Image description: Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema addresses the European Union from a podium In 1965, Zambia’s first independent president Kenneth Kaunda introduced Section 69 to Zambia’s Penal Code to criminalise defamation of the president. This was ostensibly to halt growing criticism of the ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP) and would foreshadow Zambia’s challenges in implementing a thriving democracy – Kaunda banned all other political parties between 1972 and 1991, while the administration led by former president Edgar Lungu (2015-2021) often used state institutions f ..read more

Image description: a forested area of the Chure range in Nepal In Sailendra Ambedkar v. Office of Prime Minister et. al., the Constitutional bench of Supreme Court of Nepal gave its judgment on the excavation of the Chure range. Covering about 13% of the territory of Nepal, Chure is home to valuable biodiversity and includes numerous national parks and wildlife corridors. It is also the main watershed for the plainlands of Nepal. This landmark decision authored by Justice Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai meticulously highlights the urgency of state actions for the protection of Chure. Multiple writ p ..read more

Oxford Human Rights Hub · Gendered Constitutionalism In this week’s episode, we talk to Ruth Rubio, Professor in the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, about her book, Global Gender Constitutionalism and Women’s Citizenship: A Struggle for Transformative Inclusion, published by Cambridge University Press (ISBN: 9781316630303). Executive Producer: Meghan Campbell Producer: Sophie Smith Editor: Sophie Smith Host: Louise McCormack Music: Rosemary Allmann Show notes: Sarah Dobbie   TRANSCRIPT: Dr Ruth Rubio Marín: Gendered Constitutionalism   ..read more

Image Description: The photo is of a classroom. There is a red apple on a pile of four books. There are five colour pencils lying next to the pile of books. There are blocks of alphabets (A, B and C) next to the colour pencils. The new year brought with it news that ministers in the UK are considering new counter-terrorism measures that specifically target children. Concerned at the growing number of children – particularly teenagers –  being arrested for non-violent and online-based terrorism offences that can have a stigmatising and permanent effect on their records, the UK’s Independen ..read more

Image description: a session of the Spanish Parliament (Congreso de Disputados) The intervention of the Tribunal Constitucional in the parliamentary debate in Spain, as discussed to in Part I, has attracted strong criticism, including four blunt dissenting opinions by the judges in the minority. This part considers the arguments used to justify the intervention in the decision. To recall, the Court justified its intervention as a preventive measure to protect the political rights of the minority MPs in parliament, in face of an important reform being passed as an amendment of an unrelated bill ..read more

Image description: the Spanish Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional). On the 19th of December 2022, the Spanish Tribunal Constitucional took a very controversial decision by suspending a parliamentary debate in the Senate about the reform of the rules of appointment of constitutional judges. The decision has attracted strong criticism, both from politicians and scholars, as well as four blunt dissenting opinions by the judges in the minority. Constitutional courts are creatures operating in the terrain between law and politics. Although they take decisions based on legal reasoning, th ..read more

Image Description: Ghanian military official gives speech from a podium at a regional summit with flags of West African nations behind In the case of Dr Jacob Abdulahi & 5 ors v The Federal Republic of Nigeria & 2 Ors [2022], the National Assembly debated a Bill on Hate Speech with the aim of passing it into statutory law. The Bill aimed to criminalise speeches that incite or defame with punishments ranging from fines to the death penalty. The case asserts it is important to provide evidence of the alleged Hate Speech Bill for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) cour ..read more

Image description: A group of displaced Rohingya children and parents sit on the ground in a refugee camp Having faced discrimination and segregation in Myanmar since the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, the Rohingya people are now the largest stateless population in the world. In multiple phases, they have been forcefully ousted from their homes in the Arakan/Rakhine State of Myanmar. Today almost the entire Rohingya population are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, with those remaining scattered among India and elsewhere. One of the many challenges facing this group is the imminent closu ..read more

Oxford Human Rights Hub · Protests in Iran and Human Rights In this episode, we spoke to Dr. Saeed Bagheri, lecturer of International Law at the University of Reading about the women-led protests in Iran, sparked in response to the arrest of Mahsa Amini by the morality police and her subsequent death. Executive Producer: Meghan Campbell Producer: Sophie Smith Editor: Sophie Smith Host: Louise McCormack Music: Rosemary Allmann Show notes: Sarah Dobbie   TRANSCRIPT: Dr Saeed Bagheri: “Woman, Life, Freedom” — Protests in Iran     Louise McCormack (0:02) You’re listening to ..read more

Image description: Crowd of women, men, and children pictured dancing to music at Umgababa, South Africa Music is a common feature of political environments in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): politicians typically enlist local talent or lead music themselves to bolster demonstrations. Often, these songs harken back to colonial liberation struggles. While this is an established part of politics in SSA, a civil society group in South Africa representing Afrikaner interests recently brought an action on the grounds of political music allegedly perpetuating hate speech against Afrikaners, violating the ..read more