The Organization of African Unity
The Organization of African Unity

Author:

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published:

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9781412830270

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The political and spiritual affinity felt by black peoples may date back centuries, but it was first formalized in Africa by a series of conferences at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the postwar struggle for independence, Africanness became a potent force. Later, in the early 1960s, the flood of newly independent African states adopted a Pan-African ideal in their common struggle against the remaining colonial and white-dominated territories on the continent. The launch of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 was an impressive achievement by any standards, and many commentators cited in this bibliography recognize this, adding that the OAU's survival for thirty years is even more astonishing. Overall, however, assessments of the OAU's activities have not been positive. Lack of unanimity among member-states has weakened the OAU's ability to deal with disputes. While critical of OAU's ineffectiveness, most writers marvel at the organization's resilience over three decades. While Central and Eastern Europe fragment, Africa is still represented by one organization, with annual meetings continuing to be held and attended by foreign ministers, prime ministers, and presidents. Chapters in this original and comprehensive bibliography include "Literature on the OAU," "General Assessments," "The OAU in African Politics," and "The OAU in World Politics." There are also extensive indexes of authors, titles, and subjects regarding the OAU. Organization of African Unity is a critical resource for political scientists, historians, and Africa area specialists seeking to understand a changing continent.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights [2-Volume Set]
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights [2-Volume Set]

Author: NAT. RUBNER

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 1206

ISBN-13: 1847013805

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The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) was the first non-Western declaration of human rights. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the development of the ACHPR, key to a proper understanding of its fundamental nature. Volume 1 outlines the dominant African political and cultural ideas upon which the OAU (now African Union) was founded. Volume 2 describes the process through which the ACHPR came into being.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

Author: Nat Rubner

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 527

ISBN-13: 1847013546

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Landmark study of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Documents on one side the international community's inability to foist a human rights system upon Africa and on the other the process within the OAU (now African Union) that eventually brought it into being and determined its content. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), which was proposed in 1979, adopted in 1981 and came into effect in 1986, was the first non-Western declaration of human rights and the first official statement of an African human rights perspective. With Africa largely absent in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted, it stands in stark historical reproach to the Western conception of universal human rights as a pivotal document in the decolonisation of the continent. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the development of the ACHPR, which is key to a proper understanding of its fundamental nature. Through documenting its process of construction, it becomes possible to understand how Africans themselves understood the process and the issues involved and how the ACHPR became a political text asserted by African leaders and not a continuum of a so-called universal human rights tradition. The result is a radical repositioning of the underlying context of the ACHPR, one of the most important documents in modern African history, of how it came to be and how it should therefore be understood. Volume 2 describes the process through which the ACHPR came into being. Analysing the role of Western governments, the UN and NGOs, it shows that, contrary to the prevailing view of African human rights commentators, their influence was limited and at times counter-productive. That, in fact, the formulation of the ACHPR was a profoundly political process that was primarily a product of an African desire to instigate its own human rights perspective as a counter to the human rights universalism advanced by the Western post-war human rights tradition.