Rights In Africa Research Articles

An Unintended Legacy: The External Policy Responses of the USA and European Union to Conflict Minerals in Africa

Competition over environmental and natural resources characteristically lies at the heart of armed conflicts in Africa. It is also common knowledge that some companies dealing in products such as laptops, smart phones, and jewellery import minerals from conflict-affected areas, thereby indirectly fuelling conflicts in these areas or undermining human rights. For a continent endowed with natural resources including minerals, Africa has suffered the brunt of this predicament. This state of affairs has lent impetus to the adoption of several regulations geared towards curbing irresponsible business practices by companies relying on such minerals, the goal being, amongst others, to guarantee the protection of human rights. In May 2017, the European Union adopted regulations intended to stop the importation of conflict minerals in Europe, debatably making giant strides in the direction of the protection of human rights. These regulations are to come into force in 2021. However, can these regulations advance the much-desired goal of the protection of human rights in Africa on issues pertaining to conflict minerals? By analyzing the 2017 EU regulations in light of previous regulations of a similar nature, the paper concludes that the said regulations constitute a weak normative framework and could in fact have unintended consequences on the fundamental rights of civilians in natural resource-rich conflict areas of Africa.

Afrokology and the Right to Communicate in Africa

This article argues for a reconstruction of communication rights theories from an African episteme and experience. It reviews the impact of key national, continental and international legal instruments as they pertain to communication rights in Africa, with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe. Using an Afrokological heuristic tool, it critically evaluates how the key legal instruments underpinning the right to communicate are developed and encountered in lived experience in decolonising Southern African contexts. We argue that an Afrokological orientation built on epistemological interconnectedness and conviviality may lead to insights otherwise not accessible. It can help awaken a new relational accountability that promotes respectful representation, reciprocity, and rights in communication policy processes in line with the lived experiences of those it is meant to benefit.

The rights of women and girls are not negotiable.

This opinion piece was first published in Newsweek on February 5, 2021 at 5.30 AM, EST. Because of its importance for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Africa, the AJRH obtained the permission of Dr Natalia Kanem and Newsweek to publish it in this edition of the journal without alteration. We believe the restoration of funding to the UNFPA by the US government (which this journal suggested should happen in a December 2020 editorial 1 ) holds great promise for marginalized women and girls in Africa who look up to this unique global institution for social restitution and social justice. We salute the Biden administration for keeping faith with humanity, as this step will help the attainment of the UN sustainable development goals and those of UNFPA on achieving zero maternal deaths, gender-based violence and unmet need for contraception by 2030.

Litigating socio-economic and women’s rights in Benin’s constitutional court

Abstract Scholars debate the role of legal institutions in promoting human rights in Africa. Much of the discussion focuses on Anglophone countries and does not examine the gender of litigants. We propose a constitutionalism constrained perspective that argues that which and whose rights are adjudicated are shaped by the context of constitutional reform. Where reformists are primarily concerned with safeguarding civil and political rights, high courts may protect civil and political rights claims more often than socio-economic ones. Examining hundreds of human rights decisions issued by Benin’s Constitutional Court, we ask, which and whose rights does the court protect? We find the court is more likely to reject litigants’ claims on technical grounds when the issues involve socio-economic rights than when they concern civil or political rights. When a case is heard, moreover, the court finds violations of civil and political rights more often than socio-economic rights. Further, we find that an overwhelming percentage of litigants are men; women rarely appear as petitioners, although when women’s claims are heard, they are just as likely to succeed. Our findings about socio-economic rights and gender in Benin’s Constitutional Court have broader implications for understanding the limitations of constitutional reform.

Marius Schneider/Vanessa Ferguson: Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa

The authors of ‘Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa’, Marius Schneider and Vanessa Ferguson, both look back on more than 20 years of practical experience in protecting and enforcing IP rights in Africa. In a 2015 article of the same name, they already concluded that the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Africa remained a complex issue, largely due to the lack of harmonization in anti-counterfeiting measures. While the two authors observed steady progress at that time, Schneider and Ferguson now see a significant acceleration in this advancement. On close to 1000 pages, this book marks nothing less than the ‘beginning of a knowledge-sharing process’, as is described in the Preface. Closing a gap in legal literature, this is the first work dedicated to providing a detailed overview of IP rights enforcement in all 54 countries of the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent. Written in plain language and...

VATSONGA PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

This article is based on the findings of a qualitative study that explored the Vatsonga people’s perceptions of children’s rights to protection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 community-based participants and 11child protection social workers who were familiar with the Vatsonga people's cultural heritage. Key informant and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select the community-based participants and availability sampling for selecting the social work participants. The study established that the Vatsonga people recognise the provision, protection and participation rights of children. Child participation is perceived as comprised of childhood responsibilities, not the right to be heard perse. The paper argues that some of the purported violations of child rights in Africa emanate from the universal application of a Eurocentric worldview of children’s rights. We conclude that to understand child rights in Africa, African people should be allowed to contribute to the construction of an indigenised and contextualised perspective on child rights.

Universal human rights vs cultural & religious variations: an African perspective

Abuse of human rights in Africa seems to be commonplace under the guise of culture and religion. This research explored the intersection between human rights and culture in the context of the unive...

Understanding the privacy rights of the African child in the digital era

SUMMARY Africa is increasingly welcoming and participating in the technological revolution that is occurring the world over. A significant rise in access to the internet and other digital technologies means that children can engage, communicate, share, learn and develop in previously unimaginable ways. Technology, to a large extent, has fundamentally changed the way in which children exercise and realise their rights. This article argues that in order for children to be safe and empowered both on and off-line - and have their privacy respected, protected and promoted - a variety of stakeholders need to come to the table. Drawing on recent international developments around children's rights in a digital environment, this article reflects on the various roles of key stakeholders in advancing the privacy rights of children. The article submits that the advancement of children's privacy rights in Africa is indeed achievable and attainable, provided there are collaborative commitments from public and private decision makers and parents, caregivers and guardians and, importantly, that children are part of the solution. As we look to the future of the right to privacy in Africa, the article concludes with a selection of recommendations on the right to privacy going forward. Key words: children's right to privacy; technological advancements; digital spaces; multi-sectoral approach; children's participation

A right to asylum? Ensuring effective protection of migrant children’s rights in Africa

A right to asylum? Ensuring effective protection of migrant children’s rights in Africa

The Protection of Refugee Children in Africa: Post-Convention on The Rights of The Child

The plight of refugees is currently one of the concerning global human rights issues. The refugee population is largely comprised of women and children who become displaced during armed conflicts; this is because the majority of persons killed or who become victims of forced disappearance are men. Forcibly displaced children face direct physical threats, as well as a variety of health-related problems. Although forcibly displaced children generally include those who are not refugees, this contribution is only concerned with refugee children. Refugee children are vulnerable to different types of abuse and exploitation, and often become the target of discrimination, sexual exploitation and social marginalisation in the refugee transit camps and countries of exile. Although the Convention on the Rights of Child, 1989 was adopted to protect children’s rights worldwide, the true impact of these provisions remains uncertain. This contribution examines the extent to which the adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is promoted in Africa. This study compares the situation in South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia to pinpoint the legal and practical challenges that face refugee children in those countries. The contribution concludes with recommended solutions for effectively protecting and promoting refugee children’s rights in Africa.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND REGIONAL COOPERATION IN AFRICA: SADC AND THE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE

Since the early 1990s African regional and continental organisations have been playing an active role in maintaining military security and promoting democracy, good governance and respect for human rights in Africa. However, their efforts have often proved ineffective. This article contributes to the analysis of the causes of the difficulties African multilateral organisations have been facing in promoting democracy and human rights on the continent through a case-study of SADC's policy towards the crisis in Zimbabwe. The article shows that SADC efforts aimed at restoring democracy and putting an end to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe were critically hampered by the history of political antagonism among the Southern African governments, and by SADC's inability to draw a clear distinction between respect for human rights and the promotion of a neoliberal strategy of regional development. In the end, SADC diplomatic efforts were caught between the demagogic rhetoric of the ZANU-PF regime as represented by President Mugabe, and the international consensus on development. SADC ultimately proved unable to both help redress the deep economic and social inequalities in Zimbabwe and uphold human rights in the country

Heteroerotic Failure and “Afro-queer Futurity” in Mohamed Camara’s Dakan

ABSTRACT The year 1997 marked the release of Mohamed Camara’s film Dakan, which centers on two young men entangled in a homoerotic affair. Africa’s first LGBT film produced by an African filmmaker, Dakan featured explicit scenes of homoerotic love on the cinematic screen. While the film, upon its release, invited negative criticisms from Guinea where the plot of the film was set, it was paradoxically heralded in Europe and the United States as marking Africa’s triumphant entry into the liberal LGBT world. I pose the following questions: How does the film’s renunciation of heterosexual permanence valorize homoerotic possibility? How do the attempts by the young men’s parents’ to constrain them, through ritual practices, forced marriage, and the promise of wealth, create an archive of homosexual panic and enforce a postcolonial heteronationalist disorder? I argue that the film, unlike consequent documentaries on the situation of LGBT human rights in Africa, foregrounds a uniquely resilient queer African agency that nevertheless envisions a future of uncertainty.

Presence through absence? Understanding the role of capital in the African Human Rights Action Plan

AbstractThis study examines the African Human Rights Action Plan (AHRAP) through the lens of Upendra Baxi's germinal theory on the emergence in our time of a ‘trade-related, market-friendly human rights’ (TREMF) thesis that is challenging the specific understandings of ‘people-centric’ human rights that are predicated in the letter and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDH). Baxi contends, instead, that the dominant strands of the contemporary understandings of human rights are – for the most part – designed to protect the interests of global capital. That said, human rights frameworks in low-income countries need to be studied with a view to what they say and don't say about global capital. Despite its attempt to facilitate a progressive realisation of human rights in Africa, the AHRAP does not rise far enough above the TREMF paradigm to re-locate itself within the UDH one. This is due to the AHRAP not adequately theorising and analysing the role of capital in the (non)realisation of human rights in Africa. By allowing trade and market practices to slip to a significant extent beyond its purview, the AHRAP privileges – to a significant degree – the needs/interests of capital over the human rights of ordinary Africans. That is, the victims of the excesses of capital in Africa are reincarnated in the AHRAP document by the fact of their exclusion from it.

Do Truth and Reconciliation Committees Improve Human Rights? Evidence From Africa

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of truth and reconciliation committees (TRCs) on human rights in Africa. It examines the effects of fifteen different TRCs from 1984–2014, and fills a gap in the existent literature by developing measures to assess the strength of each TRC. Many African TRCs are quite weak. Nevertheless, the study does not find that stronger TRCs are more successful in terms of human rights outcomes. While not dismissing the value of TRCs, this work discusses limitations of quantitative studies on their impact.

The politics of natural resource investments and rights in Africa: A theoretical approach

Over the past decade and a half, large-scale investments in natural resources in African countries have increased dramatically. While investments in natural resources and agriculture have become more important for African economies, since they have stimulated economic growth and made regimes dependent on rents and revenues for their own survival, surprisingly many investments fail to be implemented or fall through during implementation. Furthermore, natural resource investments often end up violating the rights of local populations, which can lead to severe social protests and political instability, as well as limiting the ‘development’ impact. In this article, we develop a theoretical approach focusing on the three-way relationship between investors, local populations and ruling elites and the wider context in which these relations are embedded. We argue that investments are more likely to be implemented and the procedural rights of local populations respected when relationships are characterized by ‘reciprocal exchange deals’ between investors and local populations, ‘compatible interests’ between ruling elites and investors, and ‘mutual recognition’ between local populations and ruling elites. We use eight examples of investments drawn from Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda to explore the potential of this theoretical approach in explaining the circumstances in which the procedural rights of local populations are or are not respected and investments are or are not implemented.

Users' perceived level of service at the African Union Court on Human and Peoples' Rights library in Arusha, Tanzania

PurposeThe study examined users' perceived level of service at the African Union Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (AUCHPR) library in Arusha, Tanzania.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a quantitative approach in line with the tenets of the LibQUAL and SERVQUAL protocols, which were used as theoretical lenses and informed the development of questionnaires which were used to collect data. The target population consisted of 94 library users.FindingsThe study found that the library's best services, in terms of their quality and as perceived by users, lie in its human resources (i.e. affect of service, assurance and responsiveness). On the other hand, the lowest perceived level of services was recorded in the aspects related to information collection and physical facilities (i.e. library as a place and tangibles).Research limitations/implicationsThis study was based on the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights library in Arusha, Tanzania. The study covered both internal and external users of the library.Practical implicationsThe study identified strengths and weaknesses of the African Court library as far as the perceived level of service is concerned, and the findings can therefore be used to inform decisions on the improvement of quality of the library services. In so doing, the library will be in a stronger position to offer quality services and assist the court in attaining its objectives of promoting and protecting human rights in Africa. With improved library service quality, the non-judicial staff, external users and society in general will stand to benefit from the library.Originality/valueWhile drawing lessons from previous service quality studies, this study is the first quality assessment study to be done in the African Court library. It is also the first to use a combination of LibQUAL and SERVQUAL models in the context of the African Court library services.

Interrogating Liberal Theories of Rights

In this essay, I set out to interrogate (1) liberal theories of rights rooted in the French, North American, and Haitian revolutionary experiences of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; (2) the institutional legacy of colonialism in regard to rights; and (3) the crisis of rights in Africa as it relates to the management of pluralistic societies. The African context shows that where this has been absent, liberal rights theories have set in motion a system based on a conceptualization of citizenship that increasingly disenfranchizes mobile labor. In Africa, unlike in Europe or in the United States, there is no convergence of social and political history of a people. Next, I discuss the profound transformation brought about by colonialism that in turn undermined African structures of authority; people’s relationships to land; relationships to other peoples; and gender and generational relationships to communities. These had a negative effect on rights throughout the continent.

The Role of African Court on Human and Peoples’ Right for Human Rights Protection: The Case of Libyan Crises

The emergence of regional human rights systems depicts one of the greatest achievements in the internationalization of human rights. The foundation of the charter paved the way for the birth of the court thereafter. The African Court is established by virtue of the 1998 protocol to the Charter and the court is built upon an arsenal of protective and remedial techniques. The establishment of the court has reset the stage and created a new platform for the protection of human rights in Africa. The cardinal objective of the paper is to investigate the role of African Court on human and Peoples’ rights protection in Libya Crises taking the case of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi. The paper has utilized qualitative methodology. The government of Libya responded with brutal force against civilian protesters in contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. The security force of the government of Libya killed many protesters as well. This situation intensified human rights violations and enforced many of the peoples to displace. The court issued an important ruling in March 2011, ordering provisional measures against Libya in the armed conflict in its territory. Libyan government denied the claims of human rights violations in its territory and showed its willingness to subject itself to criminal investigations by the Court if necessary. The issue of the fund, independence, commitment and competence of judges to interpret mandate and jurisdiction, the willingness of the states to support and to abide by court decisions, and powers of the concerned body to enforce court decisions hampered the court from being effective. Generally, unless African States act in good faith with respect to the decisions of the African Human Rights Court, the court becomes no more significant.

The future of Christianity and LGBT rights in Africa – a conversation with Rev. Dr Bishop Christopher Senyonjo

ABSTRACT In this interview, Rev. Dr Bishop Christopher Senyonjo narrates his involvement in LGBT advocacy in Uganda, and reflects on his pastoral and theological motivation and inspiration for this work.

The Advisory Proceedings of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

ABSTRACT The advisory jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) is of significance to strengthening the protection of human rights in Africa. This article considers the Court’s advisory proceedings thus far in establishing whether it has adopted a broad and flexible or narrow and restrictive approach in the exercise of its advisory jurisdiction and interpretations of related standing rules and the implications of its approach.