Human Rights Law In Africa 1997

Providing a comprehensive and analytical overview of human rights in Africa, this book deals particularly with the African regional system of human rights protection. Among the issues it explores are poverty, HIV AIDS, and the tension between international standards and national implementation.

The Human Rights Law in Africa Series captures the legal protection of human rights in Africa as it develops every year. Each annual volume covers the legal position in respect of human rights in Africa on the level of the United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity, & the national legal systems of all the countries in Africa, as it was on the first day of that year. The first volume covered the situation on 1 January 1996. It included charts of ratification & reprints of the most important international instruments, as well as the human rights provisions of the constitutions of the different countries. It did not include any commentary. This book, the second volume in the Series, covers the situation as it was on 1 January 1997. It contains documents not included before, updated charts of ratification, constitutional provisions enacted during the last year and--for the first time--extensive commentary on the African Charter system as well as the national legal systems of 12 African countries. This second volume consequently does not replace the first one, but supplements it, in the same way that future volumes will supplement this one. All the material included is new. The Series should be of immense value to judges, legal practitioners, academics, NGOs & members of legislatures & treaty-monitoring bodies dealing with human rights on the African continent. The main objective is to contribute towards the development of an indigenous African human rights jurisprudence, an essential precondition for the greater realisation of human rights norms in Africa.

A wide range of topics is covered for the first time in this volume, including resolutions of various OAU bodies in respect of human rights; the relevant provisions of the treaties establishing sub-regional inter-governmental organisations; and the founding documents of national human rights institutions in Africa.

The aim of this reference work is to make African human rights law accessible to all those involved in or interested in human rights law on the continent in order to strengthen its impact. Primary documents are introduced and reproduced and presented in a coherent framework. The main institutions - public and private - dealing with human rights in Africa are identified and discussed. Comprehensive overviews of the international human rights legal regimes applicable to Africa, as well as country reports are provided. This book tries to contribute towards documenting, systemising and anchoring the African human rights system. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004138810).

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.

By what process and mechanisms can the findings of the African Commission be implemented and that implementation monitored?

"African civil law countries are traditionally described as monist and common law countries as dualist. This book illustrates that the monism-dualism dichotomy is too simplistic, in particular in the field of human rights. Academics and practitioners from across the continent illustrate how domestic courts in Africa have engaged with international human rights law to interpret or fill gaps in national bills of rights. The authors also consider the challenges encountered in increasing the use of international human rights law by African domestic courts."--Back cover.