International Human Rights Law Review
Volume 4, Issue 2, 2015
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131035/4/2

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Research Article
The Development of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Manisuli Ssenyonjo
pp.: 147–193 (47)
Abstract
During the last thirty years the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) has decided several communications on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights protected under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). While the Commission was initially reluctant to develop the content of these rights, it has since 2001 been developing, at an expanding pace, the scope, content and nature of state obligations under African Charter to respect, protect and fulfil ESC rights. This article seeks to provide a critical analysis of the burgeoning case law concerning the development of ESC rights by the African Commission and the legal impact thus far it has had on the enjoyment of ESC rights in Africa, encompassing rights of hitherto marginalised and excluded individuals and groups, a topic which is relatively given less attention in the existing literature. The article examines the legal bases and content of key communications decided by the African Commission. Conclusions are then drawn concerning the reasons for the development of ESC rights obligations by the African Commission and areas of potential clarification and expansion are identified.

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Research Article
Re-Conceptualizing the Right to Seek and Obtain Asylum in International Law
Salvatore Fabio Nicolosi
pp.: 303–332 (30)
Abstract
Over the past few years the issue of asylum has progressively become interrelated with human rights. Asylum-related stresses, including refugee flows and mass displacements, have mitigated the traditional idea of asylum as an absolute state right, in so far as international human rights standards of protection require that states may have the responsibility to provide asylum seekers with protection. Following this premise, the article argues that the triggering factor of such overturning is significantly represented by the judicial approach to the institution of asylum by regional human rights courts. After setting the background on the interrelation of asylum with human rights, this article conceptualises the right to asylum as derived from the principle of non-refoulement and to this extent it delves into the role of the two regional human rights courts, notably the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), in order to explore whether an emerging judicial cross-fertilisation may contribute to re-conceptualisation of the right to asylum from a human rights perspective.