The African Human Rights System Activist Forces And International Institutions

This 2007 book draws from and builds upon many of the more traditional approaches to the study of international human rights institutions (IHIs), especially quasi-constructivism. The author reveals some of the ways in which many such domestic deployments of the African system have been brokered or facilitated by local activist forces, such as human rights NGOs, labour unions, women's groups, independent journalists, dissident politicians, and activist judges. In the end, the book exposes and reflects upon the inherent inability of the dominant compliance-focused model to adequately capture the range of other ways - apart from via state compliance - in which the domestic invocation of IHIs like the African system can contribute - albeit to a modest extent - to the pro-human rights alterations that can sometimes occur in the self-understandings, conceptions of interest or senses of appropriateness held within key domestic institutions within states.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive analytical overview of human rights in Africa, dealing particularly with the African regional system of human rights protection. Four themes are followed throughout the book, these are: the principle of uti possidetis, the tensions in the modern post-colonial African state; poverty; and the interrelationship between national and international human rights protection.

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.

This volume is a comprehensive treatment of the African human rights system in terms of the laws, practice, and institutions of the system. The volume discusses, analyzes, and evaluates normative instruments of the African system: the Charter of the Organization of the African Unity (OAU), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, presenting article-by-article analysis of its provisions and those of the Protocol on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Similarly the OAU (now the African Union), the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the proposed African Court on Human Rights, as institutions of the system, are discussed. The book emphasizes a comparative approach and presents a summary of the UN, the European and the Inter-American human rights mechanisms with regard to their impact on the African system. The role of NGOs in the African system is also considered, as well as the controversial issue of human rights in pre-colonial and colonial Africa.

Whilst the establishment of the African human rights system was a good gesture that signalled the recognition of the value and essence of international human rights in the continent, a continuous study of the system has become necessary. This is particularly in light of the fact that the continent is in desperate need of well established and effective regional human rights enforcement mechanisms. At the moment, the regional human rights system is stuck between prospects and pitfalls because of the gap that exists between the promise of human rights and their actual realisation. By all means, this trend needs to be reversed. The main objective and purpose of this book is to underscore the challenges besetting the effective enforcement of international human rights law in Africa and the prospects and promises of an effective regional human rights system.

4. Right to Peace.

"Common wisdom suggests that 9/11 changed everything about refugee law in the United States and in Canada. But did it? "Refugee Law after 9/11" systematically examines the evidence to reveal that refugee rights were already so whittled down in both countries before 9/11 that there was relatively little room for negative change after the attacks. It also shows that the Canadian refugee law regime reacted to 9/11 in much the same way as its US counterpart, and these similar reactions raise significant questions about security relativism and national self-image in the two countries."--

A guide to the African human rights system: Celebrating 30 years since the entry into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1986 - 2017 Edited by Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria 2017 ISBN: 978-1-920538-70-5 Pages: 80 Print version: Available Electronic version: Free PDF available About the publication A Guide to the African human rights system has been conceived as an accessible and informative introduction to the human rights system established under the auspices of the African Union (AU). This Guide provides an overview of developments related to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its supervisory body, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and its supervisory body, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. It is launched on 2 November 2017, commemorating the date, 30 years earlier, on which the African Commission was inaugurated. The Guide aims to both chart the most salient historical developments and provide an accessible introduction to the African human rights system, and is continuously revised. The Centre for Human Rights is both an academic department and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) accorded observer status with the African Commission. The Centre teaches academic programmes and engages in research, advocacy and training on human rights, with a specific focus on Africa. Its flagship programmes are the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa and the African Human Rights Moot Court Competition. For more information on the Centre for Human Rights, visit www.chr.up.ac.za Table of Contents The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and further standards The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child List of abbreviations Bibliography