Olivia Lwabukuna

• LL.D International Law (Law, Rights and Development)
• Legal and Policy Research Specialist at Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

The intertwined relationship between ‘development’, ‘law’, and the ‘international’ is rooted deeply in the formation of the contemporary world. Since the end of the Second World War, ‘international law’ and ‘international development’ have become two of the most prominent secular languages through which competing aspirations about a better world ar...

The chapter explores Madagascar’s insecurity, injustice, and rights violations in the countryside, employing a rule of law analysis. Key to this discussion are struggling Malagasy institutions, a repressed political space, and a weak, understaffed, and underfunded legal system. The consequences are judicial and police corruption within vague overla...

On 10 September 2019, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (OAU Refugee Convention) turned 50, while on 23 October 2019 the African Union (AU) Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) turned 10. It is against...

This article explores the responsibility to protect (R2P) as an organizing concept for preventing, addressing and finding durable solutions to internal displacement in Africa. While the most innovative norms for protecting the forcibly displaced have been conceptualized in Africa, they have not durably addressed displacement, due to limitations in...

Editors’ Note - Volume 63 Supplement - Lutz Oette, Sope William-Elegbe, Olivia Lwabukuna

Kenya has borne memories and scars of colonial hegemonies, repressive and kleptocratic post-independence regimes, and bitter ethnic politicization of inequality, poverty, land issues and exclusion resulting in intermittent strife and volatile politics. Concomitantly, efforts to constitutionally reform and uphold rights and freedoms, especially for...

Rule of Law and Inclusive Development in Africa: Rhetoric, Contestations and Options for Access to Justice for Women

Rule of Law and Inclusive Development in Africa: Rhetoric, Contestations and Options for Access to Justice for Women

Women, business and the law 2018 is the fifth edition in a series of biennial reports measuring the legal obstacles to women who engage in economic activity around the world. Since the World Bank started this study a decade ago, our understanding has increased about how laws influence women’s decisions to start and run businesses or get jobs. The a...

Mining is South Africa’s historical breadbasket and it has brought great economic wealth to the nation. It has equally been accompanied by giant environmental and social baggage in the form of social inequalities and ills, the apartheid machinery and, of course, environmental injustices. A considerable group of historical mining beneficiaries have...

Ghana's reforms were driven by policy aimed at using Ghana’s new hydrocarbon wealth to achieve viable socioeconomic development. Whilst the policy and its associated frameworks are laudable, hurdles remain in implementing, institutionalising and overseeing them. Cooperation between public, private and civil society stakeholders will be a strong pil...

The political history of post-independence Madagascar is similar to that of other former French colonies on the continent, which have been characterised by a strong presidency, weak state institutions and complete absence of the state around the periphery. The 2009 uprising in Madagascar necessitated rethinking fundamental questions of how states w...

Rule of Law and Reconstruction in Madagascar

By measuring where the law treats men and women differently, this book shines a light on how women's incentives or capacity to work are affected by the legal environment and provides a basis for improving regulation. The fourth edition in a series, this book examines laws and regulations affecting women’s prospects as entrepreneurs and employees i...

Extractive resources provide employment, food security, export revenues, and a basis for private-sector development. They are vital for basic services since they largely form the pillar on which local livelihood systems are built, in addition to their cultural and social values. If managed inclusively and equitably, resource revenues can be the fou...

Oil, gas and mineral discoveries often bring hopes for wealth and better livelihoods, but for most African countries, managing such wealth has proven challenging. Appropriate and functional institutions remain key to addressing this challenge. Ghana's newly established fiscal, legal and structural framework for resource governance presents a refere...

Courting Justice and Righting Inequalities: Musings on the role of the constitutional court in post-apartheid South Africa

Fragility, trade and inclusive development in Resource-Rich African countri

Assembly by Resolution A/RES/35/55 of 5, December 1980 with the following mission: " To provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace, with the aim of promoting among all human beings a spirit of understanding, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples, and help lessen obstacles a...

Internally Displaced Women and Legal Responses within Africa’s Great Lakes Region

Regional integration and Trade Regimes

The South African government as a sovereign state has responsibility to protect its people. This responsibility covers protection against arbitrary displacement. It also translates into a duty to ensure that the displaced populations are provided for during displacement and well settled after displacement, and if possible compensated for their inco...

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