Page 44 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

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Collaborative African scholarship on human rights
Frans Viljoen, Centre for Human Rights
Three collections of essays, edited by staff at the Centre and alumni of programmes, appeared in 2017. All three publications respond to important issues of contemporary concern in Africa and are excellent examples of quality collaborative African scholarship.
African constitutional courts
The first is Constitutional adjudication in Africa, edited by Professor Charles Fombad, and published by Oxford University Press. The book contains edited papers presented at an annual seminar, dealing
with constitutional adjudication in Africa. Since the 1990s, the role of constitutional courts has become a critical aspect to the ongoing process of constitutional construction, reconstruction, and maintenance worldwide, including in Africa. These developments appear, at least from the texts of the revised or new constitutions, to have resulted in fundamental changes in the nature and role of courts exercising jurisdiction in constitutional matters.
The chapters in this book undertake a critical and comparative examination of the interplay of the diverse forms of constitutional review models on the continent. Collectively, the contributions by scholars from around the African continent, identify and examine the different models of constitutional review in Africa, provide a comparative study of the contemporary constitution adjudication practice, and study the extent to which constitutional courts are furthering constitutionalism and rule of law on the continent.
Comparative analyses are particularly important given the fact that over the past two decades, constitutional courts in Africa have been asked to decide a litany
of hotly-contested and often sensitive disputes of a
social, political and economic nature. By identifying and examining the different models of constitutional review adopted, these chapters consider the extent
to which these courts are contributing to enhancing constitutionalism and respect for the rule of law on the continent.
The publication shows how the long-standing negative image of African courts is slowly changing.
Protecting the rights of sexual and
gender minorities
Some five years ago, the Centre for Human Rights introduced a week-long intensive course on the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Africa, aimed at government officials and postgraduate students from across Africa. Students from its flagship master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (HRDA) also annually attend this thematic week.
A number of graduates of the programme have subsequently started working in this field of human rights protection.
Following a colloquium on the theme, two alumni, Sylvie Namwase and Adrian Jjuuko, edited a book of essays, to which mainly HRDA graduates contributed. The book, Protecting the human rights of sexual minorities in contemporary Africa, was published by the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) in 2017.
The Centre for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law at UP is an internationally recognised university-based institution that combines academic excellence and activism to advance human rights through education, research and advocacy. The diversity and variety of work in the Centre is formalised into 10 Units that address pivotal human rights issues. The Centre was granted observer status in 2017 with the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and is among a few African NGOs with observer status with both this Committee and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.