Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Constitutionalism in Africa: emerging trends |
Author: | Sinjela, Mpazi |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | The Review - International Commission of Jurists |
Issue: | 60 |
Pages: | 23-28 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | democracy constitutional amendments rule of law |
Abstract: | Sub-Saharan Africa of the late 1980s and 1990s is going through a revolutionary change in its political and constitutional orientation. The political changes in Eastern Europe signalling the end of the Cold War meant that African totalitarian regimes were no longer needed by the West by virtue of their strategic or geographical location, and most African countries are returning to the old constitutional political order of the independence era. A survey of the newly adopted constitutions across sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates an increased emphasis on individual human rights. The independence of the judiciary is asserted. In many countries, a human rights commission has been established, and a Bill of Rights has been included in a number of new constitutions. Yet in other countries, an ombudsman has been appointed to hear and investigate human rights complaints. The constitutional reforms in francophone African countries have demonstrated an even more rapid and radical change than in anglophone countries and have also signalled a return to the independence constitutions modelled after that of France. Notes, ref. |