Sub-Saharan Africa

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group that originated in northern Uganda and waged a guerrilla war against the Ugandan government for just over twenty years, under the leadership of Joseph Kony. Despite the length of the conflict, the LRA have only recently started to receive widespread international media coverage.

Since late 2012 the Central African Republic (CAR) has been plagued by sectarian violence between Muslim and Christian extremist groups. This has led to ongoing ethnic cleansing, the initial stages of genocide, and created a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

The abduction crisis emphasises once more the need to re-think the approach the Nigerian Government is taking in the fight against Boko Haram. Whilst security forces are vital to establish security, increased economic development and perhaps even amnesties are needed to stabilise the region.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) faces major challenges in its decision to turn against members of its former advocate and the subsequent lack of cooperation from the RPF, would turn out to be a major obstacle for Rwanda's reconciliation process in the years to come.

The Rwandan genocide serves as a stark reminder how little the international community has learnt from the horrors of the Holocaust; in view of not only the vast crimes committed, but the abject inaction to prevent a genocide which had “one of the highest casualty rates of any population in history from non-natural causes.”

Twenty years ago, in April 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections after forty years of apartheid. Decades of segregation, injustice and suppression came to an end as the rainbow nation was born under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. South Africa was set on the right path, but equal rights were merely the foundation - not a guarantor - for equal economic opportunities.

For those of us with a belief that liberal, democratic values have a universal validity, there exists significant contention with the numerous advocates of the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014, signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda on 24 February 2014.

For decades the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been wracked by an intractable conflict which has displaced hundreds of thousands, resulted in numerous human rights atrocities, and launched the largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission in UN history

Ten years after its establishment in Arusha, Tanzania, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is still hampered by shortcomings that would render any court ineffective. Whilst the willingness to establish a human rights court on a continent victim to devastating crimes against humanity is commendable, the Court is characterised by

For a country that had long been plagued with conflict, independence from Sudan in July 2011 appeared to be a positive step forward for the peoples of South Sudan. However, merely two and a half years later, the country has been plunged into conflict once again, spelling disaster for the future of this young nation.