Prof Ebenezer Durojaye presented a guest lecture to LLM Students at O’Neill Institute, Georgetown University, Washington DC

The students are from different countries, including Kenya, the USA, Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, India, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Japan and Taiwan. The lecture was titled ‘The potential role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In his lecture, Prof Durojaye identified some opportunities in the African Human Rights system towards addressing the negative impact of NCDs in the region. According to him, these include the existing regional human rights instruments and specific rights such as the rights to health, food, dignity and non-discrimination all guaranteed in the regional human rights instruments. While NCDs remain great threats to the lives and well-being of millions of people in the region, the African Commission is yet to adopt any specific norms and standards to address the situation. He calls on the Commission to pay attention to the impact of NCDs in the region and ensure the development of norms and standards. He pointed out that through its protective and promotional mandate, the African Commission occupies a pivotal position to address the impact of NCDs in the region. Prof Durojaye suggested that civil society groups, including academic institutions, have an important role to play in propelling the African Commission to develop norms and standards on NCDs. He also called on African governments to exhibit political will towards mitigating the impact of NCDs in the region.