A Comparative Study Of The African And The European Regional Systems For Protection Of Human Rights Lessons For Africa

African and European human rights systems are usually described as young-ineffectivernand old-effective respectively. Though plenty of scholarly works exists about the twornsystems, there is lack of comparative studies which tries to elicit similarities andrndifferences between the two systems. Other than providing a descriptive account of thernAfrican system and categorizing it as young and ineffective, the existing literaturesrnparticularly failed to point-out lessons which can be drawn from experiences of therncategorically effective European system. Therefore, by employing the Most SimilarrnSystems Design of the comparative approach under the general qualitative framework,rnutilizing descriptive and exploratory techniques and based on documentary sources ofrninformation, this study examined the similarities and differences between the Europeanrnand African human rights systems. The intention of the comparison was eliciting lessonsrnwhich can be drawn from experiences of the European system to its African counterpart.rnExperience of the European system clearly shows that conducive socio-economic andrnpolitical conditions, enhanced participation of the Non-Governmental Organizationsrn(NGOs) and the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), vibrant role of the regionalrnorganizations, refined legal instruments and well structured and resourced regionalrnhuman rights institutions all are vital for the functional efficacy of a regional humanrnrights scheme. Therefore, for functional efficacy of the African human rights system to bernenhanced, improvement in the socio-economic and political conditions at the continentalrnlevel is a fundamental necessity. Secondly, the role of NGOs and NHRIs needs to bernstrengthened. Thirdly, the African Union (AU) bears, in similar mantra to the Council ofrnEurope (CoE) and the European Union (EU), the responsibility of fathering the Africanrnsystem. Fourthly, legal regime of the African system, which basically revolves around thernAfrican Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AChHPR), needs to be refined in duernconsideration of the loopholes such as the claw-back clauses and the ill-defined and/orrnsidelined rights. Lastly, the mandate, composition, funding, staffing, physicalrninfrastructures and enforcement of the decisions of the African Commission on Humanrnand Peoples’ Rights (ACoHPR) and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rightsrn(ACtHPR) requires major overhauling. All in all, the experience of the European systemrnprovides important lessons which may help to enhance functional efficacy of the Africanrnhuman rights system.rnKey Words: Regional Human Rights Systems, African Regional Human Rights System,rnEuropean Regional Human Rights System

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism