American University of Science & Technology {AUST}.

Instructor Name: Dr. Tatiana Akl.

Submitted By: Malak Yahya.

Human Rights, SOS-215.

T-TH, 05:00-06:15 A.M.

Choose 5 events which have occurred in 2020 in Africa and explain how they relate to the
Human Rights development in this part of the world.

Before entering into the main topic, we must give an overview of the African continent
and some of what it suffers from. As we know, Africa is the second largest continent in the
world by area and by population. This continent is characterized by the fact that its inhabitants
are the youngest, as half of Africa’s population is 19 years of age or younger. Despite the great
economic wealth enjoyed by the brown continent, it is the poorest continent in the world. Some
people even use this sentence to describe Africa, “Africa is not poor, Africa is a rich continent
inhabited by poor peoples.” Many problems facing the African continent were the reason behind
the inability of the African continent to benefit from its huge wealth as it should. As we know
that the peoples of the African continent suffer from poverty, here comes the role of associations
that seek to help, and we know that large organizations that provide aid to the poor and sick in
Africa, such as UNICEF, and Doctors Without Borders, are required to send their delegates and
staff to help reduce the size of poverty and disease on the continent. On the contrary, the images
they post about the continent in order to bring in the necessary funds for their projects are very
humiliating and offensive images to the inhabitants of the continent. This caused billions around
the world to imprint on their minds an image of the continent in its worst form.

These organizations are not concerned with the dignity of the continent or the dignity of
its inhabitants. This has led to the appearance on the covers of large magazines nude images of
children and inhabitants of the continent, in an insulting manner. There are also some pictures
that show children being given underwear, which shows the lack of respect for human rights by
these associations. Also, African immigrants in Western countries became a threatening phrase
that is told to them that “if you do not improve your behavior, we will bring you back to Africa
again,” as if it were hell. Who will go to Africa after seeing such pictures ?! So let’s say
goodbye to tourism despite the most beautiful landscapes on the continent.

In addition, “if international aid were causing the renaissance of a place, Africa would be
the most advanced continent in the world.” This is a very expressive statement about the damage
caused by this aid to the continent, and that it is much more than the expected benefit it causes.
The mission of this aid is to corrupt the upper classes in African societies, and to make them
think in a way that is far from the interests of their people. International aid, in addition to
corruption and crime, is the main root of Western colonialism in its new form, by crippling the
African elite that hates self-sacrifice or responsibility, even though they control the fate of their
entire people. With the leadership positions come responsibilities that the elite do not want to
bear towards their own people in order to provide job opportunities, for example, and they are
replaced by foreign aid. How will a renaissance happen in a country whose youth and elites
dreams of getting a job through an aid organization, or financing their project through
international aid instead of self-sufficiency, developing education, and domestic investment.

In addition, they say, “Africa’s problem is not poverty but its problem is lack of
leadership.” Any country that wants to advance must have an internal education system that
works to discover and train its future leaders. Some countries do this through military service,
some through elite schools, and some do so through underground organizations. Africa is a
continent characterized by the presence of many brilliant leaderships, but the problem is their
inability to work together, and the inability to find a common future vision. The problem behind
this is that most African leaders received their education in foreign countries, where they receive
an education that is not commensurate with the nature of their original societies, in addition to
the diversity of education from one place to another from those places where these leaders
receive their education.

Now I’m going to choose 5 events which have occurred in 2020 in Africa and I’ll
explain how these events related to the Human Rights development within Africa. This
events are: Human Trafficking, violence, Suppression (Repression), Child Labor, Lack of
Drinkable water.

First, I’m going to explain the idea of Human trafficking in Africa. So, Trafficking in
persons, as defined in Article 3 (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, is a crime that occurs in every region of the world, and the issue of human trafficking
is a social and economic issue. Despite the ancient history of human trafficking activity, it has
started to increase dramatically in the current era, due to the rapid financial return that the United
Nations has estimated that it ranks third in the sources of income for organized crime after
trafficking in drugs and weapons.
Human trade is considered one of the most dangerous activities that developed rapidly in the
first decade of this century, until it became the most profitable among the trafficking activities in
the region, which became a hotbed for local and international people selling brokers with
important financial resources and very sophisticated means, including advanced transportation
mechanisms, communication equipment and permanent communication devices. These
networks made it easier for elements of terrorist groups, organized crime, or separatist groups to
obtain money. As a result of the absence of stability and security in the Sahel and Sahara region,
and the continuing civil wars there and the proliferation of weapons, this strategic African region
has become, with the passage of time, a region dominated by chaos and witnessing the
development of multinational terrorist organizations financed by criminal acts, kidnapping, drug
trafficking and all kinds of smuggling, even human trafficking. From the geopolitical data that
the Sahel and Sahara region, by virtue of its privacy, has turned into a space of strategic retreat
and an ideal transit area for various forms of prohibited trade, given the difficulty of controlling
and controlling it, from human trafficking to the arms and drug trade.

The proceeds of human trafficking are estimated at billions of dollars reaped by terrorist
organizations and organized crime. Human trafficking constitutes a huge clandestine
transnational activity, the total value of which is estimated at billions of dollars, and includes
men, women and children who fall victim to kidnapping, coercion, or being solicited to practice
degrading forms of work for the benefit of their traffickers, and this means for men working.
For women, it usually means domestic service that does not often differ from slavery and sexual
exploitation and work in nightclubs, and for children it means their forced use as beggars, street
vendors, camel drivers, or leads to exploitation in sexual activities, including pornography, and
it begins with some children tragically in their recruitment in the ranks of fighters, sometimes in
the regular armies and sometimes in the militias that fight those armies. All this leads to a
violation of Human Rights in this region and preventing it from developing.

Second, Africa is characterized by the presence of many violent groups that immerse
themselves in the structure of the African continent and threaten the security of its inhabitants,
and despite the rejection of the majority of the African population to the practices of violent
groups that have been active in recent years and have become transnational, the pace of violence
is increasing day by day and reaching regions that may not have witnessed such Juveniles, and
the violence that strikes Africa is characterized by many forms and formulations, as it does not
pertain to a specific religion or race. As the attacks escalate, there is increasing concern at the
national, regional and international levels about the spread of armed groups, until their
destructive activity has become a new recipe for chaos. Its intellectual and organizational
association with armed movements and groups in various parts of the world represents another
problem. Here, these groups can only threaten the principle of human rights, as such
organizations intend to threaten the security of the population, especially children and youth.
Violence organizations recruit them in their ranks and thus prevent them from rights given
to them under the law, such as the education right and the right to live a decent life.

Third, Repression, is a word that come to mind whenever we hear the name of Africa.
Governments in that continent do not hesitate to suppress their people, who repeatedly seek
liberation and strive to build a state in which social justice is achieved, freedom of expression is
guaranteed in their constitution, and human rights are included as a basic principle to protect the
rights of the citizens.

“In late 2019 and in 2020, we saw the incredible power of the people in the mass protests that
swept across sub-Saharan Africa. From Sudan to Zimbabwe, and other places, People defied the
brutal repression to defend their rights. In some cases, these protests led to major changes, after
the ouster of Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese leader for a long time, and the new authorities
promised adequate human rights reforms. After the protests in Ethiopia, the government
introduced a raft of human rights reforms. Unfortunately, other needed changes have been
hindered by repressive governments, which continue to commit violations with impunity.
”(Debrose Muchina, N.D).

Thus, Oppression in Africa leads to fragmentation and impedes the development of Human
Rights.

Forth, Child Labor, the most threatening for Human Rights, especially children’s
rights, in Africa in 2020. To explain, many children in Africa are forced to work in various
sectors, in homes and on farms, as well as in prostitution, where their childhood is raped. Most
of them are of primary school age. And banning their work alone is not sufficient to eradicate
this phenomenon. Child labor has many aspects. This includes dangerous, draining or physically
difficult work, ”explains Ninja Charbonneau of the United Nations Relief for Children.“ Forced
labor, prostitution, and work in gold mines are just some examples. ”Most of the children in
Africa work in agriculture with their parents of with others, and with a huge number of children
working in the service sector and in industry. Often child labor remains free of charge, and the
majority work in small, family-owned companies. “The damage children bear from this work is
great and it means killing their childhood,” Charbonneau says. They can grow normally and
without difficulty, as provided for by their right. This often leads to them not going to school.
Thus, this devilish vortex is rooted, “because without school education, children do not get good
jobs.” Therefore, they have little chances to get out of the cycle of poverty, and this will pass
over generations.

The Fifth and final point, is about the Lack of Drinkable water, which is one of the
most dangerous event which happened in Africa in 2020, and which prevent the development of
human rights, because one of the most important principle in human rights is the right of decent
life. And how it will be a decent life if we don’t have even clean water to drink?. For example:
source of water in Mwamanungu village, Tanzania. In Mito, Shenyang, the water often comes
from holes drilled in the sand of dry riverbeds, which makes them always polluted, which may
cause several diseases for the African people. And we know that Africa lacks the necessary
medicine to treat epidemics and diseases that may result from water pollution. This also threatens
human rights.

As a last word, these 5 events which have occurred in 2020 in Africa, all impede the
development of human rights in Africa. And we know that Africa suffer5s from many problems,
so it is indispensable to find solution.

And I’ll show you an artistic work, which are some pictures that should
support the above written article.
Human trafficking

Violent Groups

Repression
Child Labor

Lack of Drinkable Water

 References:

 Reports, S. (2019, February 27). Top 10 facts about human trafficking in Africa. BORGEN.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/top-10-facts-about-human-trafficking-in-africa/

 Allison. (2020, January 6). Conflict is still Africa’s biggest challenge in 2020 – World. ReliefWeb.
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/conflict-still-africa-s-biggest-challenge-2020

 Armed conflicts and state repression fuel cocktail of human rights violations in Africa. (2020,
April 7). Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/africa-
armed-conflicts-and-state-repression-fuel-cocktail/

 Child labour in Africa (Africa). (n.d.). International Labour Organization.

https://www.ilo.org/africa/areas-of-work/child-labour/lang--en/index.htm#:~:text=Nine%20per
%20cent%20of%20African,to%20have%20stalled%20in%20Africa

 (2020, March 22). The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/22/millions-africans-lack-access-clean-
water-this-makes-coronavirus-bigger-threat/