African Human Rights Law Reports 2009


Book Description

African Human Rights Law Reports 2009 Edited by The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights & the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria 2011 ISSN: 1812-2418 Pages: xxxvi 376 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication The African Human Rights Law Reports include cases decided by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, subregional courts in Africa and domestic judgments from different African countries. The Reports are a joint publication of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. PULP also publishes the French version of these Reports, Recueil Africain des Décisions des Droits Humains. The Reports, as well as other material of relevance to human rights law in Africa, may be found on the website of the Centre for Human Rights at www.chr.up.ac.za. Hard copies of the Reports can be obtained from the Centre for Human Rights. Editorial changes have been kept to a minimum, and are confined to changes that are required to ensure consistency in style (with regard to abbreviations, capitalisation, punctuation and quotes) and to avoid obvious errors related to presentation. Cases from national courts that would be of interest to include in future issues of the Reports may be brought to the attention of the editors at: Centre for Human Rights Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002 South Africa Fax: + 27 12 362-5125 E-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents Editorial User guide Abbreviations Case law on the internet TABLES AND INDEXES Table of cases Alphabetical table of cases Subject index International instruments referred to International case law considered African Commission decisions according to communication numbers CASES United Nations human rights treaty bodies African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Sub-regional courts Domestic decisions




The African Regional Human Rights System


Book Description

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.




African Human Rights Law Reports 2011


Book Description

African Human Rights Law Reports 2011 Edited by The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights & the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria 2014 ISSN: 1812-2418 Pages: 241 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication The African Human Rights Law Reports include cases decided by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, subregional courts in Africa and domestic judgments from different African countries. The Reports are a joint publication of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. PULP also publishes the French version of these Reports, Recueil Africain des Décisions des Droits Humains. The Reports, as well as other material of relevance to human rights law in Africa, may be found on the website of the Centre for Human Rights at www.chr.up.ac.za. Hard copies of the Reports can be obtained from the Centre for Human Rights. Editorial changes have been kept to a minimum, and are confined to changes that are required to ensure consistency in style (with regard to abbreviations, capitalisation, punctuation and quotes) and to avoid obvious errors related to presentation. Cases from national courts that would be of interest to include in future issues of the Reports may be brought to the attention of the editors at: Centre for Human Rights Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002 South Africa Fax: + 27 12 362-5125 E-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents Editorial User guide Abbreviations Case law on the internet TABLES AND INDEXES Table of cases Alphabetical table of cases Subject index International instruments referred to International case law considered African Commission decisions according to communication numbers CASES United Nations human rights treaty bodies African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Sub-regional courts Domestic decisions




The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights in Context


Book Description

This volume analyses the prospects and challenges of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples' Rights in context. The book is for all readers interested in African institutions and contemporary global challenges of peace, security, human rights, and international law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.




African Human Rights Law Reports 2010


Book Description

African Human Rights Law Reports 2010 Edited by The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights & the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria 2013 ISSN: 1812-2418 Pages: xxxi 239 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication The African Human Rights Law Reports include cases decided by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, subregional courts in Africa and domestic judgments from different African countries. The Reports are a joint publication of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. PULP also publishes the French version of these Reports, Recueil Africain des Décisions des Droits Humains. The Reports, as well as other material of relevance to human rights law in Africa, may be found on the website of the Centre for Human Rights at www.chr.up.ac.za. Hard copies of the Reports can be obtained from the Centre for Human Rights. Editorial changes have been kept to a minimum, and are confined to changes that are required to ensure consistency in style (with regard to abbreviations, capitalisation, punctuation and quotes) and to avoid obvious errors related to presentation. Cases from national courts that would be of interest to include in future issues of the Reports may be brought to the attention of the editors at: Centre for Human Rights Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002 South Africa Fax: + 27 12 362-5125 E-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents Editorial User guide Abbreviations Case law on the internet TABLES AND INDEXES Table of cases Alphabetical table of cases Subject index International instruments referred to International case law considered African Commission decisions according to communication numbers CASES United Nations human rights treaty bodies African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Sub-regional courts Domestic decisions




The African Criminal Court


Book Description

This book offers the first comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the provisions of the ‘Malabo Protocol’—the amendment protocol to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights—adopted by the African Union at its 2014 Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The Annex to the protocol, once it has received the required number of ratifications, will create a new Section in the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights with jurisdiction over international and transnational crimes, hence an ‘African Criminal Court’. In this book, leading experts in the field of international criminal law analyze the main provisions of the Annex to the Malabo Protocol. The book provides an essential and topical source of information for scholars, practitioners and students in the field of international criminal law, and for all readers with an interest in political science and African studies. Gerhard Werle is Professor of German and Internationa l Crimina l Law, Criminal Procedure and Modern Legal History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice. In addition, he is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and Honorary Professor at North-West University of Political Science and Law (Xi’an, China). Moritz Vormbaum received his doctoral degree in criminal law from the University of Münster (Germany) and his postdoctoral degree from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is a Senior Researcher at Humboldt-Universität, as well as a coordinator and lecturer at the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice.




The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights


Book Description

This book is an in-depth study of the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights, written with the insight of an insider. It assesses the effectiveness of the Charter and of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in its formative years. It also compares the Charter with other major human rights instruments. The author asserts that respect for human rights made the existence of African societies possible despite the eras of gross violation. The survival of African societies, indeed their continued development, depends on respect for human rights. While conceding the universality of human rights, the author underscores African specificities and pecularities. He discusses the proper limits of `exclusively internal matters', as often claimed by African spokesmen, and puts forward the legitimate concerns of the international community as an effective check to arbitrariness and other violations. The book will be of special interest to international lawyers, law students, the judiciary and foreign office officials. The human rights activist will find it particularly useful in dealing with the African situation.




Citizenship Law in Africa


Book Description

Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country to which they belong. Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of the continent, according to this report by the Open Society Institute. Citizenship Law in Africa is a comparative study by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project. It describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state, and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international legal norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It describes how stateless Africans are systematically exposed to human rights abuses: they can neither vote nor stand for public office; they cannot enroll their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government.--Publisher description.




Model Law on Access to Information for Africa and other regional instruments: Soft law and human rights in Africa


Book Description

Model Law on Access to Information for Africa and other regional instruments: Soft law and human rights in Africa Edited by Ololade Shyllon 2018 ISBN: 978-1-920538-87-3 Pages: 255 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication The adoption in 2013 of the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is an important landmark in the increasing elaboration of human rights-related soft law standards in Africa. Although non-binding, the Model Law significantly influenced the access to information landscape on the continent. Since the adoption of the Model Law, the Commission adopted several General Comments. The AU similarly adopted Model Laws such as the African Union Model Law on Internally Displaced Persons in Addressing Internal Displacement in Africa. This collection of essays inquires into the role and impact of soft law standards within the African human rights system and the AU generally. It assesses the extent to which these standards induced compliance, and identifies factors that contribute to generating such compliance. This book is a collection of papers presented at a conference organised by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, with the financial support of the government of Norway, through the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria. Following the conference, the papers were reviewed and reworked. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface Contributors Abbreviations and acronyms PART I: THE MODEL LAW AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN AFRICA Introduction Ololade Shyllon The impact of the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa Fola Adeleke Implementing a Model Law on Access to Information in Africa: Lessons from the Americas Marianna Belalba and Alan Sears The implementation of the constitutional right of access to information in Africa: Opportunities and challenges Ololade Shyllon PART II: COUNTRY STUDIES The Model Law on Access to Information for Africa and the struggle for the review and passage of the Ghanaian Right to Information Bill of 2013 Ugonna Ukaigwe The impact of the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa on Kenya’s Access to Information framework Anne Nderi The Sudanese Access to Information Act 2015: A step forward? Ali Abdelrahman Ali Compliance through decoration: Access to information in Zimbabwe Nhlanhla Ngwenya PART III: INFLUENCE OF SOFT LAW WITHIN THE AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM Soft law and legitimacy in the African Union: The case of the Pretoria Principles on Ending Mass Atrocities Pursuant to Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act Busingye Kabumba The incorporation of the thematic resolutions of the African Commission into the domestic laws of African countries Japhet Biegon General Comment 1 of the African Commission of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights: A source of norms and standard setting on sexual and reproductive health and rights Ebenezer Durojaye The African Union Model Law on Internally Displaced Persons: A critique Romola Adeola Selected bibliography




Human Rights in Africa


Book Description