al-Lughah al-‘Arabīyah ka-Lughah ‘Ālamīyah wa-al-Tanabbu’ ‘an Mustaqbalihā fī al-Mujtama‘ al-Nījīrī

Since the 20th century AD, Arabic has become a global language used at the United Nations in speaking, making official speeches, issuing documents, and in simultaneous translation into official languages, in addition to being an official language in the Organization of African Unity and other international organizations of the United Nations Africa remained related to Arab trade and civilization centuries before Islam, and when Islam came, the first Arab migration to the African continent was the migration to Abyssinia, and thus the Muslim Arabs found their first home after their homeland in Africa. Islam entered Kanem Borno in the 8th century, and in Kano in the 14th century. As for the western region; the country of Yoruba, reached it in the first half of the 14th century AD according to one saying and the 15th according to another, and the 16th according to a third. As for the eastern region, whose population is mostly Igbo, it was reached by displaced merchants from the two regions: the northern and western. The masters of the Arabic language in Nigeria have made effective efforts to advance the Arabic language, as these efforts herald the splendid independence of the Arabic language in Nigerian society.

Part III Regional Regimes, Ch.15 Regional Refugee Regimes: Africa

This chapter highlights the African approach to refugees, analysing the regional legal framework anchored by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention. The regional legal regime for refugees includes treaty and institutional components. The treaty framework is comprised of the Refugee and OAU conventions and international and regional human rights law, including but not limited to the two covenants, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and African instruments on the rights of women and children. The chapter then addresses regional organizations with relevant mandates: African Union (AU) bodies and judicial organs including the AU Commission, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It also looks at the role of civil society, as well as contemporary refugee protection achievements and challenges. These include the implementation, in terms of both refugee status determination and rights, of the regional legal framework in national jurisdictions; the rise of displacement in the context of climate change and disasters; and the relationship between European Union policy responses to the so-called migration crisis and refugee protection in Africa.

AfCFTA’s Notification Options to WTO: Enabling Clause or Article XXIV Exception

Since the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), African countries envisage regional integration to enhance trade among themselves. This effort was preceded by the formation of the sub-regional economic groups which serve as building blocks towards a larger integration. Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter AfCFTA) came into force in May 2019. As per the procedural requirements of the WTO, AfCFTA should be notified either to WTO’s Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) if AfCFTA opts to use enabling clause exception; or it should be notified to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreement if AfCFTA opts to use Article XXIV of GATT/WTO exception. This comment examines under which exception AfCFTA should notify its integration. I argue that it is better for AfCFTA to notify its integration under Article XXIV of GATT/WTO to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreement rather than under enabling clause to the Committee on Trade and Development.

Peaceful Change in Africa

This chapter examines contending African interpretations of peace and change; how some of these interpretations have come to constitute continental institutions; and how these institutions, in turn, have succeeded or failed to make a difference. Its argument is threefold. First, African interpretations of peace and change converge around a nexus of five elements: liberty, unity, development, pacific settlement of disputes and democracy. Second, this nexus left a major mark on continental institutions, first the Organization of African Unity and then the African Union. Third, although Africa’s record of peaceful change is very promising when one is to apply markers for peaceful change traditionally used in international relations, the continent has experienced very pronounced and persistent obstacles to implementing the five elements of the much more demanding nexus.