Sandra Fullerton Joireman is the Weinstein Chair of International Studies and a professor of Political Science at the University of Richmond. Her work focuses on property rights, post-conflict return migration, and customary law.
Joireman graduated from Clinton High School in Clinton, Iowa in 1986. [1] She has an A.B. from Washington University in St. Louis (1989), and then received her M.A. (1992) and Ph.D. (1995) from the University of California Los Angeles. [2] Following her Ph.D. she worked in the United Kingdom, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kosovo. In 2001 she joined Wheaton College (Illinois) where she was promoted to full professor in 2009. In 2013 she moved to the University of Richmond where she is the Weinstein Chair of International Studies. [3] [4]
Joireman is known for her work in East Africa where she focuses on land tenure issues. Her 2012 book, Where There is No Government: Enforcing Property Rights in Common Law Africa, focused on how property law was enforced and who did enforce it in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. [5] In 2000 she published on property rights in Ethiopia and Eritrea. [6] In 2017, Joireman was awarded the Sanjaya Lall prize [7] for her paper in Oxford Development Studies that examined the ability of displaced adults to reclaim property lost during humanitarian crises as children. [8] Joireman's 2022 book, Peace, Preference and Property: Return Migration After Violent Conflict, examined factors influencing return migration after violent conflict, highlighting the key variables of time, political change, property restitution, and ethnicity. The book discussed the challenges of intergenerational return migration and property restitution in customary land systems and addressed case studies such as Kosovo, Liberia, and Uganda. [9]
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the African continent, distinguished by its geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the region is recognized in the United Nations Statistics Division scheme as encompassing 18 sovereign states and 4 territories.
Isaias Afwerki is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the first and only president of Eritrea since 1993. In addition to being president, Isaias has been the chairman of Eritrea's sole legal political party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).
The People's Front for Democracy and Justice is the founding, ruling, and sole legal political party of the State of Eritrea. The successor to the Marxist–Leninist Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), the PFDJ regards itself as a left-wing nationalist party, though it holds itself open to nationalists of any political affiliation. The leader of the party and current President of Eritrea is Isaias Afwerki. The PFDJ has been described as totalitarian, and under its rule Eritrea reached the status of the least electorally democratic country in Africa according to V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023.
The Derg, officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership or junta formally "civilianized" the administration but stayed in power until 1991.
Islam is the second largest religion in Ethiopia behind Christianity, with 31 to 35 percent of the total population of around 120 million people professing the religion as of 2024.
The Agaw or Agew are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, also known as the Central Cushitic languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and are therefore closely related to peoples speaking other Cushitic languages.
The Saho are a Cushitic ethnic group who inhabit large sections of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. They speak Saho as a mother tongue.
Joe Oloka-Onyango is a Ugandan lawyer and academic. He is a Professor of Law at Makerere University School of Law where he has also formerly been Dean and Director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC). He is married to Prof Sylvia Tamale, also a lawyer, academic and activist. They have two sons; Kwame Sobukwe Ayepa and Samora Okech Sanga.
The Tigre people are an ethnic group indigenous to Eritrea. They mainly inhabit the lowlands and northern highlands of Eritrea, with a small population in Sudan.
Africa's fifty-six sovereign states range widely in their history and structure, and their laws are variously defined by customary law, religious law, common law, Western civil law, other legal traditions, and combinations thereof.
Sylvia Rosila Tamale is a Ugandan academic, and human rights activist in Uganda. She was the first woman dean in the law faculty at Makerere University, Uganda.
The Argobba are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. A Muslim community, they are spread out through isolated village networks and towns in the north-eastern and eastern parts of the country. Group members have typically been astute traders and merchants, and have adjusted to the economic trends in their area. These factors have led to a decline in usage of the Argobba language. Argobba are considered endangered today due to exogamy and destitution as well as ethnic cleansing by the Abyssinian state over the centuries.
Sanjaya Lall was a development economist and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. Lall's research interests included the impact of foreign direct investment in developing countries, the economics of multi-national corporations, and the development of technological capability and industrial competitiveness in developing countries. One of the world's pre-eminent development economists, Lall was also one of the founding editors of the journal Oxford Development Studies and a senior economist at the World Bank.
The Zaul are an Agaw people and Tigrinya people who inhabit the southern and central regions of Eritrea, in a territory known as the Eritrean highlands. They are spread across several villages and have largely assimilated to other ethnic groups within the country.
Eritrean nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Eritrea, as amended; the Eritrean Nationality Proclamation, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Eritrea. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual and the nation. Eritrean nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Eritrea, or jus sanguinis, born to a mother or a father of Eritrean origin or parents who came to Eritrea before 1934. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
Ethiopian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Ethiopia, as amended; the Ethiopian Nationality Proclamation, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Ethiopia. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Ethiopian nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus sanguinis, born to parents with Ethiopian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
Sheila B. Keetharuth is a Mauritius broadcaster and human rights activist who served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. She is the Vice-President AAIL, She was awarded Madrid Bar Association Medal of Honor for her human rights work in African.
Somalis in Ethiopia refers to the ethnic Somalis from Ethiopia, particularly the Ogaden, officially known as the Somali Region. Their language is primarily Somali and are predominantly Muslim. According to the 2007 census from the Central Statistical Authority, the Somalis were the third largest ethnic group in Ethiopia with roughly 4.6 million people accounting for 8.2% of the country's population, after Oromo (34.4%) and Amhara (27%). The Somali population in Ethiopia make up around 30% of the total Somali population worldwide.
The Eritrean diaspora comprises about half of population living in the country, becoming the most diasporic nation. In addition, one third Eritreans live aboard. In 2022, 37,357 Eritreans fled to Sudan, Egypt and Libya for seeking asylum, estimated around 1% of its population. Since 2001, 700,000 people have left the country as a result of political repression under Isais Afwerki. In 2015, approximately 40,000 Eritrean arrived via Mediterranean, becoming small country with large refugees in Africa.