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”).

Strides in Indigenous Land Rights Protection: The Influence of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Lisa KlingshirnOct 6, 20239 min read
Strides in Indigenous Land Rights Protection: The Influence of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Introduction Indigenous Peoples with diverse cultures and customs live all over the world. Their customs and rituals precede today’s structures. With this in mind, these…

Decoupling the Concurrency: Should Transitional Justice or the National Dialogue Process Come First in Ethiopia?

Jara Samuel TuraSep 29, 20239 min read
Decoupling the Concurrency: Should Transitional Justice or the National Dialogue Process Come First in Ethiopia?

Introduction After the EPRDF was dismantled and Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s reformist prime minister, held power in 2018, several momentous initiatives were put into place as…

Lessons from Kenyan Government’s Response to Worldcoin Biometric Crypto Project

Prof. Dr Thoko KaimeSep 22, 20237 min read
Lessons from Kenyan Government’s Response to Worldcoin Biometric Crypto Project

‘So far, the government’s attempts at regulating data processing activities of WorldCoin through suspension and investigations have been reactive, belated, lukewarm, and conflicted.’  I. WorldCoin’s…

Legal Opinion on the Case of Leon Mugesera v the Republic of Rwanda

Karl WachtelSep 1, 202312 min read
Legal Opinion on the Case of Leon Mugesera v the Republic of Rwanda

The Rwandan Genocide: 100 Days of Terror The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda is widely recognized as one of the worst genocides in…

The Missing Link in Judges’ Approach to the Igbo Custom of Inheritance

Anthony C. DialaAug 18, 20236 min read
The Missing Link in Judges’ Approach to the Igbo Custom of Inheritance

In the Ukeje judgment, the Supreme Court of Nigeria abolished the Igbo custom of male primogeniture, which prohibited female children from sharing in the intestate…

Anti-Homosexuality Bills are an Abuse of the Law

Prof. Dr Thoko KaimeAug 11, 20237 min read
Anti-Homosexuality Bills are an Abuse of the Law

On 29 May 2023, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni assented to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill according to Article 91 (3) (a) of the Uganda Constitution after he…