The next Inter - College Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua (University of Ghana School of Law)
Topic: A Critical Review of ‘Third Termism’ in African Politics from an International Law Perspective
Date: Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Time: 4:30 pm
Venue: ISSER Conference Hall
Chairman: Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, Provost, College of Humanities
All are cordially invited.
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Abstract
The return to democracy in Africa, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, saw most African countries drafting and adopting new constitutions which seek to entrench respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the governance ethos of their countries. In most of these constitutions, a two-term limit was specified for a regime to remain in power. Yet, for the past few years, African citizenry are witnessing a trend where their political leaders have had their constitutions doctored to allow for third or indefinite terms, popularly referred to broadly as 'third termism.' The presentation will seek to explain this phenomenon relying on traditional African political system of life-long monarchical rules on which the one-party state was modelled and implemented in most African states between the time of independence and until coups d'état became a means of regime change on the continent. Another model which will be used to analyse this emerging trend is the agenda of exporting 'instant democracy and instant capitalism' by the US under the Clinton and Bush administrations. The presentation will situate the discussion in the context of international law and examine how the principles of unconstitutional change in government developed by the Organisation of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) together with the application of the concept of collective recognition of governments could be applied to deal with the 'third termism' phenomenon.
PROFILE
Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua is a member of the Ghana Bar and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra where he teaches Public International Law and International Human Rights Law.
He is also the representative Lecturer from University of Ghana in the LL.M Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation course, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Kwadwo obtained his LL.B (Hons) from the University of Ghana, Legon; LLM from Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada and his Doctor of Civil Law from McGill University.
He then proceeded to do his post-doctoral fellowship at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland on a Bank of Ireland fellowship. Kwadwo just completed his Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship at Centre for Educational Research and Development, Lincoln University, UK where he conducted a research on “Building Academic Freedom and Democracy in Africa.”
He is a Global Ethics Fellow of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, New York, USA and a member of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Thematic Group 3 on "The Challenges of Social Inclusion: Gender, Inequalities and Human Rights."
