The Jurisdiction of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to Ensure Compliance Against Violation by Member States
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Date
2008-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This research has addressed the African regional human righls
system within th e ambit of the jurisdiction conferred upon thc
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Historically speaking,
the very fact lhat OAU / AU member countrics came to accept
uniform obligations lo observe provis ions en s hrined in the Charter
is a s ignifica n t step towards the right direction. But given the poor
human rights records of virtually most of the member states, the
Commission might have not found it easy to act as much as wha t
the Ch arter seems to anticipate . The research has, therefore,
in vcstigated the different circumstances in which member s tates
seemed to comply with the recommenda tions of the Commission.
When they did that, it is found out that they did it only as a mark
of good faith and freely granted con sent.
On the olhcr hand, member statcs have shown thcir resista nce
whe ncvcr they found the rccommcndation of the Commiss ion
contrary to th eir interests and even prejudices, Thus, the
Commission appea red to be ha ndicapped to do as much as
possible. The n eed to have a supplementary mech a nism in order lo
follow up implemen tation of recommendations has been suggested
in these reasons. Further, the Commission n eeds to reconsider lhe
existing systems in which it determines what should be the
appropriate remedia l measures in human rights related cases.
These s u ggestions a re remedJl-based, among oth er things, on the
lessons derived from the workings of other multila teral
organizatio ns which a re considered very brieOy. However, due to
the novelty of the th eme addressed in this rcsearch , my research
effort is initiated to be only on modcst contribution to the on -going
discourse on the subject
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Keywords
Jurisdiction of the African Commission, Human and Peoples, Rights to Ensure Compliance