Die Anerkennung traditioneller Institutionen in Südafrika, Ghana und Uganda

South Africa, Ghana and Uganda recognise the status and role of traditional institutions in their constitutions. These traditional leaders or chiefs play a part in land administration, traditional courts or local government, and in addition are also represented in national bodies that take part in public life. But they are controversial, being either appreciated as an expression of cultural diversity or contested as local patriarchal elites. The analysis of universal and regional international law as well as the respective national legal orders shows how law deals with this tension, and how human rights in particular provide a framework for traditional governance.