All over the world, women face an uphill task in their efforts at political participation. Despit... more All over the world, women face an uphill task in their efforts at political participation. Despite the corpus of global, continental, regional and national legal instruments designed to guarantee equal rights for all persons and the development of specific norms for the promotion and protection of women’s political participation, women still lag behind their male counterparts in the political landscape of several countries. With the exception of a few Scandinavian countries and four countries in Africa - Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Botswana, the de jure provisions for promoting and protecting women’s political participation enshrined in various international, continental, regional and national legal regimes have not been realised. In 2014, women only formed 21.9% of Parliamentarians worldwide and 17.2% in ministerial positions. As at February 2015, there has been a slight improvement with women constituting 22.1% of Parliamentarians globally. In sub Saharan Africa, women form 2...
Most of the recruitment and deployment policies of the African Union Commission (AUC) guarantee a... more Most of the recruitment and deployment policies of the African Union Commission (AUC) guarantee a reasonable duty of care for the organization’s civilian employees. Notwithstanding, an analysis of the implementation of the provisions reveals gaps between the rhetoric of a reasonable standard of care and the practice. In addition, the analysis reveals an uneven application of the organization’s duty of care responsibilities to the different categories of its employees. Overall, non-AUC civilian staff deployed in various missions is guaranteed limited reasonable duty of care. While it is implausible to expect the same standard of care for all categories of civilians deployed in AUC missions, it is reasonable to expect that non-AUC civilian staff would at least have the requisite information to make informed decisions on the missions into which they are deployed. Given the increasing raft of challenges confronting deployments of various kinds and the fact that the AUC’s deployment is o...
Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond, 2016
As the pre-eminent regional organisation entrusted with the maintenance of peace and security in ... more As the pre-eminent regional organisation entrusted with the maintenance of peace and security in Africa, the African Union (AU) has been engaged with the development of legal and normative instruments as well as mechanisms for addressing complex security challenges confronting the continent. It would appear however that the AU is lagging behind on developing relevant instruments and mechanisms for addressing one particular threat which has recently emerged, namely, the phenomenon of people participating in armed conflicts in countries of which they are not nationals or habitually resident, i.e. foreign fighters. Although Africans have joined armed conflicts in countries of which they are non-nationals and nationals of other countries have been involved in conflicts on the African continent, the focus of the Continent’s collective security organisations, i.e. both the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor the AU, has largely been on mercenaries and in more recent times, those foreign fighters who engage in acts of terrorism. The aim of this chapter is twofold: first, to discuss whether and to what degree the general provisions for peace and security may be used to address the issue of foreign fighters, and second, to look at additional measures that can be instrumental to strengthen the fight against terrorism and extremism in the region.
The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2015
Ten years after the end of hostilities, post conflict Liberia is confronted with the daunting cha... more Ten years after the end of hostilities, post conflict Liberia is confronted with the daunting challenge of addressing child rape. Using mix methods of data collection and content analysis the paper interrogates the drivers of child rape in Liberia, and submits that there is a chasm between the legally constructed concept of childhood enshrined in statutory documents and reflected in official processes, and the traditional and cultural construction by the citizens and children themselves. The paper draws attention to the impossibility of assuring security in a context where the state has not been able to assert itself throughout the entire territory and is unable to provide basic services to its entire population. The paper postulates that current efforts at addressing sexual violence against children has not yielded many results because they are not sufficiently comprehensive, enforcement mechanisms are weak and the critical mass of support needed for attitudinal and behavioural cha...
Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) has developed norms for protection, promotion of ... more Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) has developed norms for protection, promotion of democratic governance, and human security, as well as a broad architecture for peace and security on the continent. Although the processes for developing these norms have been variously studied, the influence of regional blocs on norm generation and how that in turn affects the diffusion of norms from the AU to the regional blocs has received minimal focus. Using data from secondary sources and participant observation, this paper examines the relations between the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), especially in the area of peace and security. It argues that the formation of norms on peace and security in Africa has not been unidirectional and suggests that the AU’s norms on peace and security have been heavily influenced by ECOWAS’s experiences of the 1990s. The resulting similarities, it notes, have made the diffusion of norms from the AU to the ECOWAS relatively easier. This notwithstanding, significant challenges remain in enforcing the norms. The study concludes that disregarding these challenges can devalue the potential benefits of norm diffusion within Africa.
The African Union (AU) recognises that citizen participation in governance processes is critical ... more The African Union (AU) recognises that citizen participation in governance processes is critical to conflict prevention, peacebuilding and development and therefore guarantees it in its Constitutive Act (Arts 3[g] and 22; [African Union 2000]). This recognition has facilitated partnerships between the AU and civil society organisations (CSOs) on a number of initiatives, including the development of a compliance monitoring report, the State of the Union (SOTU) Report (Continental Advisory Research Team 2010). A group of pan African civil society organisations on the continent, who have been concerned about the absence of effective national implementation of AU instruments in member states, decided to partner with the Assembly of Heads of State and Government (AHSG) to implement the Union’s policies as provided for in Rule 4(1)(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Union (Assembly of the African Union 2002). This consortium of CSOs, represented as the Continental Advisory Research Team (CART), provides strategic direction and oversight for the monitoring and reporting of development processes as required in Rule 4(1)(b). On its part, the AHSG deliberates on the report submitted by the CART and uses it as a tool to engage the participating states in areas of non-compliance.
Within the last ten years, China has made significant economic and political inroads in Africa. I... more Within the last ten years, China has made significant economic and political inroads in Africa. It has enhanced relations with a significant number of African countries and its trade volume increased from US $20 billion in 2001 to an excess of US $114.81 billion in 2010. China’s involvement in Africa has generated interests from many quarters within the international community. While it appears that most African countries are keen on replicating China's success story in Africa, perspectives on Sino-African relations largely emanating from the West, generally point to some form of continental exploitation by China. These perspectives are based on China’s dealings with countries such as Sudan, Zimbabwe and Guinea, largely considered as countries with politically repressive governments, disregard for environmental corollaries, unequal negotiating ground between China and African countries, and excessive control of Africa’s resources. Operating from a realist conceptualization of in...
The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Niger has gene... more The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Niger has generated optimism of a better life for the people living within the respective countries. This notwithstanding, the narrative surrounding African countries such as Nigeria and Angola as examples of the resource curse syndrome is well documented. Consequently, the conversation on the prospects from the discovery of oil is often measured. Within this context, this article explores the relationship between oil, democracy and political stability in West Africa. While conceding that countries which discovered oil post-democracy will likely avoid the challenges of those that struck oil prior to democracy, it is argued that such prospects are merely conditional due to inherent challenges in the democracy project practised in respective countries in the sub-region. The article thus argues that the pathways to addressing the contested spaces lie in democratic institutions with enhanced institutional...
Since the return to constitutional rule, Ghana has intensified efforts to promote human rights. H... more Since the return to constitutional rule, Ghana has intensified efforts to promote human rights. However there are several challenges with the promotion of property rights, especially with regard to land ownership. This challenge, borne out of the tensions between the modern and the traditional state, is exacerbated by the plural legal systems in place as well as the challenges of rapid urbanisation and a high unemployment rate, particularly in the Greater Accra region. The liberal market system promoted by Ghana’s return to constitutional rule led to increased investment in land and demands for greater security in land title. This led to efforts aimed at land reform. These notwithstanding, the inability of the state to enforce its rules and elicit compliance have meant that the land market remains a minefield. The consequence has been the emergence of private security service providers who employ illegal means of enforcement to protect land and landed property. Popularly known as land guards, these security providers are the nightmare of landowners in the Greater Accra region. Using primary and secondary sources, this paper examines the rationale behind the demand and supply of land guard services and the implications of such services on property rights in Ghana. We conclude that the weak law enforcement capabilities of the state and rampant corruption in the land management institutions facilitate conflicts in land markets and encourage people to resort to individual security mechanisms. We argue that as long as such illicit security measures are employed, the state’s authority and monopoly over the use of force will remain irrelevant in the land sector.
Changing Perspectives on the Social Sciences in Ghana, 2014
The sheer velocity of global trends outpaces developments in many areas of study. This statement ... more The sheer velocity of global trends outpaces developments in many areas of study. This statement rings no truer than in the practice and discipline of International Relations in Ghana. The early study of the discipline in Ghana was subsumed under the study of Political Science, restricted largely to the areas of foreign relations, economic integration and international law and heavily influenced by the writings of practitioners from the immediate post-independence period. However, dynamic changes in world politics have necessitated and indeed provided the impetus for a movement towards re-engineering conventional thinking on International Relations in Ghana. In particular, the dynamics of the pre and post-Cold War eras, intractable armed conflicts within the sub-region and the twin processes of globalization and integration have necessitated the acquisition of additional expertise and skill sets by international relations practitioners. Consequently, it has become imperative to provide educational instruction which would equip practitioners with the needed tools. Using a mix of primary and secondary materials, the chapter reviews the evolution of the didactics of international affairs in Ghana, highlighting the epochal transformations and offering recommendations on ways of enhancing the utility of the discipline through the content and methodology of teaching.
All over the world, women face an uphill task in their efforts at political participation. Despit... more All over the world, women face an uphill task in their efforts at political participation. Despite the corpus of global, continental, regional and national legal instruments designed to guarantee equal rights for all persons and the development of specific norms for the promotion and protection of women’s political participation, women still lag behind their male counterparts in the political landscape of several countries. With the exception of a few Scandinavian countries and four countries in Africa - Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Botswana, the de jure provisions for promoting and protecting women’s political participation enshrined in various international, continental, regional and national legal regimes have not been realised. In 2014, women only formed 21.9% of Parliamentarians worldwide and 17.2% in ministerial positions. As at February 2015, there has been a slight improvement with women constituting 22.1% of Parliamentarians globally. In sub Saharan Africa, women form 2...
Most of the recruitment and deployment policies of the African Union Commission (AUC) guarantee a... more Most of the recruitment and deployment policies of the African Union Commission (AUC) guarantee a reasonable duty of care for the organization’s civilian employees. Notwithstanding, an analysis of the implementation of the provisions reveals gaps between the rhetoric of a reasonable standard of care and the practice. In addition, the analysis reveals an uneven application of the organization’s duty of care responsibilities to the different categories of its employees. Overall, non-AUC civilian staff deployed in various missions is guaranteed limited reasonable duty of care. While it is implausible to expect the same standard of care for all categories of civilians deployed in AUC missions, it is reasonable to expect that non-AUC civilian staff would at least have the requisite information to make informed decisions on the missions into which they are deployed. Given the increasing raft of challenges confronting deployments of various kinds and the fact that the AUC’s deployment is o...
Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond, 2016
As the pre-eminent regional organisation entrusted with the maintenance of peace and security in ... more As the pre-eminent regional organisation entrusted with the maintenance of peace and security in Africa, the African Union (AU) has been engaged with the development of legal and normative instruments as well as mechanisms for addressing complex security challenges confronting the continent. It would appear however that the AU is lagging behind on developing relevant instruments and mechanisms for addressing one particular threat which has recently emerged, namely, the phenomenon of people participating in armed conflicts in countries of which they are not nationals or habitually resident, i.e. foreign fighters. Although Africans have joined armed conflicts in countries of which they are non-nationals and nationals of other countries have been involved in conflicts on the African continent, the focus of the Continent’s collective security organisations, i.e. both the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor the AU, has largely been on mercenaries and in more recent times, those foreign fighters who engage in acts of terrorism. The aim of this chapter is twofold: first, to discuss whether and to what degree the general provisions for peace and security may be used to address the issue of foreign fighters, and second, to look at additional measures that can be instrumental to strengthen the fight against terrorism and extremism in the region.
The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2015
Ten years after the end of hostilities, post conflict Liberia is confronted with the daunting cha... more Ten years after the end of hostilities, post conflict Liberia is confronted with the daunting challenge of addressing child rape. Using mix methods of data collection and content analysis the paper interrogates the drivers of child rape in Liberia, and submits that there is a chasm between the legally constructed concept of childhood enshrined in statutory documents and reflected in official processes, and the traditional and cultural construction by the citizens and children themselves. The paper draws attention to the impossibility of assuring security in a context where the state has not been able to assert itself throughout the entire territory and is unable to provide basic services to its entire population. The paper postulates that current efforts at addressing sexual violence against children has not yielded many results because they are not sufficiently comprehensive, enforcement mechanisms are weak and the critical mass of support needed for attitudinal and behavioural cha...
Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) has developed norms for protection, promotion of ... more Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) has developed norms for protection, promotion of democratic governance, and human security, as well as a broad architecture for peace and security on the continent. Although the processes for developing these norms have been variously studied, the influence of regional blocs on norm generation and how that in turn affects the diffusion of norms from the AU to the regional blocs has received minimal focus. Using data from secondary sources and participant observation, this paper examines the relations between the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), especially in the area of peace and security. It argues that the formation of norms on peace and security in Africa has not been unidirectional and suggests that the AU’s norms on peace and security have been heavily influenced by ECOWAS’s experiences of the 1990s. The resulting similarities, it notes, have made the diffusion of norms from the AU to the ECOWAS relatively easier. This notwithstanding, significant challenges remain in enforcing the norms. The study concludes that disregarding these challenges can devalue the potential benefits of norm diffusion within Africa.
The African Union (AU) recognises that citizen participation in governance processes is critical ... more The African Union (AU) recognises that citizen participation in governance processes is critical to conflict prevention, peacebuilding and development and therefore guarantees it in its Constitutive Act (Arts 3[g] and 22; [African Union 2000]). This recognition has facilitated partnerships between the AU and civil society organisations (CSOs) on a number of initiatives, including the development of a compliance monitoring report, the State of the Union (SOTU) Report (Continental Advisory Research Team 2010). A group of pan African civil society organisations on the continent, who have been concerned about the absence of effective national implementation of AU instruments in member states, decided to partner with the Assembly of Heads of State and Government (AHSG) to implement the Union’s policies as provided for in Rule 4(1)(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Union (Assembly of the African Union 2002). This consortium of CSOs, represented as the Continental Advisory Research Team (CART), provides strategic direction and oversight for the monitoring and reporting of development processes as required in Rule 4(1)(b). On its part, the AHSG deliberates on the report submitted by the CART and uses it as a tool to engage the participating states in areas of non-compliance.
Within the last ten years, China has made significant economic and political inroads in Africa. I... more Within the last ten years, China has made significant economic and political inroads in Africa. It has enhanced relations with a significant number of African countries and its trade volume increased from US $20 billion in 2001 to an excess of US $114.81 billion in 2010. China’s involvement in Africa has generated interests from many quarters within the international community. While it appears that most African countries are keen on replicating China's success story in Africa, perspectives on Sino-African relations largely emanating from the West, generally point to some form of continental exploitation by China. These perspectives are based on China’s dealings with countries such as Sudan, Zimbabwe and Guinea, largely considered as countries with politically repressive governments, disregard for environmental corollaries, unequal negotiating ground between China and African countries, and excessive control of Africa’s resources. Operating from a realist conceptualization of in...
The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Niger has gene... more The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Niger has generated optimism of a better life for the people living within the respective countries. This notwithstanding, the narrative surrounding African countries such as Nigeria and Angola as examples of the resource curse syndrome is well documented. Consequently, the conversation on the prospects from the discovery of oil is often measured. Within this context, this article explores the relationship between oil, democracy and political stability in West Africa. While conceding that countries which discovered oil post-democracy will likely avoid the challenges of those that struck oil prior to democracy, it is argued that such prospects are merely conditional due to inherent challenges in the democracy project practised in respective countries in the sub-region. The article thus argues that the pathways to addressing the contested spaces lie in democratic institutions with enhanced institutional...
Since the return to constitutional rule, Ghana has intensified efforts to promote human rights. H... more Since the return to constitutional rule, Ghana has intensified efforts to promote human rights. However there are several challenges with the promotion of property rights, especially with regard to land ownership. This challenge, borne out of the tensions between the modern and the traditional state, is exacerbated by the plural legal systems in place as well as the challenges of rapid urbanisation and a high unemployment rate, particularly in the Greater Accra region. The liberal market system promoted by Ghana’s return to constitutional rule led to increased investment in land and demands for greater security in land title. This led to efforts aimed at land reform. These notwithstanding, the inability of the state to enforce its rules and elicit compliance have meant that the land market remains a minefield. The consequence has been the emergence of private security service providers who employ illegal means of enforcement to protect land and landed property. Popularly known as land guards, these security providers are the nightmare of landowners in the Greater Accra region. Using primary and secondary sources, this paper examines the rationale behind the demand and supply of land guard services and the implications of such services on property rights in Ghana. We conclude that the weak law enforcement capabilities of the state and rampant corruption in the land management institutions facilitate conflicts in land markets and encourage people to resort to individual security mechanisms. We argue that as long as such illicit security measures are employed, the state’s authority and monopoly over the use of force will remain irrelevant in the land sector.
Changing Perspectives on the Social Sciences in Ghana, 2014
The sheer velocity of global trends outpaces developments in many areas of study. This statement ... more The sheer velocity of global trends outpaces developments in many areas of study. This statement rings no truer than in the practice and discipline of International Relations in Ghana. The early study of the discipline in Ghana was subsumed under the study of Political Science, restricted largely to the areas of foreign relations, economic integration and international law and heavily influenced by the writings of practitioners from the immediate post-independence period. However, dynamic changes in world politics have necessitated and indeed provided the impetus for a movement towards re-engineering conventional thinking on International Relations in Ghana. In particular, the dynamics of the pre and post-Cold War eras, intractable armed conflicts within the sub-region and the twin processes of globalization and integration have necessitated the acquisition of additional expertise and skill sets by international relations practitioners. Consequently, it has become imperative to provide educational instruction which would equip practitioners with the needed tools. Using a mix of primary and secondary materials, the chapter reviews the evolution of the didactics of international affairs in Ghana, highlighting the epochal transformations and offering recommendations on ways of enhancing the utility of the discipline through the content and methodology of teaching.
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