An Evaluation of Disability Human Rights under the African Regional Human Rights System

Abstract

In the past, Africans have used the concept of human rights as a great tool to free themselves from the rule of colonialism during the struggle for African states’ independence. 1 Although the newly independent states incorporated human rights principles into their national constitutions, it did not take them long to detract from and oppress their people en masse. The Organization of the African Unity (OAU), an association of the then independent African states, was established in May 1963 through the adoption of its Charter. As one scholar pointed out, ‘the protection of individual human rights against government abuse was not the motivating impulse behind the Charter. Rather, inspired by the anti-colonial struggles of the 1950s, the Organisation was dedicated primarily to the eradication of colonialism and the condemnation of abuse of the rights of Africans by nonAfricans, such as in the case of apartheid’. Thus, it is obvious that the protection of human rights in the Charter was insufficient and that human rights were not one of the primary concerns of the OAU during that time. In fact, African leaders used the organisation as a shield against criticisms of domestic human rights violations by their peers and other human rights organisations by heavily relying on the principles of non-interference, state sovereignty and territorial integrity in