In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Symposia

08 Dec

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists.] Part 1 of this blog, details how the Malawian High Court struck down lockdown Rules issued by the Minister of Health as ultra vires, contrary to the rule of law and in violation of the separation of powers. This strong stand taken by the Court to protect the rule of law...

|
08 Dec

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Commission of Jurists.] In August this year, Timothy Mtambo, now Minister of Civic Education and National Unity in Malawi, wrote that “we now have a judiciary that is more independent than at any other time in the history of Malawi”, noting that former President Mutharika, who was in office until late June 2020 attempted...

|
08 Dec

[Khanyo Farisè is a Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists, Africa Regional Programme.] Healthcare workers have been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic playing a key role in saving lives. Sadly, being at the forefront of responding to COVID-19 has placed healthcare workers, the significant majority of whom are women, at increased risk of...

|
08 Dec

[Vimbai Mutandwa is a Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.] In NEF v President of the Republic of Namibia the applicants, the Namibian Employers Federation, challenged the legality of aspects of lockdown measures taken by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court’s decision is of interest and importance because it upholds the principle of legality and the rule of law by requiring...

|
07 Dec

[Mandipa Machacha is a Feminist Human Rights Practitioner, and a LL.D. student in Human Rights Law at the University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights.] Despite extensive protection of the right to education in international and regional human rights instruments, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, both globally and in Africa, mere access to education was still not guaranteed in practice to all...

|
07 Dec

[Justice Moses Hungwe Chinhengo is judge of the Lesotho High Court and a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists.] COVID-19 has altered every aspect of our lives in a very short space of time. As South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has observed, “the world we live in will never be the same”. As we adapt to the “new normal”, it is...

|
07 Dec

[Justice Jamesina E. L. King is a Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) and a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. She is also a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Sierra Leone.] The Constitutive Act of the African Union records in its preamble the determination of Member States to “take up the multifaceted challenges that confront our continent...

|
07 Dec

[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists and Tanveer Jeewa is a Communications Consultant for the International Commission of Jurists.] This week Opinio Juris is hosting an online symposium on the impact of COVID-19 on human rights in Africa. Coordinated by the International Commission of Jurists’ Africa Team, the symposium hones in some key issues arising out of...

|
04 Dec

[Jennifer Trahan is Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at the NYU Center for Global Affairs and author of Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes (CUP 2020), winner of the “2020 ABILA Book of the Year Award” by the American Branch of the International Law Association.] This is...

|
04 Dec

[Jennifer Trahan is Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at the NYU Center for Global Affairs and author of Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes (CUP 2020), winner of the “2020 ABILA Book of the Year Award” by the American Branch of the International Law Association.] I am...

|
03 Dec

[Carrie McDougall (@IntLawCarrie) is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and former Legal Specialist at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Legal Adviser at Australia’s Mission to the United Nations.] In her new book, Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes, Jennifer Trahan provides an excellent overview of the veto power enjoyed by the Permanent...

|
03 Dec

[Roger Clark is the Board of Governors Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School; he also represented Samoa in the negotiations on the International Criminal Court.] Jennifer Trahan’s new book, Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes (CUP 2020) is, I believe, destined to be one of the most influential of the many books that are hitting the...

|