Africa has been a constant focus of international politics, non-governmental human rights organisations and most recently the international courts. It has been perceived as a theatre of endless political violence associated with weak states such as Somalia and Libya to the alarming rise of terrorism in Nigeria. The AIDS epidemic has been battled for years with international assistance while the recent cases of Ebola epidemics put Africa and the world on a new level of alarm.
The old-fashioned international humanitarian aid relief has been criticised for years as doing too little and too late while no real alternative has been articulated to fill in the enormous need for food, medicines and know-how offered by international and multi-lateral programs. This UN FORUM issue reflects on some old-standing and some emerging problems in Africa through the new mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) to deal with them.
To date, the Office of the Prosecutor has initiated investigations that have exclusively focused on the African region. These developments have led to rigorous discussion and debate on the legitimacy of the Court’s mode of operation in the African context, particularly, whether the ICC as an institution is capable of meeting the notions of justice as desired by Africans.
The relationship between legislation, human rights and positive social change manifested in the abandonment of female genital mutilation/circumcision remains complex. History and experience has shown that law alone cannot change social behavior.
Hoewel er nog zeer veel stappen te zetten zijn, heeft de Afrikaanse Unie in de afgelopen jaren bewezen dat het niet meer de ‘talk shop’ van Afrikaanse leiders is, zoals jarenlang over haar voorganger de Organisatie van Afrikaanse Eenheid werd gezegd.
On 20 June 2013, an interview took place with Mama Lambert in the Synagogue in Tilburg as part of a commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi’s, organized by Intervict Tilburg University, Academic Forum and the Mukomeze Foundation.
Interview met Patrick Cammaert: “Seksueel geweld tegen vrouwen (en mannen) in conflictsituaties moet in de kiem gesmoord worden!”
De turbulente ontwikkelingen in de Arabische wereld van de afgelopen jaren, destijds veel te optimistisch aangeduid als de ‘Arabische Lente’, vonden hun oorsprong in Noord-Afrika (ook wel aangeduid als de Maghreb, het westen van de Arabische wereld).
Considering the complexity of the issue of land grabbing, its multiple actors involved (investors, central and local government, different stakeholders, local and indigenous people, international institutions) and its different settings, careful examination is needed of how the particular land acquisition is framed and what actors, interests and legal norms are involved.