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The African Union, NEPAD, and human rights: The missing agenda
Abstract
Can the transformation of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) really make a difference for human rights on the African continent? This article sets out the commitments of the new African continental instruments in relation to democracy and the rule of law and concludes that they are useful and important—but also that NEPAD in particular has significant deficiencies. The second half of the article sets out five themes that should receive greater attention if true effort is to be made to address Africa's problems.
... In both articles, they offer insights into the machinations or planning of the AU, but barely mention the theoretical insights into the integration processes and delineating how the RECs were coordinating the continental agenda. Similarly, Manby [22], Omorogbe, [23] and Williams [24] talks about human interventions, peace and security and AU's role play. In their respective findings, they agree that there is lack of political will by African leaders, many of whom have a good reason, to keep stalling the programs and structures of the AU in monitoring good governance and performances of member states for their selfish gain [22]. ...
... Similarly, Manby [22], Omorogbe, [23] and Williams [24] talks about human interventions, peace and security and AU's role play. In their respective findings, they agree that there is lack of political will by African leaders, many of whom have a good reason, to keep stalling the programs and structures of the AU in monitoring good governance and performances of member states for their selfish gain [22]. In the limitations attributed to the commitments of the member states regarding deeper continental integration, one can observe how intergovernmentalism features: first, Ayittey, [25] describes African leadership as "leaderless" in the pursuance of neo-functionalism and away from intergovernmentalism approach by pointing at the influence of a strong ideology of continental Pan Africanism, which, he says, remains a dream and a strategy for addressing Africa's economic problems. ...
... Improvement in human development and poverty reduction could also in turn enhance conflict prevention and peacebuilding in Africa. (Bolaji, 2015;Edo and Olanrewaju, 2012;Manby, 2004). Both Lehman (2007Lehman ( , 2005 and Ampiah (2005) also rightly note that AU and NEPAD's emphasis on the need for Africa to take a lead and/or strategic partnership in the continent's development process significantly keyed into the primary focus of the TICAD on ownership and partnership. ...
Most of the discourse on development aid in Africa has been limited to assistance from Western countries and those provided by competing capitalist and socialist blocs during the Cold war era. Japan, a nation with great economic and military capabilities; its development assistance for Africa is encapsulated in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative. The TICAD started in 1993 and Japan has so far held 5 TICAD meetings between 1993 and 2013 during which Africa’s development challenges and Japan’s development assistance to the continent were discussed. The emphasis on “ownership”, “self-help” and “partnership” are major peculiar characteristics of Japan’s development aid that puts the design, implementation and control of development projects under the control of recipient countries. This is a major departure from the usual practice in international development assistance where recipient countries are bound by clauses that somewhat puts the control of development aid in the hands of the granting countries. Such binding clauses have often been described as inimical to the successful administration of the aids and development in recipient countries. Though Japan’s development aid to Africa started only in 1993, by the 2000s, Japan was the topmost donor to Africa. This paper examines the context of Japan’s development aid to Africa by analyzing secondary data sourced from literature and secondary statistics.
Key words: TICAD, Japanese Aid, African development, Japan and Africa
... The progressive resolution of these challenges will depend on a variety of factors, including the ability of African traditional voices to make themselves heard and the success of the African renaissance-a modest optimism that Africa can free itself from its post-colonial impasse and realize deeply-rooted African ideals. In addition, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), 109 an economic development program of the African Union, is working to stamp out corruption and promote sound governance. Finally, the African people must allow their spiritual values to influence societal structures. ...
This chapter seeks to examine the role of law, legislative, regional and multilateral instruments towards confronting the challenges to realizing the right to development of the Niger Delta communities in Nigeria. Such enabling instrument as African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights creates legal obligations for African States to implement the right to development. In other words, legal and constitutional protection of the right to development is very important either directly through the inclusion of the right to development in the constitutional bill of rights, or indirectly by ensuring applicability and justiciability of the African Charter in domestic law. This is a cue for the Nigerian government to follow. Inspite of these enabling instruments, the potential of the right to development in Nigeria remains largely untapped. In Africa, and by extension Nigeria, the right to development enjoys a legal status equal to all other human rights (Note 1). This is due to its inclusion in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, though the practice of implementation remains hitherto unexplored, nor its potentials as an instrument to protect the well being of the population exhausted (Note 2). This chapter shall review domestic, regional and global instruments of the right to development, examining the case law of the African commission on Human and Peoples’ Right, as well as the duty of the Nigerian government to take into account the right to development of the Niger Delta in furtherance of their international obligations. The African Charter is an innovative and unique regional document that substantially departs from the narrow formulations of other regional and universal human rights instruments, particularly by the insertion of the group and peoples’ rights (Note 3). This work investigates the challenges and constraints to realizing the right to development of the Niger Delta communities of Nigeria amidst the regional, as well as international instruments that guarantee such a right. By constraints and challenges it is meant problem of constitutionalism that assails the opportunity for the involvement of the people of the Niger Delta in whatever decision that concerns their development and restoration of the environment and ecology. It seeks to situate human beings, rather than growth, at the centre of the development process. (Note 4) The right to development appeared in a number of important soft law instruments such as the World Conference on Human Rights Vienna Declaration, The Millennium Declaration, and the Rio+20 Outcome Document (Note 5). These documents were adopted by consensus, not by split vote, yet provided insufficient evidence of a genuine legal conviction supporting the right to development, nor a move towards law making on the right to development. They are therefore mere recommendations lacking in authentic legal force.
My thesis examines the plight of internally displaced women and children in Africa from the perspective of international and regional laws to investigate whether these legal frameworks are effective in protecting and assisting these people. The research uses both empirical and theoretical methods, borrowing from several disciplines – health, education, philosophy, psychology, and epidemiology. Researching this topic, from a legal perspective, requires a law- in-context approach, which examines the multifaceted nature of forced displacement in Africa. It also requires close dissection of the various laws, treaties and policies of host countries, as well as critical examination of the responsibility of international and regional institutions in assisting and protecting internally displaced women and children in Africa, in addition to close consideration of the role of local civil society groups and non-state actors in these legal processes is also considered. Noteworthy is the fact that my research acknowledges the immense suffering faced by refugees and internally displaced men, however, given the vulnerability of internally displaced women and children, couple with their special need for protection and assistance, my research chose to focus on legal challenges pertinent to internally displaced women and children in Africa. The severe lack of research in this subject area with respect to Africa, confirms this research contribution in helping to fill a major gap pertinent to understanding the legal position of internally displaced women and children in Africa, as most literature to date have extrapolated international refugee law to protect internally displaced persons, rather than conducting “on the ground” research to reflect protection needs of IDPs. The key finding of this research is that the creation of new laws (e.g., the AU Convention on the Assistance and Protection of Internally Displaced Persons) does not guarantee adequate protection of IDPs in Africa as the establishment of the AU 1969 Refugee Convention has not done much to curb the flow of refugees in Africa. Also, worth mentioning is that on 23 October 2009, the AU made history by adopting the first legal instrument ever to protect and assist internally displaced people during its Summit in Kampala, Uganda – the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. Against this backdrop my Thesis argues that regional institutions should invest more in preventing mass movement of people on the continent as well as developing long term strategies to promote good governance, participation, and state compliance to legal instruments in order to reduce violent leader transition which is significantly associated with internal conflicts. Albeit, to address the current situation of displacement, the Thesis suggests further examination of how implementation of a “Decentralized United States of Africa” may offer some hope. This research endured several challenges. They include the on-going struggle to find high quality evidence-base resources on protection and assistance of internally displaced women and children in Africa mainly due to the fact that the majority of the case scenarios used are not recognized as internally displaced communities internationally. Their experiences are poorly documented and are therefore not included in data collected by the United Nations, national governments, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and other relevant organizations. Secondly, due to lack of funding and time, fieldwork for this research was not possible. As a result, access to primary data set that could have been obtained through direct contact with internally displaced people (which could have provided an opportunity for IDPs to tell their stories) was replaced by conducting an academic exercise in Osgoode Hall Law library and online.
Deeper continental integration is considered critical for Africa’s future growth, development and transformation. This paper reports on the results of a comprehensive review of the scholarly literature on Africa’s continental integration dating back to the 1960s. We wanted to focus on publications drawing on the organization and management literature, but found these to be limited in number and scope. The review covered a range of topics relevant for continental integration including peace and security, decolonization, diplomacy and politics, cultural exchanges, social and economic development, environmental protection, and sustainable development. Although about half of the studies reviewed were atheoretical, the rest covered a range of theories from different disciplines. Most of the studies used documentary analysis and literature reviews; few used survey methods or quantitative data collection and analysis. Review results were grouped into five key areas for continental integration: organizational, economic, political, peace and security, and human rights. The paper concludes by identifying gaps and opportunities for research. Theory development in particular would help to improve understanding of the complexities of continental integration, and guide evidence-based policy and practice for deeper, more effective and sustained continental integration to improve the lives of Africans at home and in the diaspora.
The Move from Institutions? Examining the Phenomenon in Africa - Volume 100 - Tiyanjana Maluwa
The preceding chapters have discursively explored the relatively recent identification of numerous hunter-gatherers and pastoralists as indigenous peoples of Africa under the meaning attributable to this international legal category. The present chapter intends to explore whether and how African political and legal regional bodies accommodate indigenous rights. Since indigenousness is a product of relatively recent developments, the analysis will look at how existing instruments and new dynamics cover the substantive claims for special protection of indigenous rights. The discussion will attempt to examine the possible relevance of the work of African political institutions for indigenous right but, more particularly, focus on human and peoples’ rights bodies.
Since coming into being in the year 2000, the normative consensus that solidified the creation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been one that has been forceful due to the number of nation-states and international organizations that have rallied around the issue. The progressive nature of the MDGs and their integral role in mobilising resources to aid African countries is worth recognizing. Nonetheless, there remain concerns about the arbitrary way of measuring progress towards the goals and the fact that women, the poorest of the poor and those who live in rural areas tend to benefit less. The chapter asks two primary questions: what potential alternatives could replace the unattained goals once the 2015 deadline is reached? Do African governments have the potential and political will to carry these goals through? An editorial reflection on the various chapters in this volume helps us explore these questions in this particular chapter.
Since 2003, Sudan's central government has used proxy forces to slaughter thousands of civilians belonging to ethnic groups associated with the uprising taking place in the Darfur region. Serious outside pressure would likely be required to change the regime's "preferences for repression," as Sudan's central government has concluded that, if unchecked, the uprising would threaten the regime's survival. The African Union (AU) has been admirably engaged in the Darfur crisis but has ultimately proven ineffectual, hindered by poor resources and weak political will. At the same time, the Sudanese government's intransigence and the diplomatic protection it has received from China have blunted the more ambitious steps taken by the United Nations Security Council. Ending the human rights violations that have plagued Darfur will require greater pressure from China on its partners in Khartoum, and this article concludes that advocacy from activist groups and the African Union itself could produce such an outcome.
A comprehensive examination of the work of the African Union (AU), with special emphasis on its capacity to meet the challenges of building and sustaining governance institutions and security mechanisms. Samuel Makinda and F. Wafula Okumu show how Africa and, in particular, the AU can effectively addressed the challenges of building and sustaining governance institutions and security mechanisms only if they have strategic leadership. Current debates on, and criticisms of, leadership in Africa are also analyzed as well as key options for overcoming the constraints that African leaders face. Core topics covered include: the colonial policies of the European powers. the emergence of Pan-Africanism. the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. the evolution of the OAU into the AU in 2002. the AU's capacity to address poverty alleviation, conflict management and resolution, peacebuilding and humanitarian intervention. © 2008 Samuel M. Makinda and F. Wafula Okumu. All rights reserved.
Particularly in the context of internal conflicts, international law is frequently unable to create and sustain frameworks for peace in Africa. In Peacebuilding in the African Union, Abou Jeng explores the factors which have prevented such steps forward in the interaction between the international legal order and postcolonial Africa. In the first work of its kind, Jeng considers whether these limitations necessitate recasting the existing conceptual structure and whether the Constitutive Act of the African Union provides exactly this opportunity through its integrated peace and security framework. Through the case studies of Burundi and Somalia, Jeng examines the structures and philosophy of the African Union and assesses the capacity of its practices in peacemaking. In so doing, this book will be of great practical value to scholars and legal practitioners alike.
After over fifty-years of Canadian engagement with Africa, no comprehensive literature exists on Canada's security policy in Africa and relations towards Africa's regional organizations. The literature on Canada's foreign policy in Africa to date has largely focused on development assistance. For the first time, Edward Akuffo combines historical and contemporary material on Canada's development and security policy while analyzing the linkage between these sets of foreign policy practices on the African continent. The book makes an important contribution to the debate on Canada's foreign policy generally, and on Africa's approach to peace, security and development, while shedding light on a new theoretical lens - non-imperial internationalism - to understand Canada's foreign policy. The author captures an emerging trend of cooperation on peace, security, and development between the Canadian government and African regional organizations in the twenty-first century. The resulting book is a valuable addition to the literature on African politics, new regionalisms, foreign policy, and global governance.
The experience of border crossing for refugees and irregular migrants challenges global border and migration controls in multiple contexts. Using qualitative field research in Tanzania, Spain, Morocco and Australia, Heather Johnson asks how a global regime of migration management and control can be perceived through the dynamics of particular border spaces: refugee camps, border zones and detention centres. She explores how irregular migrants are impacted by the increasingly security-oriented practices of border control, and how they confront these practices. Johnson rejects the characterization of border spaces as exceptional, abject and exclusionary, arguing instead for an understanding of politics as everyday contestation that reveals a radical political agency, re-imagining the global non-citizen as a transgressive and powerful figure. Building on recent scholarship that rethinks irregularity and non-citizenship, her conclusions have broad implications for how we understand irregular migration from a position of dialogue and solidarity.
Since the establishment of the African Union in 2001, there has been a proliferation of regional institutions that are relevant to human rights in Africa. These include the Pan African Parliament; the Peace and Security Council; the Economic, Social, and Cultural Council; and the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This book discusses the links between these institutions, and 20 years of jurisprudence stemming from the entry into force on 21st October 1986 of the major African human rights instrument, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. This book attempts to provide a comprehensive analytical overview of human rights in Africa, dealing particularly with the regional system of human rights protection. Four themes are followed throughout the book: the principle of uti possidetis, the tensions in the modern post-colonial African state, poverty, and the interrelationship between national and international human rights protection.
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to international human rights -- international human rights law, why international human rights have increasingly risen to world prominence, what is being done about violations of human rights, and what might be done to further promote the cause of international human rights so that everyone may one day have their rights respected regardless of who they are or where they live.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' rights issued its first decision on an individual communication in 1994. It is self-evident, however, that the potential for improvement in human rights protection held by such judgments and decisions can only be realized with implementation. Yet, there is very little written either in academic literature or policy documents and little available information at national or regional levels about what happens to decisions of the African Commission or other regional human rights organs once they have been published. These challenges provide the backdrop against which this article examines the potential for strengthening implementation mechanisms at both national and regional levels.
In 2011 the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) disbanded the SADC Tribunal after the regional court held that the Zimbabwean government's land seizures violated the rule of law. The disbandment reflects SADC's hierarchy of values, in terms of which the organization's formal commitment to human rights and a regional legal order is subordinate to the political imperatives of regime solidarity and respect for sovereignty. The Tribunal saga demonstrates that the jurisdiction of regional courts derives not simply from their official mandates but from an interplay between domestic and regional law and politics.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to sets out to highlight the role and evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Africa's extractive industry. Through the discussion and analysis of the history of CSR in Africa, best and worst practices in the industry, corporate objectives and business ethics, as well as the use of CSR as a tool for corporate citizenship and sustainable development, this paper works to develop a more concise understanding of the role that CSR has come to play in the African extractive industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the discussion and analysis of the history of CSR in Africa, best and worst practices in the industry, corporate objectives and business ethics, as well as the use of CSR as a tool for corporate citizenship and sustainable development, this paper works to develop a more concise understanding of the role that CSR has come to play in the African extractive industry. Policy recommendations are also presented to the public and private sectors on how to mend the gaps and complexities of CSR and move forward with CSR practices in a sustainable manner. The paper draws solely on the use of secondary sources to achieve these results.
Findings
Throughout the research and analysis, this paper argues that while CSR has evolved in the last few years and become more relevant in the extractive industry in Africa, there is still much work to be achieved, especially in the areas of capacity building, both physically and structurally. Policy development and implementation as well as greater accountability of, and cooperation between, governments and corporations is necessary to achieve long‐term sustainability.
Originality/value
Policy development and implementation as well as greater accountability of, and cooperation between, governments and corporations is necessary to achieve long‐term sustainability. Such recommendations are of imminent importance for the continent's economic development, given the resource boom currently taking place across Africa.
This article seeks to explore the recent changes that have occurred in Africa’s human rights landscape. It argues that struggles for, recognition of, and the practice of human rights have grown and expanded in recent years in the midst of continuing challenges and widespread human rights violations by both state and civil society actors. The complex and contradictory tapestry and trajectory of human rights is analyzed in the shifting contexts of democratization, globalization, regionalization, and militarization, which collectively have structured African political economies since the 1990s. The question of human rights discourse in Africa is also examined by revisiting some of the debates about the generations and hierarchy of rights. Furthermore, the article looks at the role of the state and society in developing or undermining human rights norms.
This paper presents a study of the normative foundations for the decriminalisation of homosexuality through the African human rights system.
This chapter traces the development of environmental law in Zimbabwe, focusing on how recently enacted environmental legislation provides a framework for the balancing of competing interests, interests that often must coexist and reinforce each other, namely, development and the protection of the environment. The balancing of interests has been happening since time immemorial, but what has changed or evolved are the politico-legal tools that are used by regulators and states to secure the necessary balance. One may also argue that while balance is difficult to achieve, perhaps we could aim to achieve harmonisation of these interests. From the point of view of the modern, nuanced approach to natural resources management, colonial models of environmental management were heavily skewed in favour of economic development through the unmitigated extraction of wealth from nature. Colonies were thus usually run in unsustainable ways. But equally it can be argued that the postcolonial state has done little to promote sustainable development. Environmental law and policy reforms are clearly of a young lineage in Africa, having started in earnest in the late 1990s. However, many countries, including Zimbabwe, still retain several colonial environmental laws.
In September 2005, the leaders of virtually all the world's national governments met at the United Nations World Summit in New York to assess how far they had come, and what remained to be done, to meet the ambitious Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) they had set five years before. In New York there was broad agreement on the importance and appropriateness of the goals, but also on how little had been accomplished, and how large was the task that remained. The leaders also acknowledged that they would fail to meet their goals unless major new financial resources for development could be mobilised, properly targeted, assembled into well-designed packages, delivered through the right mechanisms, and closely monitored to ensure they were effectively used. The longstanding challenge of financing development had reached a critical stage. This same challenge served as the key focus for the G8's annual summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, on 6-8 July 2005. Gleneagles was the culmination of the central concern devoted to African development by the modernised G8 during the previous five years. In 2001, the year after the MDGs had been set at the UN, African leaders had come to the G8 summit with a new plan to develop a continent that still remained the poorest one in the world. G8 leaders declared that they would support the plan and invited the Africans to return the following year. To the G8's 2002 Kananaskis Summit, the Africans brought their New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The G8 responded with its own reinforcing G8 Africa Action Plan. At the summits at Evian in 2003 and Sea Island in 2004, the African leaders and their agendas again assumed a prominent place and secured G8 support across an expanding domain. But as 2005 opened and the G8 and UN summits in Gleneagles and New York loomed, the world wondered if the G8 would finally raise the resources required to finance Africa's NEPAD and global development more generally to bring the MDGs within reach. More than money was needed to meet the challenge. As the Africa Action Plan had recognised, the task of developing Africa and other poor regions required decisive action across a broad range of fields. Indeed, the plan's seven-step programme had begun with the political imperatives of stopping the wars, strengthening good governance, and restoring confidence to stop capital flight and attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Only on this foundation came the traditional economic instruments of more debt relief, official development assistance (ODA), and liberalised trade.
It is frequently assumed that people's health is determined primarily by their access to technically-based disease treatment, the standard of which is decided by national health policies that allocate health services. However, evidence suggests that population health is determined more by social status and gradients than by access to clinical care. Moreover, in the present era, there is concern that economic globalisation is exacerbating inequities within countries, thus contributing to greater human insecurity. This paper examines these issues in the context of South Africa since the end of apartheid. It argues that the ANC government's attempts to reduce entrenched inequities in the health system and address the broad social determinants of health have been severely constrained by pressures of economic globalisation, which have induced the government to abandon the objectives of its socially-responsive Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) in favour of the neoliberal Growth, Employment and Redistribution Programme (GEAR).
Wanted: A common operational picture for dealing with the complexities involved in the quest for long-term security in Africa. A lack of synchronization of Theater Security Cooperation activities in each of the three Combatant Commands with responsibility in Africa -- EUCOM, CENTCOM, and PACOM -- represents a weakness in the U.S. approach. This paper presents a framework for action that will ensure that policy makers and operational leaders representing each dimension of national power are all working toward the same goals in Africa. The risks of unfocused action are substantial: instability leading to a breeding ground for terrorism, or conflict leading to calls for U.S. intervention. A common operational plan for engagement, development, and deterrence will not only reduce that risk, but will produce conditions conducive to economic growth and the development of democratic institutions and the rule of law. The structure recommended here renders moot the issue of revamping the combatant commands along different geographic lines. With a structure that provides a common platform of operational objectives, each CoCom will pursue consistent, synchronized, and mutually supportive programs. The principal benefit of coordination is unity of effort among combatant commands and the interagency and multinational communities.
Ghana's tortuous journey to democracy received a major boost in the year 2006 with the enactments of two human-rights-related pieces of legislation. In this article the author contends, on the one hand, that the recent enactments of an amendment to the law on representation of the people and the persons with disability law in Ghana constituted a noteworthy landmark in the search for inclusive citizenship. On the other hand, the relation between society and the political authority during the processes of the enactments highlighted characteristics of a post-colonial African state. The author explores the antagonisms that surrounded the enactments of these laws. The article concludes that although the Ghanaian experience represents a new wave of re-thinking of rights in Africa, it also underscores the deep-seated issues of contestation and negotiations that unavoidably accompany the expansion of democracy and extension of rights to the excluded and the marginalized.
Despite a multitude of international institutions on the African continent, worldwide Africa's multilateralism has generally received little attention. Yet, with the emergence of the African Union (AU) and its institutions, questions arise about its character. Will rhetoric and state symbolism take the place of substance or will the space opened up for democracy and civil society participation allow for greater democratically informed sustainability? With this in mind, the article addresses the issue to what extent the character of African multilateralism continues to display features of disconnectedness as opposed to those of transformation, where its institutions address issues of uneven development in concert with civil society concerns. A more participative multilateralism could have Africa more credibly participate internationally to leverage concessions from the international community. In the interim, amidst state-centred interpretations of sovereignty there remains the rhetorical and only partial participation of civil society in the institutions of the new AU. The question remains open whether Africa's new multilateralism is becoming transformative in ways that would make it more dualistic in a Coxian sense, connected with the basic social and developmental concerns of greater African society, or whether it remains disconnected with any civil society base.
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), one of the spin-offs of the African development framework, NEPAD, offers a unique approach to the monitoring of agreed norms of political, economic, and corporate governance in Africa. This article analyzes the APRM structure and process with a focus on how the APRM could complement other efforts to realize the African Union objective of promotion and protection of human rights. The country review reports on Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda are analyzed from a human rights perspective.
The intention of this thesis is to assess the World Bank's SAPs as the principal economic impediment to implementing an RBA to NEPAD. This assessment is sought to contribute to calculating the feasibility for implementation. It is assumed that the RBA is the best approach currently available to further the significant cause of sustainable human, social and economic development in developing countries generally, and in Africa in particular. Sustainable development in Africa is recognised as an extremely significant step in promoting peace and security on the continent and internationally. Various NGOs, development institutes and scholars have argued that NEPAD lacks an RBA to development. However, while the critics are many, the question has not been voiced as to the obstacles Africa and international society face in applying an RBA to NEPAD. In an attempt to narrow this gap, the World Bank's SAPs are analysed. It has been shown many times that adjustment programmes do not adhere to the human rights standards spelled out, in particular, in the articles of the ICESCR. In addition, SAPs fail to incorporate human rights principles such as participation and accountability. Consequently, because SAPs are not based on international human rights standards and principles, they do not fulfil the requirements of an RBA to development. It follows that the approach cannot be applied to NEPAD as long as the World Bank's SAPs fail to adhere to these standards and principles and, thus, lead to the violation of people's human rights in developing countries. To reach a reasonable conclusion on the Bank's current human rights practices, its employment of SAPs in developing countries is analysed. Moreover, David Held's regime of liberal international sovereignty is examined and applied to this case. Both investigations discover independently of each other that the implementation of an RBA to NEPAD is unrealistic under the current circumstances.
"De Serra Leoa à África do Sul, pedidos para abertura de processo, busca de verdade, reparações e reforma institucional são cada vez mais comuns à medida que os países procuram tratar dos abusos dos direitos humanos. Embora se acredite que as medidas de justiça transicional (justiça em tempos de transição) podem contribuir para o fim da impunidade e para promover a reconciliação, a eficácia de tais intervenções parece depender muito da capacidade das nstituições do Estado, nos níveis administrativo, judicial, político e de segurança. Nos países africanos, apesar de realidades como a deficiência institucional, a precariedade do governo e a pobreza, as medidas de justiça transicional continuam despertando grandes expectativas. Este artigo examina os obstáculos que vêm sendo constatados em diversos países da África, e sugere que sejam alimentadas expectativas mais modestas." "Este artigo se baseia principalmente nas experiências da República Democrática do Congo (DRC), Gana, Ruanda, Serra Leoa, África do Sul e Uganda." Uma versão mais completa desse artigo foi publicada pelo International Center for Transitional Justice, , acessado em 18 de agosto de 2006.
Some scholars suggest that the Middle East's oil wealth helps explain its failure to democratize. This article examines three aspects of this “oil impedes democracy” claim. First, is it true? Does oil have a consistendy antidemocratic effect on states, once other factors are accounted for? Second, can this claim be generalized? Is it true only in the Middle East or elsewhere as well? Is it true for other types of mineral wealth and other types of commodity wealth or only for oil? Finally, if oil does have antidemocratic properties, what is the causal mechanism?
The author uses pooled time-series cross-national data from 113 states between 1971 and 1997 to show that oil exports are strongly associated with authoritarian rule; that this effect is not limited to the Middle East; and that other types of mineral exports have a similar antidemocratic effect, while other types of commodity exports do not.
The author also tests three explanations for this pattern: a “rentier effect,” which suggests that resource-rich governments use low tax rates and patronage to dampen democratic pressures; a “repression effect,” which holds that resource wealth enables governments to strengthen their internal security forces and hence repress popular movements; and a “modernization effect,” which implies that growth that is based on the export of oil and minerals will fail to bring about die social and cultural changes that tend to produce democratic government. He finds at least limited support for all three effects.
Mobility is the most important response by the inhabitants of the Sahel to climatic adversity. This 'condition sahélienne', characterized by unstable climatic circumstances, irregular rainfall patterns and periods of drought, has an important influence on people's decisionmaking processes regarding their livelihood. Migration studies mainly focus on labour migration to urban areas. Although mobility is part of the repertoire of Sahelian people, the form it takes varies considerably between social groups and individuals, and over time. In this article the authors focus on a neglected and almost invisible category of rural-rural migrants in the Sahel, the Fulbe pastoral people and their developments over the last three decades and the economic and social conditions in which they find themselves. It concludes that these rural-rural migrations are deeply engrained in cultural patterns in West Africa, exemplified by specific institutions for dealing with hosts and strangers. However, mobility is often not a planned process, and all kinds of survival strategies are used in a very flexible manner. The phenomenon has given rise to a specific character of cultural dynamics and ways of defining identity for the people involved. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Update on Human Rights Violations in the Niger Delta, Background Briefing Paper
Human Rights Watch, The
Destruction of Odi and Rape in Choba, Background Briefing Paper, Dec. 1999; Human
Rights Watch, Update on Human Rights Violations in the Niger Delta, Background
Briefing Paper, Dec. 2000; HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, THE NIGER DELTA: NO DEMOCRATIC DIVIDEND
(Short Report, Oct. 2002);
- Norwegian
- Council
- Internally Idp Project
- Displaced
NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL GLOBAL IDP PROJECT, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE: A GLOBAL SURVEY
(2002).
The Trafficking of Women and Children in the Southern African Region: Presentation of Research Findings, International Organisation for Migration
- E G See
See, e.g., The Trafficking of Women and Children in the Southern African Region:
Presentation of Research Findings, International Organisation for Migration, Mar. 2003;
Girls For Sale-Building A Coalition to Fight Trafficking in Nigeria, available at www.
advocacynet.org; HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, BORDERLINE SLAVERY: CHILD TRAFFICKING IN TOGO (Short
Report Apr. 2003). ECOWAS adopted an Initial Plan of Action Against Trafficking in
Persons in December 2001. In December 2002, the Second Africa-Europe Ministerial
Conference also adopted a Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Humans, Especially
Women and Children. Some African states have also taken steps to address the problem
at national level.
Ethiopia moved in the other direction from South Africa, away from a hyper-centralized system under the Derg
- See Paul Brietzke
See Paul Brietzke, Ethiopia's "Leap in the Dark": Federalism and Self-Determination in
the New Constitution, 39 J. AFRICAN L. 19-38 (1995); Jon Abbink, Ethnicity and
Constitutionalism in Contemporary Ethiopia, 41 J. AFRICAN L. 159 (1997). Ethiopia moved
in the other direction from South Africa, away from a hyper-centralized system under
the Derg, in which Amhara domination was the reality.
Nigeria also provides perhaps the clearest example of the difficulty of achieving satisfactory results to these questions in a petrostate dependent on export of primary resources where politics becomes a matter almost solely of sharing the spoils
- Tom Forrest
- Development In
- Nigeria
TOM FORREST, POLITICS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (1995).
Nigeria also provides perhaps the clearest example of the difficulty of achieving
satisfactory results to these questions in a petrostate dependent on export of primary
resources where politics becomes a matter almost solely of sharing the spoils.