Ameri report: A Concocted hatchet job – NDC

Dr Edward Omane Boamah

By Kobina Welsing

The National Democratic Congress has described as “concocted” claims that the AMERI deal was overpriced by 150 million dollars by the erstwhile Mahama-led administration.

A 17 member committee chaired by Lawyer for Akufo-Addo in the 2012 election petition Philip Addison stated that the current NPP government would renegotiate the deal because it was overpriced adding that some aspects of the deal either did not get parliamentary approval or were injurious to the state.

The report found technical, financial and legal lapses in the 510 Million Dollar power contract signed between Ameri Energy and the Ghana government.

The committee said although the contractor that built the plant charged 360 Million Dollars, Ameri forwarded a bill of 510 Million Dollars in the B.O.O.T agreement.

The committee said this is not equitable, informing its recommendation that Ameri should be invited for renegotiation of the 150 Million Dollar commission.

But in a chronology of events leading to the AMERI deal put out by the former Communication Minister, Edward Omane Boamah stated that claims of overpricing “cannot hold because plants are not sold at ex-factory prices. Moreover, in Ghana thermal plants are normally not procured directly from the manufacturers. Eg. KTPP, TT1PP, Tico etc.”

Dr. Omane Boamah added that “Per the agreement with AMERI, the Government of Ghana through the Volta River Authority (VRA) will only make payments to AMERI for power produced and supplied to the VRA just like any other Independent Power Producer (IPP).”

He further described the report as one-sided since no member of the previous NDC administration was contacted before the report was put out.

According to Dr. Omane Boamah, the cooked Philip Addison Committee report is a hatchet job initiated by Mr. Boakye Agyarko.

Below is the full statement from Dr. Edward Omane Boamah:

AMERI AGREEMENT WAS CLEAN AND HELPED SOLVE DUMSOR
—————————————————————–

The agreement with AMERI is a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement and not an outright purchase of generating plants by the government of Ghana.

Government of Ghana made no payments to AMERI prior to the Procurement, Installations and delivery of power by Ameri.

Per the agreement with AMERI, the Government of Ghana through the Volta River Authority (VRA) will only make payments to Ameri for power produced and supplied to the VRA just like any other Independent Power Producer (IPP).

Indeed VRA will pay through tariffs charged on the end consumer.

Also, per the agreement, Government was required to provide a standby Letter of Credit (LC) for an amount of US$51 million, which LC has been raised.

The committee set up by the Minister of Energy was chaired by a known NPP fanatic, Mr. Phillip Addison.

It is well-known the NPP made it clear before the elections that they were determined to find faults with the Ameri deal at all cost. Hence one is not surprised by their conduct.

The committee never contacted or spoke to any former minister or appointee of the NDC for clarification, thereby making the report one-sided. At least natural justice demands that!

***When compared to seven (7) comparable plants in Ghana, the composite generation tariff for the AMERI project of about USc14.59kWh is lower than the average approved composite tariff for the seven plants at USc14.94kWh.

5years versus 20years compared (levelised)
………………………………………………………………

***The levelised tariff for AMERI is the lowest (USc11.46kWh) compared to the tariffs for seven (7) comparable plants.

‘Levelised tariff’ is the approved tariff adjusted over the concession/contract period. In other words, when comparing the AMERI project (contract period of 5 years) to the other plants that have a concession or contract period of twenty (20) years, you either have to spread AMERI’s cost over a 20-year period.

Or, compact the other plants’ cost into a five-year period, to be able to make an acceptable comparison.

The 3 options: namely, Outright purchase, Rental and BOOT.

Nominal costs for the 3 options are US$438.9m, US$477.3m and US$516.3m respectively.

• GoG could not choose the option of outright purchase because we did not have the funds.

• For the rental option, it meant GoG will not own the plant.

• BOOT will result in GoG owning the plant at the end of five years. This would help develop the capacity of the country’s power generation company and increase the portfolio of generating plants in the country.

The thermal generation plants are not sold off the shelves and could take up to a lead time of 2 years to procure these plants. This certainly defeats the emergency solution for dumsor envisaged.

The Deputy Attorney general was part of the negotiation team and even witnessed the agreement so there was no need for another legal opinion.

Engineers and Planners was awarded a contract to prepare the site for the installation of the plants. GoG has paid E&P for all works undertaken to date by Engineers and Planners. It is therefore not true they have been paid for no work done.

Ameri has so far performed above the guaranteed performance at site conditions. The power outputs of the 10 units were between 26,322kW and 27,222kW, the net of which is higher than the Guaranteed Net Power Output of 256,347kW in the agreement.

The Ameri technology is well-proven with more than 1,800 units deployed worldwide and almost 69 million hours of operation. Its modular concept and factory-tested components allow for fast installation. This technology therefore lends itself to emergency applications.

 

Ameri Power Plants

AMERI has successfully provided the 250MW fast track power generation solution via the installation of ten (10) GE TM 2500 aero derivative gas turbines in Ghana (“the Project” or “the AMERI Project”) which has impacted positively on the generation capacity in the country.

The NPP and Philip Addison concocted 150 million dollar overpricing allegation cannot hold because plants are not sold at ex-factory prices, moreover in Ghana thermal plants are normally not procured directly from the manufacturers. Eg. KTPP, TT1PP, Tico etc.

Ameri took the decision to assume the risk by procuring, installing, operating and maintaining these plants with the hope of recovering their investment through tariffs over five years after which Ghana takes delivery and ownership of these plants. Government of Ghana took no such risk.

From the foregoing reject The NPP cooked Philip Addison Committee Report. It is a hatchet job initiated by Mr. Boakye Agyarko.

Editorial

SHOCKING!

The disclosure that as much as 85 percent of the budgetary allocation for local government is expected from foreign donor agencies is extremely worrying.

This means that if for some reason the foreign donors and their governments feel uncomfortable with our government, it could lead to the collapse of local government.

We fully agree with Kwesi Boateng Adjei, Vice chairman of the Local Government Committee that there is an urgent need to find local sources of funding for local government structures.

Local government is so important that we expect the Government of Ghana to set aside adequate funding for its smooth operation.

This is very shocking and we need to do something about it. 

Women, the unsung heroes in agriculture

By Prosper K. Kuorsoh

A praise singer once uttered some emotional words of wisdom at my late ground mother’s funeral years back in Gumo and got all women around mourning their hearts out.

“Women of Dorzieh, emulate N-Edeke, if your husband die and you fail to grab a hoe, you may die out of hunger”.

These were the words of the praise singer that got the women so emotional to the extent that they mourned and offered him money in appreciation.

The words of the praise singer perfectly described N-Edeke’s life and personality.

She was the wife of this writer’s ground father, the late KuoroBagiliKuorsoh, Chief of Gumo in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region.

N-Edeke had everything she wanted when the husband was alive but had to grab the hoe and took to farming in order to be able to feed herself and her children after the husband passed on.

She was a true example of a hardworking woman whose life and farming exploits were indeed worth emulating.

Many women are currently in the position of N-Edeke and are labouring under the scorching sun during the farming season to feed and cater for their children’s education.

KanditaBalanta, a 50-year-old woman from Bo community in the Jirapa District of the Region is one of such women. She lost her husband years back and had to depend on farming to cater for the five children the husband left behind.

She said she could only have access to about four and a half acres of land where her farm food crops such as Dorado, Maize, Bambara beans and Groundnuts.

In addition to this, she rears few goats and pigs.

She also brews pito during the dry season and used the proceeds to support her children, three of whom are currently in the Senior High School (SHS).

Kandita said farming was the only thing she could do to support her children’s education, but several challenges such as lack of fertilizer, tractor services and others made it difficult for her to succeed.

Generally, rural communities in northern Ghana lack lots of opportunities including income generating activities for women to take advantage of. The effect of this is the constant migration of young females from the area to southern Ghana to engage in menial jobs under very bizarre conditions.

Undoubtedly, women constitute half of Africa’s overall agricultural workforce and more than half in a number of countries including Ghana.

Women, per research, produce about 80 per cent of crops and yet these African women, depending on where they come from, produce up to two-thirds less per unit of land than men.

Indeed, that is not because women are less able than men or because they are less resourceful. Certainly, it is also not because they are less motivated than their male counterparts.

According to a World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab, “Leveling the Field: Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa,” it is because they do not benefit equally from farm inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides, machinery, credit facilities, and information on modern farming practices.

This gap is making it impossible for African women to become the thriving farmers they need to be in order to pull out of poverty and give their children a better life.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that if women worldwide had the same access to productive resources as men, they could boost agricultural production and help lift 100 to 150 million people out of hunger.

In Ghana, especially in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions majority of the women are engaged in agriculture as their main economic activity.

Many of these women are the breadwinners of their families. It is out of their sweat that children are fed, clothed and school fees paid.

Challenges of women in agriculture

Research has it that women produce 80 per cent of crops and own about one per cent of land.

This illustrates the lack of security in ownership.

Culturally, in northern Ghana, women do not own land even though they form a good percentage of agriculture workforces in the area.

The lack of access to land is making it difficult for the women to engage in commercial agriculture.

Also, women because of lack of resources, they do not have access to hired labour and tractor services.

They struggle on their small farms alone, hence their engagement in subsistence farming.

Again, research has it that by giving women the same access as men to agricultural resources could increase production on women’s farms in developing countries by 20 to 30 per cent.

Additionally, women tend to face greater challenges when it comes to securing credit.

They are generally less experienced with the “ins and outs” of borrowing from an institution, and without assistance and support they find it difficult to access the much needed funds.

Most agricultural extension officers’ focus is always on owners’ of large-scale commercial farms while providing limited research and farming techniques to small farm holders – majority of whom are women.

Most advanced technology such as ploughs, cultivators, planters, harvesters and irrigation equipment largely benefited male farmers to the detriment of female farmers.

Furthermore, lack of market research and information, limits women farmers to market opportunities, as they are confined to local markets where prices are generally lower than in urban markets.

The Northern Ghana Governance Activity (NGGA) project

These factors among others, which impede agricultural productivity among women farmers, necessitated the initiation of the Northern Ghana Governance Activity (NGGA) project.

The five years project is a United States Agency for International Department (USAID) and Government joint project, which is being implemented by a consortium of non-profit organisations including ActionAid Ghana, SEND Ghana, West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP) and led by CARE International Ghana.

The project is being implemented across 28 districts in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

The NGGA will seek to strengthen institutional capacity for effective co-ordination and integration of key actors in decentralised agricultural development under the “Feed the Future”, the US Government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

It would also improve the enabling environment for community organisations and the private sector to participate in decentralisation and agricultural development as well as enhance the participation of women in local governance to increase their access to agricultural information and opportunities.

Additionally, the aim is to increase community dialogue and consensus building to prevent conflict and ensure sustainable development in agriculture.

NGGA Women in Agriculture Platforms

To be able to enhance women’s participation in local governance, there is the need for well-organised, strong, capable and well-co-ordinated networks of women platforms to effectively articulate the issues of women in agriculture in order to create enabling space for them to actively participate in and influence decisions in the agricultural sector.

For this reason, USAID and its implementing partners in February inaugurated the Women in Agriculture Platforms across all 28 beneficiary districts.

Leaders of such platforms were brought together to form one regional platform in each of the three beneficiary regions.

The platforms are expected to serve as avenues for the women to receive capacity building training and co-ordinate their issues such that they would be able to actively participate in local governance with a stronger voice to ensure gender responsiveness of agricultural programmes and budgets for the improvement of their livelihoods.

Members of the platforms include crop and vegetable farmers; livestock and poultry farmers; agro processors; food and agro marketers; women from local non-governmental organisations; civil society organisations; queen mothers and other traditional authorities.

Madam Ruby Wuni, NGGA Women in Agriculture Co-ordinator said the challenges faced by women in agriculture explained the overall importance of the NGGA.

She said bringing women in agriculture across the 28 districts in Northern Ghana unto a common platform would give them a stronger voice that would enable them advocate their needs in agriculture.

MrChrys S. K. Pul, Governance and Advocacy Specialist, NGGA advised the platform members to work closely with the District Assembly and other stakeholders to ensure that the needs of women in agriculture are promoted.

Pognaa Rose Babai, Chairperson of the Upper West Regional Women in Agriculture Platform expressed the need for the platform to work with traditional rulers who own the land in order for them to see the need to release enough land for women farmers.

Empowering and investing in women, specifically in rural areas, will significantly increase agricultural productivity while reducing hunger and malnutrition in Ghana.

Women certainly have a greater role to play in the government’s bold agricultural policies such as the “Planting for food and jobs” and the “One village, one dam” among others if the policies are to succeed.

Therefore, empowering women to fully take up the challenge is the way to go for “A stitch on time saves nine”.

GNA

Hunted down like animals: The Plight of Tanzania’s albinos

An Albino Child with school mates

By Flora Drury For Mailonline

Tanzania’s albinos are being ‘hunted down like animals’ as greed for money and influence drives families to turn on their own loved ones in a trade allegedly fuelled by some of the country’s most powerful people.

It is believed albino body parts will bring a person wealth, or luck – and for that, people are willing to pay as much as $3,000 or $4,000 for a limb, or as much as $75,000 – about £50,000 – for the ‘full set’, a whole body.

People with albinism are regularly attacked by people who chop their limbs off – an act which either leaves them severely mutilated, or dead.  

Albinism, a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a result of inbreeding in remote and rural communities, experts say.

In the West, it affects just one person in 20,000.

Since people began collecting records of the attacks, there have been 74 killings and 59 survivors of attacks. Even the dead are not safe: 16 graves have been robbed.

And these are only the recorded cases. 

The most recent case saw four-year-old Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi abducted from her home in December.

Her father and uncle were both arrested in connection with her disappearance, but – despite rewards offered of £1,130 and promises of swift action from the police – she has not been found.

Charities working in the area do not hold out much hope she will be returned safely, but – listening to survivors’ stories – it is likely her end is, or will be brutal.

Mwigulu Matonange was just 10 when he was attacked by two men as he walked home from school with a friend.

They chopped off his left arm, before disappearing back into the jungle with their ‘prize’. 

‘I was held down like a goat about to be slaughtered,’ he told IPP Media after the February 2014 attack.

In Mwigulu’s case, the two men were strangers: he had never seen them before.

But it is understood suspicion turned on Pendo’s father after he took half-an-hour to report her abduction, despite there being neighbours who could have helped as soon as she was taken. 

 It is not just parents. A 38-year-old woman with albinism was attacked with machetes by her husband and four other men while she was sleeping in February 2013, according to a UN report.

Her eight-year-old daughter watched her father leave the bedroom carrying her mother’s arm.  

Those living with albinism in Tanzania fear the lure of making a couple of hundred dollars – three times the minimum wage earned in the country – is placing them in danger, even from their own families. 

‘Now we can see the parents who are involved in planning the attacks. What kind of war are we fighting if parents and family do this? Who can we trust?’ Josephat Torner, who campaigns for albino rights, asked. 

What kind of war are we fighting if parents and family do this? Who can we trust? You do not know who is your enemy 

Josephat Torner, albino campaigner

‘You do not know who is your enemy.’ 

Josephat, who himself is albino, added: ‘People with the albinism are being hunted and killed for our body parts. It is because people want to become rich.

‘We are still living in danger. It is because people, they have different ideas. Some people, they are thinking they should get our body parts and sell to different places.

‘The question is, why? Why now? And who is behind the killings?’

Exactly who remains unknown.

But Josephat – who has received death threats for his work, and was attacked in 2012 – said: ‘The big fishes are behind the issue. It has been really a big discussion. If I say big fish, or big people, it is those who have enough resources, enough money.

‘People sell the body parts for high prices. So it is not really small fish behind it.

‘It could be politicians. It could be those people.’

 Josephat’s theory is backed up by Peter Ash, a Canadian who set up the charity Under the Same Sun in 2009.

‘In a country like Tanzania, which is the 25th poorest in the world, the only people with that kind of cash are politicians or wealthy businessman,’ he said.

But whoever they are, those buying the witch doctors’ wares are clearly powerful.

Only 10 people have ever been brought to trial for their part in albino attacks or murders – but not one of them was a ‘buyer’.

‘The only people who have been convicted are the witch doctors and the hired killers,’ said Peter. 

‘But they would never name the customer – even when the witch doctor is given the death sentence. Never has a customer been named.’

There are, campaigners know, times when more albino attacks take place. And they know, with the general election coming up in October, now is one of the most dangerous times to be an albino.

The UN warned political campaigners were turning to witch doctors to help them win election back in August.

In a country like Tanzania, which is the 25th poorest in the world, the only people with that kind of cash are politicians or wealthy businessman 

Peter Ash, campaigner 

‘People with albinism are hiding while there are elections,’ said Peter.

Josephat added: ‘This year we are going to have an election. Since last year, we have been seeing attacks and killings.’ 

Already, there has been a noticeable increase.

Over the course of just 11 days last year, there were three attacks and two attempted attacks on people with albinism in Tanzania.

One man, thought to be in his early 20s, was found lying dead, his body mutilated, in the grass by some schoolchildren in a suburb of Dar Es Salaam.

The next day, a mother-of-seven was attacked in the Tabora region of Tanzania, losing her arm. 

A few days before, 15-year-old Pendo Sengerema was attacked as she ate dinner at home with her family.

They hacked off her right arm just below the elbow, before running off into the dark.

According to Under the Same Sun, a witch doctor had received an order from a wealthy client indicating that if Pendo’s arm could be provided, it would garner a price of $600.

The attack left Pendo terrified, begging to be sent away from her village. 

‘I am asking the police to move me to a safer place and protect me because bad men might come back to kill me,’ she pleaded.

I am asking the police to move me to a safer place and protect me because bad men might come back to kill me Pendo Sengerema, 15

These ‘safer places’ are the centres set up around the country, where large number of people with albinism are living behind high walls for their own protection. 

The camps were established after the first high profile waves of attacks, a knee-jerk response to a terrifying situation.

‘It was supposed to be a short term solution,’ Peter said. ‘But there was no long term plan.’ 

Years later, they still exist – and now are not just for children: adults are kept behind the camps’ high walls as well.

‘Children who are there, they are living there maybe for seven years without going back to their families,’ said Josephat.

‘At the end of the day, families or communities do not want to allow them to go back. These children are growing up without any parental care.’

‘If you ask the community why now are they forcing their children to the camps, they are saying it is where they belong. But we are not for the camps: we are for the community.’

But the government now appears to be taking action: after widespread criticism of  its reaction to Pendo’s abduction, it moved to outlaw the witch doctors behind the killings.

They have not banned traditional healers who use herbs, however.

NOT JUST A TANZANIAN PROBLEM 

Attacks and murders of people with albinism are not just confined to Tanzania. 

Under The Same Sun has recorded a total of 136 killings and 211 attacks across 25 countries in Africa since they began keeping records.

A total of 33 reports of killings, attacks and grave robberies have been recorded in neighbouring Burundi, with 29 cases recorded in the Democractic Republic of Congo. 

In west Africa, cases have been recorded in the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana, while there have also been attacks in southern countries like South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique.

‘These so-called witches bear responsibility for the attacks against albinos,’ interior ministry spokesman Isaac Nantanga said.

But as to whether it will make a difference for  those living in fear for their lives remains to be seen.

Harry Freeland, who spent seven years following Josephat and other Tanzanian albinos for his documentary In the Shadow of the Sun, was cautious. 

‘Really, we can’t jump to conclusions,’ he said. ‘It means nothing until we can see tangible results.

‘There is hope for strong action. But we have heard statements like this before.’

Peter is less confident, pointing back to 2009, when President Jakaya Kikwete declared he was outlawing witch doctors.

But the sweeping statement sparked a backlash in a country where many people still rely on traditional medicines, and the new law was quietly ditched.

But this time, the government is also putting an emphasis on education.

That’s something Josephat has been doing for years: risking his life to go into remote villages to explain to people they are not ghosts, but human beings whose bodies will not bring luck.

He hopes to reach more people now, with the help of Harry’s documentary.

And he hopes, eventually, that he will no longer have to leave his family behind in Dar es Salaam while he travels across the country. 

In the meantime, he will continue to campaigning and trying to raise awareness.

‘Why are we being threatened in our own country, because of our colour?’ he asked.  

‘We are living like refugees in our own country because of our skin colour.

‘We are being judged for our colour. We are being punished.

‘What we are demanding is a right to life. This should be fundamental, but we are being denied it.’ 

‘I want to live like other people, the way they live.’ 

Source: Daily Mail UK

Slave rebellion database created

The Haitian Revolution in 1791

By Juana Esquivel

The Pan African Studies Department at CSUN has launched a Slave Rebellion Database on its Web site that comprises a collection of documents and data relating to slave populations and slave rebellions in the United States.

Pan African studies professor, Joseph Holloway, created the database which exposes the public to African-Americans’ story of struggle and fight for freedom.

“Part of the reason (for creating the database) is that many scholars and historians have argued that African-Americans, that black people, did not respond to their oppression and that they were docile,” Holloway said. “Here I provide documentation that shows that they rebelled at every opportunity.”

The Web site includes a timeline of slave revolts in the United States from 1526 to 1829, six interactive maps, a history of slave insurrections, a photo gallery, slave records and a slave population database.

Holloway said it is the first time in the United States that all this information has been made available in one place.

“It is the most comprehensive database on enslave populations ever put together and no one (before) has provided a single source, archive, where all this information has been made available,” Holloway added.

Pan African studies professor and department chair, Dr. Tom Spencer Walters praises the database’s uniqueness.

“It opens the door for all kinds of possibilities not only for our students here but for people interested in slavery and issues relating to discrimination and race,” he said.

Holloway said that while most of the statistical information was obtained through federal government records, some of the documents include personal diary entries, essays and articles.

Vaughn Gill, a CSUN graduate student who has collaborated with Holloway in the creation of the database calls it a “useful tool.”

“It is like going to the library to research a document,” Gill said.

The Web site has more advantages because some of the information found in the database is not easy to find elsewhere since it was found in people’s homes, Gill added.

One example is the documentation of the number of slaves some households had, Gill said.

Holloway said the slave population database is broken down into various categories. These include: female and male enslaved populations, free blacks, free females, and the total white population in each region, city and state.

CSUN student Nancy Trinh, 19, has not seen the Web site but she said she thinks it sounds interesting and after reading history books she knows “slavery is not talked about much and if it is, it is from an American point of view.”

“I think it will be a good idea to have people know the other side of slavery from a different perspective,” Trinh said.

Holloway said the idea to do this project began 30 years ago, and for over 20 years he has been collecting the information to make it happen.

However, a lack of funding prevented Holloway from publishing his findings and this is why he decided to make it available for free.

The Web site, which anyone can access, is driven by volunteers and is maintained by donations made to the project, Holloway said.

He said finding resources has been his biggest challenge while creating the Web site.

“For the most part, I have financed this and I finance this basically through the profits from The New World African Press, which I am the CEO of, to build, to finance, to hire people, to work on the slave rebellion Web site,” Holloway said.

The New World African Press is also accessible through the Web site. It is a list of books on African-American issues.

Gill said the most challenging part of creating the Web site was organization, putting all the information in an easy format and cross-referencing.

Trinh said she likes the idea of having the Web site available to all students, not just African- American students, like herself.

“We don’t really get the chance for people to come in and tell the personal stories that they have unless you are from a black family where family members can tell you,” Trinh said.

Walters said he has incorporated the database into his department but it should not be limited to just Pan African studies students.

“This is a significant part of American history, it is not just a PAS (Pan African Studies) database, it is like an icon that everyone should have the opportunity to take a look at,” he said. “How they interpret it or use it is dependent of how people see it, but at least take the opportunity to look at it.”

Holloway is interested in expanding the Web site by providing lesson plans, lectures on the African-American experience and a question board that anyone from elementary school and beyond can have access to.

Source: The Sundial

Crimes of Apartheid

A new UN report should strengthen the global consensus against Israeli policy

By Vijay Prashad

Two recommendations from the report stand out. First, it asks that the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel. Second, the report urges that UN member states allow criminal prosecutions of Israeli officials connected with the practices of apartheid against the Palestinian people. Since most of the world’s states have signed the Convention Against Apartheid, they are now obliged to act.

Apartheid is a powerful word, with evocations of the South African experience and with implications of crimes against humanity. The United Nations does not use this word loosely. It rarely enters UN reports, and is not heard from the lips of UN officials. But now, in a report released on March 15 in Beirut, Lebanon, the UN has proclaimed that Israel ‘is guilty of the crime of apartheid’. This is a very significant judgment, one with important ramifications for the UN, for the International Court of Justice and for the international community.

In 2015, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) was charged by its member-states – the eighteen Arab states in West Asia and North Africa – to study whether Israel has established an apartheid regime. ESCWA asked two American academics — Richard Falk and Virginia Tilley — to undertake the study. Falk had been the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 through 2014. Tilley had served as a Chief Research Specialist in South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council, which had produced a study in 2009 showing apartheid-like conditions in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territory. The report that they have now produced makes the ‘grave charge’ that Israel is guilty of apartheid not only in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem — the Occupied Territory — but also within its own boundaries and against the Palestinian refugees. This is a very sharp report, which will be hard for Israel to ignore.

End of two state consensus?

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington DC recently to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. At that meeting, Mr. Trump seemed to disregard the international consensus towards the creation of two states. In fact, as this report and others show, the two-state solution has been long vitiated. The Israeli government’s illegal Jewish settlement project in the West Bank and its virtual annexation of East Jerusalem makes it impossible to imagine the establishment of Palestine in that region. What exists is a one-state, with Israel having exercised its dominion in the entire land west of the Jordan River, but a one-state with an apartheid system, with Israeli Jews in a dominant position over the Palestinians. The new UN report speaks to this disturbing apartheid situation not only in the Occupied Territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but in all of Israel.

One reason why the Israeli government is unwilling to consider a one-state solution with equal rights for all Israelis and Palestinians is what they call a ‘demographic threat’. If the 12 million Palestinians — exiles and refugees included — would be citizens of this one-state, then they would dwarf the six million Jews in the country. The UN report argues that Israel is a ‘racial regime’ because its institutions are premised on maintaining a Jewish nation by techniques of suppression and expulsion.

Gross discrimination

Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship (ezrahut) do not have the right to nationality (le’um), which means that they can only access inferior social services, face restrictive zoning laws, and find themselves unable freely to buy land. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are reduced to the status of permanent residents, who have to constantly prove that they live in the city and that they do not have any political ambitions. Palestinians in the West Bank live ‘in ways consistent with apartheid’, write the authors of the UN report. And those who are exiled to the refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan have absolutely no rights to their homeland. All Palestinians – whether those who live in Haifa (Israel) or in Ain al-Hilweh (Lebanon) suffer the consequences of Israeli apartheid. This indignity is punctuated with laws that humiliate the Palestinians. The latest law — the Muezzin Bill — imposes limits on the Muslim call to prayer in Israel and East Jerusalem.

Matters would be less grave if the Israeli political system allowed Palestinians rights to make their case against apartheid-like conditions. Article 7(a) of the Basic Law prohibits any political party from considering a challenge to the State’s Jewish character. Since this description of the Israeli state renders Palestinians as second-class citizens, their voting rights are reduced to merely an affirmation of their subordination. As the UN report suggests, ‘An analogy would be a system in which slaves have the right to vote but not against slavery’. Palestinians inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories, as well as in enforced exile, are forbidden to fight to change the terms of politics in Israel. This roadblock is the reason why the UN report appeals to the international community to live up to its commitments.

Since most of the world’s states have signed the Convention Against Apartheid, they are now obliged to act to punish instances of apartheid. Two recommendations from the report stand out. First, the authors ask that the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the situation in Israel. The ICC’s Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened an investigation on Israel’s 2014 bombing of Gaza and on the illegal settlements in the West Bank. Ms. Bensouda has indicated that she is not averse to a full assessment of Israel’s actions. Whether she will now widen the scope of her investigation to the apartheid nature of the state is a separate matter. Second, the report asks that member states allow ‘criminal prosecutions of Israeli officials demonstrably connected with the practices of apartheid against the Palestinian people’. Earlier this year, former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cancelled a trip to Brussels when she was alerted that the prosecutors there might arrest her using the principle of universal jurisdiction. Such actions raise the cost to Israel for its apartheid policies.

When the UN Security Council declared late last year that Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Territories were illegal, then there was worry in Israel that Ms. Bensouda would accelerate her work. Others in Israel said that there was nothing new in the resolution, which neither used the word ‘grave’ to describe the situation nor considered Israeli actions to be a war crime. But the new report does both. If it is acknowledged that Israel is an apartheid state, then this is tantamount to war crime (in the 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions) and to a crime against humanity (in the 1973 Apartheid Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC).

India’s reaction

To prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Israel later this year, his Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will soon go to Israel. Word comes from the Ministry of External Affairs that it is likely that Mr. Modi will not visit the Occupied Territories, which will be a snub to Palestine. India’s overall reaction to this report will define Mr. Modi’s attitude towards Israel. The appearance of this report – and its strong conclusions – should give Mr. Modi pause before he shreds decades of consensus for Palestine from India. Will India take leadership in upholding international law as it did in the fight against South African apartheid? Or will India back away from high principle and settle for arms deals and empty rhetoric?

* Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College, is the author of ‘The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution’. This article first appeared in The Hindu newspaper of India.

Source: Pambazuka

For a free and sovereign Haiti

13 years of occupation…enough! MINUSTAH out!

By Various

Hundreds of popular organizations, networks and movements of Latin America and the Caribbean launched a Week of Solidarity with Haiti, March 15-22, with a petition demanding the total withdrawal of the troops that occupy that country and closure of the UN Mission (MINUSTAH). They also want the UN to provide reparations for violations and crimes against the Haitian people.

To the governments and parliaments of Latin America and the Caribbean

To regional integration bodies and institutions

To the governments of member countries of the Security Council or troop contributors

To the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. António Guterres

Withdraw MINUSTAH now!

Popular organizations, social and political movements of our America and elsewhere call on our countries and the United Nations Security Council to make immediate decisions to ensure the full withdrawal of MINUSTAH occupation troops, the closing down of the Mission and reparations for the damages and crimes committed.

Haiti is not a threat to hemispheric security and we condemn your claiming so for the past 13 years, seeking to justify the illegal military occupation of that country. The presence of the MINUSTAH, on the contrary, has meant a tremendous affront to the dignity and capacity of the Haitian people, the exercise of their sovereignty, respect for their human rights including their right to make decisions over the natural wealth and commons that are essential for their survival and buen vivir.

Not to mention the women, youth, and children who have suffered abuse, rape and sexual exploitation by unpunished troops who are said to be sent to carry out a mission of support and stabilization to the country. Or the peasants, students, and workers whose struggles and demands have suffered the troops’ repression. Or, above all, the more than 10,000 people killed and 800,000 infected as a result of cholera, due to the negligence, at best, of this Mission, aggravated scandalously by the policy of denial and impunity maintained by the UN itself for 6 long years after the troops introduced cholera.

It is time that the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean in particular, and the international community in general, recognize that the MINUSTAH is not the response that Haiti needs. In fact, the failure of the electoral process that has just concluded with the participation of less than 21% of the electorate, questioned results, and the installation of a large number of candidates denounced for their ties to various criminal activities, evidences the permanence of a crisis of legitimacy of the State and its apparatus, the resolution of which was supposedly at the heart of the Mission's mandate.

We call on you to immediately withdraw all the troops - most of them from Latin America - and put an end to the hypocrisy of a so-called Peace Mission where there neither is nor has been any war; a Mission that has not fulfilled its formal mandate and has violated the rights of the population it says it is meant to help. A Mission, furthermore, that has squandered financial resources with which the Haitian people could build their own present and future. A few countries have already withdrawn their troops, and others have announced their willingness to do so shortly, but we join our member organizations and colleagues in Haiti to demand that they all leave, and now.

NOT IN OUR NAME we again cry out. But it is not enough for the MINUSTAH just to leave Haiti. The UN, the Security Council, the countries that contribute to its budget and those who send their troops, have an obligation to make reparations for the crimes and human rights violations committed, including the implementation of a system to achieve universal access to the basic human right of potable water. The MINUSTAH has a budget approved this year of USD 350 million, and the plan launched with considerable hype, to eradicate cholera and compensate victims and their families, is trying thus far without success to commit USD 400 million during this year and the next. For us, the math is very simple; the problem is the interests of those who put up the money or are content to take advantage of it for their own purposes. NOT IN OUR NAME!

We reaffirm our willingness to continue to defend the rights of the Haitian people, supporting them in their daily struggle to overcome the impoverishment and exploitation to which they have been subjected, the plunder and continuity of more than 100 years of occupation. We demand from you, governments and parliaments, official representatives of the highest level, that you fulfill your obligations and duties to respect their sovereignty and self-determination and to collaborate with the people and government of Haiti, to assure their needs and rights.

- Latin America and the Caribbean, March 2017

SIGNATURES as of March 14, 2017

Regional – Global

International Alliance of Habitants AIH

Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean ATALC

Caribbean Peoples’ Assembly, Regional Executive Committee APC-CER

Asociación Civil Profesionales Latinoamericanos contra el Abuso de Poder

Comité por la Abolición de la Deuda del Tercer Mundo CADTM Internacional

Comité por la Abolición de la Deuda del Tercer Mundo CADTM - AYNA

Trade Union Confederation of the Americas CSA/TUCA

Equipo de Colonialism Reparation

Federación Sindical Mundial FSM, Región "Nuestra América".

Federación Universal de Movimientos Estudiantiles Cristianos FUMEC - América Latina y el Caribe

Grito de los Excluidos Caribe

Jubilee South / Americas  JS/A

Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo extractivo Minero M4

Movimientos Sociales del ALBA

Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes OCLAE

Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo PIDHDD Regional

Red de Intelectuales, Artistas y Movimientos Sociales en Defensa de la Humanidad

Resumen Latinoamericano

School of the Americas Watch

Sociedad de Economia Política y de pensamiento crítico de América Latina SEPLA

Argentina

Acción por la Biodiversidad

Apdh La Costa-Bsas

Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado ATE Nacional

ATTAC - Argentina

Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA) Autónoma

Centro de Estudios Alejandro Olmos, Santa Fe

Centro de Militares para la Democracia Argentina CEMIDA

Colectiva Feministas Independientes de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Comité argentino de solidaridad por el retiro de las tropas y el fin de la ocupación de Haití

Comunidad Pueblos Originarios de Awyayala, Rafaela

Coordinadora Resistir y Luchar

Corriente Nacional Emancipación Sur, Pcia. Bs.As.

Diálogo 2000

Ecología, Cultura y Educación desde los Pueblos del Sur ECOSUR

El Club de la Pluma, Córdoba

Federación Judicial Argentina FJA

Feministas Independientes Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Frente Popular Dario Santillan Corriente Nacional FPDS-CN

Frente Popular Dario Santillan FPDS

Fundación Más Derechos por Más Dignidad

Fundación Servicio Paz y Justicia SERPAJ

Grupo Ecologista Madre Tierra, Eldorado, Misiones

Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora

Movimiento de Articulación No Colonialista de Bases Latinoamericanas Sociales MANBLAS, Neuquén

Movimiento Político y Social Marcha Patriótica - Capítulo Argentina

Movimiento Popular Patria Grande

Movimiento por la Unidad Latinoamericana y el Cambio Social MULCS Buenos Aires

Museo Ernesto Che Guevara de Buenos Aires

Opinión Socialista

Programa de extensión de cátedra Por una nueva economía, humana y sustentable - Fac. Cs. Educación - UNER, Paraná

Proyecto Sur

Pura Praxis - Colectiva de Teatro de las Oprimidas

Red de Solidaridad con Chiapas Bs As

Unidad Popular

Unión Solidaria de Comunidades del Pueblo Diaguita Cacano, Santiago del Estero

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Premio Nobel de la Paz

Alcira Argumedo, Diputado Nacional por Proyecto Sur

Ana Capdevielle, Médica pediatra

Arturo Balassa, Realizador Audiovisual - Profesor Universitario

Bettina Müller, ATTAC Argentina

Claudia Hasanbegovic, Equifem

Claudio Giorno, Corriente Nacional Emancipación Sur, Provincia de Buenos Aires

Claudio Katz, UBA/CONICET, EDI Economistas del Izquierda

Daniel Giovannini, Periodista, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Eduardo Grüner, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (UBA)

Eduardo Lucita, economista

Elena Cedrón, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Fernando Vicente Prieto, Periodista

Gervasio Espinosa, Argentina-Uruguay

Graciela Irene Pais, Docente, CABA

José  Luis Bournasell, CABA

Luciano Andrés Valencia, Escritor e historiador, Cipolletti, Rio Negro

Luis Enrique Olarte, Sociedad de Medicina Rural de Neuquén y Federación Argentina de Medicina General, Neuquén

Manuel Justo Gaggero, Abogado-periodista, Ex Director del Diario "El Mundo", La Población, Traslasierra, Pcia. Córdoba

María Adela Antokoletz, Colaboradora de Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora

María Leonor (Nora) Moyano, Docente jubilada UNCUYO, Mendoza

Mario Mazzitelli, Partido Socialista Auténtico

Mirta Acuña de Baravalle, Co-fundadora de Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo 

Mónica Moscón, Córdoba

Nora Cortiñas, Madre de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora

Norberto Ganci, El Club de la Pluma, Córdoba

Pablo Bergel, Diputado (m.c.) Legislatura de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Pantaleon Esteban Riquelme, Red de Solidaridad con Chiapas Bs As

Roberto Pozzo, Investigador Conicet - Docente Universitariorio, Santa Fe

Susana Merino, Editora de "El grano de arena", Buenos Aires

Zulema Beatriz Aristizabal, UBA/Conicet,Buenos Aires

Bolivia, Estado Plurinacional de

Capítulo Boliviano de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo

Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarrollo Local

Grito de los excluidos Bolivia

Juan Carlos Balderas Gamarra, La Paz

Alejandro Dausá, Teólogo, Santa Cruz

Brasil

Centro de Educación Ambiental de Guarulhos CEAG

APROPUCSP-Associação dos Professores da PUCSP, São Paulo

Casa Latino Americana CASLA, Curitiba - PR

CEBI, DOURADOS / MS

Comité Pró-Haiti

CSP-Conlutas - Central Sindical e Popular do Brasil

FASE - Solidariedade e Educação, Rio de Janeiro

Jornal Marcha Verde, Curitiba

Jubileu Sul Brasil

Organização Indígena Revolucionária

Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB)

Tribunal Popular

União Social dos Imigrantes Haitianos, São Paulo

Ana Garcia, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro

Armando Gomes Ferreira, Frente em Defesa do Povo Palestino, São Paulo

Maria Beatriz Costa Abramides, Professora do Programa de Pós Graduação em Serviço Social, PUCSP, São Paulo

Maurício Campos dos Santos, APOCE, Niterói

Miguel Borba de Sá, Instituto PACS, Rio de Janeiro

Rafael Noris, Blog Família Palmito, Campinas

Rosâna, Porto Alegre

Chile

Casa Bolívar, Santiago

Comisión Ética Contra la Tortura – Chile

Congreso de los Pueblos - Chile

Movimiento pro emancipación de la mujer chilena MEMCH 83, Valparaiso

Observatorio por el Cierre de la Escuela de las Américas

Servicio Paz y Justicia SERPAJ CHILE

Carlos A. Bau Aedo, cientista político ex preso político, Valparaíso

Rodrigo Martinez, Santiago

Colombia

Proceso de Comunidades Negras

Costa Rica

CEFEMINA

Cuba

Movimiento Cubano por la Paz y la Soberanía de los Pueblos

Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de África, Asia y América Latina (OSPAAAL)

Ecuador

Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (CSMM)

Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos, CEDHUanos

El Salvador

"Ramón El Suizo"-René Fasnacht, Militante internacionalista, San Salvador

Marbel Membreño, San Salvador

José Raul Zacaría, Sonzacate, Sonsonate

Guatemala

Red Nacional de Justicia y Paz, Alta Verapaz

Haití

Mouvement de Liberte, d'Egalite des Haitiens pour la Fraternite MOLEGHAF

Pati RASIN/Kan Pep La

Plataforma de Incidencia para un Desarrollo Alternativo PAPDA

Sèk Gramsci

Judner Point

México

Comité Amigos de Puerto Rico (Carlos Rivera) 

Comité de Derechos Humanos de Base de Chiapas Digna Ochoa

Coordinadora Mexicana de Apoyo al Estado Nacional Soberano de Borinken

Frente del Pueblo (Germán Hurtado y José Antonio Salas)

Fundación Manatí para el Fomento de la Ciudadanía A.C., Tuxtla Gutierrez

Grupo Paz con Democracia

Nueva Central de Trabajadores (NCT) de México, Ciudad de México

Observatorio latinoamericana de Geopolítica

Procesos Integrales para la Autogestión de los Pueblos, Estado de Guerrero

 Alfredo López Austin

Alicia Castellanos

Ana Esther Ceceña

Arturo Guillén, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Ciudad de México

Carlos Fazio

Dr. Gilberto López y Rivas, Profesor Investigador INAH-Morelos, Cuernavaca

Gonzalo Ituarte

Héctor de la Cueva

Hugo Victoria, San Pedro, G.G.

Isabel Vargas, San Pedro, G.G.

Laura Collin, ecosol, tlaxcala

Magdalena Gómez

Miguel Álvarez

Miguel Concha Malo, Profesor de Posgrado de las Facultades de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales; y Contaduría y Administración de la UNAM. Miembro del Grupo Paz con Democracia, Ciudad de México

Patricia Sosa, Profesora universitaria, Ciudad de México

Yadir Perez Yrejo, Editorial Malacate, Ciudad de Mexico

Yadir Perez, Trabajador asalariado, Ciudad de Mexico

Panamá

Colectivo Voces Ecológicas COVEC

Coordinadora Popular de Derechos Humanos de Panamá, COPODEHUPA

Paraguay

Asociación Americana de Juristas AAJ

Asociación de Mujeres Campesinas y populares AMUCAP, Caaguazú

Maria Salvadora Paredes, activista social, Luque

Perú

Redacción de la publicación mensual "Lucha Indígena"

Juan Rojas Vargas, Juliaca, Puno

Hernando Burgos, Lima

Danilo Quijano, Lima

Puerto Rico

COMUNA Caribe

Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano de Puerto Rico

Margarita Roman Amador, MINH, Guaynabo

Ángel R. Villarini, OFDP, San Juan

Jose A Alegria y Olguita J Rivera, San Juan

República Dominicana

Asamblea de los Pueblos del Caribe, Capitulo República Dominicana

Asamblea Nacional Ambiental, ANA

Brigada Cimarrona Sebastián llemba

Campaña Cero Desalojos, AIH

Club El Gran Ejemplo

Confederación de Unidad Sindical, CNUS

Cooperativa de Vivienda COOPHABITAT

Corriente Magisterial Juan Pablo Duarte

Corriente Magisterial Narciso González

Corriente Sindical Juan Pablo Duarte

Federación de Transporte La Nueva Opción, FENATRANO

Foro Renovador

Foro Social de Brisas del Este

Frente Amplio, FA

Frente Estudiantil Flavio Suero (FEFLAS)

Frente Progresista Caletero FRNPROCA

Frente Universitario de Renovación FUR

Juventud Caribe

Men nan men pou n sove Haiti, Fruisa/Bavaro /Punta Cana, Higüey

Movimiento Camina RD

Movimiento Campesino de Campesinos Trabajadores las Comunicades Unidas MCCU

Movimiento de Mujeres Trabajadoras

Movimiento de Mujeres Transportistas

Movimiento de Trabajadores Independientes

Movimiento Patria para Todos y Todas

Movimiento Rebelde, MR

Partido Comunista del Trabajo PCT

Periódico Trinchera Unitaria

Angelita mendez, Casa del Caribe inc, Barahona

Juan felipe Ossius Doris, Impresario, San José / higuey/salvaleon de higüey

Julin Acosta, Barahona

Uruguay

Agrupacion Nacional Pro UNIR (Unidad Popular-URUGUAY)

Cotidiano Mujer

Fundación Vivian Trías

Plataforma DESCAm

Carmen Ferrera, jubilada

Soledad Orejana, Luchadora por la justicia social

Luna zurdo Ríos, maestra jubilada de enseñanza pública, Punts del diablo

Leo Masliah, músico

Rubén Olivera, músico 

Oscar Mañán, Prof. Agregado de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administración; Universidad de la República y del Centro Regional de Profesores del Centro, Consejo de Formación en Educación, Administración Nacional de Educación Pública

Dr. José E. Díaz, Presidente de la Fundación Vivian Trías, ex Srio. General del PS (Frente Amplio), 1965-1972, ex Diputado Nacional (1985-1995) y primer Ministro del Interior del primer gobierno del FA (2005-2007)

Esteban Pérez, ex diputado uruguayo renuncié a mi banca para no votar la permanencia de tropas uruguayas en Haití, Ciudad del Plata, Dpto de San José

Venezuela, República Bolivariana de

Casa de Amistad y Solidaridad Venezuela Vietnam

Comité venezolano de solidaridad con Ecuador

Fondasim

Grupo de montañismo político cúspides del ALBA

Izquierda Unida

Puente Sur

Unidad de análisis Fabricio Ojeda

Alexander Jose Bello Reinaga, San Joaquín, Estado Carabobo

Armando Liendo Calanche, Caracas

Emilio Farrera, Bloque Revolucionario de Aragua, Maracay, Aragua

Fernando Bello,Embajador Social de Derechos Humanos en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Caracas

Islande Simeon, Fondasim, Caracas

Javier J. Ramirez. Movimiento Popular Bolivariano, Caracas D.C.

Jose Toledo, Carupano

Lucila Santama 

Luis Enrique Duran, Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez, Caracas

Rafael Lemus, PSUV, Cumaná

Otros

Jose I. Clark, trabajador social

Luis Angel Reddel

Mariadela Villanueva

Australia

Alicia Monsech, Diario de urgencia, Fairfield-Sydney, N.S.W.

Belgica

Guido De Schrijver, Red europea de Comités Oscaar Romero, AALST

Alice Minette, CADTM bruxelles

España

Comité Mons. Óscar Romero de Madrid-España

Comunidade Cristiana Vangarda Obreira da Coruña, A Coruña

Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), Madrid

Coordenadora de Crentes Galegos, Galicia

Organización de Cooperación y Solidaridad Internacional OCSI Madrid

Psicólogas y Psicólogos sin Fronteras, Valencia

Alicia Fernández Gómez, Trotskista, Langreo, Asturias 

Betty Roca Hubbauer, Psicólogas y Psicólogos sin Fronteras, Valencia

Celia David Lluesma, Psicólogos/as Sin Fronteras. Valencia

MªAngeles Perlado, Comprometida con los derechos humanos,Cartagena (Murcia)

Manuel Pardo, Miembro del Foro Contra la Guerra Imperialista y la OTAN, Madrid

María del Carmen Romero Sánchez, Horcajo de Santiago, Cuenca

Maria Elena Contreras, Alicante

María Escudero, Comunidades Cristianas, Galicia

Maria Torres, Barcelona

Pablo Blazquez, Barcelona

Pedro Barea, Licenciado en Periodismo por la UCM, Madrid

Teresa Marabella Perez, Psicologas y Psicologos sin Fronteras, Valencia

Francia

CADTM France

Italia

Asociacion Lisangà culture in movimento Italia, Bussoleno

Renato Sibille, Lisangà Salbertrand

Sudáfrica

AIDC, Cape Town

Suecia

RESOLVER. Red de Solidaridad con Venezuela Revolucionaria, Uppsala