The 55th Congress of Liberal International notes:
•    That according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published on 2 February 2007 it is now 90% certain that human activities since 1750 have warmed our planet.
•    That while every possible attempt must be made to mitigate climate change, the reality is that a certain amount of warming has already been locked into the climate system due to emissions that have already occurred;
Further noting:
•    That concern is growing that many communities and ecosystems will have little time to adjust to changing conditions;
•    That economic losses due to extreme weather events are already being experienced, and are likely to increase in the future;
•    That the World Health Organization estimates that climate change is already responsible for 150 000 deaths annually;
•    That the worst effects of climate change will be felt most acutely in the developing world, particularly in Africa;
•    That climate change threatens both food and water security in the developing world;
•    That the effects of climate change will hamper many countries’ abilities to attain the UN Millennium Goals;
Further noting:
•    That Adaptation refers primarily to measures that lessen the vulnerabilities that arise as a result of the negative effects of climate change.
•    That while migration is mostly a global issue, adaptation is a local or regional issue, and therefore adaptation needs will be different in different parts of the world.
•    That those countries or communities with the least capacity to adapt are the most vulnerable to climate change;
•    That the costs of adapting will be between US$ 28 and US$ 67 billion per year by 2030;
•    That currently the Adaptation Fund, set up using funds from a levy on Clean Development Mechanism Projects, is estimated to be worth only US$ 36 million per year, and is expected to rise to no more than US$300 million per year by 2012. Hence, there is a significant funding gap, as the Adaptation Fund in its current manifestation will contribute only 1% of the funds required to help the world adapt to the climate change that is already likely to happen.
Hereby Resolves:
•    That Adaptation to climate change in conjunction with sustainable development receive the same emphasis as mitigation in a post-2012 climate agreement;
•    That the funding for Adaptation by developing countries be funded primarily by developed countries who are responsible for the majority of human-induced climate change;
•    That developed countries consider committing to compulsory financial payments to the Adaptation Fund based on their respective abilities to pay.
•    That funding to developing countries for Adaptation measures be in addition to existing development aid.

The road to democracy has many obstacles. Opposition parties in Africa have made progress in contesting elections, even if conditions remain far from equal. But even when opposition parties can win elections, one big hurdle remains.
We can all see the problem in Zimbabwe. Even if the Movement for Democratic Change can claim, convincingly, that it has won the elections, the ruling power just refuses to allow a peaceful transition. We all witnessed the situation in Kenya and the violence that ensued following the manipulation of election results, which ultimately allowed the ruling party to cling on to the lion’s share of power.
The situation which has been made evident in Zimbabwe and Kenya can occur in most countries in Africa which today have succeeded in establishing the right to multi-party elections. The articles in this issue depict a picture of the struggle of opposition parties from the Seychelles, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire  for free and fair elections and a peaceful transition of power; and highlight the threat to democracy when cronyism and corruption become entrenched in the state business, as the case from South Africa illustrates.
Imen Trabelsi
Africa Network Officer
•    Of Referendum and CCM: The Frog’s Kiss That Will Kill Muafaka
•    Defining Procedures for Peaceful Transition. A Requirement of Multi-Party Democracy
•    The Presidential Elections in Cote d’Ivoire and the Kenya/Zimbabwe Syndrome
•    The Criminalisation of the State in South Africa
•    South Africa’s DA Welcomes ALN Interns
•    ALN Holds Workshop on Party Structure and Management, Maputo, Mozambique
•    ALN Members Attend Liberal International Human Rights Forum, Taipei, Taiwan
•    ALN at the Liberal International Congress, Belfast, May 2008
Of Referendum and CCM: The Frog’s Kiss That Will Kill Muafaka
Ismail Jussa, Head of International Relations
Civic United Front, Tanzania
The decision by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) to reject the power sharing agreement that was jointly negotiated by its team and that of the Civic United Front (CUF) is to say the least frustrating and disappointing.
It was an anti-climax of more than two years of tiring and exhausting work to find a lasting peace for the islands of Zanzibar which have been beleaguered with a political stand-off since the re-introduction of multi-party system in 1992.
A free and fair election in Zanzibar is an important and critical step in the democratisation process of Tanzania as a whole because in Zanzibar, CUF – a democratic opposition – has won the past three elections and can win the coming elections. It is a litmus test of whether CCM is committed to the democratisation process or it is simply playacting in a process to hoodwink the international community, donor governments and their electorate that Tanzania is part of the expanding democratic community of nations and deserves their financial support.
In 2001 Zanzibar experienced bloodshed perpetrated by government security forces that was proportionately larger than what has taken place in Kenya recently. Zanzibar and Tanzania as a whole deserves better. Prevention is better than cure. Let us all strive to help Tanzania forestall another catastrophe in Africa.
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Defining Procedures for Peaceful Transition. A Requirement of Multi-Party Democracy
Roger Mancienne,Secretary General
Seychelles National Party
Since the return to a pluralistic political system in 1993, the Seychelles National Party (SNP) has campaigned hard and consistently for fair conditions for elections. It has made considerable progress – in particular in improving access to state-funded media and limiting the involvement of the security forces in election campaigns. There remains, however, the big issue of the use of state power and resources for election campaigning purposes.
Apart from the question of fairness in the electoral process, the issue of transfer of power remains an unknown. In 2006, the SNP had a very real chance of winning the Presidential elections and we are convinced we would have done so if the ruling party had not used state resources on a massive scale to influence voters. In the event, the SNP emerged with 46% of the popular vote.
One of the factors that worked against the SNP in that election is that some voters, especially older people, were afraid of what would happen if the SNP won. There was fear that the armed forces would not respect the results and would prevent a transition. There was also fear that the ruling party would not co-operate in allowing a peaceful transition and that the government of the country would be thrown into turmoil.
All these fears stem from one thing : the total absence of an accepted protocol for the transfer of power. Where would the ruling party leave the key to State House in the event that they were called to vacate? This is an issue that the ruling party has refused to address because maintaining the uncertainty confers a distinct advantage. In the face of the uncertainty, many people prefer not to contemplate the risk of change at all.
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The Presidential Elections in Cote d’Ivoire and the Kenya/Zimbabwe Syndrome
Yaya Fanta Kaba Fofana, President of the Technical Commission for Culture and Tourism
Rassemblement Des Republicains, Cote D’Ivoire
The latest announcement that the presidential elections in Cote d’Ivoire will be held on the 30th of November this year, has been met with little hope and a lot of skepticism.
Kaba Fofana gives an overview of the political stalemate in Cote D’Ivoire and considers the questions of whether it is fair to say that the conditions for free and fair elections have been met and whether Cote D’Ivoire could be spared the fate of kenya and Zimbabwe.
To read the full article in French, please click below.
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The Criminalisation of the State in South Africa
Helen Zille, Party Leader
Democratic Alliance, South Africa
There is a thesis that African states fail because corruption ceases to become an aberration that needs to be rooted out. It becomes institutionalised in the system itself. It becomes business as usual.
In such states, politics has nothing to do with a struggle over ideas or even a struggle between ethnic, racial or religious groups. It is about gaining access to the state and, once there, using it for personal enrichment and ensuring that those who helped put you there are sufficiently enriched to help you stay there. Likewise, race and ethnicity are cynically manipulated to mobilise voters to keep you in power.
It is a process that starts with the centralisation of power in a small ruling clique, who deploy their cronies into all key positions, to entrench and protect their interests. Once in power, they move to colonise the mechanisms intended to hold power to account. Without checks and balances on power, corruption becomes inevitable.
Centralisation, cronyism and corruption soon culminate in the full-blown criminalisation of the state.
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South Africa’s DA Welcomes ALN Interns
As part of an ALN initiative to enhance learning and exchanges between member parties, the Democratic Alliance in South Africa recently received Herinandrinanina Andrinananjamanantsoa from MFM Madagascar and Thomas Mongi from CUF Tanzania who took part in a two-week internship. This follows a previous internship which took place in October 2007 with interns from Mozambique and the Seychelles.
The internship, organised and supervised by Gareth Morgan MP, was made up of a series of structured interactions with key role players in the DA’s parliamentary operation and at its National Headquarters. The interns were also invited to observe a number of regular meetings which allowed them to see the DA at work, met with a few MPs including the Chief Whip and the Leader of the Opposition, attended portfolio committee meetings, and had the opportunity to observe oral question time and various debates at the National Assembly. These meetings were backed up by explorations in a key focus area for each of the interns.
The internship provided an excellent opportunity for the participants to gain new ideas approaches and techniques which they said they were keen to implement within their own parties.
ALN Holds Workshop on Party Structure and Management, Maputo, Mozambique
The ALN held a workshop on party structure and management, in Maputo Mozambique, 20-22nd of February. The workshop, hosted by ALN member the Party for Democracy and Development (PDD) and attended by 27 ALN delegates, aimed to boost understanding about the importance of building a party structure that responds to the needs and objectives of the individual party. Themes covered during the workshop included looking at the structure of the party headquarters, the role of members, campaigning, policy and communications.
Following the workshop, the ALN delegates were invited to meet with Mozambique’s president Armando Guebuza.
ALN Members Attend Liberal International Human Rights Forum, Taipei, Taiwan
Ismail Jussa of CUF, Tanzania and Roger Mancienne of SNP, Seychelles represented ALN as speakers at the Liberal International Human Rights Forum which took place in Taipei, 7-9 December 2007. Mr Jussa drew on the previous and current history of Zanzibar to discuss the issue of human trafficking in Tanzania while Mr Mancienne gave an overview of the ALN, its mission and activities. The forum was hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party and centred on the theme of human trafficking.
The event presented an excellent opportunity for both delegates to forge links with other liberals from around the world, and to consider possible ways of fostering cooperation between the ALN and other regional networks.
ALN at the Liberal International Congress, Belfast, May 2008
The Africa Liberal Network will be holding its General Assembly, 15 May 2008, on the fringes of the LI Congress in Belfast. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal will be one of the speakers at the official opening of the Congress. DA leader, Helen Zille, will be presenting one of the major theme papers. DRC’s ANADER will be presenting a report during the Human Rights Committee meeting on the issue of child soldiers in the DRC. Other presentations will be made by Pr. Ibrahim Lipumba, CUF National Chairman, and Wavel Ramkalawan, SNP leader, during a session on the threats of climate change to poverty alleviation and economic growth in Africa and strategies to promote adaptation in the most vulnerable countries. An ALN motion on Climate Change Adaptation will be submitted to the LI Congress. To view the motion, please click on the following link
https://africaliberalnetwork.org/news_item.aspx?i_PageID=14196&i_News_CatID=18

Leaders and representatives of ALN member parties attended the 55th Congress of Liberal International which was held in Belfast 15-17 May. Keynote speeches and presentations were made by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangarai, who both addressed the audience at the official opening of the Congress; DA leader, Helen Zille, who presented one of the congress theme papers,For an Inclusive Society; ANADER’s Blaise Tagamu who presented a report to the Human Rights Committee on the issue of child soldiers in the DRC; Pr. Ibrahim Lipumba, CUF National Chairman, and Wavel Ramkalawan, SNP leader, who were speakers on a panel discussion on the threats of climate change to poverty alleviation and economic growth in Africa and strategies to promote adaptation in the most vulnerable countries.

Angola’s engagement in the eradication of anti-personnel landmines has been praised by Ottawa Convention member States that mentioned it as an example that should be emulated.
According to a communiqué from the National Inter-Sectoral Commission for Demining and Humanitarian Assistance (CNIDAH), delivered to ANGOP Thursday, the commend was expressed during the inter-sectoral meeting of the Convention’s member States, taking plance since Monday, April 23, in Geneva (Switzerland).
The source states that Angolan Government has been recognised for the compliance of the requirements of the fourth article of the Convention.
Balbina da Silva, national co-ordinator of CNIDAH landmines action programmes, is at the head of Angolan delegation to the meeting, which aims at analysing the general state and the implementation of the Ottawa Convention.
At the event, the Angolan team presented a project for destroying anti-personnel landmines, a programme that was implemented by CNIDAH in partnership with the Angolan Armed Forces and UNDP, funded by the Government and the European Commission.
The document also states that institutions engaged in actions against landmines in the country are examining a national plan of assistance to victims for a four-year period (2007/11), to start being implemented next September.
The Angolan delegation presented the state of implementation of the Nairobi (Kenya) Landmines Action-Plan, concerning the improvement of the conditions of assistance to the victims, such as socio-professional rehabilitation and reintegration.
In its 2003 report to international institutions involved in actions against landmines, Angola declared that it had 50,659 anti-personnel landmines in stock, before finding abandoned shell rooms in various regions of the country, thus increasing the number of landmines to 83,557.
During the landmines destruction process, the country considered the issue of protecting the environment, and recycled the disarmed explosive devices, using the metal and plastic elements as raw material for the manufacture of household utensils like buckets, dishes, hoes and cutlasses.

This morning’s statement by Cabinet spokesperson Themba Maseko that the government could not stop the shipment of a cache of arms to Zimbabwe because it has to “tread very carefully” in its relations with Zimbabwe is the surest sign yet that government has completely lost the plot on the Zimbabwe issue.
If the government allows a consignment of weapons (including rocket launchers and ammunition) to cross South African territory unhindered, and stands idly by while these weapons are used to suppress the Zimbabwean people, then any pretence that we are an honest broker in the Zimbabwean electoral process will be exposed once and for all for the sham that it is.
World leaders are growing increasingly impatient with the South African government’s inability to grasp the urgency and seriousness of the crisis in Zimbabwe. According to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the “very credibility of the democratic process in Africa” is at stake. A number of permanent members of the UN Security Council have also raised concerns about the escalating violence and political oppression taking place in Zimbabwe. It is being reported from within Zimbabwe that the ZANU-PF government has stepped up the deployment of the army, police and intelligence units countrywide in order to harass and intimidate supporters of the opposition.
In this context of increasing violence, it will be inexcusable for South Africa to fail to stop the shipment of weapons being delivered to Harare. Apart from the obvious moral imperatives for stopping the shipment, the government is also legally obliged to act. According to the National Conventional Arms Control Act (NCACA), anyone who conveys, freights, or transfers conventional weapons is required to apply for a conveyance permit, and permits must only be granted by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) after considering how those weapons will be used.
It clearly states in the Act that the NCACC must avoid transfers of weapons to governments that suppress human rights or where the weapons are likely to escalate conflict and endanger peace. The situation in Zimbabwe, by anyone’s standards, fails to meet these criteria.
The DA will urgently request that the Defence Portfolio Committee be briefed by the NCACC to explain without delay whether the necessary permit was granted and if so on what grounds.
The world’s astonishment at President Mbeki’s political defence of Robert Mugabe will likely turn into outright anger as we are now not only denying the existence of a crisis in Zimbabwe, but also actively facilitating the arming of an increasingly despotic and desperate regime.

Almost half a million Ivorians have received new birth certificates, the first step in a process to enable them to vote in national general elections scheduled for later this year, the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reported today.
Electoral officials with UNOCI said “good progress” has been made in formally identifying the population in Côte d’Ivoire since a round of UN-facilitated public hearings began across the country, which became divided in 2002 between the Government-controlled south and the rebel-held north.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) today welcomed the announcement that the country’s much delayed presidential elections will now be held on 30 November this year.
The publication of the poll date “is one of the greatest achievements in the Ivorian peace process since the outbreak of the crisis more than four years ago,” UNOCI said in a press release issued in Abidjan.
Côte d’Ivoire became divided in 2002 between the Government-controlled south and the rebel Forces Nouvelles-held north, but last year’s Ouagadougou Peace Agreement paved the way for an end to the conflict and included a provision calling for free and fair elections to be held.
Presidential polls were to be held as far back as 2005, but have been delayed several times since then.
In its statement UNOCI encouraged all Ivorian parties “to consolidate the current momentum by demonstrating the same will to move ahead and the same commitment to public interest.”

On 14 March, the Republic of Madagascar formally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) by depositing its instrument of ratification to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, at the United Nations. Madagascar is the 106th state party, and the 30th African state to join the Court.
“As the International Criminal Court presses on with its four investigations on the continent–Uganda, DRC, Darfur and the Central African Republic–it is now crucial that African nations join in solidarity with victims of these brutal crimes to ensure justice nationally and internationally,” said Brigitte Suhr, director of regional programs for the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. “Madagascar’s ratification today brings us one important step closer to universal support for the ICC in Africa.”
Madagascar’s ratification of the Rome Statute comes almost ten years after the state initially signed the treaty on 18 July 1998, one day after the historic adoption of the Rome Statute. A number of legal and constitutional hurdles delayed the process.
Civil society organizations in Madagascar played a significant role in campaigning for the ratification of the Rome Statute and the adoption of the constitutional referendum allowing ratification. Civil society was also instrumental in broadly publicizing the referendum once it had been adopted in order to put further pressure on the government to finalize the ratification process.

Members of the Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 18 member organisations of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network, are appalled at the treatment of human rights activists Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri upon their arrival in Tunisia on 3 March 2008.
Bensedrine is the Secretary General of the Observatory for the Freedom of Press, Publishing and Creation in Tunisia (OLPEC), IFEX’s member in Tunisia, and an IFEX-TMG partner. Bensedrine is also spokesperson of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT). Mestiri is the managing editor of “Kalima” online newspaper.
According to OLPEC’s vice-president Naziha Rjiba, the two activists arrived from Europe in the port of La Goulette. Upon arrival, they were held by customs for six hours, during which time Bensedrine was violently attacked, leaving bruises on her body. The customs agents confiscated cell phones, documents and computer hard discs from both Bensedrine and Mestiri – copying files and passwords from their laptops.
This assault follows a recent attack on Samia Abbou and Fatma Ksila, two women activists who were assaulted by police in Sousse on 18 February.
“I find it hard to believe that just days before International Women’s Day, the government of Tunisia would sanction such a vicious attack on a woman.” says IFEX-TMG Chair Rohan Jayasekera, of Index on Censorship. “Yet, it comes on the heels of recent attacks on two other women activists, not to mention numerous other attacks on women rights defenders, including Sihem.”
Bensedrine has previously been assaulted on numerous occasions, including while in prison in 2001. She has suffered broken ribs and other injuries, and been called vicious names in the pro-government media for her outspoken campaign for democracy and free expression in Tunisia. For her work, she has been awarded the 2008 Danish Peace Award, as well as other awards including the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) 2004 International Press Freedom Award.
The IFEX-TMG believes all rights activists and journalists in Tunisia deserve the same respect under the law of any citizen, and calls for the government to cease these repeated brutal attacks on these courageous activists. TMG members further support the complaint being registered by Bensedrine and Mestiri against the customs agents for brutality and false imprisonment.