The Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, is proud to announce the open-access publication of volume six (2022) of the African Human Rights Yearbook and volume four of the African Court Law Report (covering case decided in 2020) both published under the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP).

2022 Yearbook

The first volume of the Yearbook appeared in 2017. In six years, the Yearbook has published a total of 125 articles, thus contributing to the democratisation of academic knowledge and debate on human and peoples’ rights. The Yearbook facilitates discussions and debates on significant jurisprudence of the three African Union (AU) human rights bodies (the African Court and Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child) whose partnership has given rise to the Yearbook. The Yearbook is divided into three sections. The first deals with general issues related to the African human rights system and the African Union law. The second section is centred around the African Union theme of the year. In 2022, the AU theme was ‘Strengthening resilience in nutrition and food security on the African continent’. The third section is devoted to case commentaries.

Call for contributions to 2023 Yearbook

Volume 7 of the Yearbook seeks to highlight the impact of African human rights instruments on the legal systems of African states, in particular through their application by national courts and reference by the latter to the jurisprudence of the African Union's human rights bodies. This year’s theme of the African Union is the ‘Acceleration of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) Implementation’. The Yearbook welcomes articles that explore issues related to broader human and peoples’ rights arising from the normative and institutional framework establishing the AfCFTA and its impact on specific rights. Commentaries of cases decided by the Court, the Commission and the Committee are equally important for Volume 7.

African Court Law Report

The Law Report is another landmark publication by one of the AU human rights body, the African Court, which is edited and published by the Centre. The first two volumes include decisions handed down between 2006 and 2016 (for the first) and 2017 and 2018 (for the second). The rest include 2019 and 2020 decisions respectively.

2020 Law Report

Volume 4 includes 59 decisions sorted chronologically  with decisions dealing with the same case (procedural decisions, orders for provisional measures, merits judgments and reparations judgments) sorted together. The structure of the Law Report is designed to facilitate research on relevant cases of the African Court. It provides a table of cases setting out the sequence of the decisions, includes the subject index divided into sections on procedure and substantive rights.

The Centre for Human Rights believes that researchers, practitioners and activists interested in African human and peoples’ rights will use these publications and welcomes commentaries and criticism to improve their quality.

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