Human Rights Under African Constitutions

Realizing the Promise for Ourselves

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780812236774
  9780812236774
• eBook ISBN:
  9780812201109
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Law
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Some of the most massive and persistent violations of human rights occur in African nations. In Human Rights Under African Constitutions: Realizing the Promise for Ourselves, scholars from a wide range of fields present a sober, systematic assessment of the prospects for legal protection of human rights in Africa. In a series of detailed and highly contextual studies of Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda, experts seek to balance the socioeconomic and political diversity of these nations while using the same theoretical framework of legal analysis for each case study.Standards for human rights protection can be realized only through direct and strong support from a nation's legal and political institutions. The contributors to this volume uniformly conclude that a well-informed and motivated citizenry is the most powerful force for creating the political will necessary to effect change at the national level. In addition to a critical evaluation of the current state of human rights protection in each of these African nations, the contributors outline existing national resources available for protecting human rights and provide recommendations for more effective and practical use of these resources.

Index

Abacha, General Sanni, 217, 219, 232, 238, 243

Abadarine, Ahmed, 176

Abahinza, 277

Abatware b’imiryango, 267

Abiola, Chief Mashood, 217

Abubakr, General Abdusalami, 217

Acheampong, Col. I. K, 58

Action for Development (ACFODE), Uganda, 412

Action Profession Association for People (APAP), Ethiopia, 46

Adade, Justice, 71

Addis Ababa Peace Agreement of 1972, 342

Addis Ababa University, 44

Ademola, Justice Adenekan, 218

Africa: conflicts in, 276; multifaceted diversity of, viii; model of political management in, 281-82; regional conflicts in, 28 n.8; relation between civil society and state, ix; postcolonial state in, 4, 11-16; sub-Saharan, 42

Africa Bar Association (ABA), 77, 239

Africa International University, 377

Africa-Law, Guinea, 139

Africa Legal Aid (ALA), 83

Africa No. 1, 142

African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, Banjul, Gambia, 78

African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 17, 35, 71, 102, 106, 126, 182, 191, 226, 227, 229, 259, 269, 307, 391-92

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 229

African Commission on Health and Human Rights Promoters, 83

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 91, 106, 121, 334

African Court on Human and People’s Rights, 229

African National Congress (ANC), South Africa, 297, 299, 300, 301

African nationalist movements, 278

African Socialism, 53, 280

African Society for International and Comparative Law, 78, 83

Afronet. See Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development Aguiyi-Ironisi, Major General Johnson, 216

AIDS. HIV/AIDS

Aka-Bashorun, Alao, 239

Akan, 53, 67

Akande, Jadesola, 212

Akazu, 258, 259, 263

Akuffo-Addo, Nana, 53, 91

Al Bayan, 174

Al Ittihad Al Ichtiraki, 174

Alemayehu, Samuel, 51 n.6

Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy Lawyers, Sudan, 380

Alpha Condé, 136, 149 n.101; case, 126, 136

Al-Turabi, Hasan, 365, 371

American Bar Association, 168

Amin Dada, Major General Idi, 28 n.8, 280,386

Amnesty International, 62, 83, 158

Annachra, 181 n.18

Annan, Kofi, 281

Anoual, 174

Ansar, 343

Anticolonialiste: Third World, 254. See also Colonialism

Apartheid, 9, 27, 299, 320; and antiapartheid struggle, 334; and legalization of segregation, 297; legislation, 299; regime, 187, 298, 303, 330,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Expanding Legal Protection of Human Rights in African Contexts
• Ethiopia: Processes of Democratization and Development
• Ghana: Competing Visions of Liberal Democracy and Socialism
• Guinea: Building the Rule of Law for Social Development
• Morocco: The Imperative of Democratic Transition
• Mozambique: Nurturing Justice from Liberation Zones to a Stable Democratic State
• Nigeria: Combating Legacies of Colonialism and Militarism
• Rwanda: Building Constitutional Order in the Aftermath of Genocide
• South Africa: The Interdependence of All Human Rights
• Sudan: In the Shadows of Civil War and Politicization of Islam
• Uganda: The Long and Uncertain Road to Democracy
• List of Contributors
• Index