Human Rights and Personal Law: Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Rhoda Howard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
The Family ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Personal Law ◽  
Female Genital

In this paper I will discuss women’s rights regarding marriage, the family, and genital operations in the context of internationally accepted views of the individual rights of women. I focus upon these particular areas partly because the issue of female genital operations in Africa has been the subject of much popular attention in the last three years, but mainly because, given that women’s biological reproductive roles are so much more central to their lives than are the equivalent roles for men, their rights in these areas profoundly affect their ability to exercise their rights in other areas, i.e. in the polity and in the economy. For data I use examples from several English-speaking sub-Saharan countries.

Is the assessment under Article 8 ECHR for migrants justifiable?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1023263X2110614
Author(s):  
Jennie Edlund ◽  
Václav Stehlík
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Case Law ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

The paper analyses the protection granted under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights for different immigration cases. The way the European Court of Human Rights determines compliance with Article 8 for settled migrants differs from the way the Court determines compliance for foreign nationals seeking entry or requesting to regularize their irregular migration status. The paper argues that the European Court of Human Rights application of different principles when determining a States’ positive and negative obligations is contradicting its own case law. It also argues that the absence of justification grounds for the refusal of foreign nationals who are seeking entry lacks legitimacy. By treating all immigration cases under Article 8(2) the paper suggests that the differentiation between cases should be based on how a refusal of entry or an expulsion would impact on the family life. The paper also suggests that more consideration should be given towards the insiders interests when balancing the individual rights against the state's interests. These changes would lead to a more consistent and fair case law and generate a more convergent practice by the states which will increase the precedent value of the Court's judgements.

Comparative Law and African Customary Law

2006 ◽  
pp. 640-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
Customary Laws ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Normative Order

Customary law grows out of the social practices which a given jural community has come to accept as obligatory. It is a pervasive normative order, providing the regulatory framework for spheres of human activity as diverse as the family, the neighbourhood, the business of merchant banking, or international diplomacy. This article looks at the customary laws of sub-Saharan Africa. It deals with the preservation of the law in an oral tradition and how it has been influenced by certain social, economic, and political structures. This focus requires, in turn, that particular attention be paid to factors influencing the production of texts on customary law. Because information on the subject is limited, outdated, and somewhat subjective, readers must be made aware of how changes in the theories of jurisprudence and anthropology have affected ideas and preconceptions.

scholarly journals Women's Right to Land Between Collective and Individual Dimensions. Some Insights From Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Errico
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Women represent a large part of the 2.5 billion people who depend on lands managed through customary, community-based tenure systems and are especially reliant on commons for their lives and livelihoods. They have very often limited and unsecured access to land and natural resources and tend to be excluded from decisions concerning them. Far from representing a homogenous group, they face varying challenges that are the result of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, whereby gender dynamics intersect with other characteristics, such as age, disability, ethnic origin, or socioeconomic status. Peasant and indigenous women, in many instances, face the compounded impact of the lack of recognition and violation of the collective rights of their communities, which is often the legacy of histories of colonization, conquest, dispossession and discrimination, and patriarchal norms, exacerbated by neoliberalism and the commodification of land and natural resources. The nexus between individual and collective rights is one of particular importance, but has received limited attention, including as regards the gendered effects of human rights violations of collective rights. In the present article, the nexus between collective and individual rights of peasant and indigenous women is illustrated by considering the experience surrounding the recognition and implementation of collective rights to land in Sub-Saharan Africa and the impact on women's right to land. The article argues that peasant and indigenous women's right to land is best protected through interventions aimed at guaranteeing both their collective and individual rights. There is a need to take into account and address simultaneously the barriers that indigenous and peasant women face with regard to their collective as well as their individual rights. These barriers include those ascribed to the discrimination and social, economic and political marginalization suffered by their peoples and communities, as well as those related to patriarchal power structures within and outside them. Addressing these barriers requires the respect, protection and fulfillment of both collective and individual human rights of women and a careful analysis of the interaction between these rights.

Comparative Law and African Customary Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 651-680
Author(s):  
T. W. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
Customary Laws ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Normative Order

Customary law grows out of the social practices which a given jural community has come to accept as obligatory. It is a pervasive normative order, providing the regulatory framework for spheres of human activity as diverse as the family, the neighbourhood, the business of merchant banking, or international diplomacy. This article looks at the indigenous customary laws of sub-Saharan Africa. It deals with the preservation of the law in an oral tradition and how it has been influenced by certain social, economic, and political structures. This focus requires, in turn, that particular attention be paid to factors influencing the production of texts on customary law. Because textual information on the subject is limited, often outdated, and somewhat subjective, readers must be made aware of how changes in the theories of jurisprudence and anthropology have affected ideas and preconceptions.

Situating the Rights versus Culture Binary within the Context of Colonial History in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 425-447
Author(s):  
Afua Twum-Danso Imoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual

Children’s rights and culture have long been positioned as logically opposed to each other. Human rights, with their focus on the individual, were said to infringe on collective identity in diverse contexts. In turn, cultures (especially those in non-Western societies), and their attendant practices, were seen to impede the realization of human rights. However, the reality of children’s lives demonstrates the complexities that frame the contexts within which children are raised and highlights the implications for perceptions of children’s rights and culture. These complexities can be attributed to numerous factors, including the historical context of a society and its implications for that society’s relationship to both the concepts of culture and rights. Therefore, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this chapter explores the role of one historical event—colonial rule and missionary engagement—in shaping a society’s relationship to both the cultures that underpin its communities and the dominant notion of children’s rights.

Pre-Linnaean pictures of the secretarybird, Sagittarius serpentarius (J. F. )

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAGNAR K. KINZELBACH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
The Family ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Sub Saharan

The secretarybird, the only species of the family Sagittariidae (Falconiformes), inhabits all of sub-Saharan Africa except the rain forests. Secretarybird, its vernacular name in many languages, may be derived from the Arabic “saqr at-tair”, “falcon of the hunt”, which found its way into French during the crusades. From the same period are two drawings of a “bistarda deserti” in a codex by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250). The original sketch obviously, together with other information on birds, came from the court of Sultan al-Kâmil (1180–1238) in Cairo. Careful examination led to an interpretation as Sagittarius serpentarius. Two archaeological sources and one nineteenth century observation strengthened the idea of a former occurrence of the secretarybird in the Egyptian Nile valley. André Thevet (1502–1590), a French cleric and reliable research traveller, described and depicted in 1558 a strange bird, named “Pa” in Persian language, from what he called Madagascar. The woodcut is identified as Sagittarius serpentarius. The text reveals East Africa as the real home of this bird, associated there among others with elephants. From there raises a connection to the tales of the fabulous roc, which feeds its offspring with elephants, ending up in the vernacular name of the extinct Madagascar ostrich as elephantbird.

A REVISED GENERIC SYNOPSIS OF HYACINTHACEAE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, BASED ON MOLECULAR EVIDENCE, INCLUDING NEW COMBINATIONS AND THE NEW TRIBE PSEUDOPROSPEREAE

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. MANNING ◽  
P. GOLDBLATT ◽  
M. F. FAY
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Molecular Evidence ◽  
New Combinations ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
The Family ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Single Genus ◽  
New Tribe ◽  
Sub Saharan

A revised generic synopsis of sub-Saharan Hyacinthaceae is presented, based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the family. Generic rank is accorded only to reciprocally monophyletic clades that can be distinguished by recognizable morphological discontinuities, thereby permitting an appropriate generic assignment of species not included in the analysis. Three subfamilies are recognized within the region. Subfamily Ornithogaloideae, characterized by flattened or angular seeds with tightly adhering testa, is considered to include the single genus Ornithogalum, which is expanded to include the genera Albuca, Dipcadi, Galtonia, Neopatersonia and Pseudogaltonia. Recognizing any of these segregates at generic level renders the genus Ornithogalum polyphyletic, while subdivision of Ornithogalum into smaller, morphologically distinguishable segregates in order to preserve the monophyly of each is not possible. Subfamily Urgineoideae, characterized by flattened or winged seeds with brittle, loosely adhering testa, comprises the two mainland African genera Bowiea and Drimia. The latter is well circumscribed by its deciduous, short-lived perianth and includes the previously recognized genera Litanthus, Rhadamanthus, Schizobasis and Tenicroa. The monotypic Madagascan Igidia is provisionally included in the subfamily as a third genus on the basis of its seeds, pending molecular confirmation of its relationships. Subfamily Hyacinthoideae resolves into three clades, distinguished as tribes Hyacintheae (strictly northern hemisphere and not treated further), Massonieae and Pseudoprospereae tribus nov. Full descriptions and a key to their identification are provided for all genera. New combinations reflecting the generic circumscriptions adopted here are made for most African and all Indian and Madagascan species.

scholarly journals Khlaifia and Others v. Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-280
Author(s):  
Jill I. Goldenziel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Detention Centers ◽  
European Court ◽  
Grand Chamber ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Domestic Law

In Khlaifia and Others v. Italy, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber or Court) released a landmark opinion with broad implications for how states must respect the individual rights of migrants. In the judgment, issued on December 15, 2016, the Court held that Italy's treatment of migrants after the Arab Spring violated the requirement of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that migrants receive procedural guarantees that enable them to challenge their detention and expulsion. The Court also held that Italy's treatment of migrants in detention centers did not violate the ECHR's prohibition on cruel and inhuman treatment, in part due to the emergency circumstances involved. The Court further held that Italy's return of migrants to Tunisia did not violate the prohibition on collective expulsion in Article 4 of Protocol 4 of the ECHR. Enforcement of the judgment would require many European states to provide a clear basis in domestic law for the detention of migrants and asylum-seekers. Given the global diffusion of state practices involving migrants, and other states’ desires to restrict migration, this case has broad implications for delineating the obligations of states to migrants and the rights of migrants within receiving countries.

scholarly journals Opportunities and Challenges in Realizing Universal Access to Obstetric Ultrasound in Sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. E52-E59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sikolia Wanyonyi ◽  
Charles Mariara ◽  
Sudhir Vinayak ◽  
William Stones
Keyword(s):  
Universal Access ◽  
Perinatal Outcomes ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Obstetric Ultrasound ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan

AbstractThe potential benefits of obstetric ultrasound have yet to be fully realized in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite the region bearing the greatest burden of poor perinatal outcomes. We reviewed the literature for challenges and opportunities of universal access to obstetric ultrasound and explored what is needed to make such access an integral component of maternity care in order to address the massive burden of perinatal morbidity and mortality in SSA. Original peer-reviewed literature was searched in various electronic databases using a ‘realist’ approach. While the available data were inconclusive, they identify many opportunities for potential future research on the subject within the region that can help build a strong case to justify the provision of universal access to ultrasound as an integral component of comprehensive antenatal care.

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