Spotlighting Female Genital Mutilation: An Insidious International Human Rights Crisis
Posted: 6 October, 2025 Filed under: Amanda Janell DeAmor Quest | Tags: 200 million girls, Africa, Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child, female genital mutilation, fgm, global public health concern, human rights violation, initiation ritual for women and girls, international human rights law, nation-wide outrage, no benefits, physical force, prerequisite for marriage Leave a comment
Author: Amanda Janell DeAmor Quest
Commonwealth Caribbean Lawyer
On August 11, 2025, the BBC reported the death of a one-month-old baby girl who had been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Gambia—a country that is one of 10 countries with the highest rates of FGM despite the practice having been outlawed there since 2015. This incident incited nation-wide outrage against FGM and decidedly affirmed its status as one of the most egregious manifestations of gender-based violence in the world today. FGM encompasses “all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons” and is mostly performed on girls between the ages of 5 and 9. For this reason, FGM is “recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights, the health and the integrity of girls and women” Unfortunately, despite its deleterious effects on the lives, health, safety, and well-being of approximately 200 million girls and women worldwide, FGM continues to be reverenced as a “cultural tradition” in adherent societies.
The violation of fair trial rights: Analysing summary executions of the alleged RSF collaborators by the Sudanese Armed Forces
Posted: 21 February, 2025 Filed under: Razan E H Ali | Tags: armed conflicts, bridge throwing, cruel treatment, diplomatic tensions, extrajudicial killings, Geneva Conventions, human rights violations, humanitarian assistance, humiliating treatment, international human rights law, International Humanitarian Law, maiming, retaliatory violence, Sudan, Sudanese Armed Forces, Sudanese domestic law, Sudanese refugees, summary executions, throat slitting, Wad Madani 1 Comment
Author: Razan Ali
Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
The recapture of Wad Madani, the capital city of Al Jazeera state, by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in January 2025 after 11 months of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) control initially sparked celebrations among Sudanese people both domestically and in the diaspora.[1] However, these celebrations were quickly overshadowed by the widespread circulation of videos documenting SAF members conducting summary executions of civilians through methods including throat slitting, bridge throwing, and shooting.[2]
These human rights violations extended beyond Sudanese nationals to include South Sudanese citizens, triggering diplomatic tensions and retaliatory violence against Sudanese refugees in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.[3] Some supporters attempted to justify these killings by claiming the victims were RSF collaborators, despite the fact that the civilian population had been under siege for over a year, making interaction with RSF forces virtually unavoidable for survival.[4]
This article examines the legality of these extrajudicial killings through the lens of three legal frameworks: international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and Sudanese domestic law.
Consequences of Child Marriage on the Girl-Child’s Right to Health in South Sudan
Posted: 2 January, 2025 Filed under: Akot Makur Chuot, Yeabsira Teferi | Tags: African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), basic human right, Child Act, child marriage, contraceptives, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), customary courts, gender-based violence, girl-child, girl-child’s right to health, Harmful practices, international human rights law, international instruments, lack of knowledge, legal obligation, Maputo Protocol, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women’s Rights in Africa, right to health, right to life, sexual and reproductive rights, South Sudan, Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 3 Comments
Author: Akot Makur Chuot
Assistant Lecturer, School of Law, University of Juba, South Sudan
Introduction
Being born a girl in South Sudan is akin to being ‘born a problem.’ I derived this phrase from the article by Marry Ellsberg and others titled, ‘ If You Are Born a Girl in This Crisis, You Are Born a Problem….’ This sums up the dire situation a girl-child faces in South Sudan. Among the many egregious human rights violations experienced by the girl-child in South Sudan is child marriage. This practice has shattered the dreams and lives of many young girls. The rate at which child marriage is negatively affecting the health of the girl-child is alarming and calls for swift action from stakeholders. This is a moral and legal obligation.
With this context in mind this article examines the negative consequences of child marriage on the girl-child’s right to health, assesses the steps South Sudan has taken to curb the phenomenon, and explores the loopholes in the laws and policies.
Oil production in South Sudan: A lifeline for the economy or an infringement on children’s right to a safe, clean and healthy environment?
Posted: 22 November, 2024 Filed under: Akot Makur Chuot, Yeabsira Teferi | Tags: accountability, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, business enterprises, children’s rights, Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan of 2011, deaths of children, economic interference, effective remedies, environment, environmental assessments, environmental pollution, fairness, human rights, international human rights law, legislation, Ogoni people, Oil production, oil sector, oil-fields, South Sudan, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, violations of children’s rights Leave a commentAuthor: Akot Makur Chuot
LLM Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Introduction
Oil-operating companies have been acting carte blanche with absolute impunity in South Sudan without complying with international practices premised on human rights considerations. The human rights violations in Unity and Upper Nile States are a testimony that private businesses in the oil and gas industry are unfettered in South Sudan. As a result, the actions and omissions of oil-operating companies in South Sudan have resulted in violations of children’s rights as will be explored in section 4 of the article. This is attested by the birth of children with deformities, stillbirth and several health concerns. It can be argued that the failure of South Sudan to regulate the business enterprises in the oil sector is a breach of its obligations under international human rights law.
Paris 2024 Olympics: A landmark for LGBTI athletes in global sports
Posted: 6 September, 2024 Filed under: Lakshita Kanhiya | Tags: (LGBTI) rights, anti-discrimination law, anti-discrimination principles, bisexual, Caster Semenya, fight for equality, French Constitution, French law, gay, human rights, Imane Khelif, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), international human rights law, International Olympic Committee (IOC), intersex, Key international instruments, LGBTI athletes, LGBTI culture, LGBTI persons, LGBTI rights, marked a historic event not only in sports but also in the ongoing struggle for lesbian, Paris 2024 Olympics, Penal Code, sports regulation, The Paris 2024 Olympics, transgender, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Leave a comment
Author: Lakshita Kanhiya
Pan-Africa ILGA
The Paris 2024 Olympics,[1] held from 26 July to 11 August 2024, marked a historic event not only in sports but also in the ongoing struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights. The Olympics is a global platform where the world’s best athletes showcase their talents, but it is also a stage where issues of equality, human rights, and inclusion come into sharp focus.
Lives at stake: Religion, death penalty, and the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Africa
Posted: 21 November, 2023 Filed under: Lakshita Kanhiya | Tags: Africa, Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, capital punishment, death penalty, discrimination, harassment, human rights, ICCPR, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, international human rights law, moral values, religion, religious missionaries, same-sex consensual relations, sexual and gender minority rights, societal stigma, torture, violence 1 CommentAuthor: Lakshita Kanhiya
Human Rights Advocate
The African continent presents a complex landscape for the protection of human rights, where various issues intersect, including capital punishment, sexual and gender minority rights, and the influence of religion. One of the most alarming and dire challenges in this regard is the imposition of the death penalty on sexual and gender minorities,[1] a practice that fundamentally contradicts human rights principles, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.[2]
UNCRC climate decision is a missed opportunity – A response to Muhumuza and Wepukhulu
Posted: 9 February, 2022 Filed under: Elsabé Boshoff, Samrawit Getaneh | Tags: climate change, climate change litigation, Domestic remedial mechanisms, emissions, global warming, international human rights law, local remedies, national courts, Paris Agreement, positive change, public international law, renewable energy, UN children’s rights committee Leave a comment
Author: Elsabé Boshoff
PhD Fellow, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo
Author: Samrawit Getaneh Damtew
Human Rights Advisor, GIZ Ethiopia and Djibouti
The UN Children’s Rights Committee (CRC) received its first Communication on climate change-induced child rights violations in Sacchi, et al. v. Argentina, et al. In its admissibility decision, the CRC confirmed that climate change has child right impacts and states have extraterritorial responsibility for harmful effects of emissions. However, the Committee declared the Communication inadmissible for failing to exhaust local remedies. In their article on AfricLaw, Muhumuza and Wepukhulu argue that this decision was the right one. We argue why the Communication should have been admissible.
Criteria for exhausting domestic remedies
The above-mentioned article argued that the decision is in line with the settled rules of exhaustion of domestic remedies. While this may be a general rule, it has exceptions. The CRC Optional Protocol in article 7(3) provides that exhaustion of local remedies is not required where the remedy is “unreasonably prolonged or unlikely to bring effective relief”.
The ball is in our court: Why the UN Children’s Rights Committee decision on climate change was the right one.
Posted: 24 January, 2022 Filed under: Khatondi Soita Wepukhulu, Nimrod Muhumuza | Tags: climate change, climate change impact assessment, climate change litigation, climate response policies, coal-fired power plants, Domestic remedial mechanisms, Earthlife Africa, emissions, global warming, international human rights law, Kyoto Protocol, legitimacy deficit, local remedies, national courts, Neubauer, Paris Agreement, positive change, public international law, renewable energy, Sharma, UN children’s rights committee, Urgenda Leave a comment
Author: Nimrod Muhumuza
LL.D. candidate, Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape
Author: Khatondi Soita Wepukhulu
Reporter, openDemocracy, Uganda
In a ground-breaking decision, the UN Children’s Rights Committee recently found that states are legally responsible for the harmful effects of emissions originating in their territory on children outside their borders. The fact that climate change is a global problem does not absolve individual states of their responsibility to reduce their share of emissions. Nonetheless, it found the authors’ complaint inadmissible for failure to exhaust local remedies. The decision was welcomed in some quarters and criticised in others.
The rules on exhaustion of local remedies within public international law and international human rights law are settled. The requirement serves as a manifestation of a state’s sovereignty – that states should be allowed to deal with a claim brought against it using the judicial and administrative mechanisms within their domestic legal order. In human rights law, exhaustion of local remedies is premised on the principle of subsidiarity. The primary avenues for remedying human rights violations are states’ judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative bodies. Only when these domestic avenues are ‘objectively’ considered unavailable, ineffective, unduly burdensome or only obtainable after inordinate delays can the complainants turn to international human rights mechanisms for recourse.
The African Court: Need for a system-based approach to jurisprudential affirmation
Posted: 16 November, 2017 Filed under: Sègnonna Horace Adjolohoun | Tags: advisory matters, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Court, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ‘introspective’ jurisprudence, criticised, Inoperative Advisory Mandate, international human rights law, Memorandum of Understanding, Observer Status, raison d’être, Remedial powers, system, unconstitutional 5 Comments
Author: Sègnonna Horace Adjolohoun
Visiting Professor of international human rights law and comparative African constitutional law, Central European University;
Extraordinary Lecturer, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Principal Legal Officer, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
This article is a summarised version of a much longer commentary which shall be published subsequently.
The views expressed below are exclusively those of the author and not of the African Court.
THE IMPERATIVE OF SYSTEM-BASED LAW MAKING
When the African Court became operational in 2006, the expectation was that it will affirm the then widely criticised African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights rather than merely “judicialise” the system. The Court therefore bears the historical duty to adopt a system strengthening approach to judicial law-making. As it makes law over the years, it becomes paramount to vet the Court’s pronouncements against that raison d’être. I attempt to do so with respect to its recent decisions.
ADVISORY MATTERS
Substantively, the requests related to a varied range of matters that are both current and novel, ranging from the meaning and scope of the role of the African Union policy organs to ‘consider’ the Activity Report of the African Human Rights Commission to the modalities of litigating the crime of unconstitutional change of government. Unfortunately, the Court did not assert jurisdiction to pronounce itself on the merit of those issues.
AfricLaw 
The right to life in Africa: General Comment No. 3 on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Posted: 10 February, 2016 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Paul Ogendi | Tags: 57th Ordinary Session, abolition, Africa, African, African Charter, African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Commission, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, albinos, customary international law, death penalty, dignified life, General Comment, IHL, international human rights law, non-discriminatio, poverty, protection of the right to life, Resolution 263, Resolution 275, right to life, sexual minoroties, use of force | 3 CommentsResearcher, Working Group on death penalty and extrajudicial summary or arbitrary killings in Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
During its 57th Ordinary Session held from 4 to 18 November 2015 in Banjul, The Gambia, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission) adopted General Comment No. 3 on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (General Comment No. 3) focusing on the right to life.
The document is timely because the protection of the right to life is currently under threat globally. Africa is no exception.
The Commission in 2012 expanded the work of one of its working groups focusing on the right to life to include not just death penalty but also extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings in Africa.
Some of the salient features of the new General Comment are discussed below.
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