NEWSREGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS

I was teaching my daughter to grind traditional medicines near our sacred Puberty Rock when the boaters intruded upon our ceremony site.

Their beer-infused shouts echoed across the McCloud River canyon, and as they passed they called us “fat Indians”, chugged alcoholic drinks in our sacred space, and even flashed us.

Recreational boaters had been interfering for the full four days of my daughter’s Bałas Chonas, or Coming of Age ceremony, but now Marine was about to complete the ceremony by swimming across the river where her tribe would receive her as a woman.

As the Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu, I was supposed to be laying down blessings. I was supposed to be in a ceremonial state of mind, but instead I was furious at the thought of my daughter having to enter the water with those people on it.  How would you react if a band of motorcyclists barreled through your daughter’s christening?

Earlier this week a group of Libyan activists launched a petiton calling for Malta to grant asylum to two Libyan pilots who defected to the small island nation last Monday. Within 24 hours they had tens of thousands of signatures, more than 1,000 signatures an hour!

Who are these folks?

ENOUGH! Gaddafi is a group of grassroots Libyan activists both inside and outside the country, working together to bring down the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the long time dictator of Libya. Calling themselves a new voice of dissent against the Gaddafi regime, ENOUGH! Gaddafi seeks to utilize grassroots Libyan activism to "promote the ability of the Libyan people to overcome the limitations imposed upon them by an illegitimate and unjust government."

Last week, two Libyan pilots were ordered to bomb civilian protesters by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. They faced an unimaginable choice: bomb their countrymen or face likely execution if they returned without carrying out the attacks. Instead, they found a third option - flying their planes out of Libya and defecting to the nearby island nation of Malta. In doing so, they saved the lives of untold numbers of their fellow Libyans.

But ever since Malta's Refugee Commissioner Mario Guido Friggieri and other government officials have refused to say whether they will give these pilots asylum.

A group of Libyan activists have gathered tens of thousands of signatures in under 24 hours on a petition calling for Malta to grant asylum to two Libyan pilots who defected to the small island nation last Monday.

That's more than 1,000 signatures an hour!

These pilots faced an unimaginable choice: bomb their countrymen or face likely execution if they returned without carrying out the attacks. Instead, they found a third option - flying their Mirage jets out of Libya and defecting to the nearby island nation of Malta.

In doing so, they saved the lives of untold numbers of their fellow Libyans.

But to date the Maltese government has been silent as to the fate of the two pilots, and the decision rests with Malta's Refugee Commissioner Mario Guido Friggieri.

Two weeks ago Gigi and Mahmoud, two young Egyptian street activists and Change.org members, called on people all over the world to join their campaign for democracy in Egypt. You answered their call, along with tens of thousands of others from more than 120 countries.

Now we have incredible news: Gigi, Mahmoud and the “Peoples Revolution” have won! Minutes ago Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, handing power over to a military-led transitional government which will run the country until elections take place in a few months. In just 18 days, a coalition of Muslims and Christians, young, old, rich and poor came together to bring down a dictatorship of 30 years.

Earlier today Gigi and Mahmoud, two young Egyptian street activists and Change.org members, called on all of us to re-up the international pressure and join their campaign for democracy in Egypt.

Many of you answered their call, along with tens of thousands of others from more than 120 countries.

As the day progressed, we started to hear rumors that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was going to resign within hours.

“The people are celebrating everywhere,” Mahmoud told us over the phone. “They’re chanting, they’re jumping up and down, we’re just ecstatic!”

As the frenetic excitement about southern Sudan's recent referendum wears off, the challenges of building up a new country from scratch loom. For some segments of southern Sudan’s society, the obstacles are even greater.

“The women of southern Sudan are ‘the marginalized of the marginalized,’ as Dr. John Garang used to say,” said Anyieth D’Awol, quoting the late rebel leader who saw many of the problems in Sudan originating from the Khartoum government’s negligence. As one stark example, literacy in southern Sudan stands at 24 percent, but only 12 percent of women can read and write.

Anyieth is southern Sudanese, but she first visited the South when she was 27. She studied human rights in the UK and has a law degree, fields she pursued because “I never thought I would stay in England. Always knew I wanted to come back to Sudan.”

“I don’t have a war story,” she said, in a tone that almost sounded like she was apologizing.

The African Commission on Human and People's Rights suffered a serious bout of amnesia at its meeting in The Gambia last week.  It must have even forgotten its name, because how else could a human rights commission deny that a socially marginalized minority deserves the same protections as other individuals?  That's the essence of human rights, no? That we've all got them?

But the Commission dispatched a two sentence denial of the Coalition of African Lesbians' right to participate in its activities as an observer organization.  Among other things, observer organizations can present the human rights concerns of their constituencies to the commission, thus driving the system of addressing abuses in its member states. But apparently the Commission doesn't feel that lesbians have any human rights concerns.

Lesbians most certainly do suffer rights abuses in Africa. Homosexual activities are criminalized in 36 countries on the continent, including my current home Burundi, and it wasn't too long ago that the Malawian police were hunting down high profile gay folks to send a message.

Sounds like the African Commission on Human and People's Rights forgot that lesbians are human.  And people.  You can help jog the African Commission's memory by writing to commissioners.

Kakuma, Kenya - Seven Sudanese refugees sit in a circle in a bright room at a former health clinic filling out mock voter registration cards, practicing inking each others' fingers, interviewing one another and roll-playing how to respond to questions community members may have.

For the first time in their lives, 22,000 refugees are about to vote, and these seven will take them through the process.

This week registration booths opened to start collecting the names of eligible voters for a historic referendum on independence for South Sudan scheduled for January 9. As fingerprinted voter cards were issued, there were reports of jubilant scenes unfolding throughout the South.

But will the South Sudan referendum actually take place on January 9?

This is the question on the minds of activists, journalists and analysts covering Sudan. Sudanese officials pledge to not delay, but with less than two months to go, the outstanding logistical and political challenges are significant.