Constitutions and the Dialectics of Human Rights in Malawi and Kenya

Like in other parts of the world, the protection of human rights and other practices of constitutionalism remains uneven in Malawi and Kenya. However, as Eunice N. Sahle argues in this book, from a comparative historical perspective, these countries’ adoption of new transformative constitutional frameworks in 1994 and 2010, respectively, provided significant openings for the promotion of human rights. Nonetheless, the emergence of such opportunities does not mean that the protection of human rights is automatic. As such, Sahle’s argument zeroes in on the tension between the possibilities of human rights promotion on the one hand, and the historical and contemporary factors influencing that process on the other. In that regard, her analysis shows the importance and limits of transformative constitutions as tools for social change. Further, by focusing on the promotion of human rights by a diverse range of social actors—individuals, civil society organizations, and public institutions—she demonstrates the need to broaden who “counts” as an agent of human rights against a strictly state-centric approach.