DEPAETMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
Second Semester, 2013/2014 Academic Year
COURSE CODE: POLI 468 COURSE TITLE: HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA
INSTRUCTOR: Dr Kumi
Ansah-Koi Email: kakoi@ug.edu.gh Phone: 024 501 3066
Office: Room 18; Political
Science Department, Kweku Folson Block
Office hours: By
Appointment
Class: Jones Quartey
Building, Room 19; @ 15:30 – 17:20 on Thursdays
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
This course
focuses on Human Rights in Africa. Students are introduced to pertinent issues
bearing on the nature, contemporary significance, ramification and challenges
of the notion of Human Rights particularly as regards to the African
continent. Students are as well
introduce to basic Human rights Instruments and also to various theories of
Human Rights and their practical import in Africa.
With regards to methodology,
it must be stated that Case/Thematic Studies and Focal Analysis constitute
significant features of the course. In addition, the web and its resources are
much integrated into the course. Visuals from various web sources are
particularly helpful teaching aids in this course.
This will be a
very interactive course. Timely and
regular attendance at, and full involvement in, tutorials would be insisted on.
Course Schedule
Weeks 1 and 2: The Notion of Human Rights
Theories, Nature, Evolution, Trends, Legal Obligations, International Status, Human
Rights in Contemporary Socio-Political Thought, and Human Rights
obligation of Contemporary States/societies.
We should as well focus on Basic Human Rights Instruments and Pbligations;
Human Rights Promotion and Protection,; and also identify a framework for
zeroing in on Human Rights Violation.
Weeks 3 and 4: Our African
Matrix
The notion of Africa; Basic Socio-Economic/Political features of
Africa; Commonalities and iversities
Human Rights in Africa: Historical Over-View
a.
Pre-colonial/Traditional Africa
and Human Rights
b.
Colonial Africa and Human
Rights
c.
Post-colonial Africa and Human
Rights
d.
Human Rights in Africa since
the End of the Cold War
African Basic instruments on Human Rights; African basic
institutions and arrangements pertaining to Human Rights; and African
Contribution to the evolutiuon of Human Rights.
Weeks 5,6 and 7: A survey of Human Rights in Contemporary Africa.
State of Human Rights in Contemporary Africa
Human Rights Violations and shortfalls in Africa
Detailed Case/Thematic/Focal Studies drawn Africa would be
extrapolated for analyses. The selection would, among others, cover such themes
as
a) FGM
b) Gender and Women/Child Rights
c) Minority Rights, and
d) Reproductive Rights
e)
Sexual Rights
We would as well be concerned with human rights dimension of the
civil wars in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa,
as well human rights dimensions of the electoral /political mess in such
countries as Libya, Mali, Congo, Zimbabwe and Somalia.
Weeks 8, 9, 10 & 11: Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights (in Africa)
Introduction (why Promotion and Protection; and what the notions entail)
Over-View
Mechanisms for the promotion and Protection and how they so far play
out. We wou;d be specifically concerned with the following:
1)
Constitutions and
Constitutionalism
2)
Law and Legality/The Rule of
Law
3)
The Courts of Law/Justice; The
Judiciary
4)
The Mass Media
5)
State-Owned/Operated Human
Rights Institutions (CHRAJ would be our case in point)
6)
NGOs/Civil Society
Organizations
7)
Public
Policies/Programmes/Initiatives
8)
International
Organizations/Law/Treaties/Conversations
a) The UN System
b) Regional institutions (Case in point: OAU/AU)
c) Sub-regional institutions (case in point:ECOWAS)
9)
ICT
Week 12: Review/Revision
Basic Readings:
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’m and Francis M Deng (editors), Human
Rights in Africa. Cross-Cultutral Perspectives, The Brookings Institutions,
Washington, DC, 1990
Human Rights Clauses of the Charter of the United Nations (1945)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
International Convenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
(1966)
International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (with the Optional
Protocols) (1966)
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (1966)
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (1984)
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination Against
Women (1979)
Declaration on the Right to Development (1986)
The 1992 Ghana Constitution
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on Human Rights
(1993)
The American Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the USA
The African Peer Review Mechanism: Country Report on Ghana
Report of Ghana’s Reconciliation Commission
US State of Department: Human Rights Country Report on Ghana
Ghana Human Development Report
UN Human Rights Commission: Country Reports on Ghana
Annual Report: CHRAJ
: Ghana Police Service
: Ghana Prisons Service
Conventions on
the Rights of the Child (1989)
Internation
Convention on the Protection of the Rights All Migrant Workers and Members of
their Families (1990)
Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court (1998)
Conventions on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
African Charter
on Human and People’s Rights (1981)
Protocol on the
Establishment of an African Court on Human and People’s Rights (1998)
African Charter
of the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990)
The Constitutive
Act of the African Union
Report of
Ghana’s Constitutional Review Commission
Useful Web Links
Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva: www.ohchr.org
ILO, Geneva: www.ilo.org
ICJ, The Hague: www.icj-cij.org
UN Treaty
Database: untreaty.un.org
Official
Documents of the UN: documents.un.org
Amnesty International:
www.amnesty.org
Human Rights
Watch: www.hrw.org
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