This part focuses on the interpretative methodologies and principles employed by international human rights organs in applying and developing human rights norms. It explores the role of various interpreters, including international, regional, and national courts, in shaping the meaning and scope of human rights. The sections examine the methods of interpretation used by human rights bodies, such as textual, contextual, purposive, and evolutionary approaches, and the challenges in ensuring consistency and coherence across different jurisdictions. It also discusses the purposes of interpretation, including the protection of human rights, the development of international human rights law, and the promotion of judicial dialogue and coherence. This part delves into the international legal regime governing human rights and freedoms, covering states’ general obligations, the conditions for engaging state responsibility, and the regime for the enjoyment and exercise of rights and freedoms. By analyzing the interpretative practices and legal obligations, this part aims to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of human rights interpretation and the factors influencing the application of human rights norms in diverse legal and cultural contexts.

This title delves into the mechanisms and processes of international human rights litigation, focusing on the various judicial and quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate human rights complaints. It examines the diversity of international complaints mechanisms, including regional human rights courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as nonjudicial bodies such as the Human Rights Committee and other treaty bodies. The section discusses the conditions of admissibility for international complaints, the procedures for examining claims, and the standards of proof and evidence. It also explores the role of provisional measures in protecting human rights during litigation and the challenges in enforcing international human rights decisions. By providing insights into the litigation process, this title highlights the importance of access to justice and the role of international bodies in holding states accountable for human rights violations.

This chapter discusses the various interpreters of international human rights law, including international courts, regional courts, and domestic courts. It examines their roles, authority, and the plurality of interpreters in the human rights legal framework. The chapter explores how different judicial and quasi-judicial bodies contribute to the development and interpretation of human rights norms. It also highlights the challenges and opportunities in achieving coherence and consistency in the interpretation of human rights law across different jurisdictions. The chapter emphasizes the importance of collaboration and dialogue among interpreters to enhance the protection of human rights.

Judicial decisions play a crucial role in the development of international human rights law. This chapter discusses the absence of a formal rule of precedent, the principle of legal certainty, and the influence of international judicial decisions on the human rights framework. It examines how judicial decisions from international, regional, and domestic courts contribute to the development and interpretation of human rights norms. The chapter also discusses the challenges and limitations of relying on judicial decisions as a primary source of human rights law, including issues of consistency, coherence, and legitimacy. It highlights the importance of judicial decisions in shaping human rights law and the need for a balanced approach to ensure legal certainty and predictability.

After a moment that was characterized by a flurry of constitutional reforms and elections, coups have returned in some states in Western, Central, and Sahel regions in Africa. The rule of law and democratic governance have come under significant stress. A confluence of events – colonial legacies, uprisings, regional conflicts, term elongation, challenges to the dynastic style of leadership, and the rising incidence of coups – challenge the entrenchment of the rule of law in contemporary Africa. Focusing on the period between 2020 and 2023, the chapter asks: Against the background of recent coups, how should we analyze the rule of law in contemporary Africa? Is the decline of the rule of law and democratic governance in sub-Saharan Africa as a region overstated, given that the coups are concentrated in Francophone West and the Central Africa? How should we think of the role of geopolitical contestations and colonial linkages in unsettling democratic regimes and eroding the rule of law in Africa?

This chapter analyses a different type of the popular justice with reference to Cape Verde Islands after their independence from Portuguese colonialism (1975). It is a form of institutionalised justice, officially recognised as such, incorporated in one way or another into the general justice administration system (which is sometimes broadly described as popular justice in light of its local normative, institutional, cultural, and discursive nature, accessibility and deprofessionalised personnel. The Cape Verde local or people’s courts were founded as an extension of indigenous forms of justice administration created as alternatives to colonial law and justice in the liberated zones in Guinea‑Bissau. They were initially adopted informally, then made official in 1979. Through the local courts, the state aimed to encourage popular participation and create spaces in which community culture could flourish, while the values and actions which they stimulated were defined in terms of political criteria directed towards achieving a higher purpose, namely building socialism. I begin with a close-up of a local court at work on the island of São Vicente, before analysing in detail the interfaces and contradictions between the political and judicial legitimacy of the people’s courts, ending with the conclusions of the research and a postscript written forty years later.