ABSTRACT

The countries of sub-Saharan Africa in the second decade of the twenty-first century have continued to be deeply engaged in constructing and reconstructing viable political and economic orders in partnerships with each other and other nations of the international community. From the early 1990s to well into the first decade of the twenty-first century, African countries made significant if sharply variable progress in upholding political liberties and civil rights and in constitutionalizing multiparty elections and other democratic institutions. Despite the evident popular appeal of presidential term limits throughout the continent, elected leaders have found ways to extend their tenure in several cases. They have also acted to curb the advocacy of civil society organizations that had provided much of the early domestic impetus for democratization. These developments have adversely affected further rights-based advocacy, which had yielded significant gains in gender equality.