In recent decades, achieving the goal of the global protection of human rights has been approached most commonly through multilateralism. States have since abandoned notions of self-reliance in favour of interdependency and collaboration, leading to a proliferation of international, regional, and sub-regional multilateral organizations. However, the definition of ‘multilateralism' restricts the application of the legal frameworks of these organizations to sovereign states that have voluntarily consented to be bound by the obligations contained therein. State consent and political will drive multilateralism, and the requirement of voluntariness in these forms has been utilised as a means of respecting the internationally recognized legal principle of state sovereignty. Consequently, voluntariness has impacted the effective functioning of organizations such as the African Union (‘AU') and the Southern African Development Community (‘SADC'). This thesis proposes that the less significant the impact of voluntariness is on a regional or sub-regional human rights system, the more effective it will be in its role of protecting human rights. This thesis provides practical ways of lessening the impact of voluntariness, in order to strengthen the human rights legal frameworks of the AU and the SADC; and to improve the functioning of their respective compliance mechanisms. This thesis achieves the aforementioned by drawing from the systems' European and African regional and sub-regional counterparts.

This thesis addresses the right to ‘basic education' in South Africa by focusing on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). To what extent South Africa is bound by this treaty and whether it is fulfilling its obligations are the central questions of the thesis. To provide answers to these questions, the situation in South Africa regarding the various aspects of this right in terms of the 4-A scheme, which was developed in order to define the country's obligations as per the ICESCR, is examined. It can be seen from the 4-A scheme that South Africa is bound by the ICESCR regarding basic education to a large extent. This includes that schools must be physically and economically accessible to learners, and that there must be a comprehensive infrastructure. The ICESCR also calls for a certain quality of education to be provided to learners with disabilities, as well as for learners to be provided with food. Based on this examination regarding these aspects of the right to education according to the ICESCR, it can be concluded that South Africa often does not meet these requirements.

Under Apartheid children with disabilities were systematically excluded from the education system. With the dawn of democracy, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa guaranteed the right to basic education for everyone. The Preamble of the South African Schools Act went further by recognising the importance of creating an education system that could remedy past injustices and provide high-quality education for all. Yet despite these guarantees, South Africa has failed to realise the right to education for children with disabilities. Today, a considerable portion of children who are out of school consists of children with disabilities. This paper critically assesses the ability of South Africa's current legislative and policy framework to realise the right to education for children with disabilities. It considers South Africa's international law obligations concerning education provision. It further considers South Africa's domestic legal and policy framework by taking an in-depth look at the effectiveness of various education legislation, policies, guidelines, and plans of action. This paper argues that the current legislative and policy framework is insufficient to realise the right to education for children with disabilities. It further argues that a comprehensive legislative and policy framework is a key first step to realising this right.

The albinism community in Malawi has been faced with gruesome human rights violations for the past decade. These violations have included, assaults, kidnapping, mutilations, and murder. The cause of such violations is that the community of Malawi has for so long embraced the superstitious belief that the body parts of people with albinism are an essential charm for good luck. As a result of this, the albino community faces extinction because of the small population. The definition of a refugee under the 1951 Refugee Convention on the other hand, only provides for five grounds of persecution which includes race, religion, nationality, political opinion and membership of a particular social group. The dissertation seeks to unravel whether the international law grants refugee status to people with albinism. In response to the question, the dissertation analyses the definition of a refugee under the 1951 Convention. Persecution and inability of a State to protect victims of human rights violations are important elements to establish a solid case for refugee application. Hence, the dissertation tends to analyse whether the treatment of people with albinism in Malawi amounts to persecution. Besides, whether, they could be granted refugee status in other countries. The dissertation, furthermore, tends to analyse whether there are other mechanisms of the international community that are used to protect people with albinism. The findings in this thesis are that albinism is a ground of persecution because of the treatment that is followed due to their defined characteristics. That due to certain factors that needs to be satisfied to amount to effective national protection; Malawi has failed to protect people with albinism. Therefore, based on those factors, people with albinism could be granted international protection of refugees. Though there are other mechanisms by the international community used to protect people with albinism, there is a need to change the definition of a refugee under the 1951 Convention to accommodate problems arising in the contemporary world.

Human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal, known to be an obscure and uncommon form of trafficking in persons, has since become a popular phenomenon across various countries of the world. The crime is recognized in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. A reason for the inclusion of this form of trafficking in this particular international instrument on transnational organized crime is because most forms of trafficking, and more particularly human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal, as well as organ trafficking are generally perpetrated by transnational organized criminal groups. This dissertation seeks to consider the crime in detail, from a human right-based approach. This approach acknowledges that trafficking in all its forms, is a violation of human rights and seeks to depart from the common debates surrounding the spread of organ trafficking over the years. A large proportion of these debates have attributed the shortage of organs to the spread of the organ black market and organ trafficking in general. These debates have therefore focused on addressing the shortage of organs by developing systems to promote altruistic donation of organs. Even though there is an international recognition and admittance of the fact that human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal constitutes a serious human right abuse, there is still a wide gap in the body of research that focuses on the human right abuses involved in this type of human trafficking, and the need to protect and promote the rights of victim-donors. The aforementioned gap will serve as the crux of this dissertation as efforts will be made to address the inherent human rights abuses that victim-donors face. This dissertation will begin by introducing the crime of human trafficking through a brief historical overview. It will then proceed to give a background information on human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal. Subsequent chapters will address in detail the trends and patterns of the crime, the modus operandi of organ traffickers, the role players in organ trafficking networks, the consequences of the crime on the victims involved, the inherent human right violations promoted through the continuous perpetration of the crime of human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal, and the responses that have been given to curbing the crime from different international, regional and national institutions. Case studies will be examined to buttress the facts and findings of the entire dissertation.

International human rights laws are grossly violated by the hudud ordinances, with their extremely cruel punishments, including stoning for adultery, beheading for apostasy, and amputation for theft. Pakistan, Sudan, Brunei Darussalam and Saudi Arabia, for example, follow the doctrines of the four main Sunni schools of jurisprudence and enforce hudud ordinances, thereby violating some of the core international human rights law instruments to which they are State Parties. Orthodox Muslims generally defend the hudud ordinances, claiming that they are divine and immutable. This study refutes the aforementioned claim and demonstrates that it is legitimate and possible to reform hudud punishments to reconcile them with international human rights law. The thesis differentiates between Shariah and Islamic law. It argues that Shariah refers to the divine rulings recorded in the Qur'an and correct Sunnah, while Islamic law is not fully divine, for it includes also such prescriptions that have been developed by the human effort of Islamic jurists. The thesis demonstrates that reformation is an Islamic concept that requires that Muslims read the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah in the context of their own time and environment. It is postulated, therefore, that the rulings of Islamic law need to be examined in the light of the Qur'an, the correct Sunnah and the Islamic core values promoted in them. These include several internationally protected human rights, such as the right to life, equality, and freedom of religion. The thesis points out that the main purpose of Shariah is to serve the benefit of the people and to protect them from harm. To this end, Shariah has provided the Islamic principles of reality and necessity. These require that the reality of life and the needs of the people be considered at all times. If necessary for the sake of the people, the principles allow for exceptions to be made to even definite provisions. It, further, demonstrates how these principles can be applied to reform the hudud ordinances to reconcile them with international human rights law.

Mini Dissertation ((LLM) Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust / European Union / Centre for Human Rights / (LLM) Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa / Unrestricted

This dissertation investigated the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (R2P), which was unanimously endorsed at the 2005 UN World Summit by all the UN Member States. I determined the status of R2P in public international law. I found that, although the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document is not a source of international law, the responsibility to protect contained therein under paragraph 138, reiterated the existing international legal obligation of states to protect their populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. I have argued that if a state fails to fulfil its legal obligation to protect its population from mass violations of human rights, the principle of state sovereignty and its accompanying norm of non-intervention cannot prevent the international community from responding appropriately to protect the population of that state. But the international community does not have a legal obligation on how it should respond to situations of human rights violations. However, the responsibility to protect as contained in paragraph 139 of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document and the constitutive documents of organizations such as the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have given authority to the international community to intervene in their member states in order to protect populations from mass atrocity crimes. On that basis, the responsibility to protect on the part of the international community exists. But the international community retains the discretion to decide on whether it should respond and how it should react to situations that fall within the scope of R2P. I used the three pillars of the responsibility to protect, contained in the 2009 report of the UN Secretary General to determine how the responsibility to protect was implemented in Nigeria to protect the population from crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by members of the Islamic extremist militant group called Boko Haram. I analyzed various measures taken by the Nigerian government, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and concluded that the measures taken were not effective in defeating Boko Haram. Hence, I found that the responsibility to protect was not successfully implemented in Nigeria.

Includes bibliographical references / 2015 signals the end of the Millennium Development Goals. Amidst the present reflection on, and analysis of, the progress of the implementation of the current development agenda, the draft post-2015 SDGs are in the final stages of their development. With the imminent adoption of the new goals by UN Member States in September 2015 the post-2015sustainable development agenda aims to integrate the principle of sustainability in order to continue the global drive for economic and human development within environmental limits. Through a comparative analysis of the Millennium Development Goals, the draft post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals as well as the documents that have contributed to their development, this paper critiques the manner in which the human rights of women have been, and will continue to be, addressed by the global development agenda. Additionally, using the African continent as a case study, this dissertation exposes the role played by regional political and human rights systems on the implementation of the global intention. Neglecting to adequately promote and protect the human rights of women in the continent reflects a lack of consideration for the interconnected nature of socioeconomic and environmental development and has wider consequences globally.

There are approximately 65.3 million forcibly displaced people in the world. A large majority of these people are internally displaced. Of the 40.8 million internally displaced persons' (IDPs) worldwide, Nigeria had a total of 1,955,000 IDPs at the end of 2016. Consequently, Nigeria is among the countries with the highest number of displaced persons globally. A wide range of political, economic, social, and environmental factors, including poverty, corruption, and internal armed conflict, affect the population in Nigeria and contribute to internal instability. Thus, as Nigeria represents a complex and multi-layered situation of internal displacement, it makes for an interesting case study to understand international protection of IDPs. This dissertation asks whether the current protection of IDPs' right to physical security in Nigeria complies with international human rights standards. The current international legal framework in place for the protection of IDPs is relatively extensive, and undergoes continuous development. The United Nations Guiding Principles for the Protection of Internally Displaced People and the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention), as well as general human rights mechanisms, comprehensively set out the rights and guarantees for the protection of the physical security of IDPs. Although there has been great improvement in recent years relating to the legal protection of and assistance to IDPs, the de facto implementation and enforcement of these frameworks in Nigeria is not in full compliance with international human rights standards.