Solomon Dersso - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Solomon Dersso

Research paper thumbnail of The African Union Transitional Justice Policy: Expanding the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), May 25, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of The African Union’s Role in Maintaining Peace and Security in the Great Lakes Region

War and Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, 2017

This chapter analyses and interrogates the nature and mechanisms of the African Union (AU) in its... more This chapter analyses and interrogates the nature and mechanisms of the African Union (AU) in its role to address the insecurity and violence affecting the Great Lakes region. Based on a review of two recent conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, this chapter reveals some salient features of the AU’s application of its peace and security instruments in the region. Apart from the inconsistencies in the nature of the AU’s intervention in the region, this chapter reveals that AU’s role in the region has been heavily shaped by the political dynamics there. The future of the AU’s role thus depends on the emergence of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) as an effective platform for mobilising common regional action for addressing insecurity in the region.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter VI – South Africa’s Constitutional Design for the Accommodation of Diversity

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Stabilization missions and mandates in African peace operations: implications for the ASF?

The future of African peace operations, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Forty years of the African Charter and the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights

African Human Rights Law Journal, 2021

During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has be... more During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has become the grand human rights instrument that inspired and informed the development of norms and institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights both at the national and continental levels. Despite the normative and jurisprudential contributions of the African Charter and the standard of legitimate state behaviour that it established, currently the Charter and the African human rights system face multifaceted challenges raising questions on the relevance and legitimacy of the African Charter-based human rights system. The central message of this article is that the future and continuing credibility of human rights depend on whether and how its existing and emerging flaws are addressed. Using the insights gleaned from the human rights issues that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare, this contribution seeks to discuss the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rig...

Research paper thumbnail of Annual Review of the Peace and Security Council 2012/2013

Research paper thumbnail of ‘This question of African unity’: 50 years After the founding of the AOU

In his famous speech, in which he made the most convincing case for the formation of a strong uni... more In his famous speech, in which he made the most convincing case for the formation of a strong union of the continent, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, described as ‘the great crusader of African unity’ by Mualimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, told his pears on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa that ‘Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big or small, we can here and now forge a political union based on defence, foreign affairs and diplomacy, and a common citizenship, an African currency, an African monetary zone and an African central bank.’ He went on to urge them ‘We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent. We need a common defence system with African high command to ensure the stability and security of Africa... We will be mocking the hopes of our people if we show the slightest hesitation or delay in tackling realistically this question of African unity’.

Research paper thumbnail of Africa’s Transitional Justice Policy Making: Exercising Epistemic Agency and Pushing the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter VII – The Case of Ethiopia’s Ethnic Federalism

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of The Status and Legitimacy of Popular Uprisings in the AU Norms on Democracy and Constitutional Governance

Journal of African Law, 2019

During the first decade of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, one signif... more During the first decade of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, one significant political development in Africa has been the resort to popular protests or uprisings against tyrannical rule. These uprisings have been remarkable for their scale and extraordinary political ramifications, and succeeded in unseating longstanding authoritarian rulers. They presented serious challenges to the African Union's democratic and constitutional governance norms, in particular regarding the status of uprisings in relation to the ban on unconstitutional changes of government and the determination of whether and when resultant changes of government are constitutional. In addressing these issues, this article contends that, although popular uprisings (also called “democratic revolutions”) are not a priori deemed constitutional, the AU's application of its norm banning unconstitutional changes of government to the popular uprisings in North Africa and Burkina Faso has op...

Research paper thumbnail of Defending Constitutional Rule as a Peacemaking Enterprise: The Case of the AU’s Ban of Unconstitutional Changes of Government

International Peacekeeping, 2017

ABSTRACT The African Union (AU) norm relating to unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) dis... more ABSTRACT The African Union (AU) norm relating to unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) distinguishes the African peace and security order from other regional and global peace and security orders. This norm assigns the regional organization an intrusive role unparalleled by other international organizations as far as the constitutional and democratic order of member states is concerned. The norm bans UCG and also provides for enforcement measures that received regional constitutional status in the founding treaty establishing the AU. Despite its emergence accompanying the democratization process that countries on the continent ventured into in the 1990s, seen in the light of Africa’s unhappy experience with illegal change or seizure of government, this norm cannot be dissociated from the continent’s concern about peace and security. Indeed, the norm’s defence of constitutional and democratic rule from unconstitutional changes has evolved and been utilized to operate as a means of promoting or securing stability and peace. Simultaneously, while the relatively consistent practice of enforcement of the norm that the AU developed over the years has served the objective of maintaining peace and security in Africa by playing key role in the decline of incidents of UCG, various challenges relating to its efficacy have been observed.

Research paper thumbnail of The ICC’s Africa Problem

Research paper thumbnail of Sudan and South Sudan : from turbulent cohabitation to messy divorce : research notes / commentaries

Since the demise of apartheid and the inauguration of democratic South Africa in 1994, the indepe... more Since the demise of apartheid and the inauguration of democratic South Africa in 1994, the independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 is perhaps the only similar event on the continent that marked the triumph of freedom over oppression. Coming as it did against major obstacles, it reflects significant success of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This is particularly because many analysts and observers expressed serious doubts and even cynicism, albeit not without good reasons, about the CPA As the cohabitation of Southern Sudan and Sudan brought about by colonial fiat was unhappy and turbulent, the divorce of the two on 9 July 2011 has remained to be messy. The divorce came before the two sides have reached at a conclusive understanding on the resolution of many outstanding issues. These include the status of Abyei, border demarcation, oil, citizenship, security arrangements, assets and liabilities. With brinkmanship and acrimony increasingly characterising the negotiation on outstanding issues, the situation between the two countries over the course of the past several months deteriorated from stalemate to escalating tension and to the armed confrontation that erupted during March and April 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Institutionalising the right to self-determination as a human right solution to problems of ethnic conflict in Africa: the case of Ethiopia and South Africa

Written under the supervision of Prof. Michelo Hansungule at the Faculty of Law, University of Pr... more Written under the supervision of Prof. Michelo Hansungule at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, Centre for Human Rights

Research paper thumbnail of The African Peace and Security Architecture

The African Union's Role in Peacekeeping

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter IV – The Normative Bases for Constitutional Accommodation of Ethno-Cultural Diversity in Africa: The Three Components of the Minority Rights Framework

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter V – Towards a Multicultural Constitutional Framework: The Institutional Dimensions of the Minority Rights Framework

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter III – The Issue of Minorities in the Political and Constitutional Discourse and Practice of Post-colonial Africa

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of The 1992 un Declaration on Minorities and the African Human Rights System

The United Nations Declaration on Minorities, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

When writing can change your life, when writing can enrich you by offering much money, why don't ... more When writing can change your life, when writing can enrich you by offering much money, why don't you try it? Are you still very confused of where getting the ideas? Do you still have no idea with what you are going to write? Now, you will need reading. A good writer is a good reader at once. You can define how you write depending on what books to read. This taking ethno cultural diversity seriously in constitutional design a theory of minority rights for can help you to solve the problem. It can be one of the right sources to develop your writing skill.

Research paper thumbnail of The African Union Transitional Justice Policy: Expanding the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), May 25, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of The African Union’s Role in Maintaining Peace and Security in the Great Lakes Region

War and Peace in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, 2017

This chapter analyses and interrogates the nature and mechanisms of the African Union (AU) in its... more This chapter analyses and interrogates the nature and mechanisms of the African Union (AU) in its role to address the insecurity and violence affecting the Great Lakes region. Based on a review of two recent conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, this chapter reveals some salient features of the AU’s application of its peace and security instruments in the region. Apart from the inconsistencies in the nature of the AU’s intervention in the region, this chapter reveals that AU’s role in the region has been heavily shaped by the political dynamics there. The future of the AU’s role thus depends on the emergence of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) as an effective platform for mobilising common regional action for addressing insecurity in the region.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter VI – South Africa’s Constitutional Design for the Accommodation of Diversity

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Stabilization missions and mandates in African peace operations: implications for the ASF?

The future of African peace operations, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Forty years of the African Charter and the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights

African Human Rights Law Journal, 2021

During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has be... more During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has become the grand human rights instrument that inspired and informed the development of norms and institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights both at the national and continental levels. Despite the normative and jurisprudential contributions of the African Charter and the standard of legitimate state behaviour that it established, currently the Charter and the African human rights system face multifaceted challenges raising questions on the relevance and legitimacy of the African Charter-based human rights system. The central message of this article is that the future and continuing credibility of human rights depend on whether and how its existing and emerging flaws are addressed. Using the insights gleaned from the human rights issues that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare, this contribution seeks to discuss the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rig...

Research paper thumbnail of Annual Review of the Peace and Security Council 2012/2013

Research paper thumbnail of ‘This question of African unity’: 50 years After the founding of the AOU

In his famous speech, in which he made the most convincing case for the formation of a strong uni... more In his famous speech, in which he made the most convincing case for the formation of a strong union of the continent, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, described as ‘the great crusader of African unity’ by Mualimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, told his pears on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa that ‘Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big or small, we can here and now forge a political union based on defence, foreign affairs and diplomacy, and a common citizenship, an African currency, an African monetary zone and an African central bank.’ He went on to urge them ‘We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent. We need a common defence system with African high command to ensure the stability and security of Africa... We will be mocking the hopes of our people if we show the slightest hesitation or delay in tackling realistically this question of African unity’.

Research paper thumbnail of Africa’s Transitional Justice Policy Making: Exercising Epistemic Agency and Pushing the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter VII – The Case of Ethiopia’s Ethnic Federalism

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of The Status and Legitimacy of Popular Uprisings in the AU Norms on Democracy and Constitutional Governance

Journal of African Law, 2019

During the first decade of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, one signif... more During the first decade of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, one significant political development in Africa has been the resort to popular protests or uprisings against tyrannical rule. These uprisings have been remarkable for their scale and extraordinary political ramifications, and succeeded in unseating longstanding authoritarian rulers. They presented serious challenges to the African Union's democratic and constitutional governance norms, in particular regarding the status of uprisings in relation to the ban on unconstitutional changes of government and the determination of whether and when resultant changes of government are constitutional. In addressing these issues, this article contends that, although popular uprisings (also called “democratic revolutions”) are not a priori deemed constitutional, the AU's application of its norm banning unconstitutional changes of government to the popular uprisings in North Africa and Burkina Faso has op...

Research paper thumbnail of Defending Constitutional Rule as a Peacemaking Enterprise: The Case of the AU’s Ban of Unconstitutional Changes of Government

International Peacekeeping, 2017

ABSTRACT The African Union (AU) norm relating to unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) dis... more ABSTRACT The African Union (AU) norm relating to unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) distinguishes the African peace and security order from other regional and global peace and security orders. This norm assigns the regional organization an intrusive role unparalleled by other international organizations as far as the constitutional and democratic order of member states is concerned. The norm bans UCG and also provides for enforcement measures that received regional constitutional status in the founding treaty establishing the AU. Despite its emergence accompanying the democratization process that countries on the continent ventured into in the 1990s, seen in the light of Africa’s unhappy experience with illegal change or seizure of government, this norm cannot be dissociated from the continent’s concern about peace and security. Indeed, the norm’s defence of constitutional and democratic rule from unconstitutional changes has evolved and been utilized to operate as a means of promoting or securing stability and peace. Simultaneously, while the relatively consistent practice of enforcement of the norm that the AU developed over the years has served the objective of maintaining peace and security in Africa by playing key role in the decline of incidents of UCG, various challenges relating to its efficacy have been observed.

Research paper thumbnail of The ICC’s Africa Problem

Research paper thumbnail of Sudan and South Sudan : from turbulent cohabitation to messy divorce : research notes / commentaries

Since the demise of apartheid and the inauguration of democratic South Africa in 1994, the indepe... more Since the demise of apartheid and the inauguration of democratic South Africa in 1994, the independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 is perhaps the only similar event on the continent that marked the triumph of freedom over oppression. Coming as it did against major obstacles, it reflects significant success of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This is particularly because many analysts and observers expressed serious doubts and even cynicism, albeit not without good reasons, about the CPA As the cohabitation of Southern Sudan and Sudan brought about by colonial fiat was unhappy and turbulent, the divorce of the two on 9 July 2011 has remained to be messy. The divorce came before the two sides have reached at a conclusive understanding on the resolution of many outstanding issues. These include the status of Abyei, border demarcation, oil, citizenship, security arrangements, assets and liabilities. With brinkmanship and acrimony increasingly characterising the negotiation on outstanding issues, the situation between the two countries over the course of the past several months deteriorated from stalemate to escalating tension and to the armed confrontation that erupted during March and April 2012.

Research paper thumbnail of Institutionalising the right to self-determination as a human right solution to problems of ethnic conflict in Africa: the case of Ethiopia and South Africa

Written under the supervision of Prof. Michelo Hansungule at the Faculty of Law, University of Pr... more Written under the supervision of Prof. Michelo Hansungule at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, Centre for Human Rights

Research paper thumbnail of The African Peace and Security Architecture

The African Union's Role in Peacekeeping

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter IV – The Normative Bases for Constitutional Accommodation of Ethno-Cultural Diversity in Africa: The Three Components of the Minority Rights Framework

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter V – Towards a Multicultural Constitutional Framework: The Institutional Dimensions of the Minority Rights Framework

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter III – The Issue of Minorities in the Political and Constitutional Discourse and Practice of Post-colonial Africa

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of conte... more Using a legal and multidisciplinary approach towards empirical and prescriptive analysis of contemporary minority rights standards, this book defends and elaborates a robust minority rights framework for articulating a constitutional design responsive to the claims of ethno-cultural groups in Africa.

Research paper thumbnail of The 1992 un Declaration on Minorities and the African Human Rights System

The United Nations Declaration on Minorities, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design

Taking Ethno-Cultural Diversity Seriously in Constitutional Design, 2012

When writing can change your life, when writing can enrich you by offering much money, why don't ... more When writing can change your life, when writing can enrich you by offering much money, why don't you try it? Are you still very confused of where getting the ideas? Do you still have no idea with what you are going to write? Now, you will need reading. A good writer is a good reader at once. You can define how you write depending on what books to read. This taking ethno cultural diversity seriously in constitutional design a theory of minority rights for can help you to solve the problem. It can be one of the right sources to develop your writing skill.