The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid. Focusing in particular on Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the AfSDJN will also amplify African voices and decolonize narratives on African sovereign debt . Its activities include producing research outputs to enhance the network’s advocacy interventions. It also seeks to create awareness on and elevate the priority given to sovereign debt and other economic justice issues on the African continent and beyond throughout 2021.

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid. Focusing in particular on Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the AfSDJN will also amplify African voices and decolonize narratives on African sovereign debt . Its activities include producing research outputs to enhance the network’s advocacy interventions. It also seeks to create awareness on and elevate the priority given to sovereign debt and other economic justice issues on the African continent and beyond throughout 2021.

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid. Focusing in particular on Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the AfSDJN will also amplify African voices and decolonize narratives on African sovereign debt . Its activities include producing research outputs to enhance the network’s advocacy interventions. It also seeks to create awareness on and elevate the priority given to sovereign debt and other economic justice issues on the African continent and beyond throughout 2021.

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid. Focusing in particular on Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the AfSDJN will also amplify African voices and decolonize narratives on African sovereign debt . Its activities include producing research outputs to enhance the network’s advocacy interventions. It also seeks to create awareness on and elevate the priority given to sovereign debt and other economic justice issues on the African continent and beyond throughout 2021.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

The 2025 landmark judgment by the High Court of Kenya in the case of Samuel Wathome and 14 others v Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service and another (Samuel Wathome case) fundamentally reaffirmed a broad conceptualization of the previously diminished farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell seeds. There had previously been a discernible trend, since the year 2012, of undermining the farmers’ rights through domestic legislation and the ratification of the 1991 International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Treaty in 2016. Until the 2025 High Court Judgment, the ratification of UPOV 1991 and consecutive amendments to the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act (SPVA) and its implementation Regulations had resulted in an extremely liberal conceptualization of plant breeder’s rights (PBRs) to an extent that they were patent like. The 2022 amendments to the SPVA and implementing Regulations particularly proceeded to the extent of criminalizing the exchange of ‘unregistered’, ‘uncertified’ and ‘unindexed’ indigenous seeds that have, historically, been part of the African commons.

As debates on seeds and plant varieties continue to evolve in Kenya, this symposium reflects on the case and its significance for the future of seed and plant variety protection in the country. In addition to this introduction, the Symposium comprises three contributions: Tom Kabau’s “Kenya’s Seeds Case: The Enduring African Commons of Plant Genetic Resources,” Wambugu Wanjohi’s “Beyond Breeder Rights: Reclaiming Seed Sovereignty, Food Justice and Cultural Autonomy in Kenya,” and Brian Kibet’s “Whose Seeds, Whose Future? Seed Sovereignty and Farmers’ Rights in Kenya.” Kabau argues that the High Court’s judgment is well-grounded in the realities of agricultural practice in Kenya and affirms the enduring character of plant genetic resources as part of the African commons.

As 166 trade ministers converge on Yaounde for the World Trade Organization's Fourteenth Ministerial Conference (MC14), they confront a defining choice: deliver substantive reform or preside over the multilateral trading system's gradual irrelevance. Africa's decision to host this conference at such a critical juncture carries profound symbolic and substantive weight—particularly for the continent's 1.4 billion people and the world's poorest economies whose prosperity depends on rules-based, rather than power-based, international trade.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.