Africa's postcolonial disputes over community land rights are a "wicked" problem, not evil, but resistant to resolution. This article investigates three such disputes in Kenya (Endorois, Ogiek and Nubian community) where the African Commission and Court of Human and Peoples' Rights have determined in the communities' favour but the implementation is not progressing, both because of opposition by the state and the complex and long-standing nature of the cases. The legal history of colonial trust lands and recent community land legislation is discussed, the three key cases are summarized, and issues of indigenous people's status, admissibility and respondent government discussed in relation to the UN Declarations on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1987), Right to Development (1986), and Land Issues (2009). Practical and political aspects of implementing the determinations are examined, and recommendations proposed.
This article revisits the debate on the regulation of human genomic research, with a focus on Africa. The article comprehensively examines the concept of genomic sovereignty, which was invoked mainly in the global South as a conceptual framework for state regulation of human genomic research. It demonstrates that genomic sovereignty has no utility value in human genomic research as it violates the rights of individuals and researchers. By analysing Mexico’s regulatory approach based on genomic sovereignty and a divergent regulatory approach, viz Finland’s human genomic research framework, we show that a human rights approach is more promising as it aligns with the state obligations under the right of everyone to participate in and benefit from scientific progress and its applications in international human rights law. We conclude by recommending that African states should anchor regulation of human genomic research on a human rights framework based on the right to science.
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