Vacancy - Senior Bookkeeper

Natural Justice is looking for a full-time Senior Bookkeeper who can assist our office manager in Cape Town in the financial management of the organisation, maintain established financial management systems, report to various stakeholders, and be prepared to execute all administrative tasks incidental to the finance department. 

Please download the call for applications for more information, including instructions for submitting an application. The deadline is 9 December 2013, 17h00 (GMT+1). Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. Thanks in advance and good luck!

Is Oil the End of Poverty in Kenya? Or are we seeing the new Scramble for Africa?

Map of Oil Exploration blocks in Kenya

From November 26-27th Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended a seminar on the extractives industry in Kenya entitled, ‘Kenya’s new natural resource discoveries: Blessing or Curse?’ The meeting was co-hosted by the Tax Justice Network Africa, Econews Africa, East Africa Tax and Governance Network, Kenya Human Rights Commission and Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group. Attendees ranged from Civil Society representatives from Kenya, Ghana, DRC and Zambia among others, as well as members of the Turkana and Endorois communities.

Some of the key issues raised in the various panels and plenary discussions included: 

• Should Kenya sign up to the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI)? 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development investors and governments 
• The importance of land for Africans, it is not really possible to compensate someone for the loss of something that makes up their very identity. For this reason, the idea of Shareholding Ownership Schemes was suggested as a progressive model to structure community benefits. This has successfully been implemented in some mining areas in Zimbabwe. 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development model?

African Regional Civil Society Convening on Human Rights and Business

From 25 to 27 November 2013, Stephanie Booker of Natural Justice attended the African Regional Civil Society Convening on Human Rights and Business in Accra, Ghana. With at least 20 participants from central, eastern, southern and western Ghana, the objectives of the meeting included: 

• Sharing of learning and skills on practical strategies for influencing state and company practices and polices to realize human rights, and the complex system of mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, for effective remedy; 
• Build understanding and relationships among African CSOs working to protect human rights where business activities occur;
• Design an agenda for an African regional coalition on human rights and business and engage with the 9th Biennial Conference of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions; 

The establishment of the African Coalition on Corporate Accountability (ACCA) emerged from this meeting and ACCA's first declaration was presented at the UN's second Forum on Business and Human Rights from 2 to 4 December in Geneva. You may find the declaration in English and French here.

Natural Justice Statement of Support

Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and the Environment is a not-for-profit association registered in South Africa since 2007. We work at the local, national, regional, and international levels with a wide range of partners, including in several countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in support of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ self-determination and the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources. Much of our work aims to ensure that procedural and substantive rights of marginalised peoples and communities, as well as responsibilities of duty-bearers, are represented and realised at all levels of law and policy.

One of our Fellows in India, Stella James, recently made a personal decision to write about her experience with sexual harassment. This was published online in the Journal of Indian Law and Society  on 6 November 2013 (http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/) and was subsequently featured in numerous online, national and international news outlets. On Monday 18 November, she made a statement before a 3-member Committee established by the Supreme Court of India to investigate the allegations. On Thursday 21 November, she wrote a second statement in the Journal of Indian Law and Society to clarify recent events (http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/statement-of-stella-james-21-11-2013-2/). We request media to refer to her original statements, which clearly state her views on the issue.

We condemn every form of harassment, assault and abuse of women, including in the legal profession itself. Women who face such attacks and decide to come forward with their experiences in the hopes of preventing others from facing the same are extraordinarily brave and must be supported in their individual struggles as we collectively strive for a world free of discrimination and injustice. We stand in solidarity with our team member and request all media to respect Stella’s privacy. Natural Justice will not respond to requests for comments or further information.

*     *     *

For information about Natural Justice, please see: www.naturaljustice.org

For Stella’s original statements, please see:

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/through-my-looking-glass/ and

http://jilsblognujs.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/statement-of-stella-james-21-11-2013-2/

Natural Justice visit Kutch, Gujarat

Revati Pandya and Arpitha Kodiveri of Natural Justice in India recently visited Kutch, Gujarat from November 19th-25th,
2013 to work with Sahjeevan in identifying legal issues that effect the camel maldharis that migrate through this vast landscape. Field visits with communities in Chhari Dhand, Lakhpat and the Banni area led to interesting insights into the nature of threats that the community faces from fast paced industrialization through the establishment of cement and chemical plants to restriction of grazing rights in mangrove and other protected areas. 

Coexistence of Culture, Environment & LAPSSET Theatre Performance

Save Lamu information booth at the Cultural Festival

On Saturday 21st November, Save Lamu Voices gave a theatre performance, entitled Coexistence of Culture, Environment & LAPSSET at the 13th Annual Lamu Cultural Festival. The workshops and performance were organized by one of Natural Justice’s partners, Save Lamu. 

The group Save Lamu Voices is a group of local actors, consisting of youth, women, and members of indigenous communities within the county such as the Bajun, Orma, Aweer and Sanye. The performance was the result of several weeks of participatory theatre workshops aiming to: 

1. Raise awareness amongst the community on the LAPSSET Project and extractives industries in Lamu; 
2. Foster dialogue amongst the community on dealing with the challenges of the impending port, including the preservation of the cultural and social identity of marginalized indigenous communities in Lamu. 

The Paudhi Bhuinya Community, Odisha, India

On November 20th 2013 a workshop on Biocultural Community Protocols was held in Bhatuda village, Odisha, India. The workshop was organized by Jeevan Vikash in collaboration with HBS-Natural Justice. George Pyara Jojo from Jeevan Vikash and Kishore Kumar Patnaik from HBS-Natural Justice took part in the workshop. Around 85 villagers belonging to: the Paudi Bhuinya Community (PBC), other Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes of Bhatuda Panchayat, participated in the workshop. The villagers shared and discussed their cultural activities and livelihoods. These traditions have been practiced by PBC for generations, many consisting of unwritten ceremonies and other beliefs of their ancestral system. 

Roundtable Meeting on the Effect of Oil and Mining Activities on Communities in Kenya

On November 19th Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended a roundtable meeting on the effect of oil and mining activities on communities in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting opened with a presentation by Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) researcher Joshua Laichena on an upcoming research project KIPPRA is undertaking with the Brookings Institute on the effects of oil and mining activities on communities in Turkana, Kwale and Kitui Counties. Currently, the research is in the planning phases, but it will hopefully be complete by March 2014. The research will consist of multi-stakeholder forums, community interviews and GIS mapping. 

Most attendees articulated that Kenya needs further laws to regulate this sector, especially as the legal landscape is changing very quickly. A need was expressed for a community engagement mechanism that will work for Kenya as a country. This should include good communication mechanisms to help the community to understand and participate in decision-making processes. Capacity-building is also necessary are communities are currently unable to negotiate for themselves (especially when up against well-paid international lawyers for investing companies). Natural Justice’s work with BCPs seems particularly relevant to these needs. 

Sacred Natural Sites Side Event as the Asian Parks Congress

The First Asian Parks Congress this year was held from 13-18th November in Japan, hosting over 800 people. The meeting is in preparation for the World Parks Congress in Sydney next near. The Sacred Natural Sites Initiative and WCPA Japan hosted a side event that discussed the richness and diversity of Sacred Natural Sites in Asia. Steps were also taken to establish as Asian Sacred Natural Sites network. Sacred Natural sites achieved a high profile overall over the course of the Asian Parks Congress and received substantial mention within the outputs of the meeting.

The key questions of the side event were:

1. To what extent do Sacred Natural Sites form the backbone of many protected areas in Asia, e.g. their cultural, spiritual and philosophical underpinnings?
2. What is the modern relevance of Ancestral Sacred Natural Sites to Protected Areas and how can this be better recognised and the traditional guardians be engaged?
3. How can we improve management effectiveness, governance and equity of Sacred Natural Sites within and outside government protected areas in Asia?

For more information, please see a full article on the event here. 

Field Visit to Sariska Tiger Reserve - Alwar, Rajasthan, India

Three team members from the NJ India office (Arpitha Kodiveri, Revati Pandya and Vaneesha Jain) visited the offices of the NGO Krapavis, Rajasthan, and also several villages inside Sariska Tiger Reserve. 

On 13th November, 2013, Arpitha, Revati and Vaneesha discussed the following issues with Aman Singh, who is running the NGO Krapavis based out of Alwar, Rajasthan:

• The status of relocation in 5 villages in Sariska Tiger Reserve as per the Relocation plan prepared by the Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Jaipur, in November 2009. It appears that relocated communities are not given adequate ownership rights over the new land, which needs further looking into. Further, it has come to light that in the relocation process of the village Kiraska, residents were forced to surrender any land they owned outside Kiraska to the Government as well, which is in complete violation of both enacted law and basic principles of fairness.