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Featured
Stand Strong with Palestinian Civil Society
Stand Strong with Palestinian Civil Society; Stand up for Human Rights
I stand in full solidarity with the six Palestinian civil society organisations - Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Union of Palestinian Women's Committees* subjected to an escalated Israeli attack as a part of its settler-colonial and apartheid regime.
On 19 October 2021, these organisations were unlawfully designated by the Israeli colonial rule as “terror organisations,” under Israel’s domestic Counter-Terrorism Law, 2016.
This attack comes as part of an Israeli campaign against the Palestinian people and civil society to delegitimize, eliminate, and smear their human rights, gender, and social and environmental justice work. The organizations are targeted because of their powerful and professional work in documenting human rights violations and conducting advocacy to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Palestinian civil society has been tirelessly documenting human rights violations, advocating for protection and justice, and offering legal and social support to the Palestinian people.The work of civil society is fundamental to upholding democratic practices and the protection of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, especially the right of self-determination and the right of Palestinian refugees to return.
Building solidarity with Palestinian civil society and mounting pressure on policymakers and representatives to take measures is needed now more than ever.
Join us in demanding concrete action to:
An attack on Palestinian civil society is an attack on universal struggles against oppression and colonisation.
*Follow #StandWithThe6 on social media to get updates, and learn more about the six organizations here:
http://www.addameer.org/
https://www.alhaq.org/
https://www.bisan.org/
https://www.dci-palestine.org/
https://www.uawc-pal.org/
http://upwc.org.ps/?lang=en
I stand in full solidarity with the six Palestinian civil society organisations - Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Union of Palestinian Women's Committees* subjected to an escalated Israeli attack as a part of its settler-colonial and apartheid regime.
On 19 October 2021, these organisations were unlawfully designated by the Israeli colonial rule as “terror organisations,” under Israel’s domestic Counter-Terrorism Law, 2016.
This attack comes as part of an Israeli campaign against the Palestinian people and civil society to delegitimize, eliminate, and smear their human rights, gender, and social and environmental justice work. The organizations are targeted because of their powerful and professional work in documenting human rights violations and conducting advocacy to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Palestinian civil society has been tirelessly documenting human rights violations, advocating for protection and justice, and offering legal and social support to the Palestinian people.The work of civil society is fundamental to upholding democratic practices and the protection of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, especially the right of self-determination and the right of Palestinian refugees to return.
Building solidarity with Palestinian civil society and mounting pressure on policymakers and representatives to take measures is needed now more than ever.
Join us in demanding concrete action to:
- Demand that Israel rescind its unlawful designation of the six Palestinian organisations;
- Ask your political representatives to issue political statements for the reversal of Israel’s unlawful designation criminalising the work of Palestinian CSOs;
- Strongly condemn Israel’s anti human rights and discriminatory Counter-Terrorism Law;
- Actively support Palestinian civil society in their human rights work.
An attack on Palestinian civil society is an attack on universal struggles against oppression and colonisation.
*Follow #StandWithThe6 on social media to get updates, and learn more about the six organizations here:
http://www.addameer.org/
https://www.alhaq.org/
https://www.bisan.org/
https://www.dci-palestine.org/
https://www.uawc-pal.org/
http://upwc.org.ps/?lang=en
Eva B.
1Signers
20,000STOP European arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates!
To the governments of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain:
"We demand that you immediately issue legally binding export bans on arms trade with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. European weaponry is actively being used by the Saudi-led military coalition against civilians in its war on Yemen. The officials who licensed the exports and the corporate actors who carried them out must be criminally investigated. We demand that you fully support investigations at the level of the International Criminal Court."
European corporate complicity in war crimes is an outrage, but together we can put a stop to it. Support our call for a criminal investigation and demand your government ban these criminal exports now.
Thousands of civilians are being killed by indiscriminate attacks carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which heavily relies on European-made fighter jets and weapons. They bomb the homes of innocent families, their hospitals and schools, and destroy centuries old cultural heritage sites.
Arms exporters and governments in Europe pretend that this has nothing to do with them. They deny their involvement, but they continue to profit through sales and continued servicing of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, even providing the maintenance needed to keep the coalition’s fighter jets in the air.
All that could change if the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court launched an investigation into corporate responsibility for war crimes in Yemen!
Sign the petition! Together, we can end morally corrupt and illegal arms exports!
"We demand that you immediately issue legally binding export bans on arms trade with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. European weaponry is actively being used by the Saudi-led military coalition against civilians in its war on Yemen. The officials who licensed the exports and the corporate actors who carried them out must be criminally investigated. We demand that you fully support investigations at the level of the International Criminal Court."
European corporate complicity in war crimes is an outrage, but together we can put a stop to it. Support our call for a criminal investigation and demand your government ban these criminal exports now.
Thousands of civilians are being killed by indiscriminate attacks carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which heavily relies on European-made fighter jets and weapons. They bomb the homes of innocent families, their hospitals and schools, and destroy centuries old cultural heritage sites.
Arms exporters and governments in Europe pretend that this has nothing to do with them. They deny their involvement, but they continue to profit through sales and continued servicing of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, even providing the maintenance needed to keep the coalition’s fighter jets in the air.
All that could change if the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court launched an investigation into corporate responsibility for war crimes in Yemen!
Sign the petition! Together, we can end morally corrupt and illegal arms exports!
Ecchr E.
1Signers
50,000Let them be free: stop live elephant exports to China, ban trade in ivory permanently
We, the nature-loving people of Namibia and like-minded international friends:
Background:
Namibia's wildlife is its single-biggest tourism asset, attracting thousands of with visitors flocking from all over the world to see especially iconic big-game species such as elephants, black rhinos, lion, giraffe and other game.
One of the most unique attractions is the opportunity to see elephants in their natural environment outside of the national parks in the surrounding communal areas, managed by the MEFT under the communal conservancy model.
Under this model first implemented in 1996, rural conservancies are granted the right to issue tourism and/or hunting concessions. Because trophy hunting generates large annual fees to the government and the communal conservancies, this led to a proliferation of the hunting conservancy model in rural areas, an approach widely lauded by the WWF as an example of an African conservation success story.
These concessional rights includes elephant trophy hunting rights within the boundaries of the KAZA trans-frontier park, located along the elephants' seasonal migratory route between the Okavango Delta and the Quito floodplains in Angola.
From 1996 to 1999, the new 500 km-long Trans-Caprivi Highway was constructed across the length of the West Caprivi, further interceding the trans-frontier elephant herd's seasonal migratory routes.
In late 1999, the Angolan Army used the new highway to launch an attack on their former rebel foes UNITA, using local recruits to conduct a scorched earth campaign along the common border. This influx of weapons triggered a surge in poaching in especially the West Caprivi, with armed gangs running rampant in the area and on one occasion, gunning down an entire herd with automatic weapons in full sight of shocked tourists at a lodge on the opposite Namibian side of the Kavango river border.
From the early 2000s, the over-concentration of elephants in Botswana was becoming evident in Chobe Park as the increase in heavy road traffic and human settlement along the Trans-Caprivi Highway scared away especially breeding herds with small calves.
In order to prevent the spread of bovine lung-disease, Botswana erected a 700km-long game-proof fence along their north-eastern and northern border with Namibia to replace the collapsed old Namibian fence in 2009.
Two 15-km-wide openings were left in the fence on the western and eastern end to allow for the elephants' seasonal migration, both located opposite elephant hunting concession areas in Namibia.
The combined impact of the Trans-Caprivi Highway and the fence thus stopped any seasonal migration between Botswana, Namibia and Angola, with tracking data showing only the odd bull occasionally crossing the border at those gaps in the fence. This led to the MEFT allowing trophy hunting operators to hunt elephant cows in 2017 to recover their trophy fees paid in advance to the communal conservancies.
By late 2020, elephants have all but disappeared from the West Caprivi and adjacent communal areas. Elsewhere in north-western Namibia, a severe drought and increased poaching has also taken a severe toll, with only an estimated 250 elephants left in the arid Kunene and Erongo regions.
In 1999 and 2008, the MEFT held two CITES-sanctioned auctions of the best ivory in the official stockpile in misguided attempt to flood and depress the black market demand for ivory and generate income for conservation efforts.
This proved to be an abject failure. The Chinese and Japanese buyers colluded to keep prices low, paying only USD$100 and US$157 per kilogram respectively, and instead of releasing the stocks into the carving markets, drip-fed their new stock at USD$1,500 per kilogram over the following years.
This triggered a 66% surge in elephant poaching and 71% increase in ivory smuggling over the following decade that saw elephant herds decimated in East and central Africa. As result, the African savannah and forest elephant species were declared as endangered and critically-endangered earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the communal conservancy model had started to fail. Due to their tendency to inflate annual game counts and so justify high, cash-generating hunting quotas and a disastrous shoot-and-sell permit system that allowed them to sell off entire herds for cash to local butchers, the once-abundant wildlife in communal areas have all but disappeared.
The elephants' Appendix I status also thus became an obstacle to the demand from conservancies for ever more cash from elephant hunting due to the limitations it imposed on the number of trophies that may be legally exported.
Because CITES has thus far allowed and facilitated the export of live elephants to Chinese buyers, the MEFT therefore is now resorting to auctioning off entire herds of elephants in order to generate cash to the conservancies, as well as re-open the ivory trade that has historically wiped out over 95% of Africa's elephant herds over the past 100 years.
This reckless and short-sighted humans-first approach by the Namibian authorities and their colleagues in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe poses a dire threat to the last surviving elephant herds in the KAZA Park.
The MEFT continues to falsely claim that there are 22,000 - 24,000 elephants in Namibia, based on a 1995 base count of 7,000 animals that they claim grew at a biologically improbably and mathematically impossible exponential rate of 3.3% since then.
This fraudulent claims of a huge increase in numbers is immediately obvious from the fact that none of the factors outlined above are in any way reflected in their purported official elephant counts. Claims by Minister Pohamba Shifeta of a rampant rise human-elephant conflict is flatly contradicted by the fact that just one case of human-elephant conflict was reported in 2020.
The official elephant population estimates, inflated by over-counting and systematic inflation of population density factors, are clearly only intended to keep the trophy hunting in business and the ruling party's rural support base appeased with regular cash hand-outs.
The fact is that Namibia is losing the battle against organised crime and syndicated poaching, with 80% of all rhino poaching since 2005 occurring over the past five years. This largely due to the MEFT's humans-first conservation policies and poor management of resources, not to mention their obvious ignorance of their own Ministry's track record in respect of past ivory auctions.
We remind these authorities that they are merely custodians, not the private owners of our common wildlife heritage and that the elephants are not theirs to dispose of as they see fit.
Their plan to resume ivory trading, combined with their poor management, poses a dire threat to the last elephants left in the sub-region and the tourism industry that is an economic mainstay in all four countries involved in this deplorable and reckless attempt to cash in on the elephants for what will likely be one last and final time.
We, the nature-loving people of Namibia and like-minded international friends therefore demand that:
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-18/southern-africa-nations-mull-cites-split-to-allow-ivory-trade
https://therevelator.org/southern-africas-ivory-delusion/
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/it-pays-but-does-it-stay-hunting-in-namibias-community-conservation-system/
- Record our utter dismay at the intention of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia to re-instate international trade in ivory over the clear objections from the other 14 elephant range countries in Africa;
- Are shocked and disappointed at their threat to break away from CITES, should their demand the right to auction off their official ivory stockpiles;
- Are dismayed at their strong-arming tactics that are tantamount to political blackmail of CITES, especially after their trade proposal was overwhelmingly rejected at the last COP meeting;
- Remind the responsible officials that the past two ivory auctions were a complete failure because the Asian buyers colluded to keep the prices ridiculously low;
- Remind them that this led to increased trade and speculation that saw a massive surge in elephant poaching since then;
- Object to Namibia's plans to remove and sell off 170 elephants from their natural habitats in Namibia to Chinese and other buyers for US$5,500 a piece, while an elephant is worth US$1.6 million in eco-tourism opportunities it generates in its life-time;
- Object to the continued falsification and gross inflation of Namibia's resident elephant population data by the Min of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to keep justifying unsustainable levels of trophy hunting;
- Express our deep concern over the true state of our wildlife heritage and key protected species such as elephants, black rhinos, giraffes and other endangered wildlife, the loss of which will destroy our country's tourism economy which contributes one-third of the national GDP and thousands of direct and indirect job opportunities;
- Caution that these reckless actions by Minister Pohamba Shifeta and MEFT management officials amount to wilful acts of environmental and economic despoliation, and are in violation of the legal imperatives imposed by Art. 95 of the Constitution to maintain and protect bio-diversity;
- Caution the responsible officials that we reserve the right to hold them liable in their personal capacity for financial losses caused by their reckless mismanagement of a priceless resource.
Background:
Namibia's wildlife is its single-biggest tourism asset, attracting thousands of with visitors flocking from all over the world to see especially iconic big-game species such as elephants, black rhinos, lion, giraffe and other game.
One of the most unique attractions is the opportunity to see elephants in their natural environment outside of the national parks in the surrounding communal areas, managed by the MEFT under the communal conservancy model.
Under this model first implemented in 1996, rural conservancies are granted the right to issue tourism and/or hunting concessions. Because trophy hunting generates large annual fees to the government and the communal conservancies, this led to a proliferation of the hunting conservancy model in rural areas, an approach widely lauded by the WWF as an example of an African conservation success story.
These concessional rights includes elephant trophy hunting rights within the boundaries of the KAZA trans-frontier park, located along the elephants' seasonal migratory route between the Okavango Delta and the Quito floodplains in Angola.
From 1996 to 1999, the new 500 km-long Trans-Caprivi Highway was constructed across the length of the West Caprivi, further interceding the trans-frontier elephant herd's seasonal migratory routes.
In late 1999, the Angolan Army used the new highway to launch an attack on their former rebel foes UNITA, using local recruits to conduct a scorched earth campaign along the common border. This influx of weapons triggered a surge in poaching in especially the West Caprivi, with armed gangs running rampant in the area and on one occasion, gunning down an entire herd with automatic weapons in full sight of shocked tourists at a lodge on the opposite Namibian side of the Kavango river border.
From the early 2000s, the over-concentration of elephants in Botswana was becoming evident in Chobe Park as the increase in heavy road traffic and human settlement along the Trans-Caprivi Highway scared away especially breeding herds with small calves.
In order to prevent the spread of bovine lung-disease, Botswana erected a 700km-long game-proof fence along their north-eastern and northern border with Namibia to replace the collapsed old Namibian fence in 2009.
Two 15-km-wide openings were left in the fence on the western and eastern end to allow for the elephants' seasonal migration, both located opposite elephant hunting concession areas in Namibia.
The combined impact of the Trans-Caprivi Highway and the fence thus stopped any seasonal migration between Botswana, Namibia and Angola, with tracking data showing only the odd bull occasionally crossing the border at those gaps in the fence. This led to the MEFT allowing trophy hunting operators to hunt elephant cows in 2017 to recover their trophy fees paid in advance to the communal conservancies.
By late 2020, elephants have all but disappeared from the West Caprivi and adjacent communal areas. Elsewhere in north-western Namibia, a severe drought and increased poaching has also taken a severe toll, with only an estimated 250 elephants left in the arid Kunene and Erongo regions.
In 1999 and 2008, the MEFT held two CITES-sanctioned auctions of the best ivory in the official stockpile in misguided attempt to flood and depress the black market demand for ivory and generate income for conservation efforts.
This proved to be an abject failure. The Chinese and Japanese buyers colluded to keep prices low, paying only USD$100 and US$157 per kilogram respectively, and instead of releasing the stocks into the carving markets, drip-fed their new stock at USD$1,500 per kilogram over the following years.
This triggered a 66% surge in elephant poaching and 71% increase in ivory smuggling over the following decade that saw elephant herds decimated in East and central Africa. As result, the African savannah and forest elephant species were declared as endangered and critically-endangered earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the communal conservancy model had started to fail. Due to their tendency to inflate annual game counts and so justify high, cash-generating hunting quotas and a disastrous shoot-and-sell permit system that allowed them to sell off entire herds for cash to local butchers, the once-abundant wildlife in communal areas have all but disappeared.
The elephants' Appendix I status also thus became an obstacle to the demand from conservancies for ever more cash from elephant hunting due to the limitations it imposed on the number of trophies that may be legally exported.
Because CITES has thus far allowed and facilitated the export of live elephants to Chinese buyers, the MEFT therefore is now resorting to auctioning off entire herds of elephants in order to generate cash to the conservancies, as well as re-open the ivory trade that has historically wiped out over 95% of Africa's elephant herds over the past 100 years.
This reckless and short-sighted humans-first approach by the Namibian authorities and their colleagues in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe poses a dire threat to the last surviving elephant herds in the KAZA Park.
The MEFT continues to falsely claim that there are 22,000 - 24,000 elephants in Namibia, based on a 1995 base count of 7,000 animals that they claim grew at a biologically improbably and mathematically impossible exponential rate of 3.3% since then.
This fraudulent claims of a huge increase in numbers is immediately obvious from the fact that none of the factors outlined above are in any way reflected in their purported official elephant counts. Claims by Minister Pohamba Shifeta of a rampant rise human-elephant conflict is flatly contradicted by the fact that just one case of human-elephant conflict was reported in 2020.
The official elephant population estimates, inflated by over-counting and systematic inflation of population density factors, are clearly only intended to keep the trophy hunting in business and the ruling party's rural support base appeased with regular cash hand-outs.
The fact is that Namibia is losing the battle against organised crime and syndicated poaching, with 80% of all rhino poaching since 2005 occurring over the past five years. This largely due to the MEFT's humans-first conservation policies and poor management of resources, not to mention their obvious ignorance of their own Ministry's track record in respect of past ivory auctions.
We remind these authorities that they are merely custodians, not the private owners of our common wildlife heritage and that the elephants are not theirs to dispose of as they see fit.
Their plan to resume ivory trading, combined with their poor management, poses a dire threat to the last elephants left in the sub-region and the tourism industry that is an economic mainstay in all four countries involved in this deplorable and reckless attempt to cash in on the elephants for what will likely be one last and final time.
We, the nature-loving people of Namibia and like-minded international friends therefore demand that:
- CITES immediately commission an independent audit of all official ivory stockpiles held by Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe;
- CITES demand an independent and verified elephant census in all four countries before granting any further export permits for live elephants;
- CITES and the IUCN conduct a full Environmental Impact Assessment on the impact of the Trans-Caprivi highway and the Botswana border fence on the elephants' seasonal migratory routes and patterns;
- CITES and the IUCN require that Namibia and Botswana implement measures to re-establish migratory routes and wildlife corridors across the West Caprivi;
- CITES and the IUCN suspend all elephant hunting in the KAZA area until such time that the elephants can freely and without impedance regain access to all their historical range areas within the KAZA Park.
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-18/southern-africa-nations-mull-cites-split-to-allow-ivory-trade
https://therevelator.org/southern-africas-ivory-delusion/
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/it-pays-but-does-it-stay-hunting-in-namibias-community-conservation-system/
John G.
1Signers
7,500Sign the petition to ban deforestation in the Amazon for at least 5 years!
The Amazon rainforest plays a vital part in maintaining healthy living conditions. It balances climatic conditions and biodiversity, providing moisture for the entire planet.
According to recent data from the system of detection of deforestation in real time, from Inpe, the average area deforested in the Amazon over the last two years between 2018 and 2020 was 74% higher than the average in the same period two years previously between 2016 and 2018. Such deforestation is often accompanied by an increase in violence, forest fires, the expansion of illegal mining, an increase in the seizing of public land and other illegal activities, with emphasis on the invasion of indigenous lands and protected areas.
If the fires in the Amazon carry on burning, in 15 years it will no longer be the Amazon as we know it and will become a barren savanna. We need to act quickly to save the biodiversity.
Let’s reinforce the population’s commitment to the world’s largest tropical forest. This petition endorses 5 emergency measures in combating the deforestation crisis in the Amazon and calls for a total ban of deforestation for at least 5 years.
We ask for:
Moratorium of deforestation of the Amazon.
Prohibition of any deforestation of the Amazon for a minimum of 5 (five) years, with exception to subsistence and traditional populations, family farming, management planning, public works and national security.
Sign and share! Let’s get the highest number of signatures possible and take this petition to Brazilian National Congress.
Climate B.
1Signers
10,000Sign the Petition Against Colonial Water Agreements
It is obvious that Ethiopia is the land of mankind, which is earmarked by 3.5 million years old fossil, Dinknesh (Lucy) in 1974, at the site of Hadar/ Ethiopia. Ethiopia is known as a land of diverse linguistic society. Carlo Conti Rossini's describes Ethiopia as "un museo di popoli "- a museum of peoples- characterized the evolution of multiethnic Ethiopian living through maintaining unity with diversity. Ethiopia is also the home of different religious faiths. According to Haggai Erlich who is a citizen of Israeli, coined Ethiopia as the land of religious peaceful coexistence. The first Hegira of Christianity took place in Ethiopia before Constantinople and Armenia. And also the first Hegira of Islam took place in Ethiopia before Mecca to Medina. Since the first quarter of the 7th century, Christianity and Islam religions met and communicated in Ethiopia; the followers of these religions have been celebrating their diversity and unity through inter-ethnic and inter-religious marriages and living together without any strife.
The victory of Ethiopian troops over the Italians colonial power at Adwa in 1896, orchestrated Ethiopia as un colonized state in Africa and also Ethiopia was represented as a symbol for the then colonized Africa and for all the oppressed black people in the entire world. Ethiopia also established a pan-African policy to liberate the black peoples and, called blacks to come to Ethiopia to struggle colonialism. Then peoples from 15 Caribbean and African American states come to Ethiopia and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia granted to them 200 hectares of land in Shashemene, nowadays known as “Jamaica sefer”. Because of Ethiopian integrity and cooperation, Marcus Garvey urged black people to see God in their own image, that is, “to see God through the spectacles of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is also the water tower of the horn of Africa. The world longest river Nile steams from Ethiopia. Over the entire year, about 86 percent of the Nile’s water originates from Ethiopia while Egypt consumes 86 percent of the water. It is not without reason; therefore, that the Greek historian Herodotus (c.486–425) called that “Nile is a gift of Ethiopia and Egypt is a gift of the Nile”.
Broadly speaking, international rivers are often the subjects of treaties providing for their shared use. According to the international water law, the riparian states of international waterway should use the waters in a "reasonable and equitable manner," and the obligation not to cause "significant harm," In doing so, the Nile basin countries—Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda have agreed to unite in common pursuit of sustainable development and management of the Nile, since 1989. But, Egypt influenced the riparian states by different mechanisms to utilize the water as it was in the past. Beyond this, there have been meetings between the officials of Egypt and Ethiopia in particular, aimed at exploring the possibilities of cooperation to utilize the waters of the Blue Nile in equitable and reasonable way, between the two countries. While Ethiopia advocated the principle of negotiation on water sharing; Egypt has a strong stand to utilize alone by using its colonizer’s agreement.
For this reason, Egypt claimed Ethiopia to apply the 19th century, the colonial agreements. The first one was the 15 May 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty, on the Nile water issues which had made Egypt’s interests and did not allow Ethiopia, to construct anything on the Nile. But it was never ratified, either by the Ethiopian and the British Parliament. The second was the 1929 Agreement between Egypt and Britain. It stipulated that no irrigation or power works or measures are to be constructed or taken on the River Nile without British authorization, which would entail prejudice to the interests of Egypt. It argued that the agreements that made no reference to this fact could have no binding force. The last Agreement was the November 1959 between Egypt and Sudan on the division of the waters of the Nile. The agreement gave Egypt 75 percent of the waters of the river (i.e., 55.5 billion m3) and 25 percent to the Sudan (18.5 billion m3) while neglecting Ethiopia which is the source of Nile and 86% contributor of the river. Similarly, Ethiopia declined to recognize the Agreement.
Despite Ethiopia’s protest, Egypt went ahead with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Then Egypt has brought some 800,000 feddans under permanent irrigation and village communities have been provided with a full water and electricity. To be sure, out of the ultimate irrigable land of some 5,000,000 hectares, Egypt has already managed to irrigate nearly 3,000,000 hectares. Paradoxically, Ethiopia not only utilize the Nile water equally with that of Egypt, but also it never utilizes the river for any purpose. Because of this xx% of the people of Ethiopia lives in severe poverty and above 60 percent of its citizens live without electric power. Entirely, Ethiopia had had no concrete irrigational schemes at this particular epoch in history. Instead, Egypt would never permit Ethiopia to exploit the waters of the Blue Nile.
Even recently, Egypt has designed to open the way for 3,000,000 or more Egyptians eventually to populate a region that is now home to only some 250,000 without consulting any riparian states. Nowadays, the Ethiopia government has begun building a dam on the Nile River, which Ethiopians alone have been financing. Since we began the construction of the Great Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Nile River, Egypt has also started a wage of war on Ethiopia, the womb of the blue gold. But the dam is an Ethiopian dam, it is our blood! IT IS MY DAM! So it is impossible to colonize Ethiopia in the era of globalization; in reality, they know that we Ethiopians are never colonized.
To sum-up, the overall objectives of our petition are to inform the following key points to the community in the entire world.
IT IS MY DAM! It is my lifeblood!
The victory of Ethiopian troops over the Italians colonial power at Adwa in 1896, orchestrated Ethiopia as un colonized state in Africa and also Ethiopia was represented as a symbol for the then colonized Africa and for all the oppressed black people in the entire world. Ethiopia also established a pan-African policy to liberate the black peoples and, called blacks to come to Ethiopia to struggle colonialism. Then peoples from 15 Caribbean and African American states come to Ethiopia and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia granted to them 200 hectares of land in Shashemene, nowadays known as “Jamaica sefer”. Because of Ethiopian integrity and cooperation, Marcus Garvey urged black people to see God in their own image, that is, “to see God through the spectacles of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is also the water tower of the horn of Africa. The world longest river Nile steams from Ethiopia. Over the entire year, about 86 percent of the Nile’s water originates from Ethiopia while Egypt consumes 86 percent of the water. It is not without reason; therefore, that the Greek historian Herodotus (c.486–425) called that “Nile is a gift of Ethiopia and Egypt is a gift of the Nile”.
Broadly speaking, international rivers are often the subjects of treaties providing for their shared use. According to the international water law, the riparian states of international waterway should use the waters in a "reasonable and equitable manner," and the obligation not to cause "significant harm," In doing so, the Nile basin countries—Burundi, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda have agreed to unite in common pursuit of sustainable development and management of the Nile, since 1989. But, Egypt influenced the riparian states by different mechanisms to utilize the water as it was in the past. Beyond this, there have been meetings between the officials of Egypt and Ethiopia in particular, aimed at exploring the possibilities of cooperation to utilize the waters of the Blue Nile in equitable and reasonable way, between the two countries. While Ethiopia advocated the principle of negotiation on water sharing; Egypt has a strong stand to utilize alone by using its colonizer’s agreement.
For this reason, Egypt claimed Ethiopia to apply the 19th century, the colonial agreements. The first one was the 15 May 1902 Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty, on the Nile water issues which had made Egypt’s interests and did not allow Ethiopia, to construct anything on the Nile. But it was never ratified, either by the Ethiopian and the British Parliament. The second was the 1929 Agreement between Egypt and Britain. It stipulated that no irrigation or power works or measures are to be constructed or taken on the River Nile without British authorization, which would entail prejudice to the interests of Egypt. It argued that the agreements that made no reference to this fact could have no binding force. The last Agreement was the November 1959 between Egypt and Sudan on the division of the waters of the Nile. The agreement gave Egypt 75 percent of the waters of the river (i.e., 55.5 billion m3) and 25 percent to the Sudan (18.5 billion m3) while neglecting Ethiopia which is the source of Nile and 86% contributor of the river. Similarly, Ethiopia declined to recognize the Agreement.
Despite Ethiopia’s protest, Egypt went ahead with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Then Egypt has brought some 800,000 feddans under permanent irrigation and village communities have been provided with a full water and electricity. To be sure, out of the ultimate irrigable land of some 5,000,000 hectares, Egypt has already managed to irrigate nearly 3,000,000 hectares. Paradoxically, Ethiopia not only utilize the Nile water equally with that of Egypt, but also it never utilizes the river for any purpose. Because of this xx% of the people of Ethiopia lives in severe poverty and above 60 percent of its citizens live without electric power. Entirely, Ethiopia had had no concrete irrigational schemes at this particular epoch in history. Instead, Egypt would never permit Ethiopia to exploit the waters of the Blue Nile.
Even recently, Egypt has designed to open the way for 3,000,000 or more Egyptians eventually to populate a region that is now home to only some 250,000 without consulting any riparian states. Nowadays, the Ethiopia government has begun building a dam on the Nile River, which Ethiopians alone have been financing. Since we began the construction of the Great Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Nile River, Egypt has also started a wage of war on Ethiopia, the womb of the blue gold. But the dam is an Ethiopian dam, it is our blood! IT IS MY DAM! So it is impossible to colonize Ethiopia in the era of globalization; in reality, they know that we Ethiopians are never colonized.
To sum-up, the overall objectives of our petition are to inform the following key points to the community in the entire world.
- As we are a womb of Nile River, we are highly initiated to utilize our resource without the goodwill of anybody. Therefore, we are eager and committed to finalize the construction of the GERD by paying any needed scarification.
- In the journey of utilization of our given resource, our country has never intended to impose any significant harm to all riparian states.
- As we are the owner and involved Ethiopian intellectuals group, we wrote a stance to the world community, particularly, for a States which had been on side of our anti-colonial time, to recognize that the Ethiopian egalitarian commitment on the Nile water is like as a wage of contemporary anti colonialism. So we will never and ever accept neo-colonial tactics. That has ended up through the blood of our forefathers.
- We Ethiopians had been grew and fed by our ancestors as we have historical and socio-political ties through Nile River. This reminds us to call solidarity for our Egyptian brothers and sisters to clearly think and to come to fair, reasonable resource utilization and civilized dialogue instead of Nightmare scaremonger.
IT IS MY DAM! It is my lifeblood!
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