Volume 5 No 2
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Contents
Editorial
Mike Hayes and Ravi Prakash Vyas
Human rights and democratisation during the COVID Pandemic
Recent regional developments in human rights and democratisation during 2020: A focus on the European Union
Fabio Calzati, Nicolas Jude Larnerd and Federica Lombardi
Selected developments in human rights and democratisation in Africa during 2020
Trésor Muhindo Makunya, Olum Lornah Afoyomungu, Ruddy Fualefeh Morfaw Azanu and Davina Murden
Recent regional developments in human rights and democratisation in South-East Europe during 2020
Marija Ivanović, Edoardo Castiglioni, Desara Dushi, Imane Bellaadem and Ajla Henić
The Covid-19 impact: Key Issues in the Asia Pacific region
Coeli Barry, Geeta Pathak Sangroula, Prapoosa KC and Amparita Sta. Maria
Human Rights in Afghanistan
The dire human rights situation in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban
Hussain Rezai
Diversity, human rights and federalism: The case of Afghanistan
Ali Ahmadi
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ItemGlobal Campus Human Rights Journal, Volume 5 No 2(Global Campus Human Rights, 2021)This volume of the Global Campus journal contains a collection of articles written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first section is a collection of articles which explore the situation of human rights in the second year of the pandemic from four regional perspectives: Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Southeast Europe. The second section of this journal contains articles from two Afghan refugees who are part of the Global Campus and have direct experience of conducting academic work in a crisis.
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ItemEditorial(Global Campus Human Rights, 2021)This volume of the Global Campus journal contains a collection of articles written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first section is a collection of articles which explore the situation of human rights in the second year of the pandemic from four regional perspectives: Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Southeast Europe. The second section of this journal contains articles from two Afghan refugees who are part of the Global Campus and have direct experience of conducting academic work in a crisis. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-2021, many academics, civil society workers, and people working with North American and Western European development organizations were faced with a difficult decision whether to remain in Afghanistan and face threats and intimidation, or to seek asylum. For some the only choice was to leave because the work they do is not tolerated under the Taliban. This is the case of the two Afghan researchers whose work is published here. The two articles highlight the increase in violations under the Taliban rule, and give an understanding of how the Taliban could seize power. The fears of the suppression of women’s rights proved true as Hussain Rezai’s article demonstrates. The Taliban’s deeply held anachronistic views of gender are matched with ethnocentric attitudes which marginalises the non-Pashtun tribes from political positions. As Ali Ahmadi explains, Afghanistan is a country of great ethnic diversity, but one in which this diversity has not always been recognised. However, a federal system gives the possibility for the diversity to be represented, but this is impossible under the current centralised control of the Taliban. As an overview of human rights in the early 2020s, the articles in this journal are evidence that there are wide ranging problems for human rights. While we must wait to see if the promotion and protection of rights improves in the post-pandemic period, for people from Afghanistan and other countries in conflict, there is little hope in the immediate future of a return to peace and stability.
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ItemRegional developments in human rights and democratisation during 2020: A focus on the European Union(Global Campus Human Rights, 2021)This article aims to highlight the key developments, strategies and responses which had impacts on civil society within the European region in 2020. A sociological focus is used to capture the breadth of issues and their full impact on the struggles faced by EU citizens, with an emphasis on vulnerable communities. In fact, amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU and its member states experienced a detrimental rollback in human rights and governance leading to devastating consequences for civilians across the entire region. The EU had to confront the climate crisis, racism and gender-based violence at the same time that it addressed the global health challenge, which presented provocative yet necessary discourse on the adequate safeguarding of human rights. Fortunately, the EU elaborated several action plans and commitments to address this myriad of challenges in 2020, but still lacks results and outcomes at the time of writing.
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ItemSelected developments in human rights and democratisation in Africa during 2020(Global Campus Human Rights, 2021)The unexpected outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on democracy, constitutionalism and human rights in Africa. Many executive and legislative officials used the pandemic as a powerful excuse to postpone elections without making significant efforts to seek consensus among affected stakeholders as required by human rights instruments. This descent towards tokenistic constitutionalism has gone hand in hand with two types of unconstitutional changes of government, namely the coup d’état in Mali and third-termism in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, which together show how the commitment to constitutionalism remains elusive in many countries. Meanwhile, the African Union human rights bodies swiftly devised alternative means to hold their sessions online as it became clear that physical meetings were not possible. The African Commission and the African Court made significant progress in fulfilling their mandates in 2020, for example by revising their rules of procedure to include cutting-edge issues and adopting soft law instruments. These instruments provided significant guidance to state parties in order for their COVID-19 related measures and actions to comply with the African Charter. This article highlights developments in human rights and democratisation in Africa during 2020. The article begins with a discussion of two forms of unconstitutional change of government sanctioned by the African Democracy Charter, before turning to trends in the postponement of elections in many African countries and their implications on constitutionalism. The article then discusses developments within the African Commission and the African Court. The article concludes by arguing that, while the African Commission and the African Court made significant efforts to find innovative ways to fulfil their human rights mandates amid the pandemic, a number of African countries descended into symbolic democracy and constitutionalism.
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ItemRegional developments in human rights and democratisation in South-East Europe during 2020(Global Campus Human Rights, 2021)In South-East Europe (SEE), as in other countries across the world, the year 2020 was marked by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and attempts by governments to respond to it. The implementation of measures to protect citizens’ health implied the introduction of states of emergency and strict lockdowns that, in many cases, resulted in the curtailing of human rights and further weakening of the rule of law. This article provides insights from four SEE countries — namely, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo — and analyses to what extent the introduced measures met the threshold of legality, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality. The main finding of this paper is that incumbents across SEE used the state of emergency to concentrate power in their own hands, while at the same time sidelining parliaments and the judiciary and depriving vulnerable groups of their basic human rights. In summary, regional governments fared rather poorly when it came to respecting citizens’ rights and freedoms, especially in two important aspects: the proportionality and necessity of imposed measures.