Ei-iE

Recent workshops in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic reflect the growing emphasis on intra-regional partnership. In this spirit of cooperation, Gabriela Bonilla of the EI Latin American Regional Office in Costa Rica and Rosario Avila from the Honduran teacher union movement travelled to facilitate workshops in Caracas and Santo Domingo.

The Namibia National Teachers’ Union, NANTU, has produced a comprehensive HIV and AIDS Workplace Policy. The document, which was drafted in consultation with the legal assistance centre in Namibia, was launched on 21 June during the National Teachers’ Council Meeting. NANTU plans to attune their EFAIDS activities to the policy...

Mor Mbengue, Deputy Secretary General of the Senegalese Union Démocratique des Enseignantes et des Enseignants du Sénégal (UDEN) travelled to Bamako, Mali to share his knowledge of the new EFAIDS toolkits with Malian colleagues. Forty national facilitators of the Malian Syndicat National de l’Education et de la Culture (SNEC) from...

The Global Union AIDS Programme is organising a two-day Labour AIDS Forum to facilitate trade union cooperation in advance of the biennial International AIDS Conference taking place in Mexico City from 3-8 August 2008.

The first round of consultation on the drafting of the ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS in the World of Work will soon close.

One of the highlights of the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS held in New York on 10 - 11 June was the presentation of the progress report on the implementation of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

Odete Cossa recently joined WHO/AFRO and will liaise with the EFAIDS Programme in sub-Saharan Africa. She provides us with an insight into her work and her perspective of the EFAIDS partnership.

On 30 June, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) launched a national strike action to press the federal government to implement the promised Teachers’ Salary Structure.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is determined to help American educators create better opportunities for all children by improving education quality throughout the United States. He criticized the Bush administration for having failed to give teachers the means to achieve the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act, which...

Farzad Kamangar could face execution in the near future, according to the web site Human Rights Activists in Iran. On 11 July, the Iranian Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty against Kamangar, a 33-year-old Kurdish teacher and trade unionist.

EI echoes the call from Public Services International to free Meryem Özsögüt. A member of the executive committee of the Health Workers Trade Union (SES), Özsögüt has been in jail for the past six months for having done nothing more than attend a press conference to denounce the killing of...

The convicted murderer of Argentine teacher Carlos Fuentealba has been sentenced to life in prison by a court in Neuquén, the city in which he was killed during a peaceful teacher union demonstration last year.

The national campaign of intimidation against human and trade union rights activists continues even after Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for another 5-year term. This follows an election process described by the African Union as "falling short of accepted AU standards."

Late on 26 June, EI received a disturbing update from Gemoraw Kassa, General Secretary of the ETA, established in 1949 and EI Member, informing EI that the court of cassation at the Federal Supreme Court ruled against the original ETA, 26 June.

Education International and the Global Unions endorse the campaign statement and EI encourages affiliates to support it by sending their organisation’s name and email address to [email protected] with the subject ‘Statement Agreement’ before 30 June 2008.

On the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - observed every year on 26 June - EI pays tribute to the innocent trade union rights activists who are subjected to moral harassment, intimidation, physical assaults and torture for defending fundamental human rights.

Trade unionists, including educators from across Africa and from around the world have called for an official ILO Commission of Inquiry into Zimbabwe, as more reports of torture and murder of trade unionists emerge from the country.

Zimbabwean teachers are being severely targeted in the brutal reprisals now being meted out as Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party desperately cling to power. EI’s affiliate the Zimbabwe Teacher Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) both reported violence against teachers in the rural areas.