The human rights question

Just a little exchange I noticed while looking through the Official Report of the UK Parliament the other day (usually referred to as "Hansard" after Thomas Curson Hansard who put his name to the report in 1829). In the House of Lords, Baroness Quin recently asked Her Majesty's Government what contacts they have had with the Cameroonian Government and whether the issue of respect for human rights was discussed during any contacts.

Lord Triesman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, replied that:

"The UK has frequent formal and informal contact with the Government of Cameroon on human rights issues. In March, the UK funded a workshop on security sector reform that involved the Ministries of Justice and Security (Police). The Cameroonian police are now working on introducing a code of ethics to be signed by all officers. EU heads of mission raise human rights issues every six months in the structured EU/Cameroon political dialogue. Among the subjects recently discussed were funding for the National Human Rights Commission and the justice system."

It's pretty unusual for Cameroon to rear its head in the UK Parliament, possibly indicative of the fact that the country is not perceived to suffer from any of the issues that dominate the debate on Africa. It's helpful to know that the UK Government acknowledges that the problems affecting Africa need to be evaluated on a local, not continental, basis. Future for Africa is, we hope, an indication of such an approach. As good as it is to see exchanges take place in our national legislature it would be helpful to know more detail, since it's not necessarily the case that a human rights approach on a UK or EU model is practicable in Cameroon or the continent of Africa at large. Inasmuch as the moves announced above point in a positive direction it will need to be seen how robust such moves turn out to be. As they say: watch this space!

Best wishes,

Paul Stevenson

Destination Batouri

Our Project Officer Damian Atkinson is on his way to Cameroon with sister and former Chair of the charity, Helen Atkinson. They carry with them a Future for Africa grant destined to pay for the final stages of the construction of a schoolhouse in Batouri. Hopefully they'll be sending us updates on their experiences and some photographs.

Paul Stevenson
Chair of Trustees and Treasurer

The Gift Aid Budget seesaw

Future for Africa, like all charities, depends on effective fundraising. As mentioned in my last post we're now able to claim Gift Aid on most of the donations which we receive. In his final budget Chancellor Gordon Brown acknowledged that take-up rates of Gift Aid are not as high as they might be. He revealed that the Government would consult with charities on measures to increase take-up which should involve a campaign aimed at boosting awareness. However, it wasn't all good news. It has been estimated that charities could lose up to £71 million as a result of the cut in the basic rate of income tax from 22p to 20p in the pound. Not that we don't support this change per se, but, as the Charities Aid Foundation has put it "while this will create additional income for the public, charities will have to call on their donors to help make up the shortfall". At present, most of Future for Africa's work is not funded from Gift Aid rebates so this shouldn't have massive knock-on effects. We will, of course, keep you posted. Thanks as ever for your interest in our work.

Paul Stevenson
Chair of Trustees and Treasurer