The Changing Human Rights Landscape in Africa: Organisation of African Unity, African Union, New Partnership for Africa's Development and the African Court
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410502300304 |
| Author | André Mbata B Mangu |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
THE CHANGING HUMAN RIGHTS LANDSCAPE IN
AFRICA: ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY,
AFRICAN UNION, NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA’S
DEVELOPMENT AND THE AFRICAN COURT
ANDRE
´MBATA BMANGU*
Abstract
As Pliny the Elder once put it, ‘ex Africa semper aliquid novi’. There is always some thing new
coming out of Africa, and this time for the better. Over the last decade, some important
developments unfolded on the African continent with the potential to impact on the future of
African peoples. The African Union (AU) whose major purpose is to place Africa firmly on the
road to development replaced the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was launched to achieve African renaissance. The African
Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was devised as NEPAD’s linchpin and both were integrated
within the AU. The Protocol to the African Charter establishing an African Court on Human
and Peoples’ Rights finally came into operation. There is renewed hope that a new era has begun
and time has come for Africa’s development, which is not possible without a more effective and
better protection of human rights. In this article, the author reflects on the changing human
rights landscape in Africa under the AU, NEPAD, and the African Court.
1. INTRODUCTION
Hope and despair, illusion and disillusion, optimism and pessimism alternated in
20th century’s Africa. During the first part of the century, Africa that already
suffered slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries was subjected to the barbaric rule of
those who went as far as denying humanity to its peoples and pretended to colonise
them in order to take them out of the shadows of darkness to the light of
‘civilisation’.
1
The 1960s was the decade of hope and somehow unrealistic optimism,
as most African countries gained their independence. In the eyes of the
overwhelming majority of African peoples, independence was a panacea, a cure to
all African problems. It was synonymous with development, freedom, progress and
democracy that they were deprived of during the colonisation.
It only took a few years, sometimes months for hope to turn into despair, illusion
into disillusion, optimism into pessimism, and dream into nightmare. Once in
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 23/3, 379-408, 2005.
#Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Printed in the Netherlands. 379
* L.L.B, University of Kinshasa 1984; L.L.M, University of South Africa 1998; L.L.D, University of
South Africa 2002. Associate Professor of Law, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa;
Associate Professor of Law, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Resident
Research Fellow at the Africa Institute of South Africa. I am grateful to my wife The´re`se Bambi
Maloba and our children Henry Mbangala Mbata, Sam Mbata Mangu, Sara Tshimbiambo Mbata
and Pady Mbata who granted me a month-long leave in order to finalise this article.
1
Conrad, G., Au cœur des te
´ne
`bres, Editions Mille et Une Nuit, Paris, 1999.
380
power, many former nationalist leaders allied with the past colonial masters and
resorted to the same rules and practice of governance to deny their own peoples
virtually all the rights they fought for under colonisation, pushing the masses of the
people into the struggle for a ‘second independence’.
2
As the 20th century was drawing to an end and Africa entered the third
millennium, some historic developments unfolded on the continent with the
potential to impact on the future of African peoples. The Organisation of African
Unity (OAU), which was created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was
replaced with the African Union (AU) whose constitutive Act was adopted on 11 July
2000 in Lome´, Togo, and came into force on 26 May 2002, that is one month after
Nigeria became the 36th OAU Member State to deposit its instrument of
ratification. African leaders also launched the New African Initiative (NAI) to
promote the economic development of the continent. It was later merged with the
OMEGA Plan championed by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade to become the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in July 2002. In February 2004,
the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was inaugurated as NEPAD’s linchpin
in Kigali, Rwanda. Meantime, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
(ACHPR) was amended to provide for a more effective protection of human and
peoples’ rights on the continent. The Protocol to the ACHPR establishing the
African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted on 10 July 1998 in
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, came into operation on 25 January 2004. As Pliny the
Elder once put it, ‘ex Africa semper aliquid novi’.
3
There is renewed hope and
optimism that a new era has begun and time has come for Africa’s development and
renaissance, which is not possible without respect for democracy, constitutionalism
and human rights that feature prominently in the AU, NEPAD, and APRM
instruments.
This article deals with the changing human rights landscape in Africa since
independence. It takes forward an issue that has been already discussed by a number
of human rights scholars.
4
Andre´ Mbata B Mangu
2
See Ake, Cl., Democracy and Development in Africa, The Brookings Institution, Washington, 1996, p.
139; Nzongola-Ntalaja, G., ‘Le movement pour la seconde inde´pendance au Congo/Kinshasa
(Zaire) 1963-1968’, in: Nyang’oro, P. (ed.), Afrique: la longue marche vers la de
´mocratie. Etat autoritaire
et re
´sistances populaires, Publisud, Paris, 1988, pp. 208-251; idem,The Democratic Movement in Zaire 1956-
1994, AAPS Books, Harare, 1994, pp. 1, 13-14.
3
Literally meaning ‘there is always something new out of Africa’, this time for the better.
4
See Harrington, J., ‘The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights’, in: Evans, M. and Murray,
R. (eds), The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: The System in Practice, 1986-2000,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 305-334; Baimu, E., ‘The African Union: Hope
for better Protection of Human Rights?’, African Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2001, pp.
299-314; idem,Human Rights Mechanisms and Structures under NEPAD and the African Union: Emerging
Trends towards Proliferation and Duplication, Occasional Paper No. 15, Centre for Human Rights,
University of Pretoria, 2002; idem, ‘Human Rights in NEPAD and Its Implications for the African
Human Rights System’, African Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2002, pp. 301-319; Elsheikh,
I.A.B., ‘The future relationship between the African Court and the African Commission’, African
Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2002, pp. 252-260; Eno, R.W., ‘The jurisdiction of the
African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights’, African Human Rights Law Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2002,
pp. 223-233; Heyns, C., ‘The African human rights system: In need of reform?’, African Human
Rights Law Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2001, pp. 155-174; idem, ‘The African Regional Human Rights
System: The African Charter’, Penn State Law Review, Vol. 108, No. 3, 2004, pp. 686-702; idem,‘A
Human Rights Court for Africa’, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2004, pp. 325-
327; Hopkins, K., ‘The effect of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the domestic
To continue reading
Request your trial