#EndSARS: The Movement Against Police Brutality in Nigeria

Since the start of October 2020, demonstrators in the thousands have thronged Nigerian cities, calling for an end to police brutality in the country and demanding justice for victims of police violence and extrajudicial killings. The #EndSARS protests have elicited global sympathy and support, with world leaders such as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting in support. Other political figures and celebrities have also used the hashtag or referenced the movement to either directly support the protests or demand an end to the government crackdown on protestors. These include former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. president-elect Joe Biden, boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, Arsenal footballer Mesut Ozil, and American rapper Kanye West. For several days in October, the hashtag #EndSARS was the number one trending topic on global Twitter with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey launching a special emoji for the movement

An Analysis of Nigeria’s Soft Non-Compliant Approach to Domestic and Regional Court Orders and its Implication for Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Enshrining executive accountability and rule of law practices have been the drive behind democratic developments and the rise of regional human courts across the African continent. At the national level, a concern has been the need to practise effective separation of powers in order to ensure the independence of the judiciary. At the regional level, the literature has focused mainly on the human rights mandates of regional courts and tribunals with particular emphasis on states’ compliance with the decisions of these bodies. With the dominant reaction of states, most especially in instances of unfavourable regional rulings, being largely characterised by aggression and confrontation, the literature has failed to address a more recent trend of states’ cooperative and compliant rhetoric, towards adverse judgments of regional courts, albeit with a predetermined position not to comply with the ruling of those courts. This paper attempts to address these gaps in the literature by analysing the ‘soft’ approach of non-compliance in cases that crisscross national and regional courts. In doing this, the paper will examine two Nigerian cases (involving Sambo Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu) where abuses of court processes and the state’s disregard for court orders have seen the defendants make much-needed appeals to the regional court. The paper examines this fledgeling interaction between national and regional courts and the implications of the ‘soft’ approach to non-compliance in the administration of justice and the rule of law. The findings are particularly relevant in the context of previous literature that have attached importance to ‘respect’ accorded to regional institutions in determining whether such states would comply with the decisions of those bodies

A Proposal for the Effective Implementation of the Protective Mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights ushered in an era of human rights promotion and protection at the regional level. However, the African Commission, created for this purpose, continues to face challenges especially with regard to the protection of human rights. This article critically examines one of the core obstacles to the effective operation of the Commission’s protective mandate—the binding nature of its recommendations—and formulates a proposal for bypassing that obstacle. It argues for the strengthening of the Commission’s protective mandate through a distinct and unambivalent adoption of the Commission’s rulings as official decisions of the AU Assembly backed by the concomitant full sanctioning power of the latter. Such adoption, it is argued, must go beyond the current near ceremonious practice whereby the Assembly receives and ‘adopts’ the Commission’s Activity Reports and focus on the recommendations themselves. Adopting this new system, it is argued, will strengthen and add meaning to the Commission’s protective mandate and further project the status of human rights across the continent

The AU's journey to an African Criminal Court: a regional perspective

The discourse on international criminal law enforcement took an interesting turn when, in 2016, three African states announced their withdrawal from the ICC. These declarations were further punctuated by rhetoric, both from within the AU and a selection of African Heads of States, on the need for an alternative African-wide criminal court. Researchers, over the years, have examined the strained relationship between the ICC and AU, especially from the perspective of debunking allegations of bias levelled against the ICC by the latter. However, very little, if any, research has examined the discourse from the perspective of regionalism, and whether a regional criminal court, which would be the first of its kind, is in line with recent regional strides within Africa. This article seeks to make an important contribution to the literature by examining past developments between the AU and ICC and analysing whether these can be viewed from an alternative spectrum of the AU’s spirited march towards regional autonomy as opposed to the dominant perspective of a conceited movement towards authoritarianism and non-accountability. It argues that, its feasibility notwithstanding, there is a strong case for viewing Africa’s move for a regional court from an alternative lens of regional governance and control

#EndSARS: A Human Rights Evaluation of the Successes and Failures One Year Later

One year after the #EndSARS protests, police brutality and abuse still loom large in Nigeria. Although the #EndSARS movement achieved partial success in the areas of sensitization and reparation, it has been unable to accomplish needed change because of overly modest demands and the government’s lack of creativity and political will

The African Charter as Representing the African Standard of Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter is an introduction to the notion of regionalism in general and, more specifically, the African concept of human rights. It provides justification for the choice of the African Charter as the basis for analysing and assessing the concept and practice of human rights in the continent. It begins by introducing the concepts of universalism and regionalism and tracing the well-traversed universalism-cultural relativism debate. It then proceeds to examine the origin and foundation of the African Charter with a view to justifying its position as the human rights manual for the continent

Migration and the right to survival: An empirical study of three fishing communities in Senegal

Each year, thousands of Senegalese migrants brave the perils of the oceans in tiny canoes bound for Europe and the Canary Islands. In many cases, these migrants are local fishers who, owing to the depletion of the oceans, leave the country in search of greener pastures abroad. Many die en route from cold, starvation, and drowning. This empirical study seeks to make an original contribution to the literature by interrogating the lived experiences of local fishers in Senegal vis-à-vis dwindling fish stock largely occasioned by the activities of industrial fishing fleets. Semi-structured interviews were held with local fishers in the Senegalese coastal villages of Bargny, Saint-Louis, and Thiaroye with a view to developing grassroots perspectives on issues surrounding quality of life, survival, access to food, and migration within the context of declining small-scale fishing in Senegal. These perspectives are tested against thematic socioeconomic human rights such as the right to food, the right to work, and the right to free disposal of natural resources

Human Rights under the African Charter

This book critically examines the civil, political, socioeconomic, and group rights protected under the African Charter and its Protocol on women’s rights. It then examines the institutional protection of these rights through the African Commission and African Court. It builds on the concept of regionalism within Africa and the recent drive for “African solutions to African problems” by tracing the development of human rights within Africa and assessing the effectiveness of Africa’s core regional human rights institutions. It then critically analyses the obstacles to the full implementation of human rights in Africa such as the lack of political will, jurisdictional issues, lack of resources and funding, poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and customary practices that violate human rights. The book then discusses possible solutions to these problems

A Critical Analysis of the Content and System of State Reporting Under the African Charter: A Nigerian Case Study

After setting out the various civil, socioeconomic, and group rights, the African Charter created the state reporting system as a means for monitoring their implementation by states. However, this method of monitoring the Charter’s implementation and as its implication vis-à-vis the implementation of human rights in the African continent h not been critically analysed. This article examines the system of state reporting under the African Charter with the aim of evaluating and analysing this process of dialogue between the states and the Africa Commission. The article makes an clear and original contribution to knowledge given the dearth in academic publications that analyse the contents of the dialogical process of state reporting between the Commission and member states. Through a systematic analysis of Nigeria’s 4th, 5th, and 6th periodic state reports, the article makes a case for the use of state reporting as a means for highlighting significant areas of human rights intervention across African states. It argues that improved usage of this system, especially through the implementation of concluding observation, would not only improve the human rights dialogue across Africa but also promote the better realisation and implementation of the various rights outlined in the African Charter