The Right To Research In Africa

This book formulates a human right to research in Africa based on an in-depth examination of the available international and regional human rights instruments as well as those relevant to the national contexts of African countries. The imbalances in the African copyright ecosystem regarding access to information for research and education became painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. African libraries and knowledge curators found themselves ill-equipped to perform their role of enabling access to information. As teaching, learning and research are increasingly done on digital platforms, learners and researchers continue to grapple with the challenges of accessing materials owing largely to the protection of these resources under copyright law. Access to information, which is needed in order to exercise the right to science and culture, faces a significant challenge posed by the exercising of exclusive rights by copyright owners without a legal mechanism that properly balances copyright from a human rights perspective. To achieve such a balance, there is an urgent need to revise the African copyright system from the perspective of human rights law. Can it be done by establishing a human right to research? In view of the existing broad freedom of expression, and the right to science and culture, education, and property in global, national and regional human rights regimes, is a specific right to research in Africa necessary and justifiable? If so, what should its minimum core components be? Are there international and national regimes already in place that could support the formulation of a human right to research in Africa? This book offers a valuable resource for law- and policymakers in the fields of copyright and human rights, judges, lawyers, public interest groups, researchers and students, librarians and authors, as well as the general public.

This book formulates a human right to research in Africa based on an in-depth examination of the available international and regional human rights instruments as well as those relevant to the national contexts of African countries. The imbalances in the African copyright ecosystem regarding access to information for research and education became painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. African libraries and knowledge curators found themselves ill-equipped to perform their role of enabling access to information. As teaching, learning and research are increasingly done on digital platforms, learners and researchers continue to grapple with the challenges of accessing materials owing largely to the protection of these resources under copyright law. Access to information, which is needed in order to exercise the right to science and culture, faces a significant challenge posed by the exercising of exclusive rights by copyright owners without a legal mechanism that properly balances copyright from a human rights perspective. To achieve such a balance, there is an urgent need to revise the African copyright system from the perspective of human rights law. Can it be done by establishing a human right to research? In view of the existing broad freedom of expression, and the right to science and culture, education, and property in global, national and regional human rights regimes, is a specific right to research in Africa necessary and justifiable? If so, what should its minimum core components be? Are there international and national regimes already in place that could support the formulation of a human right to research in Africa? This book offers a valuable resource for law- and policymakers in the fields of copyright and human rights, judges, lawyers, public interest groups, researchers and students, librarians and authors, as well as the general public.

An essential exploration of and guide to research ethics in the field.

Academic literature rarely gives an account of the ethical challenges and emotional pitfalls the researcher is confronted with before, during and after being in the field. Giving personal accounts, the authors explore some of the challenges one can face when engaging in local-level research in difficult situations.

Medical research has been central to biomedicine in Africa for over a century, and Africa, along with other tropical areas, has been crucial to the development of medical science. At present, study populations in Africa participate in an increasing number of medical research projects and clinical trials, run by both public institutions and private companies. Global debates about the politics and ethics of this research are growing and local concerns are prompting calls for social studies of the "trial communities" produced by this scientific work. Drawing on rich, ethnographic and historiographic material, this volume represents the emergent field of anthropological inquiry that links Africanist ethnography to recent concerns with science, the state, and the culture of late capitalism in Africa.

The globalisation of research has resulted in the increased location of research involving humans in developing countries. Countries in Africa, along with China and India, have seen research grow significantly. With emerging infectious diseases, such as Ebola and Zika, emphasising the risk of public health crises throughout the world, a further increase in health research, including clinical research in developing countries, which are often the sites of these diseases, becomes inevitable. This growth raises questions about domestic regulation and the governance of health research. This book presents a comprehensive and systemic view of the regulation of research involving humans in African countries. It employs case studies from four countries in which research activities continue to rise, and which have taken steps to regulate health research activity: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt. The book examines the historical and political contexts of these governance efforts. It describes the research context, some of the research taking place, and the current challenges. It also looks at the governance mechanisms, ranging from domestic ethical guidelines to legal frameworks, the strengthening of existing regulatory agencies to the role of professional regulatory bodies. The book analyses the adequacy of current governance arrangements within African countries, and puts forward recommendations to improve the emerging governance systems for health research in African and other developing countries. It book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers working in the areas of health research, biomedical ethics, health law and regulation in developing countries.

African Studies, contrary to some accounts, is not a separate continent in the world of American higher education. Its intellectual borders touch those of economics, literature, history, philosophy, and art; its history is the story of the world, both ancient and modern. This is the clear conclusion of Africa and the Disciplines, a book that addresses the question: Why should Africa be studied in the American university? This question was put to distinguished scholars in the social sciences and humanities, prominent Africanists who are also leaders in their various disciplines. Their responses make a strong and enlightening case for the importance of research on Africa to the academy. Paul Collier's essay, for example, shows how studies of African economies have clarified our understanding of the small open economies, and contributed to the theory of repressed inflation and to a number of areas in microeconomics as well. Art historian Suzanne Blier uses the terms and concepts that her discipline has applied to Africa to analyze the habits of mind and social practice of her own field. Christopher L. Miller describes the confounding and enriching impact of Africa on European and American literary theory. Political scientist Richard Sklar outlines Africa's contributions to the study of political modernization, pluralism, and rational choice. These essays, together with others from scholars in history, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative literature, attest to the influence of African research throughout the curriculum. For many, knowledge from Africa seems distant and exotic. These powerful essays suggest the contrary: that such knowledge has shaped the way in which scholars in various disciplines understand their worlds. Eloquent testimony to Africa's necessary place in the mainstream of American education, this book should alter the academy's understanding of the significance of African research, its definition of core and periphery in human knowledge. "These essays are at once exceptionally thoughtful and remarkably comprehensive. Not only do they offer an unusually interesting overview of African studies; they are also striking for the depth and freshness of their insights. This is the sort of volume from which both seasoned regional experts and students stand to learn an enormous amount."—John Comaroff, University of Chicago "These essays provide an important perspective on the evolution of African studies and offer insights into what Africa can mean for the different humanistic and social science disciplines. Many show in ingenious and subtle ways the enormous potential that the study of Africa has for confounding the main tenets of established fields. One could only hope that the strictures expressed here would be taken to heart in the scholarly world."—Robert L. Tignor, Princeton University

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.