Makeni, Sierra Leone
Makeni, Sierra Leone Location in Sierra Leone
Coordinates: 8°52′54″N 12°02′39″W / 8.88167°N 12.04417°W / 8.88167; -12.04417
Country	Sierra Leone
Province	Northern Province
District	Bombali District
Chiefdom	Bombali Shebora
Government
• Type	City council
• Mayor	Moses Musa Sesay (APC)
Population
• Total	109,125 [1]
	2012 estimate
Time zone	GMT (UTC-5)

Makeni is the fourth largest city in Sierra Leone (after Freetown, Bo and Kenema) and the largest city and economic center of the Northern Province. The city is the capital of Bombali District and lies approximately 85 miles east of Freetown. The city is a major commercial, educational, tranportational and economic center. Makeni had a population of 80,840 in the 2004 census and a current estimate of 109,112[2].

The population of Makeni is ethnically diverse, though the Temne people make up the majority of the population. The Krio language is used as the primary language of communication among the different ethnic groups in the city, though the Temne language is also widely understood in the city.

Makeni is home to the St. Francis Secondary School, one of the most prominent secondary schools in Sierra Leone and is widely known for producing some of Sierra Leone's most gifted students. The city is also home to Makeni Teacher's College..

Makeni is one of Sierra Leone's six municipalities and is governed by a directly elected city council, headed by a mayor, in whom executive authority is vested. The mayor is responsible for the general management of the city. Makeni is political stronghold of the All People's Congress (APC), the current ruling party in Sierra Leone. Makeni is also the hometown of Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma, as he was born and raised in the city.

Football is by far the most popular sport in the city. The Sierra Leone professional football club the Wusum Stars, that is based in Makeni, represent the city in the Sierra Leone National Premier League.

Government[link]

The city of Makeni is one of Sierra Leone's six municipalities and is governed by a city council which is headed by a mayor in whom executive authority is vested. The mayor is responsible for the general management of the city and is elected directly by the residents of Makeni in municipal elections held every four years. The current mayor of Makeni is Moses Musa Sesay; who replaced Alhaji Andrew Kanu after the recently concluded Sierra Leone Local Government Elections in July 2008. He is a member of the ruling All People's Congress (APC). The city, along with the entire Bombali District, has always been a stronghold of the APC.

Sport[link]

Makeni is home to one of Sierra Leone's biggest and oldest football clubs called the Wusum Stars. The club currently playing in the Sierra Leone National Premier League, the top football league in the country. The club represents Makeni and the entire Bombali District. They won the Sierra Leonean FA Cup in 1979.

Media[link]

The local radio station that serves Makeni and the Bombali District is Radio Mankneh 95.1. Sierra Leone's national radio and television stations, SLBC (Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation) are on the air in the city, as well as The BBC World Service, CNN International, and several other private stations are on the air for those who have satellite.

Education[link]

Like the rest of Sierra Leone, Makeni has an education system with six years of primary school (Class 1-6), and six years of secondary school (Form 1-6); secondary schools are further divided into Junior secondary school (Form 1-3) and Senior secondary school (Form 4-6). Primary schools usually start from ages 6 to 12, and secondary schools usually start from ages 13 to 18. Primary Education is free and compulsory in government-sponsored public schools.

Aid from China[link]

In March 2010, the Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone, Qiu Shaofang traveled to the city on an official visit to donate one 16 kVA generator and nine sewing machines."China Donates to Makeni Council." Sierra Express Media. Sierra Express Media, 27 Mar. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. .

Notable people from Makeni[link]

• Ernest Bai Koroma, president of Sierra Leone
• Edward Turay, lawyer
• Brima Koroma, football star
• Daddi Cool, Sierra Leonean-born Guinean reggae musician
• Moses Musa Sesay, mayor of Makeni
• Mohamed Kamara, football star

References[link]

Coordinates: 08°52′54″N 12°02′39″W / 8.88167°N 12.04417°W / 8.88167; -12.04417

v t e Chiefdoms and towns of Bombali District Bombali Shebora - Makeni Makari Gbanti - Masongbon Sanda Tendaren - Mateboi Biriwa -Kamabai Magbaiamba Ndowahun - Kagbere Sanda Loko - Kamalo Safroko Limba - Binkolo Sella Limba - Kamakwie Tambakha - Fintonia Gbanti Kamaranka - Kamaranka Gbendembu Ngowahun - Kalangba Paki Massabong - Mapaki Libeisaygahun - Batkanu

Irene Khan
Native name	আইরিন খান
Born	(1956-12-24) 24 December 1956 (age 55) Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Ethnicity	Bengali
Education	Law
Alma mater	University of Manchester, Harvard Law School
Occupation	Consulting editor
Employer	University of Salford
Title	Chancellor
Predecessor	Professor Sir Martin Harris
Religion	Islam
Children	1 daughter
Relatives	Mahbub Ali Khan (uncle)
Website
www.irenekhan.org

Irene Zubaida Khan (born 24 December 1956) is a Bangladeshi human rights activist. She was the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International until her resignation on 31 December 2009.^[1][2] She was appointed as a member of the Charity Commission of England and Wales on 1 January 2010 but resigned after a controversy over post-retirement payoffs from Amnesty International. Khan joined The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, as consulting editor on 15 May 2010.^[3] She is the Chancellor of the University of Salford.^[4]

On 17 November 2011 she has been elected new Director-General of the International Development Law Organization - IDLO, an intergovernmental organization based in Rome, Italy.

Early life[link]

Irene Khan grew up in a relatively wealthy family in Bangladesh. She was the star pupil at St Francis Xavier's Green Herald International School where she was the record holder at the school leaving examinations. The daughter of a non-practicing medical doctor Sikander Ali Khan, granddaughter of Cambridge graduate and barrister Ahmed Ali Khan and great granddaughter of an eminent doctor of Calcuuta who was the personal physician of Syed Hasan Imam. Her uncle Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan was the chief of the Bangladesh Navy. Khan‘s great-great uncle Ghazanfar Ali Khan was the first Muslim Cambridge graduate from Sylhet. Irene’s first cousin Zubaida Rahman is married to Tarique Rahman the son of a former prime minister and a president of Bangladesh. During her upbringing, East Pakistan – now Bangladesh – was fighting for independence from Pakistan. Human rights abuses that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in which Bangladesh achieved independence, helped shape teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland.^[5] Khan then went to England and studied law at the University of Manchester and then, in the United States, at Harvard Law School. She specialized in public international law and human rights She is the Chancellor of the University of Salford.^[4]

Career[link]

Human rights[link]

Khan helped to create the organisation Concern Universal in 1977, an international development and emergency relief organisation. She began her career as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists in 1979.

Khan went to work at the United Nations in 1980. She spent 20 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In 1995 she was appointed UNHCR Chief of Mission in India, becoming the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time.

During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Khan led the UNHCR team in the Republic of Macedonia. This led to her being appointed as Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.

Khan is featured in a 2003 TV documentary titled “Human Rights,” by French award-winning filmmaker Denis Delestrac. The film, shot in Colombia, Israel, Palestine and Pakistan, analyses how armed conflicts affect civilian communities and foster forced migration.

Amnesty International[link]

Khan at the World Economic Forum 2007

Khan joined Amnesty International in 2001 as its Secretary General.^[4] In her first year of office, she reformed Amnesty’s response to human rights crises and launched the campaign to close Guantanamo prison camp. In 2004 she initiated a global campaign to stop violence against women. In May 2009 Khan launched Amnesty's “Demand Dignity” campaign to fight human rights abuses that impoverish people and keep them poor.^[4]

Controversy[link]

In February 2011, newspaper stories ^[6][7][8] in the UK revealed that Khan had received a payment of UK £533,103 from Amnesty International following her resignation from the organisation on 31 December 2009,^[1] a fact discovered in Amnesty's records for the 2009–2010 financial year. The sum paid to her was in excess of four times her annual salary of £132,490.^[1] The deputy secretary general, Kate Gilmore – who also resigned in December 2009 – received an ex-gratia payment.^[1][9] Peter Pack, the chairman of Amnesty's international executive committee, said on 19 February 2011, “The payments to outgoing secretary general Irene Khan shown in the accounts of AI (Amnesty International) Ltd for the year ending March 31st 2010 include payments made as part of a confidential agreement between AI Ltd and Irene Khan.”^[9] and that “It is a term of this agreement that no further comment on it will be made by either party.”^[1] On 21 February Pack issued a further statement, in which he said that the payment was a “unique situation” that was “in the best interest of Amnesty’s work” and that there would be no repetition of it.^[1] He stated that "the new secretary general, with the full support of the IEC, has initiated a process to review our employment policies and procedures to ensure that such a situation does not happen again."^[1] Pack also stated that Ammesty was “fully committed to applying all the resources that we receive from our millions of supporters to the fight for human rights.”^[1] In a statement^[10] released by Pack following the media coverage of the story, Pack described the decision to award the payment to Khan as the “least worst option.”^[11] Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, decried the payment, telling the Daily Express, “I am sure people making donations to Amnesty, in the belief they are alleviating poverty, never dreamed they were subsidizing a fat cat payout. This will disillusion many benefactors.”^[9] On 14 March 2011, Irene Khan resigned as UK Charity Commissioner, a public office taken up by Khan in early 2010 after leaving Amnesty, citing lack of time due to overseas commitments. Some had questioned Khan's appointment to the board of the charity regulator in the aftermath of the pay-off scandal. Announcing Khan’s resignation from the Charity Commission, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: “Charities have a critical role to play in the Big Society and the Charity Commission, as the independent regulator has the important job of supervising the sector and preserving public confidence in charities.”^[12]

Other humanitarian initiatives[link]

In 2009 Khan was featured in the project “Soldiers of Peace,” an anti-war film.^[13][14]

Awards[link]

Khan received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1979 and the Pilkington “Woman of the Year” Award 2002^[2] as well as the Sydney Peace Prize 2006. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate at the Ghent University.^[15] She received honorary doctorates from University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies), Manchester, St. Andrews, Salford and Staffordshire in UK, American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Ferris University (Japan), and State University of New York (USA). In 2008 she was one of the two persons whose name was put forward for the election of the new Chancellor of The University of Manchester.^[16] In July 2009 she was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Salford.^[4] On 29 June 29 2010 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh.

Publications[link]

• 2009: The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights (W.W. Norton & Co.) : ISBN 0-393-33700-6, translated in French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Italian, Korean, and special South Asia edition by Viva, New Delhi.

See also[link]

• British Bangladeshi
• List of British Bangladeshis

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Irene Khan

• Official Website
• Irene Khan on Twitter
• Amnesty International - Listen to Women: Irene Khan
• Harvard Law School - Practitioners of Conscience: Irene Khan
• Listen to Irene Kahn on The Forum from the BBC World Service
• Khan, Irene. "You Cannot Import Human Rights". Qantara.de. 26 August 2009
• Irene Khan on The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights - video by Democracy Now!
• Letter from Khan's lawyers to Civil Society on her salary and severance package