Presidency meeting in Sudan stresses on coordination with South Africa
Many issues were discussed during the meeting of the Presidency of the Republic this past week. Highlights include the necessity of coordination with South Africa in all regional and international forums for the realization of peace in Darfur. Other subcommittees and political executive committees provided briefings on their achievements. The meeting also reviewed the outcome of Mbeki’s visit to Sudan and its achievements in pushing forward bilateral relations.
Mbeki says prosecution would undermine efforts
South African President, Thabo Mbeki, says that the prosecution of al-Bashir will not bring any positive contribution to the crisis in Darfur. He has formally stated South African opposition to the ICC indictment. South Africa, along with Libya, Russia and China have asked the UN Security Council for a resolution to postpone any efforts toward prosecution.
South African President Mbeki in Khartoum
South Africa’s president Mbeki travelled to Khartoum to discuss policies to resolve the crisis in Darfur and ICC allegations. He also planned to meet Salva Kiir, the first VP and President of autonomous south Sudan. The President flew in from Zimbabwe where he mediated a power-sharing deal with Mugabe and rival Tsvangiral.
ICC may add deadly Darfur camp attack to list of war crimes
The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Moreno-Ocampo has stated that the ICC is trying to see if there has been a new policy put in place by Khartoum to to directly attack civilians following news of the attack on the Kalma camp. They are still try to see if this is an isolated event without authorization or if the Kalma camp attacks are more evidence in support of a genocide case against al-Bashir.
Ban Ki-Moon welcomes establishment of new Ministerial Committee
Last week the Arab League set up a ministerial committe tasked with defusing the conflict in Darfur. This week, Ban Ki-Moon has welcomed its establishment.
AU says Sudan judiciary will look into Darfur crimes
Local courts will investigate Darfur rights abuses according to Ramadan Al-Amamra, the Commissioner of the AU Peace and Security Council. He has stated that they will combat impunity in relation to the crimes that have been committed. Although he has stated that Khartoum may utilize the expertise of judges and lawyers from Arab and African countries, Sudan has rejected such proposals. He has also said that there will be formulated recommendations to enhance national reconciliation by a team of African figures. AU commission chairman Jean Ping said that they are going to create a panel of eminent lawyers to work in Sudan and that this has been accepted by Sudan. As far as African countries at the UN and their position on the ICC ruling, the Commissioner said that they will make a renewed push to invoke Article 16 of the ICC Statute to allow the UNSC to suspend the ICC prosecution for 12 months.
From My Perspective
In terms of foreign policy, it’s important to compare Mbeki’s foreign policy interests and Mandela’s. How does it compare with Mandela’s foreign policy and non-African intervention in African conflicts like Darfur? Mandela’s foreign policy came out of the context of an isolated South Africa. His foreign policy stressed human rights and democracy. He was committed to international law. Mbeki’s foreign policy stresses regional power, where he has actually worked with local dictators. He has stressed more of a development policy and has focused on macro policy problems that he inherited after Mandela. He has also stressed multilateralism. He has been criticized for his missions abroad, whereby they need to be strengthened and that he has not put more priority on having a presence in international organizations. Mandela was not opposed to foreign aid to African countries and Mbeki values less dependence on aid and foreign intervention seeing them as barriers to being taken seriously in international relations, economically and politically. He did little to fight off trade-not-aid trends. Mandela rejected trade relations that came with strings attached. He asked for the world to not look away to help make poverty history. Development has become an important part of Mbeki’s policies, but often he looks for an African solution. Although Mbeki handled a good deal of the foreign policy issues while Mandela was President, the focus of foreign policy during their presidencies is important to distinguish. While Mandela was President, foreign policy focused on the role that South Africa should play in the global community.
I raise these points, in hopes that Mbeki can use strategies like moral diplomacy that Mandela used in the case of Libya and Qaddafi and help Sudan move toward a result that will help resolve the Darfur conflict.
Darfur Week of September 19th, 2008
Posted in The WIP Talk, Uncategorized
CLINTON TODAY on poverty vs. in 1998 when he was touting Trade-not-Aid as US policy toward Africa:
On Eve of Philanthropy Forum, Clinton Worries About Economy
By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
NEW YORK, Sept. 22 — Preparing to open his annual philanthropy gathering here against the backdrop of historic upheaval on Wall Street, former president Bill Clinton expressed concern Monday that the economic downturn could undermine major charitable investments around the world just when help is particularly needed.
Clinton called on businesses, foundations and other benefactors to increase their giving to combat climate change, alleviate poverty and expand access to education and health care in the developing world, saying that philanthropy “is even more important over the next two or three years than it would otherwise have been.”
“Around the world, the thing that I worry most about with other stock markets going down and the American market here is that it will reduce the availability of capital . . . to do things that otherwise make good sense,” Clinton said in an interview with national philanthropy reporters.
Clinton’s comments came at the start of a significant week for philanthropy. The fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative opens Tuesday, bringing together hundreds of corporate chiefs, heads of state, humanitarians and celebrities such as U2 singer Bono. Participants must pledge at least $20,000 each to a charitable commitment to attend.
With the economy weighing heavily on their minds, attendees are expected to announce commitments to renewable energy, as well as international health-care, education and anti-poverty initiatives.
Meanwhile, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will address a special session of the U.N. General Assembly and announce new initiatives by his philanthropic foundation to help eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and disease.
At the Clinton gathering, more than 200 charitable commitments could be announced this week, including significant programs in the areas of energy and the environment, said Robert Harrison, the conference’s chief executive and a former partner at Goldman Sachs.
“A lot of these guys are looking at this as long-term,” Harrison said. “It’s not the case that we only developed wonderful commitments six months ago and in the last three weeks it’s frozen. People have continued to develop excellent commitments.”
The conference’s agenda shifted in recent days to add a panel featuring former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, now chairman of Citigroup, to examine the long-term economic trends and their impact on foreign aid, said Jane Wales, who chairs the Global Philanthropy Forum and directs the Clinton conference’s poverty program.
Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said the U.S. financial crisis will affect not only the economies of countries that American philanthropists are working to develop but also the capacity of foreign governments such as Great Britain’s to assist.
“Philanthropy’s value is quite significant at these moments,” Rodin said, “not because we can replace the aid dollars that governments give, but because philanthropy tends to be more risk-taking, more innovative.”
Concerned about the effect of the weakening economy on the social safety net for U.S. workers, the Rockefeller Foundation in July announced a $70 million effort, the Campaign for American Workers, to award grants aimed at developing affordable health coverage and increasing retirement savings.
In the interview Monday, Clinton emphasized access to education as critical to controlling population growth.
“If you put all the girls in the world in school and you gave all the young women access to the labor market, that’s the right thing you can do that cuts across all religious, cultural and political lines that would actually slow the world’s population growth, because the more young women have access to education and work, the later they marry, the later their first child is born,” Clinton said.
He also highlighted the work he did to help broker a deal between pharmaceutical companies and African countries to lower prices of antiretroviral medicines.
“We’ve cut good deals for these medicines,” Clinton said. “So the primary impediment for everybody getting proper care for AIDS and malaria now is no longer the medicine. It is the absence of effective health-care systems in rural areas.”
Since leaving the White House eight years ago, Clinton has strived to fashion himself as the world’s philanthropist in chief. His supporters say he is changing the way people think about giving by rallying the mighty and modest alike. But some scholars and other leaders said his tenure in the field has been too short to measure his impact.
“He brings great political influences, great personal charisma and some star quality to the work,” said Harvey P. Dale, a professor of philanthropy and nonprofit law at New York University. “Whether the philanthropy in turn ultimately has ‘impact’ is always a very complicated question.”
Clinton’s involvement with philanthropy extends beyond the spotlight of his annual conference. Clinton’s foundation spent about $135 million last year on chronic global health problems such as HIV/AIDS, as well as climate change and hunger initiatives.
After the Asian tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Clinton and former president George H.W. Bush helped raise millions for recovery efforts.
Larry Brilliant, director of Google’s corporate giving, said Clinton’s effort “creates the idea that you may be successful as a chief executive of your company, you may be successful as the president or prime minister of your country, but if you do not think of philanthropy as part of your job description, you are not cool, you are not good, you are not doing your job, you are not modern.”