MeMORANDUM for an active remembrance of YAGUINE & FODé 2 august 2014
Fonds Message de Yaguine & Fodé
platform in memory of Yaguine & Fodé
memorandum
Yaguine and Fodé were found frozen to death on August 2, 1999 in the landing gear of a Sabena Airlines airplane. The two teenage Guinean boys left a letter that, 15 years later, still leaves readers with a sour taste in their mouths. The reason for its strong impact is the fact that the problems described by the young boys in this letter still exist today, and in some cases are even worse than at the time of their sacrifice. There is indeed no better word to describe the fatal voyage which they undertook fully aware of the risk, as it was clearly expressed in their letter. If a similar tragedy had occurred in Europe, political and media awareness would have been high resulting in strong political action, at least symbolically, as well as regular media coverage on the consequences of the tragedy. It could be argued that Yaguine and Fodé didn’t die on European soil. They surely died somewhere in the air. But over which country did they actually die? Nobody will ever know. What’s important is that their deaths are two death too many! That’s why the African and European leaders, to whom the two boys specifically addressed their letter, should be concerned about this tragedy and react accordingly. Political leaders in Europe and Africa, as well as the media, have remained silent for 15 years while similar tragedies continue to occur. This is why on the 15th anniversary of their death, we, the member organisations of the Platform in Memory of Yaguine & Fodé, are calling for the sacrifice of Yaguine & Fodé to prompt the long-due reaction that such a socio-political tragedy deserves. This is all the more needed that since the boys’ desperate cry for help and tragic death, initiatives to improve the quality of life for the African youth, to ensure better education systems and actual job prospects or ways to generate sustainable income, fall far short of the mark. In fact the situation is only getting worse and is causing thousands of youths each year to risk escaping misery and despair for a chance at a brighter future in Europe. Yaguine & Fodé’s letter highlighted the horrors that continue to plague Africa: • Wars and political instabilities throughout the continent; • Disease and particularly the inefficient efforts to combat those causing high mortality and morbidity rates; • Famine; • Poverty; • Lack of proper schooling and education for children and youths; • Lack of recognition and respect for the rights of children, especially with regards to child labor, war, sexual abuse and physical and psychological violence; • Lack of opportunities for knowledge transfers, especially for students to go study abroad in high-quality educational establishments. The solutions to these issues implemented by the African countries themselves, or proposed and supported by European countries, have proven to be shamefully ineffective and inadequate. So much so that some prerogatives and actions normally reserved for the States and Governments are currently being borne by non-governmental organisations.
commemorations of the 15nd anniversary of yaguine & fodé’s message The results from NGO interventions are just as disappointing. Foreign NGOs and public and private donors don’t realise that their actions are actually disempowering the local authorities which they tend to substitute. Based on this information, the member organisations of the Platform in Memory of Yaguine & Fodé have devised the following proposals.
1.
Renewing public interest in the concerns brought up by Yaguine & Fodé
Proposal 1.1: Make the Belgian public, especially youths, aware of the issues laid out by Yaguine & Fodé. Inform schools about Yaguine & Fodé’s letter in order to (re)raise awareness about the issues highlighted in the letter. This can be done by having it read publicly in all senior classes in high schools across the country. The letter has already been translated into Dutch and German. Following the reading, teachers should engage their pupils in an in-depth, open discussion on the North-South relations and public development aid, with a focus on globalisation and its effects on a country’s socio-economic situation. While this action is admittedly symbolic, it also most certainly provides the letter of Yaguine and Fodé a way into the Belgian social space with the objective that, in the long run, the people’s passion will force politicians and the media to give the letter and the sacrifice the recognition it should have received so long ago. Proposal 1.2: Revisit the concepts and practices of public assistance towards development. Organise a general assembly on development cooperation. This proposal, already drawn up by certain organisations of this Platform during governmental consultations in 2007 in Belgium, aims at allowing a more extensive critical analysis than what is being done during the annual conference of Belgium development cooperation, the usefulness of which remains underwhelming. This general asssembly should involve the participation of not only political parties, public institutions, NGOs and International Solidarity Associations specialised in this subject, but also researchers, the African diaspora, stakeholders in institutional and non-institutional cooperations in Southern countries and private investors. They will report on the methods and policies implemented over the past 50 years by cooperations who are receiving foreign aid as the key to creating solutions for poor countries and examine whether or not these practices should be pursued, adapted or radically changed.
Fonds Message de Yaguine & Fodé
platform in memory of Yaguine & Fodé 2.
memorandum
Stronger consideration for the specific problems laid out in Yaguine & Fodé’s letter.
Proposal 2.1: against wars and political instability. The European Union, and more specifically Belgium, must stand up against wars and political instability in Africa through clear and radical action: • Firmly condemn all regimes as well as groups openly identified as stakeholders, initiators or sponsors of conflicts and gross violations of human rights in Africa; international law shall be strictly applied to them (bring them to justice and demand reparations). Action is all the more urgently required in the DRC where those living in the Eastern part of the country, particularly women and children, endure violence in many forms, despite the recent neutralization of some negative forces in the region. • End military cooperation with regimes that provide support to foreign or national negative forces. • Foster resolutions and projects aimed at protecting ethnic, religious and national minorities in areas or countries where they are constantly in mortal danger or are victims of repression. • The new European Parliament should add to the agenda a Committee of Inquiry focused on the circulation of weapons being sent to negative forces in Africa. This includes rebel forces in Eastern DRC (the DFLR forces aka “Hutus”; the CNDP-M23 forces; the ADFNALU forces from Uganda; and the Mbororo), military-eligious movements (Boko Haram, The Lord’s Resistance Army), and others. Proposal 2.2: against poverty and its effects (disease, famine, food insecurity). Disease, famine, insecurity and poverty are the main reasons why young children like Yaguine & Fodé attempt to emigrate. Poverty is the key factor that generally leads to the appearance of disease, famine, and insecurity. National and International authorities should respond to Yaguine & Fodé’s demands by fighting against the causes of poverty and not just its symptoms, and make sure they are producing tangible and measurable results. Positive results will follow if this is achieved. Poverty remains a major reason why African children are unable to have access to or remain in school; according to UNESCO, poverty accounts for 45% of drop outs. Without making assumptions about the ability of certain involved public authorities or jumping to conclusions about the results of ongoing policies for the fight against poverty, it is clear that poverty is only increasing in Africa and that the Human Development Index (HDI) value is decreasing. An article dated July 7, 2014 in the UN annual report reveals that Sub-Saharan Africa is far from reaching the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015: “Sub-Saharan Africa appears to be very isolated according to the UN report […]. It’s the only region in the world that experiences a consistent rise in extreme poverty on its own soil. More than 410 million Africans are living on less than 1.25
commemoration of the 15nd anniversary of yaguine & fodé’s message dollars per day, while in 1990 this number was only 290 million. Famine shows to be decreasing, yet malnourishment is on the rise in certain sections of the population such as young children.” The Platform in Memory of Yaguine & Fodé therefore recommends: • significantly reducing the budget allocated to military cooperation; • reinforcing the role of African civil society organisations as key players in helping populations enjoy basic human rights, particularly by reinforcing their ability to advocate for public authorities to fulfill their responsibilities; • investing in socioeconomic recovery initiatives of local stakeholders and strengthening their ability to design, carry out and manage investment projects; • that local and foreign authorities ensure that private companies and businesses in Africa pay the appropriate taxes to local governments and/or strictly comply with the Global Compact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by contributing to the improvement of the people’s quality of life and strengthening local human capital; • strengthening local human capital, particularly through the improvement of social services; • that, regarding the fight against famine and food insecurity, the economic partnership agreements be revised to include, as a priority: the expansion of subsistence agriculture and the development of food product sales across Africa; the establishment of school gardens containing plants of high nutritional value as well as medicinal plants used for a large-scale fight against the main pandemics; • the creation and reinforcement of a system of medical cooperation staffed mainly with professionals from the African Diaspora practicing in Europe; increasing the use of traditional medicine treatments, particularly by adopting methods based on field observations (evidence-based medicine – reverse pharmacology). Proposal 2.3: respect for children’s rights along with proper education and schooling for children and youths. Fighting for children’s rights largely means putting an end to child labor, sexual abuse and wars. In numerous African countries many children and youngsters are working instead of going to school. This is for instance the case of the children stuck working agricultural jobs necessary for the survival of rural families, those working at businesses and the girls tasked with domestic chores in their own family. In addition to them, there are unknown numbers of children who work as household servants and are therefore unable to complete primary education. A rough estimate puts the number at around several hundreds of thousands across the continent, half of whom are supspected to be illiterate or neo-illiterate. These children remain largely overlooked by the authorities. The great distances to the few schools that do exist in rural areas and the high cost of school supplies contribute to the exclusion of many young children from attending school. Only 18% of African children have access to official pre-school education, compared to the 50% global average and 85% in developing countries in 2011. Thirty million primary school-aged children in Africa are not in school, making up 96% of out-of-school children in the world. On average, only
Fonds Message de Yaguine & Fodé
platform in memory of Yaguine & Fodé
memorandum
2/3 of the African children who start primary school will finish it. The transition rate into secondary school is also insufficient; only 70% of students who finish primary school will continue to secondary school. In 2011, the number of out-of-school adolescents in Africa was estimated to be around 12 million. The number of illiterate African children continues to rise at an alarming rate of more than 1 million per year. The trend of using child soldiers is an atrocity that persists in Africa and that seriously needs to be brought to an end. Even though the International Criminal Court (ICC) deems this practice a war crime, to date, no sufficient penalty system has affected the countries involved. This exploitation of children continues to go unpunished with no regard for the rules of international law or for the rights of children. Boys and girls (40%) are recruited for combat, sexual purposes or as spies, messengers, transporters or servants. Some are also made to place or remove landmines. Africa accounts for the largest number of child soldiers; the current number stands at around 350,000 children, some of whom are barely nine years old. The Platform firmly recommends: • supporting fair and inclusive economic growth to give families the opportunity to educate their children and not depend on their labor for survival; • rigorously enforcing laws that forbid child labor before 14-16 years of age, according to national legislations. This standard should also be applied to the many children who are made to work agricultural jobs necessary for the survival of rural families and especially to girls who are made to take on their families’ household chores; • making a plea to African governments to get them to invest a sufficient amount in education, especially basic education (pre-school initiation, vocational literacy, etc.); • enforcing free basic education in order to encourage parents to send their children, boys and girls alike, to school; • imposing punishments that discourage the recruitment of children as soldiers and reinforcing rehabilitation programs for former child soldiers through specialised support.
commemoration of the 15nd anniversary of yaguine & fodé’s message ________________________________________
Signatories of this Memorandum Platform in Memory of Yaguine & Fodé • • • • • • • • •
Funds Message de Yaguine et Fodé African Axis Cercle Yaguine et Fodé Conseil des Communautés Africaines en Europe et en Belgique (CCAEB) Djigui asbl IDAY-International aisbl Union des Femmes Africaines Raffia Syngeries Les petits anges de Guinée
Other Platforms and Associations • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Colonial Memory Collective Collective of Congolese Women for Peace League of Kasayienne Women SHARE, Migrant Associations Forum The Migrant and Foreign Women’s Network (ReFi-oe asbl) The Negrophobia Observatory The Platform of African Organizations in Antwerp The Forum of International Solidarity Associations (FASI) Moja (General Counsel of Africans in Belgium) EDUCAID CongoForum Lingeer asbl Sénégalaises de Belgique et Ami-e-s RVDAGE/VI Mayera pour l’enfance
Fonds Message de Yaguine & Fodé
contact
Oscar Kombila Cercle de Yaguine et FodĂŠ 0476/87 35 42 okombila@hotmail.com
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