It has often been argued that the concept of human rights is an artefact of modern Western civilisation, that human rights in the South are privileges conferred. These approaches have taken little cognisance of the place accorded to the societal rights held in such esteem as complementary to individual rights in traditional African society. In contrast, this study argues that human rights in Africa are as much about the dignity of Africans as about the commitments of others towards them. It argues for a critical defence of universal human rights within a multicultural framework. From historical perspectives, it illustrates how the slave trade, and then colonialism undermined the traditional balance of individual and societal rights.
The protection of human rights and popular participation on the first sight seem to contradict the often-existing image of the African continent. However, with the foundation of the African Union in 2000, both aspects gain greater importance on regional level. Besides that, many subregional courts within the sphere of sub-Sahara Africa partially started to develop human rights-related jurisdiction. In addition to that, most regional economic communities nowadays provide for their own parliamentary structures. The study aims to examine the several institutional structures and their competences on both, regional and subregional level. Besides that, it provides for a profound analysis of the jurisdiction of the respective courts as well as the communications of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights. Lastly, the study focuses on the correlation between the extension of the institutions’ competences and the political will of the involved governments.
Changes in human rights environments in Africa over the past decade have been facilitated by astounding political transformations: the rise of mass movements and revolts driven by democratic and developmentalist ideals, as well as mass murder and poverty perpetuated by desperate regimes and discredited global agencies. Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Development in Africa seeks to make sense of human rights in Africa through the lens of its triumphs and tragedies, its uneven developments and complex demands. The volume makes a significant contribution to the debate about the connections between the protection of human rights and the pursuit of economic development by interrogating the paradigms, politics, and practices of human rights in Africa. Throughout, the essays emphasize that democratic and human rights regimes are products of concrete social struggles, not simply textual or legal discourses. Including some of Africa's leading scholars, jurists, and human rights activists, contributors to the volume diverge from Western theories of African democratization by rejecting the continental view of an Africa blighted by failure, disease, and economic malaise. It argues instead that Africa has strengthened and shaped international law, such as the right to self-determination, inspired by the process of decolonization, and the definition of the refugee. Insisting on the holistic view that human rights are as much about economic and social rights as they are about civil and political rights, the contributors offer novel analyses of African conceptions, experiences, and aspirations of human rights which manifest themselves in complex global, regional, and local idioms. Further, they explore the varied constructions of human rights in African and Western discourses and the roles played by states and NGOs in promoting or subverting human rights. Combining academic analysis with social concern, intellectual discourse with civic engagement, and scholarly research with institution building, this is a compelling and original approach to the question whether externally inspired solutions to African human rights issues have validity in a postcolonial world.
This edited volume examines the development and challenges of governance, democracy, and human rights in Africa. It analyzes the emerging challenges for strengthening good governance in the region and explores issues related to civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights highlighting group rights including women, girls, and other minority groups. The project presents a useful study of the democratization processes and normative developments in Africa exploring challenges in the form of corruption, conflict, political violence, and their subsequent impact on populations. The contributors appraise the implementation gap between law and practice and the need for institutional reform to build strong and robust mechanisms at the domestic, regional, and international levels.
Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing an impressive measure of economic revivalism that is driven by both national and international forces at the beginning of the twenty-first century. That political and business leaders in the region are determined that development in this millennium will not mimic the slow pace of growth in the twentieth is a given. Undoubtedly, the rapid spread of information communications technology (ICT) and contemporary investments of China in the region’s growth agenda bear this thesis out. This book, among other things, advances the theory that improving human rights practices and the democracy project—i.e. democratic consolidation in sub-Saharan Africa will create an enabling environment that is critical for stimulating the current inspiring development objectives.
Africa and the Universality of Human Rights offers a succinct but comprehensive treatment of the human rights systems and machinery applicable in Africa. It consolidates a wide range of materials and sources in a comprehensive way that will be of value to teachers, students, scholars and activists. It makes clear that, notwithstanding difficulties experienced on the ground, African governments, peoples, and institutions together have repeatedly expressed their commitment to the universality of human rights, the corner-stone of the contemporary international order.
This volume explores contemporary political developments in various parts of Africa in the age of democracy, constitutionalism, the securitization of development, and global terrorism. The contributions by leading observers of constitutionalism and African politics in the context of a global political and economic system provide a nuanced understanding of important themes in contemporary African politics: constitutionalism, democratic politics and governance, women’s rights, the African Union, securitization of development, civil society, and debates concerning global terrorism and the war on terror. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars, civil society organizations, and public policy makers interested in contemporary African politics.
This book explores when, why, and how regional organizations adopt and design institutions to promote and protect fundamental standards of democracy, human rights, and rule of law in their member states. These regional institutions have spread globally. While their institutional designs have become increasingly similar over time, regional particularities persist. The book identifies factors that generate the demand for regional institutions and shape its institutional design. The argument combines hitherto juxtaposed explanatory factors of demands and diffusion by integrating them in a single framework and clarifying under what conditions the interplay between demands and diffusion plays out in the adoption and design of regional institutions. The book provides a comprehensive overview of regional democracy, human rights, and rule of law institutions based on two original datasets and draws on multivariate statistical analysis as well as case studies on the making and change of regional institutions in the Organization of American States and the Organization of African Unity/African Union.
This book critically examines the civil, political, socioeconomic, and group rights protected under the African Charter and its Protocol on women’s rights. It then examines the institutional protection of these rights through the African Commission and African Court. The book builds on the concept of regionalism within Africa and the recent drive for finding “African solutions to African problems” by tracing the development of human rights within Africa and assessing the effectiveness of Africa’s core regional human rights institutions. In turn, it critically analyses the obstacles to the full implementation of human rights in Africa such as the lack of political will, jurisdictional issues, lack of resources and funding, poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and customary practices that violate human rights. In closing, the book discusses possible solutions to these problems.
