Colonial ‘treaties’ are not worth the paper unless expressly and freely adopted by the independent State 

I. Background   Ethiopia has constructed the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, some 14 kilometres east of its border with Sudan. This…

A Sure Bet to Overturn the Curse by Shaping Upstream Mining of Critical Minerals

Introduction Critical minerals are in particular demand for the transition to low-carbon and renewable energies to attain the goals of the Paris COP21 agreement. The energy transition is expected to…

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 communities occupy a very important…

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 an epitome of effective efforts…

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 operations   In the first week…

The Art of Observation: Unveiling the Power of Theatre

In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, we often find ourselves entangled in moments that beg for intervention. Either through words, actions or silence, depending on context. These…

Normative Frameworks for Regulating both the Phenomenon of Dumping of Goods in Africa and its Environmental Impacts

Introduction In 2006, a Dutch company arranged an agreement with an Ivorian businessman. The agreement stated that the dumping of waste was allowed at the Ivorian Coast because they claimed…

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 modern history, and its impact…

Breaking Boundaries: Assessing the AU’s Legal Position on Self-Determination

Introduction Colonial borders in Africa have long been accepted as sacrosanct and not to be tampered with.[1] The OAU declared that “all Member States pledge themselves to respect the borders…

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 estate of their father.[1] This…