On August 21, South Africa’s Equality Court ruled that gratuitous displays of the Apartheid-era flag counted as hate speech and discrimination. Confronting history head on, Judge Phineas Mojapelo wrote in his ruling that the flag represents “a vivid symbol of white supremacy and black disenfranchisement and suppression,” and flying it, “besides being racist and discriminatory, demonstrates a clear intention to be hurtful.” 

This is a guest post by Le Chen, Janice Dean, Jesper Frant, and Rachana Kumar. They are Master of Public Administration students at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs. They …

Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, after two long periods of military rule—1966–79 and 1983–98—during which the military wielded executive, legislative, and judicial power. This has left a historical legacy of a powerful military used to doing whatever it wants with no questions asked. On return to democracy, it also left the country with a political class that is wary of military power, and unwilling and unable to impose democratic civilian oversight of the military. 

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), out of the 1.2 million refugees worldwide that needed resettlement in 2018, only fifty-five thousand were actually resettled—a mere 4.7 percent of the global need. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts twenty-six percent of the world’s refugee population.

President Paul Kagame’s Vision 2020 roadmap for Rwanda has led to remarkable progress with respect to women’s equal place in society. But these great strides in gender equality occur alongside Kagame’s human rights abuses.