Digital Commons Network^™

Challenges Of Using Human Rights To Foster A More Just African Continental Free Trade Area, Brenda Kombo

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Skepticism towards free trade is often rooted in the perception that its proponents tend to pursue it at the expense of many of the very people whose lives it is meant to improve. Critiques often leveraged against free trade include its uneven distribution of gains among winners and losers, its undemocratic nature, and its prioritization of trade liberalization over other social values such as human rights. However, Article 3(e) of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides that it seeks “promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality and structural transformation”. Seemingly portending a …

From ‘Economic Objectives’ To Constitutional Protection: A Path To Entrenching The Right To Development In The Legal Framework Of The Gambia, Maria Saine, Basiru Bah

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The 1997 Constitution of The Gambia offers minimal protection of economic rights that are essential in the realization of the right to development. The justiciable provisions of the bill of rights in Chapter IV of the Constitution are largely of civil and political rights in nature. Chapter XX of the Constitution outlines several objectives to guide State policy and law formulation as well as law enforcement. However, these principles are non-justiciable in nature, leaving the general population without judicially enforceable human rights despite years of economic deprivation.

The status of economic rights and the resultant neglect in investing towards realization …

Positioning Public Services In A Rights-Based Economy, Ruth Getobai Nchagwa

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

COVID-19 pandemic has put spotlight on major injustices at the core of our current economic model which exposes many to shortages and risks and delivers extreme wealth for the few. War in Ukraine, political instability in Africa and increased foreign debts by governments in the global south have led to increased inflation which has put the poorest on the margins. Governments as primary duty bearers are crippled by reduced revenues and high rates of debt servicing which has negatively affected provision of public services . Public services are vital goods and services that provide a foundation for dignified and enriching …

2023-11-03 Minutes Of The Executive Committee Of The Academic Senate, University Of Dayton. Academic Senate. Executive Committee

ECAS Minutes

Approved minutes of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate of the University of Dayton.

Reading At Roesch Ii, Scott West

University Libraries Blog Archive

In my initial Reading at Roesch post, I discussed the significant number of award-winning books that were recently added to the leisure reading collection.

African Females: The Quest For “Sisterhood” And Equality In The Workplace, Dina Smit

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Women have been marginalized in both developing and developed countries for ages, and evidence points to the fact that despite movements to ensure gender equality in all spheres of employment, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in Africa, as a developing country and the USA, as a developed country. The best State, known for gender equality is New Mexico, where 46,1% of top management positions are held by females, but in 2021, throughout the rest of the USA, women still only hold 31,7% of top executive positions. The position in South Africa, is similar in that women, who represent …

Keynote 2 — What Is The Mandate Of This Moment?, Amara Enyia, Danielle Poe

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

A conversation between Amara Enyia and University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences Dean Danielle Poe.

Today, Africans and people of African descent are connecting in unprecedented ways. New international mechanisms are making space for collective visioning and action; new manifestations of the impacts of racial capitalism, climate disaster, and the politics of “development” are spurring broad participation in movements for change. As African heads of state finally catch on to the calls for reparations that have emanated from civil society and grassroots organizations for years, they are now engaging with their counterparts in the Caribbean and elsewhere to …

Collisions At The Intersection: Intersectionality Of Labor Trafficking, Trauma, And The 'Resource Curse' Phenomena Within The Cobalt Mining Industry In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Patrick L. Kerr

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

First proposed in the early 1990s, the “resource curse” phenomenon describes situations in which countries/regions that are resource-abundant- e.g., metals, minerals- are economically outperformed by countries that are resource-deficient. The resource curse concept also commonly refers to situations in which resource-rich developing regions/countries suffer rather than flourish because of exploitative, extractive industries perpetrated by resource-deficient countries. Rooted in colonialism, this phenomenon has been identified across industries in several African nations. Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a prominent example. Although DRC’s cobalt deposits were discovered in 1914, the past decade has introduced a new surge …

Social Transformation And Africa’S Regressive Policies And Laws On Lgbtqi+ Rights, Nwabisa Sigaba

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Most struggles for LGBTQI+ rights play out at the national level. However, the question of sexual and gender minorities’ rights periodically appears as a point of friction in international relations as well. This paper will first analyse the question of international efforts to defend LGBTQI+ rights in countries of the Global South, with a particular focus on Western countries’ endeavours in Africa. Combining policy analysis, critique and recommendations, it asks how and when international actors should and should not intervene. Furthermore, African countries have considerably different ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed, with postcolonial and neo-colonial relations, anti-racist …

Mobilizing Distance In Times Of Crisis: The Aesthetics Of Diasporic Witnessing As Nigerian Activist Sensibility, Chi-Chi Ayalogu

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

No abstract provided.

Transforming Gender Norms In Rural Mali By Opening Spaces For Action, Kelly Bohrer, Anna Taft, François Chauvet, Kessia Kouriba, Hawa Yalcouyé, Moussa Tembine

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Communities in the Tommoguiné Region of Mali are actively pursuing development despite economic challenges, insecurity, and isolation from many opportunities. Historically, the marginalization of women and girls has held back some of these efforts and denied certain rights to some of the population. Currently, a transformation of norms surrounding women’s roles in public life and of practices harmful to women and girls is taking place, inspired by a Women’s Literacy, Leadership, and Enterprise program generated through a transnational collaboration between local communities, a Malian linguistic association, and The Tandana Foundation, a Dayton-based non-profit organization. Instead of reinscribing colonial dynamics, this …

The Right To Development In Transboundary Water Context: The Case Of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), Halifet Ayemohammed Yusuf

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is Africa's largest hydroelectric developmental project, which has been under construction for the past decade in Ethiopia. With the potential to generate over 6000 megawatts of power, this dam has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life in Ethiopia and other countries in the region. It also presents a significant opportunity for regional cooperation and development in the Nile basin. However, this project has been fraught with tension between Ethiopia and its neighbors as it affects their access to water resources. Another important reason is the distribution of the Nile water share …

The Role Of African Regional Human Rights Bodies In Addressing The Negative Impacts Of Climate Change, Ebenezer Durojaye, Assim Usang, Bright Nkrumah, Amar Mahadew

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges humanity has got to contend with in recent times, is that of climate change. Climate change and environmental degradation pose great threats to the enjoyment of individual rights across the world. In its first ever resolution on climate change in 2008, the Human Rights Council affirmed that ‘’ “climate change poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world and has implications for the full enjoyment of human rights” (UNHRC, Resolution 7/23 ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’, 28 March 2008, un Doc. A/hrc/res/7/23). Subsequently, the first report of the first …

African Right To Identity As A Right To Development: A Media Right Agenda, Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj, Gift Oluwatosin Olalusi, Olawale Olaleye

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The Right to Development is still a highly contested concept in academic and political circles. However, it is evident that irrespective of the divide of the debate, all known declarations including the United Nations, the UN Millennium Declaration, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights among others are yet to have a lasting impact on the liberation and the overall development of Africa and African descent. Hence, in order to find solutions around the right to development from the African perspective, this paper aims to reconcile the divergent views on the right to development and propose a …

Sexuality, Homophobia And Africanness: A Rights-Based Analysis Of The Contemporary Pushback Of Africa’S Lgbtqi+ Community, Mziwandile Ndlovu, Sarah Wesonga

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper explores the topical and emotive subject of sexuality in Africa from a rights-based perspective. It analyses the growing homophobia in Africa which has manifested in prejudicial statements against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) community by senior public officials and legislative efforts to curtail sexual rights. In April 2023, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called on Africa to save the world from homosexuality as ruling party legislators demonstrated overwhelming support for a new anti-LGBTQI+ law. In March in Kenya, both President William Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga castigated the judiciary for upholding the LGBTQI+ Community’s …

The Climate Emergency Before The Inter-American Human Rights System: Evolution And New Horizons, Thalia Viveros Uehara

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This presentation will provide an overview of the evolution of climate change as a critical human rights issue, specifically within the framework of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Occupying a central role in the legal, political, and social landscapes of Latin America, these institutions have been instrumental in establishing and enforcing (potentially transformative) normative standards that offer protection to populations most at risk from climate-related impacts. Current initiatives will be highlighted for their role in strengthening resilience within vulnerable communities and mitigating global warming's progression. There will be a strong emphasis on …

Realizing Esc Rights Through The Afcfta- A Critical Historical Excursion From The Oau To The Au, Edmund Foley

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is billed to be a game-changer for the African continent, to propel intra-African trade, boost economic growth and lift millions of Africans out of poverty. The AfCFTA has also been born in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 in keeping with global and regional human development aspirations. Since the wind of democratisation began blowing across Africa in the 1990s, there has been concerted advocacy to ensure that human development is done from a rights-based perspective. Accordingly, efforts have been made to mainstream the normative …

Illicit Financial Flows: A Major Obstacle To The South African Transformational Agenda, Serges Alain Djoyou

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

With the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, the government is committed to transform the society into an equalitarian one. Starting with the adoption of the 1996 constitution as well as numerous policies to turn it normative commitment into reality, the country became a good constitutional democracy and the most developed on the continent. Yet it is marred by a paradox: On the one hand, it is one the largest economies in Africa, and its constitutions is considered one the best in the world. On the other hand, the country is characterised by massive poverty, huge unemployment and …

New People, New Livelihoods After Tugwi Mukosi Dam Construction: A Case Of Chingwizi Area In Mwenezi District In Masvingo Province Of Zimbabwe, Cephas Mandirahwe

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Using Cernea’s Impoverishment, Risk, and Reconstruction Model, the study examined the livelihoods of the Chingwizi residents of Mwenezi District in the aftermath of relocations from Masvingo District. According to this model, development-induced relocations culminate into landlessness, joblessness, loneliness, property, and social disarticulation. In recent years Zimbabwe has embarked on dam construction and other development projects which have displaced local populations. One such development was the construction of Tugwi Mukosi Dam which was perceived by the government to generate economic growth for the whole nation and Masvingo Province in particular. This is also an endogenous strategy by the government of Zimbabwe …

The Next Act: Examining The Role Of Theatre Of Commitment And Human Rights In Post-Democratic South Africa, Kingdom Moshounyane

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The paper explores the role of theatre of commitment in advancing human rights in post-democratic South Africa. The notion of the theatre of commitment implies a theatre that has abandoned literary ends, to serve a political or social program or set of beliefs. The post-democratic South Africa is an antithesis of the Apartheid dispensation, human rights state whose construction is based solely on the pursuit of human rights norms. However, South Africa has not been a panacea of human rights as it has envisioned to be, given the socioeconomic inequalities of the past. Nowhere have these past inequalities shown themselves, …

Gender And Rights: Global Contestations, Susan Weaver, Satang Nabaneh

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The anti-gender movement, which develops discourse and actions in opposition to the concept of gender, gender equality and gender studies, is increasingly apparent and effective globally. Moral entrepreneurs, such as religious and community leaders and the media, deploy counter-mobilization and conservative rhetoric that aims to undo progress made in the legal, political, economic and social realms. This anti-gender movement is also transnational, evidenced in the growth of right-wing populism and authoritarianism in different parts of the world specifically linked to attacks on feminism, women’s human rights, and minorities. The recent U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health …

Examining Postcolonial Structures Of Corporate Power Through The Lens Of Development Induced Projects In Africa, Janet Gbam, Oyeniyi Abe

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the relationships between socio-economic inequalities of power, race, wealth engendered by corporate structure, and domination in post-colonial Africa. In Africa, the drive towards infrastructural development and economic growth has increasingly led to the displacement of local populations by TNCs. This intractable challenge confines the experiences of Indigenous people, their decolonial imaginations, to an unwarranted historicizing parochialism. However, corporate power and structure - the weapons that enforce it, the knowledge institutions that legitimize it, the financial institutions that operationalize it - continues to sever indigenous peoples from their properties, including land, water, rivers and natural resources. The colonial …

Social Media Activism: Reshaping Human Rights Discourse In Africa, Oyinade Adekunle

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the 21st century, social media has emerged as a powerful tool for championing human rights in Africa, providing a platform for education, protest, awareness creation, and information dissemination. By transcending geographical boundaries and physical limitations, social media enables Africans to promote human rights agendas and engage in discourse on a global scale. This paper examines the transformative impact of social media on African human rights discourse. It begins by exploring the pivotal role of social media in disseminating information and raising awareness about human rights issues. It emphasizes how social media facilitates the reach of a wider audience, enabling …

Addressing A Crisis Of Imagination: A Social Justice Lens For The Cinematic Representation Of Queer Persons With Physical Disabilities In African Films, David Ikpo

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In crisis situations, persons with physical disabilities and queer persons, who are already vulnerable and face discrimination on their grounds of their immutable identities are subject to increasing hardship at the hands of the public owing to how the assumptions made of them and the meanings associated with them. This study recognizes the double jeopardy that queer persons with disabilities face, particularly queer men with physical disabilities. This study also recognises that cinematic representations are path through public imagination and perceptions of the minorities are curated. As such cinematic representations of queer persons with physical disabilities can be reconfigured to …

Plus Ça Change, Plus C'Est La Même Chose: The Ongoing Decolonisation’S Mechanic Inside The Franc Zone, Gerard Kamga

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

My purpose in this paper is to provide insights into the mechanics behind the statuquo ante prevailing within the franc zone even though most African countries in general and former French colonies in particular obtained their “independence” from France in the early 1960s following decades of colonisation. Such statuquo is rendered by the formula “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” loosely translated as the more it changes the more it remains the same. In the upcoming developments, l will portray the extent to which French colonialism in Africa has never stopped and was simply merged with the current …

Youth Activism In Post #Endsars Era: Envisioning A United Nigeria Through The Exercise Of Voting Rights, Alex Ekeke

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Youth activism is an avenue by which, typically, young people engage in civic and political activities that help champion a course, change government’s unpopular policies or create other long-term changes in their communities. As the largest demographic group in Nigeria, youths have recently, shown a strong willingness to participate in activism. Recently, in October 2020, the Nigerian youths, led by some youth activist, championed what is perhaps the most united, decentralized and successful protest in Nigeria through the #Endsars protest movement. Despite the large proportion of young people and youth activism in Nigerian, they have not achieved the level of …

Judicial Activism As A Pathway To Environmental Justice In Africa’S Mining Industry: The Case Of Nigeria And South-Africa, Onyekachi Eni Dr, Dr. Ngozi Chinwa Ole

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Africa’s mining industry embodies the tension between socio-economic development, and environmental protection. On account of their abundant mineral resource endowments, Nigeria and South-Africa constitute Africa’s mining hub with the attendant environmental burdens evident in the distortion of natural environmental equilibrium, disruption of ecosystem services and dislocation of the people from their cultural moorings contrary to extant global and regional instruments on development and human rights. Notwithstanding the negative externalities of mining, the incidence of poverty and the absence of basic amenities in many mining communities often combine to frustrate the effort of mining-affected persons to obtain redress for the violation …

Empowering Nigerian Youths For Social Change: The Convergence Of Civic Education, Media, Art, And Activism, Zainab Onuh-Yahaya

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the intersection of civic education, art, and the media as powerful tools for activism, social change, resistance, and transformation, particularly in the context of Nigerian youths. Over the past few years, young Nigerians have emerged as a formidable force in advocating for social justice and good governance in what they have describes as fighting for their lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, this study explores how the integration of civic education, media, art, and activism empowers Nigerian youths to address social injustices and inequalities, challenge the generations that have come before, and drive meaningful transformations.

The paper then …

Integrating Traditional Culltural Expressions (Tce) And Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Sysetms (Tk) In Social And Economic Policy For Sustainable Development, Stanislas Bigirimana

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Intellectual property contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in various ways. Most African economies are based on extractive industries. This creates a situation where developing economies are suppliers of raw materials to industrialized economies and importers of manufactured goods. Intellectual property coupled with an increased awareness of the importance of intellectual capital and intangible assets creates a situation where Africans and other developing economies are realizing that natural resources alone are not really wealth. There is a need for value addition and beneficiation of natural resources. There are good initiatives such as the development of the automobile industry in Ghana …

Keynote 1 — The Unfinished Black/African Struggles For Liberation, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, V. Denise James, Novea Mcintosh

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The ongoing Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, Indigenous people, and Black women/feminist movements among many other subaltern formations are clear signifiers of the unfinished struggles for liberation, reverberating within Global Africa. The unfinished struggles include the abolitionist, anti/decolonial, Black womanist/feminist, Indigenous people, civil rights movements and initiatives aimed at delivering development for dispossessed and destituted peoples. At the centre of the unfinished struggles has been overlapping historical (a people denied of history, dismemberment & Black condition), existential (coloniality of being & antiblackness), material (dispossession & destitution), epistemic (cognitive empire & coloniality of knowledge), and identity (self-definition & selfdetermination) concerns …