KajyibwamiNotes

When visa restrictions prevent representatives of UN Member States from reaching the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the issue is no longer simply about immigration. It raises a fundamental question of international law: can a state disregard obligations it has voluntarily undertaken under a treaty? The answer takes us to the 1947 United Nations–United States Headquarters Agreement and one of the foundational principles of international law: pacta sunt servanda agreements must be kept. The recent visa controversies involving representatives of Sudan seeking to participate in United Nations activities in New York raise a question that extends beyond immigration administration. They invite scrutiny of the legal relationship between the United States and the United Nations, particularly the obligations created by the 1947 Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto head of state, was absent from this yea...

  The first part of paragraph one of Article 161 of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda provides that the Rwanda National Police is generally responsible for ensuring the security of persons and property throughout the country. This is a significant constitutional responsibility. The Police is entrusted with protecting people, maintaining public order and enforcing the law. Women play an important role within the Rwanda National Police. Women reportedly constitute more than 20% of the force , and women occupy senior leadership positions within the institution. This reflects Rwanda's broader commitment to women's participation in public institutions and security. Yet, recent events have raised a different and important question: how are people treated once the Police exercises its power to arrest them? A video recently circulated online showing police officers arresting a woman for wearing a miniskirt and taking her to a police station. The incident generated publ...

  The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) marked one of the most ambitious economic projects in Africa's modern history. Bringing together 55 African economies into a single market of more than 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP exceeding $3 trillion, the agreement seeks to reshape the continent's economic future through deeper integration, increased intra-African trade, and enhanced industrial development. At its core, the AfCFTA embodies a Pan-African vision: an Africa where goods, services, investments, and ultimately people move more freely across borders, creating opportunities for shared prosperity and sustainable growth. The agreement promises to reduce tariffs on most goods, strengthen regional value chains, encourage industrialization, and reduce the continent's dependence on external markets. Yet the concerns raised by African business leaders Aliko Dangote and Abdul Samad Rabiu reveal a fundamental contradiction at the heart of t...

  A viral social media post recently claimed that Iran had discovered a weapon “more powerful than oil.” According to the post, the Strait of Hormuz does not only transport nearly twenty percent of the world’s oil, but also carries undersea cables powering the global internet. It further alleged that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had threatened to cut those cables unless major technology companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon complied with its demands. While fact-checking later showed that many parts of the claim were exaggerated or unsupported, the story nevertheless revealed an important truth about the modern world: digital infrastructure has become one of the most strategic assets in global politics. The internet is often imagined as something abstract, wireless, and borderless. In reality, the internet is deeply physical. It depends on submarine cables, data centers, cloud computing facilities, satellites, semiconductor factories, energy syst...

  The debate between facilitative and evaluative mediation has for many years occupied a central place in mediation discourse, often framed as a choice that mediators must make about who they are and how they practice. This framing suggests a sharp divide between two opposing approaches: one that privileges party self-determination and process, and another that emphasizes substantive assessment and guidance. In practice, however, this binary has proven to be more misleading than useful, particularly in contemporary mediation environments where disputes are complex, emotionally charged, and shaped by legal, commercial, and institutional realities. In lived mediation practice, facilitation and evaluation do not function as fixed identities or mutually exclusive methods. Rather, they operate along a continuum, one that requires constant judgment, attentiveness, and responsiveness to the evolving needs of the parties. Experienced mediators rarely enter a mediation committed to a singl...

On 27 June 2025, the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement in Washington, D.C. . To many observers, this appeared to be a major diplomatic breakthrough. The two countries have had a long and tense relationship, often expressed through conflict in eastern Congo, and the agreement was presented as a step toward ending years of instability. For those encountering this issue for the first time, however, it is important to understand that the agreement did not emerge in a vacuum—it is rooted in a deeply complex and long-running regional conflict. Eastern Congo has, for decades, been one of the most volatile regions in the world. Despite its vast natural wealth, including minerals essential to global technology industries, the region has remained plagued by insecurity and armed violence. Numerous armed groups operate there, driven by a mixture of political, economic, and ethnic motivations. Among them is the Democratic Forces for the Libera...