Call for a corruption-free Africa: A rights based approach
Posted: 13 April, 2015 Filed under: Dunia Mekonnen Tegegn | Tags: abuse, accountability, Africa, corruption, discrimination, failed government, human rights, impunity, public service systen, right to clean water, right to education, right to health care 1 Comment
Author: Dunia Mekonnen Tegegn
Human rights lawyer, Ethiopia
Corruption is a threat to human rights in that it erodes accountability and results in impunity. Given the interdependence of human rights, the impact of corruption on the whole spectrum of human rights; economic social and cultural rights as well as that of the civil and political rights is significant. It fundamentally distorts the machineries necessary for the realization of human rights namely good governance and rule of law.
Corruption undermines a government’s ability to deliver goods and services. It results in discriminations in the use and enjoyment of human rights. It further undermines the ability of individuals to access justice and corrode their role as active participants in decisions that affect them within the public service. Corruption has a disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups such as women, children and the poor as it decreases funds available for the provision of basic services like education, health and social services that these groups are mostly dependent on.
Eritrea: Not the country we struggled for
Posted: 1 April, 2015 Filed under: Hibo Mahad, Khuraisha Patel, Yulia Prystash | Tags: CEDAW, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Eritrea, International Women's Day, right to education, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, UNHRC, United Nations Human Rights Council, violence against women in detention 2 Comments
Author: Khuraisha Patel
Student (LLM Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
Author: Yulia Prystash
Student (LLM Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
Author: Hibo Mahad
Student (LLM Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
International Women’s Day – 8 March 2015
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice has applauded the extensive legal guarantee of women’s rights and equality across the globe. In its statement on International Women’s Day, the UNHRC indicated however, that this legal guarantee of equality has not translated into reality due to persistent discrimination against women and retrogression from these norms. Eritrea is an example of a country that has not fully translated the legal guarantees on women’s rights to equality into reality. Lack of implementation of laws, religion, tradition, regressive and patriarchal culture as well as the rhetoric of nationalism (“no war – no peace”) continue to hinder the realisation of gender equality in Eritrea.
AfricLaw 