The Justiciability of Socio-economic Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Appraisal and Perspectives Three Decades after Its Adoption

Abstract

The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights – the Banjul Charter –was adopted in 1981 1 at a time when the socio-economic situation of Africa was a critical issue of debate around the world, marked with abject poverty affecting the majority of peoples living in the continent. Therefore, it would have been senseless to design an instrument that entrenched an array of human rights only to ignore the very rights that would address the ongoing suffering caused by poor socio-economic conditions. Thus, a range of socio-economic rights were entrenched in the Banjul Charter along with civil and political rights. But, suffice it to say that mere inclusion of such provisions into the legal body remains meaningless as long as tangible improvement to people’s lives does not follow. As they aim to eradicate poverty, socio-economic rights must bring significant upliftment to the livelihood of poor and disadvantaged people. In this regard, what matters the more is how the legal instrumentum articulates these rights and whether a strong institution exists to sustain the normative approach in the enforcement process. Wherever socio-economic rights are articulated as justiciable rights, it is classically a court that is depository of the authority to enforce these rights by