Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become interwoven into the fabric of everyday life across Africa, from precision agriculture to autonomous weapon systems, shaping all aspects of life. On the 4th of April 2025, the first Global AI Summit on Africa was held in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. This culminated in the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence which outlines how AI can be leveraged to engender growth and ensure its ethical adoption to protect the human rights of Afri

Statelessness is an amorphous concept. What and who constitutes “stateless people” is unclear and unquantifiable. Foundationally, it simply encompasses those who have no legal affiliation to any country (nationality). Such status essentially excludes a person from social integration by creating a barrier to accessing education, healthcare, work, and perhaps most profoundly, a dignified official burial upon death. While the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates 4.4 million peop

In Canada, foreign nationals who want to stay in the country can make applications for permanent residence under the humanitarian and compassionate stream, if there are compelling circumstances in their case. These circumstances include, for example, mental and physical health challenges, concerns over family violence, hardship in their country of origin, and the best interests of any children involved. H&C applications fill an important gap in the immigration system, because

Male-centric prison policies promote the marginalization of women prisoners where prison facilities deem them victims to stereotypical notions of the ideal woman. In cases where social rules are not adhered to, women experience exacerbated pains of punishment, such as psychological and physical trauma induced through violent strip searches often carried out by male officers. This alerts us to question how societal perceptions and correctional policies impact the way women are

It is established that in a digitised world such as ours, data rights are human rights. With this pretext, we write this article to caution against the adoption of Artificial Intelligence ('AI') and its seemingly inevitable integration into our daily lives. Chat GPT recently became the fastest-growing consumer application in history, amassing 100 million+ active users in under two months, a feat that prominent social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram took 2.5 months an

‘Dignity’, a non-negotiable tenet of the Indian Constitution, repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court, includes within its ambit – the right to health, shelter, and subsistence. Recently, the Supreme Court reiterated these rights for the elderly under ‘social justice’ of the Preamble of the Constitution, the right to dignity under Article 21, Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), and statutory rights and obligations in Dr Ashwani Kumar vs Union of India, (2019) 2 SCC

With the penetration of technology in every sphere of our lives, cyber harassment has given a new dimension to violence committed against women. One might wonder about the audacity of the perpetrators and deficient infrastructure when even the most powerful segment of females falls prey to this harassment. It was also found that female politicians are more likely to be targeted online than their male counterparts. The susceptibility of the same was 12% more on Facebook and 15

Freepik: AI Cloud with Robot Head Courtrooms are on the precipice of replacing judges with black-robed robots. To integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into every aspect of judicial functioning at its peak, the Supreme Court of China recently updated its software to mandate that judges consult AI on every matter and rely on its recommendations. Disputes involving e-commerce product liability, copyright/trademark rights, domain ownership, and trademark infringements are heard

(image downloaded from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/league-of-legends-soraka-janna-2808111/ ) TW: misogyny, sexual violence A watershed moment for the gaming industry was witnessed during a 2014 hashtag campaign. The #GamerGate movement was a war against feminism in video games. It included a deluge of rape threats, sexual harassment, and sexist remarks. The movement was about maintaining the game's purity by preventing the influx of social issues like inequality and s

The Potential Impact of the Nationality and Borders Bill on Women Trafficked to the UK (Metin Ozer, published 11th December 2019, downloaded from Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/spFYbCSF-Ec [24/03/22]) Content Warning: discussion of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and rape. The Nationality and Borders Bill will disadvantage victims of trafficking, especially female victims who face gender-specific difficulties. Clause 58 ignores the victim’s need for time to pr

Whether there exists a ‘human right to abortion’ is contested. Abortion is not defined along other internationally-accepted standalone rights, like health, life, or privacy. However, several rights contained within international human rights treaties are supportive of abortion rights, or vice versa are fulfilled through access to safe abortion. Abortion has thus been protected and advanced with reference to a framework of human rights, and through these avenues treaty bodies

Does the director of Legal Aid Casework have the discretion to consider the accessibility of capital when establishing eligibility for legal aid? GR answers this key question, which has big implications for victims of domestic violence in need of legal aid Abusers will use any means to control their victims, often denying them access to any shared capital, particularly when the victim could use it to fund legal advice to bring a case against them

A recent report titled Lost Identity: Transgender Persons Inside Indian Prisons’ published by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has identified that the present law on prison administration in India fails to accommodate the special rights and needs of transgender prisoners. The Prisons Act 1894, is strictly gender-binary and results in the degrading treatment faced by transgender prisoners, a violation of NALSA v. UOI, which identified transgender people as a separate l

Due to COVID 19 and an overburdened criminal court system, the current backlog in the Crown Courts has risen to 54,000 unheard cases. This backlog threatens the right to a trial in a reasonable time, a human right protected by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)(Article 6). Some jury trials have been postponed to 2023, severely infringing defendants’ rights. The Government’s proposal to deal with the backlog is inadequate.

This blog highlights the urgent need for legal protection for women facing sexual violence in Indonesia. The post identifies factors inhibiting the ratification of The Sexual Violence Elimination Bill (RUU PKS) in Indonesia and concludes that the problems of sexual violence must be overcome by ratifying RUU PKS so that access to justice for Indonesian women can be achieved.

The blog focuses on the how India could possibly amend its personal laws to permit the marriage of the third gender and the exigency for those amendments. It explores the incorporation of different judicial interpretations to fulfil the void made by the absence of local enactment or domestic legislation by various milestone decisions, as well as the case of Butler’s theory of inclusive interpretation of marriage.

This blog highlights the healthcare inequality faced by American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States and traces the history of the federal government’s provision of tribal healthcare. It argues that the federal government’s failure to honour their treaty obligations and provide equal healthcare has led to the preventable deaths of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The blog concludes that the solution lies in the restructuring of the provision of tribal healthc

Summary: The article focuses on:  The normalisation of dehumanising language in death penalty trials  The adverse effects of using such narratives vis-à-vis the application of capital punishment  The need for empathetic judging in capital trials Introduction: Over the years, courts have been increasingly employing dehumanising language in death penalty cases; a practice that has led to the ‘othering’ of capital defendants. Studies show that the death penalty disproportiona

In the landmark decision of Kwok Cheuk Kin v Director of Lands [2019] HKCFI 867, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance held that male indigenous villagers living the New Territories do not enjoy the right to apply to build small houses on government land at concessionary premium. However, the Court also ruled that male indigenous villagers do have the right to apply to build homes on their own land at nil premium. The judgment clarified the scope of constitutional rights enjo

This blog introduces the legal position of women in Malawi and highlights the efforts made by Malawi towards improving access to justice for women. The post explains developments to key statutes that have been made towards achieving this goal, such as the Citizenship Act, 1966 and concludes by identifying problems which must be overcome to secure gender equality in legislation.