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”).

Child Marriage – The Impact of COVID-19 on the Practice of Child Marriage

Freda LouwesOct 5, 20205 min read
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ANALYSIS Freda Louwes 5 October 2020 The Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 promotes the elimination of all harmful practices, such as child marriage, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation (United Nations 2020). Still, child marriage remains a prevalent global…

The legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and our collective responsibility

Isabelle ZundelSep 30, 20206 min read
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COMMENT Isabelle Zundel 30 September 2020 It is a major challenge to introduce the notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was way more than an American jurist. She was the second woman serving the Supreme Court. She is an idol for…

Peoples’ Rights in Africa: Bridging the Era of Independence Struggles with the Present

Cecilia NgaizaAug 30, 20204 min read
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COMMENT Cecilia Ngaiza 30 August 2020 Reading through the preamble to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as the “Charter”) one may gather an opinion that, peoples’ rights entrenched in the Charter were primarily…

Black Lives Matter

Prof. Dr Thoko KaimeJun 24, 20201 min read
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Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime 24 June 2020 The Chair of African Legal Studies expresses deep solidarity with the protests against structural racism and its daily manifestations in the USA, in Germany and elsewhere around the world. We firmly support the…

Renee Bach – Fighting post-colonial power structures through litigation

Isabelle ZundelJun 15, 20204 min read
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OPINION Isabelle Zundel and Prof. Dr Thoko Kaime, 15 June 2020 Renee Bach, a young white American woman with evangelical background, came to Uganda in 2007. Straight out of high school, she had little professional training and even more trifling…

Achieving justice for victims of gross human rights in Sudan

Prof. Dr Thoko KaimeJun 4, 20203 min read
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COMMENT Prof. Dr Kaime and Lena Scheibinger, 4 June 2020 Significant step in the al-Bashir indictment In February 2020, the Sudanese government indicated its intention to hand over Omar al-Bashir, the country’s former strongman to the International Criminal Court in…