III Africa
| Author | Claude E. Welch,Gerd Oberleitner |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419401200308 |
| Published date | 01 September 1994 |
| Date | 01 September 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
Human Rights News
Organization of American States
At the 24th Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly, two important conventions
were adopted. The first is the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance
of Persons, which in this manner ends a long and complicated drafting process; the
second is the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication
of Violence against Women, 'Convention of Belem do
Para'.
ill
AFRICA
Gerd Oberleitner and Claude E. Welch, Jr.
15th Session of the African Commission on
Human
and Peoples' Rights
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) held its 15th session
in Banjul,
The
Gambia, from 18 to 27 April 1994. As in the previous years, the
International Commission
of
Jurists (lCI) in collaboration with the African Centre for
Democracy and Human Rights Studies and the African Commission convened a
pre-sessional workshop on NGO participation in the African Commission, held from 15
to 18 April 1994.
Two events cast shadows over the sessions: the mass-killings in Rwanda and the
unfolding elections in South Africa, on both of which the Commission adopted
resolutions. The Commission discussed cooperationbetween the African Commission and
the United Nations in presence of the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Human
Rights, appointed aSpecial Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and accepted in
principle the idea
of
establishing an African Human Rights Court.
It
failed to take major
action relative to late or inadequate state reports, however, and reported little publicly
about steps taken with respect to communications. With the appointment of a new
Secretary, observers hoped the somnolent Secretariat could be prodded into more
effective action.
The 6th ICI-workshop preceding the session was attended by about 55 African and
International NGOs and observers and seven Commissioners: the Chair, Isaac Nguema,
Vice-Chair Mohammed Hatem Ben Salem and Commissioners E.V.O. Dankwa, Vera
Duarte-Martins, Sourahata Janneh, Youssoupha Ndiaye and U.O. Umozurike.
(Commissioners Ibrahim Ali Badawi El-Sheikh and Robert H. Kisanga attended the
Commission's session, but not the workshop.) The workshop focused on extrajudicial
executions and Article 58
of
the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and also
dealt with arbitrary detention, human rights education, women'tess rights, the role
of
the
press in promoting human rights and establishment of an African Human Rights Court.
In his opening statement,
ICI
Secretary-General Adama Dieng deplored the deteriorating
human rights situation in many African countries such as Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria and
Senegal and particularly Rwanda and Burundi. He stressed the importance of NGOs in
making the Commission more efficient and dynamic. However, Dieng expressed his
dissatisfaction with the level ofNGO-involvement in the communications procedure: only
eight NGOs, four
of
them African, have submitted copies
of
their communications to the
ICI-register in Geneva.
An up-date was presented on the Draft Additional Protocol elaborated at the 5th
workshop calling for the creation of an African Human Rights Court to complement the
African Commission. Participants in the workshop expressed their views on the
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