ANALYSIS Prof. Dr. Bernd Kannowski 11 February 2022 Black history is a history of struggles for freedom. Today, we are still fighting structural racism and everyday discrimination. A few decades ago, it was the fight for civil rights and the fight against apartheid. A step even further back into history, we remember the struggle for…
Category: Focus Month
COMMENT Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen 04 February 2022 Black History Month is undoubtedly a product of the United States, and in particular of Black American struggle in that specific nation. But with an eye on history, we can gain an appreciation for “countless” intersections of Black American and African pasts and presents. From the folds of…
ANALYSIS Gift Mauluka 28 January 2022 Climate change has many impacts on children’s rights. In many cases of extreme vulnerability, such as situations of child labour, those impacts are even more profound. This blog piece attempts to unpack the connections between child labour and climate change. Having established these connections, I then look at the…
ANALYSIS Ange-Dorine Irakoze The regime of mining ownership in the South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 2002 (MPRDA)[1] is founded on State’s custodianship rights. Under this custodianship, the State regulates mineral resources as common property for all South Africans. The Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy has the power to grant mineral licenses…
ANALYSIS Nelson Otieno 21 January 2022 Registration of Persons Act[1] is the legislation that provides for registration of Kenyans who have attained the actual or apparent age of eighteen years or over. The Act empowers registration officers to issue National Identity Cards as evidence of registration. Sometime in 2018, the Government of Kenya passed the…
ANALYSIS Isabelle Zundel 14 January 2021 Botswana’s jurisdiction is well-known for its past ground-breaking decisions and thereby courageous commitment to protect human rights[1]. With the recent decision “Letsweletse Motshidiemang v The Attorney-General (LEGABIBO as amicus curiae)” Botswana’s jurisdiction has once more broken new legal grounds for the country and beyond. In 2019, the High Court…
ANALYSIS Jan Maina 07 January 2022 The Kenyan Constitutional Civil Appeal Case of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & 4 others v David Ndii & 82 others[2021] commonly referred to as the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) judgement, certainly impacts the constitutional jurisprudence within Kenya and Africa at large[1]. By declaring a presidential constitutional amendment unconstitutional…
COMMENT Isabelle Zundel 23 December 2021 It’s international human rights month! For sure, this is a reason to celebrate the hard-fought advancements of the last decades as well as the resultant international legal framework that aims to promote and protect human rights all over the world. However, it also opens up the possibility to have…
ANALYSIS Ange-Dorine Irakoze 23 December 2021 Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are an international concern since they are inimical to the right to development provided in the UDHR, ICCPR and ICSECR. (1) Further, IFFs run afoul the spirit of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development 1986, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and UN Sustainable…
ANALYSIS Lisa Strube 10 December 2021 In Rwanda, great progress has been made in recent years, especially in the area of gender discrimination policy. When it comes to land rights, however, gender discrimination still poses a problem. If we look at Rwandan land law, we realize that land ownership was predominantly reserved for men in…