Lesotho’s PM threatens top judge with second impeachment

Judicial politics in Lesotho, highly fraught for some time, must now be the despair of the continent. For the fourth time in just a few years, a cloud hangs over a top judge of this mountain kingdom, with threats of suspension and impeachment. The latest development has been laid bare for the whole country to see, with the leaking of two letters indicating the struggle going on behind the scenes - and judicial independence, along with the Rule of Law, is very much the victim.

Uganda’s human rights law takes enforcement to new level

What is surely one of the most significant laws passed by the present administration in Uganda is being used for the first time in a pending court case – and the police officers involved in the case must be worried about the outcome as well as its possible impact on their pockets. That’s because they could be held liable if they are found to have infringed the new law by violating the human rights of the applicants. And they could also be ordered to pay part of any damages that might be awarded.

Top Namibian Minister quits after corruption conviction 

It is not common to read of a high court finding a government minister guilty of corruption but, this week, what might be unthinkable in many countries came to pass in Namibia: the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture was convicted under anti-corruption laws for actions taken when she was still a district Governor. Katrina Hanse-Himarwe has since resigned, getting in first as it became clear that President Hage Geingob planned to dismiss her.

Foreigner's health issues insufficient to halt deportation

How poor must a country's medical facilities be before the UK courts may bar government from returning an illegal foreigner there? It is a question UK judges are increasingly having to grapple with, most recently in the case of 'PF', a Nigerian who has a serious, chronic disease. He also has a lengthy criminal record for which the UK authorities want to deport him.  PF suffers from sickle cell disease and his lawyers say to send him back to Nigeria would condemn him to an early, painful death. They also argued that the distress to his children if he were deported would infringe the European Convention on Human Rights. Though PF won an earlier round in his battle to stave off deportation, the Appeal Court has now found it has no evidence that he would not be able to access morphine and other medicines he needs in Nigeria. Deportation would thus not cause a 'serious, rapid and irreversible decline in health resulting in intense suffering', the current standards a deportee must meet before UK judges may set aside a deportation order on the grounds of illness.

In their own words...

An idea whose time has come

In this case, a fledgling trade union for domestic workers wanted to be recognized by the registrar of trade unions, but was refused permission, mostly on the grounds that it would be overlapping with other unions.
The court however had other views.
 
Judge Mathews Nduma:
 
(T)he court notes that if there is an idea whose time has come in Kenya and in the world at large, is the vigilant protection of the rights and freedoms of domestic workers.  By domestic workers is meant in the court’s view employees male or female working in private households and not those in commercial enterprise such as schools, hotels, clubs, hospital and various service providers.

For the purposes of this Appeal and the registration of the proposed union, the constitution of the proposed union should be limited to only “domestic workers in private house holds”.  This restriction shall remove possibility of conflict with the other cited unions herein by the registrar of Trade Unions as the reason why she refused to register the union.
 

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'Country Policy and Information Note' Nigeria: Medical and Healthcare Issues

Regularly updated ‘Country policy and information notes’ are issued by the UK government. These documents are supposed to help with guidance for issuing UK visas and for immigration officials to make decisions ‘in asylum and human rights applications’. The ‘notes’ are also intended to give information on the situation in the home country of an asylum seeker, and they are available to the courts when they have to consider whether to set aside a deportation order. This week we feature the notes on Nigeria’s medical and healthcare issues, important to consider in the light of the UK appeal court’s decision not to set aside a deportation order against a man suffering from sickle cell disease, something prevalent in Nigeria. Note: even though the preface speaks about ‘Pakistan’ at one point, this is in fact the country note for Nigeria.

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