Explores the relationship between Regional Economic Communities (REC) and the African Commission on Human and People's Rights. Examines the causes of proliferation of RECs in Africa and the rationale for their involvement in human rights matters and illustrates the contribution of RECs to the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of EK Quashigah, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Ghana. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Regional integration is not a new phenomenon in Africa. It can be traced back to the creation of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) in 1917, which was the world's first customs union. Upon gaining independence, states formed the Organization of African Unity (OAU). At that time, Heads of States viewed regional integration as a protectionist measure against colonialism and as a way of forming a self-sustaining continent. However, the additional challenges facing Africa over time prompted various initiatives by Heads of States which were aimed at deepening integration on the continent. Notable actions include the signing of the Abuja Treaty, which established the African Economic Community (AEC), and the replacement of the OAU by the African Union (AU). Further, the continent experienced an increase in the number of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and there are now fourteen RECs. Despite the steps taken to further integration, the success of such regional integration on the continent has been minimal and Africa has become even more marginalized on the global market. This lack in progression can be attributed to challenges such as inadequate resources, overlapping memberships in multiple RECs and duplicated programmes and efforts. Another challenge that is not readily recognized is the lack of attention to the role of law in economic integration. RECs have largely focused on the economic and political aspects of regional integration but have given minimal attention to the necessity of a strong legal foundation. RECs develop community law and these laws should be enforceable within Member States. However, due to the weak legal systems of RECs in Africa that do not make community law supreme, enforceability of this law has proven challenging. Comparatively, other RECs such as the European Union, have achieved deeper levels of integration and this can partly be attributed to the strong legal systems that have been developed. It is on the basis of this challenge that this study is conducted. The study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the weaknesses of existing legal systems of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The study further analyses the manner in which other RECs, such as the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States, have successfully integrated through law, with the aim of identifying solutions for the existing weaknesses in Southern Africa.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

The establishment of the East African Community (EAC) in 1999 brought with it new expectations for the citizens of the East African region. The main objective of the EAC is to bolster development in various fields such as economic, social, cultural, research, technology and legal affairs. In order to reach such an objective, the EAC member states have pledged to adhere to human rights, as one of the founding principles of the EAC. Member states are also required to respect accepted universal human rights standards when carrying out Community activities. In order to ensure that EAC values, as provided in the EAC Treaty, are preserved, member states voluntarily decided to put in place a judicial organ for the Community − the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). The Court is the main judicial organ of the EAC, with the primary responsibility for interpreting and applying EAC law. Despite the fact that human rights constitute one of the EAC norms, the EACJ has yet to be granted an explicit human rights jurisdiction. It has thus fallen on the Court to engage in judicial activism to indirectly protect human rights within the Community. Thus, this study examines the role of the EACJ in protecting human rights within the EAC, as well as the challenges it is facing at present and its prospects. This study, therefore, demonstrates that the current limitation on the human rights jurisdiction of the EACJ has rendered the Court unable to protect human rights effectively within the EAC. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

Civil and political strive in Africa is in the main, this is due to an increase in disputes over who won elections. The disputed elections in Kenya, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Ethiopia and more recently Ivory Coast to mention but a few, indicate how disputes over election results in Africa have been escalating. ‘Over the last couple of decades, many elections in Africa have been marred by ‘extreme controversy’. Elections ‘rigging and brigandage’, violence and elections invalidation are common phenomena in Africa. The report prepared by the British-Angola Forum (BAF) following a conference on the challenges for free and fair elections in Angola, reveals that many elections in Africa are ‘subject to human error and manipulation’ and this is mainly because those who are in power want to cling onto it especially ‘in countries where there is a perception that politics means money’. Adejumobi argues that in Africa most elections in their current form appear to be ‘a fading shadow of democracy’ jeopardising the frail democratic project itself. According to the African Union Panel of Wise (AUPW), while in some countries elections have built ‘democratic governance and prosperity of citizens’, in others they have led to disputed results and violence among the political actors. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The Great Lakes Region has long been viewed as a land of untapped economic potential due to, amongst other factors, the failures of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (ECGLC)1 and the Rwandan genocide. The region has many opportunities and common initiatives despite tensions among its core countries. Cross-borders trade, common infrastructures and common border security zones operations have shown that regional integration is possible within the region. From the Dar-Es-Salaam Conference and Declaration2 in November 2004, and thereafter, the signing of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Pact3 in Nairobi, in 2006 the Group of Friends (GoFs) and the member states plus international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) took a stance to build for the future of the region. They created this new regional integration initiative in order to achieve peace. Peace has multiple dimensions and implications among which poverty alleviation and building of common future in the region are crucial and conducive to increase of population resources.4 Poverty alleviation, sustainable management of common infrastructures, trade and security can be effectively achieved by integrating economically the region.

This study contributes to the debate surrounding the suitability of Regional Economic Community (REC) courts as avenues for protection of human rights in view of the economic focus of RECs. Recommends adjustments that can be made within the African Human Rights System (AHRS) to deal with the challenges associated with the development of REC courts both in the interim and in the long-term. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Jacqui Gallinetti, Faculty of Law, University of Western Cape. / LLM Dissertation (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa -- University of Pretoria, 2009. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Yes / The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has opened new avenues of research interest in International Business and International Management. However, scholarly work in this fledgling area of research has been disparate and often lacking in the assessment of core international business implications of the emergence of the AfCFTA on member states as well as non-member states. This is because, as yet, no systematic attempt has been made to explore the AfCFTA in the context of IB research, or project future IB research directions. Hence, in this paper, using the PRISMA method we have systematically identified the current published research and scholarly work on the AfCFTA and provided a robust picture of the current state of knowledge and available literature on the AfCFTA while at the same time outlining potential areas for future international business research

The study highlights the significance of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) economies. The first objective focuses on analysing the SADC investment policies pertaining to FDI. FDI instruments available at the regional and national levels are analysed. The study takes an in-depth look at the various activities by Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) currently existing for SADC member states (MS). The existing policy instruments are key in attracting FDI and the policy architecture will largely determine the extent to which FDI will flow to different countries. The second objective focuses on reconciling the evidence on the determinants and impact of FDI in the SADC region. Through a systematic literature review, various literature reports pertaining to FDI have been analysed. Journal articles were collected from the UNISA library by means of a standard database search criterion through Scopus, Web of Science and EconLit search engines ranging from 1960 to 2019. The database was built based on known published and unpublished empirical papers for FDI in SADC. Out of the 554 journals investigated, 346 were found to be relevant to the study, with 114 journal articles contributing to the qualitative study. Through its quality assessment, descriptive statistics and qualitative synthesis provided a summary of the samples and measures utilized in a study through the measures of central tendency (mean and median) and dispersion - how spread out the data is (standard deviation). The results showed a higher mean value for general case studies reporting 0.53 with a standard deviation of 0.23. The standard deviations of variables indicated less spread or variability in the data collected over the years of the estimation period 1990 to 2019, indicating the results being more reliable. In conclusion, the study highlights the need to address the investment environment by addressing challenges such as political instability and wide differences in tax incentives. / Economics / M.. Com. (Economics)

The emergence of the African Union (AU) is seen as an effort to reposition Africa for the challenges of contemporary global realpolitik and, in particular, it provides a road map towards the attainment of a political union. The institutional architecture of the AU, modelled after the European Union (EU), indicates an intention on the part of the architects of the AU to endow the organisation with supranational attributes. However, none of its institutions has as yet started to exercise supranational powers. It is against this background that this thesis explores the feasibility of transforming the AU from a mere intergovernmental organisation into a supranational entity. In the course of the investigation, it was found that a major obstacle to realising this is the absence of shared democratic norms and standards, a consequence of the unconditional membership ideology of the AU. This thesis argues that the starting point of closer integration in Africa should be the cultivation and adoption of shared norms and values. To address this, the study proposes that the AU design an institutional mechanism for regulating its membership. Using the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a case study, this study shows that it is possible to establish a regulatory regime based on strict adherence to shared fundamental norms and values. A major recommendation is the transformation of the APRM into a legally binding instrument for setting continental democratic standards, assessing whether member states fulfil these standards and ultimately determining which member states are qualified, based on objective standards, to be part of a democratic AU. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Public Law / unrestricted