The suspensibility of constitutional rights in Africa

The issue of fundamental rights in the dialectic of the rule of law and states of exception in Africa was the subject of this research. It appeared that the continuity of constitutionally guaranteed rights can be momentarily halted in two modes. The first mode - constitutionally seized - is the suspensibility of law which consists in the implementation of constitutionally insituted tools whose effect is to deactivate the fundamental rights. The provisions enshrining these legal tools for the survival of the State are 'constitutions in miniature'.The second mode - constitutionally unseized - is the de facto suspensibility that results from factual situations that deactivate the constitutional prerogatives of citizens. This is the case with coups d'état and political crises, which are generally resolved by means of crisis resolution agreements that often call into question the constitutions in force.