Editorial This is the first volume of the African Human Rights Yearbook. Of the three regional human rights systems, the African is the youngest. The publication of this Yearbook marks a point at which the African regional human rights system has attained a certain level of maturity. Bringing together contributions related to the three institutions making up the African human rights system, the Yearbook also reflects a system that has become more and more cohesive. The Yearbook aims to be a forum for analytical reflection on all aspects of the system. Of the three siblings in the African human rights family, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) is the eldest. The date 2 November 2017 marks 30 years since its inauguration, in 1987. Initially meeting in Addis Ababa, its seat was subsequently established in Banjul, the Gambia, where it is still located. One of the reasons for the choice of the Gambia, namely, the democratic culture symbolised by President Jawara, fell away when he (President Jawara) was unseated forcibly by military might in 1994. The undemocratic rule of his successor (President Jammeh) led to persistent calls that the seat of the Commission should be moved away from Banjul. However, Jammeh was voted out, and eventually stood down, making way for a return to democratic governance under President Barrow in 2017. This era holds the promise of Banjul yet again becoming the beacon of human rights in Africa, as it was at the time when the African Charter was drafted, and the African Charter was named the ‘Banjul’ Charter. Described by many initial commentators as a document designed to fail, in the hands of successive members of the African Commission, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) came to be interpreted purposively and progressively. Some of the Commission’s greatest advances and contributions lie in the improvements in the state reporting system, which now consistently culminates in comprehensive and insightful Concluding Observations; its initiative to establish an array of relevant and influential special mechanisms; the vast improvements over time in the dissemination of relevant information; the normative expansion of the Charter through Resolutions, General Comments and other soft law standards; and the quality and innovation of its jurisprudence in a number of trend-setting communications. The Commission was also instrumental in the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (African Women’s Rights Protocol). A number of contributions in the Yearbook deal with the normative expansions by the African Commission and other aspects of its xii