Ei-iE

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.

Harassment and intimidation of teachers and their trade unions continues in Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the June 27 election to determine whether Robert Mugabe of the ZANU-PF or his opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai will win the presidency.

Education International has taken up the cause of Farzad Kamangar, a 32-year-old Iranian teacher and trade unionist who has been repeatedly tortured in custody and sentenced to death by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

“Bullying has butted its way into the digital age, negatively affecting the lives of students and educators. As with other complex educational problems, cyberbulling has no easy solutions.”

The Iraqi Teachers’ Union (ITU) is calling on its members and branch leaders to be vigilant in protecting their organisation from being used by any political party or group in the months leading up to the governorate elections expected before October.

Around 50.000 teachers in Germany are victims of cyberbullying, the Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW) reveales in a study on cyberbullying released on 27 May.

Teachers and human and trade union rights activists worldwide are invited to support their colleagues in Zimbabwe by responding to theEI Urgent Action Appeal . So far, over a dozen teacher unions have condemned the violations of basic human and trade union rights against teachers.

A four day EFAIDS training of trainers workshop took place from March 19-22 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The meeting brought together teachers from across the country and engaged them with EFAIDS issues which will then be communicated to wider audiences of teachers and learners in their workplaces and regions.

The post-election unrest in Kenya has not dulled the commitment of the Kenya National Union of Teachers to advancing EFA and halting HIV and AIDS. The union gathered forty of their members in Ngong Town, southern Kenya, to participate in a national training of trainers (TOTs) session on April 23,...

The 2nd National Seminar on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) /AIDS, organised by the Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Educação (CNTE) between March 31 – April 2, 2008, provided an opportunity for debate and progress on themes related to the EFAIDS programme.

World AIDS Day, 1st December, is an important date in the EFAIDS Calendar and in 2007 many unions took the opportunity to scale-up their HIV and AIDS education around the occasion. Affiliates accounts of activities and images of events have been compiled into a concise report available to download through...

The International Labour Organisation launched its second SHARE (Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses in Enterprises) report in April 2008. EntitledSaving Lives, Protecting Jobs , it reports on workplace interventions and profiles success stories from over 650 workplaces worldwide.

Helena Awurusa attended the Third Commonwealth Teacher Research Symposium held in Maputo, Mozambique from 19-21 February, 2008. The theme for this year was, ‘Gender, HIV/AIDS and the Status of Teachers’.

Trade union leaders from the G8 countries and global labour organizations called for action from the G8 on the worsening jobs situation and the global food crisis at a meeting in Tokyo with the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on 13 May as part of the preparations for the G8...

EI strongly protests the arrest of Raymond Majongwe, the General Secretary of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). Majongwe was picked up by the police on May 15 at the High Court of Zimbabwe where he was attending a hearing in which leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade...

Violence continues in Zimbabwe following the drawn out election process and affects particularly trade unionists and teachers. The EI affiliate ZIMTA witnessed "many teachers in rural areas being killed, maimed, wantonly tortured and abused".