Human Rights

This is an interdisciplinary platform for exciting insights, opinions, reviews, and critical analyses of human rights issues in Africa. A cross-section of contributors shares and cover human rights issues related to policy, advocacy, practice, and awareness. The insights shared unveil a wide spectrum where human rights principles and theories interface with lived realities of people and communities in Africa.

Besides the blog contributions, the africanlegalstudies.blog and the Chair of African Legal Studies at the University of Bayreuth are constantly developing new initiatives to exchange and engage with scholars and practitioners. These include research projects such as “Intractable Human Rights Issues” or debate series (e.g. “Everyone’s human rights”).

Observations around the decision of the Supreme Court of Kenya allowing the registration of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Prof. Dr Thoko KaimeMar 14, 20235 min read
Observations around the decision of the Supreme Court of Kenya allowing the registration of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

News from Kenya Around ten years ago, the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) was refused permission to apply for registration as a…

Should we let children work? Reflections from the field

Gift Gawanani MaulukaMar 10, 202310 min read
Sign stating: "now entering Child labour free estates area - the tea association of malawi"

While preparing for my fieldwork on climate change-induced child labour in Malawi, my preliminary research participants revealed that there is no literal translation of the…

Litigating Reparations: Will Namibia be Setting Standards?

Karina TheurerMar 7, 20238 min read
Litigating Reparations: Will Namibia be Setting Standards?

Note: This piece was first published on voelkerrechtsblog.org. We thank the team and the author for the possibility to re-published the article here. Throughout the…

Calls to criminalise sex work in Nigeria as a response to human trafficking misreads the problem

Dr Mitterand M. OkorieMar 3, 20237 min read
Open palm of a hand signaling "Stop"

Introduction Recently, several anti-trafficking non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria have called on the government to criminalise sex work. In the forefront of this advocacy are…

The weakest link

Habiba OsmanFeb 28, 20238 min read
The weakest link

Note: This piece was first published in Issue 64 of Africa in Fact of Good Governance Africa. Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in…

Steve Biko on our shelves

Gift Gawanani MaulukaFeb 24, 20235 min read
Book shelves

So, the Chair of African Legal Studies has just restructured a particular section of its library by stocking it with books that are predominantly on…