Attempts at constitutional reform in The Gambia: Whither the Draft Constitution?
Posted: 26 October, 2020 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Adama Barrow, Constitution Promulgation Bill, constitution-drafting process, Constitutional Reform, Constitutional Review Commission, CRC, dictatorship, Draft Constitution, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Final Draft Constitution and Report, National Transitional Justice Programme, New Constitution, The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh 1 Comment
Author: Satang Nabaneh
Post-doctoral Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The Gambia’s constitution-drafting process, aimed at ushering in a third Republic, has reached an unfortunate dead-end. More than two years after the constitutional review process began, and after a highly acrimonious and polarised debate in the National Assembly, Parliament, one week ago (on 22 September 2020), rejected the proposed Constitution Promulgation Bill, 2020 (‘the Bill’). The Bill would have enabled the eventual promulgation the Constitution of the Gambia, 2020 (‘Draft Constitution’) and the repeal of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, 1997 (‘1997 Constitution’). Twenty-three lawmakers in the National Assembly voted against the Bill, while thirty-one supported it. This was, however, not a big enough majority to meet the threshold requirement of three-quarters of members needed to effect constitutional change. The Draft Constitution could, therefore, not be put to a referendum.
Adolescent girls and young women have a right to know: Accessing information on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the wake of COVID-19
Posted: 22 October, 2020 Filed under: Kerigo Odada | Tags: accessing information, adolescent girls, COVID-19, experience, exploitation, human rights abuses, information, pandemic, sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexual violence, skills, SRHR, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions 2 Comments
Author: Kerigo Odada
Human Rights Lawyer; LLM (Sexual & Reproductive Rights in Africa) student, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
For many adolescent girls and young women around the world, adolescence marks not only the commencement of puberty, but also a time where statistically, the risk of facing human rights abuses such as sexual violence, exploitation, and other adverse outcomes of sex increases. However, despite this high predisposition to abuse, adolescent girls and young women still face multiple barriers in accessing information on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Discriminatory cultural values, laws, and policies that are driven by the stigma attached to sexuality have made it challenging for members of this social group to enjoy full access to much needed SRHR information.
As of April 2020, about 1.725 billion students worldwide were forced out of learning institutions due to COVID-19. Although the closure of schools and other lockdown measures were strategic in controlling the spread of COVID-19, this situation unfortunately meant that many adolescent girls and young women were now confined in homes where they were, and still are, at a heightened risk of prolonged sexual abuse, exploitation and negative outcomes of sex.
Ending child marriage: A call to action
Posted: 13 October, 2020 Filed under: Mary Izobo | Tags: 11 October, ACRWC, Africa, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, both boys and girls, child marriage, complications from pregnancy, financial freedom, fundamental human rights, Gender discriminatory norms, gender-sensitive laws, girl child, ICRW, International Council of Research on Women, International Day of the Girl Child, My voice, our equal future 2 Comments
Author: Mary Izobo
International Human Rights Lawyer and Gender Advocate
Introduction
The International Day of the Girl Child is commemorated globally every year on 11 October since 2012 to highlight the injustices girls face based on their gender, while advancing the fulfilment of their rights, development and wellbeing. The United Nations theme for the International Day of the Girl Child 2020 is ‘My voice, our equal future.’ There is a specific emphasis on the girl child because there is a direct form of discrimination against girls who are often deprived of their fundamental human rights. Millions of girls from birth are discriminated against on the grounds of sex and gender. This year, as we commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child, it is important to bring to the world’s attention, child marriage which continues to be an unending anathema that serves as a challenge in the fulfilment and enjoyment of the rights and welfare of the girl child.
Child marriage is the marriage of a child before he or she turns 18 years of age. It is a global phenomenon that continues to obstruct the wellbeing of young boys and girls. Child marriage affects both boys and girls, but nine in ten children married off before they turn 18 years are girls. Every two seconds, a girl is married off, before she is physically, psychologically or emotionally developed enough to become a bride or mother. An estimated 650 million women and girls in the world today were married before they turned 18 years and one-third of these women and girls were married off before they turned 15 years. According to United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), out of the world’s population, 1.1 billion are girls and 22 million of them are married off before they attain adulthood.
Critical analysis of Pan-African Parliament’s resolution on peace and security in Africa
Posted: 10 October, 2020 Filed under: Masalu Masanja | Tags: Africa, African Court, African People, African Union, Article 17, AU Constitutive Act, CEWM, conflict, Continental Early Warning Mechanism, economic integration, lack of expertise, Pan African Parliament, Pan-African Parliament, PAP, peace and security, Peace and Security Council, PSC, stumbling blocks, violence, war 2 Comments
Author: Masalu Masanja
LLM (HRDA) student, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Introduction
The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is among the nine organs of the African Union (AU) established with the aim of ensuring the full participation of African people in the development and economic integration of Africa. This purpose is anchored under Article 17 of the of the AU Constitutive Act. One of the objectives of PAP is the promotion of peace and security on the continent. In terms of its mandate, PAP is limited to consultative and advisory power within the AU. Its full-fledged legislative power is provided for under the Protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African Union on the Establishment of the Pan-African Parliament (Malabo Protocol), which is yet to come into force. This opinion piece seeks to examine critically the resolution on peace and security with a specific focus on the Continental Early Warning Mechanism (CEWM).
War and violence in Africa are among the stumbling blocks to economic development and integration in Africa. Consequently, the PAP passed a resolution on the promotion of peace and security in Africa at its Second Session of the Fourth Parliament held from 5 to 17 October 2015. This opinion piece specifically focuses on PAP’s recommendation on the need of reinforcing CEWM in conflict prevention in Africa and the establishment of an African centre for conflict and arbitration focusing on providing training and capacity building on alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in the five sub-regions of Africa, under the oversight of African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Uncontacted peoples: A legal failure
Posted: 2 October, 2020 Filed under: Ross Booth | Tags: "uncontacted peoples", Amazon, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, forced assimilation, hired guns, hiring gunmen, indigenous communities, indigenous groups, indigenous peoples' rights, isolated communities, isolation, John Allen Chau, no-go-zones, North Sentinel Island, outside intrusion, pistoleros, South America, trespassing 1 Comment
Author: Ross Booth
LLB student, University of KwaZulu-Natal
In the age of antiquity, brilliant minds spoke of lost cities and forbidden regions that lay beyond the edges of the known world. Plato famously wrote of Atlantis – a hyper-advanced civilisation that fell from favour with the Gods and was submerged beneath the sea as a consequence. As the world developed, however, and explorers chartered the unchartered, humans realised that these myths were exactly that – myths. But global expansion revealed other mysteries, and while the ideas of golden cities and sunken empires have faded into fable, lost and isolated tribal groups have certainly existed – and still do to this day.
It is roughly estimated that some 100 tribes still operate in varied isolation worldwide, with the bulk situated in different parts of South America. Having largely resisted outside contact (or contact with neighbouring tribes), these indigenous groups have earned the name “uncontacted peoples” – a term that has sparked interest among tourists and missionaries alike. Acting from curiosity or personal intent, many outsiders have sought to intrude upon isolated communities – with differing outcomes. In some instances, tribal groups have welcomed strangers and allowed them to view and even participate in cultural activities. The Jawara tribe on the Andaman Islands of India, has been known to allow tourists and researchers onto their reservation without trouble – even occasionally sending their children to settlements beyond the reserve to be educated. Other tribes, however, are known to respond to outsiders with aggression and violence. The inhabitants of North Sentinel Island are notable for ferociously resisting outside contact, with two fishermen and an American missionary, John Allen Chau, dying as a consequence of trespassing onto the island.
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