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OxHRH

Coup and Constitution in Zimbabwe Part 1: The Military Action is Profoundly Unconstitutional

Jason Brickhill - 18th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

On 14 November 2017, the Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) took control of key parts of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. Military personnel placed tanks and military vehicles on arterial roads, seized the public broadcaster and state daily newspaper, and occupied the Presidential residence, State House. A number of Cabinet Ministers and other officials were also detained. The […]

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OxHRH

Australia Denies Political Participation as an Indigenous Human Right

Dominic O'Sullivan - 15th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

Political participation is a human right affirmed and contextualised for indigenous peoples under the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia was one of four post-settler colonial states to vote against the Declaration in 2007. However, in 2009 it reversed its objection. It had come to accept that the Declaration was not […]

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OxHRH

Rwanda: New Torture and Illegal Detention Allegations in a Climate of Political Oppression

Alberto Soccol - 14th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

A decade after living through one of the most brutal genocides of the past century, Rwanda has not yet fully recovered from the legacy of its past. A report published by Human Rights Watch on October 10 describes hundreds of cases of illegal and arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and the use of torture on political […]

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OxHRH

‘12 year a non-compliance’: redress at last?

Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler - 13th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

Last week, the UK government announced its intention to change the Prison Service Guidance so as to allow prisoners towards the end of their (less than one year) imprisonment sentence ‘on day release’ who are  still on the (annually updated) electoral register to vote in all UK elections. Prisoners would not be allowed to re-register […]

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OxHRH

The Supreme Countdown: The Fortnight That Shaped Kenya’s Presidential Determination and Beyond

Petronella Mukaindo - 10th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

Since 1 September 2017, when the Supreme Court of Kenya nullified the Presidential election, the spotlight shifted to the final judgment of the apex court. Least remembered, and understandably so, is the flurry of pretrial applications, twelve in number, that preceded the celebrated decision. Three of the applications sought to expunge documents from the Court […]

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OxHRH

Cambodia: Using Law to Destroy Democracy

Katie Johnston - 9th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

Covered by a veneer of legality, Cambodia’s government has spent the last two years systematically dismantling the Southeast Asian country’s fledgling democracy. Following the main opposition party’s improved performance in the June 2017 local election, the ruling party has recently escalated its attack, ahead of a crucial general election scheduled for July 2018. Besides threatened […]

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OxHRH

Were the Kenyan Presidential Elections, 2017 a true reflection of the electorate’s will? An interrogation of the answer given by the Supreme Court of Kenya

Kendi Mutungi and Murimi Karani - 7th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

The determination on the exercise and protection of the electorate’s political rights was before the bench in the Supreme Court of Kenya’s decision in Raila Amolo Odinga & Anor v Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & Others. The decision was unique and historic not only because it is the second in Africa to annul a […]

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OxHRH

Civilian Victims of the Conflicts Over Oil Refineries in Kirkuk

Saeed Bagheri - 4th November 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

On 15 September the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (KRG) held an independence referendum, in which a majority of the non-Kurdish people of the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk did not participate. Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse before the Islamic State’s offensive nearby in 2014. After […]

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OxHRH

The Kenyan Supreme Court Overturns Presidential Election Results: Of Forms 34As, Bs and Cs

Alvin Attalo - 26th October 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

On 8 August 2017, Kenya held her second General Election under the 2010 Constitution. This was the first time an elaborate regime of electoral laws had been used to introduced the Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System (KIEMS); a new devise used in biometric voter registration. KIEMS was also used on election day for voter identification […]

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OxHRH

Road to repeat poll in Kenya: Is legislative amendment the cure?

Lucianna Thuo - 25th October 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

The unprecedented decision of the Supreme Court of Kenya (SCOK) to invalidate the presidential poll in August 2017 has received mixed reactions by the incumbent government and the opposition. The nullification of the result by the Supreme Court has been used by the opposition to leverage for certain pre-election reforms ­­­­— termed ‘irreducible minimums’— before […]

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OxHRH

Catalonia: The Right to Secede and the Right to Self-Determination

Daniel Grütters - 23rd October 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

In an address to the Parliament of Catalonia on 10th October 2017, the President of Catalonia issued a ‘suspended’ unilateral declaration of independence (“UDI”) from Spain. The ‘suspended’ UDI followed a controversial independence referendum on 1st October 2017. The referendum, which was mired by protests and attempts by federal police forces to prevent people from […]

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OxHRH

The Fulcrum for the Invalidation of Kenya’s 2017 Presidential Election: Section 83 of the Elections Act

Harrison Otieno - 18th October 2017

Constitutions Institutions and Nation Building

As earlier reported on the blog, the Supreme Court of Kenya (“the Court”) made history on 1 September 2017 by becoming the second Court in Africa (after Cote d’Ivore) to invalidate a Presidential election. 21 days later, on 21September 2017, the final, detailed, and fully reasoned judgement of the Court was issued together with two […]

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