In this post, Arthur van Coller highlights the critical need to focus on preventing genocide rather than merely responding to its aftermath. He explores key indicators that signal the potential onset of genocidal violence, including acts of incitement and hate speech that may escalate tensions. van Coller also highlights the valuable role of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in establishing legal precedents for recognising and addressing these warning signs.

In this post, the ALM team interviewed book editors, Marko Svičevič and Martha M. Bradley to provide an overview of their recent publication which examines one of today's most overlooked conflicts. Through a multidisciplinary lens, the book explores the conflict in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, which has claimed thousands of lives and displaced a million people since 2017. It examines the conflict's origins, the responses from regional and international actors, and its broader implications.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is committed to fostering economic development, peace, security, and growth, while also addressing poverty and improving the quality of life for the people of Southern Africa through Regional Integration. To realize these objectives, facilitating the free movement of people throughout the region is essential. Brian Chihera suggests that adopting a regional citizenship model akin to that of the EU could facilitate this. Under such a framework, citizens would enjoy increased access to resources, job opportunities, and social services.

The African Union (AU) has taken a monumental step towards protecting the right to nationality in Africa. At the 37th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly, the new Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights was adopted, addressing the critical issue of statelessness. This historic move fills a crucial gap in the African Charter, ensuring the eradication of statelessness. Byrony Fox explores the significance of this Protocol and its impact on Human Rights in the region.

Many constitutions in Africa contain what are known as “clawback clauses,” which exempt personal law from their guarantees of nondiscrimination. In this week’s post, the authors posit that a decolonization approach which surfaces the history of colonial involvement in constitution-making can also be helpful in legal cases involving the clawback provisions, and in broader policy advocacy and public awareness-raising about the need to reconsider and revise personal status law regimes.

In this article, Dr. Linda Mushoriwa focuses on the current conflict in Sudan. She examines whether given Aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063, the African Union’s quest for peace and security is feasible. She analysis Article 4 (h) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which empowers the AU to intervene in Sudan’s conflict. She also notes that the AU can within their mandate deploy peacekeeping forces to silence the guns in Sudan. In that way, it can achieve its desire to promote peace, security, and stability in Africa.

Towards the end of February 2023, Vanuatu and 18 other States formally uploaded the final Draft Resolution requesting an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This draft resolution was officially adopted on the 29th of March. Dr. Tracey Kanhanga explains why it was important for African States to co-sponsor Vanuatu’s Draft Resolution and vote for its adoption as well as the potential impact that the advisory opinion will have in strengthening domestic climate change regulatory frameworks.

A “SLAPP” suit is strategic litigation against public participation and has its origin in the United States of America and Canada. Courtney Jones discusses the application of the SLAPP defence in South African law following the Constitutional Court’s judgment in Mineral Sands Resources (Pty) Ltd v Reddell.

Last year the United Kingdom engaged in talks with Rwanda over the two nations’ migration and economic development partnership ( Rwanda asylum plan ). In this article, Dr. D’orsi gives an overview of Rwanda’s position concerning the UK’s plan to deport some asylum seekers to its country. In addition, he assesses Rwanda’s asylum system to determine how safe it is for asylum seekers.

Africa faces a variety of developmental woes that have resulted in various injustices, including environmental injustice. Stephen Morgan discusses the importance of recognising this injustice and makes a case for a reorientation of what we assume to be our moral responsibility towards the environment using indigenous African values and practices.

Climate change has created a children’s rights crisis which disproportionately affects children on the African continent. Bryony Fox discusses this issue and argues that it is time for a comprehensive children's rights approach to climate change impacts in Africa.

Corporations increasingly enjoy more rights but face fewer consequences for abusing rights. Erika George argues that a new approach is urgently needed and that constitutional courts should be more concerned with the concentrated power of the private sector and protecting the public space for effective policy making and adjudication.

In the course of digitalisation, economic and other activities are increasingly internationalising and their challenges can thus be less frequently addressed through state constitutions. Although there is no constitutional framework that would allow private power to be effectively constrained at the international level, Johannes Masing argues that a certain uniting basis of constitutionalism across borders may be found in human rights.

United Nations Special Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter calls for an end to ‘povertyism’ - the discrimination & negative attitudes that bar people in poverty from fully accessing their rights and for states to include socio-economic status as a suspect ground in national anti-discrimination frameworks.

Climate change and the related crime of ecocide have increasingly been the focus of academic and public attention. As once stable weather patterns become more unpredictable and previously rare weather events become more common and more extreme, we are belatedly recognizing that the ecological destruction inflicted on the world around us poses a tremendous threat to not just the natural world, but to humanity as well.