“The content of this issue is divided into three parts. In the first part, special attention is given to the commemoration of 25 years since the entry into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) on 21 October 1986, and 30 years since its adoption, on 27 June 1986, in Nairobi, Kenya. The contributions in this ‘focus’ part deal with some of the most significant advances and remaining challenges in the African human rights system. These issues are, for example, the emerging expansion of socio-economic rights protection to include the right to water and sexual and reproductive rights; the exploitation of the African Charter as a pro-poor treaty; and the question whether the African Charter provides for the right to resist. In the second part of this issue, issues of broader relevance are canvassed. In some respects, these contributions enter into a conversation with conference papers, for example on the notion of ubuntu and solidarity, and on socio-economic rights. Other papers deal with matters of emerging concern, such as the economic empowerment of people with disabilities and the rights of victims of international crimes.The concluding part of the Journal is devoted to ‘recent developments’. The prevailing tension between the AU and the International Criminal Court is analysed against the background of the attempts to prosecute incumbent Sudanese President Al Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes, and his official visits to two AU member states, Chad and Kenya. In the last contribution, the meetings of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in November 2010 and March 2011, are discussed.”
