A guide to the African human rights system: Celebrating 30 years since the entry into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1986 - 2017 Edited by Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria 2017 ISBN: 978-1-920538-70-5 Pages: 80 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication A Guide to the African human rights system has been conceived as an accessible and informative introduction to the human rights system established under the auspices of the African Union (AU). This Guide provides an overview of developments related to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its supervisory body, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and its supervisory body, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It is launched on 2 November 2017, commemorating the date, 30 years earlier, on which the African Commission was inaugurated. The Guide aims to both chart the most salient historical developments and provide an accessible introduction to the African human rights system, and is continuously revised. The Centre for Human Rights is both an academic department and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) accorded observer status with the African Commission. The Centre teaches academic programmes and engages in research, advocacy and training on human rights, with a specific focus on Africa. Its flagship programmes are the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa and the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. For more information on the Centre for Human Rights, visit www.chr.up.ac.za Table of Contents The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and further standards The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child List of abbreviations Bibliography

Ten years after the coming into force of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, this volume presents an analysis of its progress so far. Looking both backward and forward it provides a reflection on successes and achievements of the past, as well as setting an agenda for the future.

About the publication A Guide to the African human rights system has been conceived as an accessible and informative introduction to the human rights system established under the auspices of the African Union (AU). This Guide provides an overview of developments related to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its supervisory body, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and its supervisory body, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It is launched on 2 November 2017, commemorating the date, 30 years earlier, on which the African Commission was inaugurated. The Guide aims to both chart the most salient historical developments and provide an accessible introduction to the African human rights system, and is continuously revised. The Centre for Human Rights is both an academic department and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) accorded observer status with the African Commission. The Centre teaches academic programmes and engages in research, advocacy and training on human rights, with a specific focus on Africa. Its flagship programmes are the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa and the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. For more information on the Centre for Human Rights, visit www.chr.up.ac.za

This timely and expansive multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary collection dissects precolonial, colonial, and post-independence issues of male dominance, power, and control over the female body in the legal, socio-cultural, and political contexts in Africa. Contributors focus on the historical, theoretical, and empirical narratives of intersecting perspectives of gender and patriarchy in at least ten countries across the major sub-regions of the African continent. In these well-researched chapters, authors provide a deeper understanding of patriarchy and gender inequality in identifying misogyny, resisting male supremacy, reforming discriminatory laws, embracing human-centered public policies, expanding academic scholarship on the continent, and more.

This book aims to prospectively conjecture about what the coming decades may hold for human rights. The authors in this volume discern where current trends are likely to lead and try to make sense of the future they herald. Human rights – as a legal, political, and social practice – have experienced significant achievements and successes, some notable setbacks and failures, and numerous unprecedented and unforeseen events and developments. Sceptics even claim that the idea of human rights has failed to deliver on its radical promise of emancipation. The chapters in this volume deal with ways to reimagine the existing human rights framework, the future of the African human rights system, the place of human rights in economic policy-making, reparations for chattel slavery, and the right to free education for all children. The thematic and disciplinary breadth of contributions makes this book a resource for scholars, practitioners, and students alike. In analysing and critically discussing matters of climate change, right to a healthy environment, preventing disasters and building resilience, and resource management it provides timely and important contributions. However, the book does not limit itself to discussing current-day challenges, it also covers issues concerning the regulation of artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making, as well as potential paths in the future relationship between the African and the European Human Rights Court. Reflections on the Future of Human Rights will be beneficial to students, scholars, and researchers interested in international law, human rights, and politics. Overall, the book is suitable for anyone interested in human rights and their evolution in theory and practice. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Nordic Journal of Human Rights.

Violence against women remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today, and it permeates every society, at every level. Such violence is considered a systemic, widespread and pervasive human rights violation, experienced largely by women because they are women. Yet at the international level, there is a gap in the legal protection of women from violence. There is currently no binding international convention that explicitly prohibits such violence; or calls for its elimination; or, mandates the criminalisation of all forms of violence against women. This book critically analyses the treatment of violence against women in the United Nations system, and in three regional human rights systems. Each chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages coming from the legal instruments, the work of the monitoring systems, and the resulting findings and jurisprudence. The book proposes that the gap needs to be addressed through a new United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women, or alternatively an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. A new Convention or Optional Protocol would be part of the transformative agenda that is needed to normatively address the promotion of a life free of violence for women, the responsibility of states to act with due diligence in the elimination of all forms of violence against all women, and the systemic challenges that are the causes and consequences of such violence.

This title offers a new way to think about human rights and the type of harm caused by discrimination globally. It traces the growing recognition of intersectionality in the work of human rights organizations around the world. This work argues that these groups should look for ways to fully incorporate intersectional analysis into the work they do.