Within the African regional human rights system, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is mandated to promote and protect human and peoples' rights. As part of its protective mandate, the Commission, in terms of an individual complaints procedure, can find that state parties are in violation of the provisions of the African Charter and has recommended remedies in cases where violations have been found. However, concerns have been raised about the non-compliance of state parties with the findings and recommendations issued by the African Commission. Although many possible reasons for this phenomenon could be explored, this contribution investigates one of the factors that may play a role, namely the argument that the findings of the Commission are not legally binding, and that states are consequently not obliged to abide by them. Arguments pertaining to the Commission's lack of competence to decide individual communications and its lack of competence to issue remedies, usually forwarded by those holding the view that the Commission's findings are not legally binding, are addressed here in a bid to clarify the status of the Commission's findings. A conclusion is reached that the findings of the Commission may be viewed as legally binding, firstly on a textual basis (the provisions of the African Charter) and secondly on account of the subsequent “ratification” (or “adoption”) of the findings by the AU Assembly.

This article argues that the community of self-described human rights NGOs that are indigenous to and operate in Nigeria have, over the last fourteen years or so, exerted a modest yet significant level of influence on the behaviour of both the executive and legislative branches of government in Nigeria. This influence has been exerted despite the harshness of military regimes that ruled that country for most of the relevant period. The factors that have facilitated the modest impact that these NGOs have had within Nigeria include their ability (at times) to work in coalitions; the highly innovative ends-means calculations made by NGO activists; their virtual alliance with a wing of the Nigerian judiciary and an important section of the mass media; their ability to creatively deploy international texts, processes and pressure within Nigeria; the deep cleavages within the Nigerian state and its elite that have led to a political culture that is much more amenable to negotiated settlements than is commonly acknowledged in the literature; and the unrelenting disposition, remarkable tenacity, and courage of most of the activists that run and operate these NGOs. The factors that have limited the extent of the success that these NGOs have so far enjoyed are conceptual and institutional in nature. The conceptual factors are their (albeit changing) tendency in this context to treat socio-economic, gender-related, minority, and environmental rights work as more marginal than civil/political rights activism; and their failure to pay any appreciable attention to the aspects of the local cultures and pre-existing languages of dignity that might advance their work among Nigeria's majority rural population. The institutional factors include their excessive fragmentation and proliferation; the de-institutionalization of most of their organizational forms and resort to personal rule; their donor-dependence and consequent failure to canvass the local population for funds and resources; and the elite and urban-centred orientation of most of these NGOs. Each of these factors has affected negatively their ability to mass mobilize and connect deeply with the yearnings of the masses of ordinary Nigerians.

Since the restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria in 1999, the governments of various Northern states have initiated reforms designed to remodel their legal systems in conformity with the Sharia. An issue which has generated intense controversy, especially in legal and political circles, is whether these reforms are consistent with certain key provisions of the 1999 Constitution. This study begins by tracing the historical process through which the application of the Sharia has emerged as a matter of profound constitutional importance in Nigeria. This is followed by a detailed analysis of specific provisions of the 1999 Constitution which are considered to have a direct bearing on the constitutionality of the Sharia reforms. Particular attention is paid to those provisions which proclaim the supremacy of the Constitution, prohibit the adoption of a state religion and prescribe the jurisdiction of various courts. Consideration is also given to the effect of various fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution on the Sharia penal regimes introduced as part of the reforms. The study demonstrates that various facets of the reforms are difficult to reconcile with the 1999 Constitution and concludes that fundamental constitutional reforms will be required to redress this state of affairs.

The article considers the impact of the public/private divide on the lives of African women. It discusses how the “protection” of the private from legal and other scrutiny helps to conceal the burden of caring for family which is borne almost exclusively by women. Moreover, the devaluation and non-recognition of women's labour in “private” family enterprises is reinforced by the inequitable division and enjoyment of property, not least land. Indeed, often women's access to resources is, like their access to political fora, severely curtailed, thus calling into question the notion that women are full citizens. The paper calls for a transformation of gender relations on the continent. It argues that there needs to be a reconceptualization of African citizenship to embrace women's experiences and that this can only be done by addressing the socio-structural inequalities which hamper women's participation in society.

The transformation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) has been the subject of some, albeit limited, debate. The role that the promotion and protection of human rights will play in the AU appears, on the face of the various documents, to be an important consideration, yet which organs will have responsibility in ensuring their implementation is still not clear. This article aims to discuss the framework of and relationship between the institutions established under the auspices of the OAU and how these have changed since the transformation to the AU. It argues that insufficient attention has been paid to ensuring a coherent and integrated approach to human rights across the Union. Organs such as the African Commission and the new African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, however, have huge potential to influence the way forward.

The need for governments to be given the powers to meet future emergencies, whether man-made or natural, with speed and effectiveness is widely recognized. However, because of the frequent violations of human rights committed by states under the pretext of overcoming emergencies and restoring order, there has always been a need for the exercise of these emergency powers to be strictly controlled to prevent their abuse.

This article reviews the current state of emergency powers in Cameroon in the light of the 1996 amendment to the Constitution and emerging international standards regulating the declaration of a state of emergency. It argues that emergency powers are only consistent with a democratic system of governance when there are effective controls to check against their abuse. It concludes that the expansion of presidential powers, with wide-ranging and vague powers to deal with emergencies, combined with the absence of any effective legislative oversight or judicial control raises serious doubts about the country's transition from the numbing years of authoritarian dictatorship to a fully fledged constitutional democracy.

This article reports the results of a survey that the author conducted on procedures used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”) to assess applications for asylum in Kenya. It focuses on some core challenges facing the regime. The article is divided into six sections. In the first, the procedures for seeking asylum are outlined. The second and third sections discuss issues relating to the financial situation of the UNHCR and, hence, its ability to process claims. The next section evaluates the contents of the letter that communicates an asylum decision and the extent to which it facilitates appeals. Questions regarding the removal of rejected claimants are examined in the penultimate section. In conclusion, the final section recommends that Kenya's refugee determination scheme needs to aim at realizing the standards set by UNHCR and international refugee and human rights laws. It also suggests that more efforts should be made at addressing the factors which produce refugees.

Given the importance of international trade in the development of any polity, the enforcement of ownership and contractual rights under bills of lading is of critical moment in the overall scheme of things. Title to sue, as a threshold question, has the potential of impacting on cargo owners' access to justice if the applicable regime or rules are complicated. For a cargo-owning nation, such as Nigeria, a liberal and coherent regime is desideratum. This article primarily reviews the position in Nigeria with regard to title to sue under bills of lading against the backdrop of the erstwhile position in England under the now-repealed Bills of Lading Act, 1855, on the one hand and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, on the other. It is shown that the extent of the application of section 375 of the revised Merchant Shipping Act, 1990 (section 1 of the Bills of Lading Act, 1855) by the courts in Nigeria does not adequately accentuate the inherent anomalies in the regime as was evident in England. Similarly, the conceptual incongruity of introducing section 6(6)(b) of the Constitution, which deals with the exercise of judicial powers, is also addressed. It is argued that the solution to the locus standi problem cannot be found in the Constitution. In the final analysis, an argument is made for the adoption of a regime along the lines of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1992, in England.

This article proposes to critically examine how effectively Ghana has managed pressures by domestic import-competing industries and unionized labour for protection since the country engaged in radical and far-reaching trade liberalization under World Bank and IMF auspices. It argues that the heavy influence of public choice theory on the conception of regulatory role of government in the economy held by these principal architects of Ghana's trade reforms has resulted in the omission to provide for contingency protection measures for domestic industries adversely impacted by imports as a consequence of liberalization. Though these measures pose a counternormative threat to free trade, the article takes the position that they are necessary tools for the effective management of protectionist pressures and therefore for sustaining free trade itself. Finally, it concludes that the uncritical application of choice theoretic analyses to Ghana's trade reforms may be mistaken and that there is no rational alternative to dealing with the problem of protectionist pressure other than a resort to the legitimate mechanism provided under international law.

Notwithstanding the weaknesses of the tort of negligence as a mechanism for compensating victims of defective products, it remains the only avenue for recourse when the rights of consumers in Cameroon are infringed. While strict liability for defective products has been introduced in several (mostly Western) jurisdictions, Cameroonian law in this context remains unchanged. This article makes a critical analysis of the reform/experiences in those jurisdictions. It argues against the prevailing negligence or fault-based system in Cameroon within the context of the contemporary global economic order and advocates for the introduction of a strict liability regime. It contends that law reform will not have any more negative consequences on the Cameroonian economy and nascent industries than it did in those jurisdictions where the scheme is currently operational. Nevertheless, it cautions on what to expect in the advent of law reform and sounds a warning note on the potential pitfalls for the Cameroonian legislator to guard against.

The Private International Law rule to the effect that where there is no antenuptial contract the proprietary consequences of a marriage are determined by the husband's domiciliary law at the time of the marriage was, for the first time, the subject of legal arguments before the Court of Appeal in the case of Mtui v. Mtui. Under South African law, the law selected by this rule applies to all property of the spouses, whether acquired before or after the marriage, and whether movable or immovable. Furthermore, the domiciliary law determines the law applicable to the proprietary consequences of the marriage once and for all because of the immutability doctrine of Roman-Dutch law and will be the lex causae whenever questions concerning the property relations of the spouses arise.

At the 1999 International Botanical Congress held in St Louis, Missouri, the President of the Congress, Dr Peter Raven, presented a keynote address emphasizing the importance of plants to human existence and underlined concerns that the Earth is undergoing a human-induced extinction crisis. One of the resolutions of the congress was to establish a new co-ordinating body associated with the United Nations to monitor the status of plants throughout the world and take steps to conserve them. The resolutions were followed up with a meeting in Gran Canaria on 3–4 April, 2000 when leading botanists met to formulate a declaration which could be taken forward to the fifth Conference of the Parties (CoP5) to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Nairobi in May 2000. CoP5 recognized that plant diversity is a common concern of humankind and an essential resource for the planet, with as many as two-thirds of the world's plant species in danger of extinction, and proposed that at the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP6) the establishment of a global strategy for plant conservation should be considered. A strategy with 16 targets was presented and adopted at the CoP6 meeting held in The Hague in April 2002. These targets differ from the normal approach adopted in the Convention on Biological Diversity of using general principles that can be interpreted by national policy, in that they are quantified.