Details
- It is 20 years since the African Charter came into force, making this a timely resume of the current situation, institutions, and policy
- Examines issues of modern post-colonial statehood and national identity
- Analyses the complex and topical issue of the interaction between national and supranational legal regimes
- Combines theoretical perspectives with State practice
- Comprehensive coverage, looking at international, regional, and national human rights instruments
Since the establishment of the African Union in 2001, there has been a proliferation of regional institutions that are relevant to human rights in Africa. These include the Pan African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council, the Economic, Social and Cultural Council and the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This book discusses the links between these institutions, and 20 years jurisprudence stemming from the entry into force on 21st October 1986 of the major African human rights instrument, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
This book attempts to provide a comprehensive analytical overview of human rights in Africa, dealing particularly with the 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 analysis is intended to be comprehensive yet concise, analytically critical yet accessible, and a combination of both theoretical and practical aspects.
Readership: Academics, scholars, and advanced students in International Human Rights law
Preface
Introduction
Table of Contents
Table of Treaties and Legislation
A Background
1: Background to international human rights law
B The Global Level
2: The United Nations Charter based human rights system and Africa
3: The UN treaty-based human rights system and Africa
C The Regional Level
4: The African regional architecture and human rights
5: African Union and human rights
6: Substantive human rights norms in the African regional system
7: The composition, seat and functioning of the African Commission
8: The African Commission's protective mandate
9: The African Commission's promotional mandate
10: The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
D The Sub-Regional Level
11: The realisation of human rights in Africa through subregional institutions
E The National Level
12: Domestication of international human rights law
13: Justiciability of socio-economic rights at the domestic level
14: The lack of a human rights-based approach to HIV and AIDS
F Conclusion
15: Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
Frans Viljoen, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg, and Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law.
"This book embodies the knowledge acquired by an eminent and well-respected African scholar and activist who has worked within the African human rights system for many. It is not the sum of what he knows but it does provide the uninitiated with a very comprehensive overview of human rights in Africa. The bibliography alone is a useful and comprehensive reference point. This volume therefore is highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to get a taste of the ways in which the various institutions, both African and otherwise, have considered human rights on the continent." - Human Rights Law Review (9)
