Human Rights in the African Union decision making-processes.pdf (original) (raw)

More than any other time in the history of the African Union, the past five years have witnessed discord and division between the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the states that comprise the AU. Instead of constructive dialogue, confrontation and antagonism have prevailed during the consideration of the Commission’s Activity Reports, provoking adverse decisions that erode the standards in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Drawing in part on the author’s personal empirical observation of the dialogues before AU policy organs, the article endeavours to divulge states’ observations on the content of the Commission’s Activity Report as reflected during Ordinary Sessions of AU policy organs and to evaluate their appropriateness in light of the African regional human rights standards. It identifies that occasionally states conduct diplomacy adverse to human rights by deliberately advocating against the standards elaborated in the African Charter. Often, states use the consideration process of the Commission’s Activity Reports as a platform to control the Commission and censure its decisions rather than support it. Confrontation has been states’ favourite tactic to shield themselves from human rights accusations, reducing the impact of the Commission’s Activity Reports on domestic human rights in Africa.