African countries need to ensure that the health of refugees is protected during the COVID-19 pandemic
Posted: 21 June, 2021 Filed under: Omotunde Enigbokan | Tags: accessing healthcare, Africa, African Commission, coronavirus, COVID-19, gender-based violence, government, health care, health services, human rights, pandemic, refugees, status, UN, UNHCR, vaccination, women, World Health Organisation, World Refugee Day Leave a comment
Author: Omotunde Enigbokan
Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The protection of the right to health for refugees in Africa requires urgent attention, especially in this period when evidence shows that new variants of the coronavirus are spreading. As we celebrate World Refugee Day on 20 June 2021, and against the backdrop of the UNHCR’s theme ‘Together we heal, learn and shine’, it is pertinent that we interrogate how African countries are ensuring that the right to health for refugees, is guaranteed. This is particularly important with the development of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, and in the onset of the administration of these vaccines in Africa.
Challenges faced by refugees in Africa
Existing research underlines the need for heightening refugees’ access to health facilities. Research further shows that refugees have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. This situation is further compounded by the fact that many refugees live in overpopulated camps or reception centres, where they lack adequate access to health services, clean water and sanitation. This makes them more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
The Cost of Separating Powers
Posted: 1 June, 2021 Filed under: Chris Himsworth, Linda Ajemba | Tags: COVID-19, discrimination i, government, health inequalities, human rights protection, lack of access to employment, mental conditions, mental health needs, psychosocial disability, SDGs, social environment, South Africa, Sustainable Development Goals Leave a comment
Author: Chris Himsworth
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
It was reported on 28 April 2021 that authorities in Lesotho could not appoint a new High Court judge because of a lack of funds. While this might have come as a shock to most people, this will not have surprised the authors of the Report on the Independence of the Judiciary in the Kingdom of Lesotho, published only a month earlier in March. Chaired by Justice Zak Yacoob, former South African Constitutional Court Judge, a Working Group of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Lawyers’ Association had aired a trenchant critique of the current condition of judicial independence in Lesotho.
Using evidence in the time of COVID-19 to reduce health inequalities for Persons with Psychosocial Disability in South Africa
Posted: 27 April, 2021 Filed under: Linda Ajemba | Tags: COVID-19, discrimination i, government, health inequalities, human rights protection, lack of access to employment, mental conditions, mental health needs, psychosocial disability, SDGs, social environment, South Africa, Sustainable Development Goals 1 Comment
Author: Linda Ajemba
LLD candidate, Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
The ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unparalleled impact on all spheres of life globally. As with other disasters, evidence shows that while the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens all members of the society, it disproportionately affects persons with psychosocial disabilities. Persons with psychosocial disability refers to individuals suffering from a spectrum of mental conditions that influence their feelings, perceptions and behaviors. A psychosocial disability arises when someone with a mental health condition interacts with a social environment that presents barriers to their equality with others. Persons with psychosocial disabilities are greatly impacted by diverse response measures employed by governments across the globe to curb the pandemic.
Seventeen years of the Pan-African Parliament: taking stock and reimagining its future
Posted: 26 March, 2021 Filed under: Bonolo Makgale, Tariro Sekeramayi | Tags: 17 years, COVID-19, economic integration, human rights violations, lack of creativity, Pan-African Parliament, persons with albinism, recommendations, resolutions, use of force, volatile situations Leave a comment
Authors: Bonolo Makgale and Tariro Sekeramayi
Introduction
Dr. John Henrik Clarke once remarked, “History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.”
The 18th of March 2021 marked the commemoration of the Pan-African Parliament’s (PAP) 17th year anniversary. The Midrand, South Africa based Parliament was established by the Abuja Treaty as one of the organs of the African Union (AU). At the time of its establishment, the PAP was earmarked as an organ of the AU that will provide a platform for increased public participation and for the Africans to participate in decision-making processes that affect the continent. The Parliament consists of representatives nominated by local legislatures and currently represents all of AU member states, with the exception of Eritrea. The PAP aims to foster development and economic integration on the continent, espousing the principle of “batho pele”, a Southern African political principle that translates to ‘people first’. The core of the PAP’s mandate is to promote citizen engagement and representation as democratic ideals. As we mark this incredible milestone, we take stock of how far the PAP has come and what its prospects are for improvement as we advance.
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 1 Comment
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.
COVID-19, Darfur’s food security crisis and IDPs: From ruins to ruins
Posted: 4 August, 2020 Filed under: Gursimran Kaur Bakshi | Tags: chemical attacks, children, conflict, COVID-19, crimes against humanity, Darfur, displacement, famine, Human Rights Watch, human tragedy, IDPs, internally displaced persons, International Criminal Court, Kampala Convention, Land of Killing, London Declaration, Omar Al-Bashir, pandemic, State-Sponsored Terrorist(SST), Sudan, war 1 Comment
Author: Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
Student, National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi, India
Background
Darfur, a region in the west of Sudan is known as a ‘Land of Killing’. Since 2003, more than 300 000 people have been killed, and over 2.7 million have been forcibly displaced as a result of a genocide that has left the legacy of displacement and destitution. The war was initiated by the government-backed armed groups known as ‘Janjaweed’ militants in 2003, who have been accused of systematic and widespread atrocities, such as murdering and torturing of the civilian population, including raping their women and intentionally burning their villages.
Has the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of South Africa’s constitutional democracy?
Posted: 23 July, 2020 Filed under: Paul Mudau | Tags: apartheid-era, Bill of Rights, Collins Khoza, constitutional democracy, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 pandemic, Cyril Ramaphosa, democracy, Disaster Management Act, extraordinary legal measures, Gary Pienaar, isolation measures, lockdown, lockdown regulations, National Disaster Management Centre, nationwide lockdown, pandemic, PCCC, South Africa, state of emergency, Table of Non-Derogable Rights 3 Comments
Author: Paul Mudau
PhD Candidate and Researcher, School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand
On 15 March 2020, and while owing to medical and scientific advice and with the aim of controlling and managing the invasion and the spread of the invisible enemy, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa introduced extraordinary legal measures, placed the country under a nationwide lockdown and sealed its international borders. The lockdown took effect from 27 March 2020. The President simultaneously declared a national state of disaster in terms of section 27 of the Disaster Management Act (52 of 2002). Apart from the 1996 Constitution, the Disaster Management Act is applicable during lockdown together with other relevant statutes such as the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 and Prevention of Combating and Torture of Persons Act 13 of 2013. This, was followed by a series of announcements and impositions of numerous lockdown Regulations and Directives that require hygienic practices, physical and social distancing, quarantine, and isolation measures.
A dark cloud or the promise of rain: Section 25 and the fate of land restitution in South Africa
Posted: 15 July, 2020 Filed under: Ross Booth | Tags: 1913 Land Act, amendment to section 25, ANC, costly lawsuits, COVID-19, expropriation of land without compensation, inequality in land ownership, Joint Constitutional Review Committee, Joint CRC, land, Land reform, land reformation, land restitution, lockdown, property, property ownership, Section 25, South Africa Leave a comment
Author: Ross Booth
Third year LLB student, University of KwaZulu-Natal
In recent years, there have been growing calls for land reformation and a fairer distribution of property in South Africa. Many have called for what is known as the expropriation of land without compensation, while others view this as an extremely dangerous and radical procedure. Despite the differences of opinion, we are currently observing what could become one of the most significant changes to land reform in the history of SA’s democracy. Seemingly given the backseat in light of our current struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, an amendment to section 25 of our Constitution is on the cards and could result in a variety of changes to the current state of land restitution.
As it stands, section 25 is a far-reaching provision of the Constitution that deals with security of tenure, property rights, and restitution for those previously discriminated against under colonial and Apartheid land practices. Section 25(1) begins by offering some assurance to property owners by stating:
“No one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application, and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property.”
Re-imagining post COVID-19 Nigeria through the lens of socio-economic rights guarantees
Posted: 9 July, 2020 Filed under: Oyeniyi Abe | Tags: African Charter, COVID-19, gas, GDP, global pandemic, human rights, impact, International Bill of Rights, Nigeria’s exports, oil, Ouagadougou Declaration, pandemics, socio-economic rights, weak health care system 2 Comments
Author: Oyeniyi Abe
Research Fellow, Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The surge in susceptibility to pandemics is a threat to the existence of not only the global order but a nation state bedeviled by weak health care system and non-existent guarantees of socio-economic rights. The socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, has resulted into a decline in demand for the sole product of Nigeria’s exports – oil and gas, affecting Nigeria in disproportionate ways, and causing serious consequences as a result of systemic deficiencies and lack of quality health care systems. This article considers that this is an opportune time for the government to consider constitutional and realistic guarantees of socio-economic rights, amongst other things, as veritable shields against the threat of a pandemic.
The ‘forgotten tribe’: Persons with disabilities in Ethiopia and the State’s response to COVID-19
Posted: 25 June, 2020 Filed under: Dagnachew B. Wakene | Tags: ableism, African Disability Rights Protocol (ADP), COVID-19, CRPD, Declaration of State of Emergency, disability, Ethiopia, international disability treaty, Marrakesh Treaty, pandemic, persons with disabilities, PWDs, right to life, social distancing, suicide 3 Comments
Author: Dagnachew B. Wakene
Institute for International and Comparative Law (ICLA), Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
A person with visual impairment residing in Dire Dawa – Ethiopia’s second largest city in the Eastern part of the country – was recently reported to have set himself on fire in broad daylight and in public, apparently attempting to commit suicide. His reason, as later affirmed by his neighbors and acquaintances, was that he was entirely segregated, deserted by society, including friends who, pre-COVID-19, would assist him as his guides, give him a hand to run errands and go out-and-about his daily routines. Now, owing to the COVID-19 era mantra of ‘social distancing’, no one would approach the blind man altogether, hence instilling in him a feeling of despair, abandonment, lack of self-worth, so much so that he no longer saw the need to continue living thus decided to set himself alight right there on the streets of Dire Dawa. He was rushed to the hospital afterwards, but only in vain. The man died a few days later while on treatment.
