VI Africa
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419501300410 |
| Published date | 01 December 1995 |
| Author | Gerd Oberleitner |
| Date | 01 December 1995 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
NQHR
4/1995
10) Review training curricula for law enforcement agents to ensure that they adequately
cover proper treatment
of
suspects and detainees as well as relations with the
community;
11) Exchange experiences on protection of human rights at the national level and, where
possible, cooperate in the development of law enforcement agents and security forces
training or other programs to reduce the potential for human rights violations;
12) Call on the OAS and the Inter-American Development Bank to establish or to
reinforce programs, as appropriate, to support national projects for the promotion and
observance of human rights in the Western Hemisphere;
13) Further strengthen the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-
American Court
of
Human Rights.
VI AFRICA
Gerd Oberleitner
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
At its 31st Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, 26-28 June 1995, the Assembly
of
Heads
of
State and Government
of
the OAD adopted the 8th Annual Activity Report
of
the
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights submitted to the Assembly under
Article 54
of
the African Charter and authorised its publication. The Activity Report
covers the period 1994-1995, during which the 16th and 17th session of the Commission
were held in Banjul, the Gambia (25 October - 3 November 1994) and in Lome, Togo
(13-22 March 1995). Being the most important source of information on the Commission's
activities the Annual Activity Report has a significant role to play in raising awareness of
the work
of
the Commission and informing the human rights community thereon.
However, despite major improvements regarding the information released on
communications, the document still does not meet the standards
of
comparable reports
of
other human rights treaty bodies.
Annual reports on the activities
of
such bodies should aim at providing information
in four major fields. First, the report should focus on activities that have been undertaken
by the Commission or by individual Commissioners between the sessions, such as
promotional work or fact finding missions. Secondly, the report should reflect the
discussions on organizational and other matters that were held in the sessions in a
summarized form, so as to enable the reader to gain a picture of the background
of
the
various decisions the Commission has taken. Thirdly, the report should include detailed
information on the examination of State reports; and finally information should be
provided on communications brought before the Commission.
In all areas certain shortcomings can be noticed in
the
8th Annual Activity Report
of
the African Commission. Between the 16th and 17th session, the Commission was engaged
in carrying out missions to several African countries and had to report at the 17th session
that some
of
these countries refused to cooperate with the Commission (see NQHR 1995,
Vol. 13,
No.3).
Neither in the Final Communiques
of
the sessions nor in the 8th Annual
Activity Report can sufficient information be found on the outcome
of
the successful
missions and on the reasons for the failure in the other cases. In the four lines the Activity
Report devotes to this issue, no indication can be found
of
how the Commission has
reacted to the neglect shown by some States parties to the Charter to cooperate. Thus, the
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