Alie Kabba on CANTV!

UAO Executive Director Alie Kabba discusses the meaning of President Obama's new policy for the protection of DREAM-Act eligible youth with Maria Salazar of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

To view more videos of the UAO in action, please click here! 

The Sahara Desert's Forgotten Refugees

Johnson Varny is back after four months away, spent somewhere in the no man's land between Mali and Algeria. He'd been caught by the police here, who loaded him and 80 others onto the back of a truck, carting them back to Tin Sawatin.

 They spent two days and 700 miserable kilometers (400 miles) traveling southwest through nothing but sand and rocks. When they reached their destination -- a small collection of tin huts -- the police simply unloaded their human cargo and left them to fend for themselves. "They treated us like animals," says Varny, 32. 

Surrounded by nothing but sand and rocks, Tamanrasset, with its population of 100,000, has been a way station for emigrants from sub-Saharan Africa for two decades. At first a few dozen people passed through the city each year, and then suddenly it was hundreds, and now tens of thousands. Are they refugees, migrant workers, and immigrants? Definitions are fluid here.

 They stay for weeks or months, often even years. But then they move on, because ultimately, they all have the same goal: Europe, the continent that draws them north like iron filings pulled toward a magnet. Estimates say only around 15 to 20 percent actually arrive there. For the full article, click here.

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Source: Spiegel Online International 

Protracted refugee situations in Liberia and Angola to finally end

This weekend, two of the most protracted refugee situations in Africa will finally come to an end. On Saturday, cessation clauses will enter into force for refugees from Liberia and Angola on the basis that these countries have both enjoyed many years of peace and stability after bitter civil wars. 

"This means people who fled the two countries and remain abroad will no longer be regarded as refugees by UNHCR and host governments," UNHCR spokesman, Adrian Edwards, told journalists in Geneva on Friday. "We are working with the governments of origin and of asylum to find solutions for those refugees who wish either to return home or to remain in their host countries due to strong ties there.

 Voluntary returns will continue to be assisted while possibilities for local integration and/or an alternative legal status are also being discussed," he added. For the full article, click here.

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Source: UNHCR

Congolese Independence Day Celebration

When: Saturday June 30th, 2012 

Where: Soccer Field @ Foster & Marine Drive 

Time: 2pm Sharp! 

What: Congolese Independence Day Celebration 

Watch the UAO on CANTV, times announced!

Join the UAO and CANTV (channel 21)

                          

Friday, June 29, 2012 from at 12pm!

Alie Kabba will be speaking on U.S.-Africa Policy, and shedding a light on the impact the United States’ policies on health, governance and human rights in Africa, and the implications of China’s increasing involvement in the continent.

Friday, June 29 at 1:30 p.m. on CAN TV21

James Thindwa, Chicago ACTS, joins this conversation about immigration, civic engagement, and community development among Africans in the United States.

Friday, June 29 at 2:30 p.m. on CAN TV21 

Hair Braider Fatima Traore highlights how African artistic and storytelling traditions help immigrants maintain a sense of history and identity.

Be sure to tune in! 

BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court upholds Obamacare 5-4

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's sweeping health care legislation Thursday in a narrow 5-4 ruling.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, which said that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to require people to have health care, but that other parts of the Constitution did.

The court's ruling upheld the law's central provision -- a requirement that all people have health insurance.

The importance of the decision cannot be overstated: It will have an immediate and long-term impact on all Americans, both in how they get medicine and health care, and also in vast, yet-unknown areas of "commerce."

Five scenarios: Health care options before the justices

The polarizing law, dubbed "Obamacare" by many, is the signature legislation of Obama's time in office.

It helped spur the creation of the conservative tea party movement and is likely to be a centerpiece of the presidential election campaign.

Both Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, have been firing up supporters this week by staking out their positions.

For more information about this article, click here

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Source: CNN 

Attention Community Leaders and ICIRR Partners!

Do you know any young leaders in Aurora, Joliet, Naperville, Elgin, Lombard, Round Lake or Highland Park (or the surrounding areas)? ICIRR is looking to immediately hire talented leaders to mobilize their community & Get Out The Vote with our New Americans Democracy Project. 5 of our young Fellows have gone on to be Executive Directors of their own community organizations within years of their fellowship. Others have gone into successful careers in politics, immigrant rights, business, and community organizing.


Please note that Fellows cannot be taking classes during the Fellowship, and must have full-time access to a car.

Paid Fellowships in Community Organizing and Civic Engagement in Immigrant Communities

*** To apply, please complete the online application (http://icirr.org/nadpfellowship) and email your resume to Abdelnasser Rashid at arashid@icirr.org.***

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) announces the New Americans Democracy Project, a four-month fellowship program for young people who are interested in working hard while exploring a career in social justice and electoral/political work, receiving quality training, and contributing to the participation of new citizens in the American democratic process.


The program will run from June 25 to November 9, 2012, and will pay $400 per week (an educational stipend of $350 per week, plus $50 per week reimbursement for phone and mileage). Participants will receive training in the skills of community organizing, non-partisan voter registration and "Get Out The Vote" (GOTV) efforts from the staff, members and allies of ICIRR. These allies include community-based organizations with decades of experience in community and direct-action organizing as well as national groups like Wellstone Action and the Center for Community Change, both national leaders in electoral organizing and training. Furthermore, ICIRR will provide training on immigration issues and working with immigrant communities.

For more on this opportunity, click "read more"!

Supreme Court's Ruling in Arizona Immigration Case Affirms Federal Primacy in Immigration Policy, MPI Experts Say

WASHINGTON — With today's ruling in Arizona et al v. United States, the Supreme Court struck down three provisions of Arizona's SB 1070 law, allowing to stand the section that requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop.

Migration Policy Institute (MPI) experts offered the following statements:
Doris Meissner, Senior Fellow and Director of MPI's U.S. Immigration Policy Program, who served as Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1993-2000:

• “This ruling reconfirms the long-held principle of federal primacy in immigration policy. It should largely put to rest questions about the respective roles of state and federal authorities in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and raises important cautions for the policing provisions that Arizona enacted. The decision underscores yet again the need for Washington to respond to legitimate state concerns and take up the challenge of creating an orderly and fair immigration law.”

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Source: Migration Policy Institute

So You Think You Can Be a Hair Braider?

Jestina Clayton grew up in a village in Sierra Leone where every girl learns traditional African hair-braiding. Then, when she was 22, she moved to Centerville, Utah, a place where no one learns traditional African hair-braiding. So Clayton was pleasantly surprised to find a niche in the market among a small group of Utah parents who had adopted African children but didn’t know how to style their hair.

Clayton moved to the United States as an 18-year-old and headed out to Centerville to be near her in-laws. After graduating from college, she considered getting an office job but decided instead to start her own hair-braiding operation and began advertising on a local Web site. “It’s not like it was bringing me millions,” she says, “but it was covering groceries.” At least until a stranger who saw the ad e-mailed her a demand to delete it. “It is illegal in the state of Utah to do any form of extensions without a valid cosmetology license,” the e-mail read. “Please delete your ad, or you will be reported.”

For more on this article, click here

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Source: NY Times 

What next for Chicago’s refugees?

The United States resettles more refugees each year – about 80,000 – than all other nations combined. As one of America’s historic ports of entry, Chicago extends its broad shoulders to embrace them. The refugees arrive at O’Hare airport, the majority from Iraq or Burma or Bhutan or Congo or Somalia – storm centers in the world that Chicagoans may know little about. Most of the refugees know little of Chicago, and often find out their resettlement destination only weeks before boarding the plane. They arrive, battered by persecution back home and sequestered for years typically in refugee camps or urban settings where they can’t work legally and where their hopes for a semblance of stability are faint. Yet, for those arriving in Chicago, they’ve made it. But what next?

A network of resettlement agencies greets them, finds them housing, and provides them with a stipend that is to last 90 days. Mostly, the refugees are on their own and the challenges of daily life come quickly. Here are a dozen stories of how refugees are weaving their way into Chicago’s fabric. Among them are three stories, each told from a different perspective from members of the same family, and a story about one small business that seeks out refugees to hire. We are grateful as always for the cooperation of the resettlement agencies, in particular, the Golden Door Coalition, Refugee Assistance Programs (RAP), RefugeeOne, Upwardly Global and Uruk Human Services.

For more information, click here! 

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Source: Immigration Connect

Ghana: Liberians in Ghana - When Refugees Cease to Be Refugees

What next for the Liberians in Ghana who will lose their refugee status on June 30?

Perched on vast acres of land dotted with concrete buildings marked in colourful chalk, Buduburam Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, has always been a place of transit for Liberians. Camp dwellers are like expectant passengers on a flight whose destination is still undetermined. Most of them hope to land in America, or somewhere in Europe, on a resettlement package. They hope to be anywhere but here.

As I enter the camp for the first time in nearly 10 years, Buduburam looks like a town hit by the plague. It is virtually empty. In 2002, there were over 30,000 refugees at Buduburam. Now about 5,000 remain. Tens of thousands of refugees have been repatriated to Liberia since October 2004 according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ghana. Just 118 Liberians were resettled to third-party countries from 2007 to 2010.

June 30 is D-Day for refugees at Buduburam and thousands of Liberians like them throughout the sub-region and the diaspora. On that day, Liberian refugees will be stripped of the protection of refugee status. The international community now has faith that Liberia has stabilised. UNHCR-Ghana says the country has shown significant improvements in human rights, the rule of law, and procedural democracy through two post-war 'free and fair' elections. It is debatable, however, whether international benchmarks for success mean anything to those who have not touched Liberian soil in over 10 years. And one wonders if the international community consulted Liberians before deciding their refugee status would be discontinued.

For more on this article, click here

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Source: allAfrica

Zimbabwe: Refugees Protest Closure of South Africa Asylum Offices

Refugees in South Africa have marked World Refugee Day by protesting the ongoing closures of asylum offices across the country, accusing the government there of 'disregarding' its international human rights commitments. The government started closing the refugee reception centres in metropolitan areas last year, with plans to reopen the offices at border posts. The Department of Home Affairs has insisted that this will not impact the country's commitments to protecting asylum seekers, but will instead help deal with South Africa's bloated asylum system. But human rights groups have warned that the closure of the offices is making it even harder for asylum seekers to apply for the protection that South Africa is committed to provide. According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, head of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, the closures and the decision to move asylum processing to the border areas "has caused considerable anxiety within the refugee community." "South Africa is disregarding its international obligations to protect refugees and these moves are counter-productive," Ramjathan-Keogh said. For the full article, click here.

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Source: allAfrica

Happy World Refugee Day!

LONDON, United Kingdom, June 20 (UNHCR) – Countries in the Asia-Pacific region led the way on Wednesday as millions of people marked World Refugee Day (WRD) with a wide array of events and programmes.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set the tone for the day in a special message, noting that more than a million individuals had been displaced over the past 18 months due to a wave of conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, Libya, Mali, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. "These numbers represent far more than statistics; they are individuals and families whose lives have been upended, whose communities have been destroyed, and whose future remains uncertain," he said.

"World Refugee Day is a moment to remember all those affected, and a time to intensify our support," he stressed, while adding: "Despite budget constraints everywhere, we must not turn away from those in need. Refugees leave because they have no choice. We must choose to help."

For more on this article, click here!

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Source: UNHCR

Fatou Bensouda sworn in as ICC prosecutor

Gambian says she is ready to lead the fight against world's worst war criminals, during speech at ceremony in The Hague.

Gambia's Fatou Bensouda has been sworn as the International Criminal Court's new chief prosecutor, saying she is ready to lead the fight against the world's worst war criminals.

"I Fatou Bensouda, solemnly undertake that I will perform my duties and exercise my powers as prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, honourably, faithfully impartially and conscientiously," she said on Friday at a ceremony in The Hague.

Al Jazeera's Inside Story asks if Bensouda's position would impact the work of the ICC in Africa

The 51-year-old Bensouda, the first woman and African to head the team of prosecutors at the tribunal, had served as outgoing prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's number two since 2004.

Known as the public face of the ICC, Moreno-Ocampo stepped down Friday after nine years as chief prosecutor at the court, which started work in 2003.

Bensouda was elected by the 121 state parties which have signed up to the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court's founding document.

She takes the helm of the world's first permanent court to try those accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, investigating 15 cases in seven countries, all of them African.

ICC judges have issued 20 arrest warrants and nine summonses but only six suspects have been arrested so far and only one has been convicted, Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga who used child soldiers in the 2002-3 conflict in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.Those still on the run include Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony.

Those arrested include Ivory Coast's toppled leader Laurent Gbagbo, who is awaiting a hearing to see if he will face trial on charges relating to violence that killed 3,000 people after the 2010 election.

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Source: Al Jazeera

Symposium of the Guinean Youth of the Diaspora in Chicago

The overarching objective of the Organization of the North American Symposium on Guinea (ONASG) is to provide Guineans of North America and elsewhere with the opportunity to meet and reflect upon the problems facing their country and envision solutions thereto. ONASG strives to create a framework for the production of high-quality intellectual works to guide our participation in the promotion of national dialogue, democratic governance, and sustainable development in Guinea.

At ONASG’s First International Symposium, held on March 5, 2011, in Silver Spring, Maryland (USA), the panel on “Youth, Gender, National Dialogue, Citizen Participation, and Sustainable Development in Guinea” made pertinent suggestions regarding the responsibilities of the Guinean youth toward solving the challenges facing the country. One such suggestion, by Oumar Telly Diallo of Guineeview (host of “The Voice of the African Youth”), pertains to a special program on youth participation in democratic governance and the creation of a Guinean youth national council.

In the spirit of those suggestions, ONASG is pleased to cordially invite you to the First Symposium of the Guinean Youth of the Diaspora that it organizes July 14, 2012, at the Holiday Inn Suites, Chicago-O’Hare (Rosemont) 10233 West Higgins Road, Rosemont, Illinois 60018 on the topic “Guinean Youth and Development.” The agenda of the symposium is forthcoming.

For your questions and suggestions please contact the following organizers:

Dr. Mohamed Saliou Camara
Tel: 386-586-6299
mscam@bellsouth.net

Oumar Telly Diallo
Tel: 773-552-7106
\diallotelly@hotmail.com

Safa Tounkara
Tel : 317-345-8015
safatoum@hotmail.com

Israel seeks to build tent camp for African migrants with no sewage or proper facilities

The National Building and Planning Council will consider exempting the construction of refugee camps in the south from almost all planning regulations on Tuesday. The Defense Ministry has asked the council to exempt the Israel Defense Forces and the ministry's construction division from approval by the local authority and its construction committee engineer. The ministry says the move, together with other proposed changes in the plans for the camps, are intended "to meet the tight schedule to implement the cabinet's decision" to build the camp for African refugees crossing the Egyptian border into Israel. But the Bimkom planning rights group says the exemption and changes would create "a huge concentration camp with harsh conditions. The changes would enable the imprisonment of thousands of people in tents for three years or more, in difficult physical conditions and extreme climate conditions." The Building and Planning Council will also consider significant changes in the national master plan - which does not allow for placing migrants in tents - to enable the internment of African migrants in the encampments immediately. For the full article, click here.

U.S. Increases “Training” and Intelligence Gathering In Africa

All across Africa and in the waters surrounding the continent, the United States under the Obama administration is intensifying efforts to penetrate the continent through seminars, military training operations, recognizance missions, Special Forces deployment, Naval patrols and proxy wars. These efforts are largely being led by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) although other agencies of the government are involved including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the State Department.

In the West African state of Sierra Leone 1,000 troops from the country’s armed forces recently completed training exercise conducted by AFRICOM for deployment to the East African theater of Somalia where the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) is serving as the ground forces for the White House policy of containment in the region. The bulk of the AMISOM forces are from the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) which has maintained close ties with the Pentagon for many years.

On May 20, U.S. Army Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone, Michael S. Owen, were present to address the members of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RLSAF) at a ceremony prior to the soldiers being sent off to join AMISOM in Somalia. Other military participation in AMISOM includes troops from Burundi and Djibouti, both in East Africa.

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Source: Pan-African News Wire

Pocket Con 2012!

July 7, 2012 at 12-6pm!

Pocket Con is a single day convention for Chicago Teens. It focuses on work by artists of color, particularly African American authors and artists, as well as comics with a primary character who is Black. Pocket Con also features work in the comic genre by other underrepresented groups, such as women and LGBT authors/characters, as well as topics of related interest, such as small-budget film-making, radio drama, and zines.

Our mission for this event is primarily to promote literacy using the graphic novel format, reflect on the history of race and gender portrayal in comics and film, and introduce characters, writers and authors who have a different voice than the primarily white, primarily male, primarily straight characters written by generations of comic authors (themselves primarily white, straight, and male). We would also like to empower young writers and artists by introducing them to the collaborative process that is comic creation, and encourage them to produce and submit work of their own for contests at the con.

 

Pocket Con is completely FREE to all teens and adults accompanying them. However, the content of most of the talks and presentations are geared toward teens and are not well suited to younger children.

Please do take a moment to register so we know that you are coming. We will allow people to register on the day of the event, but we may run out of space.. Also, the first 100 teens to register will get an awesome looking official Pocket Con button!

To Register, Click here! 

Protection of DREAM Youth

On June 15, 2012, the Obama Administration announced that it would offer many DREAM Act-eligible youths protection from deportation. These youths, whether or not they are currently in deportation proceedings, will be able to apply for “deferred action,” which would temporarily shield them from deportation and enable to live and work legally in the US.

Requirements

The announcement sets forth five criteria that youths must meet to get deferred action:

• They must have come to the US before they turned 16; 

• They must have not yet turned 30 when they apply; 

• They must have continuously resided in the US since June 15, 2007, and must have been present in the US on June 15, 2012; 

• They must currently be in school, have received a high school diploma or GED, or been honorably discharged from the US Armed Forces or the Coast Guard;

• They must not have been convicted of a felony, a “significant misdemeanor,”[1] multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. Anyone applying for deferred action would need to go through a criminal background check. 

Information provided by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Expanding Lives 5K Run/Walk!

Expanding Lives (EL) is a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization which works to empower West African women, primarily from the country of Niger.

Expanding Lives Junior Board is hosting a 5K Run/Walk on July 1st. We see this 5k as an opportunity to collaborate with friends, families, and neighbors while working to fund a program we know well and believe in. So come out and lace up to support a local organization and women's access to education in West Africa. We'll see you there!

When: July 1, 2012

Where: Harms Wood, Skokie, IL

Registration Fee: $25 online before June 17; $30 after

under 12: $15 online before June 17; $20 after

Provided: t-shirt, race bib, refreshments & prizes

For more information, visit Expanding Lives by clicking here! 

Thank you, President Obama!

United African Organization applauds President Obama's courageous decision to grant relief to undocumented youth in the United States

President Barack Obama today announced that undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children will be safe from deportation and be able to obtain work permits. The move was made possible through an executive order. The President said he was acting "in the absence of any immigration action from Congress to fix our broken immigration system."

The Obama administration will use its administrative authority to grant, on a case-by-case basis, deferred action and work authorization to young people who are not in deportation proceedings and who meet the following criteria:

• Entered the United States before the age of 16 and are not older than 30.

• Have continuously lived in the United States for at least five years.

• Are currently in school, have graduated from high school or obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or U.S. Armed Forces.

• Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, or multiple misdemeanor offenses.

According to the National Immigration Law Center, close to a million people in the U.S. will benefit from this new policy:

"This is a hard-won victory that comes after years of immigrant youth–led sacrifices, actions, creative organizing, and steadfast advocacy. DREAMers have worked hard to help the administration and the American public understand the situation these young Americans-at-heart face. For those who will be granted relief under the administration’s new policy, America is their one and only home. This policy change will make a significant difference in DREAMers’ lives and America will also reap the benefits of their many contributions."

- National Immigration Law Center

"This is a very exciting step in our struggle for the dignity and rights of all immigrants to the U.S.!" - Tara Weinberg, Research and Policy Associate, United African Organization

Voulez-vous devenir un citoyen Américain?

Contactez United African Organization Aujourd’hui!

En tant que citoyen, vous bénéficierez de tous les avantages de la citoyenneté:

•  Le DROIT de VOTER!

• Etre éligible pour les avantages offerts par le GOUVERNEMENT!
• Sponsoriser enfants et membres de famille pour l’immigration!
• Etre CANDIDAT aux élections!
•  Etre éligible pour des EMPLOIS dans les agences et départements du gouvernement!
• Etre éligible pour des BOURSES D’ETUDES!

ETES-VOUS INCAPABLE DE PAYER LES FRAIS AD-MINISTRATIFS?

Vous pouvez être éligible pour une dispense des frais dues au USCIS!

Appelez-nous aujourd’hui au:

312-949-9980

United African Organization

3424 South State , Suite 3C8-2

Chicago, IL 60616

www.uniteafricans.org | info@uniteafricans

10TH ANNUAL AFRICAN DIASPORA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - CHICAGO!

Facets Multimedia and the African Diaspora International Film Festival will celebrate 10 years of collaboration in the production of a festival that has brought to the imagination of people films such as: The Tracker, Kirikou and The Sorceress, Gospel Hill, Massai, The Rain Warriors, Sia, The Dream of the Python, Made In Jamaica and many more.

South Africa, Surinam, The United States, Brazil, Cuba and Cameroon are some of the countries represented in the 10th African Diaspora International Film Festival-Chicago. Click on any of the links below and discover the great films presented in the festival this year!

WHAT: 10th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival - Chicago

WHEN: June 14-June 21, 2012

WHERE: Alliance Française Chicago and Facets Multimedia 

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE
810 North Dearbon Street
Special screening - Thursday, June 14
6pm Les Oublies de l'Histoire/ The Forgotten
8:30pm Enjoy a glass of red wine after the screening

FACETS CINEMATHEQUE
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
Fri, June 15 to Thu, June 21

TICKET PRICE
June 14: $7
June 15 @ 6:30pm: $15 - includes Opening Night Reception
General admission: $9 per show

For more information and tickets visit http://www.NYADIFF.org.

CLICK 'READ MORE' TO VIEW A LIST OF THE FILMS!

Thousands of Refugees Moved From South Sudanese Border

The U.N. refugee agency has moved thousands of Sudanese refugees from crowded transit sites in northern South Sudan to newer camps away from border areas. The refugees were relocated to their new homes following several deaths.

 The U.N. refugee agency says the weekend emergency relocation began after food and other relief items had been distributed to all 32,000 Sudanese refugees sheltering in the border transit site of Hofra. It says the refugees are currently in another transit site called Kilo 18 and will remain there until they can be relocated permanently in a new camp in Upper Nile state. The UNHCR reports up to 15,000 new refugees could enter Upper Nile state shortly. 

 Last week, the private aid agency Doctors Without Borders reported seven deaths among recent arrivals at Hofra, which is about 25 kilometers from the border with Sudan. The refugees had been walking for weeks from Blue Nile state with little to eat or drink. Aid workers believe the deaths of the seven Sudanese refugees may be related to their weakened condition after they arrived.
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For the full article, click here.

Source: Voice of America

Millions to mark World Refugee Day as displacement crises persist

In the past 18 months, the UNHCR has faced one of the busiest periods of its history, with crisis after crisis keeping the agency at full stretch, but over the next week staff across the globe will take time to commemorate World Refugee Day and the millions they help. The focus for UNHCR this year will be in Brazil, where High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres will be spending World Refugee Day (June 20) in Rio de Janeiro at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. He will be attending and addressing Rio+20 after visiting refugees in Ecuador.

 Two days before World Refugee Day (WRD), UNHCR will be releasing worldwide its eagerly awaited Global Trends 2011 report, which updates the number of people of concern to the organization, including refugees, asylum-seekers, the stateless and internally displaced people. UNHCR will start marking World Refugee Day by rolling out a striking new campaign, "Dilemmas," which is a development of the award-winning "1" campaign launched last year. "Dilemmas" depicts some of the tough choices facing refugees, helping the public to empathize with, and understand, their dilemma.

UNHCR staff have been planning for months for WRD and have prepared a wide range of activities, including light shows, film screenings, lectures, panel discussions, food bazaars, fashion shows, cultural performances, concerts and sports contests. There will also be competitions, tree planting, speeches, panel discussions, poetry recitals and photography exhibitions. UNHCR once again has an ambitious social media campaign to promote the day and spread awareness about the "Dilemmas" campaign.


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For the full article, click here.
Source: UNHCR

Fourth Annual Juneteenth Celebration

“JUNE 19, 1865 IS THE OLDEST KNOWN CELEBRATION COMMEMORATING

THE ENDING OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES”

“Honoring Our Ancestors –

Celebrating Our Heritage”

 

Tuesday

June 19, 2012

12 noon – 1 p.m.

James R. Thompson Center

100 W. Randolph St. – Concourse Level

Chicago, IL 60601

Why America needs immigrants

It is no longer acceptable to discriminate against people on the basis of a whole range of characteristics that they happen to be born with, notably their gender, their race and their sexuality. So why is it still deemed acceptable to discriminate against people on the basis of where they happen to have been born?

The world is anything but flat: the biggest determinant of your life chances is not how talented you are or how hard you work, it is where you were born and who your parents are. Anyone lucky enough to have been born in the United States who doubts this should try to imagine how different their life would have been if they had been born in Africa.

Zakaria: Will an immigration deadlock make the U.S. a second-rate nation?

A hard-working entrepreneur born in a remote African village has far fewer opportunities to achieve his dreams than a lazy dimwit born in America. Even if the African seizes all her chances and the American none, the American is still likely to enjoy a more comfortable life. And the surest thing that African could do to transform her (and her family's) life chances is to go and work in the U.S.

But only if governments allow her to. Unfortunately, we live in a system of global apartheid, where the rich and the educated can move about increasingly freely, while the poor are expected to stay put, like serfs tied to the land where they were born.

Can the U.S. learn from other countries' immigration policies?

For the most part, people are oblivious to the injustice of this: it is seen as part of the natural order of things, like slavery once was. But insofar as people try to justify this unnatural and unjust state of affairs, they claim immigration controls are necessary to protect people in rich countries from their poorer brethren. Yet if one thinks a bit more carefully, one realizes that these objections don't stand up.

One objection to allowing women into the workplace was that they would take jobs away from men. But in practice, women have not deprived men of work. Why? Because people don't just take jobs, they also create them, when they spend their wages as well as in complementary lines of work. The same is true, of course, of immigrants.

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Source: CNN

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/08/why-america-needs-immigrants/

Les Oubliés de l'Histoire / The Forgotten Film Screening

Please meet us at the African Diaspora Film Festival Premiere at the Alliance Française de Chicago -

We’re encouraging attendees to register early so that we can get an accurate headcount.

Here’s is the registration link: http://tinyurl.com/87k3gcc

Les Oubliés de l'Histoire / The Forgotten
By Hassan Benjoullan
When: Thursday, June 14, 2012 6:30 p.m.
Where: 54 W. Chicago Avenue
Admission $7 with a glass of French wine
105 min- In French and Arabic, subtitles in English-

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For more information and registration: http://www.af-chicago.org/app/Calendar.php?event=900&type=

Uniting America Flag Day Celebration

We are two days away from the Uniting America Flag Day celebration! Are you ready to come and participate in cultural dialogues, enjoyvarious musical and dance performances, and call this a work day?

NAI is happy to announce that we will have three tables to display citizenship information and highlight the work of our partners in citizenship. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to provide information on all the other programs at your organizations, thus spreading the word and reaching a broader audience.

Would you like to tell people about the work that you do, and hopefully recruit them for your next workshop, health fair, or park clean up? This is the place to do it. Uniting America is working in collaboration with farmers market which will be taking place simultaneously. The rough estimate is that there will be over 5 thousand people coming through the event throughout the day.

When: Thursday, June 14, 2012

Time: 11:00-3:00pm

Where: Chicago Daley Plaza (50 W. Washington St.)

NPR: After Libya's War, Acts Of Vengeance

Listen to the Story

NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is taking a Revolutionary Road Trip across North Africa to see how the countries that staged revolutions last year are remaking themselves. Steve and his team are traveling some 2,000 miles from Tunisia's ancient city of Carthage, across the deserts of Libya and on to Egypt's megacity of Cairo. Near the Libyan coastal city of Misrata, he looks at violence that took place after the revolution.

I was talking with the newly elected head of the local council in Misrata, Libya, when he made a passing remark about the disturbed minds of his people.

I wanted to know more. "Do you think," I asked the councilman, Yusuf bin Yusuf, "that so many years under such a dictator affected the minds of Libyans?"

He answered immediately. "Gadhafi's regime has ended, but there is a small Gadhafi in everyone's brain."

It was hard to know if bin Yusuf found any irony in the statement. His city suffered cruelly at the hands of Moammar Gadhafi's troops. Gadhafi had famously promised to hunt down protesters against his rule "street by street, house by house, alley by alley," and he almost made good on that threat when his forces besieged Misrata.

But when his forces were driven away, it was the Misrata rebels who moved into a neighboring town accused of supporting Gadhafi, and destroyed it completely. Street by street, house by house, alley by alley.

Months after the war, tens of thousands of people remain homeless, with an uncertain future. The refugees are overwhelmingly black, referred to by their tormentors as "slaves."

Misrata's attacks on the people of Tawargha are so severe that the United Nations has labeled them "war crimes."

Misrata's destruction of Tawargha is not an easy story to tell, because Misrata residents fought and died to overthrow a dictator. In Misrata, you see burned and blasted buildings from last year's fighting. Very little has been repaired.

The city has created the Misrata War Museum, which includes some of the trophies of victory, ranging from Gadhafi's green chair to weapons captured from Gadhafi's forces.

An English class in the Tawargha refugee camp. Students here are studying a new history textbook that makes almost no mention of Gadhafi.

Yet after the gunmen of Misrata helped to win the war, they staged their act of retribution in Tawargha.

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For more information, click here

Source: NPR

Immigration lessons for the U.S. from around the world

Fareed Zakaria looks at how the immigration systems work – and don't work – in Japan, Europe, Canada and the U.S. in the TV special: "Global Lessons: The GPS Roadmap for Making Immigration Work" which aired on CNN on Sunday, June 10. Watch on CNN International on Saturday, June 16, at 4 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET 

Immigrants founded America hundreds of years ago, coming to the promised land in search of freedom and opportunity, in pursuit of the American dream.

Today, many Americans see immigrants as a danger to that dream.

They worry that immigrants are taking their jobs, using government services and changing the country's national identity. The average American believes that 39% of the U.S. population was born abroad. The real figure is 13%, still the highest level since 1920.

Related: How much do you know about U.S. immigration?

Immigration is divisive, a wedge issue in this election year. But most Americans (73%) agree that the government is doing a poor job of managing it.

So, how should the U.S. handle immigration? Does anyone else do it better? What can the U.S. learn from successes – and possible mistakes – from other countries?

Let’s look at three examples: Japan, Europe and Canada.

Source: CNN

COME BACK AFRICA

Jun 16, 2012 6:00 PM

Event

COME BACK AFRICAIn collaboration with the South African Consulate in Chicago, ADIFF-Chicago 2012 will pay homage to the 100 year anniversary of the ANC on South African Youth Day, June 16, with the screening of two important South African films: Come Back Africa, shot in 1960 during the apartheid era. and Nothing But The Truth, a film about the new South Africa directed by John Kani, one of the major cultural figures in that country.

FACETS CINEMATHEQUE

COME BACK AFRICA
Saturday, June 16 @ 6pm
Screening followed by a discussion with a South African Consulate representative and a reception. Sponsored by the South African Consulate - Chicago

Come Back, Africa (Brand New 35mm-Print!) Chicago Premiere

Filmed in secret from the South African government, Come Back, Africa is a devastating, yet uplifting street-level portrait of the inhumanities of state-sponsored racism, and the glimmers of hope found through community, dance and music. Convincing authorities that he was there to simply make a musical travelogue, director Lionel Rogosin went underground to film the fish-out-of-water story of a rural African who comes to Johannesburg looking for a dignified job, only to be mentally and physically battered by the realities of Apartheid. Ignored in the segregated U.S. upon its initial 1960 release, Come Back, Africa has brilliantly resurfaced to become one of the great cinematic historical documents of its era. Features young Miriam Makeba, who performs two full songs.

"A HEROIC FILM! This picture opened the eyes of many people to Apartheid myself included." Martin Scorsese

USA/South Africa, 1960, 83 min, drama, English, Lionel Rogosin, dir.

ICC staff 'in jail' in Libya after Saif Gaddafi visit

A legal team from The Hague has reportedly been jailed in Libya after being detained over a visit to Muammar Gaddafi's imprisoned son Saif al-Islam.

The four-strong International Criminal Court (ICC) team was moved to a jail in the mountain town of Zintan, a militia brigade chief told BBC News.

They were detained on Thursday and will be held for 45 days pending investigation, Ajami al-Ateri said.

A second ICC delegation has arrived in Libya in a bid to free them.

A member of the team being detained, Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor, has been accused of trying to pass documents to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who is also being held in Zintan.

A spokesman for Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib said the government's relations with the ICC could not be allowed to interfere with national security.

The four were moved to the jail in Zintan under orders from the attorney general's office and the defence ministry, said Mr Ateri, head of the Zintan brigade.

The Libyan foreign ministry confirmed the 45-day detention period but said the four were still being held in a guest-house.

Meanwhile, a convoy carrying the British ambassador came under attack in the city of Benghazi on Monday afternoon.

The embassy said two British "close protection officers" had been injured in the attack and were receiving medical treatment.

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For more information, visit the article here

Source: BBC News

South Korean charity opens a new world to two refugee women

SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA, June 6 (UNHCR) – Nasra Ali Barked has survived to the ripe age of 22 because she's been able to adjust quickly to change. But now, standing in the gleaming steel and glass arrivals hall of Incheon International Airport, the young Somali refugee seems completely overwhelmed by the futuristic world confronting her.

"I hope it will be a different life here," she whispers to her travelling companion, 19-year-old Farah Suleiman Omar, as the two Somali women embark on a quest to get an education half way around the world from a refugee camp in Ethiopia where they spent the last four years.

The two have received scholarships from the Won Buddhist charitable foundation Sam-Dong International of South Korea – scholarships originally intended for a different refugee girl in Ethiopia. Her bad luck opened the door for these two to be here today.

"All we know in life is violence, destruction, bloodshed and the loss of loved ones," says Nasra, describing her homeland of Somalia. She never knew her mother because her parents divorced when she was barely a year old. Her only two siblings died in infancy. Until Nasra was seven, she lived with her paternal grandmother, who died at about the same time her father disappeared in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

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Source: UNHCR

UK announces extra £10m ($15m) drought aid for West Africa

An additional £10m ($15m) will be provided by the UK for countries in West Africa facing the threat of drought, the government has announced.

Estimates suggest 1.5 million children in the Sahel region face starvation.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell urged other nations to follow the example of the UK, which has already committed £10m to the crisis.

"Britain will not sit back while children starve to death in the Sahel," he added.

In January, Oxfam and Save the Children said thousands of people in East Africa died needlessly from famine last year because the international community failed to heed early warnings.

Mr Mitchell urged his counterparts around the world to take action against the latest threat.

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Read more here

Source: BBC News

Ghana celebrates their victory over Losotho

Ghanaian players celebrate their victory over Lesotho (7-0) in the 2014 World Cup Qualifier

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Source: allAfrica

http://allafrica.com/view/match/main/main/id/0EmXO4NefgEA0_v4.html

Leading South African anthropologist dies

Phillip Tobias,86, was internationally renowned for his work on human evolution.

Anthropologist Phillip Tobias, internationally renowned as an authority on human evolution has died.

South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, where Tobias studied and then taught and conducted research until the 1990s, said he died on Thursday in a Johannesburg hospital after a long illness.

Tobias's name was synonymous with research at the Sterkfontein caves near Johannesburg where an ape-man's skeleton - millions of years old - known as Little Foot was discovered, the university said.

The area, now a World Heritage site, is where over a third of all known early hominid fossils have been found.

Tobias started a programme of excavation at Sterkfontein in 1966, which is now the longest continuously active palaeoanthropological dig anywhere in the world, and has produced over 1,000 hominin fossils, the country's Gauteng Tourism Authority said.

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For more on this article, click here

Source: Al Jazeera

Kenya minister among helicopter crash victims

Deaths of internal security minister George Saitoti and five others welcomed by al-Shabab as a "droplet of justice"

Kenya's minister for internal security, who once served as the country's vice president, and his deputy are among six people who died when a police helicopter crashed near the capital Nairobi, according to Kenyan officials.

Minister George Saitoti and his deputy, Orwa Ojode, were killed in the crash, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said on Sunday.

Two pilots and two bodyguards were also killed, officials said.

Saitoti, 66, was a candidate in next year's presidential election and a key figure driving his country's fight against al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab fighters in neighbouring Somalia.

Following news of his death, al-Shabab released a message on its Twitter account, saying: "[Al-Shabab] welcomes the death of the evil minister upon whose authorisation thousands of Muslims suffered both in Somalia and in Kenya."

"For the hundreds of Muslims killed and displaced by Kenya's brutal invasion, Saitoti's death is but a droplet of justice in a sea of oppression," the group tweeted.

The crash occurred in the Ngong hills on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, a police source told AFP, adding that the reason for the crash was not immediately clear.

Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, said investigations into the cause of the crash had started and that the cabinet would hold a special session on the incident.

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For more on this story, click here

Source: Al Jazeera

African leaders urge UN intervention in Mali

ECOWAS says a Chapter 7 UN mandate must be considered to reunite the country if talks with armed groups fail.

African leaders have called on the United Nations to back military intervention in northern Mali, currently controlled by feuding armed groups.

Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, the head of the ECOWAS Commission, the body that represents nations in West Africa,said on Thursday: "ECOWAS is ready to send men for this mission which will be costly and difficult due to the hostile terrain. It counts on the contribution of the international community.

"In order to do this it will introduce with the support of the African union a request to the Security Council of the United Nations to vote on a resolution that will give a legal framework and international legitimacy to our action."


Mali, once regarded as a fine example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum in the north that enabled Tuareg rebels to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country.

But the uprising also has involved a mix of local and foreign Islamists, who appear to be better armed and appear to have the upper hand in the rebel-occupied north with Western nations concerned about a real risk of the region slipping into a lawless no-man's land.

Source: Al Jazeera

Malawi not to host summit after row over Sudan leader

Malawi has said it will not host the African Union summit in July because of disagreements over the attendance of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.


Mr Bashir has been indicted for war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The AU has lobbied for the arrest warrant to be deferred and urged Malawi to allow Mr Bashir to attend.

"Much as we have obligations to the AU, we also have obligations to other institutions," the vice-president said.

Malawi's former leader, Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in April, had defied calls to apprehend Mr Bashir.

Since his death, his successor President Joyce Banda has taken steps to appease donors with a series of reforms.

Source: BBC News

End the Impunity in Eastern Congo: Hold US Ally to Account

Image provided by: easterncongo.org

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO ) recently revealed that the Rwandan government has a hand in the current instability in eastern Congo by giving support to the rebel groups National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and/or M23. This does not come as news to those who follow Congolese politics. Since 1996, the Rwandan government has acted as a major destabilizing force in the east of the Congo. Myriad studies and reports have documented how the Rwandan government has waged proxy wars through rebel groups, pilfering of Congo's resources and trading in hundreds of millions of dollars of conflict minerals.

Sign Petition

Sign this petition and let President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton know that you stand for peace in the Congo and the Great Lakes region of Africa. http://www.change.org/petitions/fully-implement-public-law-109-456 

West Africa: Sahel Food Crisis

"The high prices of basic foods are the most alarming feature of the current Sahel crisis, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Prices are expected to keep rising until the end of August - during the lean season - but the size of recent hikes has surprised food price analysts and humanitarian aid personnel." - IRIN humanitarian news and analysis

The food crisis in the Sahel, affecting some 18 million people, predicted by early warnings beginning in October 2011, is the result of multiple causes: drought, displacement of people and disruption of production due to conflict, and structural poverty combined with rising food prices that make existing food stocks too expensive for large sectors of the populations of the countries in the region.

As usual, the response by regional governments and international agencies is being justly criticized as too little, too late, and too focused on short-term emergency needs as compared with addressing long-term issues of agricultural sustainability and resilience to crises. Notably, however, these criticisms and attempts to change the patternare coming not only from outside commentators but also from within the agencies and governments themselves.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a UN press release, two informative articles from the UN humanitarian information service IRIN, and the press release from the meeting of West African states on the crisis held in Lome, Togo, on June 6.

For more information of the Sahel region of Africa, click this link

Malawi: IMF set to give $157m loan after Banda reforms

The International Monetary Fund has said it will lend Malawi $157m (£101m) to help its ailing economy.

Malawi has been beset with economic problems since the IMF sharply curtailed lending facilities last year.

Former leader Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in April, was widely criticised for a poor human rights record and mismanaging the economy.

His successor, President Joyce Banda, has taken steps to appease donors with a series of reforms.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and aid has been used to make up a large proportion of the national budget.

Last month, Mrs Banda devalued Malawi's currency, the kwacha, by one third against the dollar - a move Mr Mutharika resisted, despite demands from the IMF.

She also introduced a floating exchange rate regime and lifted controls on currency trading.

The IMF's mission head for Malawi, Tsidi Tsikata, said the new arrangement was subject to approval next month by the organisation's executive board.

The BBC Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says that Mrs Banda has been on a charm offensive to regain much-needed aid, following a year of shortages of fuel and foreign currency.

She has also said she wants Malawi to overturn its ban on homosexual acts.

Some Western leaders have suggested they could cut aid to countries which did not recognise gay rights.

Last week, the UK announced a £33m ($51m) aid package for Malawi.

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To view this article, please click here

Source: BBC News

Israel Speeds up Deportations After Attacks on African Refugees

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the "swift deportation" of 25,000 so-called illegal immigrants after demonstrations and attacks targeting immigrants in Tel Aviv, while the government is speeding up the building of a detention centre in the Negev desert to accommodate refugees who cannot be deported.






For more information on this, and other related articles, click here

Source: allAfrica

South Sudan asks officials to return stolen funds

In a letter that reveals a shocking level of government corruption, South Sudan President Salva Kiir has asked more than 75 former and current senior government officials to return an estimated $4bn in stolen funds to the country.

Corruption has plagued South Sudan's government since the 2005 peace deal that ended more than 20 years of civil war with Sudan.

In January, South Sudan's auditor general reported that nearly $1.5bn in government funds were unaccounted for from the 2005-06 fiscal year.


"Yet, once we got to power, we forgot what we fought for and began to enrich ourselves at the expense of our people.""We fought for freedom, justice and equality," the president's letter reads.

The letter was dated May 3 and was obtained by the Associated Press news agency over the weekend.

Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the country's information minister confirmed its authenticity on Monday.

The president wrote that South Sudan's citizens and the international community were "alarmed" by the levels of corruption and that "the credibility of our government is on the line".

He promised amnesty for officials who return stolen funds and to keep the identities of those officials confidential.

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For more information on this article, click here

Source: Al Jazeera

Calling all North African Musicians!

Are YOU or someone you know a North African Musician living in Chicago? 

If you, or someone you know are a North African musician, and would like your music featured in this months episode of African Voices, please contact the UAO for more information!

CONTACT: 

podcasts@uniteafricans.org | http://africansinchicago.org/africanvoices/

Naturalization Ceremony & Resolution Signing

Join in and celebrate Chicago's New Americans Initiative Resolution with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and USCIS Director Alejandra Mayorkas!

When: June 6, 2012

Where: 121 N. LaSalle, Chicago IL

2nd Floor, City Council Chambers

Time: 3:00- 4:00pm

ICIRR Reception with Director Mayorkas

Location: TBA

Time: 4:15-5:15

Want to become a U.S. Citizen?

Want to become a United States Citizen?

Contact the UAO's Community Outreach Coordinator TODAY!

Brent R. Hamlet

Community Outreach Coordinator

PH: (312)-949-9980

Email: brent.hamlet@uniteafricans.org

THE NEXT CITIZENSHIP WORKSHOP WILL BE:

Saturday, June 23, 2012
Where: Truman College (Cafeteria)
1145 W. Wilson Ave
Chicago, IL 60640
Time: 9:00-12:00pm

Counseling Strategies for Mental Health Professionals

Attend this training seminar and further develop your counseling skills and mental health strategies to better serve undocumented youth.  

Date: Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Time: 9:00-4:00pm

Location: Duke Ellington Ballroom, Holmes Student Center

Chicago World Refugee 2012

Join us for a day of soccer, games and fun honoring Chicago's growing refugee community!

Saturday, June 23rd at 12:00-4:00pm

Soccer Fields at Foster Beach

5200 N. Lakeshore Drive

Picnic, Soccer Tournament and Games!

*Please bring a meal to share!