secretary-general and Chissano didn’t see an opportunity to meaningfully engage Kony.”

    In his letter, Ban reiterated his “deep appreciation” for Chissano and said if ever a final peace agreement was reached the former president of Mozambique would represent him at the ceremony.

    However, given the unlikely hood that Kony will accept any peace deal, the international community has become increasingly vocal in the arrest of the LRA’s top commanders, including Kony himself.

    ”It is high time that the United Nations and the international community worked with regional governments that are affected by the LRA to design and implement a viable, responsible strategy to arrest Kony because that, at the moment, is the best option available for ending the current LRA violence,” said Ronan.

    In May, U.S. Republicans and Democrats introduced legislation in both the House and the Senate that would require the Obama administration to develop diplomatic, military and intelligence strategies to protect civilians in the region from the LRA and prevent future attacks within six months of the bill’s passage.

    The bipartisan bill, known as the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, is co-sponsored by Democrat Russ Feingold and Republican Sam Brownback, Representatives Jim McGovern and Brad Miller and former Africa subcommittee chairman Ed Royce.

    ”This bill rightly targets LRA leader Joseph Kony,” said Royce in a press statement. “Kony’s removal is essential to peace in the region.”

    The bill also authorizes funding for humanitarian assistance for those areas affected by the LRA’s brutality, including additional funds to support recovery and reconciliation in war-torn areas of Uganda, the DRC, the Central Africa Republic and South Sudan, and would address conditions that originally gave rise to the LRA.

    On June 22 and 23, approximately 2,000 people are expected to attend a day of lobbying Congress and a conference at the D.C. Convention Center to hear from leading conflict experts, activists, and the U.S. government officials who have been tasked with resolving this conflict, said Ronan.

    For over two decades, Kony has led a brutal campaign of violence that has led to the displacement of million of civilians and the abduction of tens of thousands of children, who are used as child soldiers.

    Just between Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009, some 1,100 people have been killed by the LRA while hundreds have been abducted and 200,000 uprooted, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, MONUC.

    ”This is a conflict that is destabilizing four countries, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and has led to the abduction of hundreds of kids,” said Ronan. “The arrest of Kony and his top commanders, while certainly not an easy task, would go a long way in ending that immediate violence.”

The BBC’s Owen Bennett-Jones had a terrific report today explaining how, in the BBC’s words, “The Taliban is recruiting children and teenagers as suicide bombers to carry out attacks across Pakistan, authorities say. Correspondent Owen Bennett-Jones reports on claims that many children are being kidnapped before being taken to “suicide nurseries.” This illuminates a hideous practice that is probably far more prevalent than anyone knows.

It is so small, in fact, that I can’t really get myself to praise past the headline of this posting. It’s outrageous that an 8-year-old girl was forced into marrying a 50-year-old man. It is more sad proof that child trafficking thrives, as does the commodification of children. It’s a damn good thing she was allowed to sever the marriage, but where are the laws and enforcement that would have prevented this and heavens know how many other such marriages in the first place? Allow me to stray from trying to be literate in this blog by simply saying I’m really pissed by this. 

Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a “clear and unacceptable” violation of human rights.

The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known. They were married in August

Mosquito net mural in Bungoma, Kenya

Stef Schiffer commented on my previous post about what Concern Worldwide was doing for World Malaria Day, arguing that bed nets was just a Western feel-good initiative. The comment included this site, with a well-done video.  Thanks to Stef for telling me about it. The people on the video, many of them first- and second-generation Africans, make a good point, that the causes of mosquitos becoming malaria carriers in the first place are not cured by bed nets. That is certainly worth emphasizing, as is the role insecticides play in causing illnesses, directly and indirectly, to residents of poor countries.

But I generally reject false either-or debates. It’s not a question of bed nets OR reducing chemicals and insecticides in African and other nations. If one way to reduce the chances that a child - or adult - in a malarial-prone country will contract malaria is by having him or her sleep under a bed net, then why the hell not use that as one tactic? There are other approaches, beyond looking at chemicals and using nets, such as speeding up research of an anti-malarial vaccine.

In Uganda

Would the folks on that video condemning bed nets also agree that birth control is irrelevant to preventing unwanted pregnancies and transmission of certain diseases because the underlying cause is having sex in the first place? That seems to me the possible extension of their argument. I say come at a problem, especially one that takes so many lives, from as many directions as possible. Here’s a good Web site, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, to learn more about malaria.

Thought I’d reprint a press release that i just got from the United States chapter of Irish NGO, Concern Worldwide, to illustrate how one organization is trying to combat the disease in sub-Saharan Africa.

The secret weapon in fight against global killer

April 25 is World Malaria Day

Malaria kills up to 1 million people each year—mostly children under five, more than 90 percent of them from sub-Saharan Africa. Half the world’s population—3.3 billion people in 109 countries—are at risk, and almost 250 million contract the disease each year.

“A vaccine is probably many years away, if not still a dream,” says Michelle Kouletio, Health Advisor for Concern Worldwide, the international relief and development agency. “But we have the tools to effectively prevent and treat malaria.” she adds, and “a simple solution with dramatic results is the distribution of long-lasting and insecticide-treated mosquito nets and showing people how to use them.”

“Mobilizing communities to manage their own health care is the secret weapon of our Rwanda program,” says Kouletio. “Simply distributing nets is not enough. That’s only part of the solution—the second vital ingredient is education. Knowledge is power: community health volunteers show their neighbors how to safely hang the nets in the small, crowded homes where the most vulnerable children often live.”

In Rwanda, Concern began distributing subsidized nets to pregnant women in 2004. The program was so successful that the Rwandan government was able to secure Global Funds to procure millions of nets to distribute to all families with young children. Just months after the October 2006 net campaign, the number of cases of malaria was cut in half, reports Kouletio, who oversees the USAID funded Expanded Impact Child Survival program, a Concern led partnership with the International Rescue Committee and World Relief.  It covers six districts reaching 20 percent of all Rwandans.

“These nets only cost less than $8 apiece and, once distributed, the nets provide protection for several years—at a cost far less than the $20 cost of spraying of homes with insecticide, a procedure that has to be repeated several times a year and poses environmental health hazards,” Kouletio explains.

Concern trains and forges connections among community elders, healthcare professionals, government officials, and the families themselves. Specially trained and equipped Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) are at the core of this community effort.

Concern trains the CHWs to instantly identify symptoms—fever, chills, convulsions—and to educate families about potentially harmful home remedies and traditional healing practices. “The CHWs,” says Kouletio, “provide treatment on the spot to children with symptoms of uncomplicated malaria.”
“They are well known and trusted members of the community,” she says, “with ready access to families’ homes. They are the “ordinary heroes” who are at the heart of this treatment of malaria. “Having health care workers based in the community is essential,” continues Kouletio—“they can intervene rapidly—and time is of the essence.”

“In its past two years alone, our program has treated more than 180,000 Rwandan children under five for malaria,” reports Kouletio. The success of this program has brought about significant changes in the country’s policy for treating malaria and has opened the door for community treatment of the other two leading child killers, pneumonia and diarrhea.

Concern works in 28 of the world’s poorest countries, including 17 sub-Saharan African nations, and reaches some 23 million people. The organization’s goal is the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty and the reduction of suffering. The organization’s programs focus on emergency relief and long-term development work in the areas of health, HIV and AIDS, livelihoods and education. Concern’s education programs are benefitting more than 465,000 people in 12 countries.