Africa

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

Website of the AfCFTA Secretariat providing information on the African Continental Free Trade Area. The site outlines the aims of the AfCFTA which include creating a single market for the African continent and boosting its trading position globally. There are profiles of the countries who are signatories to the agreement and an overview of the protocols which include trade in goods and services, dispute settlement and customs and trade facilitation. A full text copy of the Agreement is given along with the e-tariff book and a selection of publications produced by the AfCFTA Secretariat.

Institute for African Women in Law

The Institute for African Women in Law (IAWL) is non-profit organisation that promotes and supports women in the legal and judicial professions. It covers both the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. The IAWL maintains professional networks, carries out research and holds events. Its website provides biographical information about African women in the legal sector, including chief justices, judges at international courts and up-and-coming lawyers.

Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) is a non-governmental organisation working to “promote awareness of human rights in Africa and improve the effectiveness of the African Human Rights system”. The site has information on IHRDA’s work which includes representing victims of human rights violations, training human rights workers and providing information on the African human rights system. Details of IHRDA publications are given along with information about and links to the African Human Rights Case Law Analyser and the Sexual and Gender Based Violence databases.

Official gazettes and civil society documentation

Collection of endangered government publications from ten African countries and Gulf states, digitised by the US-based Center for Research Libraries (CRL). Includes official gazettes – which typically publish legislation, government notices, et cetera - from Algeria, Congo Brazzaville, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Most, but not all, of the digitised content is from the 1950s to the 1990s. The CRL website is in English and the gazettes are in the language of the country of publication.

Gazettes.Africa

Free online versions of official government gazettes from various African countries, compiled into one website, hosted by Laws.Africa and AfricanLII. The gazettes contain important government information, for example governmental notices and legislation such as acts and bills. The gazettes are in PDF form and are searchable by country and date, with new gazettes being updated on the website continually. The collections vary from country to country, and there are gazettes from 22 jurisdictions as well as the East African Community and ECOWAS.

Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals

The Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals connects African legal information professionals and legal information institutions across Africa. Their aim is to support legal research and promote legal information awareness across the continent by building up a network of individual and institutional members. The website contains information about the association and their aims, membership information and a blog with the latest news about AfLLIP, as well as the latest developments in legal information across Africa.

ECOWAS Law

Law section of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) website, focusing on the Treaty of Lagos, 1975, which established this 15-member regional group, and other official documents. The purpose of ECOWAS is to promote economic integration in the region and create an economic and trading union. A revised 1993 version of the Treaty of Lagos is provided, along with regulations, communiques, decisions and other ECOWAS official documents.

OHADA: Organization for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa

This is the official website of OHADA. The main part of the site provides the OHADA Treaty and OHADA uniform acts in English and French; it also has recent cases from the Cour Commune de Justice et d’Arbitrage and legal commentary (‘Doctrine’), but these are in French only. A larger repository of OHADA documentation can be found in the Digital Library: all issues of the OHADA Journal Officiel (Official Gazette), cases from 2010 onwards, uniform acts and other material, all in French.

African Legal Information Institute

The African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII) makes available treaties, cases, resolutions, decisions, reports and other publications of African regional organisations. It also provides access to legislation and cases from 16 African countries, via its search facility. The home page has links to regional and national African websites. AfricanLII is a project of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU) at the University of Cape Town law faculty.

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