Effectiveness of intervention measures to address female genital mutilation in Ethiopia: A discussion
Posted: 14 May, 2019 Filed under: Henok Ashagrey | Tags: bodily harm, Children and Youth’s Affairs, children's rights, Constitution of Ethiopia, Criminal Code of Ethiopia, cultural practice, Ethiopia, female genital mutilation, fgm, harmful customs, Harmful practices, infibulation, Ministry of Women, North Shewa, rights of children, violations, violence against women, women's rights Leave a comment
Author: Henok Ashagrey
Legal Researcher at the Secretariat of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
Despite certain signs of progress, interventions to address harmful practices in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia) are still ineffective. To be effective, these interventions require more inclusivity, stronger cooperation between levels of government, and a focus on changing societal values.
Harmful practices are a principal factor in the violations of women’s rights in Ethiopia. For example, in the North Shewa rural region in the North of Ethiopia, where I come from, harmful practices against women and girls, particularly female genital mutilation (FGM), are accepted as valid cultural practice. The practitioners of FGM justify their acts on religious and cultural grounds.
Female genital mutilation/cutting in Africa: Legal and educational deterrence
Posted: 23 April, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Congratulations to Satang Nabaneh of the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Adamson S. Muula, of the Africa Center of Excellence in Public Health and Herbal Medicine (ACEPHEM), Department of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Malawi in Blantyre, whose article, recently published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, suggests that female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM) can be progressively deterred in African countries, by legal and educational means, where there is a will to apply them:
Satang Nabaneh and Adamson S. Muula, “Female genital mutilation/cutting in Africa: A complex legal and ethical landscape,” InternationalJournal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 2019; 145: 253–257, PDF at Wiley Online. Submitted text at SSRN.
Abstract: While international and regional human rights instruments have recognized FGM/C as one of the most prevalent forms of violence against…
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Some rays of light on the plight of irregular migration within Africa
Posted: 4 April, 2019 Filed under: Cristiano d'Orsi | Tags: European Union, Horn of Africa, International Organization for Migrations, IOM, irregular migrations, Khartoum Process, migrant deaths, migrants, Niger, Southern Africa, trafficking of migrants, undocumented migrants, Western Africa 1 Comment
Author: Cristiano d’Orsi
Research Fellow and Lecturer at the South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg
In 2018 alone, hundreds of witnesses confirmed more than 1 000 migrant deaths on the African continent. But researchers estimate that these numbers represent only a fraction of the overall number of deaths of people on the move in Africa.[1] According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), during the first three months of 2019, 98 migrants died in Africa (28 in North Africa and 70 in the Horn of Africa, mostly from drowning in the Red Sea whilst hoping to reach Saudi shores).[2] In 2018, the number of fatalities on the continent amounted to 1 401, mostly presumed to come from the Horn.[3]
Citizen media and the freedom of expression
Posted: 25 March, 2019 Filed under: Adebayo Okeowo | Tags: article 19(2), citizen media, civilian journalists, Human Rights Committee, human rights violations, ICCPR, police malfeasance, right to freedom of expression, right to record, serve to inform, social media 1 Comment
Author: Adebayo Okeowo
Advocacy Coordinator, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
If you have ever found yourself whipping out your phone to film or photograph police officers brutally beating up peaceful protesters, and you subsequently share that video or picture on social media, you have just contributed to citizen media. You are also someone who can be referred to as a citizen journalist. This is just one of the several scenarios in which civilian witnesses are – knowingly or unknowingly – helping to document evidence of human rights violations.
Citizen media encapsulates videos, pictures or audio produced by non-professional journalists, especially using their mobile phone as a tool. Citizen media started gaining prominence when an increasing number of civilians became equipped with smartphones and had access to social media.
Kenyan High Court upholds human and constitutional rights to maternal dignity and reproductive healthcare
Posted: 18 March, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentMany thanks to Naitore Nyamu, an LL.M. student in the graduate program in Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Africa at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, for contributing a detailed abstract of this progressive Kenyan ruling for Legal Grounds III: Reproductive and Sexual Rights in Sub-Saharan African Courts,online edition.
J O O (also known as J M) v Attorney General & 6 others [2018] Petition No 5 of 2014, (High Court of Kenya at Bungoma), March 22, 2018. Case summary by Naitore Nyamu. Court decision.
The case summary by Naitore Nyamu explains how, on 5 August, 2013, a low-income pregnant woman sought healthcare for delayed labour and suffered neglect, privations and expenses from an ill-funded county hospital, and humiliating personal abuse from its nurses. She later filed a constitutional petition alleging various violations of her rights as stipulated in the Constitution of Kenya 2010…
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The impact of Internet shutdowns in Africa
Posted: 21 February, 2019 Filed under: Tomiwa Ilori | Tags: ACHPR, Africa, African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, African Governments, Arab-spring, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), digital rights, Egypt, electoral malpractices, Freedom of Expression And Access to Information, general elections, ICCPR, ICESCR, internet, internet shutdown, Johannesburg Principles on National Security, national security, public protests, shutdown, Siracusa Principles, state power, Sudan, technology, violations, Zimbabwe Leave a comment
Author: Tomiwa Ilori
LLD Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
In the past, authoritarianism like any other form of illegitimacy has always been paranoid of disruptions. The internet, since its decentralisation in the last century, has blurred boundary lines, projected a classless society and looked to upset apple carts in political spaces. It is typical that this form of “magic” that could redefine state power rattled many governments. African governments soon began to show overt signs of paranoia and not too long, Africa became the first continent to experience an internet shutdown in Egypt on 28 January 2011. Since then, several governments in Africa have constantly violated digital rights with the justification of national security which supposes that both are mutually exclusive.
Africa: (De)Criminalizing Adolescent Sex: Rights and Age of Consent Laws
Posted: 20 February, 2019 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentCongratulations to Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pretoria, and Prof. Ann Skelton, Director of the Centre for Child Law at the same university, for publishing the following article in an open access journal. We are pleased to circulate an expanded abstract below:
Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude and Ann Skelton, (De)Criminalizing Adolescent Sex: A Rights-Based Assessment of Age of Consent Laws in Eastern and Southern Africa,” SAGE Open (Oct-Dec 2018): 1 –12. Article online.
Abstract: Age of consent criminal laws imposed on African states during colonialism were inherently patriarchal and gender-stereotypic, and continue to influence country approaches toward adolescent consensual sexual conduct. There are two major policy positions: a punitive and a nonpunitive approach. Most countries adopt the punitive approach. Mostly, legislation does not explicitly criminalize consensual sexual conduct between adolescents, and this leaves a gray area to be filled in by social and…
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