While the unveiling of Somalia's president helps reduce the risk of conflict, the hosting of another ‘election’ on a discriminatory basis is far from ideal.
Although the plan was initiated by the government, it seems likely that private enterprises will be asked to play a significant role at all stages of the process.
For Africa to address challenges like climate justice, conflict transformation, and food security, the participation of youth activists will be critical.
The Chilean Constitutional Convention should give careful thought to how to strengthen the relationship between social rights and the right to equality and non-discrimination.
By reforming its own system, Egypt can influence positive changes in other countries in the region and lead the way for accessible legal gender recognition mechanisms.
While some economists and political scientists praise Botswana as a ‘success story’, the country provides more than just a tale of growth and stability.
The politicization of social protection provides opportunities to place it more firmly in the public sphere of government responsibilities, but it also poses challenges ...
This women-led movement in Madagascar is resisting extractive development projects on the island, in exchange for alternatives that respect the land and the indigenous ...
Academic institutions must be intentional about designing collaborative projects and fostering institutional knowledge on how to find and keep partners.
In order to address existing inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, companies should make a serious effort in reducing the gender pay gap, upholding maternity ...
Time will tell whether Resolution 43/1 will dispose Human Rights Council membership to address situations of gross and systematic violations in other countries ...
Ethiopia needs a stand-alone feminist campaign calling for a new vision of job creation that prioritizes dignified work and decent wages for both men and women.
Communities in Africa are increasingly using litigation to challenge large extractive projects that exacerbate the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity.
New data from Africa provides insights into the role of national human rights institutions in access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses.
Legal empowerment helps locals to understand and claim their rights, resulting in a legal victory for communities in Sierra Leone against exploitative corporations.
One women’s group in Uganda is showing that solidarity, community and the determination to sustain generative ways of life can be unstoppable, even in the face ...
In the face of growing climate change, indigenous women in Kenya are remembering and reinstating their native agricultural practices, to build resilience and reclaim ...
Treaty bodies showed their ability to take the right measures in situations of crisis like in Burundi. A coordination with the high-level bodies of the United Nations, ...
When much broader communities can harness intellectual property rights, these shifts can contribute to reducing inequality and improving the standard of life for ...
Humour is one of the most effective tools in our activist arsenal, because it has the ability to bring people together from a space of shared connection rather ...
The courts have done much in South Africa to advance human rights and promote equality, but in what remains a grossly unequal society they can only do so much.
A movement that started as a simple hashtag, declaring that #GambiaHasDecided, is bringing a fresh wave of optimism and hope to political turmoil in the Gambia.
Some argue human rights are insufficient to tackle inequality but overlook the emancipatory power of rights—to create the space to mobilize for change, a dynamic ...
A simple app, developed in close co-operation with clinicians, police and other end-users, is making it easier to effectively document and prosecute sexual assault ...
Mismanagement of timber resources and illegal logging are exacerbating South Sudan’s conflict and destroying the environment, and women are the most severely affected.
DNA technology in sexual violence cases can strengthen investigations and prosecutions, but training on how to collect and preserve evidence is equally important ...
Local HIV activists are expanding human rights discourse into health advocacy, largely due to belief in the empowering impact of rights language, not expectations ...
Do we achieve human rights by enacting UN-sanctioned treaties at the legislative level, or at the grassroots level? The history and culture of each country may ...
Several investment banks recently withdrew from a project in Malawi due to community-led activism and research on the inherent risks of the proposed plan.
In Kenya, Guatemala and Brazil, courts have defied presidents and shaken up politics—is court-centric advocacy one of the few remaining avenues to legitimately ...
A UK judgement on Shell’s operations in Nigeria yet again shows the need to prevent powerful multinationals hiding behind their subsidiaries to dodge accountability ...
The crisis in South Sudan is a result of its current leadership – the country wasn’t doomed to fail – and its people welcome celebrities like George Clooney who ...
Closing space for African sexual and gender minority groups is about far more than advocacy—it is about accessing critical services that no one else provides.
Delivering justice for victims is the raison d’etre of the ICC. But making justice count for victims requires much more than fair trials in a Hague courtroom.
LRA commander and former child soldier Dominic Ongwen’s forthcoming trial at the ICC risks obscuring the complex question of how to achieve justice when a victim ...
We cannot afford to globalize human rights at the expense of local context. To be sustainable and effective, local activists must lead and adapt human rights initiatives ...
International Criminal Court developments in 2014 have certainly been important, but we must also look to key events in regional and national institutions that ...
‘Traditional African ways’ is not a monolith. It has evolved over time and must evolve again to adapt to human rights. Human rights should not defer to tradition ...
Past experience suggests warnings that international criminal trials impede peace efforts are overblown. The ICC prosecutor mustn’t politicize her mandate by paying ...
The intervention of the ICC in some countries has many effects, but little impact on promoting real accountability – and at times working against that goal.
Respect for ‘sovereignty’ is no defence against ICC action in Sudan, as the government claims. International standards, many that Sudan signed, make clear a state’s ...
Human Rights Watch’s scathing critique of Ghana’s prayer camps misses the point. For many people struggling with mental illness and social stigmatization, the camps ...
Africa can benefit greatly from an International Criminal Court that is credible, fair, competent and independent - the current Court fails on all counts.
While the ICC has encountered serious challenges in Kenya, the Court has an important role to play in strengthening Kenyan rule of law and holding elites to account.
The International Criminal Court has failed to live up to expectations that it would mark the end of impunity. Beset by controversy, and its continued relevance ...
Ambamfo Ofori Atiemo says that prayer camps in Ghana deserve a closer look, as they are a supposedly compassionate, faith-based response to mental disability. Human ...
On the streets of Nigeria, what seems like the “voice of the people” is often just unquestioning followers, echoing the opinions of religious leaders. The human ...
Human rights advocates must take their message to street corners, like preachers, and teach the people love for everyone, irrespective of race, tribe and sexual ...
Pentecostal Christianity is one of the fastest growing religious forces in the world. Although many secular human rights activists view Pentecostalism as retrogressive, ...
For too long, the African Union and its human rights bodies have depended on foreign aid. If the Union implements a radical new financing tax on airline tickets, ...
Religion may help to control behavior and justify human worth and dignity, but in Nigeria, the co-existence of Sharia law with English Common Law has had serious ...
In Africa and other regions in the global South, religion and human rights support similar values. For years, religion has helped disenfranchised groups the way ...
It’s time to move past overly simplistic arguments surrounding Catholics and condoms, and make an effort to understand the real and very complex contributions of ...
Kenyan officials under International Criminal Court indictment seek caps for foreign funding to local NGOs, raising the spectre of a “Beijing Consesus” for African ...
Designing and planning solutions to human rights problems from thousands of miles away often produces unsustainable results. The time has come for Southern human ...
International aid is not ethically wrong, and local rights groups will use it for years to come. We must also mobilize domestic funds, however, by gaining a better ...
In October Kenya introduced legislation capping foreign funding to NGOs and requiring that money be channeled through a government body. Though narrowly defeated, ...
When the EU awarded a large grant to Alice Nkom for her work defending gay people in Cameroon it was attacked for encouraging illegal activity. Here Nkom describes ...
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