Are we really on the same page? Understanding the distortion of human rights law in Africa by anti-rights actors
Posted: 16 March, 2026 Filed under: Lakshita Kanhiya, Michael Gyan Nyarko | Tags: African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African values, anti-rights actors, anti-rights backlash, challenges, constitutionalism, culture, family, human rights law, morality, national sovereignty, regional norm-setting, religion, religious fundamentalism, shrinking civic space, strategic litigation, the human rights mechanisms, transnational funding Leave a comment |
Author: Lakshita Kanhiya Legal Associate, Initiative for Strategic Litigation (ISLA) in Africa |
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Author: Michael Gyan Nyarko Deputy Executive Director, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) |
Too much ‘progress’ too soon?
For the past two and half decades, Africa’s human rights architecture has steadily expanded normatively, institutionally, and jurisprudentially. From the most beginnings of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and ‘baby’ steps of its monitoring body the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the 1990s, the turn of the new millennium saw an increase in the number of norms as well as institutions mandated by the African Union to promote and protect human rights, including the establishment and operationalisation of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Even which all the institutional, political and other challenges that regional these institutions have faced, they have contributed to relatively progressive human rights landscape, influencing progressive decisions of national courts and regional bodies, and contributed to embedding the language of dignity, equality, and freedom in legal and political discourse across the continent. Constitutionalism, regional norm-setting, and strategic litigation have strengthened the visibility and legitimacy of human rights principles in both legal and public arenas.
Licence denied: The legal roadblocks facing deaf drivers in Africa – Reflections on Musukwa & others v Road Transport and Safety Agency
Posted: 30 June, 2025 Filed under: Jeff Barker, Michael Gyan Nyarko | Tags: adequate standard of living, African Charter, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, deaf drivers, dignity, disability, equal protection of the law, freedom of movement, human rights, human rights instruments, limitation of rights, public safety, right to employment, right to non-discrimination, Supreme Court of Zambia 1 Comment |
Author: Jeff Barker Intern, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa |
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Author: Michael Gyan Nyarko Deputy Executive Director, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) |
Introduction
In a 2024 decision the Supreme Court of Zambia denied an application by three deaf drivers who had taken Zambia’s licensing authority to court.[1] The applicants argued that they were refused a drivers licence solely on the basis of their disability. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court of Zambia found that the licencing process was not discriminatory, and, therefore, there was no need for the government to justify a limitation of rights. The refusal to issue driver’s licences to deaf individuals has implications on several rights, including the right to non-discrimination and equal protection of the law, dignity, freedom of movement and the right to employment and an adequate standard of living, among others. The decision of the Supreme Court of Zambia therefore raises several human rights issues which are more extensively discussed by the authors in a forthcoming journal article. In this brief piece, we share some reflections on the limitation of rights under the African Charter and in particular what would be required of a state, within the African regional human rights system, to justify limiting the rights of deaf drivers?
‘Year of justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations’: Can Mauritius lead by example or remain a spectator?
Posted: 26 March, 2025 Filed under: Lakshita Kanhiya, Michael Gyan Nyarko | Tags: 37th Ordinary Assembly, administration of justice, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Court Protocol, African Union, Anil Kumarsingh Gayan, beacon of democracy, colonial heritage, economic stability, historic declaration, human rights, Mauritian legal system, Mauritius, quest for justice, reparations, Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations 1 Comment |
Author: Lakshita Kanhiya Legal Associate, Initiative for Strategic Litigation (ISLA) in Africa |
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Author: Michael Gyan Nyarko Deputy Executive Director, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) |
The Heads of States and Governments of the African Union (AU) have declared 2025 the ‘Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations’. This historic declaration, made during the 37th Ordinary Assembly held in Addis Ababa in February 2024, resonates deeply within the broader quest for justice, human rights, and the long-overdue reckoning with colonial legacies across the continent. As the continent prepares to collectively reflect on justice and reparations, it becomes imperative to critically assess the structures and systems that hinder the realisation of justice for African people. One such structural barrier lies in the reluctance of several African states, including Mauritius, to fully embrace the jurisdiction of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) through direct access for individuals and NGOs under article 34(6) of the Protocol establishing the African Court (African Court Protocol /Protocol).
Ghana’s Human Rights Court gives life to the right to information
Posted: 15 April, 2016 Filed under: Michael Gyan Nyarko | Tags: 116 buses, access to justice, Attorney General of Ghana, branding, BRT, Bus Rapid Transit, civic duty, constitution, freedom of information, Ghana, Ghana’s Public Procurement Act, High Court of Ghana, human rights, Human Rights Division, Minister of Transport, Parliament of Ghana, procurement, public property, right to information, transparency 3 Comments
Author: Michael Gyan Nyarko
Doctoral Candidate and Academic Tutor, Centre for Human Rights; Editor: AfricLaw.com
Ghana has been described as ‘a beacon of hope in Africa’ on account of its good governance and respect for human rights.’[1] With a fairly liberal constitution which guarantees quite an elaborate list of civil and political rights as well as socio-economic rights, political stability and economic growth over the past two decades, this description of Ghana is not farfetched. While Ghana has performed reasonably well with regards to respect for human rights, there still remain several human rights issues that require urgent attention. One of those issues is the right to information.
The right to information is guaranteed and entrenched in the Constitution.[2] Article 21(1)(f) of the Constitutions provides that ‘all persons shall have the right to information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society’. However, this right has not been effectively enjoyed as government has failed to enact a right to information law to give effect to the constitutional provision. A right to information bill proposed by successive governments has been pending for over a decades. The absence of a right to information law has left a vacuum where citizens do not have clarity on whom to approach for official government information, which information may not be requested and what financial burden they may bear for such request. This has resulted in the rather limited use of the right to information, especially with regards to request for official government documents.
AfricLaw 