Editorial Éditorial This second edition of the African Human Rights Yearbook is a firm step towards institutionalising this publication. It builds on and extends the scope of the inaugural 2017 edition. While the first edition consisted of 17 articles, in the 2018 Yearbook the number of contributions has increased to 21. While the first issue only contained articles, the 2018 Yearbook consists of three distinct parts. The first part contains academic articles that describe and analyse various aspects of the general human rights situation in Africa, with particular reference to the African human rights system, its norms and institutions. In the second part, the focus falls on the theme of the 55-nation African Union (AU) for 2018 – fighting corruption. The AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government declared 2018 the ‘African Year of Anti-Corruption’ with the theme ‘Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation’. By providing a forum for academic reflection on the topic, this part of the Yearbook complements efforts within the AU, such as the establishment of the AU Advisory Board on Corruption and the AU Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption, adopted in 2003. The third part provides a forum to dissect and draw attention to the ‘case law’ of the three AU human rights bodies: the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Human Rights Court), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission), and African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Rights Committee). Given the productivity of the African Human Rights Court over the last few years, it is not surprising that the majority of decisions under review have been handed down by the Court. The jurisprudential output of the African Commission has dwindled in the past few years, and the African Children’s Rights Committee still only has a handful of decided cases under its belt. A topic that received particular attention is the withdrawal by Rwanda of its declaration under article 34(6) of the Protocol to the African Charter establishing the African Human Rights Court, allowing direct access to the Court The contributions appearing here have been solicited through a widely disseminated call for proposals. Selected proposals were subsequently worked into full articles, which were peer-reviewed, and approved articles were developed and edited to make up this edition of the Yearbook. xv

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