Human Rights And Democratic Governance In Kenya A Post 2007 Appraisal

This publication is a collection of essays on human rights and democratic governance in Kenya in the period after the 2007 post-elections violence. After surviving the trauma of electoral violence, the country soon embarked on a journey towards reconstruction by engaging in, among other things, intense re-evaluation of the then existing system of laws and institutions. In the process, the daunting task has been to reverse the flawed systems that have been in existence for many decades and in their place entrench systems that would promote and respect democratic governance and human rights. This publication, therefore, documents the extent of the country’s reconstruction since 2007, and makes recommendations for the way forward for the recovery of the state.

There is an emerging consensus that what is projected as democratic governance and justice in Africa requires a re-calibration, in particular, in relation to the constitutive demos, human rights, the realisation of commitments at various governance levels and the convergence between these ideations. The post-colonial narrative on democracy has unveiled some crevices in rule of law, political equality, political participation, political culture and freedom of the press. Aside from the fact that these notions are threatened by some existing institutional structures, these notions are increasingly being negotiated across political spaces. Evident in the prevalent narrative is an imperative for Africa to assert its place on the global scene of democratic governance and justice. However, if this will be accomplished, it is important to understand some of the issues that need to be worked through in this transition.

Women judges are playing increasingly prominent roles in many African judiciaries, yet there remains very little comparative research on the subject. Drawing on extensive cross-national data and theoretical and empirical analysis, this book provides a timely and broad-ranging assessment of gender and judging in African judiciaries. Employing different theoretical approaches, the book investigates how women have fared within domestic African judiciaries as both actors and litigants. It explores how women negotiate multiple hierarchies to access the judiciary, and how gender-related issues are handled in courts. The chapters in the book provide policy, theoretical and practical prescriptions to the challenges identified, and offer recommendations for the future directions of gender and judging in the post-COVID-19 era, including the role of technology, artificial intelligence, social media, and institutional transformations that can help promote women’s rights. Bringing together specific cases from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa and regional bodies such as ECOWAS and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and covering a broad range of thematic reflections, this book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of African law, judicial politics, judicial training, and gender studies. It will also be useful to bilateral and multilateral donor institutions financing gender-sensitive judicial reform programs, particularly in Africa.

This volume analyses democratic governance, the rule of law and development in Africa. It is unique and timely. First, the theme and sub-themes were carefully selected to solicit quality chapters from academics, practitioners and graduate students on topical and contemporary issues in constitutional law, human rights, and democratic governance in Africa. The chapters were subjected to a single-blind peer review by experts and scholars in the relevant fields to ensure that high quality submissions are included. Due to the dearth of knowledge and studies on the chosen thematic areas, the publication will remain relevant after several years due to the timeless themes it covers. In this regard, this edited volume audits the progress of democratic consolidation, rule of law and development in Ghana with selected case studies from other African countries. This book is intended for higher education institutions (universities, institutes and centres), public libraries, general academics, practitioners and students of law, democracy, human rights and political science, especially those interested in African affairs.

The three institutions making up the African regional human rights system, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, decided to jointly publish the African Human Rights Yearbook, to spearhead studies on the promotion and protection of human rights, and to provide a forum for constructive engagement about the African human rights system with academics and other human rights commentators on the continent. Volume 4 of the Yearbook, published in 2020, contains 24 contributions by scholars from Africa and beyond. Les trois institutions qui composent le système régional africain des droits de l’homme, la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples, la Commission africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples et le Comité africain d’experts sur les droits et le bien-être de l’enfant ont décidé de publier conjointement l’Annuaire africain des droits de l’homme pour encourager les études sur la promotion et la protection des droits de l’homme et offrir un forum d’interaction constructive sur le système avec les universitaires et observateurs du continent. Le Volume 4 de l’Annuaire, publié en 2020, contient 24 contributions de chercheurs du continent et d’ailleurs.

The year 2016 was declared by the African Union as the African ‘Year of Human Rights with Particular Focus on the Rights of Women’ to commemorate and celebrate significant milestones in the realisation of human rights on the African continent. The year marks the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), 30th year since coming into force of the African Charter and 10 years since the inauguration of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Since its adoption, the African Charter has been supplemented by the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). All AU member states (with the exception of new comer South Sudan) are state parties to the African Charter, and 36 of them have accepted the Maputo Protocol. This book assesses the impact and effectiveness of the African Charter and the Maputo Protocol in 17 African countries, namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The book is the result of research conducted by selected alumni of the Centre for Human Rights’ LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa programme.

This book critically examines the issues pertaining to the Rome Statute’s complementarity principle. The focus lies on the primacy of African states to prosecute alleged perpetrators of international crimes in their respective jurisdictions. The chapters explore states’ international and domestic obligations to hold perpetrators of international crimes to account before the national courts, and demonstrate the complexity of enforcing national accountability of alleged perpetrators of international crimes while also ensuring that post-conflict African states achieve national healing, reconciliation, and sustainable peace. The contributions reject impunity for international crimes whilst also considering these complexities. Emphasis further lies on the meaning of accountability in the context of the politics of selective international criminal justice for crimes committed before the establishment of the International Criminal Court.