The impact of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on domestic law: a case study of Nigeria

Abstract

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) establishes a system or mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa within the framework of the African Union (formerly known as the Organisation of African Unity). The African Charter promotes a range of human rights such as civil and political, socio-economic and cultural, individual and collective rights. The African Charter is the first regional mechanism to incorporate the different classes of human rights in a single document. There have been a plethora of academic postulations indicating that the African Charter has impacted Nigerian Law minimally. This article contends that the African Charter has impacted positively on Nigerian law notwithstanding the academic postulations to the contrary.