Abstract
During its four decades of existence, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights has become the grand human rights instrument that inspired and informed the development of norms and institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights both at the national and continental levels. Despite the normative and jurisprudential contributions of the African Charter and the standard of legitimate state behaviour that it established, currently the Charter and the African human rights system face multifaceted challenges raising questions on the relevance and legitimacy of the African Charter-based human rights system. The central message of this article is that the future and continuing credibility of human rights depend on whether and how its existing and emerging flaws are addressed. Using the insights gleaned from the human rights issues that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare, this contribution seeks to discuss the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights, in general, and that of the African Charter-based system, in particular. To do so, the article draws on a conception of reform that the late Christof Heyns expounded two decades ago. Accordingly, the areas of reform that this contribution identifies relate to changes in the priorities of focus of the discourse and practice of human rights and the approaches to the promotion and protection of human rights.
Highlights
Let me start by extending to all the colleagues, friends and participants my warm greetings on this auspicious occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter)
Using the insights gleaned from the human rights issues that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare, this contribution seeks to discuss the reform issues facing the discourse and practice of human rights, in general, and that of the African Charter-based system, in particular
We are marking the 40-year anniversary of the African Charter at a time when the world and Africa are witnessing developments that threaten the human rights system and in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In his address to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in February 2020, the Secretary-General of the UN captured the bleak state of human rights in the world as follows:[1]
Summary
Let me start by extending to all the colleagues, friends and participants my warm greetings on this auspicious occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). Minorities, indigenous people, migrants, refugees, the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex] LGBTI community, vilified as the ‘other’ and tormented by acts of hate While this disturbing summary of the state of human rights in the world does not specify the factors and forces that account for these threats facing human rights, it cannot be denied that these are the manifestations of the global trends that threaten human rights at the core. The unleashing by globalisation of ‘an array of unpredictable new international actors, from English and Chinese nationalists, Somali pirates, human traffickers and anonymous cyber-hackers to Boko Haram’ as well as ISIS Not surprisingly, these global trends find expression as much in Africa as in other parts of the world, despite the specificity of the form that they take in particular contexts on the continent. As a follow up to the preceding part, part 5 presents a summary of the human rights issues that the context of the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare
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