Battling over Human Rights

J. Oloka-Onyango

Description

This book brings together twenty think-pieces on contemporary Human Rights issues at the international, regional and national level by one of Africa's foremost scholars of International Human Rights and Constitutional Law, J. Oloka-Onyango. Ranging from the 'Arab Spring' to the Right to Education, the collection is both an in-depth analysis of discrete topics as well as a critical reflection on the state of human rights around the world today. Taking up issues such as the African reaction to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the question of truth and reconciliation before the outbreak of post-election violence in Kenya and the links between globalization and racism, the book is a tour de force of issues that are both unique as well as pertinent to human rights struggles around the world.

Sujets

• Human Rights

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 13 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956762156
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

BATTLING OVER HUMAN RIGHTS BATTLING OVER HUMAN RIGHTS Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance J. Oloka-Onyango

Battling over Human Rights: Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance J. Oloka-Onyango L a ng a a R esea rch & P u blishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda

Publisher: LangaaRPCIG Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Region Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaa-rpcig.net Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective [e-mail] www.africanbookscollective.com ISBN: 9956-762-62-8 ©J. Oloka-Onyango 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

DISCLAIMER All views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Langaa RPCIG.

To the three most important women in my life, Sylvia, LKO and Maama Eva .

Table of Contents List of Tables………………………………………………vii Overview……………………………………………………ix Acknowledgements………………………………………..xi Part One: Theoretical Approaches To Global Issues……………………………………………………….1 1. Behind and Beyond the ‘Arab Spring’: History, Philosophy and Politics in Contemporary Human Rights Struggles…………………………………………………… 3 2. Clipping the Wings of the International Criminal Court (ICC): Assessing African Responses to Contemporary International Justice………………………………………… 25 3. On Race, Development, Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the ICC………………………………………………….37 4. From Classroom to Praxis: The Role of the Legal Academic in the Public Arena…………….………………… 47 5. The International Jim Crow: Globalization, Poverty and Contemporary Expressions of Racial Discrimination…………………………………………..….. 55 Part Two: Addressing Regional Questions………………95 6. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Assessing the African Experience…………………………...…..................... 97 7. Towards a pan-East African Citizenship and Identity: A Bird’s Eye View……………………………………..….… 107 8. Who Owns the East African Community?.............................. 151 9. From the Outside Looking In: Unleashing the Skeletons of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Kenya…………...........169 Part Three: Excavating the Domestic Ugandan Scene…………………………………………...……............ 199 10. The Implications of the White Paper on Political Transition in Uganda……………………………….................201 11. Multiplying the ‘jiggers’ in the Feet of Officialdom: v

Reflections on the Challenges Facing Civil Society in a Multiparty Dispensation…………………………………….. 233 12. The Rights of Elderly Persons………………………........ 243 13. Uganda Today: What Needs Undoing?.................................. 281 14. Police Powers, Politics and Democratic Governance in post-Movement Uganda…………………………………….. 291 15. ‘We are more than just our bodies’: Notes on the Case of Young Women-who-have-sex-with-women in an Age of HIV/AIDS and Homophobia……………………………….347 16. Every Child has a Right to succeed … But do we let them?............................................................................................. 411 17. Constitucide: On the Birth and Death of Democratic Constitutionalism in Uganda………………………………... 433 18. The Asian Question and Lessons of Law, Policy and Politics in the post-Repossession Era: The Larger Picture……………………………………………………..... 451 19. Towards a New Kind of Politics and Constitutionalism in (B)uganda: Reflections on the Next Two Decades……....... 459 20. Of Mice and Farmer’s Wives: Unveiling the Broader Picture behind Recent Legislation in Uganda…………............ 473 Bibliography……………………………………………….483

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List of Tables 6.1: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (1974-2002)…….99 14.1: The Nine Principles of Policing……………………….. 297 14.2: Inspectors-General and Commissioners of Police of Uganda (1959-2011)…………………...……………………. 325 14.3: Comparative Breakdown of UHRC Complaints (2008—2010)………………………………………………...337 16.1: Number of Primary Schools (2002-2011)………………417 17.1: Supreme Court Decision in the 2006 Presidential Election Petition……………………………..……….……... 439 17.2: Qualitative versus Quantitative Definitions of the Word ‘Substantial………………………………..………….. 441

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Overview The twenty essays brought together in this collection consist of various kinds of reflections over a period spanning a little over ten years. They largely rrepresent the author’s preoccupation with matters of International, Regional and Domestic Human Rights and their link to the socioeconomic and political context within which such rights are supposed to be realized. In other words, they are an exploration of the choppy waters in which these seemingly well- grounded rights battle to stay afloat. Some of the essays were written as keynote public lectures at which the author sought to expound on broad principles of the theory and concept of Human Rights. Others were highly empirical analyses that drew on primary research data in order to investigate a specific problem facing a discrete group of individuals or a particularly challenging phenomenon that had arisen to test the application of theory. The style in which they were written thus depends very much on the kind of audience that was being addressed, the place at which the lecture was being delivered or submitted and the wider context within which the event in question was happening. All of them represent an ongoing struggle to find an appropriate balance between fostering more respect and adherence to the corpus of human rights law as we know it, while also warning against an uncritical embrace of a phenomenon that is plagued by many tensions and contradictions. Each essay tackles an area of concern and attention on the table of intellectual, policy and activist debate in Africa and around the world. Although the Arab Spring may have transitioned into a rather cold and extended winter, the questions of democratization, inclusion and accountability that were hot on the table in the summer of 2011 still remain of maximum concern today. Human Rights within the East African Community is an area that is growing in scope and attention as each of the institutions which were created to execute its mandate confront new dimensions of the link between regional integration and respect of fundamental human rights. And the International Criminal Court (ICC) remains ix