Chapters from books (Centre for Human Rights)

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Chapter 4 : The inspection panel and international law
Bradlow, Daniel David (American University Washington College of Law, 2025-12)
This essay discusses the impact that the creation of the World Bank Inspection Panel (Panel) had on the development of international law, its impact on the accountability of international organizations, international law making and the role of non-state actors in international law.
Chapter 26 : A proposal for one “super” independent accountability mechanism
Bradlow, Daniel David (Brill | Nijhoff, 2025)
One of the most significant developments in international affairs since the Second World War has been the expanding role of international organizations. They were designed to act with restraint, out of respect for the sovereignty of their member states, and in support of their member state’s efforts to promote international peace and security, international economic cooperation, and human welfare. However, some of them are now actively engaged in performing such functions in their member states as peacekeeping; managing refugee camps; reviewing the performance of national financial sectors; financing and monitoring the implementation of development projects and programmes; giving policy advice; and providing technical assistance. This means that these organizations are making decisions that are directly affecting the lives of the citizens of their member states. This evolution in their operations has implications for the relationship between individual international organizations and their member states and for their accountability to those who are affected by their operations. The Multilateral Development Banks (MDB s) provide a good illustration of these changes in the role of international organizations. They have evolved from institutions focused on merely funding specific projects into entities involved in a range of development financing and advisory activities in their member states. They have also become leaders in formulating, interpreting, and applying standards for dealing with the environmental and social impacts of development projects. Consequently, their decisions are directly affecting the societies in which the projects and programmes they fund are located. These developments have raised concerns about how those communities or groups that are adversely affected by their operations can hold the MDBs accountable for their decisions and their impacts. This essay will discuss how the MDBs – for example, the World Bank Group, the African, Asian, and Inter-American Development Banks, and more recently the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the New Development Bank – are dealing with the issue of accountability. It will argue that, although the MDBs have been leaders in promoting international organizational accountability, their mechanisms of accountability are not keeping up with the evolution in their operations. In the interests of promoting new and creative thinking about these issues, it will also make an ambitious proposal for how the MDBs jointly can more effectively meet the accountability challenge that they face while also respecting the sovereignty of their member states and protecting an appropriate level of immunity for the MDB s. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part will provide some background on the MDB s and their current approach to accountability. The second part discusses the proposal for improving MDB accountability.
What a difference do 20 years make? The impact of the core UN human rights treaties on the domestic level in selected states between 1999 and 2019
Viljoen, Frans; Murray, Rachel H. (Brill Academic Publishers, 2024-02)
This introductory chapter provides a background to a collection of chapters discussing the impact of the core United Nations (UN) human rights treaties at the domestic level during the 20 years between 1 July 1999 and 30 June 2019. This is a follow- up to the study by Christof Heyns and Frans Viljoen, conducted with the assistance of country- based researchers, and published as The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level.1 In that study, Heyns and Viljoen aimed to track and understand the impact of the core UN human rights treaties during the 30 years between the entry into force in 1969 of the first of these treaties (the 1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (cerd)) and 30 June 1999.
The impact of the United Nations human rights treaties on the domestic level in South Africa
Adegalu, Foluso; Mitchell, Tess (Brill Academic Publishers, 2024-07)
South Africa has an ancient, rich and diverse history marred by flagrant human rights abuses, particularly during the colonisation and apartheid eras. Since democracy, milestones have been achieved in the progressive realisation of human rights for all South Africans, but much progress is still required. South Africa was home to some of the oldest known ancestors of modern human beings, and later became inhabited by diverse indigenous communities. 1 South Africa’s colonial history began with the establishment of a Dutch settlement in the seventeenth century. British colonisation followed in the nineteenth century. Dutch and British colonial powers governed South Africa in whole or in part from 1652 to 1910. The Anglo- Boer War (1899– 1902) led to the creation in 1910 of the Union of South Africa as a dominion state within the British empire, when the boundaries of present- day South Africa came into being. However, the majority black population was neither consulted about the formation of the Union nor did the colonial authorities heed the protests against increasing racial exclusion and other violations of human rights.2 In 1948 the National Party came to power, and the government elevated de facto racial segregation into a formal framework of social engineering that came to be known as ‘apartheid’. South Africa became a Republic in 1961 and left the British Commonwealth. Under apartheid South Africans were segregated on the basis of race. Black, Indian and ‘Coloured’ persons were systematically discriminated against, oppressed and denied basic human rights. Internal resistance to apartheid, including the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Soweto riots in 1976, was met by violent and repressive measures enforced by the state security. South Africa was increasingly condemned and isolated by the international community, including through United Nations (UN)- authorised economic sanctions.
Fourth Industrial Revolution and gender-responsive budgeting in South Africa : policy challenges and alternatives
Ojo, Tinuade Adekunbi (AOSIS Publishing, 2024)
Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is becoming a necessary instrument that the government needs to employ to engender gender equality across all spheres of society. Pledging to erase the gender gap is not enough, as implementing active instruments to correct gender inequalities is the right step. This need is why several countries embrace active instruments in their fight against gender inequality, such as gender mainstreaming as a targeted measure to achieve this. Weaponising gender mainstreaming enables the government and relevant stakeholders in society to direct specific instruments towards addressing the gender imbalance across all spheres and to dedicate resources to ensuring the success of such policy. Gender budgeting, which falls under the gender mainstreaming strategy, allows for the equitable allocation of resources based on gender. It is one of the numerous instruments often used to actualise gender mainstreaming, primarily within the government’s fiscal policy. It deals with allocating resources to address the gender imbalance within society.
Contours of a conclusion, into the sixth UN treaty system decade
Viljoen, Frans; Murray, Rachel H. (Brill, 2024-07)
This conclusion cannot possibly do justice to the rich and nuanced material contained in the comprehensive chapters covering the ‘impact’ of nine core United Nations (UN) human rights treaties, ten UN treaty bodies (untb s), and three substantive protocols in divergent contexts over a period of 20 years. We therefore are deliberately modest in our ambitions for this chapter. While we aim to highlight some illustrative examples, and suggest some trends, we take caution not to arrive at expansive overarching and cross- cutting conclusions. Our thoughts and tentative insights are aimed at opening the door to others, to encourage future researchers to delve deeper into and more closely analyse the rich body of evidence contained in the pages of the 20 country study chapters. We draw some comparison between this study’s conclusions and those of the first (1999) study (and the 2002 book).1 Having covered the three decades between the entry into force of the first treaty body in 1969 and 1999 in the first study, this book contains further reflection on the fourth and fifth UNTB decades (2000 to 2019). What is incontrovertible, though, is that the country reports amplify the finding in the previous study that the treaties have had ‘an enormous influence’.
The impact of the United Nations human rights treaties on the domestic level : twenty years on : second revised edition
Heyns, Christof H.; Viljoen, Frans; Murray, Rachel H. (Brill Academic Publishers, 2024-02)
This collection of chapters tracks and explains the impact of the nine core United Nations human rights treaties in 20 selected countries, four from each of the five UN regions. Researchers based in each of these countries were responsible for the chapters, in which they assess the influence of the treaties and treaty body recommendations on legislation, policies, court decisions and practices. By covering the 20 years between July 1999 and June 2019, this book updates a study done 20 years ago.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa : a commentary
Rudman, Annika; Musembi, Celestine Nyamu; Makunya, Trésor Muhindo (Pretoria University Law Press, 2023)
Since its adoption on 11 July 2003, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) has become a landmark on the African human rights landscape. It has steadily gained prominence as a trail-blazing instrument, responsive to the diverse realities of women on the African continent. This comprehensive Commentary on the Maputo Protocol, the first of its kind, provides systematic analysis of each article of the Protocol, delving into the drafting history, and elaborating on relevant key concepts and normative standards. This Commentary aims to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anyone interested in the Maputo Protocol, such as researchers, teachers, students, practitioners, policymakers and activists.
Article 11 : Protection of women in armed conflicts
Makunya, Trésor Muhindo; Abelungu, Junior Mumbala (Pretoria University Law Press, 2023)
1. States parties undertake to respect and ensure respect for the rules of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflict situations, which affect the population, particularly women. 2. States parties shall, in accordance with the obligations incumbent upon them under international humanitarian law, protect civilians including women, irrespective of the population to which they belong, in the event of armed conflict. 3. States parties undertake to protect asylum seeking women, refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons, against all forms of violence, rape and other forms of sexual exploitation, and to ensure that such acts are considered war crimes, genocide and/or crimes against humanity and that their perpetrators are brought to justice before a competent criminal jurisdiction. 4. States parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure that no child, especially girls under 18 years of age, take a direct part in hostilities and that no child is recruited as a soldier.
Article 15 : Right to food security
Makunya, Trésor Muhindo; Bwanaisa, Mercy (Pretoria University Law Press, 2023)
States Parties shall ensure that women have the right to nutritious and adequate food. In this regard, they shall take appropriate measures to: (a) provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land, and the means of producing nutritious food; (b) establish adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security.
The African regional human rights system and other regional systems : a comparative analysis
(Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists, Nairobi., 2006)
This article examines the different legal frameworks and experiences of the European and Inter-American regional human rights systems. Particular focus is given to experiences of interest to the future work of the African Court.
African regional human rights system
(University of Deusto, Bilboa, 2006)
This contribution first introduces the main legal instruments relevant to the continental protection of human rights in Africa, then discusses the norms recognised (individual and peoples' rights and duties, etc) and thereafter turns to the regional institutional structures set up to achieve the implementation of the norms. This institutional overview focuses primarily on four important pillars of the African human rights system: the organs of the African Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the yet to be established African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the newly established African Peer Review Mechanism

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