Court “stands tall”, rules that state violates evictees’ rights
The failure of Uganda's Government to pass laws protecting people evicted from private and public land has come under the sharp eye of the high court. Following an application brought by a local human rights lawyer, the court has declared that failure to pass laws...
Court tells Ugandan law council: no more ad hoc decisions on admission to practice
The council that oversees access to the legal profession in Uganda has just experienced a thorough defeat in the high court. A full bench found the council had not passed the regulations it should long ago have put in place regulating admission of candidates to the...
Secularism in Ghana “obviously” encourages state relations with religion, religious identity – supreme court
A major challenge to Ghana’s planned national cathedral, brought on the basis of a challenge to alleged infringements of the country’s “secular” constitution, has just been dismissed by the supreme court. Ghana’s highest court found that secularism in Ghana...
Dream on, Zimbabwe ….
Canadians who live abroad will now be able to vote — a right SA citizens have had for a decade, but which Zimbabweans can only dream of. THANKS to a 2009 decision of the constitutional court, SA’s upcoming national elections mark the 10th year that South Africans,...
Blunders set back fight against corruption
Namibia's watchdog Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is in a great deal of trouble: a major bribery and fraud case, begun in 2009, appears to be imploding. Ten years after the scandal first broke that a member of the Public Service Commission, guardian of ethical...
Reaction to shock suspension of Nigeria’s chief justice
THE decision by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, to suspend the country’s chief justice, Walter Onnoghen, has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad. Following the suspension of Nigeria’s judicial leader, his deputy as chief justice, Ibrahim Tanko...
Zim judge presiding in controversial Lesotho murder trials, starts work
A number of controversial murder trials are about to get under way in Lesotho, presided over by foreign judges to ensure the cases are seen to be fairly conducted and without bias to either side. The murders allegedly involve high-ranking figures from the country's...
Namibian lawyer tells national police chief: protect my client against abduction, rendition, by Zim police
As the crisis in human rights and the rule of law continues in Zimbabwe, its impact – and growing condemnation of the government crackdown – has spread elsewhere in the region and abroad. In Namibia, an opposition MP, visiting from Zimbabwe, fears for his life after...
Malawi’s courts will intervene, even in party political disputes – judge
As election fever hots up in Malawi, a high court judge has reminded political parties of something many would rather forget: that under certain circumstances the judiciary is obliged to hear and decide party disputes. It could not be denied that courts had...
Bucking regional trend, Zim court gives go-ahead to sue for adultery
Flaring political passions in the region continue to make news headlines, but the courts have been hearing about other kinds of passion as well. While Zimbabwe is alight with raging political conflict, and while citizens die at the hands of the police and security...